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The US believes Russia is planning to invade Ukraine “as soon as early 2022” with an estimated 175,000 troops — in a sign of the escalating alarm in Washington about Moscow’s intentions towards its neighbour. A Biden administration official said on Friday night that Moscow’s plans “call for a military offensive against Ukraine as soon

Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Opec+ alliance agreed to continue increasing monthly crude production, delivering a victory to consumer governments including the US that had called on the group to help push prices lower. Oil prices initially fell on the announcement, which surprised a market that had expected the group of major producers

The Omicron coronavirus variant threatens to intensify imbalances that are slowing growth and boosting inflation, and to delay the world economy’s return to normality, the OECD said on Wednesday as it published its latest forecasts. The Paris-based international organisation of largely rich country members warned that monetary policymakers should be “cautious” given the new strain

The global risk from the new Omicron coronavirus variant is “very high”, the World Health Organization warned, as Japan moved to ban foreign visitors in an attempt to limit the spread of the heavily mutated strain. Outlining its preliminary findings on the strain first detected in southern Africa, the health body warned of its potentially

New cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant continued to be detected around the world on Sunday, as nations tried to delay a surge in infections by restricting travel and imposing new quarantine measures. Omicron first emerged earlier this month in southern Africa. The World Health Organization designated it a “variant of concern” on Friday, saying

The UK has reported its first cases of the new Omicron coronavirus mutation as the variant continues to spread in Europe and scientists race to assess the new level of risk. The UK health department said one case had been identified in Chelmsford and a second in Nottingham. They were linked and connected to travel

Global stocks and oil prices tumbled on Friday as investors dashed for shelter in safe haven assets after a new coronavirus variant shook market sentiment. A broad sell-off in European shares followed similar moves in Asian markets. Europe’s Stoxx 600 fell 3.1 per cent in early trade, with France’s CAC 40 index and Germany’s Dax

President Joe Biden has announced the release of oil from the US’s strategic stockpile in a bid to drive down petrol prices and snuff out a crude market rally that the White House has said poses a threat to the global economic recovery. The White House said on Tuesday the president was authorising the release

Joe Biden has nominated Jay Powell to serve a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve, opting for continuity at a delicate moment for the US economy as it grapples with persistently high inflation and a patchy labour market recovery. Lael Brainard, considered Powell’s fiercest competitor for the top job, was tapped for the

Telecom Italia is to hold an emergency board meeting on Sunday to evaluate a takeover offer from US private equity group KKR, a deal that would be one of the largest telecoms buyouts of all time. KKR already holds a 37.5 per cent stake in Telecom Italia’s “last mile” network but has moved to make

UBS has proposed former Morgan Stanley president Colm Kelleher as its next chair, succeeding Axel Weber when he steps down next year after a decade overseeing the Swiss lender. The appointment of Kelleher, a 64-year-old Irishman who spent 30 years at the Wall Street bank, was announced on Saturday morning. UBS conducted a wide external

First came the unexplained space objects over New Zealand. Then came the debris over Costa Rica and Texas. By Wednesday, California-based LeoLabs, which uses radars to track objects in space to prevent collisions, had identified a total of 243 new pieces of debris orbiting the Earth — all from an anti-satellite missile test that Russia

Three of Barclays’ top-20 shareholders have raised concerns over the terms of Jes Staley’s exit ahead of meetings between the bank and investors next week. Some investors have privately criticised the £2.4m in pay awarded to the departing chief executive, who resigned this month following a probe into his past ties to convicted sex offender

Germany’s energy regulator said it had “temporarily suspended” certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, dealing a setback to the Kremlin-backed gas project and sparking a rise in UK and continental European gas prices. The regulator said it could not yet approve the project, led by Russia’s Gazprom, because its owners had not yet properly

Royal Dutch Shell plans to ditch its dual share structure and move its tax residence from the Netherlands to the UK, in moves the oil group says will strengthen its competitiveness. The overhaul of the Anglo-Dutch group’s structure comes less than a month after the Wall Street activist investor Third Point announced a stake in

