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The biggest producer of oil and gas in UK waters has pushed back strongly against government threats of a windfall tax on the industry’s surging profits, warning it would make some North Sea projects uneconomic and could be “detrimental” to the country’s energy security. Linda Cook, chief executive of the FTSE 100 company Harbour Energy,

Saudi Arabia has signalled it will stand by Russia as a member of the Opec+ group of oil producers despite tightening western sanctions on Moscow and a potential EU ban on Russian oil imports. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the energy minister, told the Financial Times that Riyadh was hoping “to work out an agreement with

Anthony Albanese is on track to become Australia’s first Labor prime minister in nine years, after Scott Morrison’s conservative Liberal-National coalition government failed to win enough seats to form either a majority or minority government. But unexpected wins from the environmentalist Greens and a number of climate-focused independent candidates meant it was not immediately clear

Global stocks rallied at the end of a turbulent week after China unveiled fresh stimulus measures to fight a growth slowdown in the world’s biggest emerging market. Europe’s regional Stoxx 600 share index rose 1.5 per cent and London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.8 per cent. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 3 per

UK consumer confidence has dropped to its lowest level for nearly 50 years amid the cost of living crisis, according to a survey, fuelling concerns that the economy will slide into recession in 2022. The UK consumer confidence index fell 2 percentage points to minus 40 in May, its lowest since records began in 1974,

Wall Street stocks fell on Wednesday as a bounce for global equity markets faded and downbeat earnings from discount retailer Target intensified jitters about inflation and choked-up supply chains. The benchmark S&P 500 share index dropped 1.5 per cent in early dealings and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.8 per cent. Shares in Target plunged

Twitter said it plans to enforce the $44bn takeover agreement with Elon Musk, just hours after the Tesla boss declared the purchase “cannot move forward” unless the social media company can certify the number of fake accounts. The San Francisco-based group made the comments in a detailed filing on Tuesday, outlining the whirlwind weeks in

Andrew Bailey sought to defend the Bank of England’s control of inflation on Monday, with the governor telling MPs that criticism of the central bank relied significantly on “hindsight”. In a hearing at the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons, Bailey acknowledged that with inflation likely to have hit a 40-year high of 9

Brussels is set to cut its growth forecasts further and lift its inflation outlook as the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacts its toll on the EU economy. Both the EU and euro area are forecast to expand by 2.7 per cent this year, well shy of the previous expectation of 4

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said the G7 group of industrialised nations was urgently seeking alternative routes for the export of Ukrainian grain as Russia’s war against its western neighbour raised the risk of a global “hunger crisis”. Speaking at the conclusion of a three-day meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Germany, Baerbock said some

Elon Musk on Friday tweeted that he had put his $44bn deal to take Twitter private “temporarily on hold” pending details supporting the calculation that spam and fake accounts represented fewer than 5 per cent of users. Musk posted his remarks on the microblogging site with a report from the Reuters news agency about the

Russia’s state-owned gas supplier has said it will cut shipments to Europe through a major pipeline, sending prices surging and reinforcing President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to use energy as a weapon against the EU. Gazprom said gas flows would no longer be possible through the Yamal pipeline after the Kremlin imposed sanctions late on Wednesday

The EU has vowed to retaliate if the UK rips up a post-Brexit trade deal for Northern Ireland after London’s threat of unilateral action triggered alarm in Brussels and Washington. Joe Biden appealed to the UK to show “courage, co-operation and leadership” to settle a simmering dispute that could plunge London and Brussels into a

Elon Musk has said he would reverse Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter, accusing the social media company of leftwing bias that had aggravated political divisions in the US. “I think it was a morally bad decision, and foolish in the extreme,” Musk said of the lifetime ban of Trump, which was imposed soon after a

Stock markets dropped on Monday, extending weeks of losses, as worries about higher interest rates hurting global growth were compounded by weak economic data from China. Europe’s regional Stoxx 600 share index, which has ended each of the past four weeks in the red, lost 1.2 per cent. China’s mainland CSI 300 gauge slid 0.8 per

The US on Sunday targeted executives at Gazprombank for the first time in a new set of sanctions that also bans companies from providing Russia with corporate services such as accounting and consulting. “We’re sanctioning some of their top business executives, they’re the people who sit at the top of the organisation, to create a

A jubilant Sinn Féin was poised to clinch a historic victory in Northern Ireland’s elections and become the region’s biggest political force for the first time in a century, after more than half the seats to the Stormont assembly were decided. Sinn Féin, the party long associated with the paramilitary IRA, was clearly ahead of

Boris Johnson will face renewed pressure on his leadership on Friday after the Conservatives suffered significant defeats in local elections across the UK, including losing the flagship London council of Wandsworth. Labour won the borough beloved of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher for its ultra-low local tax rates after 44 years in Tory hands, but