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President Joe Biden has brushed off concerns that his comments this week labelling China’s leader Xi Jinping a “dictator” could undermine efforts to repair relations between Washington and Beijing.  Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, Biden said his remark at a California fundraiser did not have

Stockton Rush launched the manned submersible operator OceanGate with vast ambition. “Stockton was opening up a new realm for humanity,” said businessman Fred Hagen, who went on two expeditions to the wreck of the Titanic with OceanGate. Yet that vision proved difficult to fund, and ultimately appears to have cost Rush his life. The 61-year-old

Rishi Sunak did his best to sound reassuring after the Bank of England hiked interest rates to 5 per cent and sent a chill through a country already facing rising mortgage costs and serious cost of living pressures. Vowing to work with the BoE to “root out inflation”, the prime minister on Thursday backed Andrew

For the Bank of England and its under-fire governor Andrew Bailey, the central bank’s half-percentage-point rise in interest rates was an attempt to finally get on the front foot in the fight against high inflation. The BoE aimed to banish its timid image on curbing price rises, in which it appeared to follow rather than

When Silicon Valley Bank imploded this spring, it sparked recriminations about the Federal Reserve’s stress tests — or the practice of running models to test whether banks have enough capital and liquidity to withstand shocks, such as a recession. Such tests became mandatory for banks following the 2008 financial crisis. But, like any model, the

The Bank of England came out swinging at inflation — and, implicitly, at its own critics — when it raised interest rates on Thursday by twice what investors had expected. That markets took the move largely in their stride is a sign of how serious they believe Britain’s persistent inflation problem has become. The 50

Mortgage borrowers face further increases in the cost of both fixed and variable-rate deals, brokers and finance experts warned.  The BoE’s decision to raise its base rate to 5 per cent — following higher than expected inflation data on Wednesday — came as a blow to mortgage borrowers already contemplating soaring bills.  Fixed-rate mortgages are

KKR’s early travails were chronicled in a best-selling book, Barbarians at the Gate, which details the company’s $30bn takeover of RJR Nabisco and the pulverising tactics that earned it a reputation as a Wall Street wrecking ball.  Now, the barbarians are weighing entering the book business itself. Storied book publisher Simon & Schuster is back

Shares in UK banks fell on Thursday as investors began to bet that the benefits of higher interest rates had peaked and concerns grew about the damage from a potential recession. UK banks face pressure on their mortgage loan books as customers roll off fixed-rate deals and on to higher rates, at a time when

The Bank of England’s larger-than-expected rise in interest rates provided only a fleeting boost to sterling on Thursday as investors bet that the aggressive action from the central bank is likely to help push the UK into a recession later this year.  Sterling briefly jumped following the BoE decision to lift borrowing costs to 5

Ukraine’s army struck a bridge that serves as a key supply line between the Crimean peninsula and the southern province of Kherson, Moscow-installed officials in both Russian-occupied regions have said. Coming weeks into Kyiv’s counteroffensive to recapture territory in the south and east, the strike on Chongar bridge threatens to disrupt operations for Russian forces

The Bank of England has stepped up its fight against persistent inflation with a surprise half-point rise in interest rates to 5 per cent, the highest level since 2008. Voting seven to two in favour of the larger-than-expected increase, the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it was responding to “material news” in recent economic

Shares in British online grocer Ocado surged as much 43 per cent on Thursday following rumours that it could be a bid target for Amazon. Ocado’s stock was last trading at 580p, or 35 per cent higher, after The Times newspaper reported that the UK company could be of interest to “technology heavyweights”, including Amazon.

European stocks fell at the open on Thursday as traders took signals from central bank meetings that interest rates were likely to rise further to curb sticky inflation. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 fell 1.2 per cent at the open, extending its losses this week while France’s Cac 40 lost 1.5 per cent. The FTSE 100 was

The writer is vice-chair of Evercore ISI and a former member of the management committee of the New York Fed The UK inflation report for May is a hammer blow for the Bank of England ahead of its June decision on interest rates on Thursday. It shows inflation unchanged at 8.7 per cent with core

The debate over high inflation often seeks to apportion blame between greedy corporations raising prices and irresponsible workers making unrealistic pay demands. But, much as many people enjoy the game of identifying culprits, the focus should be on resolving the problem. With core inflation stubbornly hovering around 5 per cent in the US and eurozone,

Investors in the Treasury bond market are betting that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes will drive the US economy into recession, even as stocks rally and analysts suggest the odds of such an outcome are shrinking. Short-term US government borrowing costs exceeded their long-term equivalents by the widest margin in three months on Wednesday,

The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point to 4.75 per cent on Thursday, with increasing calls for tougher action to fight persistent high inflation. Headline inflation stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, according to worse than expected data on Wednesday, with core inflation — which excludes volatile

Britons are turning to crime as the cost of living crisis drags on, with theft of meat, alcohol and confectionery from shops last year at a decade-high, according to new data. More than 1.1mn incidents of theft were recorded in 2022, up from 970,000 the year before, reaching its highest level in a decade, according

Rescue crews searching for a submersible in the north Atlantic are focusing on underwater noises detected by Canadian aircraft, but warned they had not yet determined whether those sounds originated from the missing vessel. “We can’t tell you what the noises were and — we think this is the most important point — we are

Joe Biden’s top national security aide will fly to Denmark this weekend at the behest of Kyiv’s government for an unannounced meeting with representatives of several developing countries that have not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, has agreed to attend the meeting in Copenhagen with officials from