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New UK government proposals for a US-style register of “foreign influence” risks destroying Britain’s reputation as a global investment hub and will unnecessarily criminalise bank workers, academics and charities, a lobby group has warned. The proposed Foreign Influence Registration Scheme is expected to become law in the new year as part of a new National

The European parliament is at the centre of a spreading corruption scandal after Belgian police seized €600,000 in cash and detained two MEPs as part of an international investigation into claims that football World Cup host Qatar sought to buy influence. A Belgian judge charged four unnamed people on Sunday with “participation in a criminal

Blackstone has warned of the risk of delays to the launch of a new private equity fund designed for wealthy individuals, as it copes with heavy investor withdrawals at two other funds in real estate and credit aimed at a similar clientele. The New York-based investment manager has been preparing to open a fund called

Jeremy Hunt has warned trade unions not to jeopardise Britain’s recovery, saying that high pay demands will hit the fight against inflation and harm the workers they are trying to protect. In an interview with the Financial Times, the UK chancellor did not deny that ministers had blocked a potential 10 per cent pay offer

ExxonMobil will expand its share buyback programme to $50bn as the US supermajor defies a political backlash by handing investors the profits from surging oil and gas prices. Exxon said it would spend $50bn in the three years to 2024 buying back its own shares, an increase from the current $30bn programme that was due

The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund will become a more vocal shareholder and plans to vote against companies that fail to set a net zero target, overpay their top leaders, or do not have sufficiently diverse boards. Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of the $1.3tn Norwegian oil fund, told the Financial Times’ Global Boardroom event that

The leaders of some of Wall Street’s biggest banks have issued wary outlooks for the global economy, as consumers spend savings and clients lower their expectations for 2023. Top executives at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase offered their views at an industry conference on Tuesday. “When I talk to clients, they sound

A traffic jam of oil tankers has built up in Turkish waters after western powers launched a “price cap” targeting Russian oil and as authorities in Ankara demanded insurers promise that any vessels navigating its straits were fully covered. Under EU sanctions which came into effect on Monday, tankers loading Russian crude oil are barred

The EU must “simplify and adapt” its rules on state aid to counteract the competitive effects of the US’s new $369bn climate package, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday. Europe should “adjust our own rules to make it easier for public investments”, von der Leyen said in her first public response

Alameda Research was allowed to exceed normal borrowing limits on the FTX exchange since its early days, Sam Bankman-Fried has said, in a concession that illustrates how the former billionaire’s trading shop enjoyed preferential treatment over clients years before the 2022 crypto crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 30-year-old described the outsized

EU member states have agreed to implement a $60 ceiling on global purchases of Russian oil after Poland dropped its objections to the long-debated deal aimed at denting the Kremlin’s fossil-fuel revenues. Warsaw had delayed agreement on the cap after demanding a lower ceiling to further erode Moscow’s income. Its backing means the bloc will

Blackstone has limited withdrawals from its $125bn real estate investment fund following a surge in redemption requests, as investors clamour to get their hands on cash and concerns grow about the long-term health of the commercial property market. The private equity group approved only 43 per cent of redemption requests in its Blackstone Real Estate

The EU has threatened Elon Musk’s Twitter with a European ban unless the billionaire abides by its strict rules on content moderation, setting up a regulatory battle over the future of the social network. Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner in charge of implementing the bloc’s digital rules, made the threat during a video meeting with

The head of British Gas-owner Centrica has warned that more UK retail energy suppliers will probably go bust this winter, with some who are “struggling for cash” already likely to be trading while technically insolvent. Chris O’Shea, head of Britain’s biggest energy supplier, said some of the larger UK energy providers were also at risk

BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, making the crypto lender backed by Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm the latest casualty of the fallout from the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange. The filing marks an unravelling several months in the making for New Jersey-based BlockFi, led by chief executive Zac Prince, which was valued

Protests in Shanghai escalated on Sunday evening as police struggled to disperse large crowds who gathered in the city, part of a nationwide movement that poses one of the most brazen challenges to the Chinese Communist party’s authority in decades. The unrest began on Saturday night and centred on a road named after the Chinese

Elon Musk’s tumultuous reign at Twitter has led to a damaging rift with top brands and marketers, with the social media company’s $5bn-a-year advertising business hit by tensions over content moderation and resources. Multiple top advertising agencies and media buyers told the Financial Times that nearly all of the big brands they represent have paused

EU ministers say that time is running out to resolve the worsening dispute with the US over Washington’s $369bn in green subsidies as they seek to head off a transatlantic trade war. Brussels and Washington have set up a task force to address the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its “buy American”

Net migration to the UK rose to a record high of more than half a million people in the year to June 2022, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday. The surge in long-term arrivals to the UK was driven by a post-pandemic rebound in international study and by inflows

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Scottish government does not have the legal authority to hold an independence referendum without agreement from Westminster, scuppering Edinburgh’s plan to hold a vote next year. The ruling cuts off the legal route for Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, to unilaterally hold a rerun of the 2014