Italy’s probe is aimed at Activision Blizzard, among other companies of the Microsoft group, the antitrust authority said in a statement, without naming the others

International News via Reuters:

Italy’s antitrust authority said on Thursday it had launched a probe into several Microsoft-owned video-game makers over their use of virtual currencies. 

• Italy’s probe is aimed at Activision Blizzard, among other companies of the Microsoft group, the antitrust authority said in a statement, without naming the others

• Microsoft was not immediately available for comment

• The move is part of a wider European Union-coordinated initiative by the EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network. The network launched actions last month against nine video-game companies, including Riot Games, Ubisoft and Supercell, and had earlier opened a separate action against Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard

• The aim of the coordinated action is to promote transparency and fairness in the gaming sector, particularly protecting the rights of minors

• The probes focus on the transparency and fairness of in-game virtual currencies used to purchase cosmetic upgrades, weapon enhancements and other digital items, the Italian regulator said

• Purchases are often priced in virtual currencies rather than euros and may involve multiple layers of conversion, making it harder for consumers to understand how much they are spending, the authority said

• The Italian Competition Authority will act as lead authority, working together with peers in Norway and Denmark

• The watchdogs will seek to determine whether the companies may have committed a “widespread infringement” of EU consumer protection rules affecting consumers in at least three EU member states

• The coordinated action complements investigations the Italian regulator opened nationally in December into Microsoft group companies over the popular games “Diablo Immortal” and “Call of Duty Mobile”.

Reporting by Anna Uras; Editing by Giulia Segreti and Xevi Fontdegloria

Carson’s work often blends verse, prose, dialogue and translation in a genre-defying mix

International News via Reuters:

Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”, the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.

“She was very taken by surprise,” said Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the academy, which awards the prize worth 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million).

“We didn’t have so much time to speak, and all she had time to tell me was that she is for the moment in Iceland, where she’s listening to the wind.”

Carson’s work often blends verse, prose, dialogue and translation in a genre-defying mix. Born in Toronto, the 76-year-old has also held Icelandic citizenship since 2022 and has spent considerable time on the Arctic island in recent years.

She is widely known for her translations of classical Greek literature, which heavily influences her work that ranges from opera libretti to literary criticism and verse novels such as “Autobiography of Red” from 1998.

“Almost all her literary production has centred upon the intersection between the philologist’s obsession with words and the poet’s desire for new meaning,” the Academy said.

“She has herself identified the etymology of words as the starting point for all her work. Her translations from Classical Greek may be regarded as independent works in their own right.”

Her style is exemplified in “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy” from 2019, a performance piece which mixes the stories of Helen of Troy in Euripides’ play “Helen” and Marilyn Monroe.

The Academy also praised her ability to explore “the possibilities of writing, a process by which the literary sketch has become of particular value to her”.

“Bearing witness to this is Float (2016), a work consisting of 22 chapbooks on different subjects, capable of being read in any order,” it said.

LIFE WITHOUT PROUST

Often heralded as her greatest work, “Autobiography of Red” demonstrates Carson’s ability to “actualise the classical literary tradition”, the Academy said. In the book, she re-examines age-old questions such as “What happens when you love someone who will ultimately destroy you?”

Tapping into more modern inspirations, Carson reflected on the character of Albertine, one of the narrator Marcel’s love interests in Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”, in her own book “The Albertine Workout”.

Carson had spent seven years reading Proust’s masterpiece and said in an interview with Canada’s CBC Radio One in 2016 that she suffered withdrawal symptoms after finishing the book, leading her to write “The Albertine Workout” as a way to prolong the experience.

“You think life goes on after Proust, but it seems so grey,” she said.

Carson started taking boxing lessons when she was already in her 70s because of a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. The sport is recommended as a therapy because it helps pay attention to hand-eye coordination and the sequencing of actions.

She reflected on the disease’s impact on her handwriting in an interview at the Louisiana Literary Festival in Denmark in 2024: “I scrub out whole paragraphs in shame … the shame of bad handwriting.”

Carson, who has taught classics at universities in Canada and the United States, has said that she considers herself a visual artist as much as a literary one.

“I think of making a poem as making an object. I have always thought of them more as drawings than as texts, but drawings that are also physically enterable through the fact of language,” she said in the CBC interview.

CARSON HAD BEEN AMONG FAVOURITES THIS YEAR

Carson had been among the favourites to win this year’s prize, according to bookmakers Ladbrokes, and takes a place beside luminaries such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alice Munro and Ernest Hemingway as a recipient of the award, which often divides opinion among book lovers.

The Academy has been lambasted for ignoring some of the literary titans of the last 120 years such as Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges, criticised for snubbing US authors – though it gave the prize to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016 – and accused of being too obscure in its choices.

Defenders say the Academy has made popular picks, such as Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982 and Doris Lessing in 2007, and argue that part of its task is to highlight lesser-known literary traditions.

Last year’s prize was won by Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai.

Established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901.

