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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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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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Atomic ‘angst’ over? Germany closes last nuclear plants

By Riham Alkousaa BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will pull the plug on its last three nuclear power stations by Saturday, ending a six-decade programme that spawned one of Europe’s strongest protest movements but saw a brief reprieve due to the Ukraine war. The smoking towers of Isar II, Emsland and Neckarwestheim II reactors were to …

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German cartel office mulls energy suppliers probe over pricing – newspaper

BERLIN (Reuters) – The head of Germany’s antitrust regulator says it may investigate energy suppliers amid consumer complaints about price hikes and possible abuse of a government energy price cap. “We have already started to implement the ban on abuse. In particular, the planning of specific investigative measures is already well advanced,” Cartel Office President …

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Bank of England’s Tenreyro says patience needed to lower inflation

(Reuters) -Bank of England policymaker Silvana Tenreyro said past interest rate rises would take time to bear down on inflation, and that it was important not to over-adjust policy while the impact of these past rate rises was feeding through. “We need to be patient,” she said at a panel discussion hosted by the International …

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Emergency Credit Suisse rescue shakes faith in Switzerland

By John Revill and Noele Illien ZURICH/BERN (Reuters) -Switzerland’s tradition of dependable consensus politics has taken a battering after the government used an emergency law to push through a state-backed mega-merger of UBS and Credit Suisse, sidelining the country’s parliament. Switzerland’s two parliamentary chambers voted to reject the government’s 109 billion Swiss francs ($122.82 billion) …

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Tearful Biden meets priest in Ireland who gave son last rites

BALLINA, Ireland (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden broke down in tears on Friday after a chance meeting at an Irish church with the priest who performed the last rites on his son Beau, a priest who accompanied Biden during the visit said. Father Richard Gibbons, who led Biden on a tour of the Catholic shrine …

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After pension reform battle, Macron weakened but unbowed

By Michel Rose and Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) – Hours before France’s top judges breathed new life into his widely denounced plans to make people work longer for their state pensions, President Emmanuel Macron was his usual defiant self. “Never give up, that’s my motto,” he said, as he visited Notre-Dame on the anniversary of …

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Societe Generale to pay $105 million in rate-rigging settlement

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Societe Generale SA agreed to pay $105 million to settle U.S. investor litigation accusing the French bank of violating antitrust law by conspiring with rivals to rig Euribor, a key European interest rate benchmark. A preliminary settlement was filed late Friday with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, and requires a …

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German industry association raises 2023 export growth forecast to 2% – report

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s BDI industry association expects exports to grow by 2% in 2023, double its forecast in January, its president told the Rheinische Post newspaper in comments published on Saturday. “Things are looking up, but only slowly – we must not be satisfied with that,” BDI President Siegfried Russwurm told the newspaper. Even …

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