Globalisation “may have now run its course” in its current form, according to the chair of HSBC, as geopolitical tensions and US tariffs threaten to upend existing global trade. Speaking at the bank’s global investment summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Sir Mark Tucker warned that trade tensions created uncertainty that posed a “serious potential…
Britons are widely ignorant of the scale and legacy of Britain’s involvement in slavery and colonialism, a survey has found, with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition. The…
The owner of B&Q has called on Rachel Reeves to reconsider planned tax increases for retailers before Wednesday’s spring statement, saying the industry is just as innovative on AI and robotics as US technology firms which could be handed tax cuts. On the eve of the chancellor’s statement to parliament, Kingfisher, the owner of the…
A long investigation into the mysterious death in 2023 of a French toddler took a surprise turn on Tuesday when police arrested the boy’s grandparents on suspicion of murder. The death of Émile Soleil, who was two and a half when he went missing in a French Alpine village in July 2023, has remained unexplained…
Accepting free concert tickets is “not appropriate”, the housing minister has said, in an apparent criticism of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who received tickets to watch Sabrina Carpenter. Matthew Pennycook, the MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, whose constituency includes the O2 Arena, said he had accepted “zero” free tickets. Asked about Reeves’s decision to accept…
Introduction: Tesla’s EU sales have almost halved this year Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. European car sales have dropped this year, with Tesla’s market share tumbling as buyers turn to other electrc vehicle makers. New sales data just released show that Tesla’s market…
A court in Japan has ordered the Unification church to be dissolved after a government request spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of the former prime minister Shinzo Abe. The church, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the “Moonies” after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon, is accused of pressuring followers into making…
Ministers have been accused of turning a “blind eye to slavery” by ordering Labour MPs to remove legal protections to stop money being spent by state-owned Great British Energy on solar panels manufactured by forced labour in China. The protections were added to the government bill in the House of Lords via an amendment from…
The oil company Shell has revealed plans to ramp up cost savings and cut spending, as it handed its chief executive an increase to his pay package which angered environmental campaigners. The pay package for the energy company’s chief executive, Wael Sawan, rose by 8.5% last year, to £8.6m, according to its annual report, released…
The federal government will ban non-compete clauses for most employees, including hairdressers, construction workers and childcare centre staff, according to changes announced in the budget that could help households boost their income. The policy, designed to come into effect from 2027, would apply to workers earning less than the high-income threshold, currently $175,000 a year.…
