The cost of hosting the Tokyo Olympics, according to Japanese government auditors, exceeds $20 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. Thus, the current games will be the most expensive summer Olympics in history. Previously, Japanese authorities reported that the Olympics cost $15.4 billion. The final sum is almost three times bigger than the original forecast of the cost of the Olympics,...

Executives at Philip Morris International, the world's largest tobacco company, said the UK should act on cigarettes as it does on petrol-powered cars - ban them in the next ten years. According to The Daily Telegraph, this was announced by CEO André Calantzopoulos and chairman Jacek Olzak. At the same time, they praised the UK government's "progressive" approach to regulating the market for...

The UK government is set to sell another stake in its NatWest Group (formerly The Royal Bank of Scotland Group). The cabinet unveiled a plan under which the sale of shares is due to start in August and will last 12 months until August 2022. It has not been disclosed how much stake in NatWest will be sold, there is only an upper limit - no more than 15% of the bank's listed shares will be sold....

The extreme heat and outages at nuclear power plants promise huge losses for South Korea's economy. To avoid overloads in the energy system, the country's authorities are urging citizens and the industrial sector to reduce electricity consumption and stop using air conditioners, Bloomberg wrote. The Korean meteorological administration warned that the air will get as hot as 38 degrees Celsius in...

The Chinese authorities have abolished the "one family, two children" policy and now families are allowed to have three children. This is stated in the decision of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, quoted by Xinhua. The decision will help address the demographic challenges posed by an ageing population. According to statements by the Communist Party Central Committee, it will...

China has been accused of using unfair methods on its way to "world domination". According to CNBC, this was stated by one of its members, Iain Duncan Smith, former leader of the Conservative Party, during his speech in the British Parliament. In his opinion, Beijing is going to achieve world domination in the sphere of semiconductors production and uses dishonest methods for this purpose. He...

European companies, which play a large role in pollution, blamed the EU of staging risks to innovation and investment after the union revealed an ambitious climate protection plan, the FT said. Manufacturers of vehicle, heavy and aviation industry opposed the proposals, which also list a ban on selling newly made cars with diesel and petrol engines since 2035, taxes on marine and aviation fuels...

The European Central Bank has launched a pilot project to create the digital euro. The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to launch a pilot project to create the digital euro. This is reported on the ECB website. This does not prejudge any future decision on the possible launch of the digital euro, which will be taken later, the release notes. A study of the digital euro will be conducted...

The biggest anti-government protests in nearly 30 years took place in Cuba. Cubans are frustrated by economic conditions, the pace of vaccination against COVID-19 and the authorities' neglect of their needs. Thousands of Cubans took to the streets in cities from Havana to Santiago on Sunday. They protested against the authorities' economic policy, the neglect of people and the pace of vaccination...