Mia Heiskanen is updating the monthly news to Nordic Business Report web. Read the latest from July 2019.
New leaders in the European Parliament
The European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leven from Germany as the new President of the European Commission. Succeeding Jean-Claude Juncker, she will be taking the seat November 1, 2019. She is the first woman to be elected to this office in EU history. The Council also nominates Belgian Charles Michel as President of the European Council, Josep Borrell of Spain as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Christine Lagarde from France as President of the European Central Bank. Lagarde announces that she will step down as managing director of the International Monetary Fund on September 12, 2019.
Boris Johnson is the new UK Prime Minister
Boris Johnson was first elected as Leader of the UK Conservative Party, and, and as a result the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as of July 24, 2019. Johnson was asked by the Queen to form a government, making him the 55th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Facebook was called before Senate panel over digital currency project
Facebook Inc’s plans to create a global cryptocurrency faced scrutiny from the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on July 16, the latest sign that policymakers around the globe are casting a wary eye on the project.
Layoffs at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank announced lay-offs – roughly 18,000 – around the globe as part of a “reinvention”, scrapping its global equities and cutting its fixed income operations.
Security concerns halt flights to Cairo
British Airways is the first airline to halt flights to Cairo for at least seven days. Also german airline Lufthansa resumes flights between Cairo and Frankfurt and Munich due to security concerns but neither of the airlines was giving details about what may have prompted the move.
Manhattan blackout
A blackout in New York City affects 42,000 people near Times Square. (CNN) There were 16,000 customers without power in Midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side. At its peak, the number was about 72,000.
July heatwave continued
All-time records for various cities and towns in Western Europe wre broken, most notably in Paris, reaching a temperature of 42.6 °C.
Stay tuned for India´s second lunar exploration mission
The Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched Chanrayaan-2 to survey lunar water from Satish Dhawan Space Center being India´s second lunar exploration mission. If successful, Chandrayaan-2 will become the first spacecraft to land on the lunar south pole. So what happens next for Chandrayaan 2?
