Milestones

Shares dropped in Europe and Asia on Monday while oil prices surged more than $3 a barrel amid dire warnings over energy shortages in Europe if Russia cuts off gas supplies. Major European benchmarks opened down 1% or more. In Asia, Tokyo rose while other regional markets declined. Shanghai was closed for China's weeklong National Day holidays. A Bank of Japan quarterly survey showed sentiment among manufacturers has darkened, reflecting worries over the outlook for export demand. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% Friday and is at its lowest level in almost two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.7% and the Nasdaq fell 1.5%. Oil prices surged more than $3 a barrel after oil producers said they were considering more output cuts.

This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for his discoveries on human evolution. Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Committee, announced the winner Monday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The medicine prize kicked off a week of Nobel Prize announcements. It continues Tuesday with the physics prize, with chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 10.

Congressional districts that a federal court panel said were unconstitutional because they dilute representation for Black voters in Alabama are nevertheless being used for the November election after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed them. The high court hears arguments in the case on Tuesday. The packing of Black voters into just one of the state’s seven congressional districts leaves many of them without a voice and gives Republicans one more seat than they should have based on the state's demographics and voting patterns. Gerrymandering has reduced the influence of Black voters for decades in a state that is synonymous with the civil rights movement.