Pilots at Lufthansa went on strike on Friday, forcing the German airline to cancel hundreds of flights, stranding holidaymakers, Reuters reported. The airline said that it had cancelled about 800 flights at its main bases in Frankfurt and Munich on Friday, affecting 130,000 passengers, and said it was working flat out to minimise the impact of the strike. Labour union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) had called on more than 5,000 Lufthansa pilots to stage a 24-hour walkout, saying the latest round of wage talks had failed.

The British government is set to release data showing around 1.1 billion pounds of small business loans ($1.27 billion) made under a COVID-19 emergency lending scheme has already been classified as suspected fraud, a source told Reuters. The previously unpublished data from Britain's Department for Business, Energy and Industry (BEIS) gives the first firm indication of likely fraud levels in the scheme, which has faced scrutiny over the quality of checks on borrowers.

Power prices surged, European currencies hit multidecade lows and governments scrambled to contain the economic hit after Russia cut its main natural-gas pipeline to Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported. The cutoff, which the Kremlin blamed Monday on Western sanctions and said would be long-lasting, realizes the worst-case scenario Europe had been girding for since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Europe is at the front lines of the economic war between Russia and the West that runs parallel to the battlefield war in Ukraine.

The European Commission is seeking emergency powers to force companies to make key products and stockpile goods in a crisis or else face fines, according to an EU document seen by Reuters on Friday. The proposed Single Market Emergency Instrument, set to be presented on Sept. 13, comes in response to supply bottlenecks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine "a special military operation." It also aims to deter foreign countries with similar powers from taking such action without first informing the 27-country bloc.

Tens of thousands of applications for a payment-by-instalment plan have flooded into a British budget grocery chain just two weeks after its launch, as a cost of living crisis crushes UK household incomes, Bloomberg News reported. Customers of Iceland Foods have sent in around 60,000 applications so far, more than the total number of loans the credit provider behind the initiative expected to offer in 18 months. Successful applicants can borrow up to £100 ($115) to pay for food at one of its outlets.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM won their joint bid for ITA Airways, entering exclusive talks with the Italian government over plans to privatize the carrier formerly known as Alitalia, the Wall Street Journal reported. Italy’s Finance Ministry said on Wednesday that a bid from the consortium, which also includes investment firm Certares Management LLC, emerged as the most suitable as the government seeks to hand over control of the reincarnated flag carrier. The government said a final deal isn’t certain.

The Italian government said on Thursday it was preparing a new multi-billion euro package to help shield firms and families from surging energy prices, after the country's main business lobby warned of a looming "economic earthquake," Reuters reported. Carlo Bonomi, chief of employers' association Confindustria, said in a radio interview that with energy costs for Italian industry among the highest in Europe, gas prices needed to be capped either at the European or domestic level. Bonomi said that businesses cannot wait for a new government to be installed after elections on Sept.

Russian sovereign bonds have staged a comeback this summer as investment banks have warmed up to trading the Kremlin’s debt again and investors outside the grip of Western sanctions on Moscow are buying bonds, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The run-up in prices reflects how Russia has maintained investor confidence in some pockets of the world and appears to be managing its economy amid the war with Ukraine.

Russia's economy shrank by 4.3% in July year on year after contracting by 4.9% in June, the economy ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In January through July, the economy shrank by 1.1% in year-on-year terms, the ministry said. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said on Monday that Russia's economy will shrink by less than 3% in 2022, a much shallower contraction than initially expected, while inflation will be below earlier projections. Read more.

Consumer prices in Europe continued their steady upward march in August, driven by soaring food and fuel prices and shortages caused by clogged supply chains, the New York Times reported. In the 19 countries that use the euro as currency, the annual inflation rate jumped to a fresh record of 9.1 percent, up from 8.9 percent in July, according to estimates released Wednesday by the European Commission’s statistical office. A year earlier, inflation was 3 percent — a rate that at the time marked a 10-year high and set off alarms, but would now be greeted with enormous relief.