US envoys go to Russia first with a peace plan Ukraine has not seen

The rest of the day

40 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Trump calls the Iran war 'small potatoes'

   The United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February and the fighting is still going six months later. Asked about it in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said he calls it a military conflict rather than a war, because 'it's small potatoes for us'. Vice-President JD Vance had said a day earlier that he would not use the word war either, since 'right now, there is no active shooting'. Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday in reply to US strikes. The fighting has cost US taxpayers more than $37.5bn and killed 18 US service members. [7]

   Why it matters — Vance would not say whether the fighting would end before the 3 November congressional elections. US Representative Ted Lieu asked on Friday how a country the Trump administration calls a failed state keeps firing missiles at American bases. [7][10]

2. 03

   US diesel sets a record and freight pays first

   The average price of diesel in the United States reached $5.85 a gallon on Friday, the highest ever recorded. Before the war with Iran began in late February it was about $3.76, according to the AAA motoring association, so it is up 55% in six months. Diesel is what lorries, trains, ships and farm machinery burn, which is why the cost lands on freight long before it lands on a shopping bill. Petrol also rose, to $4.15 a gallon against $3.20 a year ago. [8][9]

   Why it matters — Fresh food moves first because it is hauled and restocked most often, and some delivery firms have already added fees to online orders and posted parcels. [8]

3. 04

   Germany's far right could win a state outright

   Voters in Saxony-Anhalt, a state in eastern Germany, elect a regional parliament on Sunday. Polls put the Alternative for Germany above 40%, roughly double the conservative CDU on just over 20%. An outright majority would be the first time a far-right party has run a German state since the Second World War. Germany's domestic intelligence service classes the party's branch there as right-wing extremist, and its lead candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, has not ruled out abolishing that agency in the state if he wins. [14][15]

   Why it matters — German states run schools, police and culture and send delegates to the national upper house, so this is real power rather than a protest vote. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has ruled out working with the party, which leaves the arithmetic to the smaller parties. [14][15]

4. 05

   UN calls a West Bank camp clearance a possible crime

   The UN human rights office said on Friday that Israel's emptying of three West Bank refugee camps could amount to crimes against humanity. In an operation named Iron Wall, begun in January 2025, Israeli forces entered the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm camps, killed civilians, destroyed hundreds of homes, cut water and electricity and went door to door telling residents to leave. More than 33,000 people were displaced, and as of July 33,362 had still not been allowed back. Separately, two Israeli ministers proposed this week moving Gaza's population abroad, which they call voluntary emigration. [11]

   Why it matters — The UN rights chief, Volker Turk, said the operation looked aimed at expelling as many Palestinians as possible to make room for settlements. Hamas asked Arab and Muslim governments to block the Gaza proposal. [11]

5. 06

   US sanctions a Turkish bank over Iran's Guard

   The US Treasury on Friday designated one Turkey-based financial institution and two of its subsidiaries, saying they moved funds for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, described them as channels through which Iran launders the proceeds of its activities. Barrack also said the measure was narrow and should not be read, in either country, as a judgment on Turkey. He said US Treasury officials and their Turkish counterparts had been in direct and continuous contact throughout. [10]

   Why it matters — The pressure on Iran is moving from its oil to the banks that move its money. The ambassador's care to separate the three institutions from Turkey itself shows how much both governments want the rest of the relationship left alone. [10]

6. 07

   Lebanon counts 4,352 dead since March

   Lebanon's health ministry said on Friday that Israeli attacks have killed 4,352 people and wounded 12,318 in the country since 2 March. That is when the latest war began between Israel and Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese movement backed by Iran, which fired rockets into Israel after the killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel answered with air strikes and a ground invasion. On Friday the Israeli military said it downed a Hezbollah drone in the zone it occupies in southern Lebanon and then launched a wave of strikes. [10][12]

   Why it matters — The same government that publicly thanked the United States for a prisoner handover on Friday morning was counting new dead by the evening. [10][12]

7. 08

   Israel frees four more Lebanese prisoners

   A Red Cross convoy brought four Lebanese men out of Israeli detention on Friday morning through the Naqoura crossing and handed them to the Lebanese army in Tyre. They included Hussein Ayash from the village of Harouf and Mohammed Juheir, a fisherman from Naqoura itself. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had promised on Thursday to release five; the first, Malek Ghazi, went home that day. Lebanon's president, Joseph Aoun, thanked the United States, which has been brokering talks between the two governments. [12]

