US Business

A Netflix shareholder is seeking class action status for a lawsuit accusing the streaming television titan of not making it clear that subscriber numbers were in peril.

A disclosed drop of just 200,000 users — less than 0.1 percent of its total customer base — was enough to send shares plunging after Netflix announced quarterly earnings in April.

The company anticipates a much larger drop in the current quarter — of around two million net subscribers.

The suit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco accuses top executives at Netflix of not telling investors that subscriber growth was slowing due to people sharing accounts and competition ramping up in the market.

“Defendants’ positive statements about the company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis,” read the suit filed by lawyers at Glancy Prongay & Murray on behalf of a shareholder.

Netflix did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Executives at the company said on an earnings call that they are focused on combating the 100 million households who watch Netflix for free thanks to shared passwords.

“When we were growing fast, it wasn’t the high priority to work on,” co-founder Reed Hastings admitted. “And now we’re working super hard on it.”

Chief operating officer Gregory Peters said Netflix wasn’t trying to shut down sharing, “but we’re going to ask you to pay a bit more to be able to share.”

In March, Netflix put out word that it is testing charging a fee to subscribers who share their accounts with people who don’t live in the same home.

Competition in the streaming television market meanwhile has intensified, particularly from Disney+, with the cost of producing coveted original shows climbing as well.

To attract viewers, Netflix is preparing cheaper subscriptions that include advertisements — which it expects to roll out in the next couple years.

The Los Gatos, California-based company has long defended its no-ads model, which set it apart from competitors such as Disney+, HBO Max and Apple.

For Pivotal analyst Jeff Wlodarczak, streaming “appears nearly fully penetrated globally post-Covid,” and the companies now must set their sights on converting pirates into subscribers, gaining greater market share from each other and driving up prices.”

The suit filed Tuesday is seeking to represent everyone who owned Netflix shares in the six months ending April 19, 2022, and is asking for unspecified cash damages as well as compensation for financial losses.

Mexico announced Wednesday an agreement with members of the private sector aimed at maintaining prices of staple foods in the face of the highest inflation in two decades.

“This is not about price controls. It’s an agreement, an alliance to guarantee that the basic food basket is priced fairly,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters.

The non-binding pact is designed to keep prices of basic foods stable for at least six months, Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O said.

Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council said it was ready to help maintain the prices of 24 staple foods. 

Baked goods giant Bimbo pledged to maintain the price of white bread.

Telmex, the communications giant owned by tycoon Carlos Slim, also threw its weight behind the plan, promising not to raise telephone and internet prices this year.

But not all Mexicans were convinced.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” said Javier Ramirez, a 40-year-old programmer waiting to buy groceries at a market in the capital.

“Everything’s more expensive and salaries aren’t rising at the same rate as inflation,” added Ramirez, who said he had cut back on avocado and fish due to the high prices.

Javier Espinosa, a 53-year-old shopkeeper, called the plan a “joke” because the prices of many other goods not covered by the agreement are likely to keep rising.

“The truth is I don’t feel like it helps at all,” he said.

“What you have to do is invest — in the countryside, in tourism, everywhere” to generate more incomes and jobs, Espinosa added.

Like many countries, Mexico is facing a sharp rise in consumer prices that is pushing up the cost of living.

Mexican inflation hit 7.45 percent in March, well above the central bank’s target of around 3.0 percent.

Mexico already subsidizes fuel, using money generated by its oil and gas industry, without which inflation would be around 10 percent, Ramirez de la O said.

The measures presented by the government also aim to boost production of corn, rice and beans to prevent shortages.

Two million more tons of fertilizer — a product facing a supply squeeze because of the war in major producer Ukraine — will be distributed to the agricultural sector.

The government said it would boost road security to prevent food theft and pledged not to increase tolls and rail transport fees.

The Mexican central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate at seven consecutive meetings, to 6.5 percent, in an attempt to rein in soaring consumer prices.

With concerns mounting about inflation and weaker US growth, the Bank of Mexico downgraded its economic outlook in March, forecasting growth of 2.4 percent this year.

A swarm of 10 bright blue drones lifts off in a bamboo forest in China, then swerves its way between cluttered branches, bushes and over uneven ground as it autonomously navigates the best flight path through the woods.

The experiment, led by scientists at Zhejiang University, evokes scenes from science fiction — and the authors in fact cite films such as “Star Wars,” “Prometheus” and “Blade Runner 2049” in the opening of their paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics.

“Here, we take a step forward (to) such a future,” wrote the team, led by Xin Zhou.

