Amid ongoing soaring tensions between the West and Russia, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) scrambled American fighter jets to identify and intercept four Russian warplanes flying near Alaska.

NORAD indicated in a fresh statement that the incident occurred Wednesday, and involved a pair of Russian Tu-95 long-range strategic bombers and a pair Su-35 fighter jets traversing the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

The US side sent E-3 early warning and control aircraft, and four F-16s and four KC-135 tanker planes, “to positively identify and intercept” the Russian aircraft – NORAD described.

The ADIZ is considered international airspace that borders US and Canadian sovereign airspace. Such an action by Russian aerial forces has become somewhat routine, but has occurred more frequently over the last couple years, also as war continues to rage in Ukraine.

For example, August saw three similar incidents play out within only a matter of a week. And before that, there were a half-dozen instances since the year’s start where Russian planes entered the ADIZ.

There were dozens of other instances in 2024 and 2023 – each requiring NORAD to send its own jets to shadow, monitor, and intercept the Russian aircraft. 

As we detailed before, in September 2024 NORAD released footage of a Russian plane flying “within just a few feet” of US military aircraft near the coast of Alaska, prompting a general to say at the time that the Russian Su-35 plane’s conduct “was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all.”

NORAD has previously acknowledged that Russian bomber flights near Alaska occur “regularly”. But recently China has even begun to join some Russian patrols of northern Pacific areas, including areas extending near Alaska.

JETS SCRAMBLED: NORAD detects Russian aircraft in Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. pic.twitter.com/ObTsFSX7WZ

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 25, 2025

The US-Canada command has said “NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions.”

Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order approving a new TikTok U.S. joint venture on Sept. 25, a White House official told The Epoch Times.

The order will extend China-based ByteDance’s divestment deadline for 120 days, giving U.S. investors and ByteDance time to seek regulatory approvals and close a deal.

The TikTok U.S. joint venture will have a new board with seven seats, six of which will be held by Americans with backgrounds in cybersecurity and national security. The seventh will be held by ByteDance, which will be excluded from security-related decisions.

In accordance with the law requiring ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok, ByteDance will retain a stake of less than 20 percent in the new venture.

The popular social media app has approximately 170 million monthly users, and White House officials anticipate that it will contribute $178 billion to economic development over the next four years.

U.S. cloud company Oracle is among the investors and will serve as the venture’s trusted technology partner, overseeing the app’s source code and security matters.

White House officials have said this means that Oracle will be tasked with taking its copy of the infamous TikTok algorithm, retraining it on U.S. user data, and observing it for any signs of malicious influence.

It is a role similar to the one proposed in TikTok’s “Project Texas” plan, pitched a few years ago, with a key difference being that ByteDance is no longer in charge of code operations and will no longer send U.S. data to China.

Trump had deemed China’s access to TikTok a national security risk in his first administration, ordering an investigation and later issuing an executive order that required ByteDance to sell the app to a U.S. buyer in 2020.

The years-long efforts to secure the app from Chinese influence have seen major developments recently, as U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators met in Madrid on Sept. 15, with a looming deadline of Sept. 17 that would have seen TikTok go dark unless Trump ordered otherwise.

A Chinese export control law covering recommendation algorithms had made selling the app untenable, ByteDance and would-be U.S. investors had said.

On Sept. 19, Trump announced that, following a two-hour call with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, approval had apparently been given at the highest level.

This means that ByteDance will now need to secure an export license for the algorithm on the Chinese side. On the U.S. side, the venture will likely need to undergo antitrust reviews, officials have said.

U.S. officials have said that securing the algorithm and having it outside of ByteDance’s control in the new venture was a “tough point of negotiation,” as Chinese negotiators had sought significant trade and technology concessions in return.

“We are not willing to sacrifice national security for a social media app,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters in Madrid on Sept. 15.

China hawks in Congress have expressed cautious approval, wanting to ensure that the terms of the final deal satisfy the law Congress passed in 2024 to block foreign adversaries from accessing apps with more than 1 million monthly users.

It started off as 2.960%; one month later it was revised higher to 3.290%, and moments ago the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that Q2 GDP was revised once again, and even higher this time, to a whopping 3.830%, the highest print in nearly two prints, since the 4.70% in Q3 2023, and primarily reflecting an upward revision to consumer spending.

