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Washington (United States) (AFP) – US retail sales declined unexpectedly in July, government estimates showed Friday, marking their weakest showing in more than a year as consumers pulled back at auto dealers and online stores. Total sales were down 0.6 percent in July from the previous month, at $763.6 billion, according to the US Department of Commerce. Excluding sales at a...

Paris (France) (AFP) – The heatwaves pummelling Europe this summer will have costly impacts on industries ranging from agriculture to tourism — but that hasn’t stopped stock markets from hitting all-time highs. For investors enthralled by soaring corporate profits, headlines about the painful consequences from climate change are largely just background noise, experts say.

London (AFP) – Major stock markets traded mixed in sparse summer trading Friday, with oil prices edging higher and the dollar slipping as investors assess the outlooks for US interest rates and the war in the Middle East. Data this week showing cooler inflation in the United States has bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve will not rush to raise borrowing costs, pot...

Madrid (AFP) – Spain’s leftist government has reversed course and extended the operating life of the country’s largest nuclear plant to reduce exposure to turbulent energy markets, the state gazette showed on Friday. But the decision was condemned by a far-left party that is a junior member of the ruling coalition.

The Almaraz plant in the western regio...

Paris (France) (AFP) – EU officials have agreed to study an experimental vaccine against Lyme disease, the world’s most common tick-borne illness, its developers said Friday. Pfizer and the French-Swiss firm Valneva say trials have shown a 70 percent efficacy rate in people aged five and above for a disease that currently has no approved vaccine.

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