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Control of the US Congress hung in the balance on Wednesday after Democrats put up an unexpectedly strong fight in the midterm elections, while Republicans insisted they were on course to take back at least the House of Representatives. Republicans notched up a string of convincing victories, particularly in Florida, where governor Ron DeSantis cruised

Binance is set to buy rival cryptocurrency exchange FTX after a liquidity crisis at the company led by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried left it facing surging withdrawals and financial difficulties. “This afternoon, FTX asked for our help,” tweeted Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao. “There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding

Oil and gas producers have branded the UK one of the most “fiscally unstable” regimes in which to do business, as chancellor Jeremy Hunt examines a further increase in windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies. In a letter seen by the Financial Times, an industry group representing 20 British oil and gas companies — including top-10

US oil producers have raked in more than $200bn in profits since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as they cash in on a period of geopolitical turmoil that has shaken up the global energy market and sent prices soaring. Aggregate net income for publicly listed oil and gas companies operating in the US came to $200.24bn

Elon Musk has begun to slash Twitter’s 7,500-strong workforce as the social media platform’s new billionaire owner warned of a “massive drop in revenue” following his contentious $44bn buyout of the group. As Musk embarks on the cost-cutting cull, he claimed on Friday that Twitter “has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist

US jobs growth rose at an unexpectedly rapid clip in October, defying expectations for a larger slowdown as the historically tight labour market again showed resilience in the face of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive efforts to curb demand. The economy added 261,000 positions last month, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bank of England has raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points to 3 per cent in its most forceful act to tame inflation for 30 years but signalled that borrowing costs would not rise in the future by as much as markets expect. The pound fell 2 per cent against the dollar, which had

Apollo Global snapped up $1.1bn of assets from UK pension funds as the US-based private capital group took advantage of a crisis triggered by the UK’s disastrous “mini” Budget. Scott Kleinman, co-president at Apollo Global, said on an earnings call on Wednesday that Apollo’s Athene unit accounted for about a third of the collateralised loan

Russia’s oil exports are set to decline by as much as 1mn barrels a day this winter even as the country expands its “dark fleet” of tankers, according to the world’s biggest independent energy trader. Russell Hardy, chief executive of Vitol, said that while Russia had made progress in shielding itself from the effects of

UK home secretary Suella Braverman used her personal email address to handle official documents on seven occasions, an internal Home Office inquiry has found. Braverman, who is under mounting pressure over security breaches leading up to her resignation under Liz Truss’s shortlived government, apologised for her actions on Monday. She is due to answer MPs’

The US and EU have criticised Russia’s decision to pull the plug on the wartime deal that unblocked the passage of millions of tonnes of grain via southern Ukraine, with traders and food security experts saying Moscow’s move would fuel a fresh spike in prices and increase hunger levels among poorer countries. Washington called Moscow’s

The rapacious rise of the dollar is set to wipe more than $10bn from US corporate earnings in the third quarter, analysts estimate, piling pressure on companies that are already grappling with high prices and a gloomy domestic outlook. The dollar’s strength has been eating into US earnings all year, taking its toll on makers

Elon Musk has closed his $44bn deal to take Twitter private, bringing an end to one of the most high-profile and dramatic buyout sagas in recent memory after months of legal wrangling between the world’s richest man and the social media platform. As the billionaire entrepreneur took over on Thursday night, he fired Twitter’s chief

Investors wiped more than $80bn from Meta’s market capitalisation on Thursday after the Facebook owner reported another quarter of declining revenues and failed to convince investors that big bets on the metaverse and artificial intelligence were paying off. Shares in Meta dropped more than 20 per cent when markets opened in New York as the

Tech stocks extended their slide on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq down 2 per cent at the opening bell after disappointing results from Alphabet and Microsoft. Google parent Alphabet reported a severe slowdown in its search ads business, sending its shares down as much as 7.6 per cent. Microsoft’s stock slid 7.8 per cent after it

US aerospace and defence group Raytheon Technologies received a third-quarter revenue boost from the recovering commercial air travel industry, but its missiles unit took a hit from continued supply chain constraints. Raytheon’s third-quarter revenue reached $17bn, up 5 per cent over the same period last year, slightly missing analyst estimates of $17.2bn. The top line

Rishi Sunak will become Britain’s youngest prime minister in modern times and the country’s first non-white leader after Conservative MPs overwhelmingly backed him to succeed Liz Truss. The former chancellor’s path to office was cleared on Sunday when ex-prime minister Boris Johnson abandoned his hopes of a comeback. Johnson had secured the public backing of

Boris Johnson was on Sunday desperately seeking more Conservative MPs to support his comeback bid, as he tried to secure the 100 nominations needed to enter the ballot to become Britain’s next prime minister. In a blow to Johnson, Suella Braverman, the Brexiter former home secretary, ruled herself out of running and gave her backing

Penny Mordaunt has held nine ministerial positions in eight government departments, including three cabinet posts. Yet until this summer’s Conservative leadership contest, when she came third, she was an unfamiliar figure to most of the British public. Now she is making another bid to become prime minister, touting her “fresh face” as a virtue that

Conservative MPs were on Friday deeply divided by the prospect of Boris Johnson returning as party leader and UK prime minister — just three months after he quit following a string of scandals. Contenders to replace Liz Truss — who dramatically resigned on Thursday after only six weeks in power — were racing to secure