According to the BEA, the increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a decrease in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, and an increase in consumer spending. These movements were partly offset by decreases in investment and exports.

Compared to the first quarter, the upturn in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a downturn in imports and an acceleration in consumer spending that were partly offset by a downturn in investment. Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, increased 2.9 percent in the second quarter, revised up 1.0 percentage point from the previous estimate.

Here are the details:

• Personal consumption contributed 1.68% to the bottom line GDP print of 3.8%, or nearly half. This was revised higher from 1.07% in last month’s revision
• Fixed investment was also revised higher, to 0.77% from 0.59%
• The change in private inventories was revised lower, subtracting 3.44% from the bottom line print; down from 3.29% previously
• Net exports (i.e. exports less imports) was also revised slightly lower, adding 4.83% to the bottom line print, down from 4.95% last month.
• Government was flat, subtracting a negligible 0.01% from the GDP number, down from -0.03% previously.

Of the above, the most notable revision was that of personal consumption which surged from 1.6% SAAR to 2.5%, despite clear signals that the average US consumer (middle class, if not so much the top 1%) is hurting. 

Before Thursday’s figures, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow estimate penciled in a 3.3% rate of growth in the July-September period. However, economists are less upbeat about growth in the fourth quarter as weaker employment dims prospects for consumer spending.

From an industry perspective, the increase in real GDP reflected increases of 10.2 percent in real value added for private goods-producing industries and 3.5 percent for private services-producing industries that were partly offset by a decrease of 3.2 percent in real value added for government.

Real gross output increased 1.2 percent in the second quarter, reflecting increases of 0.6 percent for private goods-producing industries and 1.7 percent for private services-producing industries that were partly offset by a decrease of 0.7 percent for government.

The BEA also issued its annual update of the national economic accounts, which covers GDP and related series in the past five years. While it incorporated newer, more complete source data, the agency said it was “unable to purchase” certain statistics related to tax returns for corporations and sole proprietorships. 

The annual revisions were relatively minor as real GDP still increased at an average annual pace of 2.4% from 2019 to 2024. They paint a picture of an economy that quickly rebounded from the initial shock of the pandemic and has since transitioned to period of steadier, trend growth with lingering inflation.

Turning to the inflation metrics, the revisions showed the Fed’s preferred inflation metric — the personal consumption expenditures price index, excluding food and energy — rose at faster clip throughout 2024 and was also marked up in the second quarter to 2.6%. Economists expect monthly PCE data, which are due Friday, to show the metric advanced nearly 3% in August from a year ago.

For Q2, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 2.0% in the second quarter, revised up 0.2% from the previous estimate. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 2.1 percent, revised up 0.1 percentage point. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 2.6 percent, also revised up 0.1 percentage point.

That may limit the extent of Fed interest-rate cuts in the coming months. In lowering borrowing costs last week, policymakers also projected two more reductions this year, though some officials are wary given persistently high inflation.

Real gross domestic income (GDI) increased 3.8 percent in the second quarter, revised down 1.0 percentage point from the previous estimate. The average of real GDP and real GDI increased 3.8 percent, revised down 0.2 percentage point.

Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $6.8 billion in the second quarter, a downward revision of $58.7 billion.

Looking ahead, economists expect activity to only pick up somewhat in 2026, partly due to Trump’s tax law and lower interest rates, with most forecasters expecting sub-2% growth for the next few years.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison and a €100,000 fine after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a high-profile case involving alleged illicit funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was slain by NATO-backed rebels after US-UK-French military intervention in 2011.

The 70-year-old, who served as president from 2007 to 2012 and was a hugely influential figure in right-wing politics has maintained his innocence. “What happened today is extremely serious for the rule of law and for public trust in the justice system,” he said in a statement. “If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail – but with my head held high.”

He was accused during his time as president of accepting millions of euros from Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign. The quid pro quo allegedly involved a commitment help rehabilitate Gaddafi’s image with the West.

Gaddafi had over many decades been in and out of the West’s favor, and in the mid-2000s had been ‘brought in from the cold’ by the Bush administration, in exchange for giving up his aspiring nuclear and WMD program. Yet he still later saw a Washington-led regime change war against him once the so-called Arab Spring kicked off.

