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The French trade union CGT said 1.5m people demonstrated against pension reforms across France, 5 December 2019. Photo: Confédération Générale du Travail 

French march against Macron

Thousands rallied, transport was severely disrupted and schools were closed across France as civil servants protested Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plans. The French president reportedly wants to merge France’s 40-odd public pension plans and extend the retirement age (although the French government was not yet unveiled its exact proposal). Strikes will continue today and Monday. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, France 24, The Guardian and NPR.

Pelosi: “the president leaves us no choice but to act”

The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, asked the Judiciary Committee to draft articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, which would lead to a trial in the US Senate. Sources: BBC, CNBC, New York Times, Politico and Reuters.

First steps taken to create European AML agency

EU finance ministers asked the European Commission to consider setting up a European anti-money laundering agency. Sources: Law360, Reuters, RTE and Wall Street Journal. Related: PWC anti-money laundering partner spoke about the upcoming FATF audit of Luxembourg at a Delano event on Thursday.

EU sets green investment rules

The European Council and European Parliament agreed on an EU “taxonomy” that defines what counts as a “sustainable” investment. Sources: Bloomberg, Euractiv and Financial Times. Related: Luxembourg’s financial regulator and fund firms said last month the rules will help, but only address some ESG criteria.

Saudi Aramco: record-breaking IPO

The world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, will raise $25.6bn in the world’s largest IPO, valuing the firm at $1.7trn. It will begin trading next week. Sources: CNBC, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times, The Guardian and Reuters.

Oil alliance could reduce production

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia are considering a production cut of 500,000 barrels per day (out of roughly 30m barrels a day) in a bid to push up the oil price. Talks continue Friday. Sources: CNBC, Financial Times, The Guardian, Marketwatch and Seeking Alpha.

Blackrock exec ousted over staff relationship

Mark Wiseman, Blackrock’s global head of active equities and chairman of Blackrock Alternative Investors, is leaving the firm after failing to disclose a workplace romance. Sources: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Institutional Investor, Reuters and Wall Street Journal.

Measles infections surged in 2018

There were 9.7m measles cases, leading to 142,300 deaths (mostly children under the age of 5) worldwide last year, said the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sources: BBC, CBC, The Guardian, New York Times and The Telegraph.

Agenda

Saturday 7 December, 9am-1:30pm: Help conserve biodiversity near Erpeldange. Sunday 8 December, 8pm: Voices International Christmas concert in Bridel. Tuesday 10 December, 6:30pm: Delano Live 2019 in review and look ahead at 2020 (enter to win free passes). Tuesday 10 December, 6:30pm: ABIAL and ILCC host a conference addressing investment fund director conflicts of interest. Friday 13 December, 12noon: British Chamber of Commerce Christmas luncheon.

Here are 5 science & technology stories you may have missed

Internet safety: Registered sex offenders are using these online dating sites to meet and sexually assault women, according to Columbia Journalism Investigations. Internet services: Blockchain-based voting still has some knocks to iron out but could improve election turnout, per ZDnetCryptocurrencies: Bitcoin transactions are not as secret as many think and police are using blockchain analysis to track down criminals, per MIT Technology ReviewLinguistics: Language shapes how we see colour, per Nautilus (published in 2015). Animals: Researchers developed a new scale to calculate dog years, which Science magazine notes “is a bit more complex than ‘multiply by seven’”; a dog’s first year of life counts as 31 human years, then “every time the dog’s chronological age doubles after that, the number of equivalent human years increases by 11,” per The Conversation.

Americans, Aussies & Brits: don’t beat around the bush

Native English speakers need to use fewer idioms and use clearer grammar when speaking internationally, according to this Financial Times opinion piece.

Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald