European Union lawmakers are reviewing options to boost the competitiveness of euro zone banks, which lag behind their U.S. rivals on international markets
International News via Reuters:
Euro zone governments should not lower banks’ capital requirements as this would do little to boost credit while demand is weak and the environment is fraught with risks including war in the Middle East, European Central Bank chief supervisor Claudia Buch said on Monday.
European Union lawmakers are reviewing options to boost the competitiveness of euro zone banks, which lag behind their U.S. rivals on international markets.
Addressing euro zone finance ministers, Buch argued banks needed solid capital and liquidity positions to weather risks ranging from the Iran war and its economic consequences to trouble in private markets and cyberattacks.
“Banks currently have sufficient capital to lend to the economy, but elevated risks, lower risk tolerance and weak demand for loans are preventing the supply of credit from expanding more quickly,” she said in remarks prepared for a meeting with the Eurogroup of finance ministers on Monday.
“In this situation, lowering capital requirements may simply result in higher distributions to shareholders rather than more lending to firms and households.”
She reiterated the ECB’s long-standing calls for establishing a common deposit guarantee and knocking down regulatory hurdles between countries that prevent the free flowing of liquidity and capital.
As for the ECB’s own role, Buch repeated that supervisors would “treat cross-border and domestic mergers alike”.
Her comments came as Italian bank UniCredit was trying to take over Germany’s Commerzbank amid fierce opposition from the government in Berlin.
Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Andrew Heavens
That’s the target in a new roadmap aimed at tackling Bermuda’s housing crisis by boosting supply where it’s needed most.
Housing and Municipalities Minister Zane DeSilva today opened public consultation on the Bermuda Affordable Housing Strategy 2025 to 2035. He says the plan is designed to support those most in need.
The first phase is expected to cost $114.75 million, with financing secured through local banks and backed by a government guarantee.
Two additional phases aim to deliver 300 and almost 400 homes.
Minister DeSilva says the strategy will be a “living document,” reviewed at the end of each phase to reflect changing demand and emerging trends.
He’s urging residents to have their say on the final version by sharing feedback online at forum.gov.bm
Royal Visit reflects renewed focus on respect, cooperation and representation
The UK says it wants a “modern, respectful partnership” with Bermuda and other Overseas Territories, as officials highlight the significance of the Royal Visit.
Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, Stephen Doughty, says that includes regular engagement between Bermuda and UK officials.
He told Alisa Bernardo that the visit by King Charles reflects both a historic connection and ongoing efforts to strengthen ties with the island – while also touching on Bermuda’s relationship with CARICOM and how its voice is being represented in UK decision-making.
Police arrested the driver, identifying him as a 33-year-old man with German citizenship
International News via Reuters:
Two people were killed and three others were seriously injured on Monday when a car drove into a central pedestrian zone of the eastern German city of Leipzig, Mayor Burkhard Jung said, the latest in a spate of such incidents in recent years in Germany.
Police arrested the driver, identifying him as a 33-year-old man with German citizenship. They said there was no further danger.
“We are mourning two deaths, currently three seriously injured people, and many others who were injured,” Jung told journalists at a media briefing on Monday evening, according to Leipziger Volkszeitung.
“It’s impossible to find the right words for this horrific attack,” he added.
Like other European countries, Germany has witnessed a series of car-ramming and stabbing incidents in recent years, some of which involved religious or political motivations and some carried out by people with mental health issues.
The prime minister of the state of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, said that the suspect had possible mental health issues, and officials said he surrendered without resistance, Leipziger Volkszeitung reported.
Police conducted a large-scale operation in the area with multiple emergency vehicles and road closures.
A city press release called it a “mass casualty event” but officials were unable to quantify the injuries.
A damaged Volkswagen SUV with a person on top of the vehicle was seen speeding through a pedestrian zone, local broadcaster Radio Leipzig reported.
Last year, two people were killed in the western city of Mannheim, when a 40-year-old man drove a car into a group of pedestrians, only weeks after a similar attack on a trade union demonstration in Munich, killing two and injuring more than 40, many children among them.
In December 2024, several people were killed in a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. That incident came months after a stabbing attack at a festival in the western city of Solingen.