In theory, there are myriad real world applications, including aerial mapping for conservation and disaster relief work. But the technology has needed to mature so that flying robots can adapt to new environments without crashing into one another or objects, thus endangering public safety.

Drone swarms have been tested in the past, but either in open environments without obstacles, or with the location of those obstacles programmed in, Enrica Soria, a roboticist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, who was not involved in the research, told AFP.

“This is the first time there’s a swarm of drones successfully flying outside in an unstructured environment, in the wild,” she said, adding the experiment was “impressive.”

The palm-sized robots were purpose-built, with depth cameras, altitude sensors and an on-board computer. The biggest advance was a clever algorithm that incorporates collision avoidance, flight efficiency and coordination within the swarm.

Since these drones do not rely on any outside infrastructure, such as GPS, swarms could be used during natural disasters. 

For example, they could be sent into earthquake-hit areas to survey damage and identify where to send help, or into buildings where it’s unsafe to send people.

It’s certainly possible to use single drones in such scenarios, but a swarm approach would be far more efficient, especially given limited flight times. 

Another possible use is having the swarm collectively lift and deliver heavy objects.

There’s also a darker side: swarms could be weaponized by militaries, just as remote-piloted single drones are today. The Pentagon has repeatedly expressed interest and is carrying out its own tests.

“Military research is not shared with the rest of the world just openly, and so it’s difficult to imagine at what stage they are with their development,” said Soria.

But advances shared in scientific journals could certainly be put to military use.

– Coming soon? –

The Chinese team tested their drones in different scenarios — swarming through the bamboo forest, avoiding other drones in a high-traffic experiment, and having the robots follow a person’s lead.

“Our work was inspired by birds that fly smoothly in a free swarm through even very dense woods,” wrote Zhou in a blog post.

The challenge, he said, was balancing competing demands: the need for small, lightweight machines, but with high-computational power, and plotting safe trajectories without greatly prolonging flight time.

For Soria, it’s only a matter of a few years before we see such drones deployed in real-life work. First, though, they will need to be tested in ultra-dynamic environments like cities, where they’ll constantly come up against people and vehicles. 

Regulations will also need to catch up, which takes additional time.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday made its biggest rate hike since 2000 with a half percentage point increase meant to crush soaring inflation in the United States.

After a quarter-point hike in March, the US central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) pushed the rate above 0.75 percent as it works to cool the economy, while noting more increases “will be appropriate.”

That will raise the costs of all types of borrowing, from mortgages to credit cards to car loans, cooling demand and business activity.

Inflation has become an overriding concern after the world’s largest economy saw annual consumer prices jump 8.5 percent over the 12 months to March — the biggest jump since December 1981.

Policymakers continue to believe inflation will gradually return to the Fed’s two-percent target as it raises borrowing costs, but in a statement following the conclusion of its two-day meeting, the FOMC said it will be “highly attentive to inflation risks.”

The Fed’s goal is to engineer a “soft landing” in which it reins in inflation while avoiding a contraction in economic activity.

But with China’s pandemic lockdowns worsening global supply snarls and the war in Ukraine pushing commodity prices higher, analysts fear factors beyond the central bank’s control could undermine that goal, and perhaps plunge the US economy into a recession.

The committee noted the “highly uncertain” impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions on Moscow, which are “creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are likely to weigh on economic activity.” 

In addition, Covid lockdowns in China “are likely to exacerbate supply chain disruptions,” the statement said. 

– Offloading bonds –

Though it contracted in the first quarter, Fed officials have said they view the economy as healthy enough to withstand higher rates, and the FOMC statement noted robust job gains and strong household and business spending.

However, central bankers cannot engineer a solution for the worker shortages that have challenged businesses and raised fears of a wage-price spiral, when employees demand higher salaries and fuel price increases. 

On Wednesday, payroll services firm ADP reported private employers added a weaker-than-expected 247,000 workers in April, a sign that companies are struggling to find available labor, while government data released Tuesday showed there are nearly two openings for every job seeker.

The FOMC also said it would begin reducing its massive bond holdings starting June 1, beginning at the pace of $47.5 billion a month, and then doubling after three months.

The decision was widely expected, and many economists believe the FOMC will again hike rates by a half-point in June, though Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Economics said, “it’s not a done deal,” and it’s even more difficult to say what might happen later in the year. 

“We think all bets are off, given the likelihood of a steep, sustained drop in inflation, a clear softening in manufacturing, and a meltdown in housing market activity,” he wrote in an analysis of the meeting.

