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Chinese authorities hastily locked down the southern coastal city of Sanya over the weekend, trapping tens of thousands of holidaymakers after a highly infectious Omicron strain of coronavirus was detected in the province known as “China’s Hawaii”. Covid-19 cases in China’s Hainan province rapidly rose over the week to a cumulative 828, forcing authorities to

Ahead of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan this week, there was concern from the White House to Tokyo that the US House Speaker’s trip would spark a crisis at a time when relations with China were already in a dangerous state. Beijing’s aggressive response has crystallised the high stakes for US allies and partners in

When the centrist Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema gave the green light this week to move forward with the much-slimmed-down version of her party’s long-awaited climate and tax bill, her colleagues breathed a sigh of relief. However, Sinema’s assent came with a notable proviso: scrapping the promise to end a notorious tax loophole allowing private equity

Life has not been easy for reinsurers in the past few years. Claims for natural catastrophes and pandemic-related losses have wiped out a large part of their profits. But the latest set of global problems — war in Ukraine, galloping inflation and the ever-increasing risks of climate change — have jolted them into action. In

The European drugs regulator is holding firm with plans to review Covid-19 vaccines designed to tackle the original coronavirus and the Omicron variant, its head said, in contrast with US authorities who plan to approve these jabs before the release of clinical data on their efficacy. It might mean Europe receives vaccines tailored to the

At the property sector’s annual gathering on the French Riviera in March an unlikely group of delegates were centre stage: warehouse salesmen. In years past at the Cannes Mipim conference, purveyors of “sheds” — as they are known in the industry — have been shunted out to tents at the end of the promenade, away

An Apple supplier based in Taiwan is battling an international investor over its multibillion-dollar cash pile in a case that signals burgeoning shareholder activism in the territory. Catcher Technology, which manufactures electronic casings for Apple devices made in China, is being challenged by Hong Kong-based investment firm Argyle Street Management to improve its governance and

Japan needs bolder monetary and fiscal stimulus to seize “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” from global inflationary pressures to end its war on deflation, according to a Bank of Japan board member who recently left the central bank. The BoJ has come under market pressure in recent months to reassess its ultra-easy monetary policy as central banks

Before China’s fighter jets roared and its ballistic missiles screamed into the seas off Taiwan last week, analysts had already begun laying out — from incursion to inaction — what investors could expect next. Consensus among those forecasters was in short supply, and if anything, there is even less of it now. Both the US

The writer, a former senior adviser to UK chancellors Philip Hammond and Sajid Javid, is a partner at Flint Global; he writes in a personal capacity Boris Johnson’s government has been fundamentally “un-Conservative”. That has been the impression given by the Tory leadership contest so far. Inevitably, the debate has been dominated by the modern

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway dramatically slowed new investment in the second quarter after setting a blistering pace at the start of the year, as the US stock market sell-off pushed the insurance-to-railroad conglomerate to a $43.8bn loss. Berkshire said on Saturday that the drop in global financial markets had weighed heavily on its stock portfolio

America’s largest oil and gas producers are keeping a lid on supply, defying calls from the Biden administration to lift output even as soaring fuel prices driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine deliver bumper profits. Top shale oil and gas producers including ConocoPhillips, Pioneer Natural Resources and Devon Energy all unveiled a sharp increase in