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In normal times this would be game over. In the longer term it probably still is. The news that Boris Johnson has been fined for the breaching of lockdown rules he imposed on the nation ought ordinarily to be enough to finish him off. It is a shocking event. The fact that his chancellor, Rishi

Sri Lanka’s finance ministry has suspended payments on its government bonds, breaking what it called its “unblemished record of external debt service since independence in 1948” in a deepening economic and currency crisis. In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry said keeping up with repayments had “become impossible”, adding that “although the government has taken

Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia is exiting the Russian market permanently, becoming the latest western company to distance itself from the Kremlin and plan for a future in which sanctions persist. “For us, it has been clear since the beginning of the invasion that it is not going to be possible to continue our presence

Before the pandemic, New Yorkers John Newton and Marc Perrotta bought a one-time dental office in the Mexican city of Mérida, about 300km west of Cancún. The city’s laid-back lifestyle fit nicely with their plan to relocate from Brooklyn. “We wanted to leave New York and had thought about Canada and even Germany,” says Newton,

It is springtime for Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour party is readying for another by-election. It has yet to make a by-election gain in this parliament but this is a fight it has a chance of winning. In Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, Starmer is hoping to kick off the party’s fightback in its former

Fears about the outlook for global economic growth among large institutional investors have risen to their highest level in more than a quarter of a century, as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third month. A net 71 per cent of fund managers in March said they expected the global economy to weaken over the

When you imagine your future retirement, do you expect still to be working at the age of 78? If you enjoyed your job as much as Sir Mick Jagger, then maybe you would. The Rolling Stones frontman is marking 60 years on the road with a European tour this summer. Not everyone has his stamina,

Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank shares dropped sharply on Tuesday after an investor sold stakes of more than 5 per cent in each of Germany’s top two lenders, worth a combined €1.75bn. Capital Group, Deutsche’s second-largest shareholder, was the seller behind a block transaction of €1.27bn of the bank’s stock on Monday, according to people familiar

UK unemployment dropped back to its pre-pandemic level at the start of 2022, but the squeeze on living standards deepened, as earnings failed to keep pace with inflation despite record levels of vacancies. The jobless rate averaged 3.8 per cent in the three months to February, returning to lows last seen in 2019, the Office

Because the word is more often applied to eveningwear, modernist furniture and a certain kind of footballer, we forget that academic theories can also be “elegant”. If one seems to explain a lot with a little, if it has few moving parts but great sweep, it can be so beautiful as to leave readers wishing

“Are you happy with the amount of power that you have in your life?” the curator asks us. Oh God, I think, chugging my coffee, isn’t it a bit early for these kinds of questions? I’m meant to indicate my answer by walking either to an area marked “yes” or another marked “no” on the

The New York State Common Retirement Fund has called on shareholders to back resolutions demanding stricter fossil fuel financing policies at some of the world’s biggest banks, one of the first such moves by a major pension fund. The $280bn fund on Monday called on shareholders to vote in favour of proposals filed at six

If Tsai Ing-wen’s plan works out, her country will start churning out up to 500 new electronics engineering experts annually from next year. On the orders of the Taiwanese president, five universities have set up “semiconductor academies”, each with a quota of producing 100 masters and PhDs a year. For Taiwan’s economy, the prospective experts

One thing to start: Joe Biden will announce today he is relaxing restrictions on the sale of higher blends of ethanol in petrol — the White House’s latest bid to push down prices at the pump. Welcome back to another Energy Source. The risk of a record-smashing oil price leap over the summer appears to

Offshore financial centres specialise in low-profile ownership arrangements for the wealthy. They cannot be enjoying their current blaze of publicity. Scrutiny is high because Russian oligarchs habitually use offshore centres. Enemies of UK chancellor Rishi Sunak have also asked whether these bolt-holes feature in his family’s controversial finances. Providing sophisticated legal and financial services —

Former Conservative minister Crispin Blunt on Tuesday retracted his remarks questioning the conviction of Imran Ahmad Khan who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008. Khan, who served as a Tory MP for Wakefield in West Yorkshire, was convicted on Monday by a jury at Southwark Crown Court following a week-long

Like many Germans, Otmar Issing is alarmed by the surge in inflation to 40-year highs in his country and worried by the “misguided” response of the European Central Bank. But, as one of the founding fathers of the euro, Issing’s complaints carry more weight than most of his countrymen. The ECB’s first chief economist when

Russia has vowed to sue if sanctions force it to default on its bonds but academics and lawyers have dismissed the threat as “payment theatre” designed to project the state’s financial strength. Over the weekend, finance minister Anton Siluanov said western sanctions were an attempt to “artificially create a man-made default” — Moscow’s first since

Light crystallising against a dark sky as angelic voices rise: the opening image of Angels’ Atlas is one of transcendence, and Crystal Pite knows how to match it sweepingly in dance. While her Revisor with Jonathon Young won the Olivier Award for best new dance production over the weekend, Zurich Ballet was performing one of

Oil and gas stocks are on track for further strong gains, as a sector shunned by ethically minded investors regains favour, according to the hedge fund manager who made $700mn betting on meme stock GameStop. Richard Mashaal, co-chief investment officer at New York-based Senvest Management, whose 86 per cent gains in 2021 ranked him among

iShares has trimmed expenses on seven exchange traded funds, including its $85.5bn Core US Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) and $73.2bn Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG), the manager said. AGG’s fees fell from 4 basis points to 3bp, disclosures show, while IEMG’s slid 2bp to 9bp. The cuts put AGG’s management fee below the 3.5bp