Month: September 2022

The currency markets reacted to new U.K. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget on Friday with a rapid sell-off of Sterling, leading to a slide in the pound’s value against the dollar and other currencies. Markets were spooked by the government’s plans to slash taxes by £45 billion without significant spending cuts. That means government borrowing will […]

The Bank of England today backed away from emergency steps to prop up the value of the tumbling pound but said it would not hesitate to raise interest rates to bring inflation back under control. The BoE is monitoring developments in financial markets “very closely” and will raise interest rates as necessary to return inflation […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden in a presidential decree published Monday. Snowden has been living in Russia since 2013, after the United States charged the former intelligence analyst contractor under the 1917 Espionage Act for leaking highly classified documents about government surveillance programs. He was granted permanent residency in […]

Another head has rolled on the French left. Julien Bayou is no longer co-president of the green group in France’s National Assembly or national secretary of the Green party, where he’s been an important figure since 2013, after being accused of psychological abuse against his former partner. The Green party — Europe Écologie les Verts […]

LIVERPOOL, England — As an inexperienced leader taking charge of a country in crisis, Liz Truss knew she needed to hit the ground running this month. But three weeks into her fledgling premiership, the new U.K. prime minister finds herself scrambling to stay ahead of events as last Friday’s tax-cutting mini-budget spooked financial markets, sending […]