Prices in Turkey are rising at their fastest rate in 24 years, according to the latest official figures. The annual rate of inflation, the pace at which prices rise, hit 78.62% in June, which was slightly higher than expectations. Transport costs and housing saw some of the sharpest price rises, worsened by the Ukraine war. Inflation has surged since last year, when the Turkish president cut interest rates to try to boost the economy. Usually countries would increase interest rates in an attempt to cool inflation. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described interest rates as “the mother and father of all evil”, and has used more unorthodox policy to try to dampen prices including intervening in foreign exchange markets. Last year’s cut in interest rates from 19% to 14% has led to a fall in the value of the Turkish lira, which means it costs more for the country to import goods from abroad.(BBC)…[+]

At least seven people have been killed after being caught in an avalanche sparked by the collapse of a glacier in the northern Italian Alps. Emergency officials said eight others were injured in the collapse, with two people suffering serious injuries. Rescue teams using helicopters and drones have resumed searching for 15 still missing. Four of the seven killed have been identified by rescuers, three of them Italian, including two mountain guides. Video of the incident showed an ice mass collapsing down the slopes of Marmolada, the area’s highest mountain. “An avalanche of snow, ice and rock which in its path hit the access road when there were several roped parties, some of which were swept away,” emergency services spokeswoman Michela Canova said. “The definitive number of mountaineers involved is not yet known,” she added.(BBC)…[+]

At least five people have been killed as Tropical Storm Bonnie swept through Central America. Four died in Nicaragua and one in El Salvador, officials said. Bonnie, which has since strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane, is expected to move parallel to the coasts of southern Mexico in the coming days, according to the US National Hurricane Center. Meteorologists have warned of life-threatening surf and rip currents. Bonnie made landfall late on Friday on the Caribbean coast in southern Nicaragua and swept north-west across the country to El Salvador’s Pacific coast. All four of those who died in Nicaragua were swept away by rivers which had been turned into raging torrents by the heavy rains. One of victims, 43-year-old Juan Carlos Alemán Mendoza, had been rescuing passengers from a local bus which had been washed away by flooding, local media reported.(BBC)…[+]