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The FT this week ran a brace of big reads on the sanctions slapped on Russia, how they happened and what the longer-term impact will be. It’s an important subject, and both pieces are worth reading at leisure. (Editor: that means after you’ve finished with this one.) However, FT Alphaville had some follow-up thoughts on

Julie Otsuka’s third novel The Swimmers is a slender but poignant portrait of a mind losing its grip. In an unnamed American city, a “little old lady” is drifting away from her family through the slow tragedy of cognitive decline — a passing into chaos foreshadowed by trivial domestic errors: “The jar of Pond’s Cold

With her latest role in this HBO-produced series, the English actress Sarah Lancashire is faced with the doubly daunting task of having to play one American national treasure, Julia Child, and follow in the footsteps of another, Meryl Streep, who played the original celebrity chef in 2009’s Julie & Julia. Despite this pressure, she rises

When we started renting our converted 16th-century dovecote in 2019, I knew little of the ancient practice of dove rearing and how it has shaped pockets of the UK landscape over the past millennium. Although a small house, our cottage would have been a substantial dovecote. It is a perfect cube, with metre-thick walls made

Two years ago, Sue and Phil Purver, both 63, realised they needed a new kind of rural living. The UK’s first lockdown had just started. Immediately, their quiet local woodland footpath became a thoroughfare for surrounding townies seeking the countryside for their hour of permitted daily exercise. The path was strewn with rubbish and the

Volvo Trucks, the Swedish truck and bus manufacturer, is putting aside SKr4bn ($423mn) in provisions for the first quarter after suspending all operations in Russia. The move, announced on Friday, marked the latest sign of the corporate impact of the heavy international sanctions imposed on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The

Bailey’s Parade: Photographs by David Bailey A compilation of three key bodies of work, Bailey’s Parade covers the illustrious photographer’s 60-year career in 30 pieces. It will include some of his most acclaimed images from the 1960s, including “pin-up” portraits of Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton and Andy Warhol, as well as a series of colour

TalkTalk has asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after several groups, including Vodafone, approached the UK broadband company about potential deals, according to people briefed on the matter. British telecoms executives have long called for greater consolidation in the domestic broadband market, claiming that the array of companies supplying mobile and internet contracts

Maison François, London Until 17 April, fans of François O’Neill’s French-style St James’s brasserie can celebrate spring with a playful “Cochon de Pâques” – a limited-edition Easter egg in the shape of a pig (£30). Head pastry chef Jérémy Prakhin has hand-crafted the creature – which is filled with hazelnut gianduja – from chocolate supplied

Ukrainian miner Ferrexpo managed to find buyers for the majority of its iron ore during the first quarter of the year, using rail and barges to transport material to the country’s western border. The London-listed company said it had sold 2.6mn tonnes of pellets, small balls of the steelmaking ingredient, in the three months to

Investors withdrew close to €14bn from European corporate debt funds in the first three months of the year, the worst quarter since the start of the pandemic, as the war in Ukraine fired up already rapid inflation and stirred market volatility.  So-called investment grade debt — at the safer end of the spectrum — lost

Goldman Sachs is offering its network of former partners, who range from tech executives to prime ministers, exclusive access to a new investment vehicle that will put money into the Wall Street firm’s private market funds. The so-called 1869 fund, which takes its name from the year Goldman was founded, invests across multiple private funds

If the tech movement known as Web3 represents the internet’s next big gold mine, then why aren’t we hearing more about the truly useful applications that will be built on this new platform? And why aren’t more developers flocking to it to make their fortune? Those questions hang uncomfortably over Web3 as the boom in

Most coffee shops have customers who drop in occasionally and Starbucks has a boss who does the same. Howard Schultz started his third stint in 35 years as chief executive this week with a pledge to restore the heart of a global chain that grew from one café in Seattle. “We are longing for love,

The largest living organism on our planet is neither animal nor plant. It lives in or, more accurately, under a forest in Oregon, spread over nine square kilometres. It glows eerily in the dark, and scientists reckon it’s about 2,500 years old. This is not the elevator pitch for a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, though I

On the surface, April 2020 was apocalyptic. You could walk the sunny streets of Oxford and barely see a soul: shops closed, roads empty, just the occasional pedestrian nervously crossing to the other side of the street. Of course, it wasn’t just Oxford. The International Labour Organization estimated that, globally, more than 80 per cent

UK investors poured more than £1bn into venture capital trusts in the tax year just ended, in a record fundraising season for the early-stage businesses investment vehicles. Figures published by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) show that a record £1.13bn was invested in venture capital trusts in 2021-22, a 65 per cent increase compared

It’s always intriguing when you get to view an organisation’s internal emails, particularly when they’re about you. A recent Freedom of Information request made to the Scottish Government has yielded more than 100 pages of internal communications, revealing its discussions between staff about how it should deal with the final stages of a separate and

BlackRock will not go ahead with plans to switch a €1.4bn iShares corporate bond exchange traded fund to an environmental, social and governance index, after a shareholder meeting to approve the change failed to reach quorum. Last month the world’s largest asset manager proposed changing the index for its €1.4bn iShares € Corp Bond ex-Financials

The Thai hotel group that won full control of London’s Wolseley and Delaunay restaurants last week has accused their original co-founder Jeremy King of refusing its offer to recapitalise the business, leaving it with no option but to launch a “last resort” sale. Minor Hotel Group became outright owners of Corbin & King, which owns

Just Eat Takeaway: taking the piste Unperturbed by a recent share price that resembles a ski slope, Just Eat Takeaway staff decamped this week to Arosa in Switzerland. Hundreds of employees from the food delivery group’s two-dozen international markets were delivered to the Alpine resort for Snow Fest, an all-expenses-paid skiing and team-building junket. Snow