Asking prices for UK homes flatlined in the past month as a “disorderly” mortgage market and rising borrowing costs dented confidence in the property sales. New sellers listed their homes for £372,812 on average in the four weeks to June 10, £82 less than in the previous month, representing a marginal fallback after five months
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Italy has stripped China’s Sinochem of its influence as the largest shareholder in Pirelli, removing its right to appoint the chief executive or set the tyremaker’s strategy in response to worries about interference by the Chinese state. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has invoked national security concerns about the potential for misuse of Pirelli’s
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has restricted the movement of cash and assets from Odey Asset Management in a bid to restore order at the hedge fund after its founder Crispin Odey was ousted over allegations of sexual impropriety. The FCA will publish details on Monday of voluntary restrictions agreed with Odey Asset Management, two
US and European efforts to subsidise domestic renewable energy industries are tantamount to western “protectionism” and will hold back developing countries’ climate ambitions, India’s power minister has warned. Raj Kumar Singh, India’s minister for power and renewable energy, said measures such as the US Inflation Reduction Act and Europe’s green hydrogen auctions, which both offer
AstraZeneca has drawn up plans to break out its China business and list it separately in Hong Kong as a way to shelter the company against mounting geopolitical tensions. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker began discussing the idea with bankers several months ago and is among a growing number of multinational companies now considering that option, according
A phrase you hear used with a lot more friction than before, remarks a senior Hong Kong investment banker on the theme of geopolitics, is “worst-case scenario”. Its enhanced deployment, he adds, is revealing. However remote the worst-case scenario may be, a diminishing number of companies and investors feel they have any permission to ignore
The UK Labour party has pledged to spend £28bn a year on green investments within its first term in power; the Conservatives have attacked the plan as fiscally reckless. The debate will no doubt feature prominently in the next general election campaign. But this is no parochial fight. It is an early instance of a
The writer is chair of Rockefeller International In 2010, amid the global boom in billionaire fortunes, I began combing the annual Forbes list for clues to which countries were most vulnerable to anti-rich populist revolts. When I last published the results in 2021, warnings were flashing red for France, where billionaire wealth was rising fast
Italy has stripped China’s Sinochem of its influence as the largest shareholder in Pirelli, removing its right to appoint the CEO or set the tyremaker’s strategy in response to worries about interference by the Chinese state. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has invoked national security concerns about the potential for misuse of Pirelli’s chip
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has arrived in Beijing on a highly anticipated mission to reboot US-China relations, which have cratered this year after an alleged Chinese spy balloon flew over North America. Blinken will be the first secretary of state to visit China since 2018, a reflection of Beijing’s strict coronavirus pandemic lockdowns,
Ukraine has stepped up attacks this weekend on Russian arms depots and other targets deep in occupied territory, supporting a counteroffensive that has made modest gains against heavily fortified Russian frontline positions. A series of big explosions rocked a village overnight in Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, which local officials said
Jeremy Hunt, UK chancellor, has ruled out giving any direct fiscal support to households struggling with soaring mortgage costs, even though the issue could hit Conservative prospects in the run-up to the next general election. Hunt has concluded that such an intervention would drive up government borrowing and fuel inflationary pressure, causing the Bank of
The writer, a barrister and former Conservative MP, was attorney-general 2010-14 The political challenges the government faces from the arrival of asylum seekers in the UK require some sympathy. Sections of the public are anxious about the numbers and about the difficulties in removing to their home countries those who do not qualify for refugee
When Paddy Scott developed agonising stomach pains in 2017, the possibility of cancer never entered his head. The British expedition photographer and film-maker, whose work often took him into rugged or dangerous terrain, was just 34 years old and prided himself on his physical fitness. After his GP referred Scott to hospital for a colonoscopy,
Paradigm shifts happen slowly, and then all at once. This was the case during the last economic shift, in the Reagan-Thatcher era. Ronald Reagan wasn’t elected US president until 1980, but many of the speeches he gave during his 1976 Republican primary run set the stage for a new post-Keynesian era. In this, he argued,
German chancellor Olaf Scholz once described his politics as “liberal, but not stupid”. As he prepares to welcome a large Chinese delegation to Berlin, a senior German official claims a similar characterisation applies: “On China you could say: we’re free traders, but we’re not stupid.” That confidence, however, masks deep rifts within Scholz’s three-way ruling
Students applying for graduate jobs this summer can take advantage of a new personal interview coach. If they send over a specific job description they can receive tailored interview questions and answers — and feedback on their own responses — all for free. The coach, offered by the job search engine Adzuna, is not human
Beijing’s bid to persuade investors to value its giant state-owned enterprises according to their socialist credentials, rather than by conventional western capitalist measures, has flopped after a rally in their shares fizzled this month. The stocks rose after officials in November called for the creation of a “valuation system with Chinese characteristics” that departed from
Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Saturday for a rally with union members in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the first major political event for the US president since he announced his re-election bid in April. Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, received a warm welcome from the crowd. But there are fears among
Emerging and frontier markets are poised to benefit from US-China tensions as global investors seek companies and projects that can avoid the economic rivalry, Mercer’s chief investment strategist has said. Non-aligned countries are benefiting as western companies move supply chains out of China, said Rich Nuzum, who is also executive director of investments for a group
Lenders to San Francisco’s beleaguered commercial real estate market are braced for defaults on billions of dollars of debt after the owners of the city’s largest shopping mall and biggest hotel ceased loan payments and handed back the keys on what was once the city’s most valuable property. This week, Westfield and Brookfield Properties announced