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)…
By Horacio Soria and Juan Carlos Bustamante BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina’s annual inflation rate soared to 104.3% in March, the official statistics agency said on Friday, one of the highest rates in the world, straining people’s wallets and stoking a cost-of-living crisis that has pushed up poverty. The inflation reading for the month came in…
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…
By Joseph Ax (Reuters) – When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a 15-week abortion ban on April 14, 2022, he held a morning ceremony at a church in front of an enormous “Protect Life” sign, flanked by women and children. On Thursday, exactly one year later, DeSantis – now a likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate…
By Tyler Clifford (Reuters) – Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday he will not enter the 2024 presidential race, which would have pitted him against his former boss Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. Pompeo, 59, said he decided with his wife that he would not be a candidate for the…
By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday temporarily halted lower court rulings that set limits on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, giving the nation’s top judicial body time to weigh a bid by President Joe Biden’s administration to defend the drug amid a challenge by anti-abortion groups. The…
By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) -International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday that debtors and creditors made “tangible progress” on debt restructuring issues this week, but urged countries facing mounting debt problems to seek help earlier in the process. A new sovereign debt roundtable was helping to accelerate work on debt restructurings, Georgieva…
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Planning Ministry announced on Friday a zero primary deficit target for 2024, but stated that 172 billion reais ($35.03 billion) in government spending depends on the approval of a proposed new fiscal framework. In a statement about the 2024 budget bill sent to Congress, the ministry said the new fiscal rules…
By Rod Nickel and Steve Scherer OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top aide on Friday refused to say when Trudeau first learned about allegations that China tampered with recent elections, citing security concerns. Canadian authorities have started several investigations into the allegations of interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections, accusations that…
By Graham Fahy and Steve Holland BALLINA, Ireland (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden gave a rousing campaign-style speech to an exuberant crowd in his ancestral home town in the west of Ireland on Friday to wrap up a nostalgic three-day state visit ahead of what is expected to be a gruelling 2024 re-election bid. Biden…
