
Asian equities and the euro sank Wednesday as turmoil in Italy sparked a frantic dash for safety, while investors have also been spooked by fresh worries about the China-US trade row. Global markets have been sent into a tailspin as a political crisis unfolding in Rome has thrust the stability of the Euro zone and European Union back on to the agenda.

Senior Italian politicians on Tuesday called for EU budget commissioner Gunther Oettinger to resign over an absurd comment in which he voiced the hope that the country's poor economic situation will keep populist parties out of government.

Anti-Brexit billionaire George Soros has urged the EU to transform itself into an association that countries like Britain would want to join. Soros said in a speech that Brexit was an immensely damaging process for both sides that would probably take more than five years to sort out. He warned the EU was facing an existential crisis on several fronts.

An Israeli official says Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has received Israeli citizenship after his British visa was not renewed. The official, from Israel’s Immigration Ministry, said the Chelsea football club owner arrived in Israel on Monday. Israel grants automatic citizenship to anyone of Jewish descent.

The City has “huge concern” over the Brexit political debate being dominated by tariffs and goods rather than the UK’s majority services sector, a shadow minister has said. Labor’s Jonathan Reynolds said that any deal which does not cover services “is clearly a very bad deal for the UK”, noting that there was a “fairly hard ball position being played by the EU”.

Argentina is set to expand fresh beef exports to Asia, with Japan and China having already approved import deals, the country's agriculture minister said. Luis Miguel Etchevehere in Tokyo said that Argentina has signed a deal with the Japanese government under which Tokyo will authorize imports of fresh beef from Argentina by late July. His country has also inked a beef export agreement with Beijing.

The most prominent driver of oil prices over the next two years is not likely to come from OPEC, Iran or Venezuela, but rather in the shape of a shipping revolution, analysts have warned. New rules coming into force in approximately 18 months' time are seen as a source of great concern for some of the world's biggest oil producers.

New Zealand, which produces three percent of the world’s milk, announced this week its plan to cull about 150,000 cows to eradicate the disease Mycoplasma bovis. The largest mass animal slaughter in the country’s history will cost some US$ 612 million. If successful, it would be the first time an infected country has eliminated the disease-causing bacteria.

French entrepreneur and politician Serge Dassault has died at the age of 93, his family has said. Mr Dassault led the Dassault group after his father, Marcel's, death in 1986. The group has numerous firms in aeronautics and armaments and owns the French newspaper, Le Figaro.

Nicola Sturgeon has raised Scottish concerns over Brexit in a meeting with chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier. The first minister said they held a “constructive and positive discussion” during her trip to Brussels. She said she told Mr Barnier that the Scottish government believed the UK should remain within the customs union and single market after leaving the EU.