Bloomberg The Spanish government will cut value-added tax on natural gas to 5% from 21%, in the latest step to blunt the impact on households and businesses of inflation running at its highest level in nearly four decades. The cut will start in October and last until the end of the year, Sanchez said in an interview with Spanish ...

  Bloomberg Indian Oil Corp., the country’s biggest refiner, said it plans to spend 2 trillion rupees ($25 billion) to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations by 2046. The company will target Scope 1 and 2 emissions under its net zero aim, Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, chairman of the state-owned refiner-cum-fuel retailer, said. It plans to achieve 60% of the goal ...

  It’s no surprise that for US allies in Asia, “Top Gun: Maverick” is the year’s most-watched American movie, topping the box office in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The simple tale of US might and gumption against an evil faceless opponent certainly resonates in a region that’s facing intensifying threats. But no one is placing bets that Tom Cruise ...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at last week’s central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was brief — but financial markets took notice. The S&P 500 fell sharply as investors adjusted their thinking on how tough the Fed was willing to be to get inflation back under control. Powell underlined that restoring price stability is the Fed’s “overarching focus” ...

  Corporate junk bonds in the US are paying investors a paltry premium for the risk of holding them into a looming recession. Either spreads need to widen or the recession clouds need to vanish, but something’s got to give. Consider the first possibility, the base case. Junk spreads typically track recession risk closely, and the economic gloom has been ...

  Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at 91, defied convention in ways small and large throughout some of the most tumultuous years of the Cold War. He failed in his most basic ambitions. But the world was better for them all the same. Born to peasants in a rural village that had been ravaged by collectivization, Gorbachev grasped the ...

  Bloomberg Chicago has sold the largest municipal airport transaction this year amid swirling volatility in fixed-income markets, pricing $1.8 billion of debt that will partially fund improvements at O’Hare International Airport. The $1.1 billion Series 2022A includes bonds due in January 2031 which priced with a 5% coupon and 3.69% yield, while debt due 2055 with a 5% coupon ...

  Bloomberg John Lewis Partnership Plc is hiring more than 10,000 temporary workers across the UK to meet demand over the crucial Christmas period. That’s 3,000 more than the department store chain hired in its festive push last year and all employees will receive free food from October to January to help with the higher cost of living, the retailer ...

  Bloomberg The US government is seeking to seize a Boeing 737 aircraft owned by Russian oil company Lukoil PJSC for allegedly violating sanctions imposed on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. The Justice Department announced it had obtained a warrant to seize the aircraft, which is valued at $45 million and bears the tail number VP-CLR. The aircraft “flew ...

  Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., one of the world’s biggest airfreight operators, warned that inflation, supply-chain snags and Covid-19 restrictions in China could lead to weaker cargo demand in this year’s peak season. “Inflation is having an impact on some areas of consumer demand, the supply chain disruption of recent months has dampened manufacturing output, and there continue to ...