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The temptation of a fantasy dinner party is to invite great people from history. This will only end up with you disappointing your heroes. You get a story about the time you met Marie Curie, and she goes home with an anecdote about meeting someone “a bit thick” who spent the entire time googling radiation

You saw some surreal things during the autumn/winter 2022 fashion shows earlier this year. I don’t just mean the spectacle of challenging garments paraded six months before they go on sale — though there’s definitely something surreal about that. But rather surrealism in the sense the writer André Breton intended it. As he wrote in

Trust is in diminishing supply around the world. That is true among nations, business counterparts and securities traders. In the markets we can measure this distrust in the differing prices of similar financial assets ultimately backed by the US Federal Government. Take, for example, the interest rate paid by the Federal Reserve to banks who

Golden spade by Niwaki, £34 This lightweight spade is perfect for digging soil, planting trees or exuding bling. conranshop.co.uk Bees secateurs set by Sophie Allport, £25 Features an ash handle and a canvas pouch. sophieallport.com Harvesting bag by Rural Kind for Toast, £160 Collect cut flowers or vegetables in this waxed cotton canvas bag. toa.st

Around the turn of the century, currency traders, hedge funds and heavy-hitting economists obsessed over central banks’ foreign exchange reserves. The euro was a baby, and backers faced a daunting task raising it as a currency with global impact, enmeshed in international trade and investment. Any data suggesting it was eating into the dollar’s dominance

Before Steve McQueen speaks, he pulls his clear-hued spectacles apart at the centre, letting them fall in two halves to rest on his navy sweater just below his clavicle. “You know what’s interesting about growing up as black child in the UK? From an early age you’re asking ‘who, how, why, where and what?’ because

These new works combine graphite drawing and blind embossing to reinterpret classical paintings. You see me placing the black figure at the centre of each work to offer an alternative depiction of the western artistic canon. The works take inspiration from Old Master paintings in major museums, such as the National Gallery in London and

The writer is editorial director and columnist at Le Monde It was supposed to be a walk in the park for Emmanuel Macron.  Since 1965, when the French first started electing their head of state by popular vote, no sitting president had been re-elected while keeping a majority in parliament. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac

At the risk of sounding like someone who is about to disgrace his megachurch, I am an ethics guy. I think the question of how to do good is the most important subject a person can think about, and fitting our behaviour to whatever answers we find is the fundamental project of living. Does this

There aren’t many people who can claim to have been involved in the wine and hospitality business for 50 years and none who can claim they spent eight years before that in the civil service overseeing, inter alia, the merger of Britain’s two national airlines BEA and BOAC, followed by a stint as a management

A long-awaited plan by Boris Johnson’s government to replace EU development funds after Brexit will leave the regions of England almost £80mn a year worse off than when Britain was an EU member, Whitehall insiders have warned. The shortfall for England in the UK’s replacement Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) comes despite a promise in Boris

If I told you birthday cake was banned forever and there wasn’t going to be Christmas any more, you might get a flavour of what I felt when I heard that Jeremy King had been outbid in his attempts to rescue his restaurant The Wolseley on London’s Piccadilly. Hospitality group Minor International now has full

US stocks edged higher and government debt was under pressure on Friday, as investors positioned themselves for central banks to curb inflation. The US benchmark S&P 500 share index struggled for direction but remained on track for its first weekly decline in a month, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5 per cent. The FTSE

As an anthropologist, Gillian Tett will know how easily tribal emotions can be stirred up against a common enemy. In “The world needs to come clean about dirty money” (Magazine, FT Weekend, March 26) she paints a sinister picture of a “social silence” around assets held in trust, and governments “forced to peer into the

Enuma Okoro’s commentary on the “slap” heard round the world (“Why Will Smith deserves our compassion”, Life & Arts, April 2) left me feeling disheartened. As a psychiatrist I have encountered many examples of irresponsible, occasionally violent behaviours. There is always a background that adds perspective. Okoro provides examples in her defence of Smith. But

In his article “The shadows of war” (House & Home, April 2) Robin Lane Fox clarifies that sunflowers — the symbol used to show solidarity with Ukraine — actually are not native to the besieged nation, and were in fact introduced by Russia. Therefore, he suggests that they should not be used to show support

Thank you to Nilanjana Roy for her beautiful and moving article about Anne Frank (“Anne Frank’s potent words”, Opinion, FT Weekend, April 2). One sentence I feel I have to question, however, is where she wrote: “As the Holocaust fades from living memory”. There are many of us who will never forget — sons, daughters,

Both Mark Mazower (Life & Arts, March 26) and Denis MacShane refer to Kaliningrad as a Russian enclave (Letters, April 4). They are incorrect two ways. First, Kaliningrad is a city. Kaliningrad Oblast describes the territory in question. Second, Kaliningrad Oblast is not an enclave but rather a semi-exclave. Enclaves are wholly surrounded by a

Thanks for Gideon Rachman’s timely article “Strongman syndrome” (Life & Arts, April 2). I take issue, however, with the term “strongman”. These men in reality are weak as water, petrified of losing power and terrified of remotely credible opponents. They cower from any scrutiny and from people’s free opinions. Their worst nightmare is a little

The German government has announced an aid package to support companies hit by the fallout of the Ukraine war and the sanctions against Russia, the leading energy supplier to the eurozone’s biggest economy. The measures include a new €100bn programme of short-term loans from state-owned KfW development bank for energy companies struggling to cover the