Bloomberg US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping began a closely watched phone call on Friday, their first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month. The call, which started shortly after 9 am Washington time, is an opportunity for Biden to assess where Beijing stands on the war and how Xi views his country’s role, after some Chinese ...

Bloomberg China’s muted response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hardened views within the Biden administration that President Xi Jinping may be moving closer to supporting Moscow as the conflict continues, according to several people familiar with the matter. Even as the Chinese government publicly voices some support for the Ukrainian people and calls for a peaceful solution, top American ...

Bloomberg Military commanders from Nato countries are working the phones with their Russian counterparts to make sure the US and its allies don’t get dragged into a war over a misunderstanding on the Ukrainian border. In the past 24 hours, Russian missiles landed near Lviv, the city in western Ukraine that has been a gathering point for people fleeing the ...

Bloomberg Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven commodity prices higher, dealing a double blow to global hunger: more people in need, and smaller portions to feed them. The attack on Ukraine, known as the breadbasket of Europe, has pushed already elevated crop prices to unprecedented heights. That’s accelerating food insecurity worldwide, including in Ukraine itself. With energy bills also accelerating, ...

  Bloomberg Bulgaria expelled 10 Russian diplomats in an unprecedented move that underscored strained relations with one of the Kremlin’s closest allies within the European Union. The diplomats were declared personae non gratae for carrying out activities that contradicted to the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations, the Foreign Ministry in Sofia said in a statement, without providing further details. They ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc promised to “phase down” its financing of the fossil fuel industry, sending a warning to oil and gas clients as the bank works toward its target of net-zero emissions. The step is in line with “what is required to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius,” HSBC said. Like most of its top-tier ...

Bloomberg A further depreciation of the yen won’t be good for Japan’s economy and may prompt a shift in the central bank’s messaging, according to a former Bank of Japan (BOJ) official, speaking after the currency set a fresh low of more than five years. “The yen has already moved a lot compared with last year, so a further weakening ...

  Bloomberg Southeast Asian central bankers are keeping a cautious approach toward monetary tightening, as the fallout from the war in Ukraine stokes risks to global growth and inflation. Bank Negara Malaysia will continue gauging the “appropriate degree of monetary policy accommodation to make sure this economic recovery is much more durable,” Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said in a ...

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co has processed funds that were earmarked for interest payments due on dollar bonds issued by the Russian government and sent the money on to Citigroup Inc. as bondholders waited for a second day to receive the $117 million. JPMorgan was the correspondent bank Russia used to send the payment to Citigroup, which is acting ...

  Bloomberg Russia’s central bank granted Sberbank PJSC, the nation’s biggest lender, a license to issue and exchange digital assets. Using Sber’s platform, companies can issue their own digital assets to attract market investments, buy digital assets through Sber’s system, or make other digital assets transactions, the bank said in a statement. “We are just starting our work with digital ...