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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe studies the thick menu, leafing through its pages in search of the various tastes she is craving. There’s an aubergine platter that she’s had before and wants to try again, a squid tempura, a spinach salad and the black cod with miso, which she tells me is unmissable. Although it is just the

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has rejected claims from Conservative MPs that the UK’s central bank acted too slowly to tackle surging inflation and defended its operational independence and mandate. Asked on Friday about whether he would remain in post no matter what changes were implemented by the successor to outgoing prime minister Boris

China’s military has sent planes and warships to probe Taiwan’s defences for a second day, escalating a crisis that has prompted one of the island’s richest men to donate millions of dollars to its security. Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Friday that multiple groups of Chinese warplanes and warships had been operating in the area

This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday. The biggest and most important story in the UK at the moment, full stop, is just how grim the economic picture is. That is true for politics, too. Some thoughts

Oh, poor fund managers. Why the long faces? July was great! The S&P 500 put in its best performance since late 2020, with a 9 per cent rally. It was one of the best months in the market of all time. Sure, the withdrawal of largesse by the world’s most important central banks introduces a

Ukraine has called for the deal that relaxes Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea grain exports to be extended to other products such as metals after the first successful use of the route. Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s trade negotiator and deputy economy minister, said he was hopeful the agreement between Ukraine and Russia allowing the resumption

The battle between Asia and Europe to lock in gas supplies is stepping up a gear, heightening the risks of a further surge in prices that would add fresh fuel to the cost of living crisis. Japan and South Korea, the world’s second and third-biggest importers of liquefied natural gas, are looking to secure supplies

Need to know which way any US election will go? Dave Wasserman is your man. The nerdish political analyst devotes hours to sifting through the granular data of minor races before declaring on Twitter: “I’ve seen enough”. The same can probably be said in the race between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to be the

Ireland is contemplating levying a windfall energy tax in the 2023 budget next month given “significant profits” made by companies in the sector, prime minister Micheál Martin said. “The government will consider a range of issues and will give examination to the issue of a windfall tax,” he told reporters on Thursday, adding that companies

Liz Truss, the Tory leadership frontrunner, claimed on Thursday that she can avert a recession if she becomes prime minister, on the day the Bank of England warned that Britain was facing a protracted downturn. Truss has promised immediate tax cuts if she wins the contest, and told a Sky News leadership debate that the

The Bank of England on Thursday lived up to its promise to act “forcefully” to curb surging inflation, by announcing the biggest increase in interest rates for more than a quarter of a century. But while the rise in borrowing costs was no more than analysts had expected, the central bank’s intensely gloomy view of

The numbers at first seemed like a typo. Calpers, the massive California state pension fund, said its public equity and fixed-income investments had each recorded losses of nearly 15 per cent for the 12 months ending in June. Yet its private asset portfolio in private equity and real estate recorded gains north of 20 per

It’s remarkable how easily we can slip into the assumption that what currently is, has always been so. Extended 30ºC heat in Britain. The most well-educated people voting for leftwing parties. Japan and Italy facing demographic crises due to old and ageing populations. So it may come as a surprise that in 1985, Britain was

British taxpayers have become shareholders in a gym studio for the face, a kombucha producer and a cannabis oil company as part of a scheme set up during the coronavirus pandemic to help small businesses. One of a number of government-backed initiatives, the Future Fund scheme was launched by former chancellor Rishi Sunak in May

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 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

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

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

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

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