The EU must still make significant changes to the contentious Northern Ireland protocol if the arrangement is to survive, the UK’s Brexit minister will warn this week, pouring cold water on efforts by Brussels to offer concessions. Lord David Frost is due to make the remarks as the EU prepares to offer to scrap many
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US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has raised the prospect of releasing crude oil from the government’s strategic petroleum reserve, declaring that “all tools are on the table” as the Biden administration confronts a politically perilous surge in the price of gasoline. With the average price of petrol at the pump hovering at $3.19 a gallon
Oil prices jumped to the highest level in at least three years after Opec and its allies agreed to stick with existing oil production plans, resisting calls to help damp soaring global energy prices to protect the economic recovery. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, rose 3 per cent on Monday to trade as high
Nancy Pelosi has given her warring party one more month to pass a $1.2tn infrastructure bill after the party failed to come to an agreement on Joe Biden’s spending plans despite a week of frantic negotiations on Capitol Hill. The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives wrote to Democratic Congressional colleagues on Saturday morning
Nancy Pelosi appeared determined to press ahead with a make-or-break vote on Joe Biden’s $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill in the US House of Representatives on Thursday, even as progressive lawmakers threatened to sink the flagship piece of the president’s legislative agenda. “We are proceeding in a very positive way to bring up the bill . . . in a
This summer the Pacific Northwest was hit by one of the most severe and sustained heatwaves in history. The “heat dome”, which settled over California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, broke temperature records in the region. July was Earth’s hottest month since records began. Europe has recorded its highest temperature in history (48.8C in Sicily). Data
In the blue corner: Pearson, a shrunken ex-conglomerate, former owner of the Financial Times, a textbook publisher hated by many teachers, now led by former Walt Disney executive Andy Bird. In the red corner: Chegg, a glossy “edtech” upstart, based in Silicon Valley, led by well-connected former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig. Chegg started off as
In March 2012, Andrew Left, a short-seller based in the US, received a mysterious package with no return address. Inside, a 68-page document made explosive claims about a Chinese property developer that was then little-known outside of its home market. Left’s subsequent report on Hong Kong-listed Evergrande Real Estate Group, which alleged it was “insolvent”
Kristalina Georgieva has stepped up her battle to remain at the helm of the IMF amid mounting calls for her resignation, issuing a forceful denial of claims she improperly pressured World Bank staff to change a flagship country ranking to benefit China. “Let me be clear: the conclusions are wrong. I did not pressure anyone
Chinese police have detained the two remaining co-founders of HNA in the latest twist in the collapse of China’s hitherto most acquisitive group. The bankrupt Chinese conglomerate, which is under state control, said chair Chen Feng and chief executive Adam Tan were taken into custody on Friday over suspected crimes, without providing details of the
China’s crackdown on foreign investors and domestic property speculation has prompted many international investors to head for the exits. Ray Dalio is not among them. Instead, the founder of the $140bn US hedge fund Bridgewater Associates and one of the most prominent foreign investors in the country, said he has spoken directly to officials from
US prosecutors have reached an agreement with Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and daughter of the Chinese tech giant’s founder, to resolve fraud charges against her. The details of the agreement are set to be announced in a court hearing in Brooklyn at 1pm, Eastern time, according to a letter from Nicole
The world’s financial markets rarely sit glued to their screens waiting for the no-nonsense Norges Bank to pronounce its verdict on Norway’s monetary policy. This week was different. The 0.25 percentage point rise in its interest rate was the most visible expression yet of a turn in the monetary policy cycle that is spreading across
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has given bond brokers a three-month reprieve to get in line with amendments to a 50-year-old rule that are set to come into effect next week, after banks, asset managers and trade lobbies fretted the changes could bring trading in large swaths of the market to a halt. Bond
The world’s largest technology companies have snapped up smaller rivals at a record pace this year in a buying spree that comes as US politicians and regulators prepare to crack down on “under the radar” deals. Data from Refinitiv analysed by the Financial Times show that tech companies have spent at least $264bn buying up
