BRICS News

Lavrov said that there are many possible avenues of cooperation between Russia and the US [Xinhua]
Russia is able to join with the US to repair ties which were hurt by positions taken by the previous Obama administration, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told an Austrian periodical.
Media reports in recent weeks have speculated about the possibility of a warming of ties between Moscow and Washington since President Donald Trump took office.
Trump and Russian President Vladimir spoke for nearly an hour last week and discussed efforts to destroy the Islamic State.

Beijing claims 90 per cent of the South China Sea, a maritime region believed to hold a wealth of untapped oil and gas reserves [Xinhua]
China on Friday fired back at US Defense Secretary James Mattis for what it said was erroneous statements regarding islands in the South China Sea.
“The Diaoyu Island and its adjacent islets have been an inherent part of Chinese territory since ancient times, which is a unchangeable historical fact,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

Will voters who faced long bank queues and other hardships punish the BJP at the polls for assembly seats? [Xinhua]
In what could be the earliest test of reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization drive last quarter, two of five Indian states went to the polls today to vote for the 2017 assembly.
Polls are closing in the states of Goa and Punjab, both ruled by the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Modi.
The polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the north, and Manipur in the northeast will run from February 11 to March 8.

During a Security Council meeting on Friday, UN ambassador to the UN Haley said Washington condemned Russia’s “aggressive actions” in eastern Ukraine [Xinhua]
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday reported that its UN envoy met with new US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley just a day after she condemned Moscow for its support of rebels in eastern Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the Russian Mission to the UN said that Haley visited Vitaly Churkin at his residence.

Pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk say they will make their stand in the city [Xinhua]
Russian media reported on Saturday that the commander of a pro-Moscow militia was killed in a car blast in Lugansk in eastern Ukraine as heavy fighting appears to subside in the region.
For a week now, heavy weaponry – prohobited by the protocols of the Minsk peace agreement – have been used to shell the Ukraine government held town of Avdeyevka (or Avdiivka).
Avdeyevka is 16 kilometeres north of rebel-held Donetsk and 50 kilometers south of Lugansk.

China’s stock markets fell on the first day back from the lunar new year holiday [Xinhua]
The People’s Bank of China raised interest rates on Friday amid accusations made by US President Donald Trump that Beijing was unfairly intervening to devalue the yuan.
In a move that surprised many analysts, the PBOC raised the interest rate on open market operation reverse repurchase agreements (repos) by 10 basis points.
It also raised the interest rates on short-term and medium-term loans.
The PBOC also injected nearly $93 billion to increase liquidity in the banks.

The Su-35 is a multi-role super-maneuverable single-seat fighter jet [Xinhua]
Russia is to supply the Chinese air force with 10 advanced SU-35 fighter jets, highly maneuverable aircraft which first debuted in the Syrian theater of operations.
The delivery of the SU-35s will happen throughout 2017 and come as part of a two billion dollar, three-year deal signed with China through which Beijing is to purchase a total of 24 of thei fighter jets.
Four jets were supplied at the end of 2016.

India’s stocks jumped about two per cent on Wednesday after the finance minister’s budget reveal [Xinhua]
The announcement by India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to boost government spending and reduce the base tax helped the stock exchanges jump by about two per cent on Wednesday.
This was helped by a return of growth in India’s factory activity in January and the rupee currency bouncing back 0.4 per cent, signalling that the short-term negative effects of demonetization were now a thing of the past.
But Jaitley’s 2017 budget reveal is also poginant.

The manufacturing sector has expanded for the sixth month in a row, new data has shown [Xinhua]
China’s economy is stabilizing as its manufacturing sector continues to show expansion for the sixth consecutive month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.
While it dropped by 0.1 from December, the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 51.3 in January.
The government survey tracks the health of some 3,000 large and state-owned companies.

The Ukraine conflict is taking a heavy toll on civilian lives and infrastructure, the UN and HRW say [Xinhua]
The United Nations says it is concerned by renewed fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Kiev’s armed forces in eastern Ukraine.
The UN says that thousands of people are facing lack of water and persistent power outages in the middle of a freezing winter.
People have endured the two-year stalemate with no solution in sight.