The European Union moves to end its dependence on Russian energy supplies.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm William Lee Adams.
France's president heads to China hoping to resolve a series of trade disagreements.
And India has dropped its plans to force mobile phone companies to pre-install a government security app.
The European Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement to phase out imports of Russian gas by 2027.
The accord marks a compromise between the member states and the European Parliament, which wanted the ban to come in sooner.
Russia has been funding its campaign in Ukraine through its export of fossil fuels.
Differences remain between EU member states over plans to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine.
Maxime Révaux, the foreign minister of Belgium, where the majority of the assets are based, has said the country's concerns about the proposals aren't being addressed by the European Commission.
Here's Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
Today is indeed a historic day for our Union.
Last night we reached a provisional agreement on the Commission's proposal to fully phase out Russian fossil fuels.
We're turning that page, and we're turning it for good.
This is the dawn of a new era, the era of Europe's full energy independence from Russia.
But why is the EU making this decision now?
I put that to Alexander Koliander, a senior researcher at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Prior to 22, Europe was over-dependent on Russian gas.
In figures, 40% of gas imported by Europe... was coming from Russia.
And even the reduction in the purchase of Russian gas back then resulted in high inflation.
However, over the time, Europe managed to find a way replacing Russia's pipeline gas with gas from Norway and LNG from the United States and Qatar.
So Europe now has reduced the amount of pipeline gas it's getting from Russia.
There are two countries, however, who are getting Russian pipeline gas.
It's Slovakia and Hungary.
And their position all the time was that, since their economies are tied to Russian low-priced gas, their economies would not be able to cope.
And they have consistently blocked all the attempts to ditch Russian gas up to now.
So finally, the European Union managed to persuade them.
What could this mean for Russia's war in Ukraine?
One thing we must understand that gas is not the main source of Russian hydrocarbon income.
Russia gets much more from oil than it gets from gas.
So for years, a pipeline gas was more of a political weapon than a source of exorbitant income.
Of course it created some cash flow, but oil was, and remains, much more important for the Russian budget than natural gases.
Where might Russia sell its gas now?
There is a country named China whose appetite for natural gas is almost unlimited.
And that's where Russia is planning to sell it.
There is a pipeline running from Russia to China which is relatively small if you compare it to what was running from Russia to Europe.
Another pipeline is in preparation.
Also, Russia managed to develop its LNG industry and Russia can sell LNG to China and Asian countries, and it is not yet being sanctioned fully.
And now to Beijing, where the French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived for a three-day visit.
He'll be meeting President Xi on Thursday, at a time of ongoing trade tensions between the EU and China.
There's increasing anxiety in Europe at China's growing superiority in electric vehicles and its dominance in the rare earth sector, which could threaten supplies for critical European industries.
Adam Dunnett is Secretary General at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.
He says there is a path forward for both sides.
We've got five recommendations that we are delivering to the Chinese government and to member state governments as well.
The first one being The overall macroeconomic economy.
There's a huge issue of exports that are flooding European markets.
And so we're looking for more sustainable trade relations, more of a trading relationship that works for both parties.
We're looking at a bigger role of consumption.
In the overall Chinese economy and his visit to Chengdu will be very good in that sense.
Chengdu is the leading city in China for luxury goods.
So France does very, very well in that market, but could do worse.
We're looking for a bigger role for the private sector.
We have a lot of European companies that, despite the economic challenges that they're facing here in China, actually do want to invest, but haven't been able to do so because of a number of approval processes that have been postponed.
And then, of course, the export control is probably the most acute issue we're facing right now.
And we'd like to see that bottleneck being cleared up.
That was Adam Dunnett.
Over to India, where the government has revoked its order to smartphone makers to preload a state-run cybersecurity app.
The move comes days after the plan triggered a major backlash from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's opponents and privacy activists over surveillance fears.
The Indian government had confidentially ordered companies, including Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi, to preload new phones with the app within 90 days.
Now...
Zara owner Intadex, which is the world's largest fashion retailer, has posted higher profits of more than 5 billion.
With me is Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
So, Russ.
Intodex's main brand Zara, faces a lot of pressure from other low-cost retailers like Shein and Primark.
So these are pretty good results for Interdex, aren't they?
They are.
Not just sales growth, but accelerating sales growth through the year.
And that's what's really got investors excited today, with the shares up 10 on the Madrid exchange is the strong third quarter and a really good start to the Christmas selling quarter and also the company's defending its profit margins very well.
So what it's clearly doing is getting the right product in the right format at the right price point for its customers, and that's the magic combination for any retailer.
Interdex is doing well, but what about the retail sector overall?
It is very, very difficult depending on which countries you're talking about.
I mean there's strong signs in America, for example, that there's some buying going on of clothing and of goods, but less so now of restaurants and services because of inflation.
So if you look there, you get a different picture.
The UK consumer confidence is quite weak but Next is doing very well because again it's got that price, product and format equation correct.
So it's Hard to generalise, but overall, it's probably still a fairly mixed picture.
Let's turn to copper prices now because they've been soaring.
What's behind that?
Yeah, copper price up nearly a third this year to a record high in the London Metal Exchange.
And it's partly demand.
The global economy is still growing.
And there's the electrification trend.
Partly supply, because there's been problems at mines in Chile and Indonesia.
But also there are worries that President Trump may still impose tariffs on physical copper imports into America next year.
That's currently just finished products and that's why American traders are scrambling for product to get it onshore before those tariffs may come in.
And of course, that may mean that Asian and European traders don't have enough of the stuff lying around either, so they'll be looking for more products as well, potentially.
Russ Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell, thanks for joining us.
Nike, Superdry and Lacoste have all had adverts banned in the UK for exaggerating the environmental benefits of their products.
The Advertising Standards Authority found the ads, which included phrases like sustainable or sustainable materials, were misleading and didn't provide any evidence to support the claims.
It dismissed Nike's response that the ad was framed in general terms and by Superdry, that consumers would understand.
The ad meant products had sustainable attributes.
Lacoste agreed it would not repeat the claims in the future.
That's it from World Business Express.
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I'm William Lee Adams.
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