U.S. credit default swaps fall as debt ceiling talks progress

(Reuters) – The cost of insuring exposure to U.S. government debt dropped on Friday as U.S. President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy were closing in on a deal that would raise the U.S. debt ceiling. The 6-month credit default swap dropped 13 basis points from Thursday’s close to 212 basis points, data…

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France confirms bird flu vaccination after favourable tests

PARIS (Reuters) – France confirmed its aim to launch a vaccination programme against bird flu in the autumn after results from a series of tests on the vaccination of ducks showed “satisfactory effectiveness”, the farm ministry said.  A severe strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has ravaged poultry production around the…

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Russia moves ahead with deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus

By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia moved ahead on Thursday with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, whose leader said the warheads were already on the move, in the Kremlin’s first deployment of such bombs outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. The U.S. State Department denounced the deployment…

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Soaring airline customer complaints push global legislators to act

By Joanna Plucinska and Allison Lampert LONDON/MONTREAL (Reuters) – Nikoleta Dodova is among a growing number of dissatisfied airline customers. Having bought her mother and niece airline tickets from Sweden to Macedonia last year, their flight was cancelled and they ended up at an airport over two hours away. She is still waiting for compensation….

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Column-Sterling caught between rate spike and gilt rupture: Mike Dolan

By Mike Dolan LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s interest rate horizon skyrocketed this week on another alarming inflation reading that some fear entrenches the economy as outlier among Western peers – and yet the pound didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Unlike its dire reaction to UK bond market ructions surrounding last September’s government budget…

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Turkey cenbank’s net forex reserves negative for first time since 2002

ANKARA (Reuters) – The Turkish central bank’s net forex reserves dropped into negative territory for the first time since 2002, standing at $-151.3 million on May 19, official data showed on Thursday, as it sought to counter forex demand ahead of Sunday’s runoff vote. President Tayyip Erdogan led rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu comfortably in the presidential…

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Putin ally says Ukraine war could last for decades – RIA agency

(Reuters) – A top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Ukraine war could last for decades, with long periods of fighting interspersed by truces, Russia’s RIA news agency reported on Thursday. It said former President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful security council, had spoken during a visit to Vietnam. Medvedev often…

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