BUSINESS

Good morning. Rachel Reeves has gone to Washington for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – but the main audience for her public comments this week has been the one back at home. Ahead of what is certain to be a tough budget next month, the chancellor has sought to prepare people … Read more

Hosting European Union leaders in Copenhagen earlier this month, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, described Europe as facing “the most difficult and dangerous situation since the second world war”. There have been other moments of high tension, such as during the 1980s when US cruise missiles were deployed in Germany in response to an … Read more

Rachel Reeves has said tax rises and spending cuts are on the table for this autumn’s budget, as the government aims to tackle a growing shortfall in the public finances which she said was partly due to the lingering impact of Brexit. Speaking to Sky News, the chancellor said: “Of course, we’re looking at tax … Read more

Pressure on Downing Street to release evidence in collapsed China spy case Downing Street is under pressure to publish its evidence in the collapsed China spy case after the Crown Prosecution Service denied having blocked its release, Emine Sinmaz reports. Share Good morning. In a much-praised FT column yesterday, Stephen Bush argued that one problem … Read more

Britain and France do not share a fixed quota of political stability such that reduced volatility on one side of the Channel causes chaos across the water. It was just a coincidence that Keir Starmer won a huge majority at precisely the moment last July when legislative elections made France ungovernable for Emmanuel Macron. It … Read more

The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu – who unexpectedly resigned last week before being reappointed four days later – finally cobbled together a new cabinet for Emmanuel Macron to appoint just hours before he left for the Gaza peace summit. Few expect Macron to return from Egypt with a solution to the deepening domestic political … Read more

The climate crisis, Donald Trump told the UN last month, is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”. With these words the US president rejected the international scientific consensus and evidence that we can all check daily with a basic thermometer. He has also announced he is withdrawing the US from the Paris … Read more

Emmanuel Macron sounded like a man in grief. Not angry, not defiant, just a little triste. Europe, he lamented, was suffering a “degeneration of democracy”. Many threats emanated from outside, from Russia, from China, from powerful US tech companies and social-media entrepreneurs, France’s president said. “But we should not be naive. On the inside we … Read more