   Why it matters — Dozens of Lebanese are believed to still be held, and the Red Cross says it has not been allowed to see detainees inside Israel since October 2023, so no outside body can say how many there are. [12]

8. 09

   Lebanese children start school inside a shelter

   About 200 families live inside a public school in Tyre, in southern Lebanon, six months after the war emptied their villages. The Lebanese school year begins on 15 September, and the families sheltering in school buildings do not know where they go when the classrooms are needed. Najah Ammar, 62, fled the coastal village of Mansouri with four school-age grandchildren; one of them, aged eight, has repeated the same school year because she has been out of class through two wars. [13]

   Why it matters — Thousands of children in the south are in that position, and a year of schooling missed does not come back when the shelling stops. [13]

9. 10

   Four powers draft a UN referral over Iran

   The United States, Britain, France and Germany have written a draft resolution for the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear inspectorate. It asks the board to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to meet its non-proliferation obligations, diplomats told the Associated Press. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran must declare all nuclear material and let inspectors verify none is diverted to weapons. The draft asks the agency's head, Rafael Grossi, to send it and earlier resolutions to every member state and to the Security Council. [10]

   Why it matters — It would move the argument from a technical inspectorate to the body that can order sanctions, six months into a war Trump says has already stopped Iran getting a weapon. [10][7]

10. 11

    US forces switch off ad tracking after Iran used it

    The US military has disabled the advertising identifiers on phones and computers used by its forces, after reports that commercially sold location data was used to find American personnel in the Middle East. The Air Force told Senator Ron Wyden it turned them off two months ago; Special Operations Command did so recently on Windows machines and the Army earlier this year. These identifiers let advertisers follow a device between apps and work out where it is. Wyden says the steps taken so far have not removed the threat. [10]

    Why it matters — Data gathered to sell people shoes can be bought by anyone, including a government at war with the country whose soldiers carry the phones. [10]

11. 12

    Five EU states agree how to build 'return hubs'

    Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece agreed a model on Friday in Copenhagen for sending people whose asylum claims are rejected to centres in countries outside the European Union, and hope to begin in 2027. The five have been negotiating mainly with African governments over sites. Denmark's immigration minister, Morten Bodskov, called it a fundamental transformation of Europe's asylum system and rejected the idea that a return hub is a detention or deportation centre. He said the UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration would monitor them. [16]

    Why it matters — Human rights groups say European governments cannot guarantee anyone's rights inside another country's facility, and the five have not named a single host country. [16]

12. 13

    Europe hunts a new owner for Russia's frozen billions

    About 210 billion euros of Russian central bank money sits at Euroclear, a securities depository in Brussels, and Belgium has blocked every plan to spend it on Ukraine because Belgium would carry the legal risk. Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, backed by the Baltic states, are pushing again. The idea now gaining ground is to move the money into a new custodian owned by the EU itself, so no single country is the target. Ukraine's finance minister, Sergii Marchenko, told Euronews he wants exactly that. [17]

    Why it matters — Belgium's foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, said this week that the reasons for his objection have not disappeared, and Euroclear is already fighting a lawsuit in Russia. [17]

13. 14

    Spain asks the EU to make climate defence binding

    Spain has written to the EU's climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, arguing Europe should treat protection against extreme weather as a core economic and security task rather than something handled after each disaster, according to documents seen by Euronews. It wants a dedicated European Climate Adaptation Fund in the 2028-2034 EU budget, and is floating new EU revenue including a tax on oil and gas profits. About 30,000 excess deaths in Europe this summer were linked to heat, and more than 600,000 hectares have burned across the EU this year, twice the twenty-year average. [18]

    Why it matters — Drought on the Danube shut nuclear plants in Hungary and Romania and low water on the Rhine disrupted trade, so the bill is already being paid in places nobody budgeted for. [18]

