Headlines

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Randeep Singh Surjewala on Wednesday said that today Himachal was in a miserable condition and on the verge of bankruptcy because of the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government, the Hindustan Times reported. “No one had ever thought Himachal, where great people like Virbhadra Singh had ruled, there would be CM remote controlled by Delhi,” said Surjewala addressing an election rally at Dharamshala.

The European Union is considering more lenient economic recovery proposals that veer away from the grinding, top-down austerity rules that hit Greece and several other countries during the debt crises a decade ago and helped push millions into poverty, homelessness and unemployment, the Associated Press reported.

Workers walked off the job in Greece and Belgium on Wednesday during nationwide strikes against increasing consumer prices, disrupting transportation, forcing flight cancellations and shutting down public services in the latest European protests over the rising cost of living, the Associated Press reported. In Greece, where workers were holding a 24-hour general strike, thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki.

The American owners of Liverpool F.C., one of soccer’s most storied teams, have hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to explore a sale of the club, a six-time European champion, according to two people with direct knowledge of the team’s plans, the New York Times reported. Word that Liverpool’s owners are mulling a potential sale comes only months after a group led by the California-based investment fund Clearlake paid a record $3 billion for Liverpool’s Premier League rival Chelsea.

Statistics Canada says consumer insolvencies rose 22.5 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, marking the largest percentage increase in 13 years, The Canadian Press reported. Statistics Canada says consumer insolvencies rose 22.5 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, marking the largest percentage increase in 13 years. Bankruptcy filings by both businesses and consumers were down throughout the pandemic because of government subsidy programs.

Two titans of the cryptocurrency industry may be squaring off for control of the $1 trillion digital asset market with only one left standing, Fortune reported. Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said on Sunday his exchange will liquidate the remainder of its FTT holdings, the native token issued by Sam Bankman-Fried’s rival FTX derivatives exchange. “We will try to do so in a way that minimizes market impact,” wrote CZ on Twitter.

A little-known Chinese pipemaker erased all of its dizzying rally from last week after announcing plans to sell 1 million shares at a massive discount to a pair of institutional investors, Bloomberg reported. Huadi International Group sank 91% Monday for its biggest drop on record, after an agreement to sell its stock to investors at $25 per share — an 86% discount to Friday’s closing price. This comes after the stock skyrocketed 716% last week amid volatile trading.The company erased last week’s rally on news of the offering, falling to close at $15.81. Shares closed Friday at $180.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) said on Tuesday the current governor, Adrian Orr, had been reappointed for another five-year term starting in late March next year, Reuters reported. New Zealand finance minister Grant Robertson said the reappointment followed the RBNZ's board unanimous recommendation. “In light of global conditions, this is also a time when stability and continuity are paramount for the bank,” Robertson said. The central bank is dealing with significant macro and local growth headwinds.

An Iranian pharmacist says many of the pharmacies in Iran are going bankrupt due to economic problems, Iran International reported. Mohammad Reza Afkhami, Secretary of the Khorasan Razavi Pharmacists Association, said pharmacies are not separate from other guilds and they are not in a good economic situation, either. “Currently, the economy of pharmacies is ruined, and they are on the verge of closing down. If the situation continues like this, we will see the closure of pharmacies soon,” warned Afkhami.

Croydon Council has hired a firm to investigate the leaking of a long-awaited report about the authority’s financial collapse in 2020, MyLondon reported. The Penn Report was completed 18 months ago and was written by Local Government Association’s Richard Penn. He looked into the financial mismanagement of the council before it was forced to issue a Section 114 notice, declaring effective bankruptcy. Despite being completed 18 months ago, the damning report has remained unpublished officially.