Briefly

EUROPE

ECB expected to slash rates for 7th time

The European Central Bank is expected to deliver its 7th-straight interest rate cut this week as US President Donald Trump's volatile trade policies add to headwinds for the sluggish eurozone. Even before Trump unleashed his on-off tariff onslaught on the world, the ECB had been bringing borrowing costs down as inflation eased. Worries about sluggish performance in the 20 countries that use the euro have increasingly overshadowed inflation concerns as higher rates have pinched businesses and households. Predicting a cut when the ECB's governing council meets Thursday, HSBC said the eurozone's "near-term outlook has deteriorated on the recent US tariffs announcements and related uncertainty".

UNITED KINGDOM

Migrants arriving in boats touch record

The UK government figures on Sunday showed nearly 1,200 migrants arrived in the country Saturday in small boats from France across the English Channel, the highest number recorded on a single day so far this year. The latest Home Office figures show that 1,194 migrants arrived in 18 boats on Saturday in what were settled weather conditions, bringing the provisional annual total so far to 14,811. That's 42 percent higher than the same point last year, an increase that has piled pressure on the government, which returned to power nearly a year ago partly on disillusionment with the previous Conservative administration's efforts to get a grip on the numbers making the crossing.

NIGERIA

Death toll reaches 200 as floods rage on

The death toll from devastating flooding in a market town in Nigeria's north-central state of Niger rose to at least 200 on Sunday, a local official said. Torrents of predawn rainfall early Thursday unleashed devastating floods on Mokwa, nearly 380 kilometers west of Abuja and a major trading and transportation hub where northern Nigerian farmers sell beans, onions and other food to traders from the south. The deputy chairman of Mokwa local government, Musa Kimboku, confirmed the updated fatality count to The Associated Press on Sunday. He said rescue operations have been called off, as authorities no longer believe there are any survivors. To prevent the outbreak of disease, officials are currently exhuming bodies buried beneath the rubble, Kimboku added. On Saturday, the spokesperson for the Niger State emergency service, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, said more than 3,000 people were displaced.

Agencies Via Xinhua