Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III will be the most public display in seven decades of the curious relationship in the UK between England’s established church and the hereditary monarchy. The King will be accompanied to and from the ceremony by thousands of military personnel, a reminder that Britain’s constitutional monarch remains head of state.
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The US Federal Trade Commission is seeking to ban Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, from monetising children’s data and further limit its use of facial recognition technology. The FTC’s proposal on Wednesday called for a blanket prohibition on Meta’s ability to commercialise data it collects from users aged 18 and under, including
Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a late-night drone attack on the Kremlin, vowing to take retaliatory action. According to a statement from Putin’s press service, two Ukrainian drones attacked and crashed into the Kremlin overnight but were shot down by Russia’s military and secret services, which it
European stocks were lower on Tuesday as rising eurozone inflation data raised investors’ concerns that the European Central Bank will increase interest rates this week. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.2 per cent, with weakness in energy stocks and financials ahead of policy meetings at two of the world’s biggest central banks. Germany’s Dax
Will the deadlock in the Ukraine war be broken in Bakhmut or Beijing? At the moment, all eyes are focused on the much-trailed Ukrainian counter-offensive — which is likely to begin soon. But there are also significant developments on the diplomatic front. Last week, Xi Jinping called Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On a recent visit to Kyiv,
Cutting ties with China would be “unthinkable for almost all of German industry”, the chief executive of automaker Mercedes-Benz has said, as Europe’s largest economy grapples with its deep reliance on Beijing. Ola Källenius said cutting ties with China was impossible and “not desirable”. “The major players in the global economy — Europe, the USA
Elon Musk’s move to introduce a pricey paywall to access Twitter’s data is set to upend thousands of academic and developer projects, in his latest controversial attempt to generate new revenues to turn round the business. Twitter has laid out plans to this weekend push developers over to a new monthly pricing structure for its
Silicon Valley Bank’s failure last month stemmed from weakened regulations during the Trump administration and mis-steps by internal supervisors who were too slow to correct management blunders, the US Federal Reserve said in a scathing review of the lender’s implosion. The long-awaited report, released on Friday, had harsh words for the California bank’s management but
Wall Street futures gained ground on Thursday as several more strong results from the US technology sector boosted sentiment ahead of the latest set of US gross domestic product figures. Contracts tracking Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent, while those tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were up 0.9 per cent ahead of
European stocks sank at the open on Wednesday as weaker-than-expected earnings from ASM International, the Dutch chip tool manufacturer, reawakened investors fears of a coming economic slowdown. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 and France’s CAC index both fell more than 1.1 per cent in the first hour of trade. ASMI dropped 11.8 per cent in Amsterdam
The trappings of Joe Biden’s office were on full display in the days leading up to his re-election announcement: he spent the weekend at the presidential retreat Camp David, had lunch with his vice-president Kamala Harris at the White House and held an event in the Rose Garden to honour US teachers. With the Marine
European governments have reacted with anger and dismay to comments by a Chinese diplomat questioning the legal status of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who regained their independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, have said they will summon Chinese diplomats on Monday to complain about
A lobbying firm is launching a one-year business engagement operation ahead of the next general election in what is likely to be one of multiple attempts to exploit the vacuum left by the crisis at the CBI. WPI Strategy, a public affairs group behind the imminent launch of “BizUK”, insisted that it was not trying
Asian stocks sold off and European markets were steady on Friday as investors worried about the prospects for China technology stocks and progress in political negotiations over the US debt ceiling. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index posted its largest daily drop since late February, falling 1.8 per cent with all sectors in negative territory. The
Russian paramilitary group Wagner, notorious for its brutal role in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, unsuccessfully asked China for supplies of weapons earlier this year, according to a leaked US intelligence report. Representatives from Wagner, which is controlled by close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, “sought munitions and equipment” from China in “early 2023”, according to
UK inflation remained in double digits in March with annual price rises of 10.1 per cent, raising the chances of further interest rate rises from the Bank of England. Consumer price inflation had been 10.4 per cent in February and was expected to drop to 9.8 per cent last month. Although petrol and diesel prices
Two decades ago, HSBC made a bold gamble to recapitalise an ailing Chinese insurance firm, paying $600mn for 10 per cent of Ping An. The risk paid off handsomely netting the bank $2.6bn in profit when the stake was sold in 2012. But a decade on, Ping An has become HSBC’s largest shareholder and is
China is starting to target western interests in the country after five years of snowballing trade and technology restrictions spearheaded by the US under presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Over the past two months, Chinese officials have slapped new sanctions on US weapons companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, launched an investigation into US chipmaker
Almost exactly a year ago, just before the IMF’s spring meeting, Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, launched a new buzzword: “friend-shoring”. The idea was that in a world of rising US-China tensions (and western hostility to Russia), American companies should move their “supply chains to a large number of trusted countries” — or friends. It
The writer is executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia, and author of ‘The Billionaire Raj’ Two recent Beijing trips by global leaders have shed light on the many paradoxes of a future age of economic decoupling. A visit by Emmanuel Macron, president of France, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission