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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week recommitted his forces to defending the eastern city of Bakhmut just as western officials and even some Ukrainian soldiers suggested it might be wiser to pull back. The battle for Bakhmut, raging for nine months, has become an attritional trap, with Russians and Ukrainians trying to deplete each other’s ranks

The argument over whether journalist Isabel Oakeshott was right to leak more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages given to her for the purposes of ghostwriting a memoir by the former health secretary and Tory MP Matt Hancock is, ostensibly, about the ethics of journalism. Those who defend Oakeshott argue that she has behaved as any decent

On a brisk night in November, a few dozen people huddled into a basement bookstore in Washington DC to hear Cal Newport opine on the state of technology, work and society at large. Newport, a 40-year-old MIT-trained computer scientist, spends much of his time researching distributed algorithm theory and teaching undergrads maths and theory as

JPMorgan Chase is suing Jes Staley, a former top executive, in an attempt to make him liable for any penalties the US bank might have to pay if it is found to have facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes in two high-profile lawsuits. Staley, who is alleged in the lawsuits to have “personally observed” Epstein

EY has “paused” its plan to split in two amid a fierce dispute over how much of its tax business should stay with the audit side of the firm. Julie Boland, the head of EY’s US business, who has been picked to run EY after it spins off its consulting arm, told partners on Wednesday

Britain is planning to tackle chronic shortages in the labour market by opening its doors to more foreign workers, starting with looser rules for the construction sector. While the priority for ministers is to tackle inactivity among the UK workforce, government officials acknowledge that will not be enough to fill the 1.2mn job vacancies and

EY has “paused” its plan to split in two amid a fierce dispute over how much of its tax business should stay with the audit side of the firm. Julie Boland, the head of EY’s US business, who has been picked to run EY after it spins off its consulting arm, told partners on a

The Lloyd’s of London chief executive wants to “get Monday back” and see brokers and underwriters on the trading floor four days a week — in a push to ensure face-to-face trading continues to thrive following the Covid pandemic. “The building is busy,” said John Neal, CEO of the specialist insurance market made up of

The Restaurant Group, owner of the Frankie & Benny’s and Wagamama chains, plans to close 35 of its worst-performing sites, as it comes under pressure from activist investors. It has also announced a new three-year plan to increase operating margins from 8.3 per cent to 11.8 per cent, but chief executive Andy Hornby told the

Swati Dhingra, one of the external members of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, made the case on Wednesday for holding UK interest rates at 4 per cent. The vast majority of inflation had been caused by higher energy and import prices, she said, adding that the evidence of an impending wage price spiral was

The head of one of Britain’s largest insurers has decried the “perpetual drift” of companies away from London’s stock market, saying that a low-growth economy and political infighting had eroded the UK’s appeal. The decisions last week by CRH, the world’s largest building materials group, and UK chip designer Arm to shun London in favour

Here is a thought experiment. If Taiwan did not exist, would the US and China still be at loggerheads? My hunch is yes. Antagonism between top dogs and rising powers is part of the human story. The follow-up is whether such tensions would persist if China were a democracy rather than a one-party state. That

European and Asian stocks fell on Wednesday as a warning from the Federal Reserve that it was prepared to return to bigger interest rate rises to fight inflation weighed heavily on markets. At the open the region-wide Stoxx 600 fell 0.2 per cent, London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3 per cent and the Cac 40

For most overseas lenders, US retail banking has been a graveyard of failed dreams. Drawn by America’s size, wealth and economic growth, UK-listed HSBC and RBS (now NatWest) and Spain’s BBVA all gave it a go before throwing in the towel. French lender BNP Paribas formally joined their ranks in calling it quits last month.

Oxford seems a rather fitting place for an insurgency against the elite. The city of dreaming spires is the alma mater of many who stalk the halls of power or jet off to Davos, after all. Last month, protesters against a new low-traffic neighbourhood system took aim at “15-minute cities” there. They argued that the

Volkswagen is putting on hold a planned battery plant in eastern Europe and prioritising a similar facility in North America after estimating it could receive €10bn in US incentives. The decision is the latest fallout from Joe Biden’s $369bn package of subsidies and tax incentives for green technology that is luring European companies to the

The UN’s acknowledged “failure” in northern Syria after last month’s devastating earthquake has highlighted its tangled relations with the Damascus regime, which has included hiring a daughter of Syria’s sanctioned spy chief to work in the office of an aid agency. The slow arrival of international help to impoverished opposition areas of Syria after the

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will use next week’s Budget to set out a new capital allowances regime for businesses, to offset a sharp rise in corporation tax and the end of a £25bn “super-deduction” tax break for investment. Conservative MPs have urged Hunt to be bold and unveil tax cuts to offset headwinds caused by the

It was, in fairness, a good line. The boss of Activision Blizzard, in full campaigning mode in support of the gaming group’s $75bn sale to Microsoft, last month noted UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s ambitions to become a European tech hub and quipped: “If deals like this can’t get through, they won’t be Silicon Valley,

The UK tax authority’s decision to shut its task force focused on recouping fraudulent and faulty claims made on the government’s flagship Covid-19 support schemes is putting at risk up to £5.1bn of taxpayers’ money, according to a damning report by MPs. The cross-party House of Commons public accounts committee said on Wednesday it was

Elon Musk said that Twitter’s finances are improving to the point that the social media company could return to posting positive cash flow next quarter, as the chief executive attempts to cut costs, lure back advertisers and navigate the platform’s tech woes. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference on Tuesday, Musk said that cash