Canada's Conservative Party Elects Populist as New Leader

Canada's Conservative Party Elects Populist as New Leader

• Pierre Poilievre is a firebrand populist who opposes vaccine mandates and blames Canada's inflation on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• He won the party leadership on the first ballot, defeating a moderate, centrist candidate with 68% of the votes cast by the party's members.

Canada Q2 household debt-to-income ratio widens to new record high

• National net worth rose by 0.2% in the second quarter to C$17.65 trillion ($13.58 trillion), while national net worth per capita rose to $455,401
• The ratio of Canadian household debt to income widened to 181.7%, a record high

German Anger Spills Over as Countries Balk at Gas-Sharing Deals

• Hope is dimming in Germany that it will be able clinch more gas solidarity agreements with European Union partners beyond the ones already in place with Denmark and Austria
• Germany's neighbors Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland refuse to engage in "constructive negotiations" about such bilateral deals
• That could exacerbate the gas crunch in Germany

Hundreds of bakeries in Germany sell bread and pastries in the dark to turn the spotlight on sky-high energy bills

• Over 800 bakeries went dark as a cry for help over energy costs
• Customers had to sit in complete darkness to eat their food
• bakeries are badly affected by the energy crisis as ovens use a lot of power

EU, U.S. step up Russian aluminium, nickel imports since Ukraine war

• High global energy prices have helped the Kremlin follow through on President Vladimir Putin's pledge in March to reduce poverty and inequality despite crippling Western sanctions and inflation.
• Putin has ordered 10% rises in pensions and the minimum wage to soften the blow from inflation, while major employers such as Sberbank (SBER.MM) and Gazprom (Gazprom) raised salaries.

Italy drags Europe toward another eurozone crisis

• At 150% of its GDP, Italy's public debt has reached its highest level on record. The country's economy is being battered by the European Central Bank's shift to a more restrictive monetary policy to fight inflation.
• The political, economic, and energy conditions are ripe for another sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone which could easily spill over into talk of the disintegration of the EU.

The Armed Forces General Staff agency of Portugal has suffered a cyberattack that allegedly allowed the theft of classified NATO documents, which are now sold on the dark web.

• American cyber-intelligence agents noticed the sale of stolen documents and alerted the U.S. embassy in Lisbon, which in turn warned the Portuguese government about the data breach.
• Immediately, a team of experts from the National Security Office (GNS) and Portugal's national cybersecurity center was dispatched to EMGFA to carry out a complete screening of the body's entire network.

India's PM Modi says he's keen to boost ties with Russia, including energy

• Modi spoke of a "special partnership" between the two countries and expressed particular interest in bolstering their cooperation on energy and coking coal.

September 9, 2022 06:15 PM Age: 3 days

• BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) union and reciprocal trading partnerships continue to grow stronger
• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic, and security organization that is the successor to the Shanghai Five
• Its membership has since expanded to eight states, with India and Pakistan joining as observers or dialogue partners

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