Author: staff
Published on 07/10/2026 – 10:14 GMT+2 The days when governments could lean on cheap money and fast growth to keep their debts in check are over, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who called for spending discipline and tighter monetary policy around the world. Speaking in Singapore on Wednesday, ahead of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok next week, Kristalina Georgieva said policymakers “can no longer rely on higher growth rates alone to solve fiscal problems”. Worldwide public debt is close to levels last seen after World War II and could top 100%…
It’s Kemi Badenoch’s big day at the Conservative Party conference – but it’s not just the adoring party faithful she has to impress. Sam Coates and Anne McElvoy look at how the leader’s speech will land with both voters and party donors – in what she’s calling a “battle for the soul of the country”. There are already signs the Tories’ finances are not in the shape they need to be to fight an election on two fronts – with our hosts picking up clues from the conference hall in Birmingham. Plus, Sam and Anne check in on the state…
Published on 07/10/2026 – 10:58 GMT+2•Updated 11:00 EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič heads to Beijing on Wednesday for two days of talks aimed at rebalancing trade relations that Brussels sees as heavily skewed in China’s favour. His meetings with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao come as the EU’s trade deficit with China has reached a record €1 billion a day – and an October deadline for progress approaches. The Commission opened negotiations in June to address what officials describe as trade-distorting Chinese exports, giving Beijing until October to deliver “tangible” results. At the heart of the talks is access to…
Russia has asked Vietnam to lease its passenger jets complete with crews and maintenance, as the fleet it seized from Western lessors in 2022 deteriorates and nearly a fifth of the country’s largest airlines’ planes sit grounded. Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin said Moscow had proposed that Vietnamese carriers transfer aircraft to Russian airlines under wet lease — an arrangement that covers jets, crew, maintenance and insurance — and that Hanoi was studying the proposal. Vietnam’s main carrier exclusively operates Airbus and Boeing aircraft, meaning any transfer to Russia would involve Western-built planes. That creates the same secondary sanctions risk that…
Published on 06/10/2026 – 9:13 GMT+2•Updated 9:14 Bestselling British author and scandal-plagued Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer has died aged 86. Archer died “suddenly and peacefully” at his home yesterday, a day before the global release of his final novel, “Adam and Eve,” publisher HarperCollins said. The new book out today, like his bestselling novel “Kane and Abel,” follows a pair of biblically named characters born on the same day to different social classes. “Kane and Abel”, released in 1979, remains one of the best-selling novels in the world, with an estimated 34 million copies sold globally. Kate Elton, HarperCollins UK…
“We have an AI Act that regulates use, but we have no clear rules on who pays when a foundation model itself is flawed, biased or causes harm. This is not tenable,” Voss said. He said it’s not too late for Brussels to take another U-turn. “If the builder of a model admits he should be liable, the legislator should not be less ambitious than the industry.” But one senior Parliament official involved in the liability law proposal said that for the Commission, “it would be admitting they made a big mistake.” “If there is a major AI accident, creating…
Edited copy Bill Browder, once Russia’s largest foreign investor, said sanctions are the “worst thing” that can happen to Russian oligarchs, adding that they are “scheming and trying to come up with ways of getting off the sanctions list”. The EU recently renewed its sanctions against Russia while removing businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the list. Browder believes the only way the war will end is if sanctions inflict “enough economic damage” on Russia that it can no longer “afford the war”. Russian President Vladimir Putin “is ready to starve his whole country completely”, Browder said, calling for…
Published on 07/10/2026 – 10:00 GMT+2•Updated 10:16 Israelis gathered in a moment of silence on Wednesday to mark three years since the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which a UN inquiry confirmed killed 1,200 people and saw 252 taken hostage. In southern Israel, families mourned at road junctions, bomb shelters and the site of the Nova music festival, all places overrun by militants in the deadliest attack against Israel. It is the first anniversary on which all the hostages that survived have returned home, bringing a new phase of mourning. Among those marking the day was Elkana Bohbot, 37,…
“I want him to go there with the strongest possible mandate from this house,” Hilde Vautmans, the report’s author, said in a debate on Tuesday evening. “Europe has economic power. It’s time to use it.” The remarks echo those made by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron in a joint letter earlier this week, advocating that the European Commission be handed more powers to restrict or even cut off imports from countries that create “severe and systematic distortions” in the EU. While some MEPs hailed the French-German joint approach as proof of a unified position, Polish MEP…
Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst says that while people may think of plague as “something medieval”, cases are reported every year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar. However, he says the laboratory link makes this incident “a little more serious”. Van Ranst also spoke about the impact of COVID-19 this winter. The virologist said the virus is back, but in a “milder form”. He does not expect this winter to resemble 2020 or 2021.