EU-DIGEST

Russian forces suffered more than 1,100 dead in less than a week of battles near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the focal point of fighting in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.

"In less than a week, starting from 6th March, we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia's irreversible loss, right there, near Bakhmut," Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

He said Russian forces had also sustained 1,500 "sanitary losses" - soldiers wounded badly enough to keep them out of further action. Dozens of pieces of enemy equipment were destroyed as were more than 10 Russian ammunition depots.

Read more at:https://www.france24.com

US inflation accelerated in June by more than forecast, led by elevated prices for gasoline, food and housing costs and resulting in the largest annual increase in inflation in more than 40 years.

The news virtually guarantees that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by another three-quarters of a point this month. Biden is trying to rebuild America’s middle class. Our lopsided economy needs it Heather Cox Richardson Read more

The consumer price index increased 1.3% last month after advancing 1% in May, the US labor department said, pushing inflation to 9.1% from 8.6%. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI would rise 1.1%.

Read mmore at Soaring gas and food prices catapult US inflation to 40-year-high | US economy | The Guardian

For the third time in the past five years, Vienna has captured the top spot in the Global Liveability Index, an annual report from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published on Thursday.

The top ten rankings were dominated by western European cities, which make up half of those on the list.

Copenhagen follows Vienna in second place, with Zurich taking third place with Calgary in Canada.

Not far behind is Geneva in number six, followed by Frankfurt at seven. Amsterdam secured number nine.

Read more at: Vienna named the world’s most liveable city in 2022. These 5 European cities also made the top 10 | Euronews

Although the Federal Reserve has repeatedly insisted price pressures will prove “transitory”, financial markets were taken aback by a 6.2% increase in the cost of living in the world’s biggest economy over the past year.

A labor department report released on Wednesday showed prices rose by 0.9% in October alone – more than double the 0.4% jump in September – to push the annual rate of inflation to its highest level since December 1990, a time when global oil prices had risen sharply due to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

The news came after the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve tried to downplay rising costs, arguing they are a temporary phenomena driven by Covid-19’s unprecedented impact on the global supply chain

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/10/inflation-us-latest-high-30-years-economy-predictions?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The Russian capital brought in its strictest COVID-19 related lockdown measures in more than a year on Thursday as nationwide one-day pandemic deaths and infections hit new highs amid slow vaccination take-up across the world's biggest country.

Read more at: Moscow locks down as Russian COVID-19 deaths surge to new highs | Reuters

The number of coronavirus infections recorded so far in eastern Europe surpassed 20 million on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, as the region grapples with its worst outbreak since the pandemic started and inoculation efforts lag.

Countries in the region have the lowest vaccination rates in Europe, with less than half of the population having received a single dose.

Read more at: COVID-19 cases recorded in eastern Europe hit 20 million | Reuters