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Government plans to axe up to 91,000 civil servants over three years will require deep cuts to public services and cost at least £1bn in redundancy payments, according to a Whitehall review. Boris Johnson in May unveiled plans for the near 20 per cent reduction in headcount, and in June said he could “prune” back

The Chinese military culminated its largest-ever military exercise around Taiwan on Sunday with practice bombing raids and missile attacks on the main island as Beijing said it had met its objective of intimidating “Taiwan independence forces” and deterring US intervention.  The People’s Liberation Army said on Sunday night that multiple groups of aircraft had trained

The UK government is to review a £4.2bn foreign takeover of a key part of the country’s gas infrastructure amid increased concerns about energy security. The sale of a 60 per cent stake in National Grid’s gas transmission business to an international consortium led by Australia’s Macquarie, the world’s largest infrastructure investor, is to be

The peaceful pro-democracy protests that swept through Belarus in August 2020 evoked memories of Solidarity, the mass movement that had arisen in neighbouring Poland 40 years earlier. The focus of discontent was identical: a repressive regime, aligned with Moscow, that mistreated citizens and brought shame on the nation. Even the patriotic colours on display in

The Isle of Sheppey on the Thames estuary is ranked among the most deprived areas of Britain and like millions of people living on low incomes, its residents are grappling with the rising cost of food and fuel. All are bracing themselves for even harder times this winter. In a pub car park on the

Liz Truss has promised an immediate cut to National Insurance rates if she becomes prime minister in September, but faced claims from her Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak that the change would “not touch the sides” for many poorer households battling a crisis in living costs. Truss, foreign secretary, told the Financial Times on Friday

The writer is chief economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine Western sanctions on Russian fossil fuels are a phantom. The revenues flowing into the Kremlin’s coffers from foreign sales of oil, gas and coal are sky-high, having doubled in the first 100 days of the war. The west’s energy sanctions regime is not

Chinese authorities hastily locked down the southern coastal city of Sanya over the weekend, trapping tens of thousands of holidaymakers after a highly infectious Omicron strain of coronavirus was detected in the province known as “China’s Hawaii”. Covid-19 cases in China’s Hainan province rapidly rose over the week to a cumulative 828, forcing authorities to

Ahead of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan this week, there was concern from the White House to Tokyo that the US House Speaker’s trip would spark a crisis at a time when relations with China were already in a dangerous state. Beijing’s aggressive response has crystallised the high stakes for US allies and partners in

When the centrist Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema gave the green light this week to move forward with the much-slimmed-down version of her party’s long-awaited climate and tax bill, her colleagues breathed a sigh of relief. However, Sinema’s assent came with a notable proviso: scrapping the promise to end a notorious tax loophole allowing private equity

Life has not been easy for reinsurers in the past few years. Claims for natural catastrophes and pandemic-related losses have wiped out a large part of their profits. But the latest set of global problems — war in Ukraine, galloping inflation and the ever-increasing risks of climate change — have jolted them into action. In

The European drugs regulator is holding firm with plans to review Covid-19 vaccines designed to tackle the original coronavirus and the Omicron variant, its head said, in contrast with US authorities who plan to approve these jabs before the release of clinical data on their efficacy. It might mean Europe receives vaccines tailored to the

At the property sector’s annual gathering on the French Riviera in March an unlikely group of delegates were centre stage: warehouse salesmen. In years past at the Cannes Mipim conference, purveyors of “sheds” — as they are known in the industry — have been shunted out to tents at the end of the promenade, away

An Apple supplier based in Taiwan is battling an international investor over its multibillion-dollar cash pile in a case that signals burgeoning shareholder activism in the territory. Catcher Technology, which manufactures electronic casings for Apple devices made in China, is being challenged by Hong Kong-based investment firm Argyle Street Management to improve its governance and

Japan needs bolder monetary and fiscal stimulus to seize “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” from global inflationary pressures to end its war on deflation, according to a Bank of Japan board member who recently left the central bank. The BoJ has come under market pressure in recent months to reassess its ultra-easy monetary policy as central banks

Before China’s fighter jets roared and its ballistic missiles screamed into the seas off Taiwan last week, analysts had already begun laying out — from incursion to inaction — what investors could expect next. Consensus among those forecasters was in short supply, and if anything, there is even less of it now. Both the US