Sarkozy was acquitted of other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing, with Judge Nathalie Gavarino stating that Sarkozy had allowed close aides to reach out to Libyan officials to secure financial support for his campaign. But there wasn’t enough evidence to show Sarkozy actually directly benefited from any such illicit campaign funds.

The former French leader insists he will appeal the whole thing and that his innocence will be established, in what he says is a politically motivated case.

The allegations and case are at the very least mired in intrigue, political scandal, score settling, and curiously came to light only after Gaddafi was overthrown and killed. The accusations emerged after Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam publicly accused Sarkozy of accepting campaign funds from Libya.

In 2014, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, long a well-known go-between for France and the Middle East, purported to possess written proof that Sarkozy received €50 million from Tripoli, with the payments allegedly persisting even after Sarkozy took office.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy vows appeal after being sentenced to five years for accepting illegal campaign financing from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime for his 2007 campaign. #Libya #ليبيا pic.twitter.com/Z3CDhLw4dY

— Alwasat Libya (@alwasatengnews) September 25, 2025

This is another historic ‘first’ for France’s presidents and the legal system, after in 2024 he had already received a one-year sentence (but six months were suspended) for exceeding the legal spending limit during his 2012 re-election campaign

Also in 2021 he was found guilty of attempting to bribe a judge in exchange for confidential information regarding an ongoing investigation, after which he was issued a custodial sentence.

Amid all kinds of front-running and subsequent hangover swings in durable goods orders surrounding the tariffs, preliminary data for August shows a major rebound (+2.9% MoM), far better than the 0.3% MoM decline that analysts expected…

Source: Bloomberg

That big MoM jump lifted orders up 5.4% YoY.

Ex-Transports, Core Orders rose for the 5th straight month (+0.39% MoM), up 3.6% YoY…

Source: Bloomberg

More ‘good’ news to ease Fed anxiety?

The White House budget office has instructed federal agencies to prepare to fire a ton of people (aka ‘reduction-in-force’ plans) that could permanently eliminate jobs in the event of a government shutdown – the latest twist in the latest shutdown groundhog day – effectively challenging Democrats to a game of chicken. 

In a memo shared with agencies Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget said departments must identify programs where discretionary funding will lapse on Oct. 1 and no alternative source is available. Instead of a typical furlough, OMB has told agencies to get ready for permanent reductions – starting with positions that are out of alignment with President Donald Trump’s priorities.

In the past, affected employees were furloughed on a temporary basis and reinstated once Congress approved new spending. Not this time – as OMB Director Russ Vought is using the prospect of deep cuts as leverage against the Democrats.

“Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown,” reads the OMB memo – with agencies instructed to submit their proposed RIF plans and to issue notices to employees who might otherwise be excepted or furloughed during a lapse in funding, Politico reports.

Core services – including Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, military operations, law enforcement, immigration enforcement and air traffic control – would continue regardless of a shutdown, according to an OMB official familiar with the guidance.

At the heart of the deadlock, Democrats are demanding that any short-term spending measure include an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire, as well as broader negotiations on domestic priorities. Republicans, by contrast, are pushing to advance a leaner stopgap bill already passed by the House that would fund the government through Nov. 21 while largely preserving Trump administration priorities and holding the line on additional healthcare spending.

The memo arrives days before the Sept. 30 deadline to avert a lapse in government funding. The House has passed a short-term measure to keep operations running through Nov. 21, but Senate Democrats have rejected the plan, insisting on negotiations over a broader bipartisan package that could extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The OMB also said that if Congress passes a clean stopgap bill before the fiscal year deadline, nobody will get fired (aside from the usual firings). 

Democrats, of course, are absolutely beside themselves – with Senate Minority Leader Chuck ‘hamburger expert’ Schumer (D-NY) claiming that the plan confirmed his warnings during the last shutdown standoff in March, when he argued that it would enable the Trump administration to accelerate cuts to government programs. Schumer, who will keep his job no matter what, called the OMB memo “an attempt at intimidation.” 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries struck a sharper tone, warning voters in Virginia – home to many federal employees – that the administration’s policies were “ruining lives and punishing hardworking families already struggling with Trump Tariffs and inflation.”