14. 15

    Meloni's government becomes Italy's longest-lived

    Giorgia Meloni's coalition reached 1,413 days in office on 4 September, one more than Silvio Berlusconi's second government, making it the longest-serving single administration in the history of the Italian Republic. Italian governments have usually fallen before their term ended. Speaking to supporters in Bari, Meloni said stability was her first great reform and noted that the three longest-serving Italian governments have all been of the right. The next national election is due in 2027. [19]

    Why it matters — Length is the argument she plans to run on, because it lets her claim she could pursue economic and foreign policy that shorter Italian governments never had time for. [19]

15. 16

    Farage threatens the Lords and the judges

    Nigel Farage told the annual conference of Reform UK, the party he leads, that a Reform government would declare a national emergency and sit parliament 24 hours a day, six days a week, until its programme passed. He said the House of Lords, Britain's unelected upper chamber, should honour his pledges, and that if it refused he would appoint hundreds of new peers or hold a referendum on sweeping it away. He also said judges should lose the ability to rely on the European Convention on Human Rights. [20]

    Why it matters — The speech came a day after Channel 4 News aired undercover footage of two senior Reform officials discussing a route around electoral law for foreign donations, one worth 500,000 pounds. Both stepped down; Farage said the party has taken no illegal money. [20]

16. 17

    Europe's border-queue safety valve expires

    Since April, travellers crossing into participating European countries have had their fingerprints and faces scanned under the Entry/Exit System. Countries were allowed to switch the scanning off temporarily at any crossing where queues grew unbearable. That flexibility is expected to lapse on 6 September, leaving airports and border posts far less room to wave people through when passport halls fill. The European Commission says the system worked broadly well over the summer and that it is talking to the few states needing adjustments. [21]

    Why it matters — Travel businesses want the flexibility extended and are warning that tight connections through European airports are about to get riskier. [21]

17. 18

    Ebola turns up again in rebel-held eastern Congo

    A new Ebola case has been recorded in part of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo held by the AFC/M23 rebel alliance, the group said, more than two months after it declared the outbreak over in the territory it controls. Ebola spreads through contact with the fluids of an infected person and kills a large share of those who catch it. The wider Congolese outbreak has been running since the spring and is the country's deadliest. The same rebels control who can reach the area. [22]

    Why it matters — The group that declared the outbreak over is the same one that decides who may enter to look for cases, so nobody outside could check the declaration until a patient turned up. [22]

18. 19

    Bangladesh measles nears 1,000 child deaths

    At least 986 children have died of measles in Bangladesh since March, and suspected and confirmed cases have passed 180,000, according to the country's health ministry. At Dhaka Shishu Hospital in the capital, parents wait beside children on oxygen machines. Rima Akter, keeping vigil over her nine-month-old son, said two children died in the ward in one day. Measles spreads through coughs and sneezes, and there is no treatment once someone has it. This is the country's deadliest measles outbreak in decades. [23]

    Why it matters — There is no treatment once a child catches measles, so the count measures how many were never reached before they caught it rather than how bad the virus is. [23]

19. 20

    Malaysia declares an emergency over smoke

    Malaysia declared an emergency on Friday in Serian, a farming town of just under 90,000 people in Sarawak state on Borneo, after its air pollution index reached 521. Above 500 is emergency level; above 200 schools already close. Kuching, Sarawak's much larger capital, read 311. The smoke comes from forest and peat fires in Indonesia's Kalimantan province, carried across the border by dry weather and an intensifying El Nino. The Philippines suspended classes across metropolitan Manila and more than a dozen northern provinces the same day. [24]

    Why it matters — The fires are lit in one country and breathed in three, and the only levers Malaysia and the Philippines hold are their own schools and offices. [24]

20. 21

    Thirty-seven die stealing oil in Nigeria

    At least 37 people died on Thursday in Rivers state, in Nigeria's Niger Delta. They were siphoning crude from a loading vessel through what an advocacy group called an illegal tap. Most died from breathing toxic fumes released at high pressure as they filled their boats, said the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Center, citing a network of local volunteers. Many others are still missing. Nigerian police confirmed the deaths, gave no toll of their own and said an investigation is under way. [25]

    Why it matters — Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and its government says theft costs several billion dollars a year, yet the delta the oil comes from is poor enough that people siphon it into boats by hand. [25]

