after Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.

The threat of even higher tariffs has raised fears that growth will underperform already modest forecasts. The EU’s executive commission lowered its growth forecast for this year to 0.9% from 1.3% on the optimistic assumption that the 20% tariff rate can be negotiated down to no more than 10%.Low inflation has bolstered the ECB’s ability to cut rates. Annual inflation for the 20 countries that use the euro fell to 1.9% in May from 2.2% in April as energy prices eased.

The ECB raised rates to a record high of 4% to suppress a 2021-2023 inflation outbreak that reached double digits. But with inflation now below its 2% target, the bank has more freedom to cut. Lower rates make it cheaper to borrow and buy things, supporting demand for goods and in theory increasing spending and investment.Europe’s top official monitoring illegal drugs has a parting message near the end of his tenure: the relentless rise in the trafficking of cocaine and other stimulants is producing more violence than ever before in the heart of the world’s safest societies.Alexis Goosdeel, the Belgian clinician who has run the European Union Drugs Agency since Jan. 2016, has watched it unfold across the continent and spill into his home country. The bulk of drug seizures shifted from Europe’s southern flank to its northern ports and, with Antwerp now a leading entry point for cocaine and crack, spreading gang violence has produced

even near the seat of Europe’s government.It’s emblematic of the risk the continent at large faces, he told The Associated Press via video conference from Lisbon, Portugal, where his agency is based.

“For people living in Brussels, that’s the first time in the history of the country ... that you have episodes with weapons, with guns, in the center of Brussels,” Goosdeel said. “And this happens 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) from the building of the European Parliament, in a city that was felt and perceived by people to be quite safe.”

He noted the globalization of drug gangs — for example groups from the western Balkans arrested in Andean nations in South America. And he pointed to the new phenomena of gangs using social media to recruit at-risk youths, some of whom are recent arrivals to Europe as undocumented migrants.Khamenei also did not insist on any specific level of nuclear enrichment. Iran now enriches uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who has led the talks with Witkoff, said Tehran soon will offer its response to the U.S. Khamenei’s speech Wednesday at the mausoleum of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini may serve as a preview.“If we had 100 nuclear power plants while not having enrichment, they are not usable for us,” Khamenei said. “If we do not have enrichment, then we should extend our hand (begging) to the U.S.”

The 86-year-old Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state in Iran, often balances his remarks over the demands of reformists within the country who want the talks against hard-line elements within Iran’s theocracy, including the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.Late in August, Khamenei in a speech