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As a stockbroker engaged with the unlikely task of promoting Italian equities to international investors in the 80s and 90s, I was lucky enough to have regular conversations with Baillie Gifford’s James Anderson. Perhaps, because of his experience as a student in Bologna, he too enjoyed the virtues of the few promising Italian companies available

In “Moments to change a life” (Life & Arts, April 16) Enuma Okoro’s Easter reflections on the Emmaus story — so timely and timeless — invited us to celebrate good reading, with echoes of Archimedes’ Eureka turning point in a lightbulb moment for Mr and Mrs Cleopas in Saint Luke’s Gospel. Okoro’s optimism, coupled with

Andres Schipani’s report “Culture: Battle to save churches and heritage” (April 16) concludes with the comment of Father Nestor Kyzyk that “without the past we’ll never have a future”. As many as 29 churches and other historic buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Mariupol and Kharkiv. Yet Russia is a signatory to the 1954

Reading Gillian Tett’s column, an inquiry into the logic of banning Russian arts in response to war crimes in Ukraine (Magazine, FT Weekend, April 16), there was a missed opportunity to draw upon Julian Barnes’s novel The Noise of Time, the semi-fictionalised account of the trials and tribulations of Dmitri Shostakovich and his perseverance in

The profile of Father Paolo Benanti (“The monk helping the Vatican take on AI”, Magazine, April 9) covered some incredibly important issues concerning the ethics of artificial intelligence. But unmentioned was AI-originated existential risk (AIXR), which is less tangible than bias or inequality, but equally profound. Some scientists and philosophers argue that ever-more-capable AI might

As I read Janan Ganesh’s piece “A slap in the face for psychobabble” (Opinion, Life & Arts, April 9), I was probably, like many readers of the FT, racking my brains to pinpoint exactly where, and how much of this gobbledegook I have heard in, say, the last week. In the bank, in the surgery,

As state after state in America’s conservative heartland adopts reactionary abortion legislation, the beacon of the free world looks bizarrely out of kilter with even socially conservative neighbours like Mexico, where more progressive policies are being implemented. Abortion is already a divisive political issue in the US. It is becoming a business issue too. Companies

Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev is in talks to sell its stake in its Russian and Ukrainian joint venture to its Turkish partner, in a deal that could cause a $1.1bn hit to the world’s largest brewer. The maker of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona is seeking to sell its non-controlling interest in joint venture AB

It is a basic formula in the television business: make a hit show, renew it and lock in ever bigger audiences. But Netflix, which has spent more than 20 years upending the rules of the entertainment business, may have found a way to defy even this convention. This spring the streaming service will roll out

Investors’ expectations for US inflation have shot to their highest level in decades even as the Federal Reserve signals an aggressive tightening of monetary policy is imminent, underscoring the challenge central banks face in convincing markets they can tame runaway price growth. A historic bond rout has intensified this week as officials from both the

Would you apply for a job which requires you to be “dynamic” or a “digital native”? If you’re over 40, it might not be worth bothering. Until recently, it looked as though Generation X had never had it so good. But age discrimination is alive and well — and the exodus of older workers in

A KPMG investigation into German property group Adler found widespread governance and compliance shortcomings, the risk of big writedowns and questionable payments to a real estate investor who has long denied influence over the company. Adler, which owns 52,000 flats in north and western Germany, came under fire last year from short-selling group Viceroy Research,

Coronavirus infection rates are falling rapidly across the UK, easing pressure on the strained health service, according to official data. About 3.7mn people were infected with Covid-19 in the week ending April 16, according to Office for National Statistics estimates published on Friday. The latest infection figures are 15 per cent lower than those recorded

As the Russian delegation prepared to speak at Wednesday’s G20 meeting, finance ministers and central bank governors from the US, EU, UK and Canada got up and walked out. They did not stay to listen to what Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov, who joined virtually, or his deputy Timur Maksimov, who was in the room,

Shell has begun the “nightmare” task of extricating itself from its biggest Russian energy project as China’s state-owned companies line up as the only current option for western oil and gas majors divesting Russian assets that much of the world will not touch. The UK-headquartered group is in “early stage negotiations” with Cnooc, CNPC and

What was your childhood or earliest ambition? To work with animals. The novels of Dick King-Smith had a significant impact on my early life. Private school or state school? University or straight into work? Two different state schools in rural County Cork, both Catholic, then art college in Dublin, specialising in sculpture. I was a

Landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan’s new book is, as befits its subject, a glorious cabinet of curiosities. Covering a wide selection of idiosyncratic gardeners and their equally singular gardens, it ranges from the early 17th to the early 20th centuries, taking in many of the stranger features of the English tradition of landscape design. Longstaffe-Gowan avoids

For most of the pandemic we have been cheering on the vaccine scientists and manufacturers, cursing shortages of glass vials or giant growbags and then rolling up our sleeves when the precious doses are made available. No longer. Vaccine tracker Airfinity this month slashed its 2022 global sales forecast for Covid-19 jabs by 20 per

Dear reader, I had two moments of abrupt and instructive disillusionment this week. The first involved a busking violinist whose instrument was hooked up to a portable speaker. A tricky passage from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” was surging forth. I dug out a coin, intending to drop it in the violin case at his feet. A

She was told off by Mahatma Gandhi, charmed Nelson Mandela and shook hands with Mao Zedong. I suggest there can’t be many others who have hobnobbed with all three. “Not a bad trio,” Romila Thapar jokes. “My claim to fame is simply that I have met these guys!”  Far from it. Thapar, 90, has a

Are we there yet? It is a reasonable question for bond investors after a historic shift lower in government bond prices to reflect the increasingly hawkish tilt from the US Federal Reserve. Sadly for those left licking wounds, the short answer is ‘probably not’. In fact, judging from this week’s wobbles, the shake-out across markets