Germany’s Buch seen as favorite to be new ECB top supervisor, sources say

By Balazs Koranyi WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three women are seen as the top contenders to become the European Central Bank’s new supervisory chief, with Germany’s Claudia Buch considered the clear favorite, conversations with a dozen sources with direct knowledge indicate. The ECB oversees just over a hundred of the euro zone’s biggest banks and needs …

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France’s Macron signs contested pension law as unions plan more protests

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday signed into law a deeply unpopular bill to raise the state pension age, infuriating unions that called for months of mass protests to continue. The proclamation of the law in the government’s official journal came hours after France’s Constitutional Council had approved the main pension-age increase in …

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Azerbaijan protests ‘barbaric’ flag-burning at weightlifting championship in Armenia

BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan lodged a strong protest on Saturday after its national flag was grabbed and set on fire during the opening ceremony of a weightlifting championship in neighbouring Armenia. Azerbaijan said it had become impossible for its athletes to take part in the championships and they had already left Armenia to travel home …

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U.S., Vietnam say they hope to deepen ties as Blinken visits Hanoi

By Humeyra Pamuk HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday expressed a desire to deepen their ties as Washington seeks to solidify alliances to counter an increasingly assertive China.     In his first visit to the southeast Asian country as the top U.S. diplomat, Blinken …

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War would bring disaster to China too, Taiwan presidential contender says

TAIPEI (Reuters) – War over Taiwan would bring about a “global catastrophe” that China would find it hard to bear, the presidential candidate for Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), William Lai, said on Saturday. China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, staged war games around the island this month, expressing its anger at …

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Russia says Wagner fighters seize two more parts of Bakhmut

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Fighters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group have captured two more areas of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday. “On the Donetsk direction, the fiercest fighting has been continuing in the city of Artyomovsk,” the ministry said in a daily statement, referring to the settlement by its Soviet-era …

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