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China’s economy narrowly escaped a contraction in the second quarter as the fallout from President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy stoked expectations that Beijing would inject hundreds of billions of dollars of stimulus to shore up growth. The world’s second-biggest economy expanded 0.4 per cent year on year in the three months to the end of

Clicking through his pitch deck, the cash-starved Chinese founder of a drone company has begun to wonder — do the investors sitting across the table even have money to spend? “We have to figure out if they come just because they have to do their job or if they really have money at hand,” said

Netflix is partnering with Microsoft to build an advertisement-supported tier of its streaming service, as it races to offer a cheaper option for consumers amid tough competition and soaring inflation. The streaming service, which had reportedly been speaking with potential partners, chose Microsoft because it “offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the

Russia has been at war in Ukraine for almost five months but “has not started anything in earnest yet”, President Vladimir Putin said last week just days after his troops seized Lysychansk, the last city in the eastern Luhansk province still under Kyiv’s control. The capture of the town was an important milestone in Putin’s

In the summer of 2018, Lisa Robillard left her doctor’s office and walked down the long corridor of a medical complex in suburban Virginia. She’d just had an appointment with yet another physician who could only recommend “diet and exercise” when she brought up her life-long struggle with her weight. Robillard was 11 when she

Penny Mordaunt on Wednesday discovered the perils of being a favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister, as rivals attacked her competence and the Tory leadership campaign turned increasingly ugly. After coming second in the first ballot of Conservative MPs with 67 votes, the briefing against the trade minister was in full swing. The headline

The race to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative leader is under way, as eight contenders compete for the backing of Tory MPs to make the final shortlist of two that will be voted on by party members. The eight received the nominations required to be on the ballot when Conservative MPs begin voting on Wednesday.

Rishi Sunak, the former UK chancellor, won the first round of voting on Wednesday among Conservative MPs to be their party leader as two candidates were knocked out. Jeremy Hunt, former health secretary, and chancellor Nadhim Zahawi failed to meet the requisite level of 30 Tory MPs backing them to get to the next round

One of the leading contenders to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister has said he will not stand in the forthcoming leadership contest, as other Conservative MPs prepare to launch their campaigns. Defence secretary Ben Wallace was the favourite among the Tory grassroots, with a net approval rating of +86 among party members according to

Rishi Sunak, who quit as Boris Johnson’s chancellor this week, launched his bid to lead the Conservative party on Friday with a pledge that he will avoid “comforting fairy tales”. His video to launch his campaign appeared a coded attack on what many MPs have seen as the prime minister’s Panglossian approach to policy. “Someone

Boris Johnson has announced his “painful” resignation but defied pressure to step down immediately as prime minister, insisting he would remain in office until a new Conservative party leader is chosen. In an address in front of No 10 Downing Street, after days of turmoil and mass resignations from his government, he accused his party

Boris Johnson’s turbulent three-year premiership was nearing its end on Wednesday night after he was urged to quit by a delegation of his closest cabinet allies. The UK prime minister was warned that unless he stepped down there would be further cabinet resignations, followed by an inevitable humiliating defeat by Tory MPs in a no-confidence

Boris Johnson’s premiership was teetering on the brink on Tuesday night, after chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid dramatically resigned from the cabinet. Downing Street was braced for more ministers quitting with many Tory MPs believing the dual resignation of two senior ministers could signal the beginning of the end for Johnson. Sunak

Protesters brought parts of the UK’s motorway network to a standstill on Monday in a demonstration over high fuel prices. Police warned drivers that a “slow-moving rolling roadblock” was causing delays on parts of the M4 motorway near the border between England and Wales and on the M5 near Bristol. There were also “significant delays”

Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday signal that Labour is willing to fight Boris Johnson over his Brexit legacy at the next election, setting out a five-point plan to tackle the economic pain caused by Britain’s EU exit. In a big tactical shift, Starmer will use a speech to denounce the “mess” created by the

Hackers with suspected links to China’s intelligence agencies were still advertising for new recruits to work on cyber espionage, even after the FBI indicted the perpetrators in an effort to disrupt their activities. Hainan Tengyuan, a Chinese technology company, was actively recruiting English language translators in March according to job adverts seen by the Financial

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, the pioneer of low-cost travel in Europe, has warned fares will rise for the next five years because flying has become “too cheap” to make profits as industry costs spiral. His warning comes as ticket prices have risen in Europe and the US this summer as passengers return and some airlines

The UK’s trade performance fell to its worst level since records began in the first quarter of 2022, heaping more pressure on sterling in international currency markets. Although the Office for National Statistics warned that the figures it published were “subject to higher levels of uncertainty than normal”, the new system it used to collect

The governor of the Bank of England warned on Wednesday that Britain’s economy is suffering more from the energy crisis than other countries with UK inflation likely to stay higher for longer. Speaking with other central bankers at a European Central Bank conference in Sintra, Portugal, Andrew Bailey said the BoE needed the option of

Turkey has dropped its opposition to Finland and Sweden becoming members of Nato, paving the way for the Nordic countries to join the alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The three countries have signed a joint memorandum after hours of talks on Tuesday brokered by Nato, ending a six-week veto by Ankara linked