Azerbaijan hosts CIDC 2025 cyber defence festival in Baku
The “CIDC 2025 – Critical Infrastructure Defence Challenge” cybersecurity festival is being held on 9–10 October at the Baku Congress Centre, ...
The European Central Bank cut its main interest rate by a quarter point on Thursday, citing rising trade tensions following U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff campaign. The decision brings the rate down to 2.25 percent, marking the ECB’s seventh cut in the past year.
In a statement, the bank said eurozone economies had built some resilience against global shocks, but the outlook for growth had worsened. Trade friction, it said, was now a defining risk.
ECB President Christine Lagarde told reporters the effects were already visible. Business investment was slowing, she said, and consumers were growing cautious. “Disruptions to international commerce, financial market tensions and geopolitical uncertainty are weighing on business investment,” Lagarde said. “As consumers become more cautious about the future, they may pull back on spending.”
Trump’s tariff policy, announced on April 2, has sparked a broader trade war with retaliatory threats from Europe and Asia. Economists warn the fallout may ripple through global supply chains.
Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG, said trade disruptions could lead to a glut of manufactured goods and potential deflation. “The outfall of the trade disruptions could create a global glut of manufactured goods,” she said. “That could push prices into deflationary territory this year.”
While the ECB has moved to protect the eurozone economy, the U.S. Federal Reserve has taken a different approach. At its most recent policy meeting in March, the Fed held interest rates steady. Chair Jerome Powell signalled that uncertainty from Trump’s tariffs may keep rates unchanged for the foreseeable future.
Speaking in Chicago on Wednesday, Powell offered his strongest remarks yet. “These are very fundamental policy changes,” he said, warning that the tariffs could drag on growth.
Trump reacted swiftly. On social media, he criticised Powell’s decision to hold rates and called the Fed’s latest report a “complete mess.” He added, “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough.”
Lagarde responded with calm defiance. “I have a lot of respect for my esteemed colleague and friend Jay Powell,” she said at her press conference. She also underscored the ECB’s independence, warning against political interference in monetary policy.
“For us, here, the independence of central banks is fundamental,” Lagarde said. “Any country that wants to join the eurozone must prove it can uphold that independence in law and in practice.”
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Gold prices rose above $4,000 an ounce for the first time on Wednesday, fuelled by investor demand for safe-haven assets amid rising geopolitical tensions and expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts.
U.S. shares ended Tuesday in negative territory as investors, cut off from official economic data due to the ongoing government shutdown, looked to alternative indicators and comments from Federal Reserve officials for guidance on economic weakness and monetary policy.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is targeting a $20 billion capital raise linked to Nvidia hardware, Bloomberg News has reported.
Türkiye’s benchmark stock index, the BIST 100, closed Tuesday at 10,814.11 points, up 0.74% from the previous session.
Euro zone finance ministers are set to meet on Thursday to explore ways to boost the development of euro-denominated stablecoins, amid concerns that the fast-growing market could remain dominated by the United States, a senior euro zone official said.
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