Literature was the fourth of this year’s Nobels to be announced this week, following medicine, physics and chemistry. The peace prize winner will be announced in Oslo on Friday.

($1 = 10.0190 Swedish crowns)

Reporting by Simon Johnson, Johan Ahlander, Niklas Pollard and Marie Mannes in Stockholm, Terje Solsvik in Oslo, Jonathan Allen in New York and Justyna Pawlak in Warsaw; Editing by Alex Richardson

Authorities said a 37-year-old woman who worked as a caretaker had died in the latest attack, which took place at around 9 a.m. in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of Warsaw

International News via Reuters:

A 15-year-old former pupil killed one person and injured two others at a Polish primary school on Thursday, police said, the day after a 19-year-old wounded 10 people including himself at another school.

Authorities said a 37-year-old woman who worked as a caretaker had died in the latest attack, which took place at around 9 a.m. in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of Warsaw.

Head teacher Krzysztof Ochmanski said he had heard a scream and run into the corridor.

“He wounded me with the blade of a rather long knife – he had three knives on him – and hit me with the handle,” he told the public broadcaster Polskie Radio RDC. “By then, I had managed to restrain him.”

Police told the private broadcaster TVN24 that another teacher had also been injured trying to restrain the attacker.

The Interior Ministry said no further lives were in danger.

“The attacker was a former pupil of this primary school and is currently a student at a vocational school,” a spokeswoman said. “At this moment, we do not know the motives.”

A Reuters reporter saw an air ambulance flying away from the school, where a small crowd had gathered. The father of one child, waiting outside the school, said pupils had not yet been allowed to leave, but were safe.

Footage on the state news channel TVP Info showed what appeared to be the attacker being handcuffed and put into a police van.

NUMBER OF TEENAGE ATTACKERS ON THE RISE

Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an emergency meeting amid deepening concern about violence among teenagers.

Inspector Katarzyna Nowak, director of communications for national police, said serious offenders were becoming younger across Europe.

“Over the past few months in Poland, we have seen arrests of teenagers who were preparing to carry out attacks … So, this is indeed a problem we face, and one we must acknowledge,” she told TVP Info.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said that, in a separate incident in Sierpc in north-central Poland on Wednesday, police had detained a 17-year-old who had mentioned plans to do “something dangerous” on school grounds.

“Data recovered from electronic devices revealed online searches regarding how to orchestrate such a violent event,” Kierwinski said. Police found two knives in his possession.

On Wednesday, 10 people were injured in a knife attack at a school in Ostroleka in northeastern Poland . The teenage suspect was detained soon after.

Reporting by Kuba Stezycki and Kacper Pempel in Leszczydol-Nowiny, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Pawel Florkiewicz, Alicja Surdy in Warsaw, writing by Alan Charlish; editing by Gareth Jones and Kevin Liffey

Global government bond yields have climbed sharply over the past weeks, reflecting higher inflation expectations and fiscal worries

International News via Reuters:

The European Central Bank is expected to hold its deposit rate at 2.50% this month but raise it by 25 basis points in December as inflation runs nearly double its 2% target, a Reuters poll found. Most economists polled had until recently thought the ECB was done.

Global government bond yields have climbed sharply over the past weeks, reflecting higher inflation expectations and fiscal worries. In Europe, investors have focused particularly on France. 

Caught between high inflation — at 3.8% in September and very close to the ECB’s latest worst-case scenario — and concerns that rising yields could hurt growth, policymakers have recently argued for what ECB President Christine Lagarde called a “measured response”.

So far there has been scant evidence that higher energy prices caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran are spilling into other consumer prices, which would be a trigger for more ECB rate rises. 

All but three of 73 economists polled October 5-8 expected the ECB to hold its 2.50% deposit rate on October 29, matching market pricing. The central bank raised rates for a second time this year in September.

However, a near-90% majority of economists, 64 of 73, now see another hike in December. This marks a clear reversal from the over 90% expecting rates on hold in last month’s survey. 

“Given uncertainties, the ECB is likely to remain on the current quarterly adjustment path and that should get us to another hike in December… the main risk is there may actually be one more hike, maybe in March,” said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief Europe economist at Morgan Stanley.

A 58% majority, 40 of 70, saw the deposit rate peaking at 2.75%. But over a third, 24, expect it to be 3.00%, up from just two last month. Markets are currently pricing nearly three hikes by end-2027.

“I do not have a very strong conviction they go to 2.75% and stay there,” said Eisenschmidt.

“Our forecast is predicated on oil prices not increasing more and activity not accelerating further from here,” he said.

Inflation is expected to increase to 3.7% on average this quarter from 3.3% in the third quarter, higher than the 3.3% predicted last month, poll medians showed. 

It will average 3.0% and 2.6% this year and next, both upgrades from the 2.9% and 2.3% predicted last month.

