The Italian government on Sunday made 5.2 billion euros ($5.8 billion) of resources immediately available to keep operative two banks that the European Central Bank has deemed “failing or about to fail,” sending them into insolvency procedures. Premier Paolo Gentiloni defended the swift action by the government as vital for ensuring Italy’s slow economic recovery […]

Criticizing what he saw as Washington’s isolationist bent, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble voiced a concern in a speech earlier this month that the West could be threatened as China (and Russia) might fill the void. That, he feared, “would be the end of our liberal world order.” He also said that the U.S. was […]

People in more than 100 Italian towns and cities voted on Sunday to pick municipal mayors in a run-off ballot that could bolster centre-right parties ahead of a national election due in less than a year. The vote could be a test of the current political mood in Italy, where a gradual economic recovery has […]

A shift in attention to geopolitical events this year could undermine the sustainability of the global upswing, warned Basel-based Bank of International Standards. The organization commonly known as the central bank of central banks said financial markets were confronted by a changing political environment as the economic background brightened. “Political events surprised market participants, who […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives widened their lead over the Social Democrats (SPD) to 15 points in a weekly opinion poll by the Emnid institute published on Sunday, three months before the Sept. 24 election. The Christian Democrats (CDU) and its CSU Bavarian sister party were steady at 39 percentage points in the Emnid poll […]

Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis said on Sunday he was “pretty sure” he could negotiate a good deal to leave the European Union, something that would require a transitional arrangement for around one or two years. Asked whether he was sure there would be a Brexit deal, Davis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “I […]

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, called on Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday to set up a cross-party commission to “draw much of the poison” from the debate over Britain’s decision to exit the European Union. In an article written for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Welby, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion of […]

Britain’s parliament was hit by a cyber attack on Saturday in which hackers tried to access email accounts, politicians and officials said, just over a month after a ransomware attack crippled parts of the country’s health service. Chris Rennard, a member of the Liberal Democrat party in the upper House of Lords, was the first […]

Mark Zuckerberg had a choice to make this week. The Facebook CEO could either go to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump, along with nearly every other marquee CEO from the tech industry, or skip it and prepare for a Chicago rally for people who’d created social-support groups on Facebook. Zuckerberg, who loudly criticized […]

Former French minister Richard Ferrand, who has been fighting accusations of improper financial dealings during most of his few weeks in office, was elected on Saturday to lead President Emmanuel Macron’s lawmakers in parliament “I thank the deputies for their confidence… We have a strong obligation to succeed. The French people no longer want intentions, […]