Headlines

Electrecord, Romania’s first record label, self-styled as the “Soundtrack of Romania” and active since 1932, has emerged from insolvency after eight years, Romania Journal reported. Control of the company was taken over by an individual who paid off its main debts and received shares in exchange for claims acquired from former creditors, and who is now holding over 95% of the company. Previously, Electrecord was controlled by the company’s Employees’ Association, holding 77.67% of the shares. Beneficiaries of the mass privatization program (PPM) from the 1990s owned 22.32%.

Liberty Steel owed Rotherham Council more than £4.2m in unpaid business rates when it was issued with a compulsory winding up order in August 2025, the local authority has confirmed, BBC.com reported. Council leader Chris Read said the authority had written off more than £3m of the debt on the recommendation of external legal advisers but that this could be reversed if there was a possibility of recovering the money. The authority said it intended to submit a claim to administrators for the full outstanding balance.

Japan's plan to give authorities the power to order foreign investors to retroactively divest acquisitions is aimed at sheltering major firms and supply chains, though it is unlikely to curtail increased M&A interest, experts say, Reuters reported. Japan on Wednesday proposed amendments to its foreign investment screening law that would grant authorities an option to force foreigners to sell investments deemed to pose risks to national or economic security.

European Union countries on Friday approved a trade deal with four South American countries, in a sign that President Trump’s antipathy to free trade hasn’t killed the rest of the world’s hunger for global commerce, the Wall Street Journal reported. The pact between the EU and the founding countries of the Mercosur customs union—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay—is poised to become one of the bloc’s largest free-trade agreements. It is part of a European effort to curb economic reliance on the U.S. and China by boosting commercial ties with other countries.

Eurozone retail sales rose in November, providing a boost for the economy in the final quarter of 2025 despite a consumer backdrop that remains cautious, the Wall Street Journal reported. Volumes rose 0.2% in the month compared with a revised 0.3% uptick for October, the European Union’s statistics agency said Friday. Retail sales slipped in Germany, but rose in France, Spain and Italy. The overall rise for the eurozone sees volumes in positive territory for a third straight month.

Wood lot mix-ups, slow permitting processes, and extreme cold have made it a difficult winter for some of Yukon's firewood harvesters, CBC.ca. Bill Whimp, owner of Bill's Woodcutting, said he's been harvesting firewood for over a decade and he isn't sure his business will survive the rest of the season. "I can't pay the bills anymore," Whimp told CBC News. Last month, Whimp moved his operation from his home community of Watson Lake to Haines Junction, 600 km away, because, he said, all accessible woodlots around Watson Lake had been picked over.

British lawmakers are calling for the Bank of England to be handed new powers to gather data on private credit if a landmark stress test fails to shed enough light on risks posed by the fast-growing but opaque market, Reuters reported. In a report published on Friday entitled "Private markets: Unknown Unknowns", the cross-party House of Lords parliamentary committee said there was insufficient data to determine whether the growth of private markets posed a systemic risk to the UK's financial stability.

The United Nations is forecasting that the global economy will grow by 2.7% this year, slightly lower than last year's estimate, citing the impact of higher U.S. tariffs, economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions, the Associated Press reported. U.N. economists predicted that growth would edge up to 2.9% in 2027. That's still well below the average 3.2% growth between 2010 and 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hurt economies around the globe. The estimate for 2025 is 2.8%. “A combination of economic, geopolitical and technological tensions is reshaping the global landscape," U.N.

South Korea plans to open its markets to spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year, part of a broader digital asset push led by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) under its 2026 economic growth strategy, CoinDesk.com reported. Until now, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin weren’t legally recognized as valid underlying assets for ETFs, blocking the creation of these products in the country. The FSC appears to be following the lead of other jurisdictions, including the U.S. and Hong Kong, where spot bitcoin ETFs have seen significant success.

China’s market regulator has warned several producers of polysilicon, a key material in solar panels, about monopoly risks stemming from their consolidation efforts in the oversupplied sector, Bloomberg News reported. Six companies including Tongwei Co. and GCL Technology Holdings, along with the industry association, were summoned by the State Administration for Market Regulation, local media outlet Securities Times reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. The agency warned them not to coordinate on production capacity, sales volume and prices.