News

The US economy shrank for a second consecutive quarter, meeting one of the common criteria for a technical recession and complicating the Federal Reserve’s push to stamp out soaring inflation with a string of aggressive rate rises. Data published by the commerce department on Thursday showed gross domestic product fell 0.9 per cent on an

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark policy rate by 0.75 percentage points for the second month in a row on Wednesday as it doubled down on its aggressive approach to taming soaring inflation despite early signs the US economy is starting to lose steam. At the end of its two-day policy meeting, the Federal Open

European gas prices have surged 30 per cent in two days after Russia deepened supply cuts to the continent in Moscow’s latest attempt to weaponise energy supplies. Futures contracts for delivery next month tied to TTF, the European benchmark wholesale gas price, jumped 20 per cent on Tuesday to breach €210 per megawatt hour, the

Russia will slash gas supplies through its largest pipeline to Germany to just a fifth of capacity later this week in a move that threatens to leave the continent short of critical supplies ahead of the winter. State-owned energy group Gazprom said it would cut existing flows on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in half

China is preparing a system to sort US-listed Chinese companies into groups based on the sensitivity of the data they hold, in a potential concession by Beijing to try to stop American regulators from delisting hundreds of groups. The system is designed to bring some Chinese companies into compliance with US rules that require public

Volkswagen’s chief executive Herbert Diess, the architect of the German carmaker’s multibillion-euro push into electric vehicles, will leave the company within weeks after being forced out by union leaders and shareholders. The 63-year-old, who took over in the years following the VW emissions scandal, will be replaced by Porsche chief executive and former VW manager

The owner of the UK’s largest steelworks, Tata Group, has threatened to shut down operations if the government does not agree in the next year to provide £1.5bn of subsidies to help it reduce carbon emissions. Tata Steel UK runs the Port Talbot plant and employs nearly 8,000 people across all its operations. As one

Liz Truss will go head-to-head with Rishi Sunak in the race to become Britain’s next prime minister as the bookmakers and opinion polls put the foreign secretary as the favourite to succeed Boris Johnson. After five bruising rounds of voting by Tory MPs, Truss and Sunak will battle it out over the summer for the

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has raised the possibility of increasing interest rates by half a percentage point in early August as he toughened the central bank’s language on battling rising prices. Bailey said the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee had an “absolute priority” to bring inflation back down to its 2 per cent

SoftBank has put on hold plans for a London initial public offering of Arm because of the political turmoil in the UK government, throwing doubt on Britain’s place as the future home of the Cambridge-based tech giant. UK prime minister Boris Johnson has personally lobbied SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son to secure at least a

A government plan to deregulate the City of London and foster a post-Brexit ‘Big Bang’ will trigger a battle this week with the Bank of England, which is seeking to defend high standards and its regulatory autonomy. A radical Financial Services bill, drawn up by former chancellor and Tory leadership contender Rishi Sunak, will be

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