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The UK government has announced that it will not match new EU restrictions on a number of potentially hazardous chemicals, including on the “rubber crumbs” which are used to make artificial football pitches. Environmental groups and health experts said the decision opened up the prospect of a “chasm” emerging between Brussels and the UK, leaving

One of the leading contenders to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister has said he will not stand in the forthcoming leadership contest, as other Conservative MPs prepare to launch their campaigns. Defence secretary Ben Wallace was the favourite among the Tory grassroots, with a net approval rating of +86 among party members according to

Rishi Sunak, who quit as Boris Johnson’s chancellor this week, launched his bid to lead the Conservative party on Friday with a pledge that he will avoid “comforting fairy tales”. His video to launch his campaign appeared a coded attack on what many MPs have seen as the prime minister’s Panglossian approach to policy. “Someone

Boris Johnson has announced his “painful” resignation but defied pressure to step down immediately as prime minister, insisting he would remain in office until a new Conservative party leader is chosen. In an address in front of No 10 Downing Street, after days of turmoil and mass resignations from his government, he accused his party

Sajid Javid launched a devastating critique of Boris Johnson in the House of Commons as he told MPs why he quit as health secretary, warning that “the problem starts at the top” with the prime minister. Javid triggered an avalanche of ministerial resignations when he stepped down on Tuesday evening, including chancellor Rishi Sunak —

Norway’s Equinor is temporarily shutting down three oil and gasfields after workers went on strike, intensifying regional supply troubles and pushing European gas prices to a four-month high. The strikes that began on Monday evening will affect 89,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of production at fields on Norway’s continental shelf. The trade union

Some of Britain’s largest industrial users of energy will warn ministers on Wednesday that sections of industry are at risk of closure this winter if there is a severe gas shortage and emergency measures to curb usage are introduced. The Energy Intensive Users Group, which represents the UK’s heaviest industrial energy users such as glass

He allegedly had $4mn in banknotes stuffed down his couch. When the money was stolen, he did not properly inform the authorities. And this was meant to be the good guy. Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, has been leading the charge against graft. Under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, the surrender of much of the state

The writer is a science commentator The lack of international solidarity exposed by the pandemic, particularly after rich countries hogged Covid-19 vaccines, led to cries of “never again”. Never again should vital data and samples be held back in an outbreak; never again should the global south be abandoned by the global north in the

On the final day of February, a group of European financiers and entrepreneurs gathered on a late-night online meeting to resolve a boardroom dispute. The Microsoft Teams meeting only lasted 35 minutes. But it was enough time for the board to wrest control of the rights to launch hundreds of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites from

Valuations for tech companies have begun to fall in the UK, according to the head of the state-backed British Business Bank, which is preparing to use its funds to help support start-ups in the face of economic headwinds. Equity investment into smaller UK businesses increased by 88 per cent to £18.1bn in 2021, according to

As he battled to save his job this month, Boris Johnson warned his MPs not to get into “some hellish, Groundhog Day debate about the merits of belonging to the single market”. Brexit, he warned his mutinous party in a sweaty House of Commons meeting room, was settled. Later that day, Johnson limped to victory

Volkswagen’s anchor shareholder, the state of Lower Saxony, has joined Germany’s most powerful union boss in calling on the company to address allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the Chinese province where the manufacturer has had a car plant since 2013. The unusual interventions by IG Metall’s Jörg Hofmann and Lower Saxony’s minister president

How many times can the same chief executive make a “gaffe” before investors should start taking him at his word? Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess infuriated Ukrainian officials this week by suggesting the EU should prioritise a rapid settlement with the country’s Russian invaders for the sake of economic growth. “I think we should do the

A fresh assault on the Russian banking system on Wednesday was poorly timed for Raiffeisen Bank, which boasts European lenders’ biggest exposure to the country. Any cheer from a positive first-quarter earnings update was soon wiped out by EU proposals to remove Russia’s Sberbank, among others, from the Swift system. Shares ended the day down

“Friendly reminder: This is a community. We build each other up, not tear each other down,” reads a recent post on the Instagram account of American casualwear brand Abercrombie & Fitch. “Today — and every day — we’re leading with purpose, championing inclusivity and creating a sense of belonging,” reads another message on the brand’s

Growing up in the 1990s, Alexis Ohanian was more into fantasy battles than fantasy sports, playing the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, casting spells to summon creatures and defeat opponents. Back then there wasn’t a lot of overlap between geeks and jocks. Remembering my own school days, the cool kids were all swapping football

The owner of Britain’s largest electricity distribution network Western Power Distribution has agreed to pay £14.9mn after it was found to have let down vulnerable customers on a number of “totally unacceptable” fronts. Energy regulator Ofgem announced the settlement on Wednesday after a probe launched in 2020 into whether the company had been meeting its

The US is moving towards imposing hard-hitting sanctions on Hikvision, the Chinese surveillance camera company accused of enabling human rights abuses, in a decision that would affect cities from New York and London to Singapore. The Biden administration is laying the groundwork to place human rights-related sanctions on Hikvision, according to four people familiar with

Yikes. Tiger Global got smoked again last month. Kudos to Bloomberg for getting the scoop, but here is the FT’s story: Tiger Global’s flagship hedge fund was dealt a fresh blow in April and is now down more than 40 per cent this year, in the latest sign of how star investors who rode the

Good morning. We’ve written before that if inflation is going to subside peacefully, workers have to enter the workforce. We got bad news on that front yesterday: quits and job openings rose in March. If the Fed still needed a reason for a 50 basis point increase and a swift reduction in the balance sheet,