It was a humiliating moment for the UK’s anti-fraud agency. More than a year after three men accused of defrauding the government were due to stand trial, the prosecution barrister appeared at the Old Bailey empty-handed. Crispin Aylett KC entered no evidence against Richard Morris, James Jardine and Mark Preston, former executives at the security
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Tesla has announced plans to build a factory in Shanghai to produce its Megapack energy storage system, as chief executive Elon Musk resists rising opposition in Washington to US technology companies investing in China. Tesla’s Megapack system provides lithium-ion battery packs to help store renewable energy for electricity grids and represents a key driver for
China held a second day of military manoeuvres around Taiwan on Sunday in retaliation against President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with senior US lawmakers including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. The People’s Liberation Army said units simulated precision strikes on key targets in Taiwan and the waters around it. An animated video released by the
Investors are loading up on protection against a fresh round of financial turmoil in US regional bank stocks as lenders prepare to reveal how badly their earnings have been squeezed by the troubles that took down Silicon Valley Bank. Regional bank share prices have stabilised since SVB’s collapse sparked a massive mid-March slide, but traders
In his first week as first minister of Scotland’s devolved government, Humza Yousaf visited the city of Aberdeen to tout the North Sea oil and gas powerhouse as the potential “net zero capital of the world”. The Scottish National party government had a “clear vision” for the transition to renewable energies and a 10-year, £500mn
Technology is everywhere and always an unalloyed good. New technologies ultimately create better jobs and more broadly based prosperity. So goes the conventional economic wisdom. But what if it wasn’t true? What if technology had been used — in lieu of strong political and institutional restraints — to put more money in the hands of
The writer is president and vice-chancellor of the London School of Economics It is almost impossible to earn a decent income in today’s economy without either university education, further education at college or technical and vocational training. As automation and artificial intelligence make routine and repetitive jobs redundant, this trend towards needing a certificate of
Health secretary Steve Barclay on Sunday accused the UK’s biggest medical union of maintaining a “militant stance” on junior doctors’ pay, ahead of a 96-hour walkout by medics in England over salaries and working conditions. Junior doctors affiliated with the British Medical Association will on Tuesday morning begin four days of industrial action, as they
Spreadsheet jockeys work hard to maintain Excel bragging rights. Gone are the days when knowing the VLOOKUP search function won you respect. But worse may be to come. Artificial intelligence could eliminate the need for spreadsheet skills altogether. This will send a cold chill down the spines of financial data ninjas. They habitually moan about
EY has been given more time to resolve issues exposed by an exam cheating scandal that landed it a $100mn fine last year, as it wrestles with the fallout from findings that it misled US regulators. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered an independent investigation into why the Big Four firm’s US
Last September, the day after Uzbekistan stopped accepting bank cards that relied on Russia’s domestic card scheme Mir, middle-class Russians were already discussing how to circumvent the ban. “[Accounts] with cards can be opened in 3-5 days in [most] banks,” said a Telegram channel, touting how easy it is to travel to Uzbekistan, open an account
The majority of developing economies had less foreign exchange reserves at the end of 2022 than they did at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to fDi Markets analysis of central bank data from 75 countries collected via Haver Analytics. Import cover ratios — a standard comparable measure of foreign exchange reserves — fell
The writer is a former president of Colombia, a Nobel Peace Laureate and a member of The Elders, an NGO World Bank/IMF governors meeting in Washington this week have a historic opportunity to address the triple crises of climate, debt and poverty. They should restore trust in multilateralism by setting a high level of ambition
Rent collection by UK commercial landlords dipped in the first quarter of the year for the first time in two years in a worrying sign for investors who have looked to solid rents as one of the few bright spots in the outlook for the sector. Landlords collected 63 per cent of the rent due
Civil unrest has caused more than $10bn of insurance and reinsurance losses across the globe since 2015 compared with less than $1bn from terrorist attacks, spooking underwriters and fuelling a surge in the cost of cover. The figures are included in a report from insurance broker Howden that explores how “rising discontent”, driven by the
ByteDance raked in a record underlying profit last year, overtaking China’s long-reigning tech giants Tencent and Alibaba for the first time even as losses mounted for its fast-growing TikTok business unit. The world’s most valuable private company posted a 79 per cent surge in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, its preferred metric for
Will US inflation continue to slow? US inflation has slowed consistently over the past year, although declines have moderated in recent months as price pressures in sectors like shelter — which includes rents — have remained high. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its latest consumer price index report, which is forecast
Italian officials are racing to review a deal to sell the country’s largest refinery after the US government privately raised concerns about the sale of the Russian-owned site to a little-known fund in Cyprus. Russia’s Lukoil agreed in January to sell its Sicilian ISAB refinery to GOI Energy, a newly established branch of the Cypriot
US fund managers are increasing investments in international stock markets after rising interest rates and fears of an economic slowdown brought an end to more than a decade of domestic dominance. US stocks have vastly outperformed most other developed and emerging markets since the financial crisis, but the trend began to reverse last year. The
A federal judge in Texas has ordered the US Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of a popular abortion pill in a move that, if upheld, would amount to a nationwide restriction on the drug. District judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered a preliminary injunction of the drug mifepristone, one of two drugs used to
Signs the US labour market is cooling have raised hopes that the worst inflation problem in decades is improving, but economists warn further action is still needed from the Federal Reserve to fully contain price pressures. Data released on Friday bolstered the view that the world’s largest economy, while still resilient, is gradually losing some