Ukraine’s army struck a bridge that serves as a key supply line between the Crimean peninsula and the southern province of Kherson, Moscow-installed officials in both Russian-occupied regions have said. Coming weeks into Kyiv’s counteroffensive to recapture territory in the south and east, the strike on Chongar bridge threatens to disrupt operations for Russian forces
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Shares in British online grocer Ocado surged as much 43 per cent on Thursday following rumours that it could be a bid target for Amazon. Ocado’s stock was last trading at 580p, or 35 per cent higher, after The Times newspaper reported that the UK company could be of interest to “technology heavyweights”, including Amazon.
INT. PHIL’S ROOM – DAWN A digital clock-radio changes from 5:59 to 6:00 AM. The radio comes on, playing the end of the Sonny & Cher hit, “I Got You, Babe.” Phil sits up in bed and looks around the room. The decor is typical bed and breakfast, with flocked wallpaper, framed prints and an
European stocks fell at the open on Thursday as traders took signals from central bank meetings that interest rates were likely to rise further to curb sticky inflation. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 fell 1.2 per cent at the open, extending its losses this week while France’s Cac 40 lost 1.5 per cent. The FTSE 100 was
The writer is vice-chair of Evercore ISI and a former member of the management committee of the New York Fed The UK inflation report for May is a hammer blow for the Bank of England ahead of its June decision on interest rates on Thursday. It shows inflation unchanged at 8.7 per cent with core
The debate over high inflation often seeks to apportion blame between greedy corporations raising prices and irresponsible workers making unrealistic pay demands. But, much as many people enjoy the game of identifying culprits, the focus should be on resolving the problem. With core inflation stubbornly hovering around 5 per cent in the US and eurozone,
Investors in the Treasury bond market are betting that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes will drive the US economy into recession, even as stocks rally and analysts suggest the odds of such an outcome are shrinking. Short-term US government borrowing costs exceeded their long-term equivalents by the widest margin in three months on Wednesday,
One of the last arteries carrying Russian gas to Europe could be shut off by the end of next year when Ukraine’s supply contract with Gazprom expires, the Ukrainian energy minister has said. In an interview with the Financial Times, German Galushchenko said that the chances of Kyiv and Moscow agreeing the renewal of the
The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point to 4.75 per cent on Thursday, with increasing calls for tougher action to fight persistent high inflation. Headline inflation stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, according to worse than expected data on Wednesday, with core inflation — which excludes volatile
Britons are turning to crime as the cost of living crisis drags on, with theft of meat, alcohol and confectionery from shops last year at a decade-high, according to new data. More than 1.1mn incidents of theft were recorded in 2022, up from 970,000 the year before, reaching its highest level in a decade, according
Rescue crews searching for a submersible in the north Atlantic are focusing on underwater noises detected by Canadian aircraft, but warned they had not yet determined whether those sounds originated from the missing vessel. “We can’t tell you what the noises were and — we think this is the most important point — we are
Joe Biden’s top national security aide will fly to Denmark this weekend at the behest of Kyiv’s government for an unannounced meeting with representatives of several developing countries that have not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, has agreed to attend the meeting in Copenhagen with officials from
The US Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon, accusing it of duping customers into signing up for its Prime service without their consent and “sabotaging” efforts to undo their subscriptions. The FTC said in the heavily redacted complaint filed on Wednesday that Amazon had used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’
Hello, and welcome to Working It. I have been working from one of those cool blended co-working/hotel spaces — this one was the newly opened Birch, at the southern edge of London. (Locals may remember it as the Selsdon Park Hotel — where my parents went for dinner dances, back in the day.) It’s a
Halfway through watching Grandpa Was An Emperor, a fascinating recent documentary about Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, I was thrown by a minor, but completely unexpected, plot twist. Not long before he was killed in a coup, one of the film’s key protagonists, Ethiopia’s agriculture minister Kassa Wolde Mariam, had appeared on the
Annual rental prices rose 5 per cent in May, the highest rate for seven years, putting UK renters under further financial strain as the cost of living crisis deepens, new data showed. Rent rises were most acute in London where they grew 5.1 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday, with
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
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
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
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
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