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Major stock markets mostly rose Thursday on hopes for an end to the war in Ukraine and as US President Trump announced a trade policy shake-up but held off on specific new levies. London was a rare faller owing to sharp losses to share prices of big companies, including Unilever, Barclays and British American Tobacco, on mixed earnings. That overshadowed news that the UK economy surprisingly grew in late 2024.US President Donald Trump’s talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to start negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine “has fostered a risk-on attitude among investors”, said Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer at Zaye Capital Markets.The positive showing “is a result of the potential reduction in geopolitical risks”, he added.Paris and Frankfurt won solid gains. Major US indices joined them, with the S&P 500 winning one percent.Trump unveiled a “fair and reciprocal plan” for trade, ordering a review of tariffs on US goods and directing officials to propose remedies, a step towards potentially wide-ranging tariffs on allies and competitors.But Wall Street was encouraged that the plan did not include immediate levies.Investors are “taking comfort” in the “idea that it’s negotiable and not coming into effect immediately,” said Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management.US investors also shrugged off data showing a bigger than expected uptick in US wholesale prices in January, adding to concerns about worsening pricing pressure after Wednesday’s consumer price data also exceeded estimates. Some analysts also noted that the details of Thursday’s US inflation report were less troubling than the headline figures.But the dollar weakened after traders concluded the reciprocal tariffs will “either be tolerable for partners, negotiated away or never implemented,” said Adam Button, currency analyst at ForexLive.Among individual stocks, Nestle surged more than six percent in Zurich after the Swiss food giant posted better-than-expected annual sales.But Deere & Company fell 2.2 percent as it navigates a tough agriculture market with the depressed state of farm income and higher interest rates that make equipment purchases difficult.The company’s revenues fell more than 30 percent last year, while it projected broad-based decline again in 2025.- Key figures around 2150 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.8 percent at 44,711.43 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 1.0 percent at 6,115.07 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.5 percent at 19,945.64 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,764.72 (close) Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.5 percent at 8,164.11 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 2.1 percent at 22,612.02 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.3 percent at 39,461.47 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.2 percent at 21,814.37 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,332.48 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0467 from $1.0383 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2586 from $1.2446Dollar/yen: DOWN at 152.76 yen from 154.42 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.28 pence from 83.42 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.1 percent at $71.29 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $75.02 per barrelburs-jmb

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump — and billionaire Elon Musk — at the White House on Thursday, with the two national leaders hailing their close bond despite Trump’s expanding global trade war.”He is a great friend of mine. For a long time we’ve had a wonderful relationship,” Trump said as he greeted Modi in the Oval Office for a visit that he promised would bring “wonderful” trade deals.Modi, trying to build on the bromance that he fostered with Trump in his first term, said that the two had “the same bond, with the same trust and the same excitement.” SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Musk — who has launched an aggressive effort as Trump’s right-hand man to overhaul the US bureaucracy — was in the Oval Office for the talks with Trump.Musk also held a one-on-one meeting with Modi earlier Thursday, in an encounter that drew questions over whether the world’s richest man was meeting the Indian premier in an official or a business capacity. Modi said the meeting was “very good.”The Indian premier posted pictures of himself shaking hands with the beaming Musk, with several children on Musk’s side of the room, and Indian officials on the other.The White House said Trump and Modi hoped to agree on a long-sought US-India trade deal and a new defense partnership, while Trump said they would also sign deals on oil and gas.But Trump had earlier put the leader of the world’s most populous nation on notice over possible tariffs.The meeting came hours after the US president announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, including India — but New Delhi is hoping to avoid further levies that Trump says are needed to counter the US trade deficit.”India, traditionally, is the highest, just about the highest tariff country. They charge more tariffs than any other country. And I mean, we’ll be talking about that,” Trump told reporters.”India is a very hard place to do business because of the tariffs.”US officials said there had been “early body language” from India but there was a “lot more work to do.” Modi offered quick tariff concessions ahead of his visit, with New Delhi slashing duties on high-end motorcycles — a boost to Harley-Davidson, the iconic US manufacturer whose struggles in India have irked Trump.India has already accepted a US military flight carrying 100 shackled migrants last week as part of Trump’s immigration overhaul, and New Delhi has vowed its own “strong crackdown” on illegal migration.Modi is the fourth world leader to visit Trump since his return, following the prime ministers of Israel and Japan, and the king of Jordan.The Indian prime minister assiduously courted Trump during his first term.The two share much in common, with both campaigning on promises to promote majority communities over minorities and both doggedly quashing dissent.In 2020, Modi invited Trump before a cheering crowd of more than 100,000 people to inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium in his home state of Gujarat.Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of the Quad — a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.burs-dk/bgs

Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor resigned on Thursday after being ordered by the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.Danielle Sassoon, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, submitted her resignation to Attorney General Pam Bondi, The New York Times and other news outlets said.Sassoon, 38, a Republican, was named interim US attorney by President Donald Trump’s administration while his nominee for the position, Jay Clayton, undergoes Senate confirmation.Her resignation comes three days after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove — a former Trump lawyer — ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop the corruption case against Adams, a Democrat.The New York Times said that in addition to Sassoon, two high-ranking members of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, which handles corruption cases, had also resigned.Bove, in a letter to Sassoon obtained by the newspaper, said he had accepted her resignation.”This decision is based on your choice to continue pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case,” he said.”You lost sight of the oath that you took when you started at the Department of Justice by suggesting that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General.”The first sitting New York mayor to be criminally indicted, Adams pleaded not guilty in September to charges of fraud and bribery and has rebuffed calls to step down.Adams had asserted he was being punished for his criticism of then-president Joe Biden’s immigration policies.Bove, in an earlier letter to Sassoon asking for the case to be dropped, said the prosecution had “unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime.”Trump expressed solidarity with Adams last year, saying he was being prosecuted “for speaking out against open borders.”- ‘Without fear or favor’ -Sassoon, in a letter to Bondi obtained by the Times, said the order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor.””I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful,” she said.A graduate of Yale Law School and a member of the conservative Federalist Society, Sassoon led the high-profile 2023 prosecution of disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried.The Justice Department, which Trump accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office with a number of high-ranking officials demoted or reassigned.Among those sacked were members of the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two criminal cases against Trump.

Donald Trump unveiled an extraordinary vision of a shake-up to the world order Thursday, eyeing a three-way summit with the Russian and Chinese leaders just a day after saying he had agreed with Vladimir Putin to start Ukraine peace talks.With Kyiv and European capitals still stunned by Trump’s surprise call with Putin, the US president also said he would “love” to have Russia back in the G7, from which it was suspended in 2014 after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.”I think it was a mistake to throw him out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Putin.Trump — who has cast himself in his second term as a global peacemaker — also said he would consider a summit with Putin and China’s Xi Jinping “when things calm down.””When we straighten it all out, then I want one of the first meetings I have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say, let’s cut our military budget in half.”The US president, who was hosting India’s Prime Minister Nahendra Modi at the White House later Thursday, also called for the three powers to start cutting their nuclear arsenals.”There’s no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons,” he added.Trump meanwhile insisted the Russian leader wanted a ceasefire with Kyiv, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday warning against trusting the Kremlin leader.”I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn’t,” Trump said. Trump made his comments after inking plans for sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” that could hit both allies and competitors.- Seismic shift -His remarks on Russia and China mark a seismic shift after more than a decade of US policy which had increasingly cast Moscow into the cold and largely viewed both it and Beijing as adversaries.They will also be viewed with consternation by Ukraine and European allies, who will fear that if they are not at the table of international diplomacy, they could end up on the menu.Trump’s overtures to Putin in particular have caused alarm in Europe, which has viewed its huge neighbor Russia as a major threat since the invasion of Ukraine.Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Putin separately in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in a sudden thaw in relations.In their first confirmed contact since Trump’s return to the White House, the US president said he had held a “highly productive” conversation with his Russian counterpart who ordered the bloody 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Several European nations have questioned Trump’s strategy and warned Washington not to hatch a deal without them.The Trump administration’s talking points on Ukraine have also at times echoed Moscow’s, particularly when it comes to Kyiv’s dream of NATO membership to protect it from Russia.”I believe that’s the reason the war started, because (predecessor president Joe) Biden went out and said that they could join NATO,” said Trump of Russia’s February 2022 invasion.In 2014, Russia was suspended from what was then the G8 after it annexed Crimea and sanctions were imposed on Moscow.In his first term, Trump also called for Russia to be readmitted, but he found little support among other Western countries.

