News

The price of European natural gas has fallen below €50 per megawatt hour for the first time in almost 18 months, a landmark moment in the energy crisis as mild weather and ample storage helped temper once runaway prices. European gas prices have fallen as much as 85 per cent from their peak of more

Centrica insisted that Britain’s cost of living crisis could not be solved by one company alone as it sought to defend a more than threefold rise in operating profits to a record £3.3bn for 2022. The forecast-beating results prompted Centrica to announce that it would extend a £250mn share buyback programme launched in November —

Nicola Sturgeon has resigned as Scotland’s first minister and leader of the Scottish National party after a backlash over her strategy for securing independence and a fall in popularity over proposed gender laws. Sturgeon, who has led the SNP for eight years, told a press conference in Edinburgh that giving everything to the “best job

UK wage growth accelerated more than expected in the three months to December but remained below inflation, according to official statistics that will be closely watched by the Bank of England ahead of its next interest rate decision. Growth in average regular pay, excluding bonuses, rose to an annual rate of 6.7 per cent in

China has accused the US of flying high-altitude balloons into its airspace more than 10 times last year, and of conducting hundreds of reconnaissance missions, as the aerial surveillance dispute between the two nations takes their ties to a new low. Beijing’s accusations came after the US shot down what it said was a Chinese

A Deutsche Bank probe into the mis-selling of risky foreign exchange derivatives in Spain has found that staff acted disingenuously, exploited flaws in the bank’s controls and broke EU rules, according to people with knowledge of the report. One of the people said employees acted in “bad faith” over years, pushing small and medium sized

Gillian Keegan, UK education secretary, has signalled she will fight any Home Office attempts to cut migration into Britain by driving away overseas students, saying universities were a “hugely valuable” export success. Keegan, in an interview with the Financial Times, said she wanted to build on the UK’s booming export market in university education, and

The UK economy stagnated in the final quarter of 2022, narrowly avoiding a recession despite output shrinking by more than expected in December. Gross domestic product was unchanged between the third and fourth quarters of 2022, following a contraction in the previous three months, according to data published on Friday by the Office for National

Credit Suisse has reported its biggest annual loss since the 2008 financial crisis, laying bare the scale of the challenge the bank faces in restoring its fortunes. The lender on Thursday reported a SFr1.4bn ($1.5bn) loss for the fourth quarter, as investment banking revenues slumped and clients pulled money from the group’s wealth management business.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived on a surprise visit to the UK on Wednesday as Britain unveils plans to provide Kyiv with more weaponry and assistance — including training for Nato-standard jets. Zelenskyy, who was greeted by UK prime minister Rishi Sunak on landing at Stansted airport, will address parliament in only his second

Authorities in Turkey and Syria on Tuesday staged a massive effort to find survivors and help victims after a devastating earthquake left almost 5,000 people dead, but fraught road and weather conditions threatened to snarl rescuers’ attempts to stem a worsening crisis. Authorities were pulling people out of the rubble in freezing temperatures in south-eastern

The Rothschild family is planning to buy out the shares in Franco-British investment bank Rothschild & Co that it does not already own in a move that would take the company off the stock market. Concordia, the family holding company that owns 38.9 per cent of the shares and 47.5 per cent of the voting

Beijing has lashed out at the US decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon that flew across North America this week, accusing the Biden administration of “seriously violating international conventions”. The Chinese foreign ministry said it “repeatedly” told the US the balloon was for “civilian use” and had entered American airspace by accident due to

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has cancelled his weekend visit to China after the Pentagon said it discovered a Chinese spy balloon that has been flying over sensitive nuclear missile sites in the western state of Montana. The top US diplomat had been expected to meet China’s president Xi Jinping. He would have been

TotalEnergies, one of the largest foreign investors in Adani, has said it had carried out due diligence “consistent with best practices” when investing $3.1bn in the Indian group targeted by fraud allegations that have triggered a $100bn stock rout. The figure did not include its $4bn investment in a green hydrogen venture with Adani announced

Shell made a record annual profit for 2022 of almost $40bn, beating market expectations in the final three months of year on the back of a strong performance from its gas trading business. Europe’s largest oil and gas company said on Thursday that adjusted earnings had more than doubled to $39.9bn, smashing the previous record

Rishi Sunak is facing a big test of his authority as he agonises over whether he can sell an outline deal on the Northern Ireland protocol to pro-UK unionist politicians in the region and Eurosceptic Tory MPs. After months of talks, negotiators have briefed Sunak, the UK prime minister, that a deal is taking shape

Britain is the only leading economy likely to slide into recession this year, the IMF said on Tuesday, predicting that UK household spending would falter under the weight of high energy prices, rising mortgage costs and increased taxes. The fund upgraded its forecasts for most leading economies and said the global outlook had brightened. But

Leading central banks are due to raise interest rates this week to the highest levels since the financial crisis, stoking anxiety among some investors that this month’s bond market rally underestimates evidence of persistent inflation. Bond prices have rapidly rebounded since the start of the year from last year’s historic sell-off, as markets bet that

A growing number of Japanese businesses are strengthening their intelligence gathering as the country finds itself increasingly exposed to the mounting tensions between the US and China. Companies in sectors that have historically been less exposed to geopolitical disruptions — including Suntory and Mitsubishi Chemical — have hired risk executives and created new job roles