Germany announced emergency measures on Sunday to ensure its energy needs after a drop in Russian gas supplies, including reverting to coal in what it called a  “bitter but indispensable” step.

With France becoming the latest country to be cut off from Russian natural gas, and supplies sharply reduced in Italy and Germany, Europe’s summer stockpiling plans are looking shaky.

Desperate to put the coronavirus pandemic behind them, airlines will hold talks on Sunday ahead of a potential summer of chaos with shortages and strikes that could threaten their recovery.

Russia’s economic authorities have clashed over inflation and growth forecasts in rare public displays of discord at a flagship forum in Saint Petersburg.

Central banks have ramped up their battle against runaway inflation, a necessary remedy that could have the adverse side effect of tipping countries into recession, analysts say.

Germany will take emergency measures to ensure it meets its energy needs after the drop in supply of Russian gas, including increased use of coal, the government said Sunday.

Russia is putting the world at risk of famine through its blockade of Ukraine’s shipments of grains and restrictions on its own exports, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Saturday.

Mexico has made commitments with 17 US companies on clean energy generation, its president announced Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine was not the cause of global economic troubles, instead blaming Western countries for using the situation to cover up their own mistakes.

German pensioner Gabriele Washah waits in line to fill her trolley with bags of carrots for 50 cents, yoghurts just past their sell-by date and bunches of wilting flowers.

The European Union and India on Friday relaunched negotiations to forge a free trade agreement, with the aim of completing talks by the end of 2023.

The Bank of England on Thursday hiked its main interest rate for a fifth straight time, as it forecast British inflation to soar further this year to above 11 per cent.

The German government approved a draft law on Wednesday aimed at covering two per cent of the country’s land area with wind turbines by 2032, by setting fixed regional targets and easing some administrative burdens.

Migrant workers sent home an estimated $605 billion to low- and middle-income countries last year, a UN study said Thursday, boosted by an increase in payments sent via mobile phones.

Britain on Tuesday axed its 1,500 ($1,800) subsidy for buyers of new plug-in cars as it focuses on other types of electric vehicles, but the news drew anger from the auto sector.

Germany’s race to wean itself off Russian energy and stockpile enough gas before winter is playing out largely hidden from view, some 1,600 metres (one mile) below ground in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps.

Britain’s jobless rate rose for the first time since late 2020 and other measures of the country’s hot labour market cooled, potentially easing inflation worries at the Bank of England which is due to raise rates again this week.

World oil demand growth will slow in 2023, Opec delegates and industry sources said, as surging crude and fuel prices help drive up inflation and act as a drag on the global economy.

The European Union wants to strengthen its energy cooperation with Israel in light of Russia’s use of gas supplies to  “blackmail” its members over the Ukraine conflict, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday.

Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank in April, official figures showed on Monday, adding to fears of a sharp slowdown just three days before the Bank of England announces the scale of its latest interest rate response to the surge in inflation.