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Liz Truss’s Tory leadership campaign suffered a serious setback on Tuesday after she was forced to abandon her plan to cut the pay of public sector workers living in poorer areas of Britain. The proposal drew ferocious cross-party criticism — including from Tories representing constituencies in the north and Midlands — forcing the foreign secretary

Asian markets usually ignore imminent visits by US politicians below secretary of state grade. Not when the politician is Democratic bigwig Nancy Pelosi and her mooted destination is Taiwan. Indices bumped downwards in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. The Taiwan dollar plunged to a two-year low. Chinese warplanes have been roaring over the Taiwan Strait.

The writer is professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge The IMF has made it official: growth will be slow and inflation high for the foreseeable future. For the UK, expected to be one of the worst-performing major economies, this grim outlook comes on the heels of slow growth since the financial crisis.

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. Liz Truss has promised to save £11bn a year by cutting pay for public sector workers — including civil servants, teachers and nurses — outside London and the South-East. The

Stocks fell and US government bond prices rose as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s expected visit to Taiwan raised the prospect of a forceful Chinese military response. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index fell as much as 3.2 per cent on Tuesday, later trimming some of its losses. China’s CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and

President Xi Jinping’s wolf warrior diplomats excel at withering rhetoric when they want to belittle and dismiss people whose words and deeds, as they so often say, have “hurt the feelings” of all 1.4bn people in the People’s Republic of China. Xi had ample opportunity to instruct China’s diplomats and its state media apparatus, which

China is ratcheting up military activity around Taiwan ahead of a potential visit by US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to land in Taipei on Tuesday night. Several Chinese fighter jets flew close to the median line that divides the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday morning, according to a Taiwanese

The pound is shrugging off the chance of an overhaul to the UK’s economic policy as Tory leadership hopefuls outline starkly different plans for public spending and borrowing. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and frontrunner in the contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, has outlined tax cuts costing more than £30bn, suggested that

The UN has called it the world’s first climate-change-induced famine. Madagascar’s government agrees it is a result of the west’s carbon-fuelled lifestyle. A number of scientists and experts disagree, saying it is actually a consequence of poverty and poor governance. For the people of southern Madagascar, unaware of the international furore, it is known simply

The writer is a partner at the Dutch law firm Resor As the world of decentralised finance continues to grow, there is much demand for a digital currency fit for use in blockchain-based applications with near-real-time, peer-to-peer global settlement that can be used as a medium of exchange. However, most cryptocurrencies are too volatile for

Pinterest shares surged more than 20 per cent after hedge fund Elliott Investment Management revealed itself as the company’s largest shareholder and expressed support for its new chief executive. The announcement helped offset disappointing second-quarter results from Pinterest that reflected softness in the digital advertising market, which has afflicted several of its social media rivals.

Conservative leadership contender Liz Truss on Monday claimed she could save almost £11bn a year with a radical shake-up of the civil service, including lower pay for officials who work in poorer parts of the UK. The foreign secretary, frontrunner in the race to become the next prime minister, declared a “war on waste in

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged 11 people in an alleged $300mn cryptocurrency pyramid scheme, highlighting how authorities are increasing enforcement in digital asset markets. The Wall Street watchdog said the scheme, known as Forsage, raised funds by using promoters to convince millions of investors worldwide to recruit others into the programme. “Forsage is

Nancy Pelosi has embarked on a tour of East Asia that officials signalled on Monday was likely to include a stopover in Taiwan, the first by a US House Speaker for 25 years. China warned that its military will “not sit idly by” if the visit goes ahead to the self-ruled island that Beijing claims

Senior Conservatives have urged the party’s two leadership candidates to commit to implementing the “levelling up” agenda that helped secure UK prime minister Boris Johnson a landslide election win in 2019, as new polling finds it more popular with prospective Tory voters than Brexit. The co-author of the party’s last manifesto and former ministers have

How does Rishi Sunak do it? He has to spend his summer not on a beach somewhere or in the company of his friends and family, but instead pressing the flesh among Conservative party members, knowing all the while that his chances of victory are slim. Still, he carries on, serving red meat to Tory

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, plans to meet Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday, in a controversial visit that has triggered concern about a possible military response from China. Three people familiar with the situation said Pelosi would meet Tsai in Taipei as part of a wider visit to Asia. Pelosi

The writer is an FT contributing editor I had hoped never again to write about the lawnmower directive. Sad to say, three decades after the EU set a common standard for motorised grass-cutters and six years after the Brexit vote, Tory Eurosceptics have still not grasped that Britain cannot simply play the international game by

When an event provokes a public response from the Queen, the prime minister and the Spice Girls, questions about cut-through and relevance are quickly dispelled. The Queen described England’s Euro 2022 win on Sunday night as “an example that will be an inspiration for girls and women today, and for future generations”, Boris Johnson called

A former senior aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin is in hospital in Italy after being diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder, according to two people familiar with the matter. Anatoly Chubais, who quit his job as the Kremlin’s climate envoy in March shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, was hospitalised over the weekend in Olbia,