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Jeremy Hunt has defended his overhaul of UK financial services rules, which relaxes some of the measures introduced after the financial crisis of 2008. The UK chancellor, speaking at the Financial Times’s Global Boardroom event, rejected suggestions that the government was abandoning the lessons learnt following the financial crisis more than a decade ago. “We

Beijing is running out of medical supplies as the Chinese capital combats a rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak, health workers said, putting stress on limited resources just as authorities lift pandemic restrictions. Clinics designated for Covid-19 patients are quickly filling up and some hospitals in the city of 22mn people have begun rationing ibuprofen and paracetamol.

China has announced wide-ranging relaxations to President Xi Jinping’s contentious zero-Covid restrictions, including for the first time home quarantine, as further evidence emerged of the economic damage from the pandemic controls. The new measures, outlined on Wednesday by the State Council, China’s cabinet, were foreshadowed by a meeting of the Chinese Communist party’s politburo that

Meta has been told its treatment of high-profile users, such as former US president Donald Trump, left dangerous content online, serving business interests at the expense of its human rights obligations. A damning report published on Tuesday from the company’s oversight board — a “Supreme Court” style body created by the parent company of Facebook,

EU countries cut gas demand by a quarter in November even as temperatures fell, in the latest evidence that the bloc is succeeding in reducing its reliance on Russian energy since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Provisional data from commodity analytics company ICIS showed gas demand in the EU was 24 per cent below the

Chinese cities accelerated the loosening of zero-Covid restrictions over the weekend, building expectations that Beijing could ditch the pandemic policy that has kept the country isolated for nearly three years and battered the economy. Several Chinese cities have eased controls, even as Covid continues to circulate. China reported 31,824 infections on Sunday for tests taken

Alameda Research was allowed to exceed normal borrowing limits on the FTX exchange since its early days, Sam Bankman-Fried has said, in a concession that illustrates how the former billionaire’s trading shop enjoyed preferential treatment over clients years before the 2022 crypto crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 30-year-old described the outsized

Blackstone has limited withdrawals from its $125bn real estate investment fund following a surge in redemption requests, as investors clamour to get their hands on cash and concerns grow about the long-term health of the commercial property market. The private equity group approved only 43 per cent of redemption requests in its Blackstone Real Estate

UK house prices fell in November at their fastest pace since the financial crisis, excluding the lockdown period of spring 2020, as rising borrowing costs hit household finances, according to mortgage provider Nationwide. House prices fell 1.4 per cent between October and November — the biggest fall since the country was in the depths of

Inflation in the eurozone has fallen for the first time in 17 months, raising hopes that the biggest price surge for a generation has peaked and the European Central Bank will be able to shift to smaller interest rate rises next month. A slowdown in energy and services prices helped inflation in the single currency

The US is pushing its European allies to take a harder stance towards Beijing as it tries to leverage its position on Ukraine to gain more support from Nato countries for its efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific. According to people briefed on conversations between the US and its Nato allies, Washington has in

Xi Jinping faces one of his greatest challenges as president of China after tens of thousands of people took to the streets over Beijing’s strict coronavirus controls and suppression of freedom of speech. At least 10 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Chengdu, were shaken by rare political protests over the weekend, triggering clashes with

China has been rocked by some of its most significant acts of civil disobedience in years after vigils in Shanghai and other big cities to mark a deadly fire in Xinjiang region turned into protests over Xi Jinping’s draconian zero-Covid policies. Social media posts have blamed the deaths of 10 people in the blaze on

Qatar has launched a review of its investments in London after the city’s transport authority this week banned the Gulf state’s advertisements on the UK capital’s buses, taxis and underground train system. The move by Transport for London was prompted by concerns about Qatar’s stance on LGBT+ rights and its treatment of migrant workers. It

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s new strategy to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and plunge it into darkness would not weaken the country’s resolve to liberate all occupied land, describing the conflict as a “war of strength and resilience”. Pushing back against western fears of escalation, Ukraine’s president insisted there would be no lasting resolution to the war

Rishi Sunak is under pressure from a broad alliance of British business, legal, worker and environmental groups to drop controversial plans to automatically strip swaths of EU-derived law from the British statute book by the end of next year. More than a dozen organisations including the Institute of Directors, Trades Union Congress and Chartered Institute

Credit Suisse has forecast a pre-tax loss of up to SFr1.5bn ($1.6bn) in the fourth quarter, with the beleaguered Swiss bank reporting that wealthy clients had withdrawn up to 10 per cent of assets since the start of October. The lender said that the scale of the client outflows — which followed a string of

FTX’s new management team has located more cash belonging to the bankrupt crypto conglomerate, bringing the tally to $1.24bn, as consultants rush to identify the company’s assets ahead of a US court hearing later on Tuesday. Edgar Mosley, an executive at advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal, said in court filings teams working to track down

Bob Iger, who served as Disney chief executive for 15 years, has replaced successor Bob Chapek after a rocky tenure that lasted just 33 months. Iger, who handpicked Chapek as his successor only to see the relationship quickly sour, will serve another two years in the job that made him one of the world’s most

The UN climate summit has agreed to establish a historic fund to pay for climate-related damage in poorer countries after working beyond sunrise in Egypt on Sunday, but backed down on greater cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and an end to fossil fuel use. Almost 200 countries at the summit achieved a breakthrough for a