With just days left before government funding runs out, the OMB memo underscores the potential for this shutdown fight to reshape the federal workforce in ways not seen in previous budget battles.

Via Remix News,

The Netherlands is the second most densely populated country in Europe, and with surging mass immigration, has been experiencing a raging housing crisis for years.

However, despite this crisis, refugees can gain access to social housing in a mere 14 weeks, while the average Dutch citizen must wait up until 12 years. Now, efforts are being made to right this injustice for Dutch citizens with a new bill, but Council of State, the country’s highest legal advisory body, is criticizing any attempt to block housing access to refugees. The authority claims refugees should receive equal treatment, as required by the Dutch constitution.

Of course, the fact that there is no equal treatment currently, and that refugees are gaining access to social housing years before Dutch on waiting lists, does not appear to factor into the Council of State’s concerns, according to Dutch news outlet NOS.nl.

The minister behind the proposal, Mona Keijzer of the BBB party, says she is not backing down. Keijzer’s plan aims to create more affordable housing by ensuring that refugees, or “status holders,” no longer receive priority for housing solely because of their status

The Council of State argues that the proposal leads to unequal treatment, which is “contrary to the Constitution.” The Council has advised the cabinet not to submit the bill to the House of Representatives.

However, Minister Keijzer is not swayed by the advice.

“That’s kind of how the discussion is conducted in the Netherlands. And that’s a shame,” she said. Regarding the “unconstitutional” judgment, she stated, “The Constitution is not mathematics, it also states that I must take care of public housing for Dutch people.”

Arguments for and Against Priority Status

According to the Council of State, status holders have “an unfavorable starting position on the housing market” because they can only register for a home after arriving in the Netherlands, placing them at the bottom of waiting lists. The Council writes that while the government has proposed other measures to help status holders, it is “unrealistic” to expect them to have a timely effect, so “Permit holders therefore remain behind.”

Keijzer counters that the opposite is true, arguing that Dutch citizens are the ones currently at a disadvantage.

She noted that status holders are entitled to social housing after just 14 weeks, while the waiting lists for other home seekers can be more than 12 years.”

Treating equal cases cannot result in Dutch home seekers being treated unequally,” she said.

“Dutch people in their twenties and thirties live with their parents in the attic or share an apartment with two or three people,” she said on EO radio in August.

She believes that status holders should be expected to find housing in the same ways as other citizens, such as living with family or getting help from their employer.

“We also ask that of Dutch home seekers,” she said. The reception organization COA reports that on average, 6 to 10 percent of released social housing units go to status holders.

Keijzer said she would study the Council of State’s advice but maintained her position, saying, “But I am convinced that the ban on priority for status holders should be introduced.”

Keijzer’s proposal is different from another plan from the far-right PVV party, led by Geert Wilders, which seeks to completely prevent asylum seekers with residency from getting emergency housing declarations, even in cases of homelessness or domestic violence.

While that PVV plan has been adopted by the House of Representatives, Keijzer has stated that she intends to delete it because she believes it is discriminatory and “legally untenable.”

Of course, any real talk of restricting immigration is absent from Keijzer’s position, despite the Netherlands spending an estimated €400 billion on migrants between 1995 and 2019.

The country is not the only one facing a housing crisis, in part due to large waves of migrants. Neighboring Germany is also dealing with the same issue. In 2024, the country spent nearly €17 billion on housing support, with nearly half of it going to foreigners, and even office towers are now being converted to house newcomers.

In a number of shocking cases, senior citizens have even been moved out of their accommodations to make room for migrants.

WATCH: 🇩🇪🇪🇺 Mass immigration is fueling the West’s housing crisis.

Here’s how it’s happening in Germany.

In a powerful speech in the German Bundestag, @AfD politician Carolin Bachmann slams the ruling government for allowing 2 million migrants into the country while families… pic.twitter.com/DMEqiV316S

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 15, 2024

Read more here…

The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season was observed around Sept. 10, with the season running through Nov. 30.