A monster rainstorm was drenching southern California on Thursday, with officials in Los Angeles readying for flooding and landslides in areas burned by last month’s huge wildfires.Heavy rain was falling across a swath of the state, with as much as six inches (15 centimeters) expected in some places, forecasters from the National Weather Service (NWS) said. That volume of water in such a short period of time could create problems in areas ravaged by blazes that killed at least 29 people in January. “There’s a high risk for flooding, especially in and around the road areas and urban areas, as well as an appreciable risk for debris flows,” Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the NWS, told reporters earlier in the week.The agency issued a flash flood watch for the bulk of Los Angeles County.The greatest risk to life and limb was expected to be around the burn scars in Altadena and in the Pacific Palisades areas.Landslides were possible on hillsides where anchoring vegetation had burned away.The heat of the fires also had the effect of baking and hardening the soil, making it less absorbent.Authorities said anyone living near such hillsides should be ready to leave their homes.Workers in Los Angeles have installed thousands of sandbags and concrete barriers in recent weeks to try to limit soil erosion. The NWS said Thursday afternoon and evening would be the most dangerous period.”During those peak periods rain rates between a half and one inch per hour are possible, with localized rates up to 1.2 inches per hour,” the agency said.The incoming storm system is being driven by an “atmospheric river,” a giant corridor of rain that brings billions of gallons (liters) of moisture from the Pacific Ocean.While the immediate flood worries were sparking concerns, southern California badly needs the rain.Until the start of February, there had been no significant precipitation for about eight months.

The Republican-controlled US Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary Thursday, elevating his anti-vaccine advocacy to the highest levels of government despite dire warnings from the medical community.Known widely as “RFK Jr.,” the 71-year-old nephew of the late president John F. Kennedy secured confirmation in a 52-48 vote largely along party lines, becoming the latest contentious addition to President Donald Trump’s cabinet.Kennedy now heads a department overseeing 80,000 employees and a $1.7 trillion budget as scientists warn of a potential bird flu pandemic and with declining vaccination rates leading to the resurgence of once-vanquished childhood diseases.World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quick to offer congratulations on X. Trump has announced the United States, the WHO’s top donor country, will leave the organization — a decision Tedros has urged him to reconsider.Once a celebrated environmental lawyer who sued chemical giant Monsanto and accused climate-change deniers of being traitors, Kennedy has spent much of the past two decades touting conspiracy theories: from linking childhood vaccines to autism and suggesting the Covid virus spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people to casting doubt on whether germs truly cause infectious diseases.Yet it was his shift toward Republican positions — particularly on abortion rights, which he once supported but has since signaled a willingness to further restrict — that won over conservative lawmakers wary of his past.During heated confirmation hearings, Democrats pointed to lucrative consulting fees from law firms suing pharmaceutical companies as glaring conflicts of interest. They also highlighted allegations of sexual misconduct and his claims linking school shootings to antidepressants.Ultimately, only one Republican voted against him: former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood survivor of polio. Democrats were united in opposition.”I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” said the 82-year-old, who is not expected to seek re-election. – Make America Healthy Again -Kennedy found firmer footing when promoting his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda — a play on Trump’s signature MAGA slogan — emphasizing the need to combat the nation’s chronic disease crisis by holding the food industry more accountable.Such ideas have broad appeal, though experts question how he will implement them given his troubled relationship with scientific evidence.Kennedy initially launched an independent presidential bid in 2024, making headlines with a string of bizarre revelations, including a claim that he recovered from a parasitic brain worm and a tale that he once de-capitated a dead whale.Last year, 77 Nobel Prize winners penned an open letter opposing his nomination, while some of his harshest critics came from within his own family. Cousin Caroline Kennedy, a former diplomat, accused him of being a “predator” who led younger relatives down the path of drug addiction.- ‘Disaster waiting to happen’ -“This is a disaster waiting to happen — and it will happen,” Paul Offit, a leading vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told AFP. Democratic Senator Patty Murray accused Republicans of willful ignorance.”They are choosing to pretend it’s even remotely believable that RFK Jr. won’t use his new power to do exactly what he’s spent decades trying to do — undermine vaccines,” she said, warning he could dismantle the government’s vaccine advisory committee, which determines which shots must be covered by insurance.The Senate has approved all of Trump’s cabinet picks so far, underscoring his iron grip on the Republican Party.Among them is Tulsi Gabbard, confirmed on Wednesday as the nation’s spy chief despite past support for adversarial nations including Russia and Syria.Meanwhile, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, cleared a key committee vote Thursday and now awaits final Senate approval.A staunch loyalist, Patel has repeatedly promoted election fraud conspiracies and recently published a book naming 60 Trump critics — dubbed an “enemies list” by Democrats.

