IBT Staff Reporter

From 'puppets' to players: Ukraine war reveals shift for US's Gulf allies

European Union leaders will on Thursday discuss weaning the bloc off Russian energy in the face of Moscow's war in Ukraine, but internal divisions and fear of provoking President Vladimir Putin mean they will not invite Kyiv to join their club.

European Union leaders will grapple on Thursday with how to reduce their reliance on Russian energy and strengthen political and moral support for Ukraine in the face of Moscow's invasion but will rebuff Kyiv's appeal to be granted rapid membership.

European Union leaders gathered on Thursday to agree on a joint response to the war in Ukraine, with differing views on how far to go with economic sanctions, how quickly to cut Russian energy imports, and whether or not to let Kyiv join their bloc swiftly.

European Union leaders on Thursday condemned the "unspeakable suffering" Russia was inflicting on Ukraine but at a summit in France they refused Kyiv's appeal for rapid accession to the bloc and differed over the reach of sanctions against Moscow.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Colombian President Ivan Duque are expected to discuss Venezuela when they meet at the White House on Thursday, days after Duque expressed some public concerns about secret negotiations between the United States and Venezuela.

President Joe Biden told Colombian President Ivan Duque on Thursday he plans to designate Colombia as a major non-NATO ally, granting the strategic status to a key country in a turbulent region as the United States seeks to isolate Russia.

U.S. local election officials are increasingly concerned about threats and political pressure fueled by baseless allegations of voter fraud in the last presidential race, and one in five say they are somewhat or very unlikely to stay in their jobs through the 2024 contest, a national survey showed on Thursday.

Firebrand Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath's political stock is rising in India, where he is set to deliver the ruling party a thumping election win in the country's most populous state despite the pandemic and fury at farm reforms that were eventually ditched.

Shell faces writedowns on $400 million in Russian downstream assets, it said on Thursday, having announced $3 billion worth of other projects previously.

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Finland is to review its security policy to decide whether to join NATO, President Sauli Niinisto said on Thursday.

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An upstart political party that rules India's capital has swept an election in Punjab state, a Thursday vote-count showed, bolstering its hopes of becoming the main challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Sweden's government said on Thursday it planned to boost annual spending on defence to 2% of gross domestic product in response to a deteriorating security situation in Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Phones are ringing off the hook in Australia as buyers hunt for supplies of coal, gas and wheat to replace cargoes from Russia and war-torn Ukraine, but local producers are being hampered by infrastructural and labour constraints.

The U.S. Treasury Department is launching an initiative to raise awareness about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies as the digital asset moves from the fringes of the financial system to the mainstream, a top official said.

Russian shelling of Mariupol on Thursday prevented a humanitarian convoy reaching the besieged Ukrainian city, local officials said, and dented hopes of evacuating trapped civilians who are increasingly desperate for supplies.

China's securities regulator has barred the country's investment banks it regulates from acting as promoters of blank-check firms in Hong Kong, three people with knowledge of the matter said, cutting off a potentially lucrative business.

Rio Tinto became the first major mining company to cut ties with Russian businesses and Japan's Sony and Nintendo suspended deliveries of their gaming consoles, joining a global corporate exodus from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Britain froze the assets of Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea soccer club, on Thursday in an escalation of sanctions against associates of Vladimir Putin, while mining giant Rio Tinto joined the corporate exodus from Russia.

Japanese brands Uniqlo and Japan Tobacco made U-turns and said they were stopping business in Russia, joining the corporate crowd shunning Moscow on Thursday, and Britain escalated sanctions against oligarchs including Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich.

Rich Russians are trying to shift some of their wealth from Europe to Dubai to shield assets from a tightening wave of Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, financial and legal sources said.

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Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled a travel recovery for airlines and led to a 23% fall in flight bookings within Europe and a 13% fall in trans-Atlantic bookings in the first week, travel data firm ForwardKeys said on Thursday.

Confusing messages from No. 3 OPEC producer the United Arab Emirates about whether it supported higher output or not stoked volatility in the oil market as consuming nations sought extra crude on Thursday to replace dwindling Russian supplies.

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