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Italy’s rightwing government has approved a draft law that would ban domestic production of lab-grown meat as it seeks to protect the country’s traditional culinary heritage and powerful agribusiness interests. The draft law, which must still be approved by parliament before it can take effect, prohibits the cultivation of meat from cells in Italy, though

Jamie Dimon, the longtime chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, will be interviewed under oath over his bank’s decision to retain the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a client, said people familiar with the matter. The sworn deposition, due to take place behind closed doors in May, is the latest development in two high-profile cases

Scotland’s finance secretary Kate Forbes is to leave the country’s devolved government after being offered a more junior role by incoming first minister Humza Yousaf. Yousaf narrowly defeated Forbes in a bitter Scottish National party leadership election that ended on Monday and her departure from the government risks deepening divisions exposed during the contest. The

A top Republican has accused US regulators of being “asleep at the wheel” in the period leading up to the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank, in the first of two bruising congressional hearings intended to shed light on the failings that led to the lender’s collapse. Tim Scott, the top member of the party on

The writer is the Lowy Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, former US ambassador to Israel and author of ‘Master of the Game’  For the time being, the crisis in Israel is over. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has paused his government’s effort to curb the independence of the Supreme Court, just when it

Alibaba is planning to split into six business units in a radical break-up that comes after a crackdown by Beijing on China’s tech giants. The shake-up would put a separate chief executive and board in place for each unit, the company said, and could lead to some of the mini Alibabas adopting separate public listings.

So, who, or what, is to blame? Why, 15 years after the start of the last financial crisis, might we be seeing that of another? For many, it is the fault of a long period of ultra-low interest rates imposed by central banks. For others, the cult of the bailout is at fault. We do

Television sports presenter Gary Lineker has won an appeal against HM Revenue & Customs after being accused of avoiding £4.9mn in unpaid tax. Judge John Brooks ruled that the BBC Match of the Day and BT Sport presenter was a freelancer who had direct contracts with the two broadcasters, for work carried out between 2013

The governor of the Bank of England has dismissed the prospect of an imminent financial crisis, describing last week’s dumping of European bank shares as investors “testing out” lenders and insisting the world is not “at all in the place” it was before the 2008 crash. Appearing before the cross-party Treasury select committee on Tuesday,

US stocks slipped in morning trade on Tuesday as investors reassessed prospects for the banking sector following weeks of uncertainty over its health. The blue-chip S&P 500 fell 0.1 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was 0.6 per cent lower. Bank stocks were steady, with the KBW Nasdaq Bank index up 0.2 per cent, while

Germany’s antitrust watchdog has launched a probe into Microsoft to assess its power in the market, in a move that could presage a regulatory crackdown against the US tech giant. The federal cartel office, or Bundeskartellamt, on Tuesday said it would examine whether Microsoft should be designated of “paramount significance for competition across markets”.  The

Jeremy Hunt, UK chancellor, is to pump more money into the NHS to fund a new pay deal for heath workers, in a surprise move that comes despite the Treasury’s previous focus on efficiency savings to fund the offer. Steve Barclay, health secretary, said on Tuesday that the pay deal would be fully funded. “I

Imagine for a moment that Emmanuel Macron had left the retirement age well alone. In this other France, the president chose to economise on defence instead. Fewer troops. Humbler ambitions in the Pacific. A budget nearer 1 than 2 per cent of national output. Would the republic now be aflame with protests? There would be

Where did all the secretaries and support staff go? They fell victim to automation, you might say. What was left of their jobs was outsourced, you could add. You would be right, of course — but only half right. Because something else happened to their work too. It was redistributed to all of you. More

Ukraine’s recent drone attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea highlight the importance of neutralising Moscow’s firepower on the peninsula as Kyiv prepares its much anticipated spring counter-offensive. Russia has used its numerous military facilities in the territory — including Sevastopol port, home to its Black Sea fleet, and the Saki air base — to launch missile strikes

As part of his job as fraud detector at biomedical publisher Spandidos, John Chesebro trawls through research papers, scrutinising near identical images of cells. For him, the tricks used by “paper mills” — the outfits paid to fabricate scientific studies — have become wearily familiar. They range from clear duplication — the same images of

Shares of Tommy Hilfiger parent PVH surged 9 per cent in after-hours trading after the company provided a strong outlook for 2023. The apparel group, which also owns the Calvin Klein brand, said it expected revenue to grow between 3 per cent and 4 per cent in 2023, and adjusted earnings per share of $10,

Shortages of fruit and vegetables helped push UK food inflation to a record high in March, according to the latest industry data, suggesting there was little sign of any let up on households struggling with the cost of living crisis. Annual food inflation reached 15 per cent, up from 14.5 per cent in February and

China has significantly expanded its bailout lending as its Belt and Road Initiative blows up following a series of debt write-offs, scandal-ridden projects and allegations of corruption. A study published on Tuesday shows China granted $104bn worth of rescue loans to developing countries between 2019 and the end of 2021. The figure for these years

England’s largest teaching union has urged its members to reject a new pay offer by ministers, calling it an “insulting offer from a government which simply does not value teachers”. The National Education Union said the Department for Education had put forward a “final offer” of an average 4.5 per cent pay rise in the

Benjamin Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics for nearly two decades, outmanoeuvring his rivals with a combination of ruthlessness and skill to become the longest-serving premier in the country’s history. But on Monday, the wily politician was forced to reverse course — at least temporarily — on the drive by his far-right government to overhaul the