Joe Biden has said he did not think China would send weapons to Russia to help its military campaign in Ukraine, in comments that appeared to undercut claims from his top officials that Beijing was considering the idea. In an interview with ABC television on Friday that was aired on the evening of the anniversary
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HM Revenue & Customs has launched a crackdown on the booming short-term lettings market by initially targeting about 1,000 property owners that it suspects have not paid enough tax. Based on information received from online bookings platforms such as Airbnb, the UK tax agency is sending its first so-called “nudge” letters this month to those
At a small rural farm about an hour’s drive from the Zambian capital city of Lusaka in late January, US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen stood before a gathering of farmers and told them she understood the destruction that global warming was causing. “We know that over the past decade, storms, floods, and droughts in Africa
US stocks fell on Wednesday after investors pored over the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting, which indicated that most central bankers backed its recent quarter-point increase but some favoured a bigger rise. In New York, the blue-chip S&P 500 index lost 0.2 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.1 per cent,
US stocks recorded their worst day in two months on Tuesday, as investors were unnerved by economic data suggesting interest rates have further to rise after months of increases by the Federal Reserve. The blue-chip S&P 500 index ended down 2 per cent, with declines in every sector. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 2.5 per
Less than half of the financial aid pledged to Ukraine by the west has actually reached Kyiv since Russia’s invasion last year, according to analysis of international financial support. Ukraine’s finance ministry received €31bn by December 2022 of the €64bn promised by western countries after Russia launched its full-scale attack last February, research by the
Poland’s head of state has called on Nato powers to give postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, on the eve of a visit by the US president to Warsaw to reaffirm the west’s support for Kyiv a year into Russia’s war. Andrzej Duda told the Financial Times that promises of security guarantees “would be important” for
The earthquake that has killed more than 40,000 people and brought destruction and misery to Turkey and Syria lasted approximately 75 seconds. The economic, social and political reverberations will last years. As the experiences of countries as diverse as Haiti, Japan and Turkey itself reveal, it is only once the cameras leave and the world’s
In a huge hangar in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, welders are aiming blazing torches at sheets of aluminium. The hulls of three new ships, each about 27 metres long, are taking shape. The first will hit the water sometime in the spring, ferrying workers to service wind turbines off the New England coast. The US
The dollar climbed and US stocks oscillated on Wednesday following stronger than expected retail sales figures, the latest in a string of economic data that has fuelled investor bets that the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates further to curb inflation. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 finished 0.3 per cent higher after flipping
US stock markets steadied on Tuesday despite disappointing inflation data that raised the prospect of more aggressive interest rate rises than investors had previously expected. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index dropped as much as 1 per cent in early trading but ended the day flat, holding on to the gains made in strong trading
US stocks rose on Monday as investors bet that forthcoming economic data would ease the pressure on the Federal Reserve to continue lifting interest rates. Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 index finished 1.1 per cent higher, with all sectors except energy making gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 1.5 per cent. US equities last week
Turkish authorities have launched a crackdown on developers connected to buildings that were toppled by this week’s devastating earthquake as president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces growing discontent over the quality of construction in the stricken region. The justice ministry has authorised almost 150 local prosecutors’ offices to set up earthquake investigation units to probe contractors,
Debt market specialists have been banging the drum on this for months: bonds are back. Now it appears this message has cut through sufficiently clearly — particularly on corporate bonds — that the popularity of the bet is one of the few things they think could hold the asset class back, at least in the