Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Battle formations

President Joe Biden expanded sanctions against Russia with new U.S. penalties hitting the builder of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and its corporate leadership. Earlier Wednesday, the European Union applied sanctions to 23 prominent Russians, including officials and executives. And in an effort to soften any blowback from more severe measures should Vladimir Putin further invade Ukraine, the administration is considering tapping the nation’s emergency supply of oil in coordination with allies to counter any surge in prices. Oil fell on the news. Here’s your markets wrap.

On the ground in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine’s eastern provinces and occupied Crimean peninsula, most of the 190,000 Russian personnel and separatist forces arrayed there are now in battle formations that could strike at any time, the Pentagon warned. Ukraine, which said it was the victim of yet another massive cyber attack, has formally declared a national emergency. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

There was a time in the early years of his reign when Putin surrounded himself with advisers and experts who provided diverse viewpoints, Andreas Kluth writes in Bloomberg Opinion. But that time has passed. Isolated and surrounded by sycophants, the Russian premier may have lost touch with the real world, Kluth says—which could spell disaster.

JPMorgan Co-Head of Global Research Marko Kolanovic says there are two things that give him confidence in his bullish stocks call for 2022, even after a difficult start to the year for financial markets, with rising inflation and Russia’s military surrounding much of Ukraine.

A group of engineers and traders at crypto prime brokerage SFOX are working on a way to expand access to Bitcoin for banks and big investors through a bespoke derivative. 

Cloudflare said it has agreed to buy email protection provider Area 1 Security for $162 million, the security vendor’s largest acquisition to date, as it looks to tackle a significant area of cyber vulnerabilities for business.  

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline may have stumbled in the race to develop a Covid-19 shot, but now they’re saying they’ve made a vaccine that protects against severe disease and hospitalization. In Southeast Asia, omicron is reportedly the dominant variant in Ho Chi Minh City as the mutation continues to wreak havoc across the region. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

Russia, China and Serbia have been providing weapons including fighter jets and armored vehicles to the military junta in Myanmar that, after overthrowing a democratically elected government, has tortured and killed more than 1,500 civilians including young children, the UN and human rights groups said. But sanctions and economic costs to the country continue to rise.

A demonstrator observes a moment of silence during a protest outside the United Nations Building in Bangkok last March. The military junta that took power in Myanmar last February continues to torture and kill civilians, the United Nations said in a new report. Photographer: Andre Malerba/Bloomberg

Scientists may be closer to answering the question of what happens to the human brain as we die. Neuroscientists accidentally recorded a dying brain while they were trying to detect seizures in an 87-year-old man. This is what they discovered.

• Bloomberg Opinion: Putin’s Ukraine gamble risks Xi’s friendship.
• Canada drops trucker protest precautions as U.S. prepares its own.
• Pandemic baby bump shines spotlight on Nordic welfare model.
• Goldman Sachs wants bonuses back from bankers who jump ship.
• Million-dollar U.S. listings dry up for rich suburban homebuyers.
• How much would you pay for this teeny-tiny London apartment?
• Game of Thrones Author’s Elden Ring lives up to the hype.

Among the varied impacts the pandemic has had on the wedding industry, from a rash of postponements to a rush of celebrations, a loosening of rules and upending of traditions is perhaps one of the biggest. Now, with the latest lull in the pandemic spreading across America, a rush to tie the knot has so many venues so incredibly booked that, well, people are getting married in the middle of the week.

Like getting the Evening Briefing? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and gain expert analysis from exclusive subscriber-only newsletters.

Follow the money. Sign up for The Dose, a weekly newsletter that explores how once-illegal drugs like marijuana and psychedelics are becoming big business.