The number of people applying for unemployment aid in the US reached the highest level in more than six months last week, amid growing signs the historically tight labour market could be cooling. In the week to July 30, there were 260,000 initial jobless claims on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to labour department data

Liz Truss’s supporters have stepped up their attack on the Bank of England’s handling of inflation, as the foreign secretary blamed the BoE and the Treasury for failing to avert the economic crisis facing Britain. Truss says she will change the mandate of the BoE to toughen its focus on inflation, while she claims that

The writer is a senior fellow at Yale University and author of the upcoming book, ‘Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives’ Geostrategic accidents rarely happen out of thin air: look no further than the first world war. Nancy Pelosi’s unfortunate stopover in Taiwan, which follows years of mounting Sino-US tensions, should

European equities rose cautiously on Thursday as investors balanced positive US corporate earnings with a wave of monetary tightening by central banks. The regional Stoxx 600 share index added 0.3 per cent in morning trading, lifted by technology stocks after Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite equity gauge rose to its highest level in three months

UK construction activity fell for the first time since the start of last year as high inflation and rising interest rates took their toll on the sector, according to a closely watched survey. The headline seasonally adjusted S&P Global/Cips UK construction purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, fell to 48.9 for July, down from 52.6 the

Britain faces a protracted recession and the worst squeeze on living standards in more than 60 years, the Bank of England warned on Thursday, as it raised interest rates to their highest level since the onset of the global financial crisis. Eight of the Monetary Policy Committee’s nine members voted to raise interest rates by

Looking back over some old reviews recently, I found one where I absolutely leathered a place because, despite the fantastic food, I objected strongly to their completely “natural” wine list. What’s embarrassingly clear, reading it four years later, is how the experience made me feel impotent, disempowered and slighted. If I’d previously been in denial

Growth in the UK is projected to be lower than its peers in the coming years, and inflation is expected to be higher and more persistent. But I think it is worth looking at an underpriced risk: that a muddled government response might accidentally set the already-ruined British state ablaze because ministers lack a clear

China said its armed forces had launched joint air and naval military exercises on Thursday on an unprecedented scale in six areas ringing Taiwan as Beijing sought to punish the country for hosting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. No immediate signs of the People’s Liberation Army drills could be detected in Taiwan, but Taipei issued

Dozens of men and boys, covered head to toe in coal dust, stream in and out of the mine shafts bored deep into a mountain in northern Afghanistan. In the mines below Nahrain in Baghlan province, children as young as eight work as labourers, loading the fossil fuel on to donkeys which carry it to

Chinese rhetoric was running so hot ahead of Nancy Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan this week that many people watching livestreams of the historic moment on state-controlled websites were surprised when her plane touched down at Taipei’s Songshan Airport. Why, some wondered, had the People’s Liberation Army Air Force not forced the US House of Representatives

Is Beyoncé still a pop star? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself over the past week as I walked around Brooklyn, where her latest album has been blasting steadily from cars and portable speakers, providing a soundtrack to late summer barbecues and block parties. I even witnessed one man playing Renaissance loudly through his