Brazil’s Lula discusses Ukraine war, BRICS with South African leader

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday he had discussed the war between Russia and Ukraine and an upcoming BRICS summit with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa as they met in Paris. Ramaphosa recently led a delegation of African leaders to Russia and Kyiv seeking to share…

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How Poland snagged Intel’s multi-billion dollar investment

By Karol Badohal and Supantha Mukherjee WROCLAW, Poland/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Poland’s third-largest city Wroclaw beat rivals last week to be home to the next multi-billion dollar Intel chip factory in Europe, with a two-year campaign promising subsidies, infrastructure, talent and a slice of American life. In the face of an unprecedented semiconductor shortage, Europe is…

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World Bank lends Tunisia $268 million for power line with Italy

(Corrects acronym of project to ‘ELMED’ in paragraph 3) TUNIS (Reuters) – The World Bank Group has lent Tunisia $268.4 million to finance an electrical interconnection project with Italy that will link energy networks between Tunisia and Europe, TAP state news agency said on Thursday. The agreement ends a temporary pause in the bank’s work…

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Four boats with 227 migrants rescued in Spain’s Canary Islands in 24 hours

By Borja Suarez ARGUINEGUIN, Spain (Reuters) – A total of 227 migrants were rescued on Thursday near Spain’s Canary Islands, emergency services said, one day after migrant charities said they feared more than 30 migrants had died after their inflatable dinghy sank on the same route. The Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa…

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VW investors question how Xinjiang plant audit will be run

By Victoria Waldersee BERLIN (Reuters) – While investors welcomed Volkswagen’s decision to audit its jointly-owned plant in Xinjiang, China, some are questioning how it will be run and whether it is enough to eliminate the risk of forced labour in the supply chain. Deka, Union Investment and the Dachverband Kritische Aktionaere (Umbrella Organisation for Critical…

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Accenture signals more pain for IT industry with disappointing forecast

(Reuters) -Accenture fanned concerns about dwindling IT spending on Thursday with a quarterly revenue forecast that was below Wall Street estimates, sending its shares down more than 5%. CEO Julie Sweet said clients were “holding back on small deals” in the face of an uncertain economic outlook, mirroring remarks from Cognizant Technology Solutions last month….

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IMF has hit $100 billion target of SDRs for vulnerable countries – Georgieva

PARIS (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund has reached its target of making $100 billion in special drawing rights available for vulnerable countries, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told a summit held in Paris on Thursday. Rich countries agreed in 2021 to rechannel some of their unused IMF special drawing rights, an international reserve currency, to…

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Big central banks are still hiking rates but eye the end

LONDON (Reuters) – Inflation is cooling, meaning major central banks can start to think about ending interest rate hikes even if most are not there just yet. The Bank of England, an outlier in some ways given the persistence of British inflation, on Thursday raised its benchmark rate by a bigger-than-expected half a percentage point….

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