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Chinese cities accelerated the loosening of zero-Covid restrictions over the weekend, building expectations that Beijing could ditch the pandemic policy that has kept the country isolated for nearly three years and battered the economy. Several Chinese cities have eased controls, even as Covid continues to circulate. China reported 31,824 infections on Sunday for tests taken

Alameda Research was allowed to exceed normal borrowing limits on the FTX exchange since its early days, Sam Bankman-Fried has said, in a concession that illustrates how the former billionaire’s trading shop enjoyed preferential treatment over clients years before the 2022 crypto crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 30-year-old described the outsized

Hedge fund Alameda Research stepped in to shelter FTX from a loss of up to $1bn after a customer trade on the crypto platform blew up last year, highlighting the deep and longstanding links between Sam Bankman-Fried’s digital asset companies. Alameda in early 2021 shouldered FTX’s burden when a client’s leveraged bet on an obscure

UK house prices fell in November at their fastest pace since the financial crisis, excluding the lockdown period of spring 2020, as rising borrowing costs hit household finances, according to mortgage provider Nationwide. House prices fell 1.4 per cent between October and November — the biggest fall since the country was in the depths of

Inflation in the eurozone has fallen for the first time in 17 months, raising hopes that the biggest global price surge for a generation has peaked and easing pressure on central banks to continue increasing rates aggressively. A slowdown in energy and services prices helped inflation in the single currency bloc to fall more than

China’s health authorities on Tuesday blamed local governments for their handling of coronavirus outbreaks as Beijing distanced itself from the crisis after unprecedented protests against President Xi Jinping and his zero-Covid policy. The National Health Commission reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to the zero-Covid measures and pledged to boost vaccination rates among the elderly, a day after

Xi Jinping faces one of his greatest challenges as president of China after tens of thousands of people took to the streets over Beijing’s strict coronavirus controls and suppression of freedom of speech. At least 10 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Chengdu, were shaken by rare political protests over the weekend, triggering clashes with

China has been rocked by one of the most significant bouts of protest on the mainland for decades after vigils in Shanghai and other big cities to mark a deadly fire in Xinjiang region turned into protests over President Xi Jinping’s draconian zero-Covid policies. Social media posts have blamed the deaths of 10 people in

Qatar has launched a review of its investments in London after the city’s transport authority this week banned the Gulf state’s advertisements on the UK capital’s buses, taxis and underground train system. The move by Transport for London was prompted by concerns about Qatar’s stance on LGBT+ rights and its treatment of migrant workers. It

EU ministers say that time is running out to resolve the worsening dispute with the US over Washington’s $369bn of green subsidies as they seek to head off a transatlantic trade war. Brussels and Washington have set up a taskforce to address the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its “buy American” provisions,

Twitter has disbanded its entire Brussels office, sparking concerns among EU officials about whether the social media platform will abide by the bloc’s stringent new rules on policing online content. Julia Mozer and Dario La Nasa, who were in charge of Twitter’s digital policy in Europe, left the company last week, according to five people

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Scottish government does not have the legal authority to hold an independence referendum without agreement from Downing Street, scuppering plan to hold a vote next year. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, in June told the parliament in Edinburgh that she wanted to hold a plebiscite in October

The UK economy is set to be the worst performer in the G20 bar Russia over the next two years, the OECD said on Tuesday, underlining the lasting impact of high energy prices on Europe as a whole. The OECD said in its latest economic forecasts that UK GDP would fall by 0.4 per cent

A bid by European teams to promote inclusion during the World Cup collapsed on Monday, after the Netherlands, England and Wales said threats from Fifa had forced them to abandon plans to wear rainbow-themed captains’ armbands. The captains of the three countries had said over the weekend that they would wear the One Love armbands

The UN climate summit has agreed to establish a historic fund to pay for climate-related damage in poorer countries after working beyond sunrise in Egypt on Sunday, but backed down on greater cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and an end to fossil fuel use. Almost 200 countries at the summit achieved a breakthrough for a

