MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Monday sentenced a man convicted over a car bombing that seriously wounded nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin to life in prison.
Prosecutors said the May 2023 bombing in the Nizhny Novogorod region was conducted at the direction of Ukraine's security services. Prilepin was seriously injured and his driver died in the bombing.
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MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Monday sentenced a man convicted over a car bombing that seriously wounded nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin to life in prison.
Alexander Permyakov, a Ukrainian national standing trial over a car bombing that injured well-known nationalist novelist and ardent Kremlin supporter Zakhar Prilepin, sits in a glass cage in a courtroom prior to a session in the Russian Military Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Alexander Permyakov, a Ukrainian national standing trial over a car bombing that injured well-known nationalist novelist and ardent Kremlin supporter Zakhar Prilepin, sits in a glass cage in a courtroom prior to a session in the Russian Military Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
FILE - Russian writer and publicist Zakhar Prilepin attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
Alexander Permyakov, a Ukrainian national standing trial over a car bombing that injured well-known nationalist novelist and ardent Kremlin supporter Zakhar Prilepin, sits in a glass cage in a courtroom prior to a session in the Russian Military Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The convicted defendant, Alexander Permyakov, is from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and once fought with the Russian-backed separatists there, news reports say.
Prilepin was known for his vehement defense of both the Russia-backed eastern Ukraine rebels who rose up in 2014, and of Russia's fighting in Ukraine that began in February 2022.
Since Russia sent troops into Ukraine, two prominent nationalist figures have been killed. Darya Dugina, a commentator on Russian TV channels and the daughter of Kremlin-linked ideologue Alexander Dugin, died in an August 2022 car bombing that investigators suspected was aimed at her father.
Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known military blogger, died in April 2023, when a statue given to him at a party in St. Petersburg exploded. Russian political activist Darya Trepova was convicted in the case and sentenced to 27 years. She said she was following orders from a contact in Ukraine.
Alexander Permyakov, a Ukrainian national standing trial over a car bombing that injured well-known nationalist novelist and ardent Kremlin supporter Zakhar Prilepin, stands in handcuffs in a glass cage listening to the verdict in a courtroom in the Russian Military Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Alexander Permyakov, a Ukrainian national standing trial over a car bombing that injured well-known nationalist novelist and ardent Kremlin supporter Zakhar Prilepin, sits in a glass cage in a courtroom prior to a session in the Russian Military Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Alexander Permyakov, a Ukrainian national standing trial over a car bombing that injured well-known nationalist novelist and ardent Kremlin supporter Zakhar Prilepin, sits in a glass cage in a courtroom prior to a session in the Russian Military Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
FILE - Russian writer and publicist Zakhar Prilepin attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
Alexander Permyakov, a Ukrainian national standing trial over a car bombing that injured well-known nationalist novelist and ardent Kremlin supporter Zakhar Prilepin, sits in a glass cage in a courtroom prior to a session in the Russian Military Court in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near their records following a wild start to the week for financial markets in Asia. The S&P 500 was down 0.1% in early Monday trading, coming off its sixth winning week in the last seven. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back 153 points, or 0.4%, from its all-time high set on Friday. The Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged. A big test for Wall Street’s rally will arrive Friday, when the U.S. government offers its latest monthly update on the job market. In Asia, Japanese stocks tumbled, while Chinese indexes soared.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
HONG KONG (AP) — Global markets had a wild start to the week, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index tumbling nearly 5% while Chinese markets soared on news of fresh stimulus for the faltering economy, with Shanghai up more than 8%.
In early European trading, France’s CAC 40 slipped 1.0% to 7,711.66, and Germany’s DAX lost 0.4% to 19,399.02. In London, the FTSE 100 declined 0.3% to 8,294.70. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower.
Japanese shares sank after the ruling Liberal Democrats chose former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba late Friday to succeed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is due to step down on Tuesday.
Ishiba has expressed support for the Bank of Japan's moves to raise interest rates from their near-zero level. He also backs other policies, such as possibly raising corporate taxes, that are seen as less market friendly than his chief rival for the top job, Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, who he beat in a run-off vote.
The Nikkei closed 4.8% lower at 37,919.55 on Monday.
The dollar fell from over 146 Japanese yen to under 143 yen after the ruling party’s vote. By Monday, it was trading at 142.38 yen, up from 142.29.
Exporters’ shares plunged, since a stronger yen is a disadvantage for Japanese companies that make a large share of their sales and profits overseas. Also Monday, the government reported that industrial output fell 3.3% year-on-year in August, though analysts said some of that was due to safety scandals that have caused automakers to suspend production of some vehicles.
Toyota Motor Corp. dropped 7.6%. Honda Motor Co.'s shares fell 7.0% and Nissan Motor Co.'s declined 6.0%.
Ishiba has said he backs Kishida's “new capitalism” policies, which ostensibly would foster more equal distribution of national wealth. But sharply rising prices have undermined progress toward encouraging consumers to spend more.
Meanwhile, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 2.4% to 21,133.68, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index up 6.4%. The Shanghai Composite index surged 8.1% to 3,336.50. An index in the smaller market in Shenzhen jumped almost 11%.
The rallies were auspiciously timed, coming on the eve of a week-long national holiday marking 75 years of communist rule in China. Markets in mainland China will be closed Tuesday through Oct. 7.
China is moving forward with measures announced last week to support the property industry and revive languishing financial markets. The central bank announced on Sunday that it would direct banks to cut mortgage rates for existing home loans by Oct. 31. Meanwhile, the major southern city of Guangzhou lifted all home purchase restrictions over the weekend, while both Shanghai and Shenzhen revealed plans to ease key buying curbs.
The effort to wrest the housing market out of a prolonged downturn comes as the economy shows signs of slowing further. China’s manufacturing activity in September contracted for a fifth consecutive month, as the official purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.8, remaining below the 50 line that separates expansion from contraction, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released on Monday.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.7% to 8,269.80. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 2.1% to 2,593.27.
On Friday, the S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% from its all-time high to 5,738.17. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to 42,313.00, setting its own record, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.4% to 18,119.59.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market after a report showed inflation slowed in August by a bit more than economists expected. It echoed similar numbers from earlier in the month about inflation, but Friday’s report has resonance because it’s the measure that officials at the Federal Reserve prefer to use.
In other dealings, oil prices rose as tensions in the Middle East escalated. On early Monday, Israel launched the first apparent airstrike in nearly a year of conflict on the center of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. This came after Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an air attack on Saturday. Benchmark U.S. crude oil added 49 cents to $68.67 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 61 cents at $72.15 per barrel.
The euro was trading at $1.1193, up from $1.1163.
The New York Stock Exchange, center, is shown on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
People walk by monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A man walks by monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A woman looks at monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm as she waits at an traffic intersection in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A man stands by monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm as he waits at a traffic intersection in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A man who called himself a trader takes a picture of monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
A man looks at monitors showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
