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London

US president Barack Obama remains by far the most popular world leader among people in major Western nations and is the one political figure on whom people consistently pin their hopes in the economic crisis, according to a new Harris poll. Around 80% of people in France, Germany, Italy and Spain have a positive view of Obama, and around 70%, in the UK and the US. The only politician who comes close is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who gets a positive rating from two-thirds of those in continental Europe but from only one-third of Brits and Americans. The survey found that a majority of people in the major Western democracies expect a rise in political extremism in their countries as a result of the economic crisis. Even in the US and Italy, two countries whose citizens are least likely to hold that view, 53% say more extremism is “certain to happen” or “probable” in the next three years.

Kiev

The oldest profession is feeling the pinch, economically. Visitors to Hamburg’s brothels have dropped up to 20% since the crisis began, with regulars reportedly cutting back from two or three visits a week to one a week. In the Czech Republic, where 14% of men admit to having slept with a prostitute, up to half of sex establishments outside of Prague have closed in the past year, according to Bliss Without Risk, a prostitution-outreach group. On the other hand, currency shifts have actually created opportunities for the sex trade. Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, has lost about 40% of its value against the euro since last September, which will boost the country’s growing tourism sector. Police in the capital Kiev forecast that the industry will more than double its revenues this year to €1bn, with deepening unemployment likely to increase the exploitation of vulnerable women.

Madrid

Spanish jobless claims fell in May for the first time in 14 months, to 3.62 million, prompting the government to forecast the end of Spain’s crisis despite scepticism from private economists. After months of growing lines outside benefit offices, the number of dole seekers fell 24,271 in May after an €8bn employment scheme created hundreds of thousands of temporary construction jobs. Jobless claims fell across all sectors as firms cranked up for the key summer tourist season and interest rate cuts helped consumer confidence recover from the twin shocks of the global crisis and the collapse of Spain’s housing boom. “It is no exaggeration to say that we could be at the beginning of the end of the crisis,” industry minister Miguel Sebastian told reporters after the jobless data was published, at a handy time for prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero whose Socialist Party trailed the opposition conservative Popular Party ahead of the 7 June European elections. Spain has the highest unemployment in the eurozone, after a year in which Spain delivered about half of all layoffs in the EU.

Berlin

Now that the German government has saved car manufacturer Opel — at a cost to taxpayers of €1.5bn — other German firms are queuing up for taxpayer-provided lifebelts. According to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1,164 German companies have applied for state help with 345 having been granted aid. Department store chain Arcandor is requesting €650m in addition to a €200m loan from state-owned development bank KfW, which has been met with opposition in some quarters. Economics minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg of the Christian Social Union told Passauer Neue Presse: “Those who hold out the possibility of hundreds of millions for companies on a federal level without first undertaking a close examination of the company involved is waging a campaign on the backs of the taxpayers.”

Berne

The latest Ernst & Young European Fraud Survey reveals that as the recession in Europe deepens there are worrying trends in what company employees believe is acceptable business behaviour. The responses of more than 2,200 individuals in major companies in 22 countries across Europe vary by jurisdiction but there are some consistent themes. An alarming half of the respondents thought that one or more types of unethical business behaviour is acceptable. For example, 25% thought it fine to give a cash bribe to win work. There was even a significant minority of 8% of interviewees who felt that distorting their company’s financial performance was justifiable to survive today’s turbulent economic climate.  

Rome

Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi looks set to endure the longest summer of his career. An Italian prosecutor has opened an investigation into the possible misuse of state aircraft, after media reports that guests at Berlusconi’s villa arrived on military planes, while the 72-year-old conservative leader is already mired in a scandal over his relationship with 18-year-old aspiring model Noemi Letizia, which has prompted his wife to ask for a divorce and stirred an outcry from the opposition. Not all Berlusconi’s problems involve aviation or models. He has been criticised for Italy’s tough policy on illegal immigration, and the economic outlook is grim, with Italy’s GDP plummeting 5.9% in the first quarter of 2009 and unemployment predicted to hit 10% next year.

Moscow

Despite the oil spike, the Russian economy will not return to growth in 2010 after shrinking 6.5% this year due to the weak oil price and lacklustre capital inflows, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF had expected the economy of the world’s second largest oil exporter to contract 6.0% this year, in line with the government’s own forecast, and to expand 0.5% in 2010. Despite these downward revisions, President Dmitry Medvedev gave implicit backing to the central bank’s controversial policy of moving toward a free-floating  rouble by seeking to reappoint the bank’s chairman for a new term. 

Paris

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has underscored his country’s renewed strategic interests in the Persian Gulf amid tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions by opening a French naval base in Abu Dhabi, France’s first overseas military base in 50 years. On a visit to the Emirate in June Sarkozy lobbied on behalf of French companies, including Dassault, the military aircraft maker, and a consortium of Total, GdF-Suez and Areva, which is bidding to build two nuclear power stations in the UAE. Dassault is hoping to clinch a deal to sell its Rafale fighters to the UAE, in what would be the first international order for its latest military jet. But France’s new base in what Sarkozy described as “the faultline for the whole world” is more important in diplomatic terms. It represents a shift in French strategic interests away from protecting its former African colonies towards the conflicts in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where French security is considered more at threat.