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Eurozone inflation hits record 8.1% amid rising energy costs

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  LONDON --  Inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro currency hit a record 8.1% in May amid surging energy costs prompted in part by Russia's war in Ukraine, authorities said Tuesday. Annual inflation in the eurozone soared past the previous record of 7.4% reached in March and April, according to the latest data from European Union statistics agency Eurostat. Energy prices jumped 39.2%, highlighting how the war and the accompanying global energy crunch are making life more expensive for the eurozone’s 343 million people. Inflation in the eurozone is now at its highest level since recordkeeping for the euro began in 1997. The latest figures add pressure on European Central Bank policymakers to raise interest rates from ultralow levels to rein in the rising prices. Food prices also rose 7.5%, Eurostat said — another sign of how the war is pushing up prices around the world because Russia and Ukraine are major global  food  suppliers. Prices for goods like cloth...
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Lebanon's longtime speaker re-elected to post despite crises

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BEIRUT -- Lebanon's longtime parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, who has held the post for 30 years, was re-elected for a seventh four-year term Tuesday with a slim majority. His reelection was practically guaranteed, despite more than a dozen new lawmakers who won seats running on a reform platform. The new legislature is being ushered in as Lebanon remains in the grip of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the ruling class, which has been running the country since the end of the civil war. To most Lebanese, Berri, 84, is a symbol of this entrenched sectarian-based political system and ruling class, which continues to hold despite rising discontent and the new reform-minded lawmakers to won seats. Elected on May 15, the new parliament is deeply divided with no coalition holding majority seats in the 128-member legislature. The militant Hezbollah group and its allies lost the majority they had held since ...
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