The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow succeeded in getting 197 countries to agree new rules on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but last-minute objections from India and China stymied a commitment to end coal use and fossil fuel subsidies. Conference president Alok Sharma fought back tears in the final minutes as he apologised to other ministers

In early March 2020, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer was summoned to the White House to discuss the disease that was sweeping across the world. Mikael Dolsten did not talk about the vaccine that would later bring the company fame and enormous wealth: instead, in those early days, he described how the drugmaker was working on

Johnson & Johnson is to spin off its consumer products division, best known for Band-Aid plasters and baby shampoo, as the world’s largest healthcare company seeks to focus on pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The division, which generated $14bn in sales last year, will be split off in 18 to 24 months, most likely via a

General Electric has paid more than $7bn in investment banking fees since 2000, as Wall Street lenders reaped rewards from a frenzied period of dealmaking that culminated in a sinking share price and the eventual break-up of the best-known US conglomerate. GE spent $2.3bn on mergers and acquisition advice alone, according to figures from Refinitiv,

Google has lost an appeal against a landmark €2.42bn European antitrust decision that ruled the tech giant had abused its position to the detriment of rivals to its shopping service. The General Court of Luxembourg on Wednesday dismissed Google’s legal challenge against the EU’s 2017 decision, marking a big victory for competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s

As Covid-19 ripped through the world in 2020, a cluster of senior figures at Aviva Investors, the £262bn UK asset manager, held a series of virtual meetings over the course of six months to discuss the other big issue looming over their portfolios: climate change. Concerned that global warming would hit the long-term valuations of

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has promised a ¥1tn ($8.8bn) share buyback programme over the next 12 months, yielding to investor pressure after the company’s Vision Fund unit disclosed a record quarterly loss of ¥825.1bn. Market expectations of a new round of share repurchases had been rising with some of the company’s largest shareholders, including activist

China reported dozens of new local coronavirus infections on Saturday, a day after the government reaffirmed its commitment to strict measures designed to limit the pandemic’s spread within its borders. The country’s National Health Commission on Sunday reported 74 new cases for the previous day, of which 50 were locally transmitted. A wave of cases

In early 2017, Xi Jinping strode on to the stage at Davos, high in the Swiss alps, and stunned the world’s financial and political elites with a defence of globalisation and the liberal economic order. Flanked by the biggest ever delegation of senior officials from Beijing, Xi’s presence at global capitalism’s spiritual home marked the

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is facing pressure to unveil a new stock buyback programme next week, as the Japanese technology group’s slumping share price has created “deep frustration” among shareholders, people with knowledge of the matter said. The pressure underscores a view by some SoftBank investors including activist hedge fund Elliott Management, which has a

Credit Suisse plans to all but exit the prime brokerage business that left the Swiss bank with $5.1bn of losses earlier this year, as new chair António Horta-Osório unveiled a restructuring of the troubled lender. In a new strategy outlined on Thursday, Credit Suisse will consolidate its wealth management division and streamline its investment bank,

The Mark Carney-led coalition of international financial companies signed up to tackle climate change has up to $130tn of private capital committed to hitting net zero emissions targets by 2050. The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (Gfanz) — which is made up of more than 450 banks, insurers and asset managers across 45 countries

More than 100 global leaders will make a commitment on Tuesday to halt deforestation by 2030, while 30 financial institutions are set to promise to eliminate the harmful practice from their portfolios by 2025. In what is being billed as one of the first significant steps of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, leaders from countries

Jes Staley is to step down as Barclays chief executive following a regulatory investigation into the way he described his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. In a statement on Monday, Barclays said that it was made aware of the results of the investigation from the FCA and PRA on Friday and that: “In view of those

Manufacturing activity in China shrank for a second-straight month in October, as the fallout from the country’s property sector downturn and energy shortages spreads through the world’s second-biggest economy. China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index was 49.2 in October, below the 50-point threshold that indicates expansion rather than contraction, official data showed on Sunday. The PMI