Europe

Legislation allowing Britain to scrap some of the rules on post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland on Monday passed the first of many parliamentary tests, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressed on with plans that have angered the European Union, Reuters reported. Despite some fierce criticism, lawmakers voted 295 to 221 in favour of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would unilaterally overturn part of Britain's divorce deal from the EU agreed in 2020. The bill now proceeds to line-by-line scrutiny.

A family-owned transport, trucking and railroad company in Bristol has collapsed into administration, Business Live UK reported. Pucklechurch-based Toogood International Transport and Agricultural Services appointed Mark Boughey and Mike Field of business advisory firm Mazars as administrators on June 21. The business has ceased to trade and all staff have been made redundant. The firm employed around 10 staff, according to Companies House records. The administrators are now seeking a buyer for all or part of the company’s business and assets.

Russia defaulted on its foreign-currency sovereign debt for the first time in a century, the culmination of ever-tougher Western sanctions that shut down payment routes to overseas creditors, Bloomberg News reported. For months, the country found paths around the penalties imposed after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But at the end of the day on Sunday, the grace period on about $100 million of snared interest payments due May 27 expired, a deadline considered an event of default if missed.

Leading economic powers conferred by video link with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday as they underscored their commitment to Ukraine for “as long as it takes” with plans to pursue a price cap on Russian oil, raise tariffs on Russian goods and impose other new sanctions, the Associated Press reported. In addition, the U.S. was preparing to announce the purchase of an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Kyiv to help Ukraine fight back against Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

France’s public finances have reached an “alert level” amid rising interest rates, surging inflation and dwindling growth, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, Bloomberg News reported. The candid warning comes as President Emmanuel Macron’s government seeks to negotiate a revised 2022 budget with opposition parties after he lost his majority at the National Assembly in elections earlier this month. “Not everything is possible, quite simply because we have reached an alert level for public finances,” Le Maire said on BFM TV Monday.

The European Central Bank will take the required steps to tame undesirably high inflation, President Christine Lagarde told European leaders on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. Attending a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, she explained how the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is weighing on the euro area’s growth because of high energy costs, uncertainty and supply bottlenecks.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government will press ahead on Monday with legislation to scrap rules on post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland, setting up further clashes with the European Union, Reuters reported. The legislation, which would unilaterally replace parts of the post-Brexit deal that was agreed in 2020 by Britain and the EU, is due to be sent back to parliament's lower house for a so-called second reading.

The German government on Friday offered to buy the insolvent MV Werften's Rostock shipyard for an undisclosed sum to turn it into a navy arsenal, a defence source said, in a move to top up the navy's capacities for repairing and servicing war ships, Reuters reported. Germany, in response Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has been scrambling to bring its military back in shape after decades of attrition following the Cold War.

Germany triggered the "alarm stage" of its emergency gas plan on Thursday in response to falling Russian supplies but stopped short of allowing utilities to pass on soaring energy costs to customers in Europe's largest economy, Reuters reported. The measure is the latest escalation in a standoff between Europe and Moscow since the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has exposed the bloc's dependence on Russian gas supplies and sparked a frantic search for alternative energy sources.

The UK’s largest woollen yarn spinner, Lawton Yarns Limited, has returned to private ownership after securing a £13.4m facility from Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, the Yorkshire Post reported. The facility funded the management buyout and will provide additional working capital and growth support to the business. Headquartered in Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire, Lawton Yarns supplies woollen yarn to all major carpeting manufacturers in the UK and exports to Europe, Asia, and America. The facility represents a secondary buy out to return the business to private ownership.