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Russia has vowed to sue if sanctions force it to default on its bonds but academics and lawyers have dismissed the threat as “payment theatre” designed to project the state’s financial strength. Over the weekend, finance minister Anton Siluanov said western sanctions were an attempt to “artificially create a man-made default” — Moscow’s first since

Like many Germans, Otmar Issing is alarmed by the surge in inflation to 40-year highs in his country and worried by the “misguided” response of the European Central Bank. But, as one of the founding fathers of the euro, Issing’s complaints carry more weight than most of his countrymen. The ECB’s first chief economist when

Chief among all the succession questions on Wall Street is what will happen when Jamie Dimon relinquishes the top job at JPMorgan. Last week, the bank offered a rare glimpse of its preparations in a securities filing that said a “substantial majority” of investors wanted him to stay on as non-executive chair when he steps

Hours after he fell short of making it into the final phase of France’s presidential election, the veteran leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon had a message for his supporters: they should not give “a single vote” to far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the second round in two weeks. Now the identity of France’s next president might

Airline executives and politicians are piling on pressure for the US to let Covid-19 mask rules expire on schedule next week, even as a majority of the public wants to keep them. Forced mask-wearing has caused friction in aircraft cabins. Last year, 72 per cent of a record 5,981 reports of unruly passengers were mask-related,

The Netherlands has called on governments to increase their financial and political support for the International Criminal Court as it investigates alleged war crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or risk failing to bring those responsible to justice. Increased backing for the ICC is “critically important,” Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra said. The court

Alexander Saverys, an heir to one of Belgium’s oldest shipping dynasties, has hit out at Norwegian tycoon John Fredriksen’s ambition to create the world’s largest oil tanker group and vowed to build opposition to the plan. Fredriksen last week announced a $4.2bn deal to merge his Frontline group with Belgium’s Euronav, a rival tanker group

Airlines and airports spent the past two years insisting that when people could finally travel again, they would. Except, it seems, they can’t — and the industry itself is to blame. The great Easter getaway has been beset by reports of chaos. Manchester airport has warned of hour-long waiting times for security for months to

The billionaire chief executive of Fanatics plans to push on with his acquisition spree after raising another $1.5bn from investors, as the US group continues to expand from sports merchandising into digital collectibles and trading cards. “All the capital raises are always for M&A, we don’t raise capital for our operations,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin

Tech companies that were once cautious about in-person work are calling employees back to the office. Google wants workers to come in three days a week. So does Amazon. The move poses a challenge to business software stock valuations. Take workplace chat provider Slack and its parent company Salesforce, the cloud software group. Salesforce bought

In the spring of 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, many pharmaceutical companies faced disruptions to their supply chains. Chemicals used to produce the key ingredients in drugs were often sourced from only a few suppliers in China — sometimes from just one. The pandemic has brought to light just how much the global

Regarding your article “How the UK’s non-dom status works” (Report, April 9), I do not believe that the non-dom exemption “was intended to protect colonial investments and allowed UK residents to be taxed only on money brought into the country”. These people would have had a UK domicile, so the foreign exclusion would not have

The issue of prestige for frontline service workers (“Want to understand 21st-century power? Look at PizzaExpress”, Opinion, April 7) is critical for the UK’s service economy. Customer-facing staff account for 61 per cent of the nation’s workforce. They are the very bedrock of our economy, and yet, as your columnist Stephen Bush points out, very

By George Upton For traditionalists Every year, the town of Gaiole in Chianti is transformed by L’Eroica, a festival dedicated to vintage cycling (main picture, above). But whether you ride a traditional steel-framed bike or cutting-edge carbon fibre racer, this medieval hamlet, on the market for €6.6mn, is ideally located to make the most of

Within hours of the Australian government announcing a “giveaway” budget that Scott Morrison had hoped would propel him to a second term as prime minister, his own party began tearing into him. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, a senator from Morrison’s Liberal party, unleashed a blistering 10-minute character assassination, calling her boss an “autocrat (and) a bully who

Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, has secured $2bn in new funding from Sony and the group behind the Lego franchise as leading global games companies race to build an avatar-filled “metaverse”. The North Carolina-headquartered group said on Monday it had secured $1bn each from Japanese console and game developer Sony and Kirkbi, the investment

Proxy adviser ISS is recommending that investors vote against a proposed new pay package for Axa’s chief executive Thomas Buberl, arguing the insurer has not provided a good enough rationale for an offer that would include a 14 per cent salary hike. With Buberl’s mandate as chief executive up for renewal ahead of a new

Good evening, In an otherwise positive report about the airport “coming back to life after two years”, Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye warned that resources were “stretched” and that it was “unclear whether the surge in demand is sustainable”. Labour shortages have hit the aviation industry particularly badly, limiting its ability to bounce back from the

The writer, former head of the IMF’s European department, is chief economic adviser at Morgan Stanley After yet another nasty inflation surprise last month, and with European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde no longer ruling out interest rate hikes in 2022, financial markets have got the message that policy tightening is afoot. Long-term rates have

Hey Fintech Fam, This week I explored how payment companies are approaching opportunities in the metaverse. I also spoke with the co-founder of one of the artificial intelligence start-ups helping to automate loan underwriting. Plus, keep reading for a recap of the horse race to become the “world’s crypto capital.” Did the new 3,000-pound crypto

What is going on between Elon Musk and Twitter? If you’re wishing you could be a fly on the wall in chief executive Parag Agrawal’s office right now, you’re not alone. Musk’s sudden decision to no longer join Twitter’s board marks a significant U-turn just days after he became the social media company’s biggest shareholder