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A gold-plated European parliament pension scheme is set to run out of money within two years, putting payouts at risk for almost a thousand members including the Brexiter Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen, the French far right leader. Senior MEPs are fighting to avoid a €300mn taxpayer bailout of a special voluntary scheme for

Ursula von der Leyen sat in the VIP carriage of a Ukrainian train, a slight figure clad in a collared shirt and light jumper. Rattling through dark, forested countryside an hour outside Kyiv, the European Commission president and her entourage were making their way back towards the EU border. The table had been cleared of

London has always been a demographic conveyor belt. Every year, it pulls in tens of thousands of recent graduates. They spend a decade or so climbing the professional ladder in the hope of making enough money to get on to the housing one, and then in their thirties many of them bid the capital farewell

Investors representing $4.5bn of wiped-out Credit Suisse bonds have filed a lawsuit against Switzerland’s banking regulator, in a dispute which challenges the country’s reputation as the world’s most politically stable and reliable financial centre. The claim is the first to be brought by holders of $17bn of Credit Suisse convertible bonds which were rendered worthless

China is building sophisticated cyber weapons to “seize control” of enemy satellites, rendering them useless for data signals or surveillance during wartime, according to a leaked US intelligence report. The US assesses that China’s push to develop capabilities to “deny, exploit or hijack” enemy satellites is a core part of its goal to control information,

Once upon a time, pensions ensured that people could live a comfortable and happy retirement. Not any more. Pensions are a magic wand to wave at a variety of UK economic problems, from an ailing stock market or low productivity to regional inequality. To the extent that they can play a role in tackling these

As the term of their mortgage neared its end in September last year, Iona and her husband began the search for a new deal.  The couple, both architects in their mid-30s who asked to remain anonymous, saw their 1.6 per cent rate leap to 4.7 per cent on the best three-year fixed deal they could

UK consumer confidence increased in April, according to data published on Friday, suggesting early signs of an economic recovery. The consumer confidence index issued by market researcher GfK rose six points to minus 30 in April, following a two-point increase in the previous month. All measures were up over March, with the forecast for the

Rishi Sunak was accused of “dithering” on Thursday as he agonised over whether he can cling on to deputy prime minister Dominic Raab following accusations that his ally bullied civil servants. The prime minister was handed a report into the bullying allegations by employment lawyer Adam Tolley KC on Thursday morning and spent the day

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has warned that any effort to decouple from China would be “disastrous” as she said that national security measures targeted at Beijing were not designed to “stifle” the Chinese economy. In a major speech on Thursday, Yellen called for a “constructive and fair” economic relationship between China and the US,

Meta plans to axe more than 10 per cent of its UK workforce and ditch Instagram’s new hub in London, as the social media group retreats from the British capital in its latest restructuring effort. An internal document sent to staff on Wednesday said that at least 687 jobs would be eliminated, primarily in London,

Last month, just after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, a team of American economists embarked on the daunting task of crunching 5.4mn tweets. The reason? When SVB failed it was dubbed the world’s first “Twitter-fuelled bank run” by Patrick McHenry, House Financial Services Committee chair. So, the economists — Anthony Cookson, Corbin Fox, Javier Gil-Bazo, Juan

Janet Yellen’s China speech has been a long time in coming. It has been almost a year since Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said the country was “the most serious long-term threat” to world order. Yellen’s phrasing was more emollient. The US Treasury secretary spelt out that the administration of Joe Biden had

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg vowed that the US-led alliance would stand with Kyiv “for as long as it takes” in its defence against Russian aggression, during his first trip to Ukraine since the war began 14 months ago. Stoltenberg’s visit comes at a crucial time in the conflict as Kyiv pleads for more western weaponry

The writer is founder of Sifted, an FT-backed site about European start-ups The British mathematician IJ Good was among the first to speculate about what would happen when computers outsmarted humans. One day, he wrote, we would build an ultra-intelligent machine that could design an even more intelligent machine by itself, triggering an “intelligence explosion”.

Russian paramilitary group Wagner, notorious for its brutal role in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, unsuccessfully asked China for supplies of weapons earlier this year, according to a leaked US intelligence report. Representatives from Wagner, which is controlled by close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, “sought munitions and equipment” from China in “early 2023”, according to

The CBI said on Thursday it had given the police “additional information relating to a report of a serious criminal offence”, worsening the reputational crisis that has engulfed the UK’s leading business lobby group. The organisation is embroiled in a scandal involving multiple allegations by employees about alleged workplace misconduct, including an alleged rape at

European stocks and Wall Street futures dipped in morning trade on Thursday as traders looked to companies’ first-quarter earnings for any impact from higher interest rates and last month’s banking crisis. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 slipped 0.4 per cent, Germany’s Dax lost 0.7 per cent and London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2 per cent. In the

Black market drones have been used in military attacks for years. Drones have been heavily used in the Ukraine war too, prompting speculation that China was involved. Beijing has denied widespread reports that the country exported drones to aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The speculation highlights China’s growing dominance in commercial drone manufacturing. The government

Imagine you were a senior Brexiter in 2016, a politician or a journalistic cheerleader. You’ll always remember that moment the night of the vote, when you realised you had achieved something historic. That’s rare for a politician and almost unheard of for a journalist. Because Brexit was decided by popular opinion, journalists, for once, mattered.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is considering whether to fire his deputy Dominic Raab over bullying allegations, after receiving an official report into the claims on Thursday. The report by Adam Tolley KC, a prominent employment lawyer, examines whether Raab, who is also justice secretary, has breached the ministerial code. A spokesman for Sunak said