News

Energy regulator Ofgem has cut the price cap on British domestic energy bills by £1,206 following a fall in wholesale gas and electricity prices. The price cap will fall to £2,074 a year from July for typical households, compared with £3,280 over the past three months. The cap governs the maximum energy suppliers can charge

UK inflation dropped to 8.7 per cent in April, a smaller fall than the Bank of England expected, raising pressure on the central bank to keep increasing interest rates.  The figure will come as a blow to ministers and the central bank because the fall in consumer price inflation from 10.1 per cent in March

Labour is ready to force pension funds to invest in a proposed £50bn “future growth fund”, as the party aims to boost the amount of capital available for fast-growing UK companies. Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor, said she did not believe Labour would need to mandate retirement schemes to invest in the new fund because of

Profits at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and a clutch of other western banks in China fell sharply last year, as Covid-19 lockdowns and geopolitical tensions thwarted hopes that their operations in the country might finally start to be lucrative. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC reported losses in their China-based units in 2022

The G7 has issued its strongest condemnation of China, as the world’s most advanced economies step up their response to what they say are rising military and economic security threats posed by Beijing. In broad criticism of China over everything from its militarisation of the South China Sea to its use of “economic coercion”, the

Bank bosses in the UK have warned that growing numbers of consumers are relying on “shadow credit” during the cost of living crisis by taking out risky loans from the murkier corners of the financial system. “I do think there’s a worry out there that people are moving more and more into unregulated credit,” David

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend the G7 summit this weekend in person, four people briefed on the preparations told the Financial Times. Zelenskyy is expected to participate in meetings in Hiroshima on Sunday, they said. His unexpected attendance is aimed at bolstering western support of Ukraine as the war with Russia heads towards its

Ukraine’s allies fear military support for its battle against Russia is nearing a peak, with senior European officials increasingly concerned about the flow of aid next year as the US enters a divisive presidential campaign. Washington has been Ukraine’s dominant source of weaponry and US officials say sufficient preapproved funds remain to sustain Kyiv for

Carmaker Stellantis has warned it may be forced to close its Ellesmere Port factory unless ministers manage to renegotiate a key part of the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU. Electric vans made at the Cheshire site by the Vauxhall owner will face tariffs of 10 per cent when exported to mainland Europe from next

Three High Court judges invested in controversial tax avoidance schemes that were challenged by HM Revenue & Customs, including one judge who has ruled on tax avoidance cases, raising questions about the UK’s lax approach to disclosure of judicial interests. The investments by Justices Joanna Smith, Simon Bryan and Martin Griffiths were first made about

Voters are heading to the polls in Turkey’s most consequential election in two decades as longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeks to fend off a united opposition led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Polls opened at 8am Ankara time on Sunday in presidential and parliamentary elections that offer two widely divergent paths for Turkey. Erdoğan, who first

The G7 and EU will ban Russian gas imports on routes where Moscow has cut supplies, according to officials involved in the negotiations, the first time pipeline gas trade has been blocked by western powers since the invasion of Ukraine. The decision, which is to be finalised by G7 leaders at a summit in Hiroshima

Russia’s defence ministry claimed a long-awaited Ukrainian counter-offensive had begun, pointing to intensifying attacks in eastern Ukraine over the past 48 hours. The ministry said on Friday that Ukraine had launched 26 assaults along a 60-mile stretch of the frontline near Bakhmut and the nearby town of Soledar, involving more than a thousand troops and

PwC is racing to contain the global fallout of an Australian leak scandal on its business after it emerged that the firm used confidential government tax plans to advise tech clients. Emails released by an Australian senate committee last week showed that PwC had used information received during its work with the government to win

Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers to let the US default on its debts unless Democrats capitulate to demands for “massive” spending cuts, a significant intervention by the former president as Washington contends with a looming fiscal crisis. Trump made the comments on Wednesday in a hotly anticipated primetime televised town hall from New Hampshire, the

Donald Trump has been found liable for the sexual abuse of a journalist in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, in a significant legal defeat for the former US president as he mounts a third bid for the White House. A nine-person jury deliberated for just a few hours before unanimously finding Trump liable

The compensation bill for those affected by the NHS contaminated blood scandal could reach £10bn, according to officials, in a further blow to the UK’s stretched public finances. Ministers have accepted the “moral case” for compensating families of the victims of the scandal, in which tens of thousands of people were infected with HIV and

The G7-led price cap on Russian oil exports has forced the Kremlin to raise the tax burden on producers, dealing a fresh blow to an energy sector already struggling with western sanctions, according to officials from the western coalition. An analysis of the tax change by a member of the G7-led coalition, which was shared

Crowds were gathering on London’s Mall on Saturday morning ahead of the coronation of King Charles III, heralding a day of ancient ceremony and military spectacle that will draw on a millennium of British history. Global leaders and foreign royalty will attend the event at Westminster Abbey — scene of royal coronations since William the

Conservative councillors on Friday warned that prime minister Rishi Sunak faces an uphill battle to regain the trust of voters, following a bruising set of local election results for the government.  In Sunak’s first electoral test as leader, results on Friday afternoon revealed the extent of his party’s losses, with the Tories losing around 649