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China reported dozens of new local coronavirus infections on Saturday, a day after the government reaffirmed its commitment to strict measures designed to limit the pandemic’s spread within its borders. The country’s National Health Commission on Sunday reported 74 new cases for the previous day, of which 50 were locally transmitted. A wave of cases

Joe Biden has promised to pass a $1.75tn social spending bill as he looks to capitalise on the momentum provided by the passage of his $1tn infrastructure plan. The US president on Saturday welcomed Friday night’s vote in the House of Representatives which guaranteed the bipartisan infrastructure package will now become law. That bill was

Pfizer’s Covid-19 oral antiviral drug cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89 per cent in a late-stage trial, creating a potential new tool in treating patients and combating the pandemic. The US pharmaceutical company said on Friday that it was stopping the trial due to the “overwhelming efficacy” and will add the data

Opec and its allies declined to accelerate plans to increase oil production, rejecting calls from President Joe Biden to help ease rising crude prices and increasing the odds of a retaliatory move by the US. The Opec+ group, which has included Russia since 2016, said on Thursday it would stick with a plan formulated this

China plans to quadruple its nuclear stockpile by 2030, according to a Pentagon assessment that points to a shift in Chinese policy with big implications for the balance of military power. The US defence department said China could have 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027 and would boost its stockpile — currently estimated in the

US regulators have sued to block the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, which would have created a mega-publisher in the US books market. Bertelsmann, which owns Penguin Random House, last November struck a $2.2bn deal to acquire Simon & Schuster from ViacomCBS, significantly outbidding Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in a deal

World leaders warned of the severe consequences of nations failing to strike deals to limit global warming to 1.5C since pre-industrial times at the opening session of the Glasgow COP26 UN climate conference. UK prime minister Boris Johnson, the host of the summit, used a James Bond analogy to drive home the urgency of action

G20 leaders have sealed a deal to end international financing of coal power in a boost ahead of the opening of the COP26 climate summit. Leaders at a G20 summit in Rome agreed to end financing for coal-fired power plants overseas by the end of this year, according to the final text of their communiqué.

Mario Draghi has warned the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies that “going it alone is simply not an option,” as they gathered in Rome to start a two-day race to reach a deal on global climate change targets. The Rome G20 summit will set the tone for the COP26 meeting in Glasgow next

Microsoft regained its crown as the most valuable publicly listed company in the world on Friday from Apple, whose shares slumped in morning trading following a weak quarterly earnings update from the maker of iPhones and Mac computers. Microsoft’s 0.7 per cent gain in early morning trading in New York on Friday lifted its market

Joe Biden announced a framework agreement with Democratic leaders on his US economic agenda, in an effort to stoke political momentum for his $1.75tn package after weeks of fraught negotiations. The president unveiled details of the proposed deal during a meeting with Democrats from the House of Representatives on Thursday morning, then spoke about it

Senior Democrats have laid out detailed plans for a new tax hitting about 700 American billionaires, in an attempt to extract revenue from the ultra-wealthy to pay for Biden’s $2tn flagship spending plan. Ron Wyden, the chair of the Senate finance committee, said on Wednesday the plan would apply to taxpayers with more than $100m

One of the world’s largest pension funds, ABP of the Netherlands, is to sell its entire holdings in fossil fuel companies worth more than €15bn as pressure mounts on retirement schemes to protect long-term savings from the threat of catastrophic climate change. ABP, the Dutch pension fund for educational workers and civil servants, said on

Facebook’s senior executives interfered to allow US politicians and celebrities to post whatever they wanted on its social network, overriding rules designed to curb misinformation and harmful content, leaked internal documents suggest. In particular, employees claim in the documents that while Facebook has long insisted that it is politically neutral, it allowed rightwing figures to

The EU has been warned not to delay the next phase of global banking rules, as draft plans show that Brussels is suggesting giving European banks a two-year extension to an internationally agreed deadline. Carolyn Rogers, secretary-general of the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision, said the new rules were “a really important final chapter” in

Saudi Arabia has pledged to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2060, while also maintaining its role as a leading producer of oil and gas, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a speech on Saturday. The announcement comes just days before the opening of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and the G20

US intelligence officials have launched a campaign to warn American companies about the risks of interacting with China in critical industries, in a push to make it harder for Beijing to obtain technology and data. The National Counterintelligence and Security Center wants to raise awareness about the links that Chinese companies have with the government,

The European Central Bank is pushing banks to add hundreds of extra staff and billions of extra capital to their post-Brexit operations in continental Europe. One of the big surprises of Brexit was how few jobs moved from the City to the EU, with Financial Times research showing only a minimal reduction of London bank

Jens Weidmann has decided to step down after a decade as head of Germany’s central bank in a move that comes weeks after the country’s general election and shortly before a crucial decision on the future of eurozone monetary policy. Since he joined the Bundesbank, Weidmann has been one of the most vocal critics of

The European Commission will take steps to punish Poland for challenging the supremacy of EU law, its head has vowed as she condemned Warsaw for “calling into question the foundations of the European Union”. Ursula von der Leyen, commission president, said on Tuesday that Brussels would use one of three tools to hit back at