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The dramatic spikes in oil and mineral prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have distracted investors from the long-lasting and more dangerous impact of food inflation, BlackRock founder Larry Fink has warned. “The one thing I worry about that we don’t talk enough about is food,” he told the Financial Times. “This isn’t just an

Boris Johnson will next week offer pay rises averaging about 5 per cent to millions of public sector workers, but ministers fear that below-inflation deals across the economy could trigger months of strikes. The pay offer will be higher than originally proposed by government; ministers will argue it will help nurses, teachers and others cope

Italy was plunged into political turmoil on Thursday when prime minister Mario Draghi offered to resign after a split in his national unity government. The former European Central Bank president said conditions were no longer in place for him to carry on after the populist Five Star Movement refused to support his government in a

Rishi Sunak, the former UK chancellor, won the first round of voting on Wednesday among Conservative MPs to be their party leader as two candidates were knocked out. Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary, and chancellor Nadhim Zahawi failed to meet the requisite level of 30 Tory MPs backing them to get to the next round

Eight candidates have made it on to the ballot paper in the contest to be the next Conservative party leader, ahead of the first round of voting among Tory MPs on Wednesday. Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee of backbench MPs, announced the candidates for the first round of voting are: former equalities

Conservative MPs will on Monday set out a tight timetable for the party’s leadership contest, with a view to whittling down an expanding list of candidates to a shortlist of two by next Wednesday. Eleven candidates have formally declared their intention to stand to be the next UK prime minister, after foreign secretary Liz Truss

Two former health secretaries, Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt, on Sunday announced bids to stand as Conservative party leader with pledges to slash taxes in an effort to win support from MPs. A total of nine candidates have now announced they will stand to replace Boris Johnson as UK prime minister, with more expected to

One of the leading contenders to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister has said he will not stand in the forthcoming leadership contest, as other Conservative MPs prepare to launch their campaigns. Defence secretary Ben Wallace was the favourite among the Tory grassroots, with a net approval rating of +86 among party members according to

Rishi Sunak, who quit as Boris Johnson’s chancellor this week, launched his bid to lead the Conservative party on Friday with a pledge that he will avoid “comforting fairy tales”. His video to launch his campaign appeared a coded attack on what many MPs have seen as the prime minister’s Panglossian approach to policy. “Someone

Boris Johnson has announced his “painful” resignation but defied pressure to step down immediately as prime minister, insisting he would remain in office until a new Conservative party leader is chosen. In an address in front of No 10 Downing Street, after days of turmoil and mass resignations from his government, he accused his party

Sajid Javid launched a devastating critique of Boris Johnson in the House of Commons as he told MPs why he quit as health secretary, warning that “the problem starts at the top” with the prime minister. Javid triggered an avalanche of ministerial resignations when he stepped down on Tuesday evening, including chancellor Rishi Sunak —

Boris Johnson’s premiership was teetering on the brink on Tuesday night, after chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid dramatically resigned from the cabinet. Downing Street was braced for more ministers quitting with many Tory MPs believing the dual resignation of two senior ministers could signal the beginning of the end for Johnson. Sunak

The executive responsible for easyJet’s operations has left the airline following thousands of flight cancellations and disruption. The low-cost carrier said on Monday that Peter Bellew had resigned as chief operating officer, but would stay with the company temporarily to “ensure a smooth transition”. EasyJet has been forced to cancel thousands of flights this summer

Russia claimed to have seized the entirety of Ukraine’s Luhansk region after weeks of brutal fighting, which if confirmed would hand President Vladimir Putin a significant military achievement more than four months after he launched his invasion. Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, reported to Putin on Sunday that Russia’s forces had “liberated” the whole of

Hackers with suspected links to China’s intelligence agencies were still advertising for new recruits to work on cyber espionage, even after the FBI indicted the perpetrators in an effort to disrupt their activities. Hainan Tengyuan, a Chinese technology company, was actively recruiting English language translators in March according to job adverts seen by the Financial

