As Italy's socio-economic conditions worsen by the day, the country is witnessing an endless number of protests and strikes.

On Friday, the Italian association of private construction and building technicians staged a protest against the government's decision to cancel the so-called SuperBonus scheme.

The measure - which granted homeowners access to a tax credit of up to 110% on the cost of upgrading their home - was introduced last year in an attempt to counter the nefarious effects on the economy of the Covid crisis.

The swiftness with which the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the U.S. economy in early 2020 was breathtaking. Seemingly overnight, the U.S. unemployment rate shot up to an all-time record of 14.7% in April 2020. Both the overall rate of 14.7% and the 10.3% jump from the prior month were the highest on record since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping statistics in January 1948. Since then, the economy as a whole has been steadily improving, both in terms of the unemployment rate and year-over-year GDP.

Last week, Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg warned airlines that they faced federal government action—presumably including fines—over mounting flight cancellations and delays. While pilot shortages won't be quickly resolved, Buttigieg urged airlines to hire more customer service representatives to help customers rebook when things go wrong.  

President Biden will attend the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Saudi Arabia next month, with the explicit goal of convincing the GCC — that is, the Saudis — to increase production of crude oil

One of the nation’s largest vertically integrated chicken producers will be shutting down one of its plants in Campbell County, Tennessee.

George’s Inc. announced it would be closing its Caryville food processing plant, WVLT-TV reported.

Finland’s flag carrier Finnair has reportedly become the latest casualty of the sanctions war between Russia and the West. The airline suffered heavy financial losses due to the forced necessity to fly around Russia, after the country closed its airspace in retaliation to Western sanctions.

Since the beginning of 2022, the operating loss of one of the world’s oldest airlines amounted to €133 million, of which €51 million in expenses fell on fuel costs, the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports.

Lithuania will maintain the ban on the transit of sanctioned goods between Kaliningrad Region and mainland Russia, President Gitanas Nauseda has said.

“It is absolutely clear that Lithuania must and will implement EU sanctions,” Nauseda wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.

“Lithuania must and will maintain control over the goods passing through its territory, and there cannot be any ‘corridors’, nor can there be any appeasement of Russia in response to the Kremlin’s threats. I have made clear to the president of the European Commission how Lithuania sees the situation.”