January, 2022

• 31 January

  N Korea fires biggest missile since 2017 as it tests Biden

  

    Bloomberg North Korea appeared to have fired one of its biggest ballistic missiles in almost five years, adding to its largest series of tests since Kim Jong-un took power as he forces his nuclear arsenal back onto the Biden administration’s agenda. North Korea launched a suspected intermediate range missile for the first time since 2017, according to initial assessments ...

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• 31 January

  Lavrov suggests Russia will wait longer before Ukraine response

  

    Bloomberg Russia wants an explanation of European security obligations from western nations before making its next proposals on the Ukraine crisis, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Moscow is asking Nato members and countries in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to clarify how they intend to fulfill OSCE obligations not to strengthen security at the expense of ...

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• 31 January

  Boris Johnson’s job safe despite ‘partygate,’ UK’s Truss says

    Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s embattled position was reinforced by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss amid a scandal over alleged pandemic-rule-breaking parties, as she batted away speculation that she could run for the leadership. “The future of the PM is assured,” Truss said on the BBC’s Sunday Morning show. “He’s doing an excellent job on the things that matter ...

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• 31 January

  Taiwan’s VP holds call with Pelosi to boost US ties

  

    Bloomberg Taiwanese Vice President William Lai held a video call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — his second meeting with a senior US politician in two days— on topics including human rights in China. Pelosi, who has called for a diplomatic boycott of next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, reiterated her concern about Chinese human rights abuses, according to a ...

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• 31 January

  French far-right leader Le Pen shores up campaign with loan

    Bloomberg The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen finally secured a bank loan for her financially struggling campaign to challenge President Emmanuel Macron. The candidate in the April presidential election obtained a 10.6 million euro loan from a European bank, Jordan Bardella, president of her National Rally party, told Agence France-Presse. A spokeswoman for Le Pen didn’t immediately respond ...

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• 31 January

  Chastened Draghi buys time to fix Italy after presidential chaos

  

    Bloomberg Mario Draghi’s failed bid to become Italian president has tarnished the aura that helped him keep a fractious coalition in line. But the damage suffered by the country’s main political parties means that the prime minister may still have the leverage to push through his agenda in the final year of his mandate. After six days of chaotic ...

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• 31 January

  Visa, Mastercard see spending soar amid Omicron headwind

  

    Bloomberg In the eyes of Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc., consumers are learning to live with the coronavirus pandemic. Both networks said that spending on their cards surged to a record in the final three months of last year, even as the highly contagious Omicron variant disrupted travel and sparked fresh rounds of lockdowns. Spending on Visa’s network soared ...

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• 31 January

  IMF advises Japan to keep stimulus rolling

  

    Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) should keep its inflation-targeting stimulus rolling and consider shortening the maturity of its yield target to make its easing framework more sustainable, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, in comments that contrast with global moves to tighten policy. Given that Japan’s underlying inflation momentum remains weak at around 0.5% and is not currently ...

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• 31 January

  UniCredit walks away from deal to take over Russia’s Otkritie Bank

  

    Bloomberg UniCredit SpA withdrew from a possible deal to take over Russian lender Otkritie Bank FC, with Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel signalling that the military build-up in the region was a factor in the decision. “Given the geopolitical environment we decided to withdraw from the data room,” Orcel said in a media call. “The combined bank would have ...

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• 31 January

  Kotak Mahindra Bank sees 15% increase in Q3 profit

    Bloomberg Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.’s profit rises 15% in the third quarter on a cut in provisioning and higher net interest earnings aided by an easing of the pandemic. Net income stood at 21.3 billion rupees ($284 million) in quarter ended December compared with 18.5 billion rupees a year ago. That beat an average estimate of 20.7 billion rupees ...

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