Covid-19 infections in England have jumped by 34 per cent in a week as new Omicron variants drive a wave of new cases across the UK, according to the weekly survey by the Office for National Statistics. More than one in 30 people in the UK are carrying the virus, according to ONS, with half

The UK’s trade performance fell to its worst level since records began in the first quarter of 2022, heaping more pressure on sterling in international currency markets. Although the Office for National Statistics warned that the figures it published were “subject to higher levels of uncertainty than normal”, the new system it used to collect

Turkey has dropped its opposition to Finland and Sweden becoming members of Nato, paving the way for the Nordic countries to join the alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The three countries have signed a joint memorandum after hours of talks on Tuesday brokered by Nato, ending a six-week veto by Ankara linked

Emmanuel Macron wants to see a drive for higher oil production around the world as the French president seeks ways of bringing down the cost of energy and alleviating the pressure being felt by energy-importing economies. Macron made the proposal to fellow G7 leaders as they seek to hammer out the details of a price

G7 leaders meeting for a summit in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday are seeking a deal to impose a “price cap” on Russian oil as the group works to curb Russia’s ability to finance its four-month war in Ukraine. The goal would be for a broad range of countries going beyond the G7 to impose

The battle over abortion rights in the US shifted rapidly to Congress and the midterm elections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade and gutted the decades-old constitutional protection for women seeking to end a pregnancy. As conservative states began to implement new abortion restrictions across the country in the wake of Friday’s ruling,

The US Supreme Court has struck down Roe vs Wade, the legal decision that has enshrined the constitutional right to an abortion for nearly 50 years, in a dramatic ruling by the court’s conservative majority that will shake up American society, politics and jurisprudence for years to come. In the decision authored by Justice Samuel

Interest payments on UK government debt hit one of the highest levels on record last month as rising inflation limited an expected fall in public sector borrowing. Interest costs rose to £7.6bn in May, well above the figure for last year and higher than a £5.1bn forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility, following a

The second of three one-day rail strikes across Britain will go ahead on Thursday, the union at the heart of the dispute said, after talks to resolve the dispute broke down. Mick Lynch, head of the RMT union, criticised transport secretary Grant Shapps for the impasse in the negotiations between the RMT, the train operators

The UK government is collaborating with Boston-based Moderna to build the country’s first manufacturing centre for messenger RNA vaccines in a deal worth £1bn as it seeks a lead in responding to the current and future pandemics. The government is aiming to secure homegrown supplies of a technology that has proved a crucial weapon in

Strikes will spread across the UK unless the government acts on its promise to create a high wage economy, the leader of the country’s main movement for organised labour has warned. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said that workers all over the country were supporting striking rail employees and would in

President Emmanuel Macron was on course to lose his majority in France’s National Assembly on Sunday night, after a strong showing in legislative elections by a left-green opposition alliance and a late surge from the extreme right. Initial results and projections by polling agencies after voting stations closed showed that Macron’s centrist Ensemble (Together) alliance

Bitcoin’s price has broken below the key threshold of $20,000 for the first time since November 2020, risking triggering a fresh wave of selling and deepening the crisis gripping the digital asset sector. The largest cryptocurrency, which acts as a benchmark for the broader crypto market, plunged to under $19,000 on Saturday morning, a fall

Shares in Asia followed Wall Street lower after the UK and Switzerland raised interest rates, adding to concerns that tighter monetary policies from central banks could undercut a global economic recovery. Japan’s benchmark Topix index and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 both shed 2 per cent, while South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.7 per cent. China’s CSI 300

Stock markets and eurozone bond prices dropped on Thursday after Switzerland delivered an unexpected interest rate rise, following a sharp boost to borrowing costs by the US Federal Reserve. Europe’s regional Stoxx 600 share index, which rallied on Wednesday after the European Central Bank promised a new mechanism to support weaker eurozone nations from rising