Uber shares skidded Wednesday after the company said it was hit with a big loss in the first three months of this year despite a rebound in its ride-share business.

Quarterly revenue at Uber’s rides unit nearly tripled year on year to $2.5 billion, topping the sum taken in from its food-delivery service for the first time since the pandemic prompted a boom in people ordering meals in.

But despite overall revenue more than doubling compared to the same period last year, Uber logged a net loss of $5.9 billion.

The loss was due almost entirely to revaluation of its stakes in Grab and Didi in Asia and autonomous driving technology enterprise Aurora in the United States, the earnings report said.

“After two years of persistent and sometimes unpredictable impact across our business, our (first quarter) results resoundingly affirm that we’re on a strong path emerging out of the pandemic,” Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said on an earnings call.

Uber rival Lyft reported its earnings a day earlier, saying ridership was soft in January due to the impact of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, but that demand rebounded sharply the following two months.

Lyft said it lost $196.9 million in the first quarter, most of which was due to stock compensation for employees.

Both companies told analysts they expect to have to invest in keeping drivers on the platform in the face of rising fuel prices and continued concerns about the pandemic.

Uber shares were down more than seven percent in midday trading while Lyft shares plunged more than 31 percent due to expectations it will spend more and bring in less in the months ahead.

“Lyft is spending money like a 1980s rock star and this will have a violent negative reaction from investors in an already jittery market,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said after the earnings were released.

“This quagmire of spending to get drivers back onto the platform is a necessary evil to propel the Lyft story into its next stage of growth.”

Uber saw revenue climb 44 percent to $2.5 billion at its Eats meal delivery service when compared with the same period a year ago, and said its Freight platform connecting truckers with loads posted its first profitable quarter.

Uber has been pursuing a strategy of becoming a mobile app hub for transportation options and enticing people using it for rides to also order meal deliveries and vice versa.

“We believe that Uber is better positioned than peers to take advantage of the ridesharing recovery,” said CFRA senior equity analyst Angelo Zino, noting partnerships such as an alliance with New York taxi drivers.

“Although uncertainties about the trajectory of the consumer/travel spend temper our outlook, we like Uber’s multi-app platform strategy.”

Mexico announced Wednesday an agreement with members of the private sector aimed at maintaining prices of staple foods in the face of the highest inflation in two decades.

“This is not about price controls. It’s an agreement, an alliance to guarantee that the basic food basket is priced fairly,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters.

The non-binding pact is designed to keep prices of basic foods stable for at least six months, Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O said.

Baked goods giant Bimbo pledged to maintain the price of white bread.

Telmex, the communications giant owned by tycoon Carlos Slim, promised not to raise telephone and internet prices this year.

Like many countries, Mexico is facing a sharp rise in consumer prices that is pushing up the cost of living.

Mexican inflation hit 7.45 percent in March, well above the central bank’s target of around 3.0 percent.

Mexico already subsidizes fuel, using money generated by its oil and gas industry, without which inflation would be around 10 percent, Ramirez de la O said.

The measures presented by the government also aim to boost production of corn, rice and beans to prevent any shortages.

Two million more tons of fertilizer — a product facing a supply squeeze because of the war in major producer Ukraine — will be distributed to the agricultural sector.

The government said it would boost road security to prevent food theft and pledged not to increase tolls and rail transport fees.

The Mexican central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate at seven consecutive meetings, to 6.5 percent, in an attempt to rein in soaring consumer prices.

With concerns mounting about inflation and weaker US growth, the Bank of Mexico downgraded its economic outlook in March, forecasting growth of 2.4 percent this year.

Global stock markets wavered on Wednesday as investors braced for an expected half-point interest rate hike from the inflation-fighting US Federal Reserve.

Oil prices rebounded sharply after the European Commission proposed a gradual ban on Russian crude over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

European stocks closed down, after a broadly downbeat session in Asia, although key bourses including Shanghai and Tokyo remained shut.

On Wall Street, stocks were little changed, with all eyes on the central bank’s policy setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which opened the final session of its two-day meeting on Wednesday.

“The Fed’s rate hike move might be broadly priced in, but markets are clearly nervous that an even more hawkish FOMC might prompt a surge in volatility that could push indices back below last week’s lows,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform  IG, said.

The dollar drifted lower versus the euro and yen.

– Trading ‘cautiously’ –

“Stocks across Europe are trading cautiously ahead of today’s Fed announcement,” City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta told AFP.

“Stock markets often fall in reaction to rising interest rates because the cost of borrowing becomes more expensive and earnings and growth slows.”

