Follow us at @BloombergUK and on Facebook, and wrap up your day with The Readout newsletter with Allegra StrattonWell, hello again. Here’s what we’re looking at heading into the week. The big guns: Western involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine is inching ever higher as the invasion nears the one-year mark. The intensity of Russia’s air and ground attacks is rising too. A trio of meetings involving allies will focus on Kyiv’s urgent calls for heavier weaponry and fighter jets to repel Vladim
(Bloomberg) — Follow us at @BloombergUK and on Facebook, and wrap up your day with The Readout newsletter with Allegra StrattonWell, hello again. Here’s what we’re looking at heading into the week. The big guns: Western involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine is inching ever higher as the invasion nears the one-year mark. The intensity of Russia’s air and ground attacks is rising too. A trio of meetings involving allies will focus on Kyiv’s urgent calls for heavier weaponry and fighter jets to repel Vladimir Putin’s advance. The next gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, known as the Ramstein meeting, comes Tuesday in Brussels, ahead of the NATO defense ministerial on Wednesday. The 59th Munich Security Conference follows from Friday.
The big strikes: Although Britain has so far avoided recession by a whisker, there’s no logical end in sight for the string of industrial disputes. The union behind frequent rail strikes since last summer has rejected another pay offer and pledged to keep going “for as long as it takes.” Nurses are preparing to escalate their dispute, with staff from intensive care, cancer and emergency wards considering a walkout over pay. The industrial actions are just part of the “reform or die” moment that faces the beloved 75-year-old health service. The big rethink: The UK may within days announce a solution to the years-long spat with the EU over trading arrangements for Northern Ireland, and use a breakthrough as a springboard toward a broader thawing of ties. In what’s likely to be the talk of Westminster, Alex Wickham reports that Rishi Sunak has asked senior ministers and officials to find ways to rebuild Britain’s relations with the European Union. The work is said to focus on defense, migration, and so-called economic statecraft.
The big data: UK wage and inflation data releases will highlight why the Bank of England is not yet done raising rates, even if it is possibly nearing the end of its hiking cycle, as Tom Rees reports. The jobless rate is due on Tuesday, and is expected to show a still-tight labor market and sticky wage pressure. CPI for January comes a day later. Price pressures are receding in Britain, as in most countries, but UK inflation is still forecast in double digits — one reason for the government to go slow on settling wage disputes while hoping price pressures will recede. The big talker: What could be cozier than a sit-down with the Bank of England’s chief economist to chew over the cost-of-living crisis and sticky inflation? Huw Pill will attend Warwick University’s “fireside chat” on Thursday. Pill last week warned that the tight labor market and energy shocks make Britain “ particularly susceptible” to rising prices.
ICYM our Big Take: It’s a crisis decades in the making: how can today’s governments navigate pension promises made by their predecessors at a time of longer lifespans and tighter budgets, while maintaining basic societal fairness? As we’ve seen in France, where labor unions have organized massive protests, and elsewhere, the simple solution — just raise the retirement age! — creates enormous political and social backlash. And as Amy Bainbridge, Ainsley Thomson and Alice Waters explain, there’s a strong suspicion that a comfortable retirement will increasingly become something only the privileged can attain. And finally, it’s Super Bowl weekend, and the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs in sunny Arizona. The matchup between the two 16-3 teams looks so close that Wall Street quants can’t pick a winner. That’s good news for advertisers, who most of all fear a blowout and the sound of millions of TVs clicking off. Kevin Krim, chief executive of EDO, sat down with Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde to give his predictions for this year’s best Super Bowl ads.
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