China’s strengths as a cyber power are being undermined by poor security and weak intelligence analysis, according to new research that predicts Beijing will be unable to match US cyber capabilities for at least a decade. The study, published on Monday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, comes as a series of hacking campaigns
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The UK’s financial watchdog has ordered Binance to stop all regulated activities in Britain and imposed stringent requirements in a stinging rebuke of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. The intervention by the Financial Conduct Authority in recent days is one of the most significant moves any global regulator has made against Binance, a
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison on Friday for the murder of George Floyd, whose death became a watershed moment in the national debate over race and policing. The 270-month sentence handed down by Judge Peter Cahill was 10 years longer than state guidelines had suggested,
Panasonic has sold its entire stake in longstanding battery partner Tesla for about ¥400bn ($3.6bn) as it seeks to raise cash to finance its biggest-ever overseas acquisition. The Japanese conglomerate, which has a $5bn joint battery manufacturing venture with Tesla in Nevada, said the sale would not affect its partnership with the US electric vehicle
Lithuania’s foreign minister has called a Franco-German initiative to push for a summit between the EU and Russian president Vladimir Putin “irresponsible” and a case of “historical myopia”, in a sign of the deep divergences within the bloc over how to address worsening relations with the Kremlin. Gabrielius Landsbergis was speaking to the Financial Times
Businesses across Europe are experiencing the largest increases in orders and activity for many years, creating growing supply shortages and driving up prices, according to a closely watched survey. Eurozone business activity expanded at the fastest rate for 15 years in June after lockdown measures were lifted, while UK business activity also remained buoyant, according
A senior Federal Reserve official said the US economy was not yet ready for the central bank to start pulling back its hefty monetary support, even though the outlook has become rosier. The comments from John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, were delivered on Monday amid high sensitivity in
Armin Laschet, frontrunner to become Germany’s next chancellor, has warned of the dangers of a new cold war against China, agreeing with Angela Merkel that Beijing was as much a partner as a systemic rival. Laschet was speaking to the Financial Times after US president Joe Biden’s first official trip to Europe, which was dominated
The Delta coronavirus variant that swept the UK has become dominant in Portugal and appeared in clusters across Germany, France and Spain, prompting European health officials to warn further action is needed to slow its spread. While the new strain, which first emerged in India, still only accounts for a fraction of the total coronavirus
Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative cleric, was set for a landslide victory in Iran’s presidential election that would give regime hardliners complete control over all branches of the state for the first time in almost a decade. Raisi’s two main rivals conceded on Saturday and congratulated the 60-year-old who many Iranians believe is the favoured candidate
The “reflation trade” that has dominated financial markets since the emergence of coronavirus vaccines last year has been pummelled after the Federal Reserve unexpectedly signalled a shift in its stance on inflation. Investors had rushed to buy securities that might benefit from faster inflation, betting that the combination of exceptionally easy monetary and fiscal policy
Global stocks continued a steady descent from record highs reached earlier in the week and the dollar strengthened after the US central bank brought forward the anticipated timing of its first post-pandemic interest rate rise. The FTSE All-World index of developed and emerging market stocks, which hit a closing record on Monday, headed for its
US president Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are meeting in Geneva on Wednesday for talks aimed at arresting a rapid decline in relations between two countries beset by mutual distrust. In their first face-to-face encounter as leaders, the presidents will grapple with accusations, complaints and charges against one another, including alleged Russian
The EU and US are poised to resolve a 17-year dispute over aircraft subsidies, lifting the threat of billions of dollars in punitive tariffs from their economies in a boost to transatlantic relations. Diplomats and officials confirmed on Monday night that two days of intensive negotiations in Brussels had left the EU and the Biden
US president Joe Biden has challenged leaders of G7 countries to use their financial muscle to counter China’s rising global influence as he declared that western democracies were “in a contest with autocrats”. Biden said he was “satisfied” with the outcome of the G7 summit in Cornwall on Sunday, but pushed European leaders to be
Leaders of the G7 leading western economies will on Sunday back a western rival to China’s “belt and road” initiative, in a plan to mobilise billions of dollars to help developing countries tackle climate change. Joe Biden has been leading calls to offer poor countries a new source of infrastructure finance, providing a “democratic” alternative
Emmanuel Macron, French president, has warned Boris Johnson that efforts to reset relations between Paris and London will fail unless the UK prime minister keeps his word over the Brexit deal in Northern Ireland. At a breakfast meeting on the margins of the G7 summit in Cornwall, Macron made it clear he expected Johnson to
Leaders of the G7 economies convening in the UK will announce a pledge to provide 1bn coronavirus doses to poorer countries as part of a plan to “vaccinate the world” by the end of 2022. The move, to be outlined at the start of the three-day summit on Friday, is designed to address criticism that
Joe Biden will meet Boris Johnson in person for the first time on Thursday, with hopes over a new US-UK ‘Atlantic Charter’ undermined by “deep” concerns in Washington over the post-Brexit situation in Northern Ireland. Biden’s anxiety was conveyed directly to London earlier this month by America’s most senior diplomat in Britain, who warned the
Royal Dutch Shell is to accelerate its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions after an order by a court in the Netherlands, with the oil major saying it would “rise to the challenge”. Last month, the District Court in The Hague ruled that Shell must reduce its net carbon emissions by 45 per cent by