So far, this year’s hurricane season has been unusually quiet, despite climate activists warning earlier that a so-called “climate crisis” would trigger an extreme season, and that, at all costs, the Western world must ban cow farts and petrol-powered vehicles to prevent planet Earth from erupting into a giant fireball. 

Yet here we are: hurricane experts have been bored to death by the lack of storm activity. But as the season enters its final months, activity has finally picked up, with two tropical waves now being monitored in the Atlantic Basin.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue wrote on X, “High chance of both Invest 93L & 94L developing into hurricanes with a risk to the U.S. East Coast from one of them.  Major intensity on table for both” 

“The “two cyclones” system will likely be dominated by Humberto … as it should be larger and more intense High uncertainty, of course, with “Fujiwhara effect” twin vortex systems … Still potential for land impacts [westward system] to U.S. East Coast over +5-10 day period,” Maue continued. 

The “two cyclones” system will likely be dominated by Humberto … as it should be larger and more intense

High uncertainty, of course, with “Fujiwhara effect” twin vortex systems …

Still potential for land impacts [westward system] to U.S. East Coast over +5-10 day period. pic.twitter.com/vkmgrTyFgL

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 24, 2025

Other private weather forecasters, including BAMWX, also took to X to warn about the “TWO disturbances in the Atlantic Ocean that are expected to develop into tropical storms & eventually hurricanes over the next few days,” adding, “The further west one is close enough for the southeast US coast to be monitoring carefully.”

We continue to carefully monitor TWO disturbances in the Atlantic Ocean that are expected to develop into tropical storms & eventually hurricanes over the next few days.

The further west one is close enough for the southeast US coast to be monitoring carefully.

Official outlook… pic.twitter.com/dgNpMfL8dX

— BAM Weather (@bam_weather) September 24, 2025

Meteorologist Matt Lanza noted on his Substack that the upper air pattern in the southwest Atlantic is “an utter mess,” which means forecast uncertainty of Invest 93L and Invest 94L increases dramatically.  

“The whole pattern bears watching for the East Coast over the next week or so,” Lanza said. “But uncertainty is extremely high, with a lot happening over a small area and any one feature having impacts on the others.”

Commenting on the historic lull in hurricane activity, Philadelphia Inquirer’s Anthony Wood pointed out, “In the era of reliable surveillance, dating back roughly 85 years, such a lull has happened only once before — in 1992, and that was an extraordinary case.”

Authored by Alex Kimani via OilPrice.com,

Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) has signed a deal with Israel Natural Gas Lines, Israel’s state-owned pipeline operator, to begin construction of the Nitzana natural gas pipeline that will transport natural gas from the giant Leviathan Gas Field to Egypt.

Scheduled to be completed in three years, the $610 million pipeline is expected to ease Egypt’s ongoing energy crisis, which currently spends billions of dollars every year importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet surging domestic energy demand.

The Nitzana pipeline will transport ~600 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, bringing Israel’s total export capacity to Egypt to more than 2.2 billion cubic feet per day. Israel’s NewMed is Leviathan’s main operator with a 45.3% working interest; Chevron has a 39.7% working interest, while Ratio Energies has 15%. Founded in 1992, Ratio Energy is one of Israel’s leading energy partnerships, with a mission to develop and produce natural gas and oil.

Egypt’s natural gas production has declined rapidly over the years due to the natural depletion of mature fields, including the Zohr gas field. Coupled with a lack of significant new discoveries since 2015, surging domestic demand for electricity, and past financial issues such as hard currency shortages and payment arrears to foreign companies, Egypt now finds itself in a tenuous position,  becoming a net gas importer since 2022, and relying on imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as well as pipeline gas from Israel. Last year, Egypt imported a record 981 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from Israel, good for 18.2% year-over-year increase. Egypt imports up to 20% of its gas from Israel. Last month, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced that the $35-billion gas supply agreement signed with Israel’s NewMed Energy was extended until 2040. But the fate of these gas flows now hangs in the balance, with tensions in the Middle East escalating after the Israeli military ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate. 

Last month, Netanyahu declared that he is “deeply committed to the vision of Greater Israel,’’ encompassing parts of Arab countries stretching from the Euphrates to the Nile.

According to Israel Hayom,  Netanyahu has instructed officials “not to move forward with the massive gas deal with Egypt without his personal approval.”

