The U.K.’s economy outpaced the U.S. and most of its European peers in the first quarter of the year, but that resilience is set to be severely tested as the effects of the conflict in the Middle East persist, the Wall Street Journal reported. Britain’s economy has struggled to gain momentum for much of the past two decades, recently suffering not just from the headwinds of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the lingering hit to business investment stemming from its exit from the European Union.

Federal prosecutors arraigned Danish researcher Poul Thorsen on wire fraud and money laundering charges tied to the alleged theft of CDC grant money for autism research after his extradition from Germany, Becker's Behavioral Health reported. Prosecutors allege Mr. Thorsen stole more than $1 million in federal grant money awarded to fund studies examining the relationship between autism and exposure to vaccines, cerebral palsy and infection during pregnancy, and childhood development and fetal alcohol exposure.

Billionaire Wes Edens’ New Fortress Energy Inc. won permission from a UK court to arrange creditor votes on a sweeping restructuring that will see the vast majority of the firm’s debt load converted into equity, handing ownership of the business to its lenders. A London High Court judge gave the green light on Thursday for the LNG operator’s creditors, who are owed $6.5 billion, to convene meetings to vote on two interlinked restructuring plans. If approved, the proposals would extinguish approximately 90% of the New York-listed group’s total debt.

U.K. mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions left Barclays, HSBC and Apollo Global Management facing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential losses when it collapsed in February, the Wall Street Journal reported. Now, bankruptcy administrators allege its owner, Paresh Raja, moved around $550 million of MFS-borrowed funds into personal bank accounts and then bought luxury cars including six Ferraris and three Rolls-Royces. A spokeswoman for Raja said that he strongly denies the allegations and that there was no fraud or dishonesty.

Eurozone industrial output rose in March, though the war in the Middle East is expected to increasingly weigh on manufacturers across the currency area and as energy costs and supply disruptions mount, the Wall Street Journal reported. Industrial production rose 0.2% on month, after a rise of 0.2% in February, the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat said Wednesday. Output picked up in March despite rising energy costs due to the Iran war. This came in part due to the frontloading of production in anticipation of sharply higher costs and potential supply disruptions ahead.

French companies ​have so far absorbed the shock from the conflict ‌in the Middle East, but pervasive uncertainty and higher energy costs are beginning to test the economy's resilience, the ​central bank said on Tuesday in its monthly ​business survey, Reuters reported. The Bank of France said there was ⁠so much uncertainty over the outlook that it ​could not provide its usual growth estimate for the ​quarter. It said, however, that activity continued to expand in April, albeit more slowly, according to its April 28 to May ​6 survey of around 8,500 firms.

Lengthening working lives are helping to support growth in the eurozone even as the population ages, but immigration is essential if the economy is to continue to expand over coming years, the European Central Bank said Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a report on the workforce, economists at the ECB calculated that rising employment has accounted for about half of the growth recorded in the eurozone since the third quarter of 2023, while gains in output per worker have been modest.

Digital assets have the potential to effect sweeping changes on U.K. financial markets, according to Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Decrypt.com reported.

Students need better government protection if a university in England goes bust and cannot pay its debts, according to MPs, BBC.com reported. In a report, the Education Select Committee said 24 institutions are now said to be at risk of insolvency within the next 12 months - with many already making job cuts, closing courses and selling off buildings or land. Helen Hayes MP, who chairs the committee, said the priority was to protect students "who have invested time, money and energy" into their studies.

Administrators overseeing the insolvency of Market Financial Solutions have accused the collapsed lender’s owner, Paresh Raja, of misappropriating at least £1.3bn to fund a “lavish lifestyle” that included purchasing a “vast number” of luxury cars, the Financial Times reported. In a lawsuit filed against Raja at London’s High Court, MFS, which has been overseen by administrators acting on behalf of creditors since February, alleged their claim concerned the “systematic plundering of a multimillion-pound property finance business by the very man entrusted to lead it”.