21. 22

    World food prices reach a four-year high

    The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said its food price index averaged 133.3 points in August, up from a revised 130.8 in July and the highest since late 2022. The index tracks the monthly cost of a basket of food commodities traded between countries. Grain prices are at three-year highs and sugar at a one-year peak. The agency blamed extreme heat and drought in Europe, the threat of a severe El Nino, and trade disruption from the wars in Ukraine and Iran. [26]

    Why it matters — Prices set in international markets arrive last and hardest in countries that import their staples, months after the harvest that caused them. [26]

22. 23

    Nepal lost a tenth of its power in one flood

    Last week's flood on the Nepal-Tibet border severely damaged 12 hydropower plants in the Trishuli river basin and knocked out more than 10% of Nepal's electricity generating capacity. Operators told the BBC they do not yet know whether any of them can run again. Nepal has 225 hydropower plants and about 3,900 megawatts installed, most of them high in the mountains where fast water needs no reservoir. In 2010 only two-thirds of Nepalis had electricity at all. The high Himalaya is warming about 50% faster than the global average. [27]

    Why it matters — The state utility's spokesman, Rajan Dhakal, said the time has come to rethink Nepal's hydropower policy, which is unusual language from the owner of six of the twelve damaged plants. [27]

23. 24

    Russian troops keep Niger's rulers in place

    Russia's ambassador to Niger, Viktor Voropaev, publicly confirmed that Russian forces helped put down last weekend's attempted mutiny against the military government. Africa Corps, the successor to the Wagner Group, reports directly to Russia's defence ministry and is thought to have 200 to 300 men in Niger. It had also helped repel a jihadist attack at the same airport in January. Niger's officers seized power in July 2023 saying the elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, could not handle the insurgency, which is still running. [28]

    Why it matters — Beverly Ochieng of the consultancy Control Risks called it a political lifeline rather than stability. Niger's rulers now depend for their survival on soldiers they do not command. [28]

24. 25

    The US and Chinese Pacific commanders meet

    Admiral Sam Paparo, who commands US forces across the Pacific, held his first face-to-face talks with General Yang Zhibin, who commands the Chinese army's Eastern Theater Command, the formation responsible for operations around Taiwan. They met on 31 August at a conference of Indo-Pacific defence chiefs in Victoria, Canada. The US command said the two discussed keeping communication open between senior officers to reduce the risk of miscalculation. China's defence ministry confirmed the meeting and said Yang also met French and Singaporean counterparts. [29]

    Why it matters — These are the two officers who would command opposite sides of a fight over Taiwan, and until last week they had never been in the same room. [29]

25. 26

    Xi plans to bring company bosses to a US summit

    China's leader Xi Jinping is preparing to take a large delegation of chief executives to a summit in Washington on 24 September, two people familiar with the plan told Reuters. Xi rarely travels with executives; many fell out of favour after the regulatory crackdowns on technology, education and property that began in 2020. The last time he brought a big business group to the United States was 2015, with Alibaba's Jack Ma and Tencent's Pony Ma among them. A US official said no such delegation was being tracked. [30]

    Why it matters — The United States has forced TikTok to sell its US operations, put a 100% tariff on imported Chinese electric cars, and banned imports of foreign drones, routers and robots. Arriving with buyers is an offer pitched at exactly that. [30]

26. 27

    Japan told to fight US sanctions on the world court

    Gen Nakatani, a veteran lawmaker in Japan's governing party and a former defence minister, called the US decision to sanction the International Criminal Court and its Japanese president, Tomoko Akane, an outright attack on the rules-based international order. The court in The Hague tries individuals for war crimes and genocide. Nakatani urged Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to protest more firmly and demand the measures be withdrawn, and will hand the demands of a cross-party group of dozens of lawmakers to her chief spokesman by mid-September. [31]

    Why it matters — Takaichi is due in the United States within weeks for the UN General Assembly and may meet Trump, so the demand lands just before she has to decide how hard to push. [31]

27. 28

    Japan's ministries ask for a record budget

    Japanese ministries requested 143.1 trillion yen, about $908 billion, for the financial year starting in April, the finance ministry said on Friday. That is up from 122 trillion yen requested last year, and above the 140.6 trillion that this year's initial budget and last year's extra budget came to together. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says the reworked process is more transparent and disciplined, and its biggest change is an attempt to end Japan's postwar habit of topping up budgets with extra ones later. [32]

