Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain
Moscow police broke Sunday into the headquarters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and detained his aides as Russians rallied across the country to protest upcoming “pseudo-elections.” Ahead of the main protests in Moscow and Saint Petersburg police broke into Navalny’s headquarters in the Russian capital using a power saw, to interrupt a live broadcast covering a series of protests in the east of the country. Police also detained several employees of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation as well as supporters in the regions, his team said. The charismatic 41-year-old opposition politician reiterated his call for Russians to stage rallies calling for an active boycott of a March 18 presidential poll that he and his allies refer to as “pseudo-elections”, despite the prospect of mass arrests. “If you don’t go, you won’t forgive yourself later,” he said in a video address. “Sooner or later they will cut your door too.” ‘Police are everywhere’ Navalny also said h