News

UK households that come to the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals next year face an average £2,900 increase in annual payments, putting Rishi Sunak under pressure to defuse an election-year time bomb. The estimated increase in payments by the Resolution Foundation think-tank reflects concern that the UK has a worse inflation problem than other countries

The European Central Bank has warned Brussels against swooping to claim money from custodians of trapped Russian assets, claiming it could dent confidence in the euro as a global currency and hurt financial stability. The Frankfurt-based institution has privately told the European Commission that plans to divert payments on bonds owned by the Russian central

Boris Johnson, Britain’s former prime minister, has been condemned for lying to parliament over the Covid “partygate” scandal, in a damning report that casts doubt on whether he can ever stage a political comeback. The report by a cross-party committee of MPs published on Thursday is a searing indictment of Johnson’s conduct in high office,

Boris Johnson will be found to have committed “multiple” contempts of parliament in a report by MPs into his conduct as prime minister during the partygate scandal, according to people close to the inquiry. The House of Commons privileges committee is set to publish its long-awaited report about Johnson on Thursday morning following a 14-month

Gilt yields surged to the highest since 2008, surpassing the level reached during the turmoil following Liz Truss’s mini Budget, after strong UK wage growth data on Tuesday. Wage growth accelerated in the three months to April against a backdrop of rising employment, raising the likelihood of further interest rate rises. Two-year gilt yields rose

MPs will grill top executives from the UK financial watchdog next month over the regulator’s handling of misconduct allegations against the hedge fund manager Crispin Odey. The move comes after the Financial Times revealed that 13 women alleged they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by Odey over the past 25 years. The revelations have

Police have arrested Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister, as part of an investigation into the finances of the governing Scottish National party. The arrest on Sunday marks a major escalation in a police probe that has plunged the pro-independence SNP into an unprecedented crisis. Sturgeon, who formally resigned as party leader and first minister

Partners at Odey Asset Management said that founder Crispin Odey would leave the firm after 13 women accused him of sexual misconduct. The high-profile financier and his firm have been at the centre of a growing crisis after the Financial Times reported on Thursday that 13 women alleged Odey had sexually assaulted or harassed them

Odey Asset Management has lost another key relationship, as French brokerage Exane decided to cut ties with the hedge fund after a Financial Times investigation alleged its founder Crispin Odey had sexually assaulted or harassed 13 women.  The hedge fund has told clients it is in “active discussions” with all of its service providers as

Morgan Stanley on Thursday moved to sever ties with Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management in the wake of a Financial Times investigation that chronicled how the hedge fund manager evaded sexual assault allegations for decades. The bank has begun the process of terminating its prime broking relationship with Odey, according to people familiar with the

Lloyds Banking Group will seek a sale of the Telegraph Media Group after pushing its parent group into receivership over debts owed by the Barclay family, according to people familiar with the matter. The UK bank has put B.UK, a Bermudian-based holding company that ultimately controls the Telegraph titles and the Spectator magazine, into receivership,

Golf’s US-based PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia-backed breakaway league LIV have agreed to join forces, ending a long-running feud. The PGA Tour and Riyadh’s Public Investment Fund have agreed to create a jointly managed entity to house their commercial operations, and intend to cease their pending litigation. The European Tour has also signed up

British Airways, Boots and the BBC on Monday confirmed they had been affected by a “cyber security incident” involving their payroll provider which has affected some of the UK’s best-known names. BA said the incident at Zellis, its payroll provider, was the result of a “new and previously unknown vulnerability” in a file transfer tool

The Opec+ group was locked in talks over a further cut in oil supplies on Sunday as Saudi Arabia and its allies scrambled to prop up the price, but hesitation from weaker African members of the group raised the prospect that no deal may be reached. Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Opec’s

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday criticised China for conducting risky aerial intercepts over the South China Sea and warned that Washington would not be deterred by dangerous behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region. China was conducting “an alarming number of risky intercepts of US and allied aircraft flying lawfully in international airspace”, Austin said

CIA director Bill Burns travelled to China last month, a clandestine visit by one of President Joe Biden’s most trusted officials that signals how concerned the White House had become about deteriorating relations between Beijing and Washington. Five people familiar with the situation said Burns, a former top diplomat who is frequently entrusted with delicate

Rishi Sunak’s government on Thursday refused to hand over Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages to the official Covid public inquiry, instead launching a legal challenge to try to keep them secret. The move puts Sunak at loggerheads with the inquiry, headed by former judge Baroness Heather Hallett, and fuelled claims by opposition parties that he

The world’s largest natural soda ash producer plans to float in London, a boost to a stock market that has struggled to attract new listings and prevent companies from leaving. WE Soda, the UK-based group that produces the glassmaking ingredient and is controlled by Turkish media mogul Turgay Ciner, is targeting a $7.5bn valuation, enough

Moscow came under attack by several drones on Tuesday morning, Russian officials said, exposing the capital’s vulnerability to retaliation over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The barrage shortly after sunrise came as Russia launched another wave of air strikes on Kyiv, killing at least one person, hospitalising others and forcing the evacuation of a

Nvidia’s chief executive hailed a new era of computing in which “everyone is a programmer”, as the world’s most valuable semiconductor group unveiled a new supercomputer platform to stay at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution. Jensen Huang warned in a speech in Taiwan that the traditional tech industry would not keep pace with