    Why it matters — Moving spending out of add-on budgets and into the main one makes the real number visible a year in advance, which is uncomfortable for the ministers who then have to defend it. [32]

28. 29

    South Korea's exports pass last year's full-year record

    South Korea's exports reached $709.4 billion by early September, passing the $709.3 billion it shipped in the whole of last year, the customs office said on Saturday. Last year was itself a second consecutive annual record. The customs service says the country is on course for $1 trillion in exports this year, which would make it the fourth to reach that after the United States, China and Germany. Booming global demand for chips used in artificial intelligence is doing most of the work. [33]

    Why it matters — Chips for artificial intelligence are doing most of the lifting, so a record year for the whole country rests on demand in one industry. [33]

29. 30

    South Korea weighs sending a ship to Hormuz

    A senior official in South Korea's presidential office told reporters on Friday that his government is considering military contributions in the Strait of Hormuz, including sending a ship, and that nothing has been decided. The strait is the narrow sea gate at the mouth of the Gulf through which a large share of the world's oil moves, and it has been disrupted since the US-Israeli war on Iran began. Trump has cut back joint military exercises with South Korea, complaining about its lack of cooperation over Iran. [34]

    Why it matters — Nothing is decided, and saying so out loud is itself a signal to a US president who has just cut back the exercises the two militaries run together. [34]

30. 31

    Milei revives Argentina's Falklands claim

    Argentina's President Javier Milei is pressing his country's claim to the Falkland Islands, threatening sanctions over a large offshore oil project while praising Trump, after the US president publicly questioned the long-standing American position of backing Britain. Britain has administered the islands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, since 1833; Argentina says it inherited them from Spain. In a 2013 referendum, 1,513 of 1,517 islanders voted to stay a British overseas territory. Relations between Trump and Britain's government have soured over Britain's refusal to back US strikes on Iran. [35]

    Why it matters — A US position held for decades has become bargaining material in a separate argument, and Milei has picked up the one cause almost all Argentinians agree on. [35]

31. 32

    Volkswagen agrees the biggest cuts in its history

    Volkswagen's supervisory board approved a turnaround plan this week that amounts to the largest restructuring in the carmaker's 89 years. Europe's biggest carmaker employs more than 650,000 people and is being squeezed by Chinese rivals and US tariffs. The state of Lower Saxony and the unions, who hold a majority on the supervisory board, had opposed both the job cuts and the threatened closure of four German plants. The deal came together only after the management board made clear it would call an emergency shareholders' meeting to go over that board's head, a step insiders called the nuclear option. [36]

    Why it matters — It was the threat of a public fight, not agreement about the plan, that produced the deal, and the workers who stood to lose most were represented on the board that approved it. [36]

32. 33

    South Africa's data-centre boom draws a rights inquiry

    The South African Human Rights Commission has received more than 250 submissions since it asked for public input in May on the country's fast-growing data-centre industry, it told the Associated Press. Civil society groups want the building paused until the water and electricity demands are published. President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa already holds 70% of Africa's data-centre capacity and wants more, with Amazon, Microsoft and Equinix building there. The commission's Dr Eileen Carter said information on power, water, land use and local impact is not consistently available. [37]

    Why it matters — The objection is not to the buildings but to approving them before anyone has published how much water and electricity they will take from the towns around them. [37]

33. 34

    China arrests 52 Singaporeans over a pyramid scheme

    Chinese police have arrested 52 Singaporeans over alleged pyramid-scheme activity. A Singapore police representative urged citizens to be careful with any scheme involving the recruitment of participants, large upfront payments or promises of unusually high returns, and gave no further detail of the alleged offences. China's foreign ministry spokesman, Guo Jiakun, said cases involving foreign nationals are handled according to Chinese law while protecting the rights of those involved. [38]

    Why it matters — Fifty-two citizens of one small country held in another is a consular problem as much as a criminal one, and neither government has said what the scheme actually was. [38]

