Headlines

TVS Supply Chain Solutions has moved appellate tribunal NCLAT, challenging an NCLT order which had rejected its plea to initiate insolvency against the Indian unit of telecom gear manufacturer ZTE, the Economic Times of India reported. The NCLAT registrar has accepted the request of TVS Supply Chain for more time to cure defects in the plea, which was accepted by it on Thursday. It also directed that the plea be listed before a bench for hearing.

Höfner, the German instrument maker whose iconic Violin Bass was famously played by Paul McCartney, has reportedly filed for bankruptcy, Guitar World reported. The news comes from No Treble, which cites court documents from the Fürth District Court in Bavaria in its report. The filing states that “preliminary insolvency proceedings will be ordered on December 10, 2025, at 5:05pm” to safeguard the debtor’s assets from “adverse changes”. Dr.

The European Central Bank left its key deposit rate unchanged at 2% on Thursday for a fourth consecutive meeting, EuroNews reported. Interest rates on its main refinancing operations and the marginal lending facility will also remain at 2.15% and 2.40% respectively. The rate on the main refinancing operations is the rate banks pay when they borrow money from the ECB for one week, while the marginal lending facility is the rate banks pay when they borrow from the ECB overnight.

The Bank of England cut its key interest rate Thursday while the European Central Bank held steady, as a period of more stable borrowing costs sets in across the continent, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K.’s central bank reduced its key rate to a near three-year low of 3.75% from 4%, resuming a series of cuts that stretch back to August 2024 after a pause in November. The BOE indicated that borrowing costs are likely to fall over coming months, but are approaching their low. “We still think rates are on a gradual path downward,” said BOE Gov. Andrew Bailey.

Canada’s federal banking regulator says it is keeping its domestic stability buffer unchanged at 3.5 per cent as it judges major vulnerabilities in the banking system remain elevated but are stable, the Canadian Press reported. The buffer is the amount of money Canada’s big banks must keep on hand in case of economic shock. It applies to Canada’s six largest, or systemically important, banks.

There were 3.3 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in October, Statistics Canada revealed Thursday, BNNBloomberg reported. The ratio, which the department calls unemployment-to-job vacancy, increased by 0.5 year-over-year. That’s due to a decrease in job vacancies (-64,800 or -12.2 per cent, excluding the territories) and an increase in unemployed people. October’s unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent. In October, job vacancies in Canada decreased by 19,100 (-3.9 per cent) to 467,000, offsetting the uptick in September when the country logged 11,000 additional openings.

Lured by the promise of richer margins, a wave of Chinese consumer brands is making deeper inroads into American retail to offset sluggish spending at home, Reuters reported. Throughout 2025, companies including Labubu-maker Pop Mart trinket purveyor Miniso sportswear giant Anta and fast‑fashion label Urban Revivo have announced new U.S. stores or retail expansions, trying to establish a foothold in the world’s richest consumer market despite harsh U.S. tariffs and talk of economic decoupling.

The redirection of China’s export machine is one of the most dramatic examples of how President Trump’s trade war has rewired global commerce, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary. China is outfoxing Trump’s efforts to isolate Beijing, with shipments to Europe and Southeast Asia more than offsetting the nearly 20% contraction to the U.S. The European Union has this year topped the U.S. as the largest market for China’s $100 billion cheap package blitz for the first time, according to Chinese customs data.

China on Thursday split off a Belgium-sized island with an economy comparable to a mid-ranked country from the mainland for customs processing, part of a bid to join a major trans-Pacific trade deal and establish a new Hong Kong-style commercial hub, Reuters reported. Officials hope that turning the southern province of Hainan into a duty-free zone will spur foreign investment, with goods that achieve at least 30% local value-added able to move on into the world's second-largest economy tariff-free.

Hackers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, also known as the DPRK or North Korea, have stolen $2.02 billion worth of crypto so far in 2025, a Chainalysis report revealed Thursday, Decrypt.com reported. This represents a 51% increase from last year’s figure, and is the largest year on record for DPRK-related crypto theft. As a whole, crypto has seen $3.4 billion in thefts this year, the report says, meaning that DPRK attacks account for 59% of these stolen funds.