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EY’s UK bosses have told partners to prepare for a fresh cost-cutting plan and a stream of staff departures as they admitted to embarrassment at the collapse of the firm’s long-running attempt to split its global business in two. On a call with partners on Wednesday, Anna Anthony, UK managing partner for financial services, said:

Tens of thousands of Hongkongers who moved to the UK are being blocked from accessing as much as £2.2bn of pension assets, as activists accuse the city’s government of retaliating against those deemed “unpatriotic” following a political crackdown. The figures, released by UK advocacy group Hong Kong Watch on the eve of the first visit

CBI director-general Tony Danker has been sacked with immediate effect following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the employers’ organisation. He will be replaced by Rain Newton-Smith, the UK lobby group’s former chief economist, who will return as director-general after a brief spell as a managing director for policy at Barclays. The dismissal

China’s financial sector is reeling from a series of new corruption probes and a surge in surprise audits of venture funds, as President Xi Jinping sharpens his focus on an industry he sees as failing to serve the broader economy. With Beijing’s graft-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection warning against “hedonism” and “high-end lifestyles”, banks

ByteDance raked in a record underlying profit last year, overtaking China’s long-reigning tech giants Tencent and Alibaba for the first time even as losses mounted for its fast-growing TikTok business unit. The world’s most valuable private company posted a 79 per cent surge in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, its preferred metric for

US fund managers are increasing investments in international stock markets after rising interest rates and fears of an economic slowdown brought an end to more than a decade of domestic dominance. US stocks have vastly outperformed most other developed and emerging markets since the financial crisis, but the trend began to reverse last year. The

LetterOne, the investment group backed by Russian oligarchs who are under sanctions, has launched a legal challenge to overturn the decision taken by the UK government on national security grounds to force the sale of its broadband business Upp. The claim for a judicial review will be a test for the UK’s National Security and

Kyiv is willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the Financial Times. The comments by Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, are the most explicit statement of Ukraine’s interest in negotiations since it

Donald Trump has launched a blistering attack on “election interference at a scale never seen before” in the US, casting himself as a victim of political persecution after he became the first former president to face criminal charges. In a grievance-filled speech on Tuesday night from the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump

The UK is no longer investigating two of the three initial allegations against Mikhail Fridman four months after arresting the sanctioned Russian oligarch at his London mansion. The National Crime Agency, which tasked over 50 officers to raid Fridman’s multimillion home in north London in December, has stopped probing the 58-year-old businessman on suspicion of

Russia’s security services are confiscating the passports of senior officials and state company executives to prevent overseas travel, as paranoia over leaks and defections spreads through Vladimir Putin’s regime. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still raging, security officers have tightened up travel requirements within the state sector, demanding the surrender of travel documents from some

The chief executive of one of the world’s biggest shipping insurers has warned of the growing risk of a disastrous oil spill after the knock-on effects of sanctions on Russia left thousands more ships without third-party liability cover from “well-tested” insurers. “Nobody will be there to help clear up the mess [without sufficient liability cover],”

Donald Trump will turn himself in to New York prosecutors on Tuesday, his lawyer said, insisting the former president would “not be put in handcuffs”. Joe Tacopina added he expected the charges — the first criminal indictment in history of an ex-US president — to relate to payments to buy the silence of porn actress

Donald Trump has been indicted following a years-long investigation by Manhattan prosecutors that has led to the first criminal charges against a former US president in the country’s history, according to his lawyers. “President Trump has been indicted. He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court,” his lawyers

Meta executives are discussing a company-wide ban on political advertising in Europe, following concerns that its social networking platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will be unable to comply with forthcoming EU regulations that target online campaigning. Brussels regulators are drawing up new laws to come info force next year designed to force large internet

UBS has brought Sergio Ermotti back as chief executive to steer its takeover of Credit Suisse. Ermotti, who was chief executive for nine years before stepping down in 2020, will replace Ralph Hamers, UBS said on Wednesday. Hamers will remain as an adviser during a transition period, the Swiss bank said. UBS said it acted

China has significantly expanded its bailout lending as its Belt and Road Initiative blows up following a series of debt write-offs, scandal-ridden projects and allegations of corruption. A study published on Tuesday shows China granted $104bn worth of rescue loans to developing countries between 2019 and the end of 2021. The figure for these years

Israel’s president Isaac Herzog has implored the government to halt a bitterly contested judicial overhaul, warning that the polarisation it had caused had put “our security, economy, society” under threat. Mass protests erupted across the country overnight with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked his defence

Vladimir Putin has said Russia plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, marking Moscow’s latest attempt to use the threat of a nuclear war to ramp up tensions with the US and Nato over the invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s president said work would be completed on building storage units for tactical nuclear weapons in

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has raised concerns over Rokos Capital Management after the hedge fund was forced to hand over large amounts of cash to its banks as collateral when an outsized bet on US government bonds backfired earlier this month. SEC chair Gary Gensler brought up the hedge fund during calls with