French customs officials impounding a Russian billionaire Igor Sechin’s superyacht on the Cote D’Azur made for sensational headlines, but it was just one of the moves against a string of oligarchs by the US, Europe and UK. It is easy to mistake these actions simply as punishment. But hitting individual Russian billionaires with sanctions isn’t some mindless act of revenge ...

  Americans are understandably grumpy about 2022 amid buffeting by surging inflation, supply-chain disruptions, labor shortages and Covid-19. They might or might not feel relieved to learn that the country’s business leaders are more upbeat than ever. The Business Roundtable, the lobby of about 200 chief executives of major US companies, said its quarterly Economic Outlook Index reached an all-time ...

  Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine — cutting off his own nation of nearly 150 million and torpedoing its economy in pursuit of a delusion — marks the start of a final act for Russia’s president. Not yet the end. Swept up by the charm of Ukraine’s comedian-turned-president, the bravery of the country’s defenders and the blunders of Russia’s ...

Bloomberg China warned the US against trying to build what it called a Pacific version of Nato, while declaring that security disputes over Taiwan and Ukraine were “not comparable at all.” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his annual news briefing Monday that the “real goal” of the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy was to form Asia’s answer to the North Atlantic Treaty ...

Bloomberg Russian forces destroyed an atomic-physics lab under international safeguards in Ukraine’s second-largest city, the head of the world’s nuclear watchdog said, underscoring growing concerns over the safety risks posed by fighting around the country’s atomic facilities. Rafael Mariano Grossi, who leads the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that a neutron generator at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology ...

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a government decree authorizing stationing of Nato troops in Hungary. The decree, published on Monday, upholds the government’s ban on transport of lethal weapons to Ukraine via Hungary. Unlike many other east European member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Orban’s government hasn’t specifically asked for Nato troops to help defend its ...

Bloomberg As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine heads towards the two week mark, the stakes for both sides in the ground war look set to rise, with potentially catastrophic implications for Ukrainian civilians and greater challenges for the country’s so far remarkably successful defense. President Vladimir Putin said again the war will continue until Ukraine accepts his demands and halts resistance, ...

Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed zero tolerance for anything that could undermine ethnic harmony in the world’s No. 2 economy, a sign he’s sticking to assimilation policies that have led to unrest and allegations of human rights abuses. “Only when all ethnic groups live in unity and harmony can there be a prosperous country, a stable society and a ...

  Bloomberg President Cyril Ramaphosa defended South Africa’s decision to abstain from a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after drawing US and European Union criticism over its stance. South Africa was among 35 countries that abstained from the March 2 vote criticizing Russia. After the vote, the US ambassador called on South Africa to take sides in ...

Bloomberg China’s export growth moderated in the first two months of the year, pointing to more stable global demand as multiple risks cloud the outlook. Exports rose 16.3% in dollar terms in the January-February period from a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Monday, beating the 14% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. ...