ECB ponders further monetary stimulus to counter trade, Brexit risks

Against the backdrop of this uncertainty, the ECB decided to keep its low interest rates unchanged, at least during the first half of next year, but said it stands ready to adopt further monetary stimulus.[...]
Draghi said the conditions were not comparable with those seven years ago, when he said he would do "whatever it takes" to save the common currency in the worst moment of the euro crisis. [BWAH!]

The proposal, seen by Reuters on Thursday (6 June), would allow the EU and any other WTO member with which it had a dispute to use the WTO's arbitration rules to set up a new judicial procedure, an "interim solution" until the US veto on the appointment of new judges is lifted. The disputants would effectively copy and paste the existing system to create an ad hoc process overseen by former WTO appeals judges.

By moving ahead with alternative arrangements [BWAH!], the EU has signalled it does not expect to resolve the crisis before December.

archived WTO "reform"
Isolate Trump at WTO, says former top trade judge Bacchus, Nov 2018
EU sends WTO reform proposals to break U.S. deadlock

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

As the latest advertising reports show, in the three months running up to the European elections, the total amount spent on political advertisements on Facebook was approximately 23.5 million euro. Advertisers in Germany spent the most (3.5 million), followed by those in the UK (3.3 million), Spain (2.7 million), Belgium (2.4 million) and Italy (1.8 million).
[...]
Moreover, member states show distinct approaches from party to party. Two Spanish parties were respectively first and third for spending, leftist Podemos with 751,344 euro spent, and centrist party Ciudadanos with 364,595 euro spent. Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang comes second with 707,737 euro. Nevertheless, only 3 percent of advertisers invested over 10,000 euro.
[...]
It's worth mentioning that the major spender in Facebook political advertising is not a political party, but the European Parliament itself. Together with a few civil society organisations, such as Kialo, The Good Lobby and Avaaz, the Parliament promoted several get-out-to-vote campaigns to increase public awareness of the elections.
[...]
During the campaign, there were issues with third countries and unidentified organisations sponsoring targeted content. As a result of Facebook's new rules for political advertising in the EU, paid political content is only allowed in the country where the ad buyer is based. Nevertheless, ["]influencers["] could still buy political ads at the national level and reach all European users.