Bloomberg Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in China for talks on Afghanistan, his first visit to the world’s second-biggest economy since the war in Ukraine started. Lavrov’s plane landed on Wednesday in the eastern province of Anhui, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Twitter. He’s set to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers of countries bordering Afghanistan, Interfax reported ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, dubbed a greased piglet by a predecessor for his ability to get out of a tight political spot, appears to have won over critics from his own Conservative Party through his handling of the war in Ukraine. Just six weeks ago, Johnson’s premiership was in peril after a series of allegations that he and ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has lost the support of a major coalition partner, paving the way for the former cricketer’s likely ouster after completing a difficult three-and-half years in office. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, the Karachi-based party known as the MQM, is exiting from Khan’s cabinet and it is withdrawing its support to the government, said Convener Khalid ...

  Bloomberg The economic damage from the war in Ukraine is worsening across Europe as already-record inflation soars further and Germany faces a danger of recession because of its dependence on Russian energy. President Vladimir Putin’s invasion has sapped euro-area confidence and sent consumer-price expectations to their highest level since records began in 1985. In Spain, inflation surged by almost ...

  Bloomberg Argentina’s economy contracted in January as a surge in coronavirus cases due to the omicron variant weighed on industrial manufacturing. Economic activity in January falls 0.5% from the prior month, better than analysts’ median estimate for a 1% contraction. From a year ago, the economy expanded 5.4% in the first month of the year, according to government data. ...

  Bloomberg London beats Brighton and Oxford for the UK city with the highest overall employee satisfaction, according to a new survey. Belfast came in last. Glassdoor analysed over 300,000 employee reviews from across the country between January 2021 and February 2022, during height of pandemic. The capital won an average rating of 3.92, scoring high in career opportunities, culture ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) plans to ensure that products from handbags to laptops and mobile phones are more durable, in a bid to curb the environmental damage caused by their limited lifespans. Under the “Circular Economy Package” put forward by the European Commission on Wednesday, companies will have to show that the products they sell within the EU last ...

  Bloomberg US consumer confidence edged up in March, suggesting solid job growth offset Americans’ concerns over decades-high inflation that poses a risk to spending and growth. The Conference Board’s index increased to 107.2 from a downwardly revised 105.7 reading in February, which was the lowest in a year, according to the group’s report Tuesday. The median forecast in a ...

  Bloomberg Hurricane Ida and the freakish winter storm that froze Texas last February topped last year’s list of most damaging storms, according to the annual report on insurance industry losses caused by natural catastrophes put out by reinsurance giant Swiss Re. The report found that global economic losses from natural catastrophes such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires reached $270 ...

  Bloomberg Stocks fall and energy prices rose as skepticism about Russia’s promise to de-escalate the war in Ukraine renewed concerns about higher raw material prices and commodity disruption. Europe’s Stoxx 600 snapped a three-day winning streak after surging to the highest level in five weeks. US futures slipped amid warnings that gains of the past two weeks have the ...