British PM arrives in Beijing for official visit

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for an official visit to China through Saturday.

In August 2024, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone call with Starmer at the latter's request, and in November that year, during his attendance at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Xi met with Starmer, leading China-Britain relations onto a track of improvement and development.

During Starmer's visit, the first by a British prime minister in eight years, President Xi will meet with him, Premier Li Qiang will hold talks with him, and China's top legislator Zhao Leji will also meet with him. The two sides are expected to have in-depth exchanges on bilateral relations and issues of common interest.

U.S. Fed keeps interest rate unchanged at 3.5-3.75 pct

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept the target range for the federal funds interest rate unchanged at 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent at its first policy meeting of 2026.

The decision follows three consecutive rate cuts in the second half of 2025.

"Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace. Job gains have remained low, and the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization. Inflation remains somewhat elevated," said the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in a statement.

Greenland tensions "strategic wake-up call" for Europe: Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that escalating tensions with the United States over Greenland constitute a strategic wake-up call for Europe as a whole, while reiterating France's solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.

"Recent events confirm that the situation in Greenland is a strategic wake-up call for all of Europe: on asserting our European sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security, on combating foreign interference and disinformation, on the fight against climate change, and on a privileged partnership for sustainable development and reducing strategic dependencies," Macron said at a joint press conference with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in Paris.

Macron said France is deeply committed to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity with all its partners in the European Union, adding that France will continue to defend these principles in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

No talks under pressure -- Iran responds to Trump's threats, U.S. naval enforcement in Middle East

Iran on Wednesday rejected any prospect of talks with the United States as long as Washington continues to threaten military action, after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric and announced the deployment of additional U.S. naval forces to the Middle East.

"There can be no negotiations in an atmosphere of threats," Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. "Conducting diplomacy through military pressure is neither effective nor useful. If they want negotiations, they must abandon threats, excessive demands, and illogical issues."

In a post on X, Araghchi added that Iran welcomes a new deal on its nuclear program but would respond forcefully to any U.S. military operation.

Aircraft crash kills India's Maharashtra deputy chief minister, 4 others

Five people, including the deputy chief minister of India's western state of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, and two pilots, on board an aircraft were killed Wednesday in a crash, officials said.

The small aircraft crashed while attempting to land at Baramati airport in Pune district, about 249 km southeast of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.

According to an initial report released by India's civil aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), no person on board has survived the crash.