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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 cycle 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

Credit Suisse has drawn up plans to split its investment bank into three and resurrect a “bad bank” holding pen for risky assets, as the Swiss lender attempts to emerge from three years of relentless scandals. Under proposals put forward to the group’s board, Credit Suisse hopes to sell profitable units such as its securitised

Vladimir Putin said Russia’s armed forces would call up its reserves immediately to support its invasion of Ukraine and indicated Moscow would probably annex large swaths of Ukrainian territory. In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday, the Russian president announced “partial mobilisation” ahead of heavily stage-managed votes in four occupied regions of Ukraine

Hedge funds are betting that a tumble in shares of UK asset management companies including Abrdn and Ashmore will accelerate as a brutal bear market dents their investment performance and ability to attract new business. Ken Griffin’s Citadel, Steve Cohen’s Point72 and Marshall Wace are among those running bets on lower share prices for listed

Liz Truss’s government will host the largest gathering of foreign leaders and dignitaries in London for decades, as they arrive in the capital for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday. Those set to be in attendance include US president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, France’s president Emmanuel Macron and India’s

The US central bank will lift its benchmark policy rate above 4 per cent and hold it there beyond 2023 in its bid to stamp out high inflation, according to the majority of leading academic economists polled by the Financial Times. The latest survey, conducted in partnership with the Initiative on Global Markets at the

Wall Street stocks recorded the biggest weekly drop in months after a profit warning from economic bellwether FedEx jolted investors who are already on edge over a looming interest rate rise by the US Federal Reserve at its upcoming meeting. The blue-chip S&P 500 index fell 0.7 per cent on Friday, bringing weekly losses to

Prime Minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are preparing to launch a last-ditch charm offensive to persuade Japan’s SoftBank to list British tech company Arm in the UK. The government will push for high-level talks with SoftBank executives after the official period of mourning for the Queen ends next week, according to officials with

Kwasi Kwarteng, chancellor, is seeking to scrap Britain’s cap on bankers’ bonuses, introduced after the 2008 financial crash, in a controversial move to boost the City of London’s global competitiveness. Kwarteng argues the move would make London a more attractive destination for top global talent and would be a clear signal of his new “Big

Companies have been warned by UK government officials that they will have to wait longer than households for help from its £150bn energy package, due to the difficulty of launching a support system before November. The prospect of weeks of delays is increasingly worrying business leaders, since hundreds of thousands of companies reach the end

Ukraine still faces “a tough fight” after Russia gave up most of the territory it had taken near Kharkiv following a lightning counteroffensive that forced many of its retreating troops to leave the country, according to the Pentagon. A senior military official said on Monday that the Russian military “had largely ceded their gains” around

Ukraine needs to secure the vast territory it has recaptured from possible Russian counter-attack, the country’s defence minister has warned, as he said Kyiv’s lightning offensive had gone far “better than expected”. The attack has routed the Kremlin’s forces, led to the recapture of some 3,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory and prompted an unusual

Russia abandoned military strongholds in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday in an apparent rout of its front line positions, after Ukrainian forces pushed forward in a lightning advance that has left Moscow’s forces in disarray. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had pulled back from the strategic city of Izyum, claiming it had decided to “regroup” and transfer

Charles III has addressed his nation for the first time, vowing to emulate his late mother Queen Elizabeth’s “life-long service”, ahead of his formal proclamation as king on Saturday. The new monarch’s words came after a day of parliamentary tributes, gun salutes and raw emotion, as thousands of people gathered at the gates of Buckingham

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, has died, leaving her people in mourning but reflecting on a life of duty in which she bound the country together through 70 years of momentous change. Her death, at the age of 96, was announced by Buckingham Palace at 6.30pm on Thursday. It marked a watershed moment in

The pound has fallen to its weakest levels since 1985, reflecting the daunting scale of the economic challenge new prime minister Liz Truss faces as she prepares to unveil an emergency energy package. Truss will on Thursday give details of the state intervention to shield households and companies from soaring energy bills. Government insiders said

Liz Truss has vowed Britain will “ride out the storm”, as the new UK prime minister began confronting an economic crisis with a massive energy bailout for families and businesses that could cost more than £150bn. Truss dodged torrential rain outside Downing Street to tell the country that she would create an “aspiration nation”, adding:

Liz Truss will enter Downing Street on Tuesday after a bruising battle to become the UK’s next prime minister and will finalise a two-year package of energy relief for households and business that could cost up to £100bn. The foreign secretary beat rival and former chancellor Rishi Sunak in a ballot of Conservative party members

Kwasi Kwarteng, who has been tipped as Britain’s next chancellor, has launched a pre-emptive bid to reassure markets that Liz Truss will not blow a hole in the public finances if, as widely expected, she is named as prime minister on Monday. Kwarteng writes in the Financial Times that although there will need to be