The Fed is forecast to unveil a half-percentage-point interest rate hike — its biggest increase since 2000 — as global central banks race to tame galloping inflation in the wake of the Ukraine war.

The announcement is due one day before the Bank of England is also predicted to deliver a hike.

India’s central bank unexpectedly ramped up its key rate by 40 basis points to 4.4 percent on Wednesday.

Policymakers are seeking to tackle runaway prices but risk damaging global economic recovery from the pandemic.

Investor sentiment also remains dogged by fallout from Russia’s ongoing Ukraine invasion, which has fuelled bumper gains for many raw materials including crude.

That has, in turn, sent inflation accelerating to multi-decade highs in nations including Britain and the United States.

Oil was more than three-percent higher after the latest EU crackdown on Russia, which is a major producer of crude.

“We now propose a ban on Russian oil. This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil, seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament.

But, she added, “we will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion”, with crude banned gradually over the next six months and refined fuels by the end of the year.

Hungary, however, warned it could not vote for the ban “in this form”. The country is highly dependent on Russian crude.

The EU executive also proposed excluding Russian bank Sberbank from the SWIFT network among its measures.

– ‘EU tightens screw’ –

“As the EU tightens the sanctions screw on Russia by bringing in a phased ban on its crude oil, worries about global supply have reared up again,” said Susannah Streeter, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“The price of the benchmark Brent scurried up … to above $108 a barrel after the toughened up stance emerged.”

Oil traders were already on tenterhooks before Thursday’s gathering of OPEC and other key producers including Russia, who will discuss whether or not to lift output more than expected.

– Key figures at around 1545 GMT –

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.90 percent at 7,493.45 points (close)

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.49 percent at 13,970.82 points (close) 

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.24 percent at 6,395.68 points (close)  

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.96 percent at 3,724.99  

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 33,059.98 

Brent North Sea crude:  percent at $ per barrel

West Texas Intermediate:  percent at $ per barrel

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.1 percent at 20,869.52 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: Closed for a holiday

Shanghai – Composite: Closed for a holiday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0546 from $1.0521 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2491 from $1.2499

Euro/pound: UP  at 84.46 pence from 84.18 pence

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 129.99 yen from 130.14 yen

The European Commission proposed a gradual ban on Russian oil imports to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine Wednesday, as officials in the destroyed city of Mariupol reported heavy fighting at the Azovstal steel plant.

The EU also pledged to “significantly increase” its support for Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova, which has seen a series of attacks in a Moscow-backed separatist region, sparking fears it could be drawn into the conflict.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would “phase out Russian supply of crude oil within six months, and refined products by the end of the year”.

If approved, the oil ban would be the EU’s toughest move yet against Russia’s strategic energy sector that helps the Kremlin finance its war. But will still not touch its huge gas exports.

Within hours, however, Hungary said it could not support the plan “in this form”, as it would “completely destroy” the security of its energy supply.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said EU countries blocking an oil embargo would be “complicit” in Russia’s crimes in Ukraine.

– Fighting in Azovstal –

The EU is also mulling moves against Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, and against Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ukraine’s allies have sent money and, increasingly, heavy weapons to Kyiv to help it defend itself in a war US President Joe Biden has framed as a historic battle for democracy.

Biden said Wednesday he was “open” to imposing more sanctions on Russia and would be discussing measures with allies from the G7 in the coming days.

Russian forces are currently focused on the east and south of Ukraine, in what Kyiv says is an attempt to consolidate a land bridge between separatist pro-Russian areas in the east and annexed Crimea.

The strategic southern port of Mariupol has been under siege since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and is now largely controlled by Moscow’s forces. The last Ukrainian soldiers are holding out at the Azovstal steelworks.

Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said there was “heavy fighting” at the plant Wednesday and that city officials had “lost contact” with Ukrainian forces inside.

Russia was attacking with heavy artillery, tanks, and war planes, and war ships off the coast were also involved, he told Ukrainian television.

“There are local residents there, civilians — hundreds of them there,” he added. “There are children waiting for rescue. There are more than 30 kids.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday denied Russian forces were storming the plant.

There were instances of “exacerbation” at the site when Ukrainian “militants take up firing positions”, he said, insisting that these were “suppressed very quickly”.

– Civilians rescued –

Before the fighting resumed, the United Nations and Red Cross had confirmed Tuesday that more than 100 civilians had been evacuated from the plant, another 58 joining the convoy from the city of Mangush, outside Mariupol.

