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Live updates: Russia’s war in Ukraine, Xi’s visit to Moscow

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Live updates: Russia’s war in Ukraine, Xi’s visit to Moscow
Fumio Kishida delivers a speech in New Delhi on March 20. (Kydpl Kyodo/AP)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is making a shock journey to Ukraine on Tuesday to satisfy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — a day after Chinese language chief Xi Jinping met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Kishida has already left India, the place he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and is now on his approach to Ukraine, based on Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

His journey is the primary time a Japanese prime minister has visited a rustic or area with ongoing preventing since World Struggle II, NHK reported.

It is going to even be the primary go to to Ukraine by an Asian member of the G7 grouping and the primary by a US ally within the area.

Within the face of China’s rising assertiveness and international attain, Japan and the US have moved nearer lately, particularly on regional safety and intelligence cooperation. Japan can also be a member of the Quad, the casual group targeted on safety that features India, Australia and the US.

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Kishida has beforehand spoken out forcefully in opposition to Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor, warning final yr that “Ukraine right now could also be East Asia tomorrow.”

Final month, on the eve of the invasion’s one-year anniversary, Japan pledged $5.5 billion in humanitarian help to Ukraine, quadrupling Tokyo’s earlier contributions.

“Russia’s aggression in opposition to Ukraine isn’t just a European matter, however a problem to the principles and ideas of all the worldwide group,” Kishida mentioned on the time.

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Federal Reserve holds rates steady as it resists Donald Trump’s calls for cuts

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Federal Reserve holds rates steady as it resists Donald Trump’s calls for cuts

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The Federal Reserve has left US interest rates on hold and has signalled that it is in no rush to adjust monetary policy, defying pressure from President Donald Trump for deep reductions in borrowing costs.

The central bank on Wednesday kept its main interest rate at 4.25-4.5 per cent and indicated it was now on pause, with Fed chair Jay Powell saying US rate-setters “do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance”.

The unanimous decision came just days after Trump insisted that borrowing costs should fall “a lot” and vowed to “let it be known” if he disagreed with the central bank’s decision.

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The Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policy-setting panel, said in its decision that US inflation remained “somewhat elevated” and removed an earlier reference noting “progress” towards hitting its 2 per cent goal. Powell later clarified that the changes reflected a “cleaning-up exercise” rather than a shift in policy.

The Fed’s statement “tilts a little bit hawkish”, said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “This is a Fed that is less worried about the state of the labour market.”

The pause followed three consecutive cuts — including a 0.5 percentage point move in September — that took the federal funds target range down from a 23-year high of 5.25-5.5 per cent.

Powell signalled that interest rates would remain on hold until the FOMC had more time to assess how Trump’s pledges to raise trade barriers, slash taxes and red tape, and undertake mass deportations would affect its efforts to cool inflation.

The Fed chair said the new administration’s policies were “not for us to criticise, or to praise”.

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He also refused to react to Trump’s calls for the Fed to reduce borrowing costs significantly, saying he was “not going to have any response or comment on what the president said”.

“This rate decision, which was really the only viable choice the Fed had at this juncture, will cue the political pressure,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University. “The coming months will be extraordinarily challenging for the Fed if inflation stays sticky above its target level even as Trump piles on intense pressure to cut rates and bring down borrowing costs.”

US markets broadly took the Fed’s decision in stride, with government bonds coming under moderate selling pressure.

The policy-sensitive two-year Treasury yield was 0.03 percentage points higher at 4.23 per cent by the late afternoon in New York, while the benchmark 10-year yield was flat at 4.55 per cent. Yields rise as prices fall.

In equity markets, the S&P 500 was 0.5 per cent lower. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down by a similar margin, after trimming some of its losses during Powell’s press conference.

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Trump ends extension of temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants

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Trump ends extension of temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivers remarks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters on Jan. 28, in Washington, DC.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/Pool/Getty Images


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Manuel Balce Ceneta/Pool/Getty Images

The Trump administration is revoking a Biden-era extension for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Venezuelans, a move that removes the work authorization for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and makes them eligible for deportation.

Kristi Noem, the new secretary of homeland security, announced the decision to end the 18-month extension of TPS for Venezuelans that Biden implemented days before he left the White House. “The people of this country want these dirtbags out,” she said on Fox and Friends. “They want their communities to be safe.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has provided very little data on the immigrants arrested in recent days, specifically whether they have criminal records.

