Thousands of websites went offline for almost an hour on Tuesday morning, including several of the world’s largest news sites, streaming services, online retailers and even the UK government, disrupting millions of internet users. Connectivity problems lasting almost an hour appeared to affect news sites including the BBC, New York Times and FT.com, streaming services
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The global chip shortage disrupting the car industry and threatening the supply of consumer technology products will last for at least another year, one of the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturers has warned. The forecast from Flex, the world’s third-biggest such manufacturer, is one of the gloomiest yet for a crisis that is forcing car and
The G7 advanced economies have struck what they have termed a “historic agreement” on taxing multinationals in a bid to create unstoppable momentum for a global deal. A communique issued on Saturday showed that the US, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy and Canada had found enough compromise both to stop companies shifting profits to low
The leading advanced economies are set to agree a common position on taxing multinational companies on Saturday in a bid to end a three-decade race to the bottom in corporate taxation which would raise extra revenue for governments around the world. Finance ministers from the G7 group of nations were still haggling over details of
Some of the biggest Japanese sponsors of the Tokyo Olympics want organisers to postpone the Games for several months to allow more spectators to attend. The proposal was made privately over recent weeks, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The request follows growing frustration among some of the 47 Japanese companies that collectively
Commodities trader Trafigura warned Credit Suisse last year that the bank’s supply-chain finance funds appeared to contain a suspicious invoice from industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s business empire, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The collapse of the $10bn suite of Credit Suisse funds, which packaged up invoices linked to the failed supply-chain finance
Credit Suisse is preparing for litigation against SoftBank after the collapse of Greensill Capital soured the relationship between the Swiss bank and one of the world’s largest tech investors, according to people briefed on the plans. The move comes as the Swiss lender scrambles to appease angry clients who stand to lose as much as
Eurozone inflation rose to 2 per cent in May, the first time the rate has surpassed the European Central Bank’s target in more than two years, complicating policymakers’ decision next week on whether to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy. The jump from 1.6 per cent in April followed an even sharper acceleration of consumer price
China will allow couples to have three children, ignoring calls to scrap its historic family policies entirely in the face of a looming demographic crisis after Beijing reported the population grew at its slowest rate in decades. Xinhua, China’s state media agency, said the Communist party’s politburo, comprised of its 25 most senior officials, had
Russia has agreed to release $500m in credit to Belarus and look to increase the number of flights between the two countries as the Kremlin doubled down on its support for Alexander Lukashenko after his forced landing of a passenger flight that has sparked western condemnation. Russian president Vladimir Putin hosted Lukashenko in Sochi on
The US has moved to punish Belarus for the forced landing of a Ryanair flight last weekend by announcing that it would reimpose sanctions on nine of the country’s state-owned companies and would join the EU in developing a list of additional targets. In a statement late on Friday, Jen Psaki, the White House press
The market for special purpose acquisition companies has become an unexpected casualty of the Archegos Capital Management scandal, as banks rein in lending to hedge funds that had invested heavily in blank-cheque companies. Banks across Wall Street have become more wary of how much leverage they can extend to their clients following the collapse of
Tesla is set to take the unusual step of paying in advance for chips to secure its supply of the crucial materials and is also exploring buying a plant as part of efforts to overcome the global shortage, according to people familiar with the matter. The US electric-car maker is discussing the proposals to secure
The Biden administration has renewed US calls for a fuller investigation into the origins of Covid-19, after a report last weekend bolstered the theory that the disease was released accidentally from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Andy Slavitt, one of the US president’s coronavirus advisers, on Tuesday said the investigation carried out
EU leaders are weighing a range of sanctions to punish Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarusian regime after what Brussels branded the “hijacking” of a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to arrest a dissident on board. Options to be explored by the bloc’s 27 leaders at a meeting today include banning Belarus’s national carrier, Belavia, from landing
European leaders have called for an immediate international response after Belarus forced a Ryanair flight bound for Lithuania to land in Minsk on Sunday and arrested one of its passengers, a top opposition activist. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’s exiled opposition leader, said online activist Roman Protasevich, resident in Lithuania, had been detained in the Belarusian capital.
Two doses of either the BioNTech/Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines offer good protection against symptomatic infection from the variant first identified in India, according to new UK data, indicating minimal reduction in efficacy compared to the so-called Kent variant. The BioNTech/Pfizer jab provided 88 per cent protection against the B. 1.617.2 variant found in India,
The chief executive of AstraZeneca has insisted its Covid-19 vaccine has a future, as he revealed the UK had priority access to the jab and hit out at the “armchair generals” behind “traumatic” attacks on the company. In his first interview following a string of setbacks, including the emergence of rare fatal side-effects, Pascal Soriot
Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, have agreed to a ceasefire that would end an 11-day conflict that has killed at least 230 Palestinians and 12 Israelis. The truce came a day after the US stepped up pressure on Israel to end its bombardment of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, with US president Joe Biden
US companies have urged President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to release Samsung’s chairman Lee Jae-yong, arguing that the billionaire executive could boost Joe Biden’s efforts to shake off American dependence on computer chips produced in foreign countries. Samsung is weighing multibillion-dollar investments in new semiconductor facilities in the US, with the Seoul-based group considering