Page 36 - M 2cs News Today

The United States on Thursday withdrew its threat of tariffs against five European countries over their digital services taxes as part of a deal to manage the transition to a new global tax regime for large highly profitable corporations.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday announced that lower-income households would receive 100 euros from the government to help mitigate the impact of rising energy prices, particularly those at the petrol pump.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday dismissed European Union plans to tackle climate change as a "utopian fantasy", and suggested green measures were pushing up energy costs in Europe.

Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud discussed the Iran nuclear talks with the European Union envoy coordinating talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal, Enrique Mora, the Saudi Foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party denied on Thursday his group has fighters, dismissing accusations by Hezbollah that it has a militia and seeks civil war as the fallout of deadly violence in Beirut continues to roil Lebanon.

More social mixing indoors after the lifting of restrictions just as winter sets in is driving a rise in COVID-19 infections in many countries across Europe, the World Health Organization's emergency director Mike Ryan said on Thursday.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials were strongly encouraged to observe a trading blackout for "several months" in the spring of 2020 as the central bank was embarking on a course of extraordinary actions to blunt the threat presented by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a memo sent to all senior officials by the Fed's ethics office.

The leader of Lebanon's Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) party Samir Geagea told local MTV television on Thursday he was not informed of any request to hear his statement over last week's street violence.

Britain is sticking with its current plan for managing COVID-19 said Prime Minister Boris Johnson, adding that although infection numbers are high they are within the levels forecast by scientific advisers.

The White House and congressional Democrats are unlikely to reach a deal this week on a framework for wide-ranging investments to expand social programs and attack climate change, moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said on Wednesday.