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Venezuelans gather to celebrate the granting of a temporary protected status (TPS) by US President Joe Biden in front of El Arepazo restaurant in Miami, Fla., on March 9, 2021.

Venezuelans gather to celebrate the granting of a temporary protected status (TPS) by US President Joe Biden in front of El Arepazo restaurant in Miami, Fla., on March 9, 2021.

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Numerous studies show that immigrants without legal status are less likely to commit crimes than non-immigrants.

TPS is a federal program that protects people from countries ravaged by war or natural disasters from deportation, and grants them work permits. It was created in the 1990’s, to offer assistance to Salvadorans fleeing El Salvador’s civil war. Currently, nearly a million people from 17 countries have TPS. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Venezuelans have received TPS due to “the severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”

Republicans have long argued that the TPS program has strayed from its original mission.

Secretary Noem added that, moving forward, the status of all migrants with TPS in the U.S. will be reconsidered.

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The decision was criticized by advocates and Democratic leaders. Earlier Wednesday, Congressman Joaquin Castro, (D-Texas) told NPR , “as a nation that thinks of ourselves as a beacon of light and hope and refuge for people who are fleeing dangerous leaders, this really is a betrayal of our values.”

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Global chipmakers rebound after Nvidia shares rally

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Global chipmakers rebound after Nvidia shares rally

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Chipmakers in Asia and Europe rebounded on Wednesday after strong corporate earnings from Dutch group ASML added to the previous day’s rally in industry leader Nvidia.

The recovery came after US chipmaker Nvidia closed up nearly 9 per cent on Tuesday, recouping some of the heavy losses that wiped close to $600bn off its market capitalisation at the start of the week, when investors fretted over the threat from China’s DeepSeek to the US supremacy in artificial intelligence.

The emergence of DeepSeek, which promises to develop AI tools at a fraction of the cost of US rivals, has been called a contemporary “Sputnik moment”.

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The Stoxx Europe 600 benchmark was up 0.5 per cent, led by ASML. The chip equipment maker announced earnings that beat analysts’ expectations, sending its shares 10 per cent higher in Amsterdam.

ASM, another chip stock, rose 7 per cent, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Technology index was up 4.3 per cent, more than erasing Monday’s rout.

“What happened on Monday was an extreme overreaction that was amplified by extreme positioning,” said Elyas Galou, global investment strategist at Bank of America, pointing to crowded positions in global tech stocks heading into US President Donald Trump’s inauguration and ahead of this week’s earnings from tech bellwethers including Meta and Microsoft.

“We saw a lot of buying yesterday, including from retail investors, which is supporting the market today,” he added.

Nvidia shares were flat in pre-market trading on Wednesday. Futures markets pointed to a further rebound in the US, with contracts tracking the Nasdaq up 0.3 per cent and those tracking the S&P 500 flat.

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Japan’s tech-heavy Nikkei 225 closed up 1 per cent after a rebound in semiconductor stocks and AI investor SoftBank.

“Markets have taken a calmer look at developments in China with AI and perhaps it is a reflection that Monday’s moves were an overreaction,” said Mitul Kotecha, head of emerging markets macro and foreign exchange strategy at Barclays.

Asian market analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note on Tuesday night that “oversold high-quality stocks could also provide some investment opportunities”, adding “we think strong companies will get even stronger”.

In Tokyo, Nvidia supplier Advantest closed up 4.4 per cent while semiconductor company Tokyo Electron was up 2.3 per cent. SoftBank ended the day with a 2.4 per cent rise.

Markets in the rest of Asia were also buoyant on Wednesday. India’s Nifty 50 was up almost 1 per cent in afternoon trading while Australia’s ASX 200 closed up 0.6 per cent. China, South Korea and Taiwan are closed for lunar new year holidays.

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However, analysts warned that the recovery had not yet fully undone the panicked falls on Monday as investors digested the implications of the heavy AI investment by US tech in light of DeepSeek’s achievements.

“There’s not been a rebound like ‘oh, it was nothing’. It is just a reflection that Monday’s move was a tad overdone,” said Barclays’ Kotecha.

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