Aurelia Butler

– Prilepin, 47, is the author of six novels, often focusing on dark themes. His debut novel “The Pathologies” told the story of young soldiers in the Chechen wars. He has also written numerous poems, essays and articles, and is the recipient of various state awards including a 2021 arts prize from the defence ministry.- He is an outspoken pro-war figure on social media, with around 300,000 subscribers each to his Telegram and YouTube channels.- For years, he has organised Russian proxy fighters in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, boasting in a 2019 YouTube interview that his unit “killed people in big numbers”. The extent of his direct combat involvement is not clear.- Prilepin has been politically active as the co-chair of the “A Just Russia – For Truth” party. Last year he took a prominent role in creating GRAD, a parliamentary group that seeks to identify cultural figures with “anti-Russian” views and persuade the state and business to stop funding them. GRAD’s initials stand for “Group to investigate anti-Russian activity in the cultural sphere.” Grad is also the Russian word for “hail”, and the name of a missile system.- Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, he has been sanctioned by Switzerland, Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the European Union. More

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank delivered interest rate rises this week, but investors now expect rate setters in the US and the eurozone to move in opposite directions.Following 10 consecutive rate rises, markets predict the Fed has finished its tightening cycle and could start cutting rates as soon as July, as it shifts its focus from curbing high inflation to soothing a slowing economy. The ECB, which started increasing rates four months later, is expected to lift borrowing costs at least one, and probably two more times this year, according to the overnight index swap market, which sets prices based on investors’ expectations of future official interest rates. “We are in for a great divergence in monetary policy on both sides of the Atlantic which is something quite new,” said Christian Kopf, head of fixed income at Union Investment.“People in the markets have always said it’s pointless to forecast the ECB because it will always do Fed minus 200 basis points, but we are now in a situation where the ECB is really following its own path and will continue to hike.”Investors’ nerved about the US banking sector have led them to bet on rate cuts from the current benchmark rate of 5 to 5.25 per cent, despite annual wage inflation of 4.4 per cent and a labour market which remains “extraordinarily tight” according to Fed chair Jay Powell.

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However, he also warned the recent banking turmoil appeared to be “resulting in even tighter credit conditions for households and businesses”, which was likely to weigh on economic activity and the labour market.Meanwhile Christine Lagarde, ECB president, signalled more rate rises to come in a speech on Thursday. “We have more ground to cover and we are not pausing, that is extremely clear,” she said, after announcing an increase of the benchmark eurozone interest rate to 3.25 per cent.Investors say the Fed will either hold rates until inflation falls closer to target and the labour market cools, or will be forced to cut quickly to support bank balance sheets and curb deposit outflows if a crisis unfolds. “If they had to cut for that reason they would not do 25 basis points, they would have to do 50 or 75 basis points,” said Thanos Papasavvas, chief investment officer at ABP Invest.

Papasavvas and others think that if the US embarks on crisis-induced rate cutting, the ECB would be forced to follow suit.“Lagarde tried to push the view that the ECB can keep tightening independent of what the Fed does [on Thursday] but it is only credible if the US escapes a hard landing,” said Antoine Bouvet, head of European rates strategy at ING.Others, including Kopf, are not convinced. “I think the European banks are in much better shape than their US counterparts,” he said, noting that unlike in the US, all European banks have to comply with the Basel rules on capital and liquidity.He added that there was no equivalent of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Europe so banks and regulators “really make sure they don’t have problems precisely because they know they cannot pass on the risk to a Federal entity”. More

(Reuters) -A prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver on Saturday, an attack that Russia immediately blamed on Ukraine and the West.The state Investigative Committee said the writer’s Audi Q7 was blown up in a village in the Nizny Novgorod region, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Moscow, which it was treating as an act of terrorism. It said he had been taken to hospital.An interior ministry spokeswoman said a suspect had been arrested.It was the third bomb attack on a leading pro-war figure inside Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Russia has blamed Ukraine for the deaths of the two previous targets, which Kyiv has denied. There was no immediate word from Ukraine on the latest incident.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram: “The fact has come true: Washington and NATO fed another international terrorist cell – the Kyiv regime.”She said it was the “direct responsibility of the U.S. and Britain”, but provided no evidence to support the accusation.”We pray for Zakhar,” she said.State news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as declining to comment in the absence of information from investigators.The agency said former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev had sent a telegram to Prilepin, calling the incident “a vile attack by Nazi extremists”.Prilepin is a novelist who is known as an outspoken supporter of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, where Moscow’s invasion is in its 15th month. He is a prolific exponent of nationalist views, with more than 300,000 followers on Telegram and his own website and YouTube channel.He fought for Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine’s region of Donbas before Moscow’s full-scale invasion last year and led a military unit there, boasting in a 2019 YouTube interview that his unit “killed people in big numbers”.”These people are dead, they are buried and… there are many of them,” he said. “Not a single unit among the Donetsk battalions had such results. It was outrageous chaos what we did there… Not a single field commander had such results as I had.”Saturday’s incident followed the assassination of a military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, in a cafe in St Petersburg last month. Last August Darya Dugina, the daughter of a nationalist ideologue, was killed in a car bombing near Moscow. More

Hozon signed an agreement with Thailand’s Bangchan General Assembly this week to start production of its NETA V model, expected in 2024, Thai government spokesperson Tipanan Sirichana said in a statement.The EV maker launched its NETA V model in the Thai market last year and planned to start offering its NETA U and NETA S models in the near future, Tipanan said.Other Chinese EV makers like BYD have also invested in Thai plants as demand heats up among domestic consumers choosing from brands like Great Wall Motors and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).Last month, a Thai official said China’s Changan Auto would invest $285 million in a facility in Thailand.Thailand is Asia’s fourth-largest autos assembly and export hub for carmakers like Toyota and Honda.The country aims to become a key player in the global EV supply chain outside of China by offering tax cuts and subsidies to drive EV adoption and production. It has set a target that 30% of domestic auto production be EVs by 2030. More