The US is experiencing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, the head of the country’s top public health agency warned, as new coronavirus cases have jumped 70 per cent in the past week. More than 33,000 infections were reported across the US on Thursday, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said
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Norway’s capital was quieter than usual on July 22 2011, a wet Friday during the summer holidays. At 3.25pm a bomb hidden inside a van exploded outside the prime minister’s office, shattering the nation’s peace and setting in motion an afternoon of scarcely believable terror. By the end of the day, 77 people had been
Pressure is building on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to finalise regulations to de-list Chinese companies that fail to comply with American auditing rules, after lawmakers discovered the agency might not begin enforcement until 2025 at the earliest. Legislation signed by Donald Trump in December gave US-listed Chinese groups three years to comply with
When Soho House announced its New York listing in June, chief executive Nick Jones received an email from the club’s fifth member. Greg Hunt, a screenwriting agent, wrote that he used to sit in the bar of the first Soho House in central London “wondering if the place will get more busy”. Twenty-six years and
A surge in the pace of price growth on both sides of the Atlantic has revived economists’ concerns about the risk of overheating, piling pressure on policymakers to consider a faster withdrawal of their unprecedented pandemic-era stimulus policies. Data published earlier this week showed that US consumer prices rose by 5.4 per cent in June
Jay Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said the US central bank was ready to intervene if inflation spiralled out of control, but stressed that he expected price increases to ease later in the year. “Inflation has increased notably and will likely remain elevated in coming months before moderating,” Powell said in prepared remarks
As South Africa’s worst public violence in decades swept Johannesburg and its biggest township this week, Nhlanhla Lux was ready to defend the shopping centre he called Soweto’s “last elephant” with his life. Clad in camouflage and armed with a pistol, the 33-year-old community leader guarded the closed gates of Soweto’s Maponya mall with a
Ohio University has announced a series of scholarship and prize giveaways for vaccinated students, while the state prepares to revive its multi-million-dollar lottery scheme to boost vaccination coverage. Fully vaccinated students who sign up for the college’s “vaccination pathway” programme, which exempts them from having to take a weekly asymptomatic Covid-19 test, will be eligible
Europe’s most polluting businesses have accused the EU of jeopardising investment and innovation after Brussels unveiled ambitious plans to halve the bloc’s emissions by 2030 in an effort to curb global warming. Carmakers, airlines and heavy industry all hit out at the proposals, which include a de facto ban on new diesel and petrol cars
The pace of China’s economic recovery rose modestly in the second quarter after signs of sluggishness in the world’s second-biggest economy stoked expectations of greater policy support. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China’s gross domestic product expanded 1.3 per cent in the three months to the end of June, up from a 0.4 per cent expansion
When Giancarlo Devasini first got into cryptocurrencies in 2012, his interests were distinctly small-time. He piped up on a popular Bitcoin forum to ask if anyone wanted to buy DVDs or CDs for 0.01 bitcoin each, then roughly 11 cents, promising free shipping for bulk orders. Today, the 57-year-old is one of the most influential
Credit Suisse has lost ground to rival banks in winning new business for its prime brokerage unit this year after suffering a $5.5bn loss on credit extended to Bill Hwang’s Archegos family office and pledging to scale back risk. The bank has won about 2.5 per cent of new hedge fund clients served by prime
The rate of Covid-19 vaccinations reported in the US rose for a fifth straight day, stemming a slide that had brought daily inoculations to levels last seen in January. The US budget deficit has exceeded $2tn in the first eight months of the fiscal year on the back of stimulus spending, however a change in
Europe’s top banking regulator is pushing Deutsche Bank to find a successor to chair Paul Achleitner, who will leave in May 2022 when his second five-year term expires. The European Central Bank has repeatedly urged Germany’s largest lender to come forward with a clear succession plan in recent months, people briefed on the matter told
Luxembourgish is considered an endangered language by Unesco. It is almost only spoken in the Duchy of Luxembourg, a statelet with a population of 600,000, equivalent to the city of Baltimore. So bringing a drama in this language to the screen — any screen — might appear a supremely quixotic pursuit. But Claude Waringo tried.
The private capital industry has grown to more than $7tn thanks to demand for higher-returning but pricey and opaque strategies, spurring the likes of Schroders and JPMorgan to launch new divisions and sending others on the prowl for acquisitions. Although still dwarfed by the traditional asset management industry — which primarily invests in mainstream, public
The Biden administration is considering an investigation into whether imports of rare earth magnets made largely in China pose a national security threat that could warrant the imposition of tariffs. The White House said the commerce department would examine whether to probe neodymium magnets, which are used to manufacture everything from smartphones to electric vehicle
Bill Ackman has already once tried — and failed — to redefine the Spac. Now he is trying again. The hedge fund manager’s special purpose acquisition company, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, which raised $4bn last year, was not just the largest blank-cheque vehicle ever launched. It did away with some of the perks for founders,
The surge of trading in offbeat stocks is duping inexperienced investors in to high costs and a battle with Wall Street that they cannot win, according to the founder of one of the largest trading firms in the world. Zero-commission trading helps to build an illusion that amateur investors have never had it better, Alex
Brussels has warned that it is ready to intensify retaliation against the UK if Boris Johnson further postpones applying the two sides’ deal on Northern Ireland, in another sign of strained relations ahead of talks this week. EU Brexit commissioner Maros Sefcovic, writing in the Daily Telegraph, warned that “unilateral action” by the UK to