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China has responded with outrage after US president Joe Biden called his counterpart Xi Jinping a “dictator” in a row that threatens the nascent attempt to stabilise the deteriorating relationship between the powers. Biden said at a campaign fundraising event on Tuesday that Xi had not known about an alleged spy balloon that flew over

The inflation figures the UK reported on Wednesday were not just objectively bad, with prices rising just as fast as a month before. They also come at a supremely sensitive time, with the Bank of England meeting to decide interest rates and mortgage costs an issue of nationwide concern. If the central bank is true

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday promised to squeeze “every last drop of high inflation out of the economy”, but that arduous task could put a serious dent in the Conservative party’s strategy for a 2024 general election. Hunt is under pressure from Tory MPs to deliver significant tax cuts in next year’s spring Budget, in

UK inflation remained stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, higher than expectations of a drop to 8.4 per cent, marking the fourth month in a row that price rises have exceeded forecasts. With the cost of a broad range of goods and services rising sharply, the figures will reinforce expectations of multiple interest rate

European stocks fell on Wednesday, as traders awaited the US Federal Reserve chair’s congressional testimony, while higher than expected UK inflation reinforced views that the Bank of England would extend its tightening campaign for longer.  Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 dropped 0.2 per cent, following two successive days of falls, while France’s Cac 40 dropped 0.2

UK debt has risen above 100 per cent of gross domestic product for the first time since 1961 after public sector borrowing doubled in May. The Office for National Statistics on Wednesday said net government debt hit 100.1 per cent of GDP last month, the first time the figure exceeded 100 per cent since March

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. For decades, Crispin Odey sat atop the UK’s hedge fund scene. Lauded by many in financial circles as a charismatic maverick and known for taking high-risk bets on the market, he seemed untouchable. Until two weeks

TikTok is expanding its online retail offerings, with its Chinese parent company selling products through the viral video app as the group seeks to challenge rivals such as Shein and Amazon. In recent weeks, UK users have begun to see a new shopping feature within the TikTok app called “Trendy Beat”, a section offering items

The writer is a science commentator Egg plus sperm equals embryo. It is hard to think of a more basic rule in biology. Still, rethink it we must. Last week, at a stem cell conference in Massachusetts, researchers revealed they had created “synthetic” human embryos using neither eggs nor sperm. These structures, more correctly called

When Matthew Chamberlain woke up at 5.30am on March 8 2022 and glanced at metals prices on his phone, he immediately knew something was wrong. As the chief executive of the London Metal Exchange scrolled through his mobile — still bleary after dealing with emails until nearly 11pm the night before — he became “alarmed”

Britain’s beleaguered mortgage borrowers are likely to escape the scale of home repossessions suffered in previous economic crises because of higher levels of housing equity and regulatory pressure on lenders, say market experts.  With 1.4mn households set to roll off their fixed rate mortgages over the course of 2023 — most taken out two or

The NHS in England will struggle to hit its targets to improve strained emergency services by next year, an independent spending watchdog has concluded, against a backdrop of declining patient approval. The state of the NHS will be a key issue at the general election expected next year and prime minister Rishi Sunak is anxious

Marks and Spencer, WHSmith and Argos are among the high-profile retailers heading a list of more than 200 companies named and shamed by the UK government for failing to pay staff the minimum wage. The Department of Business and Trade released details on Wednesday of 202 companies that left 63,000 low-paid workers out of pocket