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Hard Numbers: Russia to helm Security Council, Sonko seized, Stubborn EU inflation, Australia vs. climate change
30: Russia is set to helm the UN Security Council as of April 1, a transition of power that Ukraine has dubbed "an April Fool's joke." The council's presidency rotates every 30 days. As president, Russia – and Putin, by extension – will have the ability to set the security council’s agenda. While there have been calls to boycott, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to chair the meeting in New York in April.
2: Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko received a 2-month suspended prison sentence on Thursday. He was found guilty of defaming Senegal's minister of tourism by accusing him of embezzlement. Sonko came in third in the last presidential election and is looking like a frontrunner ahead of the 2024 race. In an attempt to placate supporters who saw his arrest as politically motivated, authorities decided the sentence will not prevent Sonko from running for office.
7.8: Inflation in Germany remains stubbornly high, hitting 7.8% this month, despite drops in energy costs and easing economic pressures in the Eurozone. Meanwhile, Spain's annual inflation dropped by half, which sounds promising … but core consumer inflation (which excludes energy and food) remains just as high there as in Deutschland. The report comes on the heels of the European Central Bank raising interest rates by half a percentage point earlier this month.
30: Australia passed an emissions reduction bill on Thursday aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. The bill, which uses a "safeguard mechanism" to target the most significant industrial polluters, represents some cooperation on environmental matters in a country where climate change has been a divisive political issue.
Can the eurozone survive with its economy shrinking at a record rate?
Can the Eurozone survive with the economy going downhill as fast as it does? What can be done?
Yes, it can survive. But it's going to be tricky times. I think all of the advanced economies are going to suffer very significant setbacks in terms of economic growth. And there is a need for enormous stimulus and demand support measures. That's already also done. The problem that is there in the eurozone is the discrepancy between the economic performance of the different countries. And that will have to be sort of addressed.
Will Germany be forced to reintroduce lockdowns, when there are signs of the infection starting to take off again?
Well, I think this problem is going to be encountered by virtually every country. You've seen in Singapore, that it's going to be not a straight curve down. It's going to be ups and downs. And that must be weighed against, all the time, to sort of, reinforce measures or reinforce lockdowns, now and then, as we enter a very gradual and very careful period of trying to learn to live with the virus. We haven't got rid of it. We have to learn to live with it, the one way or the other.