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Offering the same service at higher prices suggests a paucity of ideas. Netflix is eliminating free password sharing in a bid to force freeloading viewers to pay up. The result was a 5.9mn bump in subscriber numbers in this year’s second quarter that was hailed as a show of strength by some analysts. But this

One of the UK’s biggest offshore wind farm projects has been halted due to rising costs, a major blow to the UK government as it tries to encourage more investment in renewable power to meet net zero targets. Swedish energy group Vattenfall said it had halted development of its planned Norfolk Boreas wind farm after costs

European stocks and Wall Street futures slipped on Thursday after tech earnings disappointed, while investors prepared for key central banks meetings next week.  Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 lost 0.2 per cent, dragged lowed by declining technology stocks, while France’s Cac 40 gave up 0.1 per cent and Germany’s Dax slipped 0.2 per cent at the

Mathematical relationships underpin the arrangement of notes in a composition — and that makes music particularly open to AI-powered tools, which can be taught to recognise and create melodies and rhythms. Such tools are spreading at a rapid rate across all levels of the music industry, from streaming platforms and record labels to musicians and

The last thing the US military needs is to become a piñata in America’s woke wars. Having been given no choice, it must now deal with the reality. The details of the defence funding bill the House of Representatives passed last week can probably be ignored — they will probably be gutted in the Senate.

You can enable subtitles (captions) in the video player Greed. A culture of secrecy. Abuse. Crispin Odey was one of Britain’s wealthiest men and one of its most successful hedge fund managers. He was this bygone figure from a bygone era. He started to stroke my leg under the desk. I did not want to

Dmytro was marching through shrubbery at the front line east of the town of Lyman when his Ukrainian assault unit came under fire from Russian lines. He stepped aside to dodge the bullets. Then came the explosion.  Dmytro had triggered an anti-personnel mine. The blast dislocated his hips, fractured his pelvis, buried shrapnel deep in

There are three kinds of lies on the internet. Lies, damned lies, and one-to-five-star ratings. I’m not just talking about the kind of ratings that can be bought from a fake reviewer for $5 a pop (though those are indeed a plague). I’m talking about the supposedly real ratings that we give by mindlessly tapping

Foreign buying in Asian emerging equity markets outside China has surpassed inflows to the region’s largest economy for the first time in six years, as investor optimism about Chinese growth wanes. Over the past 12 months net foreign inflows to emerging markets in Asia “ex-China” were more than $41bn, outstripping net inflows of about $33bn

The writer chairs the Energy Transitions Commission Heatwaves, floods and droughts across the world are a wake-up call. We need to cut fossil fuel use fast, reducing CO₂ emissions to around zero by the middle of the century. To do that, we must electrify as much as possible, decarbonise electricity supply and use hydrogen, bioenergy,

7/19/2023, 11:22:59 PM What to watch in Asia today William Langley in Hong Kong Turkey’s interest rate: Turkey’s central bank could make a dramatic pivot as the country’s new economic leadership shifts from policies that have sent inflation soaring and investors fleeing. Economists expect the policy rate to be raised by 500 basis points to

Tesla’s profit margins slipped in the latest quarter as a series of price cuts this year weighed on its earnings, according to figures released on Wednesday. Profitability still held up better than many analysts on Wall Street had forecast, and the US electric-car maker reiterated its target of selling 1.8mn vehicles this year, suggesting it

The biggest US banks spent more than $1bn on severance costs during the first six months of 2023, underscoring the steep price of unwinding Wall Street’s overexpansion during the coronavirus pandemic. Goldman Sachs, which has been hit particularly hard by the slowdown in trading and investment banking, on Wednesday became the latest big bank to

Meta is shunning the news business, giving lower priority to current affairs and politics on its social media platforms while refusing to engage with efforts from governments to make the US tech giant pay more to media organisations. Facebook’s parent company, after years of attempting to placate powerful publishers by funding non-profit journalism projects and

China’s ambassador to Washington has warned Beijing will retaliate against US national security measures targeted at the country, including a mechanism to screen inbound investment being prepared by the White House. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Xie Feng said China “cannot remain silent” while the US imposes sanctions and export controls that will make

Russia has warned it will treat all vessels heading to Ukraine’s ports as military threats, signalling its intent to reimpose a naval blockade on Ukraine in a move that sent European and US grain futures soaring. The announcement followed Russia’s decision this week to withdraw from last year’s UN-brokered agreement to allow Ukrainian Black Sea

Goldman Sachs must be thinking wistfully about what might have been. On Wednesday, the US investment bank reported weak second-quarter earnings. Downtrodden investment banking fees accompanied one-time losses in commercial real estate. Scant M&A produced an annualised return on equity of 4 per cent. Dreams of consumer banking riches have been dashed amid a near

Coutts is under the spotlight after Nigel Farage released documents claiming the private bank — known for its wealthy clients and formerly dubbed “the Queen’s bank” — axed him because of potential reputational risk. According to Farage, the memo that he obtained from Coutts — which is owned by the taxpayer-backed NatWest Group — shows

European stocks rose on Wednesday, as a faster than expected drop in UK inflation further added to investors’ hopes that central banks could soon draw their historic tightening campaigns to a close.  Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 added 0.5 per cent at the opening bell, extending gains from the previous session, while France’s Cac 40 added

The unexpected drop in UK consumer price growth last month has led to cautious predictions that the country’s inflation crisis has reached a turning point. The news that annual inflation declined to 7.9 per cent in June from 8.7 per cent in May also made the UK look less like an outlier among advanced economies.

The lost tribe of disillusioned Twitter users, fleeing the barely-moderated brawl they say the app’s new owner Elon Musk has fostered in their favoured public square, are roaming the fractured social media landscape in search of refuge. An obvious haven is Threads, a newly launched sister app to Instagram, owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. But