Global Economy
  • Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) arrives at Democratic Party caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/ File Photo

    Factbox: What happens in a U.S. government shutdown?

    By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell and Amanda Becker and Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell and Amanda Becker, Reuters

    In shutdowns, nonessential government employees are furloughed, or placed on temporary unpaid leave. Workers deemed essential, including those dealing with public safety and national security, keep...

  • FILE PHOTO: Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 12, 2017.   REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

    No Talk of Ousting Speaker Ryan, Key Conservative Says

    By Reuters

    Many Republicans are unhappy with the deal President Donald Trump reached last week with Democratic leaders to raise the government's debt ceiling and allow it to continue financing federal spending...

  • Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves during a pro-government rally with workers of state-run oil company PDVSA, in Barcelona

    The Crisis in Venezuela Could Send Oil Prices Soaring

    By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com

    Venezuela’s deteriorating crisis is “going to be the biggest geopolitical story to watch in the oil markets," according to Helima Croft of RBC Capital Markets. The economic, political and security...

  • FILE PHOTO: Arellano, deputy of the Venezuelan coalition of opposition parties (MUD), clashes with national guards during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas

    The Risk That Could Drive Oil Prices Higher in a Hurry

    By Nick Cunningham, Oilprice.com

    The latest rally in oil prices ran up against a wall yet again, and the same fears about oversupply have not receded in the slightest. The expectation from most oil analysts is that there is very...

  • Emmanuel Macron, head of the political movement 'En Marche!', or 'Onwards!', and candidate for the 2017 presidential election, delivers a speech as he attends a meeting for Women's day in Paris, France

    France Just Made a Big Move Toward a Green Energy Future

    By Bate Felix and Simon Carraud, Reuters

    France aims to end the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040 and become carbon neutral 10 years later, Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot said on Thursday at a presentation of measures to keep up...

  • Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier attends a news conference after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, November 18, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

    Iran, powers 'still far apart': Germany's Steinmeier

    By Parisa Hafezi and Jonathan Allen, Reuters

    Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke to Germany's ARD television a day before a Nov. 24 deadline to reach a comprehensive agreement to end a 12-year dispute over Iran's atomic ambitions. "We are negotiating...

  • An illustration picture shows a projection of binary code on a man holding a laptop computer, June 24, 2013. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

    U.S. troops to remain in Baltics, Poland next year

    By Reuters

    Several hundred U.S. troops were deployed in Poland and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia earlier this year after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea region in March. The deployment...

  • Syria's government spending to increase by 12 percent in 2015: agency

    By Reuters

    Syria's civil war, which is in its fourth year, has devastated the economy, causing tens of billions of dollars of damage and depriving it of oil export and tourism revenues. The 2015 draft budget...

  • Italian media say EU to approve Rome's 2015 budget

    By Reuters

    Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government has expressed confidence that the Commission will accept a budget which it agreed to tighten last month to meet Brussels's requirements. Italy's biggest...

  • Iraqi forces say retake two towns from Islamic State

    By Saif Hameed, Reuters

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces said on Sunday they retook two towns north of Baghdad from Islamic State fighters, driving them from strongholds they had held for months and clearing a main road...