News

Austria’s far-right Freedom party scored a historic victory in the country’s parliamentary election on Sunday, with the result consolidating pro-Russian, anti-establishment forces in central Europe. The FPÖ was projected to win just under 29 per cent of the ballots cast, according to a near final official estimate of the vote late on Sunday, bolstering the

Keep abreast of significant corporate, financial and political developments around the world. Stay informed and spot emerging risks and opportunities with independent global reporting, expert commentary and analysis you can trust. Subscribe to unlock this article Try unlimited access Only £1 for 4 weeks Then £59 per month New customers only Cancel anytime during your

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. I listened to Shostakovich’s ninth symphony on the way back from Labour’s party conference in Liverpool. The prime minister mentioned the composer in his speech as the one he turns to “when the reviews aren’t

€69 per month Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%. What’s included Global news & analysis Expert opinion FT App on Android & iOS FT Edit app FirstFT: the day’s biggest stories 20+ curated newsletters Follow topics & set alerts with myFT

Labour’s conference in Liverpool should have been a celebration: the party has not held a gathering in power since Gordon Brown was prime minister in 2009 and its landslide election victory was secured less than three months ago. Instead, many delegates were subdued, their confidence in Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer shaken by a decision

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The sanctioned Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin generated revenues of more than a quarter of a billion dollars from his global natural resources empire in the four years before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according to

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. UK chancellor Rachel Reeves will try to counter claims on Monday that she has been talking the economy down, telling the Labour party conference there will be “no return to austerity” and insisting her Budget

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. A growing controversy around Lord Waheed Alli’s donations to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria risks tarnishing the new government, while propelling the normally discreet Labour donor into the public eye. Lucy Fisher

Mercedes-Benz lowered its full-year earnings outlook, blaming the weaker projections on China’s worsening macroeconomic conditions. The company on Thursday said its car division now anticipated the return on sales to be in the range of 7.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent, down from its previous expectation of 10 per cent to 11 per cent.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The Bank of England has held interest rates at 5 per cent after inflation remained steady in August, but indicated it may lower borrowing costs again as soon as November. The Monetary Policy Committee’s eight-to-one

€69 per month Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%. What’s included Global news & analysis Expert opinion FT App on Android & iOS FT Edit app FirstFT: the day’s biggest stories 20+ curated newsletters Follow topics & set alerts with myFT

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Business leaders have warned that the UK government’s tax-raising plans and negativity about its economic inheritance risk undermining its efforts to boost private sector investment. Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government is desperate to attract foreign

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Pagers belonging to Hizbollah members exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, the militant group said, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 2,700 in an apparent sabotage of the low-tech systems it uses to

Unlock the US Election Countdown newsletter for free The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House Former president Donald Trump is safe after what the FBI is investigating as an apparent assassination attempt against him in Florida. The agency said in a statement on Sunday that it “has

One of the leading contenders to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister has said he will not stand in the forthcoming leadership contest, as other Conservative MPs prepare to launch their campaigns. Defence secretary Ben Wallace was the favourite among the Tory grassroots, with a net approval rating of +86 among party members according to

Rishi Sunak, who quit as Boris Johnson’s chancellor this week, launched his bid to lead the Conservative party on Friday with a pledge that he will avoid “comforting fairy tales”. His video to launch his campaign appeared a coded attack on what many MPs have seen as the prime minister’s Panglossian approach to policy. “Someone

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has been shot in the city of Nara, public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday. Abe was seen collapsing during a speech in Nara at around 11.30am, the broadcaster reported. He was bleeding. An NHK reporter on the scene heard the sound of a gunshot. The former prime minister has

Boris Johnson’s turbulent three-year premiership was nearing its end on Wednesday night after he was urged to quit by a delegation of his closest cabinet allies. The UK prime minister was warned that unless he stepped down there would be further cabinet resignations, followed by an inevitable humiliating defeat by Tory MPs in a no-confidence

Boris Johnson’s premiership was teetering on the brink on Tuesday night, after chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid dramatically resigned from the cabinet. Downing Street was braced for more ministers quitting with many Tory MPs believing the dual resignation of two senior ministers could signal the beginning of the end for Johnson. Sunak

Protesters brought parts of the UK’s motorway network to a standstill on Monday in a demonstration over high fuel prices. Police warned drivers that a “slow-moving rolling roadblock” was causing delays on parts of the M4 motorway near the border between England and Wales and on the M5 near Bristol. There were also “significant delays”

Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday signal that Labour is willing to fight Boris Johnson over his Brexit legacy at the next election, setting out a five-point plan to tackle the economic pain caused by Britain’s EU exit. In a big tactical shift, Starmer will use a speech to denounce the “mess” created by the

Hackers with suspected links to China’s intelligence agencies were still advertising for new recruits to work on cyber espionage, even after the FBI indicted the perpetrators in an effort to disrupt their activities. Hainan Tengyuan, a Chinese technology company, was actively recruiting English language translators in March according to job adverts seen by the Financial

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, the pioneer of low-cost travel in Europe, has warned fares will rise for the next five years because flying has become “too cheap” to make profits as industry costs spiral. His warning comes as ticket prices have risen in Europe and the US this summer as passengers return and some airlines

The UK’s trade performance fell to its worst level since records began in the first quarter of 2022, heaping more pressure on sterling in international currency markets. Although the Office for National Statistics warned that the figures it published were “subject to higher levels of uncertainty than normal”, the new system it used to collect

The governor of the Bank of England warned on Wednesday that Britain’s economy is suffering more from the energy crisis than other countries with UK inflation likely to stay higher for longer. Speaking with other central bankers at a European Central Bank conference in Sintra, Portugal, Andrew Bailey said the BoE needed the option of

Turkey has dropped its opposition to Finland and Sweden becoming members of Nato, paving the way for the Nordic countries to join the alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The three countries have signed a joint memorandum after hours of talks on Tuesday brokered by Nato, ending a six-week veto by Ankara linked

Emmanuel Macron wants to see a drive for higher oil production around the world as the French president seeks ways of bringing down the cost of energy and alleviating the pressure being felt by energy-importing economies. Macron made the proposal to fellow G7 leaders as they seek to hammer out the details of a price

G7 leaders meeting for a summit in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday are seeking a deal to impose a “price cap” on Russian oil as the group works to curb Russia’s ability to finance its four-month war in Ukraine. The goal would be for a broad range of countries going beyond the G7 to impose

The battle over abortion rights in the US shifted rapidly to Congress and the midterm elections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade and gutted the decades-old constitutional protection for women seeking to end a pregnancy. As conservative states began to implement new abortion restrictions across the country in the wake of Friday’s ruling,

The US Supreme Court has struck down Roe vs Wade, the legal decision that has enshrined the constitutional right to an abortion for nearly 50 years, in a dramatic ruling by the court’s conservative majority that will shake up American society, politics and jurisprudence for years to come. In the decision authored by Justice Samuel