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“I wish,” a longstanding US Democrat and environmentalist said to me recently, “that we’d never politicised global warming.” Even as extreme heat is demonstrating that no country will be immune from climate change, the politics are becoming more treacherous.  Parts of the right are mobilising to slow down the path to net zero, as inflation

French luxury group Hermès has defied an industry-wide slowdown in the US, posting 22 per cent growth in sales across all markets in the first half of the year. Overall revenues soared to €6.7bn for the first half, from €5.5bn in the same period last year, the Paris-based company said on Friday. Operating profit surged

Sinead O’Connor performs at the 49th Montreux Jazz Festival, in Switzerland, in 2015 © Jean-Christophe Bott/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Sinéad O’Connor, one of Ireland’s best known singers, has died, her family announced. O’Connor, who shot to fame with the hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” in 1990, was 56. The cause of her death was not immediately known. “It

Singapore’s GIC, whose estimated assets of more than $700bn make it one of the world’s largest institutional investors, has warned that many of the tailwinds for private equity firms “have come to an end” as a golden age is replaced by tougher market conditions. But the investor, one of the largest backers of buyout funds,

Chinese equities jumped on Tuesday, led by gains in property and technology stocks after the country’s ruling politburo vowed to boost employment, give more support to the real estate sector and revive a “tortuous” economic recovery. Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 2.8 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 3.4 per cent.

Credit Suisse has been fined $388mn by US and British regulators for “significant failures in risk management and governance” related to the collapse of Archegos Capital, which caused a $5.5bn trading loss and helped bring about the demise of the Swiss lender. The US Federal Reserve imposed a $269mn penalty on the bank for “unsafe

Few business strategies inspire as much debate as share buybacks. Activist investors often demand them as a quick way of getting cash back to shareholders that would otherwise be wasted. Corporate executives argue that they are not only a tax-efficient alternative to dividends, but can also signal that the company is underpriced. They all hope

The unexpected drop in UK consumer price growth last month has led to cautious predictions that the country’s inflation crisis has reached a turning point. The news that annual inflation declined to 7.9 per cent in June from 8.7 per cent in May also made the UK look less like an outlier among advanced economies.

UK inflation eased more than expected to 7.9 per cent in June, providing some relief for the Bank of England ahead of its decision on interest rates next month. Annual inflation was down from 8.7 per cent in May, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. It was lower than the 8.2 per cent

Donald Trump said he was the target of a criminal probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, raising the possibility he could face fresh federal charges in the coming days. In a development he described as “horrifying”, Trump said he had received a letter from the US Department of Justice

Russia has formally withdrawn from a UN-brokered deal to export Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, potentially imperilling tens of millions of tonnes of food exports from the war-torn country. Dmitry Peskov, president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters on Monday that the agreement had “essentially stopped” and Russia would no longer co-operate with the deal.

Temperatures are expected to hit record highs in Italy this week as much of southern Europe bakes in an intense heatwave that has driven authorities to mobilise medical facilities for the most vulnerable and warn people to stay indoors in the middle of the day. The extreme heat is raising fears for public health after

The writer is former special US envoy to Ukraine and former US ambassador to Nato It is sometimes difficult to appreciate the significance of major global changes while they are happening. Our analyses, instincts and actions are rooted in what we already know, not fully appreciating the new environment in which we find ourselves. We focus on

Vladimir Putin has said the Wagner group refused his offer to continue fighting in Ukraine under their regular commander, indicating the paramilitaries will no longer take part in Russia’s invasion of the country. Putin told Russian newspaper Kommersant on Thursday that he had offered Wagner “several employment options”. The deal, according to Putin, would have

7/12/2023, 11:33:30 PM What to watch in Asia today William Langley in Hong Kong South Korea: Economists expect the Bank of Korea to hold rates at 3.5 per cent for the fourth straight meeting. Meetings: The EU-Japan summit begins in Brussels, attended by European Council president Charles Michel, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen

US inflation dropped to 3 per cent in June, lower than expected, in the latest sign that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate rises are having an effect on price pressures. The annual increase in the consumer price index slowed from 4 per cent in May to 3 per cent, the slowest rate of inflation since

The chief executives behind Microsoft’s planned $75bn acquisition of Activision made a last-ditch attempt to save the deal in a courtroom on Wednesday in the face of US government objections that could result in its annulment as early as next week. The acquisition of the gaming company would almost certainly collapse if the judge sided

Good morning. Here’s a prediction I feel close to 100 per cent comfortable making: whichever party wins the next election will raise taxes by more than they claim during it. How Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer and, equally importantly, Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves navigate that is one of the big questions not only in

Moscow has accused Kyiv and Ankara of violating the terms of a high-profile prisoner exchange after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned home from a visit to Turkey with a group of Ukrainian commanders. The commanders had led the defence of the bombed-out city of Mariupol before they were forced to surrender last spring at the end

Elon Musk has sued the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to recover a portion of the $90mn fee paid by Twitter, the bulk of which was wired in the hours before the billionaire took over the social media company. Wachtell Lipton, an elite Wall Street firm, had helped Twitter’s then-board to close the