Bloomberg Japan will ban imports of Russian coal, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, in a bold policy shift that adds pressure on Moscow after the European Union announced its own embargo on the fuel. “Russia’s cruel and inhumane actions are coming to light one after another all over Ukraine,” Kishida told reporters in Tokyo, adding Moscow must be made ...

Bloomberg European Union nations have frozen some 29.5 billion euros ($32.1 billion) in assets linked to Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities since the bloc adopted its first sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU’s new “freeze and seize” task force said that more than half of the bloc’s 27 member nations have informed it about the measures they ...

  Bloomberg The owners of an oil-production and storage ship had a history of financial problems before the vessel blew up in Nigerian waters two months ago. The Trinity Spirit, which caught fire on February 2, burned for more than 24 hours and left a stain of crude stretching for miles across the Atlantic Ocean. While the cause of the ...

  Bloomberg France would first halt large gas-fired power plants if any Russian supply disruption creates a shortage, while households would be the last in line, according to the country’s main gas-transmission network operator GRTgaz SA. European governments are preparing plans to prevent a massive hit on their economies should an increasingly isolated Russia halt gas flows ahead of next ...

  Bloomberg Germany will step in if gas-storage operators fail to fill facilities sufficiently to comply with new requirements, as the government takes a tougher line to secure supplies for next winter. Under the new rules — approved by the upper house of parliament on Friday and due to take effect from May 1 — operators must fill storage facilities ...

Last weekend saw the re-election of the man often thought of as Europe’s proto-Putin: Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister who has attacked his country’s democracy while seeking to weaken the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) from within. Yet Orban should be careful whom he emulates. If Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent performance is any indication, he ...

From Gucci’s 10,000-square-foot store on the site of a former pencil factory in SoHo to Hermes’ two-story flagship in a New Jersey mega-mall, America hearts luxury. And that’s a good thing for the industry, because with Shanghai in lockdown and European demand potentially hurt by the war in Ukraine, the US once again is picking up the bling baton. In ...

  In the US and Europe, the phrase “living with the virus” refers to reopening the economy and trusting that vaccines work. Not in China. In the public discourse, that would be tantamount to “lie flat,” a catchphrase for encouraging inaction — an approach that has grown so popular that it drew a condemnation from President Xi Jinping last year. ...

  The bond-market beatings will continue until morale improves. It’s not been much fun investing in fixed income in recent months. The three-year US Treasury yield, for example, has risen fivefold since the start of October; the ascent shows little sign of abating. If bond traders are correct in their prognosis that inflation has raced to become endemic rather than ...

  Bloomberg Kenya Airways Plc and South African Airways are planning a series of investor roadshows to help find a financial backer for a combined airline group they aim to create next year. The campaign to attract a majority investor for a holding company to be modeled on British Airways and Iberia owner IAG SA is likely to start before ...