Headlines

India plans to set up a special bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) with trained manpower to handle cross-border insolvency cases once the new bankruptcy rules are notified, to fast-track proceedings, the Economic Times of India reported. The cross-border framework, approved last month as part of amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), will be based on a model UN law with modifications to suit the Indian context.

A leading European hotel operator has entered insolvency proceedings, raising questions about the future of its properties across the continent, The Mirror reported. Revo Hospitality Group, previously known as HR Group, was founded in 2008 and stands as Europe's largest white-label hotel operator - a third-party management firm that runs hotels for owners without displaying its own brand. The company manages over 260 hotels spanning 12 European nations and 146 cities.

Five years after Laurentian University declared insolvency in February 2021, some of the university’s creditors were paid what they were legally owed this winter, Sudbury.com reported. However, former LU employees fired during the insolvency restructuring owed severance pay still haven’t been paid, according to Laurentian’s faculty association. Laurentian sold property to the province last August for $53.5 million to fund a pool of money for its creditors stemming from its 2021-2022 insolvency restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). On Jan.

The war in Iran has forced airlines to raise prices and cut flights. But soon, some of them, particularly in Europe, could struggle to find enough jet fuel to put planes in the sky, the New York Times reported. Ryanair, the low-cost airline that dominates flying within Europe, said this week that its suppliers could guarantee it enough jet fuel only through most of May. The airline said fuel could be in short supply if ships laden with energy did not soon begin passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway on Iran’s southern coast.

Inflation in the eurozone was a bit higher in March than previously thought, as the energy shock from the Iran war proved more pronounced than expected, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were up 2.6% on year last month, the highest level since July 2024 and up from 1.9% in February. It was also an upward revision from the provisional estimate of 2.5% published on March 31. Energy inflation for March was revised up to 5.1% from the 4.9% previously reported. In February, energy was 3.1% cheaper than a year prior.

European lenders are resilient enough to absorb current financial and geopolitical ‌shocks but need to prepare for future uncertainties including cybersecurity risks from AI, said François-Louis Michaud, the new head of the European Banking Authority. Banks' ability to absorb big shocks has come into focus as financial markets come under strain ​from the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. The European Central Bank last month warned that ​markets were underpricing the stress on the financial system coming from geopolitical risks, ⁠which have become the number one concern for central banks.

Strong investments in rail lines and other infrastructure offset weak consumer spending and a shrinking trade surplus as the Chinese economy continued to grow in the first three months of the year, the New York Times reported. China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced on Thursday that the country’s gross domestic product grew 1.3 percent from the last three months of 2025. If that pace continues through the year, the Chinese economy will expand at an annual rate of about 5.3 percent.

Germany cut fuel taxes for two months, costing $1.9 billion. Canada announced a plan to slash taxes on gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels until early September — at a cost of $1.7 billion. Those actions took place just in the past few days, the New York Times reported. So far, since the war in the Middle East began, dozens of countries have cut taxes, subsidized energy bills and provided cash relief to households, racking up ever higher levels of emergency spending.

Japan said it would provide about $10 billion in financial support to help Southeast Asian nations cope with soaring oil prices that threaten production of petroleum-derived products in the region, the New York Times reported. Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, announced the initiative on Wednesday at a regional forum that included Japan and major Southeast Asian economies such as Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. The pledge comes as much of Asia is being buffeted by disruptions in oil supplies stemming from the war in the Middle East.

The UK's automotive industry group SMMT said on Thursday that carmakers need clarity now on whether Britain will count as 'Made in ​EU' in the European Commission's Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) policy as the ‌ambiguity risks delaying investments, Reuters reported. The trade uncertainty comes at a time when both Britain and the EU face stiff competition from cheap Chinese electric vehicles. "The objective was to bolster the ​competitiveness of European industry vis-a-vis the increasing challenge coming from further ​afield, low-cost countries. We are not a low-cost country.