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Elon Musk has joined the elite club of social media barons after clinching a $44bn takeover of Twitter in the same week that investors wiped hundreds of billions of dollars from Big Tech valuations. Musk’s drawn-out acquisition of Twitter, which he launched in April but attempted to abort in July, has closed just as a

Elon Musk has closed his $44bn deal to take Twitter private, according to three people familiar with the matter, bringing an end to one of the most high-profile and dramatic buyout sagas in recent memory after months of legal wrangling between the world’s richest man and the social media platform. As the billionaire entrepreneur took

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delayed the date for his long-awaited debt-cutting plan from October 31 to November 17, as calmer markets gave the government some economic breathing space. Rishi Sunak, the new prime minister, has cleared the way for painful cuts and tax rises to plug a fiscal hole of between £30bn and £40bn,

Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became Britain’s third prime minister in the space of two months and immediately started to assemble a “unity cabinet” to tackle “the profound economic crisis” facing the country. Sunak, who was invited to form a government by King Charles on Tuesday morning, said he would prioritise “economic stability and confidence” but

Rishi Sunak will on Tuesday enter Downing Street as Britain’s youngest prime minister in modern times and its first non-white leader, with a vow to get to grips with the “profound economic challenge” facing the country. Sunak is being urged by chancellor Jeremy Hunt to press ahead with a new debt-cutting plan next week, ahead

Boris Johnson has pulled out of the race to become Britain’s next prime minister after his campaign stalled and rivals claimed he did not have the backing of the 100 Tory MPs needed to enter the contest on Monday. Despite frantic attempts by Johnson to bolster his support, he announced at 9pm on Sunday that

Former UK chancellor Rishi Sunak is poised to formally enter the race to become Britain’s next prime minister after securing public backing from the 100 Tory MPs needed to enter the ballot. Sunak had 111 declared backers by Saturday evening; Conservative MPs had yet to decide whether to put former prime minister Boris Johnson on

Investors and some Conservative MPs took fright on Friday as Boris Johnson considered running for a second stint as UK prime minister, with warnings that he risked triggering further political and economic chaos. Johnson’s allies are scrambling to secure the 100 nominations needed from Tory MPs to enter Monday’s ballot to replace Liz Truss, who

Video: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, former chancellor, has emerged as the early favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister, after Liz Truss terminated a 44-day premiership marked by economic and political turmoil. Truss’s resignation made her the shortest-serving prime minister in Britain’s history; her time in Number 10 will be

Liz Truss’s UK government was plunged into complete disarray on Wednesday as Suella Braverman was forced to quit as home secretary and party discipline collapsed in the House of Commons. Many Tory MPs said the government was dying, as recriminations flew over Braverman’s ousting and Tory MPs openly rebelled over the government’s plans to resume

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is preparing to raid the profits of banks and energy companies in an attempt to fill a £40bn fiscal hole through a mix of tax rises and public spending cuts. Hunt’s Budget on October 31 is due to include big tax rises, with allies of the chancellor saying they expect him to

Liz Truss has apologised to the nation for the economic chaos that has engulfed Britain following last month’s “mini” Budget, but her premiership was hanging by a thread as Tory pressure mounted on her to quit. Truss sat expressionless on Monday in the House of Commons as she watched her new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, rip

Liz Truss is battling for her political survival as leading business figures and Conservative MPs pile pressure on the UK prime minister to resign after a series of damaging U-turns that have shredded her credibility. Truss’s decision to appoint Jeremy Hunt as chancellor and scrap key parts of her economic platform have failed to reassure

The UK’s new chancellor Jeremy Hunt has admitted that Liz Truss’s government went “too far, too fast” in last month’s “mini” Budget and that in the near future taxes will have to rise and spending will have to be cut in order to regain economic credibility. In a statement on Saturday evening Hunt said the

Liz Truss sacked her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and shredded her economic strategy on Friday, but her effort to salvage her premiership failed to win over financial markets and left Conservative MPs in a state of mutiny. In a Downing Street press conference lasting less than 10 minutes, Truss named Jeremy Hunt, former foreign secretary, as

Liz Truss, UK prime minister, is preparing to rip up the government’s “mini” Budget in a desperate attempt to rebuild market confidence and save her embryonic premiership. Kwasi Kwarteng left Washington, where he was attending IMF meetings, a day earlier than planned, he confirmed late on Thursday night, dashing to the airport to catch the

The Bank of England battled a renewed sell-off in UK government bonds on Wednesday after its vow to end its emergency gilt-buying programme unsettled markets already unnerved by the fiscal plans of prime minister Liz Truss. The central bank bought £4.4bn of gilts from investors, its biggest intervention since it entered the market last month

Andrew Bailey dashed the hopes of pension funds on Tuesday, ruling out continuing the Bank of England’s £65bn bond-buying intervention into next week. The BoE governor said that although strains had been felt, market conditions in the government bonds “seemed calmer” on Tuesday after it had staged its second emergency intervention in two days. “We’ve

Kwasi Kwarteng will need to announce a fiscal tightening of more than £60bn if he wants to convince investors that he can stabilise the UK’s public finances, according to a leading think-tank. The chancellor, who has promised to “get debt falling in the medium term”, will on October 31 set out a new debt-cutting plan

Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of carrying out a “terrorist attack” against the bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia, a key military supply route for its invasion of Ukraine and symbol of Russian prestige. Russia’s president said there was “no doubt” that Ukraine was behind the explosion, which sent two of the bridge’s road spans

An explosion tore through Russia’s bridge across the Kerch Strait to Crimea early on Saturday, killing at least three people and severely damaging its structure in a major blow to Vladimir Putin more than seven months into his invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s anti-terrorist committee said a truck exploded on the bridge’s roadside in the early