EU countries have cut the amount of natural gas they consume by 20 percent over the past four months as they adapt to an energy crunch, the bloc's statistics agency said Tuesday.. All but two EU countries showed declines, with major economies Germany, France slicing the amount of gas used by 25 percent and 20 percent, respectively, over that period.
US officials announced Tuesday a $3.7 billion settlement with Wells Fargo over an array of "illegal activity" that burdened customers with wrongful home foreclosures and other problems.. Wells Fargo will pay $2 billion to compensate customers and $1.7 billion in civil fines under a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settlement that the agency said pertained to some 16 million consumer accounts.
Online retail giant Amazon has reached an agreement with the European Commission to close two inquiries into anti-competitive tactics, notably using third-party seller data to improve its own sales.. Amazon, and its software, will be forbidden from analysing non-public third-party seller data, and will treat all sellers equally when deciding which offer to put in the best screen location.
It has become a daily struggle for Ukrainian technicians: mending pipes damaged by Russian airstrikes in a desperate bid to keep the energy grid working in freezing temperatures, even as attacks continue.. A few metres from where Oleksandr worked, a yellow excavator dug a trench for pipes.
British regulators on Tuesday said they had fined TSB Bank £48.7 million ($59 million) over an IT upgrade that left customers unable to access services.. The fine was handed down in conjunction with another British watchdog, the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Ghana's main unions on Monday called for a nationwide strike from next week in protest against the inclusion of workers' pensions in a local debt swap programme as part of the terms for an IMF credit.. "We have decided firmly that because the government has refused to grant us our request that all pension funds must be exempted from the domestic debt exchange programme, all workers of Ghana are going to strike on 27 December 2022," said Yaw Baah, secretary general of Trades Union Congress.
Hong Kong's stock exchange is on track for its weakest year since 2012 for new listings as the city reeled from the pandemic, rising interest rates and China's economic uncertainty, according to data released Tuesday.. HKEX said Tuesday that it had bolstered its popular "Connect" franchise this year that links to bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which will soon extend to interbank interest rate swap markets.
Popular French comic book series "Asterix" will turn a new page for its forthcoming 40th volume, with a new writer chosen to pen next year's instalment, the publisher said Tuesday.. Before the Asterix series, there was no history of comics having a scriptwriter.
Huddled around a campfire sipping hot tea, a group of Greek lumberjacks take a badly needed break in an oak forest not far from the Albanian border.. "There is a higher demand for wood compared to last year because of the energy crisis, but we shouldn't abuse the forest," cautioned lumberjack Dimitris Basnas, 34.
The World Bank on Tuesday slashed its China growth forecast for the year as the pandemic and weaknesses in the property sector hit the world's second largest economy.. "Economic activity in China continues to track the ups and downs of the pandemic -- outbreaks and growth slowdowns have been followed by uneven recoveries," the World Bank said.
