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Visiting the London terminal of the Eurostar cross-Channel rail service, there is a clear sign of one way that changing circumstances have buffeted the operation. Four years ago, passengers were able to mill about in an open space near the gates leading to the security and passport checks at St Pancras International station. But, since

Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov was meeting US officials when he took a phone call from his top commander. Turning to his American visitors, Reznikov said: “I have good news for you. We downed a Kinzhal.” The Kinzhal was supposedly a fearsome Russian hypersonic missile which, Vladimir Putin boasted, flew so fast it could not

The writer is a science commentator The fizz may be about to go out of diet drinks. Next week, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a research arm of the World Health Organization, is expected to list aspartame, an artificial sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar and a staple of low-calorie drinks, as “possibly

Xi Jinping personally warned Vladimir Putin against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, indicating Beijing harbours concerns about Russia’s war even as it offers tacit backing to Moscow, according to western and Chinese officials. The face-to-face message was delivered during the Chinese president’s state visit to Moscow in March, the people added, one of Xi’s first

Estonia’s prime minister has warned western countries not to use bilateral security assurances to “blur” the debate over Ukraine’s bid for Nato membership ahead of the military alliance’s summit next week. Nato is divided over offering Ukraine a postwar pathway to membership at the summit in Vilnius next week. At the same time the US,

7/5/2023, 2:25:00 AM South Korea to allow first new banks in three decades Song Jung-a in Seoul South Korea will allow new entrants to its banking sector for the first time in three decades to spur competition in the oligopolistic system, following hefty criticism over big bonuses paid to employees amid higher interest rates. The

The Bank of England is looking at contentious plans to force more international banks to set up subsidiaries in the UK, people familiar with the situation have told the Financial Times. The move could reduce the thresholds requiring foreign banks with corporate business in the country to set up subsidiaries, with their own capital and

Investors have spent almost $200mn trading theoretically worthless shares in Bed Bath & Beyond since the homewares retailer went bankrupt at the start of May, in the latest manifestation of the meme stock craze. Bed Bath & Beyond was one of a handful of unloved consumer brands that became popular with retail investors during the

Thames Water needs billions of pounds more in cash at a time when investors lack the “appetite” to put more money in the industry, the water regulator said on Tuesday. David Black, chief executive of Ofwat, told a House of Lords committee hearing that Britain’s largest privatised water utility was struggling to secure £1bn in

London’s Metropolitan Police has announced that it will reopen one investigation and start another into “potential breaches” of Covid-19 restrictions in December 2020, in a return of the “partygate” probe that has troubled the Conservative party. In a statement released on Tuesday, the police force said it had assessed “new material” relating to events over the

The Russian army has lost half of its combat effectiveness in Ukraine, including as many as 2,500 tanks, and the main push of Kyiv’s counter-offensive is still to come, the head of Britain’s armed forces has said. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin rejected suggestions that Ukraine’s counter-offensive was proceeding slowly, arguing that the pushback against Russia

In high-income countries, consumer price inflation is running at rates not seen in four decades. With inflation no longer low, neither are interest rates. The era of “low for long” is over, at least for now. So, why did this happen? Will it be a lasting change? What should the policy response be? Over the

Our world is awash with opinions on Thames Water. Here, from Citigroup analyst Jenny Ping, is another: Ofwat has been criticised for not being tough enough as a regulator, especially with companies taking cash out of businesses rather than investing back into the business. If one or more water utility in the UK were to

The biggest Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank for two decades continued in the early hours of Tuesday, with Israeli forces operating in the Jenin refugee camp for the second day. Backed by armed drones, hundreds of Israeli troops entered Jenin early on Monday, setting off a protracted round of fighting that has forced

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of chemicals giant Ineos, has accused Britain’s competition regulator of becoming “increasingly hostile to business” after it blocked its purchase of assets being sold by a Swiss group. Ratcliffe said the decision by the Competition and Markets Authority to block the deal with Switzerland’s Sika earlier this year was “yet

Meta’s Facebook has suffered a further setback in the way it uses data for online advertising after the EU’s top court ruled that competition regulators are allowed to probe whether companies comply with privacy rules. The Court of Justice in Luxembourg said regulators can look at the way companies use data to advance their powerful

F Scott Fitzgerald said that a first-class mind can hold conflicting ideas without breaking down. Well, see how you get on with these two. Sir Keir Starmer is a politician of grossly unsung excellence. And his chances of winning the next UK election are, almost to the same degree, overrated. Let us take those in

The average cost of five-year fixed-rate UK mortgages has hit 6 per cent for the first time since November, as banks are called to respond to concern that savings rates are lagging behind rises in borrowing costs. The residential mortgage rate reached 6.01 per cent on Tuesday, according to data provider Moneyfacts, as the Bank

European stocks made small gains on Tuesday with traders hopeful that central banks would not push global economies into recession by raising interest rates too far in their battle against inflation. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 added 0.2 per cent, while France’s Cac 40 and Germany’s Dax rose 0.1 per cent. Trading volumes were expected to