Barclays announced a surprise share buyback and upgraded a key profitability target for the year, as confidence in its income and cost-cutting progress outweighed fresh provisions and underperformance in its investment bank. The British bank set aside another 235 million pounds to cover a motor finance mis-selling scandal and said it had taken a 110 million pound charge on the collapse of U.S. firm Tricolor, one of several bankruptcies that triggered wider concerns about ban

Britain’s Unite union said on Wednesday its members are taking strike action at defence giant BAE Systems' Warton and Samlesbury sites after rejecting a 3.6% pay offer that the union described as a real-terms wage cut. Unite members in four sections, including manufacturing and quality control, will take their first phase of strike action from the 5th to 25th of November, the union added. Learn More

Hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi was elected Japan's first female prime minister on Tuesday, shattering a political glass ceiling for women and setting the country up for a decisive turn to the right. An acolyte of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an admirer of Britain's Margaret Thatcher , Takaichi is expected to return to Abe-style government stimulus as she attempts to jumpstart an economy struggling with slow growth and rising prices. Her victory marks a pivota