German chancellor Olaf Scholz suffered a first big defeat in the Bundestag on Thursday after MPs rejected a bid to make Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for everyone over the age of 60. A bill supported by the three parties in Scholz’s governing coalition was rejected by 378 MPs, with only 296 supporting it and nine abstaining.

In the last decade, the geopolitical club known as the Group of Twenty (G20) has seemed like an idea that is worthy — but dull. During the 2008 financial crisis, the doughty group (which represents 80 per cent of the global economy) briefly found fame and relevance by forging a collective response to quell the

With Covid-19 restrictions now lifting and clear signs that business travel is recovering after an enforced two-year hiatus, companies large and small in the UK are starting to examine what that means — post-Brexit — for UK travel to the EU. According to the British Chambers of Commerce, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement contains more

The number of Britons living with long Covid stands at its highest level since official statistics on the phenomenon were first collected a year ago. Figures from the Office for National Statistics published on Thursday showed an estimated 1.7mn people, or 2.7 per cent of the UK population, reported experiencing symptoms lasting for more than

The UK’s financial regulator plans to beef up enforcement operations, in a broad crackdown on what it calls “problem firms” across financial services. The Financial Conduct Authority said on Thursday it will add 80 staff to pursue businesses that do not meet basic regulatory standards in all sectors, as it laid out its strategy for

Shell is counting the cost of its retreat from Russia. The tally could be as high as $5bn, it said on Thursday. That will not faze investors. Rival BP’s writedowns could be five times as big. But Shell’s exit could be more complicated. It may also have a bigger impact on Russia’s future ability to

Far-right politician Marine Le Pen has said she is open to appointing leftwingers in her government if she is elected French president later this month. Le Pen, who has already held out the prospect of a “government of national unity”, said on Thursday that while she would “probably not” work with hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon,

Right now, the dollar is the world’s most popular reserve currency by some margin. It plays a vital role in facilitating world trade and global finance, enabling the US to use it as a mightily effective weapon against those who stand against the aims of its foreign policy. Yet some think the weaponisation of the

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka is deepening. The rupee has plunged to record lows against the dollar on the back of blackouts, food shortages and sky-high prices. The country may have as little as $500mn left in foreign reserves though a $1bn bond repayment is due in a few months. With the IMF ready

The author is economics professor at Kozminski University in Warsaw and a former finance minister of Poland Russia’s invasion of Ukraine takes its toll. Most tragic are the terrible loss of life and human suffering, but the material destruction too is enormous. Before the war, the IMF forecast an increase this year in Ukraine’s gross

Is Future You funny and sharp? It could be. Instead of thinking up a witty retort 20 minutes after the event, Future You might now be able to insert this wisecrack into a past conversation courtesy of Twitter. This week, the social media app announced it was working on an edit function to enable users

Nearly half of UK businesses expect the Russian invasion of Ukraine to result in lower sales and a growing proportion say rising energy and input prices are prompting them to curb their investment plans, according to official data published on Thursday. Of the nearly 3,000 companies interviewed for a Bank of England survey in March,

Tax experts have criticised the “disingenuous” explanation given by the wife of chancellor Rishi Sunak for claiming non-domiciled status. Akshata Murty, who married Sunak in 2009, owns a stake in Indian technology company Infosys, founded by her father, that is thought to be worth more than £500mn. Her spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that she holds

Rokos Capital Management is applying for licences to manage assets in Hong Kong and Singapore as part of an expansion into Asian equity capital markets as the UK hedge fund attempts to recover from a dire year. The fund, which is run by former Brevan Howard partner Chris Rokos and manages $13bn of assets, will

A leading infrastructure investor is eyeing the liquefied natural gas sector after raising a new $15bn fund, capitalising on Europe’s search for energy supply alternatives to Russia. I Squared Capital is among a handful of private capital firms dedicated to infrastructure investment. In the past decade the Miami-based group has grown to $34bn in assets,

Richard Liu has stepped down as chief executive of JD.com, the Chinese ecommerce group he founded more than two decades ago, marking the latest exit for one of the country’s top entrepreneurs. Beijing’s months-long campaign to rein in Big Tech has spurred several Chinese entrepreneurs to flee executive roles in favour of working from behind

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with the international community to provide more military supplies and to impose tighter sanctions on Russia as his foreign minister said he had one demand of Nato: “Weapons, weapons and weapons.” The pleas from Kyiv come as Ukraine’s military warned that invading Russian troops were regrouping and preparing an

Hardware rental start-up Grover has brought in former magazine executive Joanna Coles to chair its board, as it plans a rapid expansion of its consumer electronics subscription service fuelled by a new $330mn fundraising. Coles, who spent 12 years with publisher Hearst and was the former editor of women’s lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan, has lately transitioned

Shell will take a writedown of up to $5bn after its decision to quit Russia as the UK-listed energy group warned extreme price volatility in commodity markets would hit cash flow. In a trading update ahead of next month’s first-quarter results, Shell said ending its three joint ventures with Kremlin-backed gas producer Gazprom would result

Elsewhere on Thursday . . .  Putin’s invasion reminds us that we live in a finite world. Worldcoin promised free crypto If they canned their eyeballs with “The Orb.” Now they feel robbed. Behind Arsenal’s retro merch boom. If stocks don’t fall, the Fed needs to force them. On regulation, racing, and safety innovation. Naked mole rats have

Good morning and welcome to Europe Express. The eurozone’s own bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, will soon be looking for a new managing director to succeed Klaus Regling when his term ends this autumn. We’ll look at who might take over and why the ESM has been struggling to play a role of late.