Meanwhile, signs of stronger economic activity led to an upward revision to the growth outlook. The euro zone economy is expected to expand 1.0% this year, up from 0.8% in the previous survey. Growth is seen at 1.2% in 2027 and at 1.3% in 2028.

ECB policymakers so far have argued against a rate rise at this month’s meeting, even though the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine wars show no signs of abating just as the weather turns colder and demand for energy rises. The bond market selloff has also lowered expectations of an immediate increase.

“A key argument against an October hike may be that market rates have increased meaningfully and are doing some of the job for the ECB,” said Anatoli Annenkov, senior European economist at Societe Generale.

(Other stories from the Reuters global economic poll)

Reporting by Indradip Ghosh; Polling by Mumal Rathore; Editing by Hari Kishan, Ross Finley and Xevi Fontdegloria

Russian authorities say the 28-year-old laboratory worker died last Friday from pneumonia of an as-yet unestablished origin, in a case that has prompted international concern

International News via Reuters:

Russia’s health regulator said on Wednesday there were no risks of an epidemic breaking out in Siberia after a plague institute worker there died, as the World Health Organization pressed Moscow for more information about her cause of death.  

Russian authorities say the 28-year-old laboratory worker died last Friday from pneumonia of an as-yet unestablished origin, in a case that has prompted international concern, including from US President Donald Trump. Around 200 people were initially placed in quarantine.

Asked on Wednesday whether the death was caused by a bioweapon, Trump told reporters: “Well, we don’t think so. We’re going to find out soon enough, but we don’t think so.”

He said Russia was not saying much about the situation but “they do say they have it very much under control,” adding he had set up a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“They’re sharing (information) a little bit with our people. We expect them to share it a lot with our people,” said Trump, speaking in the Oval Office.

Global health officials – as well as the world’s media – have been particularly alert to pneumonia cases of undetermined cause since the COVID-19 pandemic, which began with a cluster of fast-spreading fatal respiratory illness in China.

However, the cause of individual pneumonia cases can often not be determined.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Erica ‌Schwartz said at an event the agency was prepared to monitor and screen travelers although the risk to the US was extremely low.

The WHO initially said it estimated the risk of the Russia case to the public as low, based on what had been made known, but told a press conference on Wednesday it could not make a fuller risk assessment due to insufficient information from the Russian authorities. 

Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, said on Wednesday it was winding down precautionary measures it had put in place after concluding there was no risk of an epidemic and that it had shared its latest information with the WHO. 

No cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with the deceased worker, Darya Shipilova, it said, and 90% of those placed in quarantine had been released after nearly 5,000 lab tests had failed to detect any dangerous pathogens.  

It said Shipilova had been vaccinated and had therefore been “immune to the dangerous infections with which she worked”. It did not say, however, what had caused the pneumonia which killed her or how she fell ill.  

WHO CALLS FOR MORE INFORMATION

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO in Geneva, said on Wednesday his organisation needed more information from Russia to understand what had happened.

“We would like more information to understand which laboratory tests were conducted, which pathogens were evaluated, and if this individual didn’t die from plague, then how did she die?” Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic management, told a virtual press conference.  

Tedros said the WHO had offered assistance to Russia and also repeated a request for Russia to verify “media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause”. 

KREMLIN CRITICISES ‘FALSE INFORMATION’ IN MEDIA

The Kremlin said Russia had properly informed the WHO about the incident in line with established procedures.

When asked about the WHO’s request to respond to reports about a second person in Siberia allegedly falling ill, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged caution when it came to using media reports as a reference for what was happening. 

“There is a great deal of media coverage, and the vast majority of what the media are reporting about this situation is false information,” said Peskov. 

He advised the media and others to rely on information provided by the health regulator. It did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Wednesday about the WHO’s questions. 

EXACT CAUSE OF DEATH REMAINS UNKNOWN 

Some Western media outlets have reported — citing unnamed “Russian media” — that a second person in Siberia had died, saying they had died of plague. 

Reuters was unable to find any such stories in Russian media or any evidence that a second person in Siberia had died although some bloggers on social media were making — without evidence — such assertions.

After the press conference, the WHO sent Reuters a link to a story about a potential second case by the Russian media organization starhit.ru, a celebrity gossip outlet, and a follow-up from British newspaper the Daily Mail.

Tedros said it was important to be transparent based on the lessons from COVID, adding, “We don’t have any mandate actually to see whether this media is credible or not.”

Russia has not formally responded to the reports about a second person dying, Tedros said, adding that he had heard only informally that Russia had denied those reports.  

Tedros’ call for more information echoed that of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has also said Moscow needs to share more information about the incident. 

Pneumonia, a lung infection, can have a variety of causes including plague as well as other bacterial infections or viral respiratory diseases, such as flu or COVID-19.

Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London, Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, Andrew Osborn, Anastasia Lyrchikova and Dmitry Antonov in Moscow and Bo Erickson in Washington; Writing by Andrew OsbornEditing by Toby Chopra, Alison Williams, Philippa Fletcher, Gareth Jones