Author: Anadolu Agency

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt blamed former President Joe Biden for the ongoing egg crisis in the US, citing the culling of nearly eight million chickens ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration as a key factor. Leavitt shared a graphic on X showing poultry birds culled due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and accused the Biden administration of causing supply shortages and higher prices. “The Egg Crisis is Biden’s Crisis — but President Trump and @SecRollins (Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins) are fixing it,” she wrote. The US is grappling with a severe egg shortage driven by a widespread bird…

The Bank of England kept its policy interest rate constant at 4.5% on Thursday, in line with market expectations. There has been substantial progress on disinflation over the last two years, as previous external shocks have receded, the bank said. “And as the restrictive stance of monetary policy has curbed second-round effects and stabilised longer-term inflation expectation,” it said. It said inflation rose to 3% in the UK in January, up from 2.5% in December 2024. Mentioning the implementation of new US tariffs on imports, the bank said global trade policy uncertainty has intensified, and the US has made a…

US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday said a full ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine can be achieved within weeks. “We are well on the way to getting a deal on Russia and Ukraine,” Witkoff said in a television program, adding that easing anti-Russian sanctions would follow a ceasefire agreement. He also confirmed upcoming meetings on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia will take place on Monday and Tuesday. Witkoff described the conversation between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as “epic and outcome-oriented,” noting progress toward a deal to end the conflict. He also said a meeting between two leaders is…

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz dismissed reports Wednesday that President Donald Trump waited an hour for a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as “completely false garbage, fake news.” Waltz told Fox News that the call started on time and lasted “for a very long time,” covering critical issues such as relations, regional stability and the war in Ukraine. “Donald J. Trump does not sit and wait for an hour for any head of state,” he said, underlining that there might have been some technical difficulties. He described the call as “historic” and detailed discussions on implementing a ceasefire,…

China on Wednesday urged the US to end its restrictions on Cuba and remove Havana from the “state sponsors of terrorism” list. Allegations of “forced labor” have become “an excuse and a tool” for the US to “suppress dissenting voices,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a news conference in Beijing, expressing China’s opposition to “coercive diplomacy.” The US expanded visa restrictions against Cuba on Feb. 25, citing Cuba’s overseas medical services as being suspected of “forced labor linked to the Cuban labor export program.” “Cuba’s labor export programs, which include the medical missions, enrich the Cuban regime,…

US and Russian security advisors discussed efforts Wednesday to end the war in Ukraine, following a call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Mike Waltz, US national security advisor, wrote on X that he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Yuri Ushakov. “We agreed our technical teams would meet in (the Saudi Arabian capital of) Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia,” Waltz wrote. The discussions follow a call Tuesday between Trump and Putin, where the two leaders addressed normalizing ties, resolving the war and the Middle East. Trump…

The World Meteorological Organization reported that in addition to 2024 setting a new heat record for hottest year, the past decade from 2015 to 2024 marked the warmest period on record. In its latest report, the organization highlighted that the effects of climate change have rapidly intensified over the past decade, with 2024 seeing global temperatures increase by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era from 1850-1900. “The annually averaged global mean near-surface temperature in 2024 was 1.55 °C ± 0.13 °C above the 1850-1900 average. This is the warmest year in the 175-year observational record, beating the…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lent his support to a partial ceasefire that prohibits the targeting of energy sites, two of President Donald Trump’s senior officials said Wednesday. Delegations are slated to meet in Saudi Arabia “in the coming days” to discuss efforts to widen the ceasefire to the Black Sea ahead of a full ceasefire, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement released by the White House. “They agreed this could be the first step toward the full end of the war and ensuring security. President Zelensky was grateful for the President’s…

Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of Catholics and head of state of the Vatican, is continuing his recovery after being hospitalized for more than a month for respiratory illnesses, the Vatican reported on Wednesday. The Vatican shared the latest health report of the 88-year-old pope, who has been at Gemelli Hospital in Rome for 33 days with a diagnosis of bilateral pneumonia due to severe bronchitis he had in February. The report showed his clinical condition improving, with motor and respiratory physiotherapy continuing to make progress. Francis was unable to speak at two public events on Feb. 9 and 12,…

The annual inflation rate was down to 2.7% in the EU in February, from 2.8% in January, Eurostat announced on Wednesday. The rate was also down to 2.3% in the euro area last month from 2.5% in January, official figures showed. The lowest annual rates were registered in France (0.9%), Ireland (1.4%), and Finland (1.5%), with the highest annual rates recorded in Hungary (5.7%), Romania (5.2%), and Estonia (5.1%). Compared with January 2025, annual inflation fell in fourteen member states, remained stable in six, and rose in seven. In February 2025, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation…