The Bank of England looks set to raise interest rates to 3.5% or more next week, but policymakers appear increasingly split on how much tightening is needed to tame double-digit inflation as the economy heads into recession, Reuters reported. Last month BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said further rate rises were likely to be necessary, though fewer than financial markets had priced in before that meeting, when investors were betting rates would reach 5.25% in mid-2023.

England's Rugby Football Union (RFU) has rejected applications by the administrators of Wasps and Worcester seeking to prevent the automatic relegation of both clubs, saying the COVID-19 pandemic was not the primary reason for their financial woes, Reuters reported. Wasps and Worcester, who have both been suspended for going into administration, will now drop from the top-flight Premiership to the second-tier Championship in the 2023-24 season.

Germany’s top court dismissed two cases challenging the country’s approval of the European Union’s €800 billion ($839 billion) pandemic recovery fund, Bloomberg News reported. The Federal Constitutional Court cleared the fund, dubbed “Next Generation EU,” on Tuesday. The massive stimulus plan marked the crux of the region’s economic response to the pandemic, consisting of grants and loans primarily for the worst-hit EU nations. The program doesn’t “blatantly transgress” the EU rules under which it was set up, Court Vice-President Doris Koenig said as she delivered the ruling.

Former Wirecard executives go on trial on Thursday, two years after the collapse of the payments company that produced Germany's biggest post-war fraud scandal and sent shockwaves through the country's political and financial establishment, Reuters reported. Austrian former chief executive Markus Braun and two other high-ranking managers of the defunct blue-chip company are facing a number of charges, including fraud and market manipulation, and could be jailed for up to 15 years if convicted. Braun denies wrongdoing and accuses others of running a shadow operation without his knowledge.

After a string of battlefield losses in Ukraine in recent months, President Vladimir Putin faces a big test at home: mobilizing Russia’s economy to feed the war effort, the Wall Street Journal reported. Russian officials have crisscrossed the country to increase production and replenish dwindling stockpiles of missiles and other munitions. State budget data from the Russian Ministry of Finance shows defense expenditures rising this year by around 30% compared with 2021 to around $78 billion and increasing further next year to around $82.5 billion.

Britain's financial watchdog on Tuesday proposed tougher rules for approving financial promotions after a sharp rise in misleading marketing online, Reuters reported. Currently, marketing information can be approved by a firm regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) without its direct nod. But under the new measures, which are part of a draft financial services and markets bill before the parliament, firms approving the promotions will have to show they have the right expertise.

Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti on Monday called for a common European Union approach to support competitiveness and protect strategic production, in response to the massive subsidies in the United States' Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Reuters reported. The EU fears that the $430 billion IRA scheme, with its generous tax breaks for domestic production of energy sector components, may lure away EU businesses and disadvantage European companies, from car manufacturers to makers of green technology.

French prosecutors said on Monday they have put a Ukrainian woman linked to the governor of Lebanon's central bank under formal investigation as part of a cross-border probe into alleged fraud to the detriment of the Lebanese state, Reuters reported. Anna Kosakova, with whom central bank governor Riad Salameh has a daughter, according to a birth certificate seen by Reuters, is suspected of aggravated money laundering, a spokesperson at the Paris office of the National Financial Prosecutors said.

Cineworld Group Plc said it intends to emerge from bankruptcy intact after senior lenders were said to be considering a sale process for its east European operations, Bloomberg News reported. The London-based company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas in September to cut a near $9 billion pile of debt and leases. “Cineworld remains committed to working with its key stakeholders to develop a Chapter 11 reorganization plan that seeks to maximize value for the benefit of moviegoers and all other stakeholders,” a spokesperson said on Sunday.

Euro zone retail sales were slightly weaker than expected in October, data showed on Monday, dipping more than forecast in a sign of weakening consumer demand that could herald the onset of the expected technical recession, Reuters reported. The European Union's statistics office said retail sales in the 19 countries sharing the euro fell 1.8% month-on-month for a 2.7% year-on-year decline. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a fall of 1.7% on the month and 2.6% on the year.