US weekly unemployment claims rose for the second straight week with some 1.43 million US workers filing for first-time unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said on Thursday, as a new wave of COVID-19 infections continued to overwhelm the country's economy

Europe's economic interests in connection with the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline must be protected, and Washington's actions question further close partnership of the US and the EU, Waldemar Gerdt, a member of the Bundestag committee on foreign affairs from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told Sputnik, adding that the US sanctions against the project are political