Reporting Miranda Murray, James Mackenzie and Tom Sims; Editing by Thomas Seythal and Bill Berkrot
Around 150 people were still stuck on the vessel after three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – died, and others fell ill, including a Briton who left the vessel and was being treated in South Africa
International News via Reuters:
Medics were working on Monday to evacuate two people with symptoms of the deadly hantavirus after a suspected outbreak on a luxury cruise ship held off West Africa carrying mostly British, American and Spanish passengers, officials said.
Around 150 people were still stuck on the vessel after three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – died, and others fell ill, including a Briton who left the vessel and was being treated in South Africa, authorities added.
The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), which is assisting with the outbreak, said hantavirus had been confirmed in one of the patients showing symptoms.
A source briefed on the matter said that the Dutch woman who died had tested positive for the virus as well.
RIVM said it was still unclear if the other people with symptoms also had the virus, or if the other deaths were also caused by the virus.
Hantavirus, which can cause fatal respiratory illness, can be spread when particles from rodent droppings or urine become airborne. It does not transfer easily between humans.
There are no specific drugs to treat the disease, so treatment focuses on supportive care, including putting patients on ventilators in severe cases.
The World Health Organization said the risk to the wider public was low and there was no need for panic or travel restrictions. But authorities in the island nation of Cape Verde said they had not allowed Dutch-flagged MV Hondius to dock as a precaution.
‘A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY’
“We’re not just headlines: we’re people with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home,” Jake Rosmarin, a U.S. travel blogger, said in a tearful Instagram video post from the ship on Monday.
“There is a lot of uncertainty and that is the hardest part,” he added.
A spokesperson for the ship’s Netherlands-based operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said that, as a precaution, all passengers were instructed to remain inside their cabins to prevent any potential spread of the virus. Although human-to-human transmission is rare, the incubation period can last several weeks, meaning some people may not yet be showing symptoms.
Oceanwide Expeditions was trying to arrange the repatriation of two crew members with symptoms of the disease – one British and one Dutch – along with the body of the German national and a “guest closely associated with the deceased” who does not have symptoms.
The company said it was looking into whether passengers could be screened and disembarked on the islands of Las Palmas and Tenerife.
Spanish authorities said they had not yet received a request for the ship to dock and disembark passengers there. The Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry, which Oceanwide Expeditions said would be the one making the request, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Hondius left Ushuaia in southern Argentina in March, according to company documentation, on a voyage marketed as an Antarctic nature expedition, with berth prices ranging from 14,000 to 22,000 euros ($16,000-$25,000).
It travelled past mainland Antarctica, the Falklands, South Georgia, Nightingale Island, Tristan, St Helena, and Ascension before reaching Cape Verdean waters on May 3.
South Africa’s Health Department confirmed two of the dead were Dutch nationals: a 70-year-old man, who died on St Helena on April 11, and his wife, 69, who died in South Africa after collapsing at O.R. Tambo International Airport.
The British man being treated in a private clinic in Johannesburg became ill on April 27, while the German victim on the ship died on May 2, Oceanwide Expeditions said.
SOURCE NOT YET CLEAR
Hantavirus usually begins with flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue and fever, one to eight weeks after exposure.
A spokesperson for the RIVM said the source of the outbreak was unclear.
“You could imagine, for example, that rats on board the ship transmitted the virus,” he said.
“But another possibility is that during a stop somewhere in South America, people were infected, for instance via mice, and became ill that way.”
Daniel Bausch, a visiting professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland, said there was some evidence of human-to-human transmission in the Andes Virus, a species of hantavirus found in Argentina and Chile.
“So it’s significant that this cruise ship started its journey in Argentina,” he said.
“The good news is … this is not going to be a big outbreak,” he added.
Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, Toby Sterling, Anthony Deutsch, Stephanie van den Berg, Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Olivia Kumwenda in Johannesburg, additional reporting by David Latone in Madrid; Editing by Miranda Murray, Andrew Heavens and Aidan Lewis
The discussions, between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a European Political Community summit in Armenia, are a further sign of deepening European defence ties under rising U.S. pressure
International News via Reuters:
Britain is in talks to join the European Union’s 90 billion euro ($105.13 billion) loan to Ukraine to qualify for Kyiv’s defence orders that the loan finances, but will have to cover some interest payments on the borrowing to be eligible, the European Commission said.
“Today marks the first high-level discussion on the UK’s potential participation in the 90 billion euro Ukraine Support Loan, following technical exchanges between the UK Government and the Commission,” a Commission spokesman told reporters.
