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A US crackdown on banks financing trade in goods for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has made it much more difficult to move money in and out of Russia, according to senior western officials and Russian financiers. Moscow’s trade volumes with key partners such as Turkey and China have slumped in the first quarter of

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak was told by Conservative MPs on Sunday to show some vision and start digging his party out of the “hole” it was in after a disastrous set of local election results. Although Tory

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak was facing renewed Conservative unrest on Saturday night after his party suffered crushing defeats in a series of mayoral contests including London, and Labour claimed victory in its flagship West Midlands. Some Tory

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak’s chastening encounter with the electorate continues on Saturday as the results of mayoral contests in some of England’s biggest urban areas are set to be declared. Sunak’s Conservatives have been hammered in local

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Reform UK is boosting Labour’s prospects in its battle with the Conservatives, but narrow gains for the right-wing party in local elections where it stood in few seats have raised doubts over its wider electoral

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives were on the rack on Friday after the party was trounced by Labour in the Blackpool South parliamentary by-election and faced huge losses in local elections across England and Wales. Sir Keir

Elections were held on Thursday in 107 councils in England and Wales, as well as for 10 regional mayors and 37 police and crime commissioners. This is less than a third of all local authorities in the two countries — there are 317 councils of various types in England and another 22 in Wales, not

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Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The Federal Reserve has signalled that US borrowing costs are likely to remain higher for longer, as a it wrestles with persistent inflation across the world’s biggest economy. The Federal Open Market Committee said

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis are threatening merchant ships hundreds of miles out in the Indian Ocean after striking a container vessel well beyond the Red Sea last week, maritime officials and experts have warned. The drone

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK financial regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Jeremy Hunt has warned the Financial Conduct Authority against its plan to “name and shame” companies under investigation in an unusual broadside against the UK’s top financial regulator. “I hope the FCA re-look at

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. HSBC’s chief executive Noel Quinn is to retire unexpectedly after five years, setting off a hunt for a successor at the UK-based bank. Quinn has overhauled the lender since taking charge in 2019, selling off

When Humza Yousaf tore up a power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens last Thursday at Bute House, he sought to improve his nationalist party’s prospects by shifting away from the progressive policies associated with the coalition. Four days later, that political miscalculation boomeranged back on the first minister in historic fashion as Yousaf returned to

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Scotland’s beleaguered first minister Humza Yousaf is considering quitting ahead of crunch votes of no confidence expected this week. Yousaf, who faces two attempts to bring down his premiership and government, is set to decide

The largest western banks that remain in Russia paid the Kremlin more than €800mn of taxes last year, a fourfold increase on prewar levels, despite promises to minimise their Russian exposure after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The seven top European banks by assets in Russia — Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit, ING, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank,

Rishi Sunak will face a challenge to his leadership if the Conservatives suffer heavy losses and lose high-profile Tory mayors in next week’s local elections, rightwing rebels have claimed. Most Conservative MPs believe the prime minister would survive even a terrible set of results on May 2 because there is no viable alternative and a

Investors are pushing back their expectations of interest rate cuts around the world, as the US Federal Reserve’s battle with price pressures complicates other central banks’ loosening plans. As the US reported the latest in a string of poor inflation figures, markets reined in their forecasts for rate cuts by the European Central Bank and

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. This article is an on-site version of The Lex Newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Wednesday and Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all

Microsoft and Google’s owner Alphabet have quashed investor scepticism around the vast sums spent on developing artificial intelligence, after being boosted by rampant corporate demand for their cloud computing services. The combined market value of the two US tech giants rose by more than $250bn on Friday, a day after each reported double-digit revenue growth

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Mining myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Anglo American has rejected BHP’s offer to break up and buy the UK-listed miner, saying the proposal “significantly undervalues” the company and its future prospects and that the deal would be “highly unattractive” to its shareholders.