Chancellor Olaf Scholz has admonished Germany’s allies for failing to deliver tanks to Ukraine after having spent months urging Berlin to do so. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the German leader who was long criticised for his hesitancy in arming Ukraine, was asked if he was now pushing other nations to provide the heavy
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How, as a half-Scot, how do I feel about the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon? I think there’s something admirable about admitting you’ve become an obstacle to the thing you care about most. But I also fear that her exit will do little to quash the relentless quest for division that has become a hallmark of
The writer is a former editor of the Financial Times As a diehard Tottenham Hotspur fan, I’m inured to disappointment. The team I’ve supported for 60 years has seen managers come and go like recent UK prime ministers. Most of the players are not a patch on Jimmy Greaves, Martin Peters and Ossie Ardiles, who
The Russian army is suffering huge losses in Ukraine, shows no sign it has improved its “meat grinder” tactics and is struggling to sustain a stuttering offensive that is “advancing, if at all, in metres not kilometres”, Britain’s defence minister Ben Wallace said. Despite fears that Russia is poised to launch a major attack around
Patrick Odier, scion of one of Switzerland’s most illustrious banking dynasties, has brought me a chocolate cauldron. A lot has changed in Swiss banking during Odier’s 40-year career at his family firm — including, in the past decade or so, a tumultuous if qualified end to its most celebrated quality, unyielding secrecy — but this
The price of European natural gas has fallen below €50 per megawatt hour for the first time in almost 18 months, a landmark moment in the energy crisis as mild weather and ample storage helped temper once runaway prices. European gas prices have fallen as much as 85 per cent from their peak of more
Good morning. George Parker here, standing in for Stephen while he’s enjoying his holiday. I should have been on hols too, but for the fact that Rishi Sunak flew out to Belfast last night for talks on the Northern Ireland protocol. A deal could be very, very close. Standby. Plus, the strikes get worse and
European stocks fell and yields on US Treasuries rose in early trade on Friday as robust economic data and hawkish comments from officials fanned fears that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates high to combat inflation. The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 was down 1 per cent while Germany’s Dax fell 1.1 per cent. France’s Cac
Football is a simple game. Twenty-two players chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the team with the highest wage bill wins. My version of Gary Lineker’s original line on the inevitability of German victory may be less witty than his, but it captures something of English football’s growing credibility crisis. The
“To prove my innocence, all you have to do is open the constitution and read it.” Standing in the metal cage of a Siberian courtroom, Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko this week closed her trial, triggered by a social media post about the war in Ukraine, by dismissing the entire process as a sham. “What is
I grew up hearing stories of life on the wards. My beloved great-aunt was a nurse in the era when there was camaraderie, heroic doctors, and everyone was scared of matron. No question of contracting out cleaning: you did it yourself, with matron hovering over you to check there wasn’t a smidgen of dust. Tea
As an all-out struggle for AI dominance breaks out in the tech industry, Wall Street has placed an early bet on who the biggest winners will be: the companies that make the weapons that will be used by all combatants. That means specifically, the advanced chips needed for “generative AI” systems such as the ChatGPT
When US short seller Nathan Anderson decided to take on Indian conglomerate Adani Group, he faced the ultimate challenge for someone in his line of business: India’s anti short selling rules. The founder of New York-based Hindenburg Research has not detailed how he structured his financial bet against the infrastructure group, which he has accused
DoorDash enjoyed an after-hours trading bounce after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings for last year’s fourth quarter, showing signs of healthy post-lockdown growth for the food delivery business. DoorDash, the market-leading food delivery group in the US, ahead of Uber Eats, grew its monthly active user base to 34mn, up 28 per cent on the same period
Portugal has become the second EU country this week to scrap “golden visas” for wealthy non-Europeans, joining Ireland in abolishing a programme that helped pull in foreign investment but sparked controversy. António Costa, Portugal’s prime minister, said on Thursday that his government would stop issuing new golden visas in order to “fight against price speculation
The Pentagon’s top China official is to visit Taiwan in the coming days, a rare trip to the island by a senior US defence policymaker that comes as relations between Washington and Beijing are mired in crisis over a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down two weeks ago. Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defence
Tesla is recalling nearly 363,000 of its electric cars because flaws in a version of its full self-driving software could cause crashes, according to a US government regulator. The recall covers certain Model S and Model X vehicles manufactured between 2016 and 2023, as well as Model Ys made since 2020. Tesla sold 1.3mn vehicles
US President Joe Biden plans to talk to Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, to “get to the bottom” of the situation involving the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina two weeks ago. Biden said he gave the order for a US fighter jet to shoot the balloon,
Rishi Sunak has launched a high-stakes gamble to seal a deal with Brussels over Northern Ireland, making a surprise visit to Belfast as Tory Eurosceptics warned he was going too far to accommodate the EU. The UK prime minister is seeking to win backing from Northern Irish parties for an outline deal with the EU
A group of Tesla workers say the electric-car maker fired employees a day after the start of a union organising drive and asked a US regulator to intervene. Workers United on Wednesday announced an effort to form Tesla’s first labour union at the company’s Gigafactory 2 plant in Buffalo, New York. On Thursday, the union
Derivatives traders tend to watch the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission closely on a Friday. This is the day the CFTC normally releases its weekly “commitments of traders” report showing overall positioning in derivatives markets, such as oil futures. This month, however, the data has been missing in action because a small, publicity-shy data group