REUTERS WORLD NEWS: Record Temps Scorch Europe, Putin Visits Iran, and the ECB Weighs a Bigger Rate Hike

July 19, 2022

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Tuesday, July 19, 2022

by Linda Noakes

Today’s biggest stories

People cool off in a water fountain in Trafalgar Square in London, July 19, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Britain recorded its highest ever temperature of 39.1C, then 40.1 degrees according to provisional data from the Met Office, which forecast even hotter weather to come from a heatwave that has already damaged airport runways and rail tracks. As the heatwave that settled over southern Europe last week edged northwards, southern and western Germany and Belgium were also braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Tehran today for talks with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Kremlin leader’s first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces kept up their bombardment of cities across Ukraine, with intense shelling of Sumy in the north, cluster bombs targeting Mykolaiv and a missile strike in Odesa in the south, authorities said. Here’s what you need to know about the conflict right now.
The race to replace British Prime Minister Boris Johnson heated up, with four contenders offering more policies to try to climb to the top two in a divisive leadership contest that is splitting the governing Conservative Party.
Bodyguards could have saved Shinzo Abe if they shielded him or removed him from the line of fire in the 2.5 seconds between a missed first shot and a second round of gunfire that fatally wounded him, according to security experts who reviewed footage of the former Japanese leader’s assassination.

Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon speaks to the media in Washington, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

U.S. prosecutors are due to begin making their case that Steve Bannon, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, broke the law by defying a subpoena from the congressional probe of the attack on the Capitol.
A Georgia grand jury has subpoenaed U.S. Representative Jody Hice as Fulton County continues its criminal investigation into alleged wrongdoing over Trump’s attempts to sway the state’s 2020 election results.
The gunman who killed three people in a shopping mall near Indianapolis would likely have taken many more lives if not for the “heroic” actions of an armed bystander who shot the suspect dead and stopped the attack, police said. Elisjsha Dicken, who was lawfully carrying a concealed pistol at the time, “engaged” the suspect almost as soon he opened fire with a rifle.
Texas state police will form an “internal committee” to review the response by state law enforcement to the May elementary school mass shooting in Uvalde, after a Texas legislators’ probe blamed “systemic failures” and poor leadership.
A West Virginia judge blocked officials from enforcing a 19th-century ban on abortions, clearing the way for the state’s lone abortion clinic to resume services.

European Central Bank policymakers are considering raising interest rates by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points at their meeting on Thursday to tame record-high inflation, sources told Reuters.
Russia is seeking payment in United Arab Emirates dirhams for oil exports to some Indian customers, as Moscow moves away from the U.S. dollar to insulate itself from the effects of Western sanctions.
SAS and pilot unions have reached a wage deal, ending a 15-day strike over a new collective bargaining agreement that had grounded 3,700 flights and put the Scandinavian airline’s future in doubt.
The U.S. Department of Defense agreed with Lockheed Martin to build about 375 F-35 fighter jets over three years, amid expectations the price of the most common version of the aircraft would increase due to inflation and slower production.
From his small office in Singapore, Kelvin Pang is ready to wager a $23 million payday that the worst of the chip shortage is not over for automakers – at least in China. We look at how China became ground zero for the global shortage.
If you’re waiting for a bitcoin recovery, you may have to sweat it out for months. That’s the conclusion of some technical specialists seeking method from the madness.

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