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Air India makes a record-setting plane purchase, plus ocean freight rates tumble in potential

good news for inflation, and NATO says that a major new Russian offensive is already underway in

Ukraine. Russia has established an advantage in terms of manpower, but whether Russia really has

the capacity right now to launch that kind of ambitious and complex assault along multiple lines

is definitely up in the air. It's Wednesday, February 15th. I'm Luke Vargas with the Wall Street

Journal, and here's the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving

your world today. Air India has ordered 470 jets from plane makers Boeing and Airbus in the

largest ever deal for commercial aircraft in aviation history and a reflection of India's

importance to the industry. India is expected to become the fastest-growing aviation market in the world.

The airline had said it agreed to purchase 250 Airbus jets and 220 Boeing planes. The deals could

help Air India to win back some of the traffic that it's lost, especially to Gulf rivals,

which have dominated routes ferrying Indian passengers across the globe.

The International Energy Agency is predicting record oil demand this year propelled almost

entirely by booming demand in Asia. The Paris-based Energy Watchdog forecast the global daily consumption

would grow to almost 102 million barrels. It also raised its expectations for Russian oil

output, as the country shows stronger than expected resilience to Western sanctions.

The United Kingdom's annual rate of inflation fell for a third straight month in January and

dropped more sharply than expected. Consumer prices were 10.1% higher than a year earlier,

according to the Office for National Statistics, a slower rate of inflation than the 10.5% recorded

in December. The Bank of England last week raised its key interest rate for a tenth straight

...