European energy extended its blistering rally as the worst supply crunch in decades heightens pressure on politicians to do more to rescue industries and households, Bloomberg News reported. German and French power soared to fresh records on further nuclear reactor outages, as benchmark natural gas futures jumped as much as 11%. The fuel is near the level last seen in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when prices had hit unprecedented intraday highs.

Germany will keep exporting electricity to neighboring France despite calling on people to help fend off winter shortages by saving energy at home, officials said on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Problems at French nuclear plants have driven up electricity prices there in recent months, prompting power companies in neighboring countries to sell excess energy to France. “Only half of France’s nuclear power plants are operating,” said Patrick Graichen, Germany’s deputy economy and energy minister.

Pilots at Lufthansa have rejected a wage offer by Germany's flagship carrier and could go on strike anytime, union VC said on Thursday, as a dispute over pay continues, Reuters reported. They had voted in favour of industrial action last month, threatening further disruption during the busy summer travel season. VC said that Lufthansa's most recent offer had been a step in the right direction but remained short of the union's demands, which include a 5.5% pay rise this year for its pilots and automatic inflation compensation thereafter.

This inability to find people to hire has spread across the British economy, in virtually all industries, and the solution chosen by many employers — higher pay — is embedding inflationary pressures deeper into an economy where prices are soaring, the New York Times reported. Last week, Britons learned that the annual rate of inflation reached 10.1 percent in July, the fastest pace since 1982, as energy prices rose and businesses passed higher costs — for supplies but also labor — onto their customers. In some ways it’s a great time to be a worker in the hospitality business.

Russia's economy has avoided the meltdown many predicted after Moscow sent its forces into Ukraine six months ago, with higher prices for its oil exports cushioning the impact of Western sanctions, but hardships are emerging for some Russians, Bloomberg News reported. After predicting at one point that the economy would shrink more than 12% this year, exceeding the falls in output seen after the Soviet Union collapsed and during the 1998 financial crisis, the economy ministry now expects a 4.2% contraction.

The Moscow Exchange will ban the use of dollars as collateral to underwrite transactions, it said on Monday, as Russia seeks to cut dependence on currencies of nations that have imposed sanctions on it, Reuters reported. A statement posted on the exchange's website said the new policy would come into effect on Aug. 29. It gave no details. Earlier this month the exchange - the country's largest bourse - said it would limit the use of dollars as collateral to 25% from 50%.

Germany wants to create a new financial crime authority that would bundle several fragmented competencies, including sanctions enforcement, said a finance ministry paper on Tuesday, Reuters reported. There are currently more than 300 supervisory bodies across Germany, a figure the finance ministry would like to reduce. With the new authority, the finance ministry hopes to make it easier to tackle complex international money laundering cases, which have long been a weak spot for the country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would be willing to consider easing the regulatory burden on new gas export facilities to Europe, while indicating the business case for investments may be a difficult one, Bloomberg News reported. Speaking to reporters in Montreal at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Trudeau said the challenge is that any new liquefied natural gas terminal on Canada’s eastern shore would be far from country’s western gas fields.

Greece's exit on Saturday from the European Union's so-called enhanced surveillance framework for its economy ends 12 years of pain and allows the country greater freedom in policy making, its prime minister said, Reuters reported. Greece's economic performance and policies have been closely monitored under the framework since 2018 to ensure it implemented reforms promised under three international bailouts - totalling more than 260 billion euros ($261 billion) - from the European Union and the IMF between 2010 and 2015.

U.K. inflation is on course to hit 18.6 per cent in January — the highest peak in almost half a century — because of soaring wholesale gas prices, according to a new forecast from Citigroup based on the latest market prices, the Irish Times reported. The investment bank predicted that the retail energy price cap would be raised to £4,567 (€5,386) in January and then £5,816 in April, compared with the current level of £1,971 a year — shifts it said would lead to inflation “entering the stratosphere”.