TGIF and welcome to the end of your working week. Here’s a summary of what’s been happening around the world overnight.
First, the Bank of England held interest rates at 4.5% and warned of global economic uncertainty, the BBC reported. It said trade tariffs and retaliation had added to the uncertainty but its decision to hold was widely expected. The Monetary Policy Committee voted by a majority of eight to one in favour of holding.
Governor Andrew Bailey said rates were still "on a gradually declining path". He said its job was to keep inflation low and stable. Economists thought two more rate cuts would come by the end of this year, possibly as soon as May.
UK and European shares closed lower in afternoon trading, as investors assessed interest rate decisions by major central banks, the Telegraph reported. The FTSE100 closed down 0.1%.
Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged and maintained there would be two further cuts later this year.
"Uncertainty around the outlook has increased," the Fed said in a statement.
Meanwhile, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves planned to announce the biggest spending cuts since austerity at next week’s ‘spring statement’, after ruling out tax rises as a way to close the deficit, the Guardian reported.
Economists said the cuts could harm public services, despite Labour’s promise to fix years of decline under the Conservatives.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In other key news, the White House said possible US ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants formed part of the discussion between the world leaders on Wednesday local time, the BBC reported.
However, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky later said only the Zaporizhzhia plant was discussed. Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear plant in Europe – currently in territory controlled by Russia.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump held a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart to discuss a peace deal with Russia.
It followed a call Trump had with Vladimir Putin, where the Russian leader agreed to a partial ceasefire deal to stop attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days.
The UK hosted a meeting of senior military leaders of about 20 countries – to create plans for a proposed peacekeeping force in Ukraine, the BBC noted.
The ABC reported that high-level talks were taking place in London and Brussels, as Western allies attempted to boost military aid and security for Ukraine. The Australian Department of Defence said: "Australia remains steadfast in its support, and supports all meaningful progress towards a just and enduring peace for Ukraine."
Elsewhere, the European Union delayed plans to retaliate against Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs until the middle of next month, the BBC reported. The trading bloc was due to impose duties on US products from April 1, to which Trump responded with a 200% alcohol tariff threat.
The EU said it wanted “additional time” for discussions with the US. EU spokesperson Olof Gill said delaying the first round of US tariffs until April 13 was “a slight adjustment” to the timeline.
US President Donald Trump.
Elsewhere, Indonesia's parliament passed contentious revisions to the country’s military law, which would allocate more civilian posts to military officers, CNN reported.
President Prabowo Subianto had been expanding the armed forces’ role into civilian areas, including the free meals for children programme.
Groups criticised the increased military involvement because it could lead to abuses of power and human rights violations. However, the government said the bill required officers to resign from the military before assuming civilian posts, CNN said.
Finally, UK multinational Unilever was accused of removing the chief executive of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream over progressive values, the Guardian reported.
David Stever was “removed” from his post earlier this month, it was claimed in a US court filing. Ben & Jerry’s alleged that Unilever wanted to stop Stever from making political statements.
Ben & Jerry’s independent board chair Anuradha Mittal said Stever advanced the company’s “social mission and values”, along with product innovation.
“[He] has delivered strong financial results, far outpacing the rest of Unilever’s ice cream business. What Dave hasn’t done is what Unilever would like him to do, which is to oversee the dismantling of Ben & Jerry’s mission [and] progressive values.”
