Author: News Desk

Ukraine will ask international bondholders to agree to a 2-year delay on its debt payments so it can focus its dwindling financial resources on repelling Russia, a government resolution published on Wednesday showed. Facing an estimated 35-45% crash in GDP this year following Moscow’s invasion in February, lawmakers have instructed the country’s finance ministry to negotiate the deferral on its roughly $20 billion of debt by August 15. The delay, which many creditors say is likely to be accepted, would come just in time to put off around $1.2 billion of debt payments due at the start of September. The…

A wildfire fuelled by gale-force winds raged in mountains near Athens on Wednesday, forcing hundreds including hospital patients to evacuate, as Britain counted the cost of its hottest ever day. Wildfires have ravaged Europe this month, breaking out in Greece, France, Spain, Turkey, Italy and Portugal and fuelled by increasingly hot and dry weather that scientists link to climate change. Thick clouds of smoke darkened the sky over Mount Penteli 27 km (16 miles) north of Greece’s capital, where close to 500 firefighters, 120 fire engines and 15 water-carrying planes tried to contain the flames. The blaze, which broke out…

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Wednesday demanded unity among his coalition partners if they wanted him to stay in office, leaving his resignation threat hanging over parliament. Draghi set out a series of issues facing Italy ranging from the war in Ukraine to social inequality and rising prices, and said political parties needed to get behind him if he was to steer the country to elections due in the first half of 2023. “Are the parties and you parliamentarians ready to rebuild this pact?” Draghi said in an uncompromising speech to the upper house, adding that was what Italians…

The New Zealand government said on Wednesday that it had created a new investor migrant visa to attract experienced, high-value investors to invest in domestic businesses. The new Active Investor Plus visa will replace the old investment visa categories and would require migrants to make investments in New Zealand businesses, Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash said in a statement. He said the old visas had often resulted in migrants investing in shares and bonds rather than directly into New Zealand companies. “We want to encourage active investment into New Zealand, which generates more high-skilled jobs and economic growth…

Russian gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline are likely to restart on time on Thursday after the completion of scheduled maintenance but at lower than its full capacity, two Russian sources familiar with the export plans told Reuters. The pipeline, which accounts for more than a third of Russian natural gas exports to the European Union, was halted for ten days of annual maintenance on July 11. The Russian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters the pipeline was expected to resume operation on time, but at less than its…

Surging petrol and food prices last month pushed British inflation to its highest rate in 40 years, according to official figures that bolstered the chances of a rare half percentage-point Bank of England interest rate hike next month. The Office for National Statistics said annual consumer price inflation rose in June to 9.4%, the highest since February 1982,up from May’s 9.1% and above the 9.3% consensus in a Reuters poll of economists. The latest increase means Britain had the highest rate of inflation seen in any Group of Seven advanced economysince 1985, although many smaller European Union countries are currently…

Royal Mail said it would rename its holding company International Distributions Services Plc and could separate its UK business, where its workforce is set to strike over pay, if its performance doesn’t improve. Royal Mail’s UK business lost 92 million pounds ($110 million) in the first quarter on revenue that fell 11.5% as inflation-hit consumers cut back on online shopping and amid soaring costs. Parcel volumes were down 15%. “The severity of profit decline in the UK is surprisingly sharp, and we think current year group EBIT consensus could halve,” J.P Morgan analysts said in a note. Overall, revenue in the…

The U.S. Senate is due to vote later on Tuesday on a slimmed-down version of legislation to provide $52 billion in subsidies and tax credits for the computer chip industry, over a year after passing its first version of a bill boosting semiconductor competition with China. The bill is part of U.S. efforts to address an industry-wide chip shortage that has disrupted production in the automotive and electronics industries, forcing some firms to scale back production. Senate aides said the bill would include a new, four-year 25% tax credit to encourage companies to build plants in the United States in…

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommended on Monday that Tesla Inc investors vote against the re-election of two of its board members, Ira Ehrenpreis and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson. ISS cited concerns about “the board’s risk oversight in light of the pledging (as collateral) of a significant amount of the company’s stock by certain directors” as one of the reasons for the recommendation. Ehrenpreis and Wilson-Thompson are both members of the Nominating and Corporate Governance committee at Tesla. Big institutional investors usually take their cues on voting on company matters from proxy advisers’ recommendations. Pledging of company stock by directors or…

A passenger boat carrying nearly 100 members of a wedding party capsized in the fast-flowing Indus River in eastern Punjab province, killing at least 20 women and children. 65 people, including the bridegroom, were rescued and nearly two dozen people, including children, were still missing. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, but apparently, the boat was overcrowded. Recovered bodies rescued were women and children, the AP reported. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed his grief and sorrow over the incident and asked authorities to make their best efforts to rescue those passengers who are still missing.