Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG confirmed that it made a joint bid with container giant MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA to buy Italia Trasporto Aereo, known as ITA, the successor to failed carrier Alitalia. That sets up a possible two-horse race for ITA, with Lufthansa and MSC likely to face off against a group backed by the German carrier’s European ...

  Bloomberg David Buttress, the former chief executive officer of UK food delivery firm Just Eat, is weighing plans to create his own venture capital fund after a making nearly a dozen investments on his own. Buttress joined venture capital firm 83North as a venture partner after stepping down from Just Eat in 2017, and has also made 10 so-called ...

Bloomberg North Korea appears to have fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a defiant show of force just hours after US President Joe Biden wrapped up a visit to the region, testing his efforts to strengthen defense ties with South Korea and Japan. South Korea said a suspected ICBM reached an altitude of about 540 kilometres (335 miles) and ...

Bloomberg China followed President Joe Biden’s vow to defend Taiwan militarily by announcing it held military exercises close to the democratically ruled island, underscoring its anger over the US stance. The air and sea “combat readiness patrol” was “a solemn warning about the recent collusion between the US and Taiwan,” Colonel Shi Yi said in a statement from the Eastern ...

Bloomberg With all eyes on Ukraine as it strives to mount the first rung of the process to join the European Union, neighbour Moldova worries that its own push to join the bloc may be forgotten. Sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania on the EU’s eastern frontier, Europe’s poorest nation has struggled since independence in 1991. It has suffered from rampant ...

Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping held an unusual meeting with a top human rights chief, highlighting the importance his administration places on United Nations official Michelle Bachelet’s landmark visit to China. Beijing is willing to discuss rights issues and cooperate with all parties on the basis of mutual respect, Xi said in a video call with Bachelet on Wednesday, state ...

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank (RBNZ) raised interest rates by half a percentage point for a second straight meeting and forecast further aggressive hikes to come to tame inflation. The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee lifted the official cash rate (OCR) to 2% from 1.5% on Wednesday in Wellington, as expected by 19 of 22 economists in a Bloomberg survey. It ...

Bloomberg The yuan’s biggest weekly gain in two years could be fleeting, with some analysts forecasting its slide to the 7 per dollar level. Option traders are reviving bearish wagers on the Chinese currency as indicated by the three-month dollar-offshore yuan risk reversal, which advanced this week for the first time since mid-May. The cost of shorting the yuan also ...

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co’s new UK digital lender has attracted more than 500,000 customers and gathered about $10 billion in deposits since launching in September. Chase UK, its British digital-only bank, is “off to a strong start,” JPMorgan said in an investor presentation. But such growth hasn’t come cheap with losses at US lender’s overseas digital banks likely ...

  Bloomberg New Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong is turning out to be more outspoken than his predecessor as he shows a willingness to leverage his position to stimulate debate on economic challenges ranging from inflation to demographics. Rhee made clear ahead of his first policy meeting this week that he will press for higher interest rates to rein ...