Azovstal evacuees who emerged from a caravan of white buses in Ukraine-held Zaporizhzhia were met at a makeshift reception centre by crying loved ones and dozens of journalists.

“We are so thankful for everyone who helped us,” evacuee Anna Zaitseva said, holding her six-month-old baby in her arms. “There was a moment we lost hope, we thought everyone forgot about us.”

Apart from the steelworks, Mariupol was now largely calm, AFP journalists note during a recent press tour organised by Russian forces. Remaining locals were emerging from hiding to a ruined city.

Ukraine’s military intelligence accused Russia of planning to hold a parade in Mariupol on May 9 to celebrate victory over the Nazis in World War II.

“A large-scale propaganda campaign is under way. Russians will be shown stories about the ‘joy’ of locals on meeting the occupiers,” it said. 

In a briefing on the army’s plan for May 9, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu made no mention of a celebratory march in Mariupol.

In the eastern Lugansk region meanwhile, governor Sergiy Gaiday said two people had died in the last 24 hours, adding “the whole region is under fire completely, there is no safe place”.

– Attacks in the west –

Russian attacks periodically stray close to Ukraine’s western border with the EU.

Both sides on Wednesday reported Russian strikes on infrastructure sites around the western city of Lviv, near Poland, and Transcarpathia, a region bordering Hungary.

Russia’s defence ministry said Wednesday that its air- and sea-based weapons had destroyed six electrical substations near railways including around Lviv, near Odessa to the south, and near Dnipropetrovsk to the south-east.

It said Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donbas region had used the railway stations to transport weapons and ammunition from the EU and United States.

In Ukraine’s western neighbour Moldova, there are fears the conflict will spill over the border.

Visiting the tiny ex-Soviet republic Wednesday, European Council President Charles Michel offered the EU’s “full solidarity” and support including in the areas of logistics and cyber defence.

“This year we plan to significantly increase our support to Moldova by providing its armed forces with additional military equipment,” he told a press conference with President Maia Sandu.

Ukraine has accused Russia of wanting to destabilise Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria to create a pretext for a military intervention.

– Japan-Russia tensions –

The war in Ukraine has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million, creating the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

The US and Europe have led the sanctions against Russia, but Japan has also joined — prompting Moscow Wednesday to announce it had banned entry to several dozen Japanese officials.

The foreign ministry accused the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida — among those banned — of an “unprecedented anti-Russian campaign”.

But Kishida, speaking to journalists during a visit to Rome and the Vatican City, said Moscow was to blame for deteriorating ties between the two countries.

Russia’s “killing of innocent civilians is a significant violation of international humanitarian law,” he said. “We cannot forgive this.”

burs-ar/jj

The European Union’s executive unveiled Wednesday plans for a gradual ban on Russian oil imports as part of a raft of new sanctions to punish Moscow for invading Ukraine.

The European Commission also proposed slapping sanctions on Russia’s biggest bank and on Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

If approved by member states, the oil ban would be the EU’s toughest move yet against the Russian energy sector, which helps the Kremlin finance its war.

But it will still not touch Russia’s huge gas exports — and several EU member states are demanding an extension while they secure new sources of fuel.

The proposal “cannot be responsibly supported in this form, we cannot responsibly vote for it,” said Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in a Facebook video message.

The oil embargo would be part of the bloc’s sixth sanction package and would be phased-in over the rest of the year. It needs to be adopted unanimously by the EU’s 27 countries.

The EU is the biggest consumer of Russian crude. Last year Russia supplied 30 percent of the bloc’s oil and 15 percent of its petroleum products.

– Extra year –

“We now propose a ban on Russian oil. This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil: seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament.

But, she added, “we will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion”. The ban would come in gradually over the next six months, and for refined fuels by the end of the year. 

EU ambassadors met on Wednesday to assess her plan and hoped to overcome their divisions by the end of the week, diplomats said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov — whose wife, son and daughter were also targeted on Wednesday — said the EU would “pay a high price in trying to hurt us.

“The cost of sanctions for the citizens of Europe will grow by the day,” he added.

The proposal asks that Hungary and Slovakia, both dependent on Russian oil, be given an extra year to meet the ban, according to a document seen by AFP. 

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told reporters his country also wanted a postponement, of two to three years.

“We support the toughest sanctions possible against Russia… but from the start we have been saying the sanctions must not harm Czech citizens more than Russia,” he said.

The Czech news agency CTK quoted Slovak Economy Minister Richard Sulik saying his country also wanted a three-year phase-out. 

