The eurozone economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter, official data showed on Tuesday, confirming the single currency area's rebound since January.

The EU's official data agency said the 20-country single currency zone recorded growth of 0.3 percent over the April-June period, higher than the 0.2 percent expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet and Bloomberg.

Addressing crowds of struggling farmers in flat caps and home-knit sweaters who helped vault him to power but have grown increasingly impatient with his progress, President Javier Milei vowed to scrap export taxes and rescue Argentina's key agricultural industry.

The country's powerful agricultural producers say they're willing to give the libertarian more time to deliver on his free-market promises. But many farmers are disillusioned that seven months into Milei's presidency, they remain hobbled by labyrinth currency controls, crushing export taxes and an uncompetitive exchange rate.

McDonald's posted weak sales in the second quarter as increasingly value-conscious consumers in the U.S., China and paid fewer visits to restaurants.

Sales at locations open at least a year fell 1% worldwide across every company segment in the April-June period, the first decline since the final quarter of 2020 when the pandemic shuttered stores and millions stayed home.

Britain's new Treasury chief is alleging that the previous government covered up the dire state of the nation's finances, as she prepares to deliver a major speech to Parliament on Monday that is widely expected to lay the groundwork for higher taxes.

In extracts of her speech released late Sunday, Rachel Reeves professed shock at the scale of the problems she discovered following a department-by-department review of public spending commissioned shortly after she took office three weeks ago. In a post on the social media platform X on Monday, the Labour Party confirmed that the Treasury review has identified a 20 billion-pound ($26 billion) shortfall in the public finances.

Protests over skyrocketing power bills shut down a major road into Pakistan's capital on Monday as some 3,000 supporters of a major Islamist party continued a sit-in despite pouring monsoon rains.

In Pakistan's southwest, meanwhile, thousands protested against police violence, an internet shutdown and highway closures. At least one person was reportedly killed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for further cooperation with Italy on Monday at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying the two countries were the ends of the historical Silk Road trade route.

Meloni pulled Italy out of China's Belt and Road Initiative — whose name refers to the ancient overland trade route — in December, but signed an agreement Sunday that provides a new path for the two countries to cooperate on trade and other issues.

On a typical summer day, tourists flock to the historic Marais district of Paris, wandering its charming medieval streets dotted with ultra-chic boutiques, gazing at stunning private mansions, strolling through the elegant 17th-century square Place des Vosges, and filling humming restaurants and bars.

But this summer has hardly been typical, and those streets, shops and cafes have been markedly emptier in the days leading up to the Paris Olympics — leaving businesses like Stolly's Stone Bar, a pub popular with English speakers, pining for summers past.

Finance ministers from leading rich and developing nations have gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a two-day meeting to discuss a global tax on the super-rich, a top priority for Brazil, which holds the presidency.

According to the proposal before the Group of 20, individuals with over $1 billion in total assets would be required to pay the equivalent of 2% of their wealth in income tax.

A key question is looming for Vice President Kamala Harris as she edges closer to gaining the Democratic presidential nomination: Can she turn the Biden-Harris economic record into a political advantage in a way that President Joe Biden failed to do?

In some ways, her task would seem straightforward: The administration oversaw a vigorous rebound from the pandemic recession, one that shrank the U.S. unemployment rate to a half-century low of 3.4% in early 2023 — far below the painful 6.4% rate when Biden and Harris took office in 2021. The rate stayed below 4% for more than two years, the longest such stretch since the 1960s.

The American economy, boosted by healthy consumer spending, is believed to have regained some momentum this spring after having begun 2024 at a sluggish pace.

The Commerce Department is expected to report Thursday that the gross domestic product — the economy's total output of goods and services — increased at a solid if unspectacular 1.9% annual rate from April through June, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. That would be up from 1.4% annual growth in the January-March quarter.