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt confronted a backlash from Tory MPs angry at a new era of high taxation even as the IMF hailed his efforts to restore the country’s fiscal credibility. On a day that two leading think-tanks said that high taxes had arrived for good and that wages were set for their most prolonged

Jeremy Hunt pushed back on Friday against criticism that his £55bn fiscal squeeze unfairly targets middle earners, as new data indicated that UK workers will endure the longest period of wage stagnation for almost 200 years. Hunt’s Autumn Statement on Thursday included £30bn of spending cuts and £25bn of tax rises in a bid to

Jeremy Hunt, chancellor, will on Thursday seek to restore Britain’s tarnished economic reputation with a £54bn package of spending cuts and tax rises intended to repair the public finances and tame inflation. “We will face into the storm,” he will say. Hunt’s Autumn Statement will intensify the financial hardship facing millions of Britons and begin

The UK’s rate of inflation hit a fresh 41-year high in October, accelerating to 11.1 per cent on the back of rising energy and food prices. The Office for National Statistics said the rate rose from 10.1 per cent in September, putting inflation at its highest level since October 1981. Economists polled by Reuters had

World leaders will state at the G20 summit in Bali that today’s era “must not be of war” and will condemn threats to use nuclear weapons, reflecting rising global anxiety around Russia’s war against Ukraine. A draft communiqué agreed by diplomats, seen by the Financial Times and confirmed by two delegations, said: “Most members strongly

Shares in Chinese real estate companies rose sharply on Monday as a 16-point plan to support the debt-ridden sector was interpreted as a crucial pivot by Beijing that could spark a revival. The Hang Seng Mainland Properties index rose as much as 16.3 per cent in the morning session on Monday. Hong Kong-listed Country Garden,

Democrats will retain a majority in the US Senate in a big boost to Joe Biden’s presidency after Catherine Cortez Masto won re-election in Nevada. According to the Associated Press, Cortez Masto is projected to win her contest against Republican candidate Adam Laxalt, in one of the most competitive races of the midterm elections. Cortez

FTX has said it is investigating abnormal transactions as analysts said hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto assets were withdrawn as the exchange declared bankruptcy. The potential hack is the latest blow for FTX, the cryptocurrency empire once valued at $32bn and controlled by 30-year-old entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, which filed for bankruptcy protection

The Bahamas securities regulator has frozen the assets of part of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire and moved to appoint a liquidator for one of his entities, as the entrepreneur raced to raise as much as $8bn to save FTX. The Securities Commission of The Bahamas took the action on Thursday against FTX Digital Markets, the

FTX is on the brink of collapse as chief Sam Bankman-Fried races to secure billions of dollars to salvage his empire after Binance ditched an eleventh-hour rescue of one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges. Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital said it would mark down its $214mn investment in FTX to zero after a run

Democrats put up an unexpectedly strong fight as results rolled in from US midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress, even as Republicans led by governor Ron DeSantis notched up a string of convincing victories in Florida. The early tallies from the midterm elections on Tuesday showed many battleground races across the country

A plan by ministers to review or repeal all EU laws on the UK statute book by the end of 2023 has suffered another setback after the discovery of 1,400 additional pieces of legislation. Rishi Sunak has started backing away from his ambitious proposals to scrub Britain’s statute book of unwanted EU laws, by abandoning

The US is working on a plan to harness cash from the world’s largest companies to help developing countries cut their use of fossil fuels, an idea it aims to unveil at the UN climate summit this week. US president Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry is trying to marshal support from other governments, companies

US oil producers have raked in more than $200bn in profits since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as they cash in on a period of geopolitical turmoil that has shaken up the global energy market and sent prices soaring. Aggregate net income for publicly listed oil and gas companies operating in the US came to $200.24bn

Elon Musk has begun to slash Twitter’s 7,500-strong workforce as the social media platform’s new billionaire owner warned of a “massive drop in revenue” following his contentious $44bn buyout of the group. As Musk embarks on the cost-cutting cull, he claimed on Friday that Twitter “has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist