The UK’s plans to enact legislation that would grant ministers the powers to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol that they dislike are a spectacular error of judgment and strategy (Report, April 22). Not only would any such legislation clearly and unambiguously put the UK in breach of its international obligations under the withdrawal

Downsizing the French welfare state would not just reinvigorate the country’s economic fortunes, as Ruchir Sharma argued (“The fat French state is about to get fatter”, Opinion, April 26). It is essential to protect against populists like Marine Le Pen over the long term by rebuilding a fairer, more meritocratic system. France’s bloated state intervenes

You can enable subtitles (captions) in the video player So if you could sum up this topic with one snappy phrase, what would it be? Making the heart of a star to power the world. Nuclear fusion is about fusing atoms to release huge amounts of energy. We know it’s physically possible because it happens

Indonesia’s plan to buy oil from Russia amid the war in Ukraine has ignited an argument over where the country should come down on global issues. The south-east Asian nation, which desperately needs cheap oil to tame inflation, regardless of where it comes from, has attracted strong criticism and accusations that buying from Russia will

Russia’s invasion will cost Ukraine’s economy as much as half its economic output this year, according to projections from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies. The think-tank’s spring outlook, published on Wednesday, shows Russia is also likely to suffer a deep recession as a result of western sanctions, while the rest of the central

Alphabet was on its way to becoming a meme stock earlier this year. Retail investors suddenly noticed that Google’s parent company traded on a lower earnings multiple than peers while reporting higher revenue growth. For the world’s top search engine with $67bn in annual free cash flow this seemed conservative. All of that remains true.

US-based private equity firms Apollo Global and L Catterton have each held talks with Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Fisher-Price toys, about a potential buyout of the $7.8bn Nasdaq-listed company. The takeover interest in Mattel is preliminary, said multiple sources familiar with the matter, and was unsolicited, indicating that any prospective deal is

The UK foreign secretary will on Wednesday warn of “misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe” if Russia succeeds in Ukraine, after Moscow accused Britain of escalating the war and threatened retaliation. In a keynote foreign policy speech at London’s Mansion House, Liz Truss will argue that the existing global security architecture “designed

Investors refused to back resolutions demanding stricter fossil fuel financing policies at three major US banks on Tuesday, dealing a blow to environmentalists hoping to apply more pressure to lenders over climate issues. Proposals filed at Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citi called on the banks to align their fossil fuel financing policies with

Cabinet tensions have broken out over a plan for Britain to unilaterally cut tariffs on food imports, after the price of groceries in the UK rose 5.9 per cent in the past year. Boris Johnson, prime minister, is backing a proposal to cut tariffs on foodstuffs such as rice and oranges, which are not produced

European equities opened higher on Tuesday as global markets recovered from sharp falls in the previous session, driven by fears about Chinese lockdowns, inflation and central banks raising interest rates. Ahead of quarterly results from tech titans Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet, which investors hope will confirm the logic of investing in businesses with the

Tesla shares slid more than 10 per cent on Tuesday, wiping about $99bn off the electric carmaker’s valuation, a day after the company’s chief executive and largest shareholder Elon Musk clinched a deal to buy Twitter. Musk is funding the $44bn takeover with $13bn of debt from Wall Street’s largest lenders, as well as a

Russia is to halt the flow of gas to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday, according to authorities in both EU nations, as Moscow steps up its efforts to weaponise energy supplies over the invasion of Ukraine. PGNiG, the Polish state-controlled gas group, stated on Tuesday that Russian supplier Gazprom had informed it of a “complete

Boris Johnson has threatened to privatise public bodies including the Passport Office and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency unless they sort out their major backlogs, he told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The British prime minister said some public bodies had fallen victim to a “post-Covid mañana culture” with slower services than the public

Francesca McDonagh has announced her surprise decision to step down as chief executive of Bank of Ireland, the country’s biggest lender, in what industry sources say is the latest high-profile casualty of a cap on top executives’ pay. The bank, which was rescued along with Ireland’s other lenders in the eurozone’s biggest banking bailout after

Britain’s City minister has agreed with estimates that about 7,000 jobs moved from the Square Mile to the EU after Brexit, but added that the financial services sector “has not experienced the haemorrhaging” of roles that many had anticipated. John Glen, economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister, said on Tuesday that he broadly

One of the Bank of England’s senior officials on Tuesday proposed that the global regulatory system for banks’ capital requirements be overhauled to make it simpler and allow companies more flexibility to lend during a crisis. Sam Woods, head of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority, used a speech to outline a streamlined system that would

The Royal Ballet dusted off the family silver last weekend for a sublime triple bill of work by Frederick Ashton that reasserts the genius of their founder-choreographer. Ashton first heard Scènes de Ballet while soaking in his bath to the Third Programme and was obliged to telephone the BBC to identify it. His choreography embodies

When Priti Patel was chosen as Boris Johnson’s home secretary, liberal opinion was affronted. What possible logic could there be, so it went, in putting one of the Conservative party’s tub-thumpers, and one with a patchy ministerial record, at the helm of Whitehall’s most dysfunctional department? Simple, one of the prime minister’s aides told me

Such is their devotion to the suburb of Wandsworth, in south-west London, that when James and Victoria Robbins sold their 1,400 sq ft three-bedroom railway workers’ cottage last October in search of more space, they moved just 157 metres away to a 2,200 sq ft, four-bedroom semi with a larger garden. Both old and new

The lockdowns stemming from China’s zero-Covid strategy have worsened General Electric’s supply chain challenges, prompting the US industrial conglomerate to caution on Tuesday that its full-year results would come in at the low end of its previous expectations. Shares in GE fell 10 per cent to $80.71 in morning trading in New York after chief