Airlines world-wide are altering routes and canceling flights to avoid Russian airspace, changes that will lengthen journey times and raise costs for carriers that were starting to bounce back from their pandemic slump, the Wall Street Journal reported. With Russia banning many European airlines from its skies, flying around the giant country may add hundreds of miles and up to two hours to some flights, incurring higher fuel, labor and maintenance costs, according to airlines and analysts.

Covid-adjusted unemployment in the Republic fell to 7 per cent in February on the back of the lifting of pandemic restrictions in late January. This was down from 7.8 per cent for the previous month and 27 per cent a year ago, the Irish Times reported. The headline rate includes people in receipt of the Government’s pandemic unemployment payment (PUP). The Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated there was as many as 180,745 people classified as being either out of work or in receipt of the PUP last month.

Russia demanded the U.K. sell its stake in satellite startup OneWeb Ltd. and threatened to cancel a launch planned for Saturday if it didn’t, retaliating against Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. Kremlin space agency Roscosmos made the ultimatum in a statement on its official Twitter page on Wednesday and blamed “the U.K.’s hostile stance toward Russia.” It also demanded guarantees that OneWeb’s satellites wouldn’t be used for military purposes and gave a deadline of 9:30 p.m. Moscow time March 4 for answers.

The Swiss-based company which built the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is considering filing for insolvency, two sources familiar with the situation said, as it attempts to settle claims ahead of a U.S. sanction deadline for other entities to stop dealings with it, Reuters reported. The United States sanctioned Nord Stream 2 AG last week after Russia recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine prior to its invasion of the country, which has prompted a wave of economic sanctions by the West.

The U.S. and European Union blocked Russia’s central bank from using its emergency reserves to protect the economy from the Western pressure campaign, a salvo the bank’s governor said risked triggering a financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The coordinated action blocks the central bank from selling dollars, euros and other foreign currencies in its reserves stockpile to stabilize the ruble. Announcing the move Monday in Washington before U.S. markets opened, U.S.

The European Central Bank should take time to properly assess the implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine before continuing its exit from pandemic-era support for the euro-zone economy, according to Governing Council member Olli Rehn, Bloomberg News reported. Rehn, who heads Finland’s central bank, said additional stimulus isn’t required given the continent’s robust rebound and strengthening labor market. Instead, “prudence and optionality” are warranted so premature monetary tightening doesn’t trigger a recession, he said.

German annual inflation rose in February after a slight decline at the beginning of the year as the Ukraine conflict pushed energy prices even higher and coronavirus-related supply bottlenecks continued, preliminary data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries (HICP), rose 5.5% on the year, the Federal Statistics Office said. The national consumer price index (CPI) rose 5.1% year on year after dipping in January to 4.9% from 5.3% in December - the highest rate in almost 30 years.

Italy plans to set aside 8.7 billion euros ($9.7 billion) until 2030 to support its carmaking industry, a draft decree seen by Reuters showed on Tuesday. As part of a package to support the economy and curb surging energy bills, Italy intends to allocate 700 million euros in 2022 and 1 billion euros per year from 2023 until 2030, the decree showed.

Britain's finance ministry set out plans on Tuesday to make the country's capital market more competitive by exploiting Brexit "freedoms" to cut unnecessary red tape in trading, Reuters reported. Britain left the European Union's orbit at the end of 2020, leaving the financial sector largely cut off from the bloc and swathes of euro stock and derivatives trading shifted from London to Amsterdam. The ministry said it would remove restrictions on how banks and brokers execute transactions to ensure that market participants can get the best outcomes for investors.

Telecom Italia SpA is seeking to get KKR & Co. to scrap a 10.8 billion-euro ($12.1 billion) takeover bid for the company by involving the U.S. private equity giant in an in-house plan to spin off its landline network, Bloomberg News reported. The phone carrier, which has internally valued the bid as too low and lacking enough value-creation, instead wants to involve KKR in a plan to spin the landline network off into a new unit called NetCo. The counter-proposal would still allow KKR to strengthen its grip over Telecom Italia’s landline network once it’s separated, the people said.