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Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of carrying out a “terrorist attack” against the bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia, a critical military supply route for its invasion of Ukraine and symbol of Russian prestige. Russia’s president said there was “no doubt” that Ukraine was behind the explosion, which sent two of the bridge’s road spans

An explosion tore through Russia’s bridge across the Kerch Strait to Crimea early on Saturday, killing at least three people and severely damaging its structure in a major blow to Vladimir Putin more than seven months into his invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s anti-terrorist committee said a truck exploded on the bridge’s roadside in the early

Liz Truss has overruled her chancellor and insisted the UK should not set a limit on the number of applications for low-tax investment zones despite internal Treasury concerns the projects could cost billions of pounds in lost taxes. The flagship policy designed to turbocharge UK investment is a key plank of Truss’s “dash for growth”

UK regulators on Friday fired the starting gun on a new round of licences enabling companies to explore for oil and gas in the North Sea, as climate campaigners signalled they would aim to mount a legal challenge. The North Sea Transition Authority is expected to award more than 100 permits to companies by the

The White House has accused Opec+ of aligning with Russia after Saudi Arabia led the group in agreeing deep oil production cuts, prompting a backlash from countries already battling surging energy inflation triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The Opec+ group said it would reduce production targets by 2mn barrels a day, equivalent to 2

Liz Truss will on Wednesday attempt to rally Conservative MPs behind her faltering leadership, at a party conference that has descended into acrimony, cabinet infighting and confusion. Truss, who has been prime minister for less than a month, will urge her party in a brief 30-minute speech to unite behind her tax-cutting economic policy, which

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is to accelerate the publication of his plan to cut Britain’s debt in an attempt to reassure markets after he was forced to make a humbling U-turn on a key part of his “mini-Budget”. Kwarteng is expected to publish his medium-term fiscal plan, accompanied by official forecasts, later this month after previously

Kwasi Kwarteng is facing a mounting Tory rebellion over his plan to scrap the 45p top rate of income tax, but will on Monday tell Conservative party members he is “confident” that the plan is “the right one”. The chancellor’s tax-cutting “mini” Budget, which also included a wave of new government borrowing, created turmoil in

Prime minister Liz Truss has said that “Britain’s economy needs a reset” and pledged to prioritise “aspiration, enterprise and growth” as the Conservative party prepares to gather for its annual conference in the wake of a week of market turmoil. MPs and party members will convene on Sunday in Birmingham, and Truss is expected to

The UK watchdogs responsible for the £1.5tn corner of the pensions sector that came close to imploding this week are holding daily talks with asset managers to stave off a fresh crisis when the Bank of England’s emergency bond buying ends. The £65bn plan, which ends on October 14, was launched on Wednesday to safeguard

Liz Truss is under mounting pressure to change course on her tax and borrowing plans after a new opinion poll gave Labour a historic lead over the Conservatives. The prime minister was rocked by a YouGov poll which found that Labour had a 33-point lead over the Tories, the biggest gap since the 1990s. The

The Bank of England took emergency action on Wednesday to avoid a meltdown in the UK pensions sector, unleashing a £65bn bond-buying programme to stem a crisis in government debt markets. The central bank warned of a “material risk to UK financial stability” from turmoil in the gilts market sparked by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax

The IMF has launched a biting attack on the UK’s plan to implement £45bn of debt-funded tax cuts, urging the government to “re-evaluate” the plan and warning the “untargeted” package threatens to stoke soaring inflation. The multilateral lender said it was “closely monitoring” developments in the UK and was “engaged with the authorities” after chancellor

UK government borrowing costs are on course for their biggest ever monthly rise — and mortgage rates are set to rise as well — following the bond market meltdown triggered by Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal policy announcement last week. The 10-year benchmark gilt yield has increased by 1.45 percentage points so far in September to 4.2

UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has vowed to double down on his controversial tax-cutting drive despite investor jitters, leaving Conservative MPs and traders braced for further market turbulence. Kwarteng said on Sunday that there was “more to come” and insisted that Friday’s announcement of £45bn in tax cuts was just the start. After the announcement the

Investors have warned UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng that the bonanza of tax cuts and spending measures he announced on Friday risk undermining their confidence in the country. On Friday the chancellor heralded a “new era” for the UK economy, in which he plans to boost growth by delivering the biggest tax reduction since 1972 at

Sterling tumbled against the dollar to below $1.09, hitting its lowest point since 1985, after UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday unveiled a £45bn debt-financed tax-cutting package that sparked a historic increase in borrowing costs. Kwarteng’s political and economic gamble includes the biggest set of tax cuts for 50 years, with the end of the

UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will on Friday attempt to deliver shock treatment to Britain’s stagnating economy, with a 30-point growth package to turn “the vicious cycle of stagnation into a virtuous circle of growth”. Kwarteng’s mini-Budget will feature tax reforms to help struggling self-employed business owners, alongside scrapping a planned increase in corporation tax that

Vladimir Putin has ordered the mobilisation of army reservists to support Moscow’s ailing campaign in Ukraine and warned that he would use Russia’s nuclear arsenal if its “territorial integrity” was “threatened”, declaring: “This is not a bluff.” The warning, which sparked immediate alarm in Washington and elsewhere, came as Putin claimed the west wanted to

Liz Truss has declared that cutting taxes for the wealthy and profitable companies is not “unfair”, signalling a radical shift in economic policy ahead of a growth-focused mini-Budget on Friday. The UK prime minister has signed off plans to cut national insurance, a policy that will disproportionately help the better-off, reverse a planned rise in