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EU countries cut gas demand by a quarter in November even as temperatures fell, in the latest evidence that the bloc is succeeding in reducing its reliance on Russian energy since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Provisional data from commodity analytics company ICIS showed gas demand in the EU was 24 per cent below the

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 some of its most significant acts of civil disobedience in years after vigils in Shanghai and other big cities to mark a deadly fire in Xinjiang region turned into protests over Xi Jinping’s draconian zero-Covid policies. Social media posts have blamed the deaths of 10 people in the blaze on

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

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s new strategy to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and plunge it into darkness would not weaken the country’s resolve to liberate all occupied land, describing the conflict as a “war of strength and resilience”. Pushing back against western fears of escalation, Ukraine’s president insisted there would be no lasting resolution to the war

Rishi Sunak is under pressure from a broad alliance of British business, legal, worker and environmental groups to drop controversial plans to automatically strip swaths of EU-derived law from the British statute book by the end of next year. More than a dozen organisations including the Institute of Directors, Trades Union Congress and Chartered Institute

The party of Brazil’s outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro has challenged the outcome of the runoff election he narrowly lost last month, calling for the cancellation of ballots from electronic voting machines with alleged malfunctions. The far-right populist was defeated on October 31 by his leftist rival and former national leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,

FTX’s new management team has located more cash belonging to the bankrupt crypto conglomerate, bringing the tally to $1.24bn, as consultants rush to identify the company’s assets ahead of a US court hearing later on Tuesday. Edgar Mosley, an executive at advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal, said in court filings teams working to track down

Bob Iger, who served as Disney chief executive for 15 years, has stunned Hollywood by returning to replace his successor Bob Chapek after a rocky tenure that lasted just 33 months. Iger, who handpicked Chapek as his successor only to see the relationship quickly sour, will serve another two years in the job that made

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

British households are set for the steepest fall in living standards on record and the highest tax burden since the second world war after Jeremy Hunt laid out plans to cut public spending and raise revenue to fill a £55bn fiscal hole. The chancellor told a sombre House of Commons that a massive fiscal consolidation,

Jeremy Hunt, chancellor, will on Thursday seek to restore Britain’s tarnished economic reputation with a massive package of tax rises and spending cuts intended to repair the public finances and tame inflation. Hunt’s Autumn Statement will intensify the financial hardship facing millions of Britons and begin years of austerity in public services, but the chancellor

Russia launched a new barrage of missiles at targets across Ukraine on Tuesday, hobbling the country’s electricity infrastructure just days after withdrawing its forces from the strategically important city of Kherson. The Ukrainian air force said more than 90 missiles were fired as part of the offensive, which Kyiv said was the largest daily fusillade