United States

The U.S. and European Union blocked Russia’s central bank from using its emergency reserves to protect the economy from the Western pressure campaign, a salvo the bank’s governor said risked triggering a financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The coordinated action blocks the central bank from selling dollars, euros and other foreign currencies in its reserves stockpile to stabilize the ruble. Announcing the move Monday in Washington before U.S. markets opened, U.S.

A fugitive Malaysian financier said he won support from allies of former U.S. President Donald Trump for a possible settlement of a probe into the looting of funds from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, a former Goldman Sachs banker testified on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Tim Leissner offered a glimpse of what he had heard from financier Jho Low about the attempted deal, on the sixth day of his testimony at the trial of Roger Ng, another former Goldman banker. Ng, 49, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to launder money and violate an anti-bribery law.

When the United States barred Americans from doing business with Russian banks, oil and gas developers and other companies in 2014, after the country’s invasion of Crimea, the hit to Russia’s economy was swift and immense. Economists estimated that sanctions imposed by Western nations cost Russia $50 billion a year. Since then, the global market for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets has ballooned, the New York Times reported. That’s bad news for enforcers of sanctions, and good news for Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden unleashed sanctions targeting Russia’s sale of sovereign debt abroad and the country’s elites, responding to what he described as the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. “He’s setting up a rationale to take more territory by force,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House. “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Biden said that he’s sending an unspecified number of additional U.S. troops to the Baltics in a defensive move to defend NATO countries.

The United States Trade Representative's (USTR) office said on Tuesday it opposed Canada's plan to enact a digital services tax (DST) and urged Canada to abandon plans for such a step, Reuters reported. "The United States urges Canada to abandon any plans for a unilateral measure and instead redouble its commitment to the rapid implementation of Pillar One of the October 8 OECD/G20 agreement and the negotiation of a multilateral convention", the USTR office said in a statement.

In a highly unusual move, the Canadian government on Monday invoked a series of emergency powers that include limits on public gatherings in a bid to end disruptive demonstrations in the capital city and along the Canada-U.S. border, the Wall Street Journal reported. The measures, announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, represent one of the most striking responses by a Western government against protests by those opposing Covid-19 vaccine mandates and social restrictions in response to the pandemic, and immediately drew fire from some Canadian leaders and civil-liberties groups.

Opening statements are expected to take place today in the U.S. corruption trial of a former Goldman Sachs banker charged with helping to launder hundreds of millions of dollars looted from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, stands accused of conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law. He has pleaded not guilty and Ng's lawyer has called him a "fall guy" for one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history. The trial in Brooklyn federal court could last up to six weeks.

The U.S. is considering offering Ukraine up to $1 billion in sovereign loan guarantees to help Ukraine’s economy amid pressures from the Russian military build-up, a senior Biden administration official said on Monday, Reuters reported. The White House official was confirming what a source familiar with the matter had earlier recounted to Reuters about a conversation by national security adviser Jake Sullivan with congressional leaders.

A former Goldman Sachs banker charged with helping to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund will go on trial in the United States next week, in a case that could shed light on how the bank responded to warnings of corruption, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former investment banking chief in Malaysia, will be the first - and likely only - person to stand trial in the United States over one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history.

Jury selection is expected to begin on Monday in the U.S. corruption trial of a former Goldman Sachs banker accused of involvement in the looting of billions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to violate an anti-bribery law and launder money in connection with the alleged looting of billions of dollars from the fund.