The financial strictures imposed on Russia have put a spotlight on cryptocurrencies. Could the Russian government, or sanctioned officials, use digital assets to hide and move their wealth, undermining efforts to punish President Vladimir Putin’s regime for its bloody war in Ukraine? Here’s where things stand: Global illicit crypto activity amounted to $14 billion in 2021 — or about ...

  Judging by official Chinese media, President Xi Jinping appears to have focused more on the question of Taiwan than the Russian invasion of Ukraine when he spoke with his US counterpart Joe Biden. If Xi fears US support for what he calls “Taiwan independence” forces, many US analysts worry about the opposite — that China might be inspired by ...

  Bloomberg China has retrieved the second black box from a jet that crashed after days of searching, as investigators try to work out what happened to the China Eastern Airlines flight carrying 132 people that plummeted from a cruise altitude. The flight data recorder was found 5 feet (1.5 metres) beneath the soil, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Investigators made ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong has cut the time airlines are banned for carrying excessive numbers of Covid-positive passengers to seven days from two weeks. The circuit-breaker mechanism that bans airlines if they carried four cases or more travellers from the same airport of origin within a week has been deleted, according to a statement released by the government. Under the ...

  Bloomberg Tata Group-owned Air India Ltd is looking at buying as many as 30 widebody aircraft, the enginemaker for Airbus SE’s A350 jets said, an order that will allow the former state-run carrier to aggressively pursue international growth. “I think they are looking at something up to 30 aircraft, could be as big as that, which is a big ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co’s program to certify a new version of its 737 Max jet is running behind schedule and may not meet an end-of-year deadline, aviation regulators warned in a letter. The Max 10, an extended version of the company’s flagship single-aisle jet that was grounded in 2019 after two fatal crashes, must be approved by the Federal Aviation ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabian grocery chain BinDawood Holding bought a majority stake in e-commerce app manager and developer International Applications Trading Co for an initial payment of $28.7 million that could increase subject to future profitability milestones. BinDawood Holding, through its Future Technology Retail unit, signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 62% stake in IATC, according to a statement. ...

  Bloomberg The US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) chief of safety is becoming the agency’s acting leader next week. Billy Nolen, who joined the FAA this year after a career as an airline pilot and executive, will be the temporary replacement for Steve Dickson, who is stepping down on Thursday. The appointment was announced in an FAA press release. The ...

Bloomberg US President Joe Biden called for the ouster of Vladimir Putin, an unscripted and revealing aside that risks feeding the Russian president’s narrative that the conflict is in fact an effort to remove him from power, not simply to stop his invasion of Ukraine. Biden took the stage in Warsaw to deliver one of the most consequential speeches of ...

  Bloomberg Poland’s President Andrzej Duda criticised Hungary for failing to support Ukraine, exposing a growing rift between the two erstwhile allies since the war began more than a month ago. Speaking after meeting US President Joe Biden in Warsaw, Duda said Hungary’s high dependence on Russian energy supplies makes PM Viktor Orban understandably wary. “But given Russian aggression against Ukraine, ...