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29th Mar 2024

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Belarus held 9 May parades despite pandemic

Belarus held World War 2 memorial parades more or less as normal on 9 May despite the coronavirus pandemic and cancellations of similar events all over Europe on social distancing grounds. Photos showed crowds of thousands of people, military parades, and VIP motorcades in Minsk, with few wearing masks. "Belarus celebrates this significant date at a difficult time," president Aleksander Lukashenko, who has been accused of covering-up infection rates, said.

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Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

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