On its part, Chevron is now moving on three major geopolitical fronts at once:

1. finalizing terms for the Nitzana pipeline to ship Israeli gas into Egypt,

2. bidding for offshore blocks near Crete that Libya claims as its own,

3. and preparing a long-delayed final investment decision (FID) on the Leviathan expansion.

Together, the moves put the U.S. major at the center of the East Mediterranean’s most combustible mix of energy ambition and maritime dispute. Chevron has partnered with Greece’s HelleniQ Energy to bid for exploration rights in offshore blocks south of Crete and the Peloponnese. Athens views this development as a major step towards asserting its sovereignty  over the contested waters. Waters south of Crete and the Peloponnese are contested due to a 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime agreement that ignores Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims and is a response to potential hydrocarbon reserves in the area. Greece claims these areas based on international law, while Turkey disputes that islands like Crete can generate EEZs and views the situation as a geopolitical power struggle. Libya also claims significant portions of the area, aligning with Turkey’s position.

Meanwhile, Chevron has long delayed a final investment decision (FID) on the Leviathan expansion due to security concerns and a need for greater market demand, particularly after the October 2023 conflict. However, Chevron and its partners, NewMed Energy and Ratio Energies, now expect to take the FID on the Leviathan Phase 1B expansion, which includes drilling, subsea systems, and a potential floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, in the fourth quarter of 2025. This expansion is projected to significantly increase the field’s annual production capacity and is supported by a recent historic gas export deal, a revised development plan approved by Israel in August 2025, and ongoing contract negotiations with potential customers.

Discovered in 2010, the Leviathan is located approximately 130 km off the shores of Haifa. The 330-square kilometer field holds ~22.9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, making it the largest natural gas reservoir in the Mediterranean, and one of the largest producing assets in the region. Production is facilitated by 4 subsea wells that are connected to an offshore platform via a subsea manifold and two 120 km long pipelines, where all processing of gas takes place. The gas is then piped to shore into the Israeli national grid and distributed to clients in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

More than 5 million people died in the EU in 2022.

The infographic, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, breaks down top causes of death that year, revealing the persistent dominance of heart-related illnesses and the continued threat from cancer.

Data for this visualization comes from Eurostat.

While the data is somewhat dated, it was only released in March, 2025, and points to ongoing trends in mortality patterns.

Cardiovascular Diseases Still Top the List

Diseases of the circulatory system (think heart diseases and strokes) accounted for nearly 1.7 million deaths in 2022.

This was more than the combined total of the next two categories.

Note: Per the World Health Organization (WHO), a main cause of death is “the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury.” Data derived from the medical certificate of death, which is obligatory in the Member States. The information recorded in the death certificate is according to the rules specified by the WHO.

Cardiovascular mortality correlates strongly with age: people over 65 represent about 9 in 10 of these deaths.

For reference, 85% of all deaths in this year (4.4 million) occurred among people aged over the age of 65.

ℹ️ Related: Europe has some of the highest life expectancies in the world.

Central and Eastern European countries, where smoking and hypertension rates remain high, record the highest death rates per 100,000 residents.

Cancer’s Persistent—and Growing—Burden

Cancer caused 1.15 million EU deaths in 2022, or just under one-quarter of the total.

Lung cancer leads the pack for men, while breast cancer is the deadliest for women.

When looking at totals however, lung and colorectal cancers accounted for one-third of all cancer deaths in the EU.

Unlike circulatory diseases, cancer mortality trends vary sharply by tumor type.

For example, deaths from stomach cancer have fallen around the world, yet pancreatic cancer deaths continue to rise.

COVID-19 and Other Rising Threats

Respiratory diseases took 363,000 lives, but that figure excludes the 312,000 officially attributed to COVID-19 in 2022.

Globally, the pandemic catapulted infectious disease back into the top five causes of death for the first time in decades.

Meanwhile, deaths linked to nervous-system disorders such as Alzheimer’s (212,000) now rival those from digestive diseases (like liver cirrhosis).

As Europe’s population continues to age, dementia-related deaths are projected to surge—posing new challenges for healthcare systems.

Looking for more European content? Check out The $19 Trillion European Union Economy on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.