News

The pound has fallen to its weakest levels since 1985, reflecting the daunting scale of the economic challenge new prime minister Liz Truss faces as she prepares to unveil an emergency energy package. Truss will on Thursday give details of the state intervention to shield households and companies from soaring energy bills. Government insiders said

Liz Truss has vowed that Britain will “ride out the storm”, as the new UK prime minister began confronting an economic crisis with a massive energy bailout for families and businesses that could cost more than £150bn. Truss dodged torrential rain outside Downing Street to tell the country that she would create an “aspiration nation”,

Liz Truss will enter Downing Street on Tuesday after a bruising battle to become the UK’s next prime minister and will immediately start work on a two-year package of energy relief that could cost up to £100bn. The foreign secretary beat rival and former chancellor Rishi Sunak in a ballot of Conservative party members by

More governments will need to intervene to relieve the strains on Europe’s power market, officials and industry figures have warned, after Sweden and Finland launched emergency backstops for their energy producers and UK electricity generators called on the British government to help. The Nordic states this weekend both announced emergency financial liquidity measures for their

Sweden will give emergency liquidity support to electricity producers as its prime minister warned that Russia’s decision to halt gas deliveries to Europe could place its financial system under severe strain. Magdalena Andersson said on Saturday that the government would offer hundreds of billions of kroner in funding to electricity producers, who have seen the

Russia has indefinitely suspended gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, exacerbating a squeeze on Europe’s energy supplies. State-owned Gazprom, which was meant to restore operations on the Baltic Sea pipeline on Saturday after three days of maintenance, said the suspension was due to a technical fault. The move comes hours after the G7

Global stocks dropped and the dollar jumped after fresh Covid-19 lockdowns in China and gloomy data from the manufacturing powerhouse compounded investor worries that the global economy is faltering. Wall Street’s S&P 500 was down 0.9 per cent by the early afternoon in New York, leaving it on track to close down for a fifth

Russia has halted the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe for three days, the latest disruption to an energy link that has been central to Moscow’s efforts to squeeze supplies. Wednesday’s shutdown of the pipeline, which Russia claims is needed for essential maintenance, will add to anxiety in European countries

Big investors are betting on a fresh surge in UK borrowing costs because of mounting concerns the energy crisis will inflame inflation and trigger further Bank of England rate rises. The darkening outlook for the £2tn gilt market comes as surging energy prices exacerbate Britain’s cost of living crisis and heighten fears of recession. Goldman

The EU is preparing emergency measures to curb soaring electricity prices, as Shell warns that the energy crisis could last for years, and utilities turn to the state for support. With member states stepping up pressure to decouple electricity prices from the spiralling cost of gas, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels

Outgoing UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Sunday warned that the country would face “eye-watering” energy bills and promised his successor would soon announce a “huge package” of financial support for struggling households. Writing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Johnson said that while Russia wanted the UK to “buckle” in the face of surging

Typical household energy bills in Britain will rise above £3,500 in October and could exceed £6,000 by April. But why are they suddenly going up by so much and what can be done to mitigate the impact on households and the wider economy? Why are bills soaring? The simple answer is the price of gas

The typical household gas and electricity bill in Britain will rise to £3,549 a year from October from £1,971 at present, the sector’s regulator confirmed on Friday, as consumers grapple with a cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy costs. Ofgem said the 80 per cent increase in the so-called price cap, which governs

Financial markets are betting the Bank of England will more than double interest rates by May next year, as concern mounts about further rises in UK inflation. The shift in expectations in the swap market — which anticipates interest rates of 4 per cent in May compared with 1.75 per cent today — are among

Ukraine has called for a permanent mission of nuclear and military experts at the Zaporizhzhia power plant to protect “the security of Europe”, as fears increase about the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Russian-occupied site. German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, said he was hopeful that a long-term mission of nuclear experts from the

A former Twitter security chief has claimed the social network misled US regulators over its cyber security defences and fake accounts, allegations that threaten to hamper the company’s legal effort to stop Elon Musk reneging on a $44bn buyout deal. Peiter Zatko, known in cyber security circles as “Mudge”, was fired by Twitter at the

UK inflation is on course to hit 18.6 per cent in January — the highest peak in almost half a century — because of soaring wholesale gas prices, according to a new forecast from Citigroup based on the latest market prices. The investment bank predicted that the country’s retail energy price cap — which limits

The daughter of a Russian ideologue, who is one of the most prominent supporters of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, died in a car bombing outside Moscow on Saturday night. Russian investigators said Daria Dugina, a nationalist journalist and political analyst, died after the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving exploded outside Odintsovo, a

Some investors are warning of a mismatch between market expectations and the Federal Reserve’s stated commitment to stamping out inflation as traders stand by their wagers on interest rate cuts next year. Traders in the futures market are betting the central bank’s main interest rate will be cut to 3.3 per cent by the end

UK consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level since comparable records began almost 50 years ago as the rising cost of living stokes concerns over personal finances and economic prospects. In monthly research from data provider GfK, the August index score for overall consumer confidence fell to minus 44 from a figure of minus