Two Estonian nationals have pleaded guilty to defrauding hundreds of thousands of people around the world in a $577 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, the Justice Department said Thursday.Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin, both age 40, were extradited from Estonia to the United States last year to face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.As part of their guilty pleas, the two agreed to forfeit assets valued at more than $400 million, the Justice Department said in a statement.Sentencing by a US district court in Seattle, Washington was set for May 8. They face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.Potapenko and Turogin were arrested in 2022 in a joint operation by Estonian police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.Estonia’s supreme court, after a nearly two-year legal battle, agreed last year to send the pair to the United States.According to court documents, Potapenko and Turogin sold contracts entitling customers to a share of the digital assets mined by HashFlare, their cryptocurrency mining service.HashFlare’s sales totaled more than $577 million between 2015 and 2019 but the company did not actually have the computing capacity needed to perform the vast crypto mining it purported to perform.A web-based dashboard alleging to show mining profits displayed falsified data and Potapenko and Turogin were unable to pay investors when they asked to withdraw their mining proceeds.

The United States on Thursday sanctioned the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court over the ICC’s investigations targeting US personnel as well as alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.The US Treasury Department said in a statement that it had imposed sanctions against Karim Khan in response to President Donald Trump’s February 6 executive order, which called for him to be sanctioned.The ICC has been investigating Israel’s conduct during its war against Hamas in Gaza, launched in response to the Palestinian militant group’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks. Khan, who is a British national, was responsible for the request that led the ICC to issue arrest warrants late last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza conflict, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.Alongside its probe into Israel, the ICC has also been investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity alleged to have been carried out during the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021.In his executive order, Trump accused the ICC of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the United States and its ally Israel — neither of which are ICC members.Trump added that the Hague-based court had “abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants” targeting Netanyahu and Gallant, and he ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members.The ICC condemned Trump’s executive order, which it said sought to “harm its independent and impartial judicial work.”This is not the first time Trump has targeted ICC officials: During his first term, he imposed financial sanctions and a visa ban on the ICC’s then-prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and other senior officials.Joe Biden lifted those sanctions soon after he became president in 2021.

US President Donald Trump inked plans Thursday for sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” hitting both allies and competitors, in a dramatic escalation of an international trade war that economists warn could fuel inflation at home.Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said he had decided to impose the reciprocal duties, telling reporters that US allies were often “worse than our enemies” on trade issues.The levies would be tailored to each US trading partner and consider non-tariff factors including value-added tax (VAT).”Major exporting nations of the world attack our markets with punishing tariffs and even more punishing non-tariff barriers,” Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters, taking aim at the European Union in particular over VAT.Washington will start by examining economies with which the United States has its biggest deficits or “most egregious issues,” said a White House official.”This should be a matter of weeks, in a few months, but not much longer than that,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.Trump acknowledged Thursday that US prices “could go up” due to tariffs, but he expressed confidence that they would ultimately ease.Trump has announced a broad range of tariffs targeting some of the biggest US trading partners since taking office, arguing that they would help tackle unfair practices — and in some cases using the threats to influence policy.The president has referred to tariffs as a way to raise revenue, remedy trade imbalances and pressure countries to act on US concerns.The White House official said Thursday that the United States has been “treated unfairly,” saying a lack of reciprocity is a reason behind the country’s “persistent annual trade deficit in goods.”With the memo Trump signed on Thursday, the US Trade Representative, commerce secretary and other officials will work to propose remedies on a country-by-country basis.Trump’s announcement came hours before he was due to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.Analysts have warned that reciprocal duties could bring a broad tariff hike to emerging market economies such as India and Thailand, which tend to have higher effective tariff rates on US products.Countries such as South Korea that have trade deals with Washington are less at risk from this move, analysts believe.