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Motoring organisations on Wednesday called on BP and the big four supermarkets to cut their petrol prices and provide greater help to Britons struggling with the cost of living crisis. The AA claimed BP — which unveiled its highest quarterly profits for 14 years on Tuesday — was charging “what they can get away with”

Opec and its allies have agreed one of the smallest oil production increases in the group’s history as Saudi Arabia attempts to appease western allies without using up all its unused capacity. The increase agreed on Wednesday of just 100,000 barrels a day, or 0.1 per cent of global demand, is likely to cause disappointment

Hefty recent interest rate rises by the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank highlight the concern among central bankers that high inflation could become entrenched and spiral further beyond their control. With many advanced economies facing the spectre of recession, monetary policymakers are grappling with an unenviable choice: raise rates gradually, which will more

Thousands of crypto accounts linked to the Solana blockchain have been “drained” in a blow to one of the biggest networks in the digital asset market. Solana and several other platforms linked to the blockchain were on Wednesday investigating an apparent hack that affected at least 7,767 digital wallets, the computer programs that store traders’

Security officers said it had been “hot and hectic” at London’s Heathrow airport this summer. While airline and airport executives try to pin the blame on each other for summer travel chaos, the officers are dealing with the fallout from cancelled flights and big queues at Heathrow’s terminals — in teams that are inexperienced and

The IMF has urged European governments to pass on rising energy costs to consumers to encourage “energy saving” and a shift towards greener power while protecting poorer households. European governments which have tried to shield households from soaring costs with price controls, tax cuts and subsidies “should allow the full increase in fuels costs to

Boris Johnson sometimes joked that he dreamt of shaking up the Treasury by making John Redwood, the former cabinet minister and Thatcherite radical, his chancellor of the exchequer. It stayed a dream. His first two chancellors were orthodox fiscal conservatives. Liz Truss, the frontrunner to succeed Johnson as prime minister, is given to similarly puckish musings.

European equities slipped in morning trade on Wednesday after hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve clouded market hopes that the US central bank would ease the pace of rate rises to counter an economic slowdown. The Stoxx 600 slipped 0.1 per cent in morning trading, with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.2 per cent and Germany’s

Just after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan, she published an article arguing that her controversial visit was critical to demonstrating American support for the country as it faces mounting pressure from China. “In the face of the Chinese Communist party’s accelerating aggression, our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal

The British empire was built in the age of coal, a fuel the UK had in spades. The US became a superpower in the era of oil, of which it had plenty. China’s rise has come as the world starts switching to a greener energy system needing minerals and metals for battery and solar industries

The two men going head to head to become Kenya’s next president agree on one thing: China is at the heart of next week’s election. For deputy president William Ruto, it is the spread of Chinese nationals in cities, many of whom are trying to earn a living selling local street food dishes. And former

In the spring of 1992, Japan’s senior intelligence officials made a fairly standard decision to deny entry to Reverend Moon Sun-myung, the late founder of South Korea’s Unification Church, on the grounds that he had previously served in US prison for tax evasion. Shortly afterwards, though, the religious leader sailed through security checks to enter

Accountants should stop complaining about extra scrutiny and fines for audit failures and improve the quality of their work, said the head of the sector’s UK watchdog, which imposed record financial sanctions on the industry last year. Auditors have faced heavy criticism in recent years after failing to raise the alarm in a series of

Molson Coors’ chief executive said cost inflation is now his biggest concern after the US brewer experienced a further jump in prices for inputs like barley, aluminium and freight. That upward trend was taking some of the shine off consumer demand that otherwise appeared resilient despite broader concerns over rising interest rates, inflation and a

Bain & Co, the Boston-based global management consultant, was on Tuesday hit with a three-year ban from tendering for British government contracts because of its “grave professional misconduct” in a major corruption scandal in South Africa. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Cabinet Office minister, told Bain that the affair had rendered the company’s integrity “questionable” and that he

BP’s problem, like that of the other oil supermajors, is it has more money than it can justify what to do with. BP knows what it would like to do with the windfall profits being made from the Ukraine-induced rise in energy prices: return them to shareholders. It announced a 10 per cent rise in

Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday night in the highest-level visit by a US official for decades, defying Chinese threats of a military response. The trip by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives has become a test of how far Beijing will go to deter foreign support for Taiwan and of China

The writer is a former deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine  Vladimir Putin infamously predicted that Ukraine would be conquered in a matter of days. The west was equally sceptical about Ukraine’s chances of surviving a Russian onslaught. However, it has been more than 150 days since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion

Liz Truss’s Tory leadership campaign suffered a serious setback on Tuesday after she was forced to abandon her plan to cut the pay of public sector workers living in poorer areas of Britain. The proposal drew ferocious cross-party criticism — including from Tories representing constituencies in the north and Midlands — forcing the foreign secretary

Asian markets usually ignore imminent visits by US politicians below secretary of state grade. Not when the politician is Democratic bigwig Nancy Pelosi and her mooted destination is Taiwan. Indices bumped downwards in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. The Taiwan dollar plunged to a two-year low. Chinese warplanes have been roaring over the Taiwan Strait.