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French political turmoil sends European stocks sliding

European stock markets and shares in French banks fell Tuesday as investors fretted over fresh political turmoil in France.
The Paris stock market tumbled and French borrowing costs rose over fears that France’s minority government could be toppled, after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou proposed a confidence vote to break an impasse over his proposed budget cuts.
“Delaying or ditching (fiscal) reforms will make the debt situation more untenable and weigh on the economy,” said Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets.
Shares in French banks sank, with BNP Paribas down around five percent while rival Societe Generale shed more than eight percent — both major lenders hold French government debt.
“The question now is whether this develops into a broader drag on European assets or remains a distinctly French affair,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at StoneX.
London and Frankfurt were down in afternoon trading, following losses in Asia.
Wall Street’s main indexes opened flat as investors digested US President Donald Trump’s move to oust Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, citing allegations of false statements on her mortgage agreement.
The unusual step, which is likely to face a legal challenge, adds to fears about the independence of the central bank, fuelled by Trump’s repeated public demands to Fed chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.
Powell suggested on Friday more cuts to US interest rates were on the horizon.
“Investors are becoming increasingly concerned by the president’s persistent interference in the business of the central bank,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.
Yet early trades on Wall Street suggested markets were not so preoccupied with the move.
Stock markets were flat and US Treasury bond yields, closely watched as a proxy for interest rates, were little changed.
“One explanation could be that there’s a strong belief that this will fail in the courts because (Cook) has not been proven guilty of anything at the moment,” Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers said.
The dollar fell while gold rose as investors sought a safe place to store their gains.
Trump also said on Monday he would impose “substantial additional tariffs” on shipments from countries that do not cancel digital taxes and regulations, which he said were “designed to harm” US technology.
He threatened to introduce export restrictions on “highly protected (US) technology and chips”, without offering further details.
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Afghanistan: Rescue efforts resume after earthquake kills more than 800 – follow live

Some earthquake-hit local families were recently deported by Pakistan – local mediapublished at 03:54 British Summer Time
Some families affected by the earthquake had just recently been deported from Pakistan, according to local news outlet Tolo News.
Mohammad Aslam, who lives in Ghaziabad village in Kunar, said he’d lost five members of his family.
“The whole house collapsed on us. We lost five people – my father, two of my uncle’s sons, and two of my cousins’ children,” he told Tolo News, external.
It’s unclear what circumstances Aslam was in before being deported by Pakistan.
The quake-hit area of Kunar, which was hit by an earthquake late on Sunday, sits near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.
According to the UN, Pakistan had earlier this year accelerated its drive to expel undocument Afghans. In March, NGO Human Rights Watch said, external Pakistani authorities had been “coercing” Afghan refugees to return to Afghanistan – despite the risk of persecution by the Taliban and dire economic conditions.
More than 3.5 million Afghans have been living in Pakistan, according to the UN’s refugee agency. Pakistan has taken in Afghans through decades of war, but the government says the high number of refugees now poses risks to national security and causes pressure on public services.
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Dances With Wolves star Graham Greene dies aged 73

Graham Greene, the Canadian First Nations actor who starred in films including Dances With Wolves, has died aged 73, his manager says.
“It is with deep sadness we announce the peaceful passing of award-winning legendary Canadian actor Graham Greene,” Gerry Jordan said in a statement to CBC News. The outlet reported he died of natural causes.
Greene scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Kevin Costner’s 1990 epic western, where he played Kicking Bird.
He was a member of the Oneida Nation, part of the Six Nations Reserve in southern Ontario.
Greene worked as a draftsman, civil technologist, steelworker and rock-band crew member before starting his career in theatre in the UK in the 1970s.
In a 2012 interview with Canadian publication Playback, he credited theatre with giving him a grounding for acting.
“It helps you build a character. When you get into film you don’t have that luxury. The discipline of theatre is what I recommend to all actors.”
In the same interview, he said a key moment for him came when he married his wife Hilary Blackmore, which led to “the best time of my life”.
His breakthrough came in 1990 when he played Kicking Bird, a Lakota medicine man, in Dances With Wolves. Greene won widespread acclaim for the role.
He also appeared in the 1992 western thriller Thunderheart, playing tribal officer Walter Crow Horse.
In the 1999 fantasy drama The Green Mile, Greene played Arlen Bitterbuck, a Native American man on death row in prison.
He also starred in Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995), Maverick (1994), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) and Wind River (2017).
He picked up numerous awards through his storied career, including the Earle Grey Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Academy of Canadian Film and Television in 2004.
In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of Canada, the country’s second highest civilian honour.
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Dollar weak on rate outlook, gold hits record high

By Ankur Banerjee
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Asian stocks edged higher while the dollar lurked near five-week lows and gold climbed to a record high on Tuesday, as investors girded for a slate of economic data this week, including the crucial U.S. labour report on Friday.
Markets widely expect the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month, pricing in an 89% chance of a 25 basis point cut, but data this week will help investors gauge whether the central bank could perhaps lean toward a jumbo cut.
The focus will be on Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which will be preceded by data on job openings and private payrolls, providing investors and the Fed a clearer picture of the labour market that has become the centre of policy debate.
“While an outsized 50 bps rate cut in September is not the base case expectation currently, it cannot be ruled out altogether if the August jobs data shows exceptional weakness,” said Vasu Menon, managing director of investment strategy at OCBC Bank.
“This is what the Fed did in September last year after employment growth slowed down sharply between June and August 2024. However, the difference this time around is that the Fed is also concerned that tariffs may fuel inflation.”
The U.S. inflation report for August is scheduled to be released on September 11, a week before the Fed’s policy meeting.
The prospect of lower borrowing costs has kept Wall Street near record highs, while stocks in other regions have also gained in recent weeks. On Tuesday, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.2% higher.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.39% after dropping more than 1% on Monday. Nasdaq futures rose 0.07% while European futures inched higher. U.S. markets were closed on Monday for a holiday leaving few cues for Asian markets.
China stocks have been on a tear buoyed by AI enthusiasm. The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.26% on Tuesday to hit a three-year high for the third straight session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index eased 0.19% in early trading after surging 2% on Monday.
The currency market also made a tepid start to Tuesday with the euro at $1.1706, while sterling hovered near two-week highs at $1.3535. The yen fetched 147.31 per dollar ahead of a crucial Japanese government bond auction.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six others, was at 97.717, hovering near the five-week low it hit on Monday. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes was 2.6 basis points higher at 4.251% in early Asian hours.
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