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Microsoft has agreed to buy a £1.5bn stake in London Stock Exchange Group as part of a 10-year strategic partnership, marking the latest incursion by Big Tech into the operation of global markets. Under the agreement, Microsoft will acquire a 4 per cent stake in LSEG worth about £1.5bn from Blackstone, Thomson Reuters, Canada Pension

The White House’s chief energy adviser has described as “un-American” the refusal of US shale investors to ramp up drilling, even as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine causes havoc on global oil and gas markets. US oil groups have been under pressure from Wall Street to funnel record profits back to investors this year, despite repeated

Blackstone has warned of the risk of delays to the launch of a new private equity fund designed for wealthy individuals, as it copes with heavy investor withdrawals at two other funds in real estate and credit aimed at a similar clientele. The New York-based investment manager has been preparing to open a fund called

Jeremy Hunt has defended his overhaul of UK financial services rules, which relaxes some of the measures introduced after the financial crisis of 2008. The UK chancellor, speaking at the Financial Times’s Global Boardroom event, rejected suggestions that the government was abandoning the lessons learnt following the financial crisis more than a decade ago. “We

Beijing is running out of medical supplies as the Chinese capital combats a rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak, health workers said, putting stress on limited resources just as authorities lift pandemic restrictions. Clinics designated for Covid-19 patients are quickly filling up and some hospitals in the city of 22mn people have begun rationing ibuprofen and paracetamol.

China has announced wide-ranging relaxations to President Xi Jinping’s contentious zero-Covid restrictions, including for the first time home quarantine, as further evidence emerged of the economic damage from the pandemic controls. The new measures, outlined on Wednesday by the State Council, China’s cabinet, were foreshadowed by a meeting of the Chinese Communist party’s politburo that

Meta has been told its treatment of high-profile users, such as former US president Donald Trump, left dangerous content online, serving business interests at the expense of its human rights obligations. A damning report published on Tuesday from the company’s oversight board — a “Supreme Court” style body created by the parent company of Facebook,

EU countries cut gas demand by a quarter in November even as temperatures fell, in the latest evidence that the bloc is succeeding in reducing its reliance on Russian energy since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Provisional data from commodity analytics company ICIS showed gas demand in the EU was 24 per cent below the

Chinese cities accelerated the loosening of zero-Covid restrictions over the weekend, building expectations that Beijing could ditch the pandemic policy that has kept the country isolated for nearly three years and battered the economy. Several Chinese cities have eased controls, even as Covid continues to circulate. China reported 31,824 infections on Sunday for tests taken

Alameda Research was allowed to exceed normal borrowing limits on the FTX exchange since its early days, Sam Bankman-Fried has said, in a concession that illustrates how the former billionaire’s trading shop enjoyed preferential treatment over clients years before the 2022 crypto crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 30-year-old described the outsized

Blackstone has limited withdrawals from its $125bn real estate investment fund following a surge in redemption requests, as investors clamour to get their hands on cash and concerns grow about the long-term health of the commercial property market. The private equity group approved only 43 per cent of redemption requests in its Blackstone Real Estate

UK house prices fell in November at their fastest pace since the financial crisis, excluding the lockdown period of spring 2020, as rising borrowing costs hit household finances, according to mortgage provider Nationwide. House prices fell 1.4 per cent between October and November — the biggest fall since the country was in the depths of

Inflation in the eurozone has fallen for the first time in 17 months, raising hopes that the biggest price surge for a generation has peaked and the European Central Bank will be able to shift to smaller interest rate rises next month. A slowdown in energy and services prices helped inflation in the single currency

China’s health authorities on Tuesday blamed local governments for their handling of coronavirus outbreaks as Beijing distanced itself from the crisis after unprecedented protests against President Xi Jinping and his zero-Covid policy. The National Health Commission reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to the zero-Covid measures and pledged to boost vaccination rates among the elderly, a day after

Xi Jinping faces one of his greatest challenges as president of China after tens of thousands of people took to the streets over Beijing’s strict coronavirus controls and suppression of freedom of speech. At least 10 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Chengdu, were shaken by rare political protests over the weekend, triggering clashes with

China has been rocked by some of its most significant acts of civil disobedience in years after vigils in Shanghai and other big cities to mark a deadly fire in Xinjiang region turned into protests over Xi Jinping’s draconian zero-Covid policies. Social media posts have blamed the deaths of 10 people in the blaze on

Qatar has launched a review of its investments in London after the city’s transport authority this week banned the Gulf state’s advertisements on the UK capital’s buses, taxis and underground train system. The move by Transport for London was prompted by concerns about Qatar’s stance on LGBT+ rights and its treatment of migrant workers. It

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s new strategy to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and plunge it into darkness would not weaken the country’s resolve to liberate all occupied land, describing the conflict as a “war of strength and resilience”. Pushing back against western fears of escalation, Ukraine’s president insisted there would be no lasting resolution to the war

Rishi Sunak is under pressure from a broad alliance of British business, legal, worker and environmental groups to drop controversial plans to automatically strip swaths of EU-derived law from the British statute book by the end of next year. More than a dozen organisations including the Institute of Directors, Trades Union Congress and Chartered Institute

The party of Brazil’s outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro has challenged the outcome of the runoff election he narrowly lost last month, calling for the cancellation of ballots from electronic voting machines with alleged malfunctions. The far-right populist was defeated on October 31 by his leftist rival and former national leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,

FTX’s new management team has located more cash belonging to the bankrupt crypto conglomerate, bringing the tally to $1.24bn, as consultants rush to identify the company’s assets ahead of a US court hearing later on Tuesday. Edgar Mosley, an executive at advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal, said in court filings teams working to track down