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As it became clear this week that Mario Draghi would resign as Italian prime minister, the hashtag #poveraItalia — poor Italy — trended on social media. Why, anguished Italians were asking, are we discarding a statesman of rare quality when our often misgoverned country is most in need of wise, efficient and principled leadership? Why

Marivi Wright’s “vacation from hell” began when Air France’s computer systems went down and staff had to check in passengers on her flight from New York to Europe by hand. She missed two connecting flights as she flew through Paris to Spain to visit her 83-year-old mother, landing in Malaga 12 hours late. Her luggage

A clash over tax and economic policy has dominated the early tussles between former chancellor Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss in their bids to become Conservative leader and the next UK prime minister. As the second phase of the leadership contest got under way this week, with two candidates facing a vote by

Russia’s central bank has cut interest rates in a surprise move that it said was in response to a slowdown in inflation and an improved GDP forecast. The decision to cut rates to 8 per cent on Friday, from 9.5 per cent in June, suggests that the central bank believes Russia is weathering the storm

Volkswagen’s chief executive Herbert Diess, the architect of the German carmaker’s multibillion-euro push into electric vehicles, will leave the company within weeks after being forced out by union leaders. The 63-year-old, who took over in the years following the VW emissions scandal, will be replaced by Porsche boss and former VW manager Oliver Blume from

There is an irritating predictability to the way in which Elon Musk’s unsolicited bid for Twitter is unravelling. Some users might have been excited by the idea but tech commentators and investors in Twitter were sceptical from the start. Why wouldn’t they be? For the second time, Musk appeared to insert a 420 internet weed

The ancient Greeks pioneered a range of innovations to cool their houses during the summer, planting trees to provide natural shade and designing buildings to limit which spaces felt the full blast of the sun’s rays. Thousands of years later, their descendants are drawing upon the same kind of ideas to cool down the city

As a boy growing up in Southampton, Rishi Sunak helped his mother do the books in her pharmacy. That formative experience, coupled with his deep-rooted belief in a small state and his polished TV performances, should make him a dream candidate for the Conservatives. But the former chancellor is currently trailing Liz Truss among the

UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has indicated that Britain’s next prime minister will need to rule on Tata Group’s request for £1.5bn in government subsidies to safeguard the future of its Port Talbot steelworks. Kwarteng’s allies say the minister wants to help steelmakers including Tata, owner of the UK’s largest steelworks, to decarbonise the sector,

It’s such a well-known face, to anyone who grew up watching cultural television in Britain, and such a well-known voice to anyone who listens to BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time. And it’s a daunting prospect, to interview a man who has spent his working life over several decades interviewing many of the greatest cultural

Data released on Friday showed that high UK inflation is hitting retail sales, business activity and consumer confidence, strengthening predictions of an economic recession this year. The volume of retail sales in Great Britain fell for the second consecutive month in June as high inflation pushed consumers to tighten their belts. A closely watched survey

Eurozone business activity has gone into reverse for the first time since February 2021 after companies were hit by falling orders and rising prices, fuelling economists’ expectations of a recession this year. Fears that the 19-country single currency zone is heading for a sharp downturn were reinforced by S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’

Mykhailo Poperechnyuk was driving towards the town of Nikopol, in southern Ukraine, earlier this month when he saw a barrage of Russian rockets streaking across the night sky. The missiles were fired from what may be the most impregnable Russian positions along the entire front line: those around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant just 5km

Andrey Liscovich was at home in downtown San Francisco when he saw a tweet from the American politician Marco Rubio: “The #Russian invasion of #Ukraine is now underway.” He felt sick. The 37-year-old Ukrainian had spent most of the previous decade working far from his native country, including as chief executive officer of Uber Works,

Since January 6 2021, Liz Cheney has been focused on a single goal: making sure Donald Trump never again occupies the Oval Office. On Thursday she came a step closer to achieving that ambition as she wrapped up the last in a series of live hearings investigating last year’s attack on the US Congress, and

The Howard family has been entwined with British power since before the days of Elizabeth I, so it was little surprise that Lord Greville Howard’s London townhouse was the base for the campaign to install Liz Truss as prime minister. But something was not right at Howard’s Georgian home on Lord North Street, near the

Donald Trump ignored repeated pleas from his family and closest advisers to bring a stop to the January 6 riots and instead spent hours watching the violence unfold on Fox News, a congressional committee has heard. In the final session of a summer of hearings, the panel investigating the insurrection used a primetime broadcast on

China’s middle-class consumers are fanning a new craze as they adapt to tougher economic times: a rush to buy soon-to-expire food and drink at deep discounts. According to public records, 119 businesses specialising in items approaching their expiry dates have been registered within the past 12 months, compared with 92 over the previous decade. Such

EDF is trying to alter a key subsidy contract to avoid missing out on billions of pounds in guaranteed revenue after the Covid-19 pandemic caused further delays to Hinkley Point C, the first new nuclear power station under construction in the UK in almost 30 years. The French utility is in negotiations with the British

Mattel is stocking up in anticipation of higher demand for Jurassic World action figures and Hot Wheels cars this holiday season, citing a 20 per cent increase in second-quarter revenues as evidence that inflation has not deterred parents from spending on toys. The California-based company behind Barbie dolls and Thomas & Friends trains reported its

Italy’s debt sold off on Thursday after prime minister Mario Draghi resigned and the European Central Bank sharply raised interest rates in its effort to tame blistering inflation. The yield on Italy’s 10-year government bond rose as much as 0.27 percentage points to almost 3.7 per cent as Draghi’s national unity coalition unravelled and the