34. 35

    India raids 89 places over 'digital arrest' scams

    India's Central Bureau of Investigation searched 89 locations across 20 states on Friday in three cases involving so-called digital arrest scams, and has arrested three people. In these frauds, callers posing as police officers convince a victim they are under arrest and must stay on a video call while they hand over money. In one of the cases, a victim connected to the BITS Pilani institute was held under a fake arrest for three months and lost 76.7 million rupees. The agency says it seized banking records and devices. [39]

    Why it matters — The fraud works by borrowing the authority of a real police force, which is why a raid on 89 addresses is a smaller part of the answer than people knowing that no police force works this way. [39]

35. 36

    Thailand's southern insurgency flares again

    A wave of coordinated attacks across Thailand's three southernmost provinces in late August included the burning of a local government office in Narathiwat on 22 August. The main separatist movement there, Barisan Revolusi Nasional, has fought for decades in a Malay-Muslim region inside a mostly Buddhist country, in one of Asia's deadliest insurgencies. Years of peace talks have produced no settlement. Nikkei Asia reported from the area this week on how little the negotiations have changed on the ground. [40]

    Why it matters — A conflict that never ends and never escalates enough to reach the front pages is the kind everyone forgets except the people living inside it. [40]

36. 37

    Branson blames wars for costlier flights

    Richard Branson, who founded Virgin Atlantic, told the BBC that flight prices have risen because of what he called foolish leaders starting wars. He pointed at the conflict with Iran and at the tearing up of the nuclear agreement negotiated under Barack Obama. European jet fuel had been around $800 a tonne before the war, peaked above $1,800 in April and is now near $1,450. Virgin's fuel surcharge adds 50 pounds to an economy fare and 360 to a business one. Consultancy Teneo found fares rose about 25% after the war began. [41]

    Why it matters — Ryanair said this week it will cut its winter schedule and warned that European short-haul fares would rise materially if fuel keeps climbing. [41]

37. 38

    A hedge fund goes shopping for American oil wells

    Citadel, the hedge fund and commodities trader founded by Ken Griffin, has held talks to buy oil production assets in the United States, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters. It bid for WildFire Energy, a producer in the Eagle Ford shale of south Texas, which Magnolia Oil & Gas won for $4.06 billion. Citadel has approached several private equity owners of oil producers in recent weeks. It already trades oil, gas and power heavily but has mostly not owned the wells themselves. [42]

    Why it matters — American onshore oil is worth more precisely because it never passes through the Strait of Hormuz, so a war in the Gulf is being priced into who owns ground in Texas. [42]

38. 39

    More oil crosses Hormuz than the forecasts said

    More than six months into the US and Israeli war on Iran, the deadlock over the Strait of Hormuz is unresolved and Gulf oil states remain exposed. Yet the oil still moving through it is well above the worst-case forecasts published by the International Energy Agency and many analysts. Prices have risen far less than those scenarios assumed. Ben Cahill of the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center told DW that US government claims about how much oil is crossing the strait do not match what ship-tracking data shows. [43]

    Why it matters — The disagreement is between the US government's own figures and commercial ship-tracking data, and fuel prices worldwide are being set while nobody outside can say which is right. [43]

39. 40

    Strong US hiring turns a rate cut into a rate rise

    US employers added 162,000 jobs in August and unemployment held at 4.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday. Rather than reassure markets, the strength pushed traders the other way: swap contracts priced in a better than even chance that the US central bank raises interest rates at its September meeting. The S&P 500 index of large American companies fell, and two-year Treasury yields, the ones most sensitive to imminent policy moves, climbed as much as eight basis points. [44][9]

    Why it matters — Higher US rates make borrowing dearer everywhere that borrows in dollars, so a strong American jobs number is not automatically good news anywhere else. [44]

40. 41

    EU plans rules to let cities curb tourist rentals

    The European Commission is expected to publish a legal proposal next week setting out when local authorities may restrict short-term tourist lets such as Airbnb, according to plans seen by AFP. Cities including Florence and Barcelona have pushed for the power as residents complain of being priced out by visitors. Until now the limits a city could impose have been argued case by case. The proposal would set common conditions across the bloc instead of leaving each city to defend its own rules. [6]

    Why it matters — Florence and Barcelona have been arguing case by case with companies that operate across all 27 member states, which is why the rule is being written at EU level. [6]