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The UK government on Wednesday came under renewed scrutiny over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic after a leaked dossier of WhatsApp messages involving former health secretary Matt Hancock raised fresh questions about the testing of people in care homes. The Daily Telegraph reported that Hancock rejected advice by Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical

Andrew Bailey has signalled that financial markets have been wrong in their growing belief over the past month that the Bank of England will need to impose many more interest rate rises to bring inflation under control. Speaking at a cost of living conference in London on Wednesday, the BoE governor said the central bank

UK housebuilder Persimmon has warned its new home sales could fall by up to 40 per cent this year if demand stays as it is now, sending its shares down almost 10 per cent. The FTSE 100 group, one of the UK’s largest housebuilders, said if current trends persisted throughout 2023, sales could fall to

Asian and European stocks rallied on Wednesday as robust Chinese manufacturing data lifted investors’ spirits following muted trading the previous day. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed up 4.2 per cent and China’s CSI 300 rose 1.4 per cent. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 was up 0.3 per cent, Germany’s Dax added 0.7 per cent and

Revolut’s auditor warned that the design of the fintech’s IT systems meant there was a risk that the bulk of its 2021 revenues were materially misstated even as it turned a profit for the first time that year. The crypto boom helped Revolut report on Wednesday a net profit of £26mn in 2021 compared with

UK house prices dropped more than expected last month and posted the first annual contraction since the start of the pandemic as inflation and higher mortgage rates hit prospective buyers. Property prices fell 1.1 per cent in February, the largest decline in a decade, compared with the same month last year, down from a 1.1

China’s manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in more than a decade in February, in one of the clearest signs that the world’s second-largest economy is shaking off the effects of a nationwide Covid-19 outbreak and years of growth-constraining pandemic curbs. The official manufacturing sector purchasing managers’ index hit 52.6 last month, according to

The Russian rouble has fallen to its weakest level in 10 months, losing about 20 per cent of its value since the start of December, as western sanctions, Moscow’s waning energy revenues and high military spending exert pressure on the currency. With capital controls in place and foreign trading in the currency largely moribund, analysts

John Textor was hailed as a saviour when he bought Brazilian football team Botafogo last year. “I go down to Rio and I’m treated like a king everywhere I go,” he said of his early days in charge. But after selling a player in January to Olympique Lyonnais, also owned by Textor’s Eagle Football, fans

More than 340,000 Americans will see an increase in their monthly pay cheque tomorrow after Walmart, the biggest private-sector employer in the US, raised its minimum hourly wage to $14. The retailer’s move will in effect set a new floor for pay in many US states. On the other side of the Atlantic, as many

It has been a bad decade for those who believe corporate voting power and economic ownership should go hand in hand. After Google in 2004 and Facebook in 2012 decided that Silicon Valley couldn’t be restrained by public shareholders, the explosion of a tech sector fuelled by private capital meant that companies with dual-class share

The writer is a science commentator Large language models like ChatGPT are purveyors of plausibility. The chatbots, many based on so-called generative AI, are trained to respond to user questions by scraping the internet for relevant information and assembling coherent answers, churning out convincing student essays, authoritative legal documents and believable news stories. But, because