French President Emmanuel Macron might be on the verge of securing his cherished reform of the pension system, but analysts see it as a Pyrrhic victory that will leave him politically weakened.. "Assuming that opposition parties do not bring down the government, it's a Pyrrhic victory for Emmanuel Macron," warned Stephane Zumsteeg, head of polling in France for the Ipsos public opinion group.
The OECD raised its global economic growth forecast on Friday as inflation eases and China emerges from Covid restrictions, but warned of vulnerabilities as seen in the US bank sector turmoil.. - China upgraded - The OECD also upgraded its economic outlook for 2024, with growth of 2.9 percent compared to 2.7 percent in the previous forecast.
Protesters blocked a key highway around the French capital and escalated strikes at refineries Friday in a new show of anger after President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a contentious pension reform without a parliamentary vote.. On Friday morning, some 200 protesters briefly blocked traffic on the ring road outside the capital.
The global cryptocurrency industry has been slammed by setbacks, scandals and high-profile failures in recent months, sparking a regulatory rush to protect consumers from fraud and scams.. The global crypto market stands at more than $1 trillion and has risen sharply in recent months, although it remains far below its 2021 peak of $3 trillion.
Asian markets rose Friday, tracking New York and European equities, as traders welcomed multi-billion-dollar shows of support for troubled banks aimed at soothing concerns about contagion in the sector.. Earlier, European giant Credit Suisse said it would borrow nearly $54 billion made available by the Swiss central bank to "support" the group.
French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi announced on Thursday it would cut the US price of its most prescribed insulin by 78 percent, falling in line with two other major drug makers.. Sanofi said it would cut the list price of Lantus, its most widely prescribed insulin in the United States, by 78 percent from January 1, 2024.
Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners announced Thursday its purchase of beleaguered MindGeek which operates Pornhub, the world's biggest pornography site.. Founded in 2004, MindGeek operates a large portfolio of adult entertainment sites, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube and Men.com.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's cabinet passed a decree Thursday relaunching a controversial project to build a huge, multibillion-euro bridge linking Sicily to the mainland.. At 3.2 kilometres (two miles) long, the bridge "will represent the flagship of Italian engineering," said Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.
Meta on Thursday released a framework for exposing and combating malicious online campaigns from election lies to terrorist recruitment.. Meta remains under pressure to do more to combat misinformation, particularly campaigns aimed at swaying election outcomes.
Microsoft pressed on with its AI revolution on Thursday, announcing that it would apply the powers behind ChatGPT to its iconic Excel, Word and Outlook programs.. Microsoft is pouring billions of dollars into OpenAI, the company that is building the technology that powers ChatGPT and that released its latest version, GPT-4, on Tuesday.
