Stakes

L'incontro avviene in un clima di tregua commerciale provvisoria, ma l'Iran, Taiwan e le tensioni sulle catene di approvvigionamento globali saranno fattori complicanti.

Departing PM Viktor Orbán admits ‘political era has ended’ as EU says ‘clock is ticking’ to resolve important issuesEU officials have arrived in Budapest for high-stakes talks aimed at reshaping the bloc’s strained relationship with Hungary, weeks before the new government takes office, as the country’s departing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, admitted a “political era has ended” and suggested he would stay on as leader of his party in his first interview since the election.Speaking to the pro-government outlet Patrióta, Orbán described Sunday’s election as an “emotional rollercoaster” after the opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory, bringing an end to Orbán’s 16 years in power. Continue reading...

Risks from cancer and other diseases could be hidden with little accountability if justices favor big firms, critics warnThe US could face foreign attacks, food shortages and agricultural “devastation” if the supreme court rules against Monsanto in a closely watched case over pesticide regulation that is set for arguments later this month, according to a series of legal briefs supporting the company.In contrast, opposing legal briefs warn that if the court sides with Monsanto, consumers will be stripped of their rights to sue when they develop cancer or other serious diseases they attribute to exposure to dangerous chemicals. Companies will be able to hide product risks with little accountability, they warn. Continue reading...

Former victims’ commissioner Vera Baird says disciplinary action is essential to ensure people are held accountable• UK politics live – latest updatesFamilies in Southport cannot be sure that officials who made “catastrophic” errors before the murder of three girls are not still making the same mistakes, a former victims’ commissioner has said.Vera Baird KC said all those who failed to properly monitor the killer, Axel Rudakubana, should be held “personally accountable” and that authorities must not “shrug it off” with an apology. Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s ‘little excursion’ is likely to have long-term effects, from oil prices to inflation to growth, say expertsIn the days after the US and Israel first bombed Iran, financial markets bet the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s “little excursion” in the Middle East would be short-lived.“There are risks from higher oil prices longer term. But this is a tail risk,” one US-based fund manger said after the airstrike killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “History has shown time and time again that geopolitical flare-ups like this tend to be short-lived. This one should prove to be no exception.’’ Continue reading...

National referendum is being seen as a de facto confidence vote on the government – and the polls are neck and neckIn the run-up to a referendum in Italy on a government quest to overhaul the judiciary, a campaign flyer circulated online quoting Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, taking aim at judges and feminists. “Judges block the deportations of rapists. Where are the feminists? Vote yes – there will not be another opportunity,” it read.The flyer, posted on the Facebook page of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist roots, was subsequently removed. But its tone has defined a campaign dominated by inflammatory rhetoric rather than meaningful debate. Continue reading...

Regime will do whatever it takes to cling on to power – including sacrificing economies of other Gulf statesMiddle East crisis – live updatesBrinkmanship, the ability to take a country to the edge of war without plunging it into the abyss, was the cornerstone of cold war diplomacy. But in our different, more unstable times – in which the line between state and non-state actors has blurred, and weapons of war have diffused – the world this week finally tipped over the edge, and suddenly it is in freefall.The first six days of the Iran war cost the US $12.7bn (£9.5bn), but now the Pentagon is seeking as much as $200bn in military funding. Oil at $125 a barrel is no longer an Iranian, or Russian, fantasy. The crown jewel of Qatar, Ras Laffan – the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant – may not reopen fully for five years, at a cost of $20bn a year. Other combustible oil depots in the Gulf, from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi, are exposed to Iran’s low-cost drones. Then add the human cost of 18,000 civilians injured and more than 3,000 killed in Iran alone. Continue reading...