Australia has been thrust into the limelight after signing a trilateral defence partnership with the US and the UK that is set to provide its navy with nuclear-propelled submarines. But the intention behind Aukus goes far beyond those submarines and Australia. The new pact is an essential building block in Washington’s attempts to prevent China
France has recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra for consultations, in a diplomatic protest against a new security pact under which Australia will buy nuclear-powered submarines from the US and cancel its existing contract with Paris. Jean-Yves Le Drian, French foreign minister, issued a statement on Friday night saying he had been told to
Taiwan and Japan have hailed the potential for a new security pact between Australia, the UK and US to offset an increasingly assertive China, even as France reacted with fury to Canberra’s cancellation of a $90bn submarine programme to agree the deal. The US allies said the new AUKUS partnership, under which Canberra will procure
Washington has launched a new trilateral security partnership with London and Canberra which will support Australia’s plan to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, a move that will strengthen the allies’ ability to counter China. The move is US president Joe Biden’s latest effort to bolster alliances amid increasing tensions with China over disputes ranging
US government bonds rallied while bank shares weighed on major stock markets on Tuesday, as moderating US inflation warmed investors to the view that the Federal Reserve would have more time to remove crisis-era stimulus. Data released on Tuesday showed headline US consumer prices rose 5.3 per cent in the year to August, a slight
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, gave an unapologetic defence of the American military’s chaotic and bloody withdrawal from Afghanistan as he appeared before lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In prepared remarks released ahead of a hearing before the House foreign affairs committee on Monday, Blinken said “even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict
The failure by the US to bring Covid-19 cases under control is scrambling business expectations of a rapid economic revival, forcing companies to reset plans and revise forecasts as they also grapple with a new federal vaccine mandate. Revenues have fallen at a quarter of US small businesses in each of the past three weeks
The US judge presiding over Epic Games’ high-profile antitrust case against Apple declined to give either side a full victory. Kate Adams, Apple’s chief counsel, called the verdict “a huge win”, pointing to the court’s ruling that “Apple is not a monopolist under ‘either federal or state antitrust laws’”. However, the iPhone maker is being
Joe Biden has held his second call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since becoming US president in an effort to break an impasse in the relationship between the countries after two rounds of top-level meetings produced little progress. The White House said the two leaders had a “broad, strategic discussion” and that Biden had “underscored
Hedge funds are elbowing their way into Silicon Valley at an unprecedented rate with a record-smashing $153bn worth of investments in private companies in just the first six months of 2021. A report from Goldman Sachs has found that hedge funds have done 770 deals so far this year, already beating the record number of
Pfizer’s top scientist has dismissed criticism that the company is pushing the widespread administration of Covid-19 booster shots too aggressively and denied it should have developed a more potent jab to stave off “breakthrough infections”. Speaking to the Financial Times, Philip Dormitzer, chief scientific officer at Pfizer, defended the company against suggestions it was pressing
Nvidia is facing fresh opposition over its $54bn plan to buy UK chip design company Arm, this time from EU officials who say that concessions made by the US chipmaker do not go far enough to mitigate potential damage to rivals. The concerns come after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said last month
A frantic summer of dealmaking has put 2021 on track to break records, with almost $4tn of deals already agreed since the start of the year, as companies rush to exploit cheap financing and bumper profits. There were $500bn of transactions globally in the usually quiet month of August, up from $289bn in the same
In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, a software coder bills her client in London and is paid in bitcoin, sidestepping a costly banking system and the naira currency’s miserly official exchange rate. In São Paulo, Brazil, a dentist puts his monthly savings into an exchange traded fund investing in a basket of cryptocurrencies that is the
A sharp slowdown in US jobs growth precludes the possibility that the Federal Reserve will announce plans this month to begin scaling back its pandemic-era stimulus, economists say, as the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant muddies the economic outlook. Following very strong payrolls reports in June and July, the US central bank readied for