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The British empire was built in the age of coal, a fuel the UK had in spades. The US became a superpower in the era of oil, of which it had plenty. China’s rise has come as the world starts switching to a greener energy system needing minerals and metals for battery and solar industries

The two men going head to head to become Kenya’s next president agree on one thing: China is at the heart of next week’s election. For deputy president William Ruto, it is the spread of Chinese nationals in cities, many of whom are trying to earn a living selling local street food dishes. And former

Accountants should stop complaining about extra scrutiny and fines for audit failures and improve the quality of their work, said the head of the sector’s UK watchdog, which imposed record financial sanctions on the industry last year. Auditors have faced heavy criticism in recent years after failing to raise the alarm in a series of

Molson Coors’ chief executive said cost inflation is now his biggest concern after the US brewer experienced a further jump in prices for inputs like barley, aluminium and freight. That upward trend was taking some of the shine off consumer demand that otherwise appeared resilient despite broader concerns over rising interest rates, inflation and a

Bain & Co, the Boston-based global management consultant, was on Tuesday hit with a three-year ban from tendering for British government contracts because of its “grave professional misconduct” in a major corruption scandal in South Africa. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Cabinet Office minister, told Bain that the affair had rendered the company’s integrity “questionable” and that he

BP’s problem, like that of the other oil supermajors, is it has more money than it can justify what to do with. BP knows what it would like to do with the windfall profits being made from the Ukraine-induced rise in energy prices: return them to shareholders. It announced a 10 per cent rise in

Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday night in the highest-level visit by a US official for decades, defying Chinese threats of a military response. The trip by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives has become a test of how far Beijing will go to deter foreign support for Taiwan and of China

The writer is a former deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine  Vladimir Putin infamously predicted that Ukraine would be conquered in a matter of days. The west was equally sceptical about Ukraine’s chances of surviving a Russian onslaught. However, it has been more than 150 days since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion

Liz Truss’s Tory leadership campaign suffered a serious setback on Tuesday after she was forced to abandon her plan to cut the pay of public sector workers living in poorer areas of Britain. The proposal drew ferocious cross-party criticism — including from Tories representing constituencies in the north and Midlands — forcing the foreign secretary

Asian markets usually ignore imminent visits by US politicians below secretary of state grade. Not when the politician is Democratic bigwig Nancy Pelosi and her mooted destination is Taiwan. Indices bumped downwards in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. The Taiwan dollar plunged to a two-year low. Chinese warplanes have been roaring over the Taiwan Strait.

The writer is professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge The IMF has made it official: growth will be slow and inflation high for the foreseeable future. For the UK, expected to be one of the worst-performing major economies, this grim outlook comes on the heels of slow growth since the financial crisis.

Stocks fell and US government bond prices rose as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s expected visit to Taiwan raised the prospect of a forceful Chinese military response. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index fell as much as 3.2 per cent on Tuesday, later trimming some of its losses. China’s CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and

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. Liz Truss has promised to save £11bn a year by cutting pay for public sector workers — including civil servants, teachers and nurses — outside London and the South-East. The

President Xi Jinping’s wolf warrior diplomats excel at withering rhetoric when they want to belittle and dismiss people whose words and deeds, as they so often say, have “hurt the feelings” of all 1.4bn people in the People’s Republic of China. Xi had ample opportunity to instruct China’s diplomats and its state media apparatus, which

China is ratcheting up military activity around Taiwan ahead of a potential visit by US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to land in Taipei on Tuesday night. Several Chinese fighter jets flew close to the median line that divides the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday morning, according to a Taiwanese

The UN has called it the world’s first climate-change-induced famine. Madagascar’s government agrees it is a result of the west’s carbon-fuelled lifestyle. A number of scientists and experts disagree, saying it is actually a consequence of poverty and poor governance. For the people of southern Madagascar, unaware of the international furore, it is known simply

The pound is shrugging off the chance of an overhaul to the UK’s economic policy as Tory leadership hopefuls outline starkly different plans for public spending and borrowing. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and frontrunner in the contest to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, has outlined tax cuts costing more than £30bn, suggested that

As Britain sweltered through the country’s hottest day on record last month, supermarket delivery vans wove around the streets as usual delivering shopping to people’s homes. But while the vans have technology to keep the food and drink chilled in the back, a surprising number don’t provide the same service to the humans in the

The writer is a partner at the Dutch law firm Resor As the world of decentralised finance continues to grow, there is much demand for a digital currency fit for use in blockchain-based applications with near-real-time, peer-to-peer global settlement that can be used as a medium of exchange. However, most cryptocurrencies are too volatile for

Pinterest shares surged more than 20 per cent after hedge fund Elliott Investment Management revealed itself as the company’s largest shareholder and expressed support for its new chief executive. The announcement helped offset disappointing second-quarter results from Pinterest that reflected softness in the digital advertising market, which has afflicted several of its social media rivals.

Conservative leadership contender Liz Truss on Monday claimed she could save almost £11bn a year with a radical shake-up of the civil service, including lower pay for officials who work in poorer parts of the UK. The foreign secretary, frontrunner in the race to become the next prime minister, declared a “war on waste in