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Elon Musk has begun to slash Twitter’s 7,500-strong workforce as the social media platform’s new billionaire owner warned of a “massive drop in revenue” following his contentious $44bn buyout of the group. As Musk embarks on the cost-cutting cull, he claimed on Friday that Twitter “has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist

The Bank of England has signalled that borrowing costs will not rise as much as markets expect in the future, even as it imposed the biggest rate rise for three decades to combat soaring inflation. The BoE’s 0.75 percentage point increase to 3 per cent took interest rates to their highest point since 2008. But

Jay Powell warned US interest rates would peak at a higher level than expected even as he held out the possibility of the Federal Reserve slowing the pace of its campaign to tighten monetary policy. Speaking after the central bank increased its main interest rate by 0.75 percentage points for the fourth time in a

Israel’s former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in pole position to emerge victorious from Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, according to exit polls that put his rightwing bloc on course for a razor-thin majority. Polls by Israel’s three main television channels, released after voting closed, forecast that a bloc combining Netanyahu’s Likud party, the extreme-right Religious Zionism

UK home secretary Suella Braverman was fighting for her political life on Monday as she was accused of breaking the law over the government’s treatment of asylum seekers. Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, was coming under increasing pressure to fire Braverman, who admitted earlier she had used her personal email seven times to handle documents

President Vladimir Putin’s decision to pull the plug on the wartime deal that unblocked the passage of millions of tonnes of grain via southern Ukraine will lead to a fresh jump in price, experts warned, with “catastrophic consequences” for poorer nations already facing acute food shortages. The US called Moscow’s suspension on Saturday of its

Moscow has suspended its participation in a UN-backed deal with Kyiv that unblocked the movement of Ukrainian grain out of its southern ports, threatening to deepen the global food crisis. Russia linked its decision to pull out of the deal to an attack on Saturday on ships in the port of Sevastopol in the Crimean

Elon Musk has joined the elite club of social media barons after clinching a $44bn takeover of Twitter in the same week that investors wiped hundreds of billions of dollars from Big Tech valuations. Musk’s drawn-out acquisition of Twitter, which he launched in April but attempted to abort in July, has closed just as a

Amazon issued bleak revenue forecasts for the remainder of the year, sending its stock price tumbling as much as 20 per cent in after-hours trading on Thursday. The ecommerce and cloud group said it expected revenue of between $140bn-$148bn for the October to December period, which encompasses the crucial holiday shopping period. Investors had been

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt has delayed the date for his long-awaited debt-cutting plan from October 31 to November 17, as calmer markets gave the government some economic breathing space. Rishi Sunak, the new prime minister, has cleared the way for painful cuts and tax rises to plug a fiscal hole of between £30bn and £40bn,

Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became Britain’s third prime minister in the space of two months and immediately started to assemble a “unity cabinet” to tackle “the profound economic crisis” facing the country. Sunak, who was invited to form a government by King Charles on Tuesday morning, said he would prioritise “economic stability and confidence” but

Rishi Sunak will on Tuesday enter Downing Street as Britain’s youngest prime minister in modern times and its first non-white leader, with a vow to get to grips with the “profound economic challenge” facing the country. Sunak is being urged by Jeremy Hunt, chancellor, to press ahead with a new debt-cutting plan next week, ahead

Boris Johnson has pulled out of the race to become Britain’s next prime minister after a day in which his campaign stalled and rivals claimed he would fail to win the backing of the 100 Tory MPs needed to enter the contest. Despite frantic attempts by Johnson to bolster his support, he announced at 9pm

Former UK chancellor Rishi Sunak is poised to formally enter the race to become Britain’s next prime minister after securing public backing from the 100 Tory MPs needed to enter the ballot. Sunak had 111 declared backers by Saturday evening; Conservative MPs had yet to decide whether to put former prime minister Boris Johnson on

Investors and some Conservative MPs took fright on Friday as Boris Johnson considered running for a second stint as UK prime minister, with warnings that he risked triggering further political and economic chaos. Johnson’s allies are scrambling to secure the 100 nominations needed from Tory MPs to enter Monday’s ballot to replace Liz Truss, who

Video: Liz Truss resigns as UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, former chancellor, has emerged as the early favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister, after Liz Truss terminated a 44-day premiership marked by economic and political turmoil. Truss’s resignation made her the shortest-serving prime minister in Britain’s history; her time in Number 10 will be

Liz Truss’s UK government was plunged into complete disarray on Wednesday as Suella Braverman was forced to quit as home secretary and party discipline collapsed in the House of Commons. Many Tory MPs said the government was dying, as recriminations flew over Braverman’s ousting and Tory MPs openly rebelled over the government’s plans to resume

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is preparing to raid the profits of banks and energy companies in an attempt to fill a £40bn fiscal hole through a mix of tax rises and public spending cuts. Hunt’s Budget on October 31 is due to include big tax rises, with allies of the chancellor saying they expect him to

Jeremy Hunt, the new UK chancellor, on Monday ripped up Liz Truss’s economic policy, in a move that reassured markets but left the prime minister’s future hanging by a thread. Hunt scrapped two-thirds of the controversial £45bn of unfunded tax cuts announced by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng and warned of “eye-wateringly difficult” decisions still to

The UK’s new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has insisted that Prime Minister Liz Truss is still running the government after reports suggested he was preparing to scrap further parts of her “mini” Budget. Following Truss’s decision to sack her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, senior Conservative MPs believe it is a matter of time before she