- Inflation concerns -Cost-of-living pressures were a key issue in the November election that saw Trump sweep to power, and the Republican has promised to swiftly reduce prices.But economists caution that sweeping tariffs on US imports would likely boost inflation, not reduce it, in the near term and could weigh on growth eventually.Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller previously said countries use the VAT to get an unfair trade advantage, although analysts have challenged this characterization.During election campaigning, Trump promised: “An eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff, same exact amount.”For example, if India imposes a 25-percent tariff on US autos, Washington will have a 25-percent tariff as well on imports of autos from India, explained a Nomura report this week.The consideration of non-tariff factors might shift this calculus.Modi will hold talks with Trump on Thursday and New Delhi offered some quick tariff concessions ahead of his visit, including on high-end motorcycles.”Trump’s objective of implementing reciprocal tariffs is to ensure fair treatment for US exports, which could indirectly also address US trade imbalances with partner countries,” analysts at Nomura said.Among Asian economies, India has a 9.5-percent weighted average effective tariff on US exports, while there is a three-percent rate on India’s exports to the United States.Thailand has a 6.2-percent rate and China a 7.1-percent rate on US products, Nomura noted.Higher tariffs are often imposed by poorer countries, who use them as a tool for revenue and protection because they have fewer resources to impose non-tariff barriers, Cato Institute’s Scott Lincicome earlier told AFP.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was meeting Donald Trump and Elon Musk in Washington Thursday, as he seeks to rekindle his bromance with the US president and avoid his wrath on tariffs and trade.White House officials said Trump and Modi would be aiming for a “fair” trade deal between their countries — a long-sought goal — this year, as well as a new defense partnership and military sales.Modi said he had first held a “very good” one-on-one meeting with tech billionaire Musk, who has launched an aggressive effort as Trump’s right-hand man to overhaul the federal bureaucracy.The Indian premier posted pictures of himself shaking hands with the beaming SpaceX and Tesla tycoon in front of US and Indian flags, with several children on Musk’s side of the room, and Indian officials on the other.”We discussed various issues, including those he is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation,” Modi said on Musk’s X social network, adding that he had spoken about “India’s efforts towards reform.”Modi will later meet Trump in the Oval Office before they hold a joint press conference — a rare move from the Indian leader, who is a prolific social media user but seldom takes questions from reporters.”There’s a lot of natural warmth dating back to President Trump’s first term,” a senior Trump administration official said.But the official said that while there was “early body language from the government of India that has been well received,” they were “modest steps” and there remained “a lot more work to do.”So far Modi has offered quick tariff concessions ahead of his visit, with New Delhi slashing duties on high-end motorcycles — a boost to Harley-Davidson, the iconic US manufacturer whose struggles in India have irked Trump.The two leaders would make a further push towards a trade deal with a hope to have it in place sometime this year, the official added.US officials said it would be up to Trump to talk about any possible tariffs on India. The United States had a $45.6 billion trade deficit with India in 2024, according to US figures.- ‘Trump’s anger’ -India has already accepted a US military flight carrying 100 shackled migrants last week as part of Trump’s immigration overhaul, and New Delhi has vowed its own “strong crackdown” on illegal migration.For nearly three decades, US presidents from both parties have prioritized building ties with India, seeing a natural partner against a rising China.But Trump has also raged against India over trade, the biggest foreign policy preoccupation of his new term, in the past calling the world’s fifth-largest economy the “biggest tariff abuser.”Former property tycoon Trump has unapologetically weaponized tariffs against friends and foes since his return.Modi “has prepared for this, and he is seeking to preempt Trump’s anger,” said Lisa Curtis, the National Security Council director on South Asia during Trump’s first term.One thing Modi is set to avoid, however, is official US scrutiny of his record on the rights of Muslims and other minorities. Trump is unlikely to highlight an issue on which former president Joe Biden’s administration offered gentle critiques.Modi is the fourth world leader to visit Trump since his return, following the prime ministers of Israel and Japan, and the king of Jordan.The Indian prime minister assiduously courted Trump during his first term.The two share much in common, with both campaigning on promises to promote majority communities over minorities and both doggedly quashing dissent.In 2020, Modi invited Trump before a cheering crowd of more than 100,000 people to inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium in his home state of Gujarat.Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of the Quad — a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.burs-dk/aha