Month: September 2022

The pound fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar early Monday, fueling speculation that the Bank of England might raise interest rates to prop up the currency. The sterling fell almost 5 percent to drop below the 1985 trough at $1.0327, before recovering to $1.0605. It was still down around 1.5 percent around midday on […]

Seven German citizens are taking their government to court over air pollution, NGOs ClientEarth and Deutsche Umwelthilfe announced Monday. By leaving national air pollution laws unchanged, Berlin failed to respond to new guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO), which last year tightened its air quality guidelines, the claimants argue. “This leaves people breathing in […]

Europe’s right wing is cheering Giorgia Meloni’s projected win in Italy’s election. Everyone else is looking anxiously at what happens next. Meloni is set to lead Italy’s most right-wing government since Benito Mussolini after the coalition led by her Brothers of Italy party won around 44 percent of the vote on Sunday. On Monday morning, […]

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has tested positive for COVID-19. A government spokesman announced that Scholz has mild cold symptoms and is isolating in the chancellor’s apartment in the Federal Chancellery. “This week’s public appointments will be canceled. The chancellor wants to attend internal appointments and the scheduled meeting with the prime ministers of the federal […]

A gunman shot the leader of a local military committee in a Siberian town on Monday, local authorities reported, in an apparent protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization order. In a graphic video posted on social media, one shot is heard and a man falls to the ground, while the gunman is also seen […]

The leader of Italy’s main opposition party, Enrico Letta, announced on Monday that he would stand down in the wake of Sunday’s general election loss. Addressing his supporters from the Democratic Party headquarters, Letta said that he would stay on for the time being, but that he would not contest the party leadership in the […]

After years of denying any connection, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted that he was directly involved in creating the Wagner Group, a network of mercenaries and a de facto private army of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, Prigozhin confirmed the reporting of an investigation by the Russian independent online portal “Bloknot.” The entrepreneur, […]

The European Central Bank expects the euro area economy to contract in the last quarter of this year and in the first quarter next year, its president said Monday. That fits the definition of a technical recession, which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. “It is difficult to predict what the real outcome will […]