Global newsbriefs from the Economist

Fears about the health of Italian banks intensified. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest lender, came under particular pressure, following leaked reports that it will need to raise capital. Shares in Italy's big banks have halved in value this year.

The Bank of England relaxed capital requirements for banks, as it tried to reassure markets that Britain would avoid a credit crunch. Mark Carney, the central bank's governor, suggested that the next meeting of the monetary-policy committee on July 14 would move to ease monetary policy, possibly through a cut in interest rates or more quantitative easing.

George Osborne, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, proposed a further cut to corporation tax, to below 15 percent, as an incentive to stop companies moving away from Britain once it leaves the E.U. (the rate was due to fall to 17 percent by 2020). Osborne also ripped up his plan to achieve a budget surplus by 2020, acknowledging that the government had to be "realistic" in the post-Brexit world.

Shareholders in the London Stock Exchange voted in favor of the proposed merger with Deutsche Börse. Joachim Faber, the chairman of DB's supervisory board, recommended that DB's shareholders vote the same way. The head of Germany's financial regulator, BaFin, and some German politicians have questioned the deal, which would put the headquarters of the combined company in London.

A jury found three former bankers at Barclays guilty of manipulating LIBOR, a benchmark interest rate (a fourth man pleaded guilty). They were accused of fraudulently submitting false LIBOR rates to exaggerate their trading positions. The trio had argued that they did not know what they were doing was dishonest.

Two banks in Abu Dhabi, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank, said they would merge, creating the Middle East's largest lender with $175 billion in assets. The emirate has been looking at ways to consolidate its banks after the collapse in the price of oil.

Puerto Rico defaulted on general-obligation bonds, which are supposed to have rock-solid constitutional guarantees of repayments to creditors. The default came a day after President Obama signed emergency legislation that creates a fiscal control board for the territory with the power to restructure its crippling debt load.

The first death was recorded of a motorist using an autonomous driving mode. Tesla Motors confirmed that a driver who had engaged the autopilot in a Model S sedan had died in May when the car failed to recognize a lorry crossing its path and plowed under it. Tesla provided a software update to the Model S last October that allows motorists to pass control to the autopilot but has stressed that drivers must keep their hands on the steering wheel.

At least 250 people were killed by a bomb blast in Baghdad last week, thought to be the worst attack in Iraq since 2007. When the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, tried to visit the site of the attack, in a Shiite neighborhood, the crowd chased him away. Islamic State claimed responsibility. There were also three terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, including one in the holy city of Medina.

The Syrian army called a 72-hour truce to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of the holy (and, this year, exceptionally bloody) Muslim month of Ramadan.

A nationwide strike in protest of the lack of jobs and nonpayment of wages for government employees shut down much of Zimbabwe. The government is broke and desperately trying to raise new loans from foreign donors.

Rio Tinto decided to shelve its planned $20 billion investment in an iron-ore project in the West African nation of Guinea. The mine, railway and port could have doubled the size of Guinea's economy.