Two photos taken during the Ukraine crisis seem to sum up the relative positions of Russia and the western alliance. The first is of Vladimir Putin at his now famous long table — his physical distance from visiting leaders symbolising Russia’s isolation. The second image is of Joe Biden in the middle of a group

Russia’s ministry of defence threatened to increase the scale of missile strikes against the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a day after the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet. Igor Konashenkov, the ministry’s spokesman, said on Friday that Russia would intensify its attacks on targets in Kyiv in response to any further

The writer is author of ‘Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris 1940—1950’ and ‘Notre-Dame: The Soul of France’ France is a country in flux. And for the third time in 20 years, it faces a stark choice between electing a leader from the political mainstream or one from the far-right. In 2002,

BUY: Tesco (TSCO) It’s all about price points at the UK’s largest grocer as inflation reduces real household budgets, writes Mark Robinson. The market gave the thumbs down to Tesco’s full-year figures. The initial markdown of the shares seems curious given a 35.8 per cent increase in adjusted operating profit for its core retail segment,

Boris Johnson faces the prospect of a crunch parliamentary vote on Tuesday over whether he misled the House of Commons in relation to the “partygate” scandal after the Metropolitan Police fined the prime minister for breaching Covid rules. The opposition Labour, Liberal Democrat and the Scottish National parties are in discussions over the best way

Selling Peloton, the maker of stationary bikes beloved of tech bros and suburban homemakers, will be uphill work. Top of the list of impediments is insiders’ stranglehold on voting rights. Like most of its quoted tech-minded peers, Peloton has a dual-class share structure that expires a decade after it listed — 2029 in this case.

To the victor go the spoils. Pfizer and BioNTech will secure 58 per cent of this year’s $64bn Covid-19 vaccine market, says analytics group Airfinity. But what about the also-rans? Plucky contenders are still puffing towards the finish line. This week, France’s Valneva won approval in Britain for its Covid jab. Valneva’s vaccine is based

One of the reasons I like writing Swamp Notes is that I almost always enjoy the resulting interaction with our subscribers (I’m sure you agree Rana). As readers go, you are unusually polite, thoughtful and engaging. Where you disagree, which does occasionally happen (I didn’t say you were perfect), most of you are constructive in

There has been much talk in recent years about companies as increasingly powerful political — even geopolitical — actors. As executives have spoken up about voting rights in the US or forced labour in China, the notion of CPR — corporate political responsibility — has begun to elbow out CSR, the decades-old acronym for corporate

Hello from New York, where the newsroom is buzzing with the start of another earnings season — a unique one, amid the war raging in Ukraine. Comments from some of the biggest US financial players suggest Wall Street has not shied away from ESG, even as commodity producers and energy companies surged in the first

Two months before its armies invaded Ukraine, Russia published a set of security demands that aimed at a drastic revision of Europe’s post-cold war order. Above all, the Kremlin wanted far-reaching restrictions on Nato’s presence in central and eastern Europe, a region where 14 countries joined the US-led alliance between 1999 and 2020. Two months

We’re taking Good Friday and Easter Monday off to enjoy some DJ Sol contemplate the future of finance, as one does. However, if you have some spare time we’d love it if you shared some of your own thoughts on the future of FT Alphaville in the comments below. What would you like to see

Dressed in a pale blue shirt and navy blue jacket, the 62-year-old sitting across the table from me at the Ristorante Cesarina in Bologna could be any British visitor enjoying the city’s medieval architecture and the March Italian sunshine. There are no obvious signs of either fame or fortune. But I am facing a revolutionary

Another global energy crisis has produced a series of political pledges to use energy more wisely. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought calls to embargo the oil and gas exports that support the country’s economy, and laid bare the folly of maintaining fossil-fuelled energy systems that are no longer fit for purpose. This time, world

The superbloom of southern California was the ultimate botanical hit for plant geeks and meadow fanatics. In spring 2019, after an unusually wet winter, the region’s mountains and deserts erupted with wildflower meadows of orange California poppies, violet Phacelia and vivid blue Chia sage – a surreal display of nature so vast and vivid it

Perhaps sensing a buying opportunity, the chief executive of Victorian Plumbing has increased his stake in the company, though some may interpret the move as a means of shoring up investor confidence, which is probably at a low ebb given the company’s shares have fallen by 80 per cent since it floated on Aim last

South Korea will ditch all remaining social-distancing measures next week while downgrading Covid-19 to a “Class 2” disease alongside conditions such as tuberculosis and cholera. The east Asian country’s decision to remove restrictions offers a stark contrast with neighbouring North Korea and China, both of which continue to wrestle with variations of their zero-Covid approach.

Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell group has become the third company to sue the UK’s gambling regulator over its decision to award the next National Lottery licence to Czech operator Allwyn, making it the most contested award in the competition’s history. Northern & Shell, which owns The Health Lottery, and The New Lottery Company, another

The seven movements of composer/vibraphonist Joel Ross’s The Parable of the Poet, his third album for Blue Note, use personal experiences as a springboard for collective endeavour. Solos emerge, but the dominant sonorities are the rich tones of four-brass layering overlapping melodies across a bed of rhythm. Titles like “Guilt”, “The Impetus (To Be and

During the long years when women composers were largely ignored the name of Ruth Gipps was never entirely absent. As an oboist, conductor and founder of two orchestras, she had a varied career that kept her in the public eye even if her music was only rarely getting performances. That neglect stemmed not only from