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SoftBank’s record $23.4bn quarterly loss, a pledge of heavy cost-cutting and an hour of public self-criticism by its founder Masayoshi Son could push the Japanese billionaire to reconsider a management buyout of the technology conglomerate. Analysts and investors said the latest results, which delivered fresh signs that SoftBank is preparing to sell key operations such

Vladimir Putin must think the leaders of Europe were born yesterday. The Russian president has made it perfectly clear that he will use tight restrictions of natural gas supplies as an economic weapon in the coming winter, but European politicians and central bankers still talk of a Russian embargo as a mere possibility. There is

Household energy bills in Britain are projected to peak at more than £4,420 a year on average next spring, posing a “fresh shock” for households already enduring a cost of living crisis. The energy consultancy Cornwall Insight on Tuesday raised its forecasts for Britain’s price cap following an announcement by the energy regulator Ofgem of

We have to entertain the notion that Keir Starmer is good at politics. He has scrubbed Labour of the worst of the left. He has turned extinction-level opinion polls for his party into almost fine ones. He has — mark this — the eternal trait of the political winner: he unhinges his critics. Why, then,

This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday. Good morning. Liz Truss’s interview with the FT continues to make waves at Westminster. I know that sounds like the kind of thing that I’m contractually obliged to write, but

Taipei has warned that China could use military drills around the island to establish control over the entire Taiwan Strait, impeding international shipping and air traffic and strengthening Beijing’s efforts to deny the US military access to the area. The warning from foreign minister Joseph Wu came as the People’s Liberation Army said it was

The writer is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and an adviser to Allianz and Gramercy There are times when one wants to be wrong. I have felt this way several times in the past 15 months, whether in warning last year that inflation would not prove transitory or cautioning that the Federal Reserve was rapidly

Bangladesh’s finance minister has warned that developing countries must think twice about taking more loans through China’s Belt and Road Initiative as global inflation and slowing growth add to the strains on indebted emerging markets. AHM Mustafa Kamal also said Beijing needed to be more rigorous in evaluating its loans amid concern that poor lending

When buyout groups Hellman & Friedman and Permira began stalking a takeover of business software giant Zendesk in February, they tried to bring in a third partner for what would be a large deal. They called Blackstone, a firm that manages more than $125bn in private equity assets and that they each knew well from

Economists love a good mystery. Before the pandemic, one thing they puzzled over was the steady rise in the number of self-employed people in Britain’s labour market — a stronger trend than in most other developed countries. Now there is a new mystery: where on earth they’ve all gone. When the pandemic hit, the ranks

It is fitting that the taxpaying public gets to hear a candid appraisal of the government’s pandemic venture capital fund by accident. What limited information there is about the £1.1bn portfolio of 1,190 start-up companies in the Future Fund has been published somewhat reluctantly, in dribs and drabs. But minutes from the audit committee of

Xi Jinping finally has something that eluded him for almost a decade: a trusted confidante at the top of China’s police ministry. Wang Xiaohong’s appointment as public security minister in June marked another breakthrough for Xi in his relentless consolidation of power since being appointed head of the Chinese Communist party and its Central Military

Former US president Donald Trump said on Monday that his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida was being raided by a “large group” of FBI agents. In a statement posted on Twitter by an affiliated account, Trump said his Florida residence “is currently under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI

Russia said it would suspend American inspections of its nuclear weapons under a key treaty with the US because of western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow told the US on Monday it could no longer participate in inspections under the New Start Treaty, the last major arms control agreement remaining between the countries,

Wall Street stocks kicked off the week on an upbeat note after losses in the previous session, when a hot US jobs report added to expectations of aggressive interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve. The blue-chip S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both rose 0.6 per cent at the open on Monday. In

Passengers on one of the UK’s busiest inter-city rail routes face a prolonged period of disruption after the operator of the west coast mainline sharply reduced services, blaming “severe” staff shortages. Avanti West Coast, which runs services from London to cities in the north of England and Scotland, said on Monday it would implement an

Boris Johnson has rejected calls to draw up an emergency response to the cost of living crisis during his final weeks as prime minister, with Downing Street insisting big fiscal decisions must be taken by his successor. The CBI employers federation on Monday joined calls by Gordon Brown, former Labour prime minister, for Johnson to

It turns out the planet might have a future after all. Following a period of acute and rising pessimism, the US Congress — and President Joe Biden — have pulled off the most significant climate change bill in American history. The fact that almost every observer, including many Democrats, had written off any chance of

Globalisation means that an accountant in New York can get a minute-by-minute update of the worst few weeks in the life of a British family. The case of Archie Battersbee, a 12-year-old boy who has now died, has gripped media outlets the world over: his death was marked by a push notification from The New

The writer is a contributing columnist, based in Chicago Tammy, 49, her mother Mary and daughter Nikki, 11, sat polishing off a corn dog on a bench at the Ottawa County fair. They were sheltering from the late-July sun, mercifully upwind of the malodorous goat show, and around the corner from the Redneck Fries stall,