Bloomberg The leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Romania are in Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in by far the highest-profile visit to the country since Russia invaded at the end of February. They traveled overnight by train to Kyiv and were joined by Romania’s president in a show of solidarity ahead of an expected recommendation Friday from ...

Bloomberg Russia and China gave alternative accounts of President Xi Jinping’s birthday call with Vladimir Putin, as both sides seek to manage perceptions of their relationship in the wake of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The Kremlin readout said the two men, both 69, discussed increasing economic cooperation, trade and military-technical ties between China and Russia on Wednesday. Moscow’s version also ...

Bloomberg UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was unable to visit detained Uyghurs and that she was accompanied by authorities while visiting Xinjiang, remarks that raise questions about the Chinese government’s efforts to influence her trip. “I was not able to speak to any Uyghurs currently detained or their families during the visit,” Bachelet told a meeting of the ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser said he resigned because was put in an “impossible and odious position” by the UK prime minister, who he stated was considering a potential deliberate breach of the ministerial code. In his resignation letter, Christopher Geidt didn’t specify the issue Johnson asked him to advise upon and that led him to quit. In his reply ...

  Bloomberg South Korea will expand the role of nuclear energy in order to meet its climate target. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s new government will increase the portion of atomic power in the energy mix to meet its emissions reductions goal, or Nationally Determined Contribution, it said Thursday. It will maintain the target set by the previous administration to cut ...

  Bloomberg Banks are often criticised for the financing they provide to fossil-fuel companies. But it doesn’t stop there. There’s also the funding they offer to companies that are damaging the world’s rainforests and indigenous communities. Since the Paris climate agreement was announced at the end of 2015, seven banks arranged at least $22.5 billion via loans and debt and ...

  Bloomberg The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) told more than 3,500 lenders they need to provide customers in vulnerable circumstances with more support as the rising cost of living threatens to tip millions into financial difficulty. The UK regulator said on Thursday that it was concerned consumers aren’t getting the support they need across the sector. “Changing pressures on consumers” ...

  Bloomberg A prosecutor has identified more than $60 million that he believes was laundered through Credit Suisse Group AG, in the precursor to what would be an historic Swiss criminal indictment against the bank. Geneva’s top financial-crime prosecutor, Yves Bertossa, identified a series of eight transactions the bank let slide between 2008 and 2014 at a hearing last week, ...

  Bloomberg Hungary unexpectedly raised the country’s key interest rate after the forint fell to a record this week. The one-week deposit rate was increased by 50 basis points to 7.25% on Thursday, the second rate increase in three weeks. All economists in a Bloomberg survey expected no change, in line with central bank messaging to try to keep rate ...

  Bloomberg Development Bank Ghana, which officially starts operations with about $800 million in capital, plans to grow fivefold over the next five years to help end a shortage of funding to small and medium sized enterprises. It will lend money to financial institutions, which should in turn give loans to business owners at an affordable interest rate, Kwamina Duker, ...