The discussions, between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a European Political Community summit in Armenia, are a further sign of deepening European defence ties under rising U.S. pressure.
The loan, approved by the EU last month, is set to cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s needs for the next two years, with the bulk of that amount earmarked for military spending as Kyiv defends itself against Russia’s four-year war.
Some of that cash could be spent on British defence equipment if London meets three criteria, the Commission said.
Britain has to have a Security and Defence Partnership with the EU, which it entered into on May 19, 2025 and has to provide significant financial and military support to Ukraine – a condition it will likely meet after a Commission assessment.
The final hurdle is that it will have to cover some of the interest on the 90 billion euro EU loan, proportionately to the value of contracts awarded to it by Ukraine.
“Following UK’s confirmation of its interest in participating in the Ukraine Support Loan, the Commission stands ready to move swiftly with the corresponding necessary steps,” the Commission spokesman said.
European countries, including Germany, France and Britain, have recently come under further pressure from Washington after refusing to join the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran.
($1 = 0.8561 euros)
Reporting by Muvija M; Editing by David Holmes and Susan Fenton
Waltz said negotiations will take place this week on the resolution
International News via Reuters:
The United States and Gulf Arab nations are drafting a U.N. Security Council resolution designed to condemn Iran for blocking the Strait of Hormuz in response to a U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz said on Monday.
Waltz said negotiations will take place this week on the resolution, which comes after permanent Security Council members Russia and China blocked a resolution last month that Washington hoped would galvanize international efforts to restore freedom of navigation of the waterway.
KEY DETAILS
• The U.S. is co-drafting the new resolution with Bahrain with input from Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Waltz told reporters on a briefing call.
• The resolution is expected to require Iran to cease attacks on merchant shipping and attempts to impose tolls on shipping in the strait, and it will demand Iran stop placing sea mines and disclose the locations of mines.
• Waltz says draft resolution is a “narrower effort” than the previous failed resolution and comes while a ceasefire is in place with Iran. “This is much more focused on mining international waterways and on tolling, which all of the economies of the world are affected by, particularly those in Asia,” he said.
Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
No suspects were in custody following the shooting just after 9 p.m. at a party at Arcadia Lake, the police department in the city of Edmond, northeast of Oklahoma City, said in a statement on X
International News via Reuters:
The tally of injured from a shooting at a party at a lake near Oklahoma City is expected to rise beyond the 10 taken to hospital by rescuers, police said on Monday, as others among the victims make their own way to seek treatment.
No suspects were in custody following the shooting just after 9 p.m. at a party at Arcadia Lake, the police department in the city of Edmond, northeast of Oklahoma City, said in a statement on X. It gave no further immediate details.
The lake in eastern Edmond is popular for recreational activities such as fishing, camping and picnics.
Reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Tom Hogue and Clarence Fernandez
BELCO, in partnership with the City of Hamilton, today marked Health and Safety Day with a series of events at City Hall. Activities included a health fair and an electric vehicle car show, plus access to wellness resources and new technologies. Kendal Trott spoke to Mark Pacheco, Director of Operational Support Services at BELCO, who explained what the initiative sought to achieve.
The National Sports Center was transformed into a hub of high-performance aquatic action this weekend as the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association hosted the CG 2026 Long Course Championships. The meet served as a vital benchmark for the island’s elite, with seasoned internationals and emerging prospects delivering dominant displays.
The Desjardins name was a constant fixture atop the leaderboards. Myla Desjardins set a high bar in the 10 and Under category with 1,554 points, while Eva Desjardins mirrored that success in the 11-12 bracket, amassing a formidable 2,572 points. In the boys’ ranks, Joseph Herron and Walker Smith asserted their authority to claim their respective age-group titles.
The technical standard reached a crescendo in the 13-14 division, where Madison Fox produced a masterclass to lead the girls with 2,890 points, while Lorcan McGlynn swept the boys’ standings. The senior ranks saw the most explosive times of the meet, headlined by Logan Jones, whose staggering 3,704 points held off a fierce challenge from Axel Wernbo. Lila Connolly was equally clinical in the senior girls’ division, securing a decisive victory with 2,891 points.
In the final individual tallies across all disciplines, Olympian Jack Harvey led the boys’ field with 752 points, while Scarlett Spurling topped the girls’ list with 498. As the Bermuda squad prepares for the upcoming regional summer circuit, these championships have provided a clear indication of the depth and speed currently training at the National Sports Center.
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