SHANGHAI U.S. semiconductor wafer maker AXT Inc said on Monday it would seek permits to keep exporting gallium

China’s indebted local governments are using a controversial way to generate revenue as they struggle to pay bills:

Past high-profile trials suggest additional scrutiny and stress for the four judges overseeing the indictments against former President Donald Trump

The European Union is launching legal action against Poland over a contentious new law that the nationalist government claims is meant to combat Russian influence

The election results this week in Virginia suggest that Republicans must essentially run the table in competitive areas in order to find statewide success at the ballot box

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday he had a phone call with Russian

Tara Reade, who accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, has defected to Russia. The former Senate aide appeared in a bombshell interview on Russian state TV on Tuesday alongside accused Kremlin spy Maria Butina and said she was feeling “at home” in Moscow. Ms Reade, 59, who worked in Mr Biden’s office decades ago, said she made the “very difficult” decision to move to the Russian capital because she no longer felt safe in the US. “I am still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good. I feel very surrounded by protection and safety,” she said. “And I just really so appreciate Maria [Butina] and everyone who’s been giving me that at a time when it’s been very difficult to know if I am safe or not.” “You have US and European citizens looking for safe haven here. And luckily, the Kremlin is accommodating. So we’re lucky,” she was quoted as saying by state-owned news agency Sputnik. Ms Reade previously accused Mr Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 when she was a staff assistant and had called for him to drop out of the 2020 presidential race. She worked as Mr Biden’s aide in 1993. There have also been some media reports about inconsistencies in her allegations against Mr Biden. Ms Reade’s educational background had been called into question years ago. The president had previously denied the sexual assault allegations against him. “To my Russian brothers and sisters, I am sorry right now that American elites are choosing to have such an aggressive stance,” she said in the interview. “Just know that most American citizens do want to be friends and hope that we can have unity again.” “I am enjoying my time in Moscow, and I feel very at home,” she said. “I just didn’t want to walk home and walk into a cage or be killed, which is basically my two choices,” she added. She also said she took her time to decide for herself. “I’m not an impulsive person. I really take my time and sort of analyse data points. And from what I could see based on the cases and based on what was happening and sort of the push for them to not want me to testify, I felt that while [the 2024] election is gearing up and there’s so much at stake, I’m almost better off here and just being safe.” “My dream is to live in both places, but it may be that I only live in this place and that’s OK,” she added. In 2020, a high-profile lawyer of the #MeToo era, Douglas H Wigdor, had dropped Ms Reade as a client. Read More Ahead of House debt ceiling vote, Biden shores up Democrats and McCarthy scrambles for GOP support Debt limit agreement clears first hurdle despite Republican anger. Here’s what happens next UN court issuing appeal ruling in long-running trial of 2 Serbs accused of crimes in Balkan wars The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Volodymyr Zelensky said an antisemitic rally in Russia’s Dagestan this week and an earlier military coup by Vladimir Putin’s former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin were clear signs the Russian president was “losing control”. The Ukrainian president on Monday said the invasion of his country by Mr Putin has only led to inadvertent effects for Moscow. “They have mobilised all their forces to try not to lose what they seized in Ukraine, but in doing so, they have contaminated their own territory with such a level of hatred and degradation that, for the second time this year, Russia is losing control over events,” said the war-time president. “We see that mutineers are heading to Moscow, and no one is stopping them,” he said, referring to now-deceased Prigozhin’s coup earlier this year. “We see that the power vertical in Dagestan is evaporating, leading to a real upheaval. “These are all signals that Russia can, for now, sustain military operations and increase pressure on the frontlines in some places, but is unable to withstand this confrontation strategically,” said the Ukrainian leader. The comments came as Kyiv’s military officials said Russia bulked up its forces around the devastated city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and tweaked the manner of its operations. “In the Bakhmut area, the enemy has significantly strengthened its grouping and switched from defence to active actions,” general Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander of ground forces, wrote on Telegram. Kyiv’s officials also said Ukraine has been preparing to repel these attacks. Russian forces had been preparing since early this month to retake positions around Bakhmut that were lost in the months-long Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to Volodymyr Fityo, head of communications for Ukraine’s ground forces command. “We saw this, the intelligence reported everything. We had been preparing, strengthening our defensive positions, engineering fortifications and pulling up reserves,” Mr Fityo said. “This does not come as a surprise for us.” Both Mr Syrskyi and Mr Fityo said Russian forces were particularly active near the Ukrainian-held town of Kupiansk in the northeast. Mr Fityo said Russia had numerical superiority. Bakhmut was captured by Russia in May with help from private military company Wagner after witnessing some of the bloodiest fighting in the now 20-month-old war. But Ukraine has amped up military operations to retake Bakhmut in the counteroffensive that was launched in June and that aims to retake occupied land in the country’s south and east. Read More Russia accuses Ukraine of damaging a nuclear waste warehouse as the battle for Avdiivika grinds on UK ministers continue to resist calls for ceasefire in Middle East Russian drones likely targeted Khmelnytskyi nuclear power station, Zelensky says Zelensky vows to keep up pressure on Crimea: ‘This is historic achievement’ Timeline: Rishi Sunak’s first year in office Timeline: Rishi Sunak’s first year in office

Canada Bread pleaded guilty to a role in a scheme to inflate the price of the food staple in Canada.

The European Union has ratcheted up its scrutiny of Big Tech companies with demands for Meta and TikTok to detail their efforts to curb illegal content and disinformation during the Israel-Hamas war

NIAMEY (Reuters) -Niger announced overnight that it was reopening its borders with several of its neighbours, a week after a

Mainland investors bought the most Hong Kong shares in almost two and a half years after the city’s