– ‘Miracle of God’ –

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the embargo could lead to supply “disruptions” and price increases, but that Berlin backed it, having overcome earlier reluctance.

Confirming his fears, oil prices soared more than four percent to above $108 a barrel when news of the plan hit the markets.

“As the EU tightens the sanctions screw… worries about global supply have reared up again,” said Susannah Streeter, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Von der Leyen also said her proposal would deny Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, access to SWIFT, the global banking communications system.

By hitting Sberbank and two other banks, “we hit banks that are systemically critical to the Russian financial system and Putin’s ability to wage destruction,” she said.

Her proposal also targeted Patriarch Kirill, calling him “a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin who has become one of the most prominent supporters” of the war.

Kirill once described Putin’s rule as a “miracle of God” and has railed against the “forces of evil” opposed to a historic “unity” between Russia and Ukraine.

Von der Leyen said the new list also includes Russian military personnel deployed to Ukraine “who committed war crimes in Bucha and who are responsible for the inhuman siege of the city of Mariupol”.

“This sends another important signal to all perpetrators of the Kremlin’s war: We know who you are, and you will be held accountable.”

The EU also proposed banning more Russian broadcasters from the airwaves in Europe. 

The bloc has already banned media outlets RT and Sputnik in March and pressured tech giants to remove them from their platforms.

Wall Street has grown nervous as the Federal Reserve is set to make its biggest rate hike in more than two decades to crush inflation that has reached levels not seen since the 1980s.

The central bank’s policy setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) opened the final session of its two-day meeting on Wednesday and is seen as certain to announce a half-percentage point rate hike, which would have repercussions for car loans, mortgages and business credit.

The increase would take the key borrowing rate above 0.75 percent after sitting at zero from the start of the pandemic through 2021, even as inflation picked up speed.

The expected move is part of what the Fed has billed as a tightening cycle likely to continue throughout this year and into 2023, with the goal of taking the steam out an inflation wave that has pushed consumer prices to the highest levels in four decades, far above the Fed’s two percent target.

The US central bank hiked rates by a quarter percentage point in March, the first increase since 2018, but top officials including Fed Chair Jerome Powell have said officials will move quickly and front-load the increases. 

While Wall Street sentiment has showed signs of improving this week, the central bank’s hawkish posture played a role in the equity bloodletting seen in recent weeks.

April was the worst month for the S&P 500 since the pandemic, while the Nasdaq’s tech stocks, which are particularly sensitive to higher interest rates, suffered their biggest loss since October 2008.

Shares were mixed in early trading on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq down but the other indices showing modest gains.

The Fed’s goal is to engineer a “soft landing,” reining in inflation but avoiding a contraction in economic activity.

But with China’s pandemic lockdowns worsening global supply snarls and the war in Ukraine pushing commodity prices higher, analysts fear factors beyond the central bank’s control could undermine that goal, and perhaps plunge the world’s largest economy into a recession.

“The Fed’s goal is to avoid a recession and engineer a soft landing, which will no doubt be a challenge,” Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics said.

She added that central bankers may become more cautious later in the year, and Powell “has shown a willingness to quickly change course, as needed.”

The Fed chief will speak following the FOMC announcement scheduled for 1800 GMT, and could provide more insight into the committee’s thinking.

– Call for caution –

Interest rate hikes are aimed at dampening demand and taking the steam out of consumer prices that rose 8.5 percent over the 12 months to March, the biggest annual jump since December 1981, caused in part by consumers spending more for scarce goods.

Fed officials have signaled they view the economy as healthy enough to withstand higher rates, since unemployment has retreated almost to where it was before the pandemic, and recent data has shown strong consumer and business spending, even though the economy contracted in the first quarter.

However, in addition to the external factors, central bankers cannot engineer a solution for the worker shortages that have challenged businesses and raised fears of a wage-price spiral, when employees demand higher salaries and fuel price increases. 

On Wednesday, payroll services firm ADP reported private employers added a weaker-than-expected 247,000 workers in April, a sign that companies are struggling to find available labor, while government data released Tuesday showed there are nearly two openings for every job seeker.

“We don’t know if a recession will be realized; it will depend critically upon what the Fed does and how quickly the Ukrainian situation is resolved,” Robert Eisenbeis of Cumberland Advisors said in a note. 

He warned, “Near-term probabilities are not favorable and suggest caution.”

The policy committee is also expected to provide details on the plans for shedding its massive holdings of bonds built up during the pandemic to keep credit flowing through the economy. 

That could also unsettle financial markets and act as a brake on activity.