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In olive groves and vineyards dotted across Spain, sensors and drones paid for by Europe's largest recovery fund since the post-war Marshall Plan are gathering soil data to feed into AI models which will help farmers better manage their crops, Reuters reported. The project - decarbonising and digitalising a key economic sector - is exactly what the European Union's $955-billion "Next Generation" fund, agreed six years ago and ​fast approaching final payout deadlines, was designed to nurture.

The United Nations said on Friday that it was facing imminent financial collapse and would run out of money by July if countries, namely the United States, did not pay their annual dues that amount to billions of dollars, the New York Times reported. Senior U.N. officials said that if the cash ran out, the agency would be forced to shut down its landmark headquarters in New York by August. The U.N. Security Council, a 15-member body responsible for maintaining international peace and stability, convenes its meetings at U.N. headquarters.

The government should focus on strengthening infrastructure at the National Company Law Tribunals (NCLTs) to improve efficiency in insolvency cases under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in the upcoming Union Budget, asserted Anoop Rawat, National Practice Head at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. "What we need is the strengthening of the infrastructure at the NCLTs. We need more and more benches," Rawat said in an interview with ANI, when asked what one change would make the IBC stronger immediately. The Union Budget for 2026-27 will be tabled in the Parliament on Sunday morning.

The Central government is set to introduce the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code amendment Bill during the second half of the Budget session starting March 9, news agency PTI quoted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as saying, the Economic Times of India reported. The parliamentary committee has submitted its report as far as proposed legislation with respect to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is concerned, she said during an interaction with the media a day after presenting Budget 2026-27 in the Lok Sabha.

Private commercial Padma Bank, formerly known as Farmers Bank, has remained insolvent for years, with over 90% default loans causing suffering for depositors and losses for state-owned banks against investments of over Tk700 crore. During a presentation in September 2025, the bank sought liquidity support of Tk3,500 crore from the Bangladesh Bank as part of its strategic plan to make it operational. In its last attempt after the regime change, the Bangladesh Bank discussed with the finance ministry the bank's merger with state-owned banks but did not receive any formal response.

KOKO Networks, one of Kenya’s most visible clean-cooking startups, has shut down its operations and laid off its entire workforce following a dispute with the Kenyan government over carbon credit approvals, bringing a sudden halt to a business model that had become central to the country’s clean energy transition for low-income households, AfricaSustainabilityMatters.com reported.

President Donald Trump said he is “decertifying” all aircraft built in Canada, and he threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on Canadian aircraft sold to the United States — an escalation of trade tensions between the neighboring countries that could have ramifications for U.S. air travel, the Washington Post reported. In a Truth Social post late Thursday, Trump accused Canada of “wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly” refusing to certify models of Gulfstream jets and “effectively prohibiting” the sale of the American-owned business jets in Canada.

Euro zone firms expect revenues to keep rising this quarter but profitability is taking a hit, the European Central Bank's quarterly Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises showed on Monday. A net 18% of surveyed firms remained optimistic about turnover developments in the next quarter but a net 10% of them are reporting lower profits, the ECB said in a statement, Reuters reported. On prices, firms' expectations did not change much.

Euro zone factory activity remained in contraction territory in January for the third straight month amid persistent weakness in new orders despite output returning to growth, a survey showed, Reuters reported. The HCOB Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, rose to 49.5 in January from December's nine-month low of 48.8, slightly higher than a preliminary estimate of 49.4.

An Indian-origin boss of a London printing firm has been convicted of illegally obtaining a second loan for his company, when businesses were only entitled to one under the U.K. government’s COVID-19 Bounce Back Loan scheme, TheHindu.com reported. Prashant Jobanputra, 41, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, at the Old Bailey court in London on Tuesday (January 27, 2026), the U.K.’s Insolvency Service said in a statement.