Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should reduce interest rates. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that inflation was going down, and Powell should respond by reducing interest rates. “If we had a Fed chairman that understood what he was doing, interest rates would be coming down. He should bring them down,” Trump said.

The Kremlin said on Friday that some progress had already been made in talks about a possible peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine but that contacts were rather complicated with the United States. “Contacts are quite complicated, because, naturally, the topic is not an easy one,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Russia is committed to resolving this conflict, ensuring its own interests, and is open to dialogue. We continue to do this.” U.S. President Donald Trump will walk away from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal…

The United States will continue to assist Taiwan with its self-defence and wants to see peace across the Taiwan Strait without coercion or the threat of force, a visiting U.S. senator told President Lai Ching-te on Friday. The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties with the Chinese-claimed island. Meeting Lai at the presidential office in Taipei, the Republican Senator Pete Ricketts said that although administrations change, the bipartisan support for Taiwan in Congress continued. “The United States is committed to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. We want…

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Chinese companies that Kyiv earlier imposed sanctions on were involved in the production of Russian Iskander missiles. “Today, we have expanded our Ukrainian sanctions against nearly a hundred more entities – natural and legal persons – most of whom are involved in the production of such missiles -Iskanders – like those that struck our Kharkiv,” Zelensky said in a statement on X. “Many of these entities are Russian, but unfortunately, some are also from China,” he said. China’s foreign ministry earlier dismissed as “groundless” the accusation by Zelenskiy that the country had…

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic who has clashed with Pope Francis over the Trump administration’s immigration policies, took part in a religious service at the Vatican on Friday but the convalescing pope did not attend. Vance, visiting Italy with his family over the Easter weekend, joined a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica for Good Friday, the day Christians mark Jesus’ crucifixion. The vice president was seen entering the event with his wife Usha and their three young children. Vance carried one of the children in his arms. Francis is limiting his public appearances on doctors’ orders as he…

Serena Williams, one of the greatest players in tennis history, said that if she had failed drug tests like men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner did last year, she would have been banned for 20 years and stripped of her Grand Slam titles. Sinner accepted a three-month ban in February after reaching an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which had appealed an independent tribunal’s decision to clear him following two positive tests for the anabolic agent clostebol. “I love the guy, love this game,” Williams, who retired in 2022 after winning 23 Grand Slam titles, told Time magazine. “He’s…

Ukraine has intelligence which shows China is supplying artillery and gunpowder to Russia, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. “We believe that Chinese representatives are engaged in the production of some weapons on the territory of Russia,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv. He did not specify whether he meant artillery systems or shells.

Russia and Qatar signed an agreement on Thursday under which each country will pay an extra 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion)into a joint investment fund, a Russian official said. “This is an agreement to expand our investment platform with Qatar by the amount of about two billion euros, one billion euros from each side. This will allow us to invest more, to attract more Qatari investment money into various projects in Russia,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). RDIF said in a statement that the deal with the Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf state’s sovereign…

Jimmy Butler III scored 38 points and Stephen Curry added 37 as the Golden State Warriors clinched the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, edging the Memphis Grizzlies 121-116 in Tuesday night’s play-in thriller. “It took 83 games, but we’re right where we want to be – back in the playoffs,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “And we’ve got a chance.” Golden State, now 1-3 all time in play-in games, will open the first round against the second-seeded Houston Rockets on Sunday. “We have a group of guys with a lot of fight,” Butler said. “We never gave…

U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Tuesday that the cost of all products including gasoline and groceries have been coming down as the U.S. takes in “record numbers” in tariffs. Trump also claimed inflation in the U.S. is down, without disclosing any specific data, according to a post on social media platform Truth Social. U.S. government data released on April 10 showed consumer prices unexpectedly fell in March.