When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Germany

European Central Bank To Make Crucial Decision

BLOOMBERG,BUSINESS INSIDER (USA), LA TRIBUNE (France), BBC NEWS (UK)

Worldcrunch

FRANKFURT - The European Central Bank (ECB) is holding a meeting today in Frankfurt (Germany) to make a crucial decision on the euro's future reports French financial newspaper La Tribune.

Investors are looking for the European Central Bank President to make good on his promise to do whatever is needed to protect the euro, interpreted by most as a signal that the ECB will intervene in bond markets, reports Bloomberg.

While the leaders of Germany, France and Italy have appeared to endorse Draghi's plan, echoing his language in saying they will do whatever is necessary to protect the euro, significant hurdles remain, adds Bloomberg.

There is also speculation that the Eurozone's current bailout fund - with the ECB as its agent - will buy government bonds at auction to drive down the Spanish government's actual cost of borrowing, reports BBC News. But there is controversy around any such plan as the ECB is forbidden from lending money to European governments under its constitution.

"If Draghi just comes out with a do-nothing, markets are going to react extremely badly and the ECB will have a full-blown crisis on their hands," James Nixon, chief European economist at Societe Generale SA in London, told Bloomberg.

Last month, the ECB's President Mario Draghi had some strong words about how high peripheral borrowing costs were impeding monetary policy, reports Business Insider.

According to a survey carried out by Bloomberg, economists expect ECB officials to keep the benchmark interest rate at a record low 0.75%. The deposit rate will be left at zero, another survey shows.

Meanwhile, markets in Europe are currently slipping, reports Business Insider. Italy is down 0.6%. Spain is down a little less.

The ECB will make its decision public at 1:45 pm local time in Frankfurt while Mario Draghi will hold a press conference at 2:30 pm.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Geopolitics

Senegal's Democratic Unrest Reveals The Ghosts Of French Colonialism

The violence that erupted following the sentencing of opposition politician Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison left 16 people dead and 500 arrested. This reveals deep fractures in Senegalese democracy that has traces to France's colonial past.

Image of Senegalese ​Protesters celebrating Sonko being set free by the court, March 2021

Protesters celebrate Sonko being set free by the court, March 2021

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — For a long time, Senegal had the glowing image of one of Africa's rare democracies. The reality was more complicated than that, even in the days of the poet-president Léopold Sedar Senghor, who also had his dark side.

But for years, the country has been moving down what Senegalese intellectual Felwine Sarr describes as the "gentle slope of... the weakening and corrosion of the gains of Senegalese democracy."

This has been demonstrated once again over the last few days, with a wave of violence that has left 16 people dead, 500 arrested, the internet censored, and a tense situation with troubling consequences. The trigger? The sentencing last Thursday of opposition politician Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison, which could exclude him from the 2024 presidential elections.

Young people took to the streets when the verdict was announced, accusing the justice system of having become a political tool. Ousmane Sonko had been accused of rape but was convicted of "corruption of youth," a change that rendered the decision incomprehensible.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest