Russia has admitted “problems” with oil and gas revenues that have fallen to their lowest levels in years, underscoring the impact of western restrictions on Moscow’s primary engine for funding its war in Ukraine. Finance minister Anton Siluanov acknowledged issues during a public video conference with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, blaming “all these discounts”
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Share buybacks, once an American oddity, are taking over the world. Company repurchases of their own stock hit a global record last year of $1.3tn, triple the level of 10 years ago, according to research by Janus Henderson. While US companies remain the biggest buyers, the transactions have gained favour rapidly in continental Europe and
Tech entrepreneur Rosie Zhang is betting that the reopening of China’s borders to the world will jump-start growth for her start-up. “Now we can go out and sell,” she said, after three years spent during the pandemic pitching customers and teaching them how to use her company’s retail automation technology over video calls from Shanghai.
China will send a special envoy to Ukraine, Russia and other countries to discuss a “political settlement to the Ukraine crisis”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. Li Hui, a former Chinese ambassador to Moscow, will visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from Monday, spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced at a press conference. “Sending
Two-thirds of the £12bn eventual rise in UK mortgage costs from higher interest rates has yet to be passed on to borrowers, leaving them facing painful refinancing over the coming months, a think-tank has warned. The Bank of England this week lifted its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.5
There was a moment when Turkey’s election debate came down to an onion and a warship. It began when Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the man leading the charge to break President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s grip over Turkish politics, sat at his kitchen table last month, his shirt collar open, sleeves rolled up, and held up an onion.
Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III will be the most public display in seven decades of the curious relationship in the UK between England’s established church and the hereditary monarchy. The King will be accompanied to and from the ceremony by thousands of military personnel, a reminder that Britain’s constitutional monarch remains head of state.
The writer is an FT contributing editor and writes the Chartbook newsletter The US is not eager for war with China. This is the message prominent spokespeople for the Biden administration have been sending in the past few weeks. The fact that this needs saying tells you something about the state we are in. In
In the US tech sell off, Apple was regarded as the safest pair of hands. It has more than 2bn active devices and nearly 1bn people paying for services. Unlike many of its peers it pays dividends as well as buying back shares. A drop in revenue and net income in the last quarter does
I think I might have let out an audible groan in November when I saw Elon Musk proclaiming that his mission was to make Twitter “by far the most accurate source of information about the world”. This is a man, after all, who has not in the past shown a particularly ardent commitment to the
Chinese initial public offerings have raised more than five times as much money as those in the US this year as a crop of fresh listings in the world’s biggest economy failed to appear after a dire 2022. Rising interest rates, stubbornly high inflation and the recent turmoil in the US banking sector have dashed
Will the deadlock in the Ukraine war be broken in Bakhmut or Beijing? At the moment, all eyes are focused on the much-trailed Ukrainian counter-offensive — which is likely to begin soon. But there are also significant developments on the diplomatic front. Last week, Xi Jinping called Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On a recent visit to Kyiv,
Cutting ties with China would be “unthinkable for almost all of German industry”, the chief executive of automaker Mercedes-Benz has said, as Europe’s largest economy grapples with its deep reliance on Beijing. Ola Källenius said cutting ties with China was impossible and “not desirable”. “The major players in the global economy — Europe, the USA
Silicon Valley Bank’s failure last month stemmed from weakened regulations during the Trump administration and mis-steps by internal supervisors who were too slow to correct management blunders, the US Federal Reserve said in a scathing review of the lender’s implosion. The long-awaited report, released on Friday, had harsh words for the California bank’s management but
At a press conference alongside South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol in the White House Rose Garden this week, Joe Biden appeared to relish the possibility of a rematch against his one-time opponent Donald Trump. Asked whether he was the only Democrat capable of defeating Trump in 2024, the president, wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses,
The BBC is stuck in a “yesteryear” TV and radio era and needs more resources and regulatory certainty in order to compete in the global digital media market, MPs have warned. The broadcaster was contending with international rivals that have no public-service remit in a race to engage new audiences, according to a report by
European stocks sank at the open on Wednesday as weaker-than-expected earnings from ASM International, the Dutch chip tool manufacturer, reawakened investors fears of a coming economic slowdown. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 and France’s CAC index both fell more than 1.1 per cent in the first hour of trade. ASMI dropped 11.8 per cent in Amsterdam
Asian stocks sold off sharply on Tuesday with investors growing increasingly nervous about the extent of China’s recovery and potential US restrictions on investments in the world’s second-biggest economy. China’s CSI 300 index dropped 0.8 per cent, taking its decline since last Tuesday to more than 5 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped
Beijing has been forced to backtrack after its ambassador to France sparked a furore in Europe at the weekend by questioning the legal status of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. China’s foreign ministry on Monday contradicted the comments from Lu Shaye, who had infuriated European capitals and fuelled distrust about Beijing’s ambitions
Several countries, including the UK, US and Italy, have begun evacuations from Sudan, after a week of fighting between the country’s armed forces and a paramilitary group. British prime minister Rishi Sunak said “UK armed forces have completed a complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families”. The White House said it had