Ben Sills

US and Russia Plan Truce Deal to Cement Putin’s Gains in Ukraine Washington and Moscow are aiming to reach a deal to halt the war in Ukraine that would lock in Russia’s occupation of territory seized during its military invasion, according to people familiar with t...

@donato.bsky.social and @albertonardelli.bsky.social have the SCOOP on what Donald Trump is planning for the future of Ukraine - and it's bad news for Zelenskiy

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Russian Banks Fear Debt Crisis Is Coming as War Strains Economy Russia’s economy faces a worsening outlook that is graver than publicly acknowledged, with a credible risk of a systemic banking crisis in the next 12 months, according to Russian banking officials.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Big scoop from our team here.

This is big weak point for Putin

Putin Going to War with NATO Would Cost World $1.5 Trillion The NATO chief says Russia may be ready for an attack on eastern Europe within five years.

European security officials have been looking at the risks of where Russia goes next.

Here's how it might play out.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Trump Tells Americans What Putin Wants Them to Hear An exclusive analysis shows that the US president’s views on the war in Ukraine are increasingly aligned with the Kremlin.

Our reporters analysed thousands of speeches and posts by Trump and his administration to show how the US has started echoing Kremlin talking points since the president's call with Putin in February

www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Raiffeisen Bank Clients in Russia Help Supply Putin’s War Machine Vienna-based Raiffeisen Bank International AG has been making money from firms supplying Vladimir Putin’s military, according to documents seen by Bloomberg, as the Russian army grinds forward in Ukra...

Bank statements and other documents reviewed by Bloomberg show that clients of Raiffeisen Bank in Russia have been helping to supply Vladimir Putin's war machine.

via @albertonardelli.bsky.social

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

EU Set to Agree to Extend Russia Sanctions, Hungary to Back Down The European Union is set agree to extend sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine on Monday with Hungary ready to lift its opposition to the move, according to people familiar with the matter...

Hungary ready to back down and let the EU roll over Russia sanctions

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

EU Economy Chief Open to Confiscating Frozen Russian Assets The European Union should consider taking bolder steps such as confiscating frozen Russian central bank assets to compensate Ukraine, the bloc’s top economic official said, downplaying risk warnings f...

Dombrovskis wants the EU to confiscate frozen Russian assets to help pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

France Downgraded by Moody’s After Le Pen Derails Deficit Push Moody’s Ratings cut France’s credit grade, heaping pressure on the new government to bring a ballooning deficit under control after far-right leader Marine Le Pen toppled the previous prime minister o...

Brutal from Moody’s on France

“The country’s public finances will be substantially weakened over the coming years,” Moody’s said. “There is now very low probability that the next government will sustainably reduce the size of fiscal deficits beyond next year.”

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Assad’s Fall Jolts Iran’s Increasingly Vulnerable Leadership The Islamic Republic's ‘Axis of Resistance’ is broken and the regime is rattled as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

Fall of Assad = very bad news for Iran

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Russia’s Military Found a Surprisingly Simple Way to Buy US Chips A cache of internal Russian documents reviewed by Bloomberg reveals how Putin’s forces have been able to keep purchasing American semiconductors.

Russia's military suppliers have worked out a way to acquire chips from Texas Instruments with just a few clicks.

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Young Michel Barnier (left) and Georges Pompidou (right): the only prime ministers of the 5th Republic who were toppled by a vote a no-confidence.

Le Pen Sees French Budget in Weeks If Macron Eases Debt Path Marine Le Pen said France can overcome government collapse to deliver a budget in “a matter of weeks” — so long as the next prime minister is prepared to narrow the deficit more slowly.

To borrow that old saw from John Major's twilight years: Marine Le Pen is not in office, but she's in power.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Macron’s Grand Project in Ruins After French Government Falls The country has never been closer to a Le Pen administration — the one thing President Macron has sought to avoid at all costs.

The president who aimed for the stars

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

How Six Hours of Martial Law Reshaped a Stunned South Korea Just before 10 p.m. on a near-freezing evening in Seoul, rumors began circulating among reporters that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol planned a late-night announcement.

Great piece by our colleagues in Asia on the Democratic crisis that no one (ie not me) was predicting yesterday

If you read one story…

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

France Won’t Be Blackmailed on Budget, Finance Minister Says Finance Minister Antoine Armand said France won’t accept artificial budget deadlines from Marine Le Pen even as the far-right leader gave her strongest indication yet that she’s prepared to topple the...

Bold talk from the French finance minister last night.

Big week coming up in France

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Before Tackling Trump, New EU Leader Aims to End the Bickering in Brussels Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa becomes the fourth president of the EU leaders’ council at a moment when the bloc faces threats and challenges from all sides

There are lots of good takes out there on why EU divisions will make the decline of the bloc irreversible, but Antonio Costa reckons there's another way.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Remember to call your mum kids

Election Chaos Is Engulfing Romania and No One Saw It Coming In the final days before Romania’s parliamentary elections this weekend, the governing parties’ leaders both quit, pollsters gave up on projecting the results and the nation’s top court cast serious d...

The Romanian election is maddest i've ever covered. It's massively consequently and serious. But it's also just absolutely crazy.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

ECB’s Schnabel Sees Only Limited Room for Further Rate Cuts The European Central Bank needs to be wary of cutting interest rates too far as borrowing costs are already near a level that no longer restrains the economy and going lower could backfire, according ...

ECB split is out in the open - French central bank governor says rates may need to go below neutral rate, taking issue with Germany's Isabel Schnabel in our interview yesterday
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

It’s been quite the journey for France. And for Greece

French 10-Year Borrowing Costs Match Greece’s for First Time France’s benchmark bond yield matched Greece’s for the first time on record, the latest milestone in a week marked by mounting anxiety over the fate of the government.

what a time to be alive

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...