BitGou: Health warnings issued as heatwave scorches Europe

Friday, July 15, 2022

by Linda Noakes

Hello

Here's what you need to know.

Biden heads to Saudi Arabia, China's economy brakes sharply, and why the aviation sector is facing a hiring headache

Today's biggest stories

A worker cleans the road as part of the preparations for U.S. President Joe Biden's visit, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 14, 2022

WORLD

President Joe Biden will discuss energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation in Saudi Arabia on a trip designed to reset the U.S. relationship with a country he once pledged to make a "pariah" on the world stage. Saudi Arabia said it would open its airspace to all air carriers, paving the way for more overflights to and from Israel, in a decision welcomed by Biden.

Western officials accused their Russian counterparts of war crimes after Russian missiles struck a Ukrainian city far behind the frontlines in an attack Kyiv officials said killed at least 23 people. Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now.

Hundreds more people were evacuated from their homes as wildfires blistered land in France, Spain and Portugal, and officials in Europe issued health warnings for the heatwave in coming days. Britain's weather forecaster issued its first-ever red 'Extreme Heat' warning for parts of England on Monday and Tuesday when temperatures are forecast to reach record highs, triggering a 'national emergency' alert level.

The five remaining contenders to be Britain's next prime minister will go head to head in the first of three televised debates, hoping a good performance will boost their chances in a battle that so far has no clear frontrunner.

Italy might need early elections to overcome a political impasse, government officials said, after Prime Minister Mario Draghi tendered his resignation in the wake of a mutiny by a coalition partner. Ten years after Draghi's 'whatever it takes' pledge saved the euro when he was head of the European Central Bank, Italy is once again in the middle of a debt crisis.

Witnesses are sworn in during a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, July 12, 2022

U.S.

The U.S. Secret Service deleted text messages from January 5 and January 6, 2021 after they were requested by oversight officials investigating the agency's response to the attack on the Capitol, the agency watchdog has claimed. The Secret Service disputed that accusation, saying some phone data was lost during a routine device migration, but that all of the requested texts had been saved.

Indiana's attorney general said he was investigating whether the Indiana physician who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim abided by state laws requiring doctors to report the termination of a pregnancy and suspected cases of child abuse.

Biden and other top Democrats are pushing to make abortion a central issue as they try to retain control of Congress in November elections. But on the ground, some of the party's most vulnerable incumbents are downplaying the issue.

The man accused of shooting dead 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 14 has been indicted on 27 federal hate crimes and firearms offenses, the Justice Department announced.

Ivana Trump, the first wife of former President Donald Trump and the mother of his three oldest children, has died at the age of 73. She played a role in building up the Trump media image in the 1980s, when they were one of New York City's most prominent power couples.

People line up to enter a cafe in a shopping area in Beijing, July 14, 2022

BUSINESS & MARKETS

World stocks attempted a move higher after four days of losses caused by mounting fears of economic downturn, even though the growth concerns were fanned further by data showing a sharp slowdown in China.

Two of the Federal Reserve's most hawkish policymakers said they favored another 75-basis-point interest rate increase at the U.S. central bank's policy meeting this month, not the bigger rate hike traders had raced to price in after a report Wednesday showed inflation was accelerating.

The European Commission is set to adopt its seventh package of sanctions against Russia, which will add a ban to the import of Russian gold and tweak existing restrictive measures to avoid hampering food exports, officials told Reuters. The EU "shot itself in the lungs" with ill-considered sanctions, which risk destroying the European economy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

Celsius Network listed a $1.19 billion deficit on its balance sheet in a bankruptcy court filing, a day after the cryptocurrency lender filed for Chapter 11.

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund will become the second-largest shareholder in Aston Martin with a nearly 17% stake in a capital raise aimed at paying off debt and shoring up its business, the British luxury carmaker said.

Christophe Gagnon considered quitting his avionics studies as COVID crippled aviation, but the 21-year-old stayed in class and now the industry is desperate for more like him to keep planes flying. We look at the headache facing the sector as a shortage of mechanics looms.