German regulators have told Binance they will not grant it a cryptocurrency custody license, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday, the latest in a string of setbacks for the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Reuters reported. Binance has come under pressure from regulators around the world. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this month sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao over what the regulator called a "web of deception" to evade U.S. laws. Binance denies the charges.

Britain’s biggest water supplier, Thames Water, is in talks with officials over contingency plans including a temporary nationalization as concerns grow over its more than £13 billion ($16.5 billion) debt pile, Bloomberg News reported. Thames’ bonds tumbled on Wednesday morning, with one falling 35 pence on the pound. Chief Executive Officer Sarah Bentley suddenly stepped down with immediate effect the previous day amid concerns over the financial stability of the firm, forcing the issue on to the government’s agenda.

Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures has led a €30 million ($33 million) investment in a company created from the spinout of Bitpanda Pro, helping fill a gap in Europe for a regulated marketplace for crypto derivatives, Bloomberg News reported. The independent platform is called One Trading and has applied to the Dutch financial watchdog for a trading venue license under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Thiel already backs the exchange’s former parent, Vienna-based Bitpanda GmbH.

The nature of the inflation problem in the eurozone is changing, and interest rates will need to be higher for longer than policymakers and investors once estimated, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, said on Tuesday, the New York Times reported. While the shocks that pushed the region’s inflation rate above 10 percent late last year, such as supply chain bottlenecks during the pandemic and the surge in energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have started to wane, their impact is still passing through the economy.

The UK and the European Union signed a long-awaited memorandum of understanding on financial services on Tuesday, marking a moment of accord amid years of wrangling over post-Brexit co-operation, Bloomberg News reported. Jeremy Hunt approved the memo with Commissioner Mairead McGuinness during the first visit to Brussels by a UK chancellor in more than three years.

Embattled cinema chain operator Cineworld Group on Monday said it will file for administration in Britain and suspend trading on the London Stock Exchange next month, as part of a restructuring plan to reduce its massive debt, Reuters reported. Shares in the world's second-largest movie theatre chain operator, which filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in September, slumped 26% to 0.52 pence in morning trade. The company had disclosed a net debt of about $8.8 billion, according to its latest results at the time.

The steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has won a partial reprieve over attempts to force his British operations into insolvency after two winding-up petitions against them were dropped. Sky News has learnt that long-running legal claims against parts of Mr Gupta's Liberty Steel empire in the UK, which employs thousands of people, were withdrawn last week. Originally filed in March 2021, the petitions sought to force Liberty's Speciality Steel arm and a division formally known as Liberty MDR Treasury Company into insolvency.

There is intensifying pressure on Britain’s government to do more to help struggling households, with the country’s shadow finance minister warning of a “mortgage catastrophe” as millions are pushed to the brink of insolvency, CNBC.com reported. The Bank of England last week hiked interest rates by 50 basis points to 5%, a bigger increase than many had expected. The BOE’s 13th consecutive rate rise takes the base rate to the highest level since 2008.

For decades, one fashion accessory was more synonymous with Britain’s most famous music festival, Glastonbury, than any other: Hunter Wellington boots, the New York Times reported. Paparazzi photographs of the likes of Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne and Alexa Chung wearing their Hunters in the early aughts propelled what were once functional footwear favorites of country life into cool style statements with broad global appeal.

Germany was set to raise its minimum wage by 3.4% to 12.41 euros ($13.53) an hour from 2024, based on the proposals of government-appointed commission on Monday, although unions and analysts said the hike would not be enough to cover inflation, Reuters reported. Labour Minister Hubertus Heil said he would accept the proposals - which were also for a further 3.3% rise to 12.82 euros an hour from January 2025 - though "I can understand that some wished for more". His approval means the changes will most likely go ahead, raising the wages of almost 6 million people.