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More than two decades ago — before fund companies began converting mutual funds into ETFs and US regulators streamlined the ETF approval process — Vanguard executives had an idea. Rather than launch ETFs as a standalone vehicle, they decided to work on packaging them within a mutual fund. The idea led the firm in 2001

I am sitting in a homely pizzeria in Jokkmokk, a Swedish town tucked just north of the Arctic Circle, talking to Anders Sunna, a Sámi artist whose small studio is a couple of blocks away. The Sámis are the indigenous people of the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula, whose presence also stretches into north-western

Microsoft has escaped the recent backlash against the power and wealth of the biggest US tech companies. Despite a stock market value that has soared to more than $2tn on its dominance of various parts of the business software market, it has avoided a repeat of the complaints that made it the most prominent target

Oleg Bril’s high-rise apartment block in Chernihiv was ripped apart by a rocket fired by Russian troops last month. Looking up at its remains, Bril still wonders why they did it. “I have no explanation. There are no military units here,” he said. “There are only civilians, and across the street a cardiology hospital and

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: Volkswagen’s U-turn Marc Filippino Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, April 13th, and this is your FT News Briefing. [MUSIC PLAYING] US banks are out with quarterly earnings this week. We’ll get a preview from FT US banking editor Josh

One thing to start: Two of the most influential proxy advisers have counselled Credit Suisse shareholders to vote against a motion to absolve executives and board members from blame for the multiple scandals afflicting the Swiss lender. Saying auf Wiedersehen to German banks In February 2020, as disappointing revenue growth, negative interest rates and the

With thousands of protesters on the streets of Colombo, soaring food and fuel prices and this week the first-ever suspension of government bond payments, Sri Lanka’s escalating economic crisis has shaken the governing Rajapaksa family’s grip on power. But while demonstrators accuse Gotabaya Rajapaksa of mismanaging the economy, the president’s elder brother, prime minister Mahinda

New York police say they are seeking a “person of interest” in connection with an attack on a Brooklyn subway train in which 10 commuters were shot and at least 13 more were injured. James Essig, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, on Tuesday evening described the shooter as a heavyset black man

There are many reasons to expand UK universities but subsidising young people to make themselves poorer is not one of them (Opinion, April 7). It should be unconscionable to university leaders that nearly a fifth of graduates earn less than if they had not gone at all and nearly half of recent graduates are in

Gideon Rachman’s “Strongman syndrome” article (Life & Arts, April 2) damns Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, by crude association with the likes of Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan claiming “even in the UK, Boris Johnson’s plan for ‘Global Britain’ draws on nostalgia for a period when Britain was a great imperial power rather

The US will extend a public transportation mask mandate for 15 days while the country’s top public health agency monitors a recent rise in coronavirus cases. The federal mandate, which requires travellers on public transport including aeroplanes, trains and buses to wear masks, was set to expire on April 18. “In order to assess the

The formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board and the publication of their new proposals (Report, April 1) is a welcome step in a landscape of well-intentioned but increasingly uncoordinated, complex and nationalised taxonomies. As the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report once again reiterates, the time is indeed “now or never” for action,

Gideon Rachman (“We need to think about a Le Pen victory”, Opinion, April 12) is spot on with his claim that “rather than dismissing Le Pen’s chances, it is time to think seriously about what her possible victory would mean for France and beyond”. Her victory, if she kept her word, would most certainly mean,

Count me among the minority of Americans, according to Niels Erich, who believe we should not risk nuclear war to defend Ukraine (“Trump in wartime — that’s a thought to conjure with!”, Letters, April 8). Those who argue that direct attacks on Russia using a no-fly zone, medium range missiles and Nato fighter aircraft pose

The governor of Texas is facing growing calls to abandon a vehicle inspection programme that has led to blockades and long queues at Mexico border crossings, threatening billions of dollars in trade at a time when supply chains are already under strain. Mexican truck drivers have blockaded border crossings since Monday in protest against the

Two of the most influential proxy advisers have counselled Credit Suisse shareholders to vote against a motion to absolve executives and board members from blame for the multiple scandals afflicting the Swiss lender. On Tuesday, ISS and Glass Lewis both released reports that said they would not recommend discharging the board and top executives from

The World Trade Organization has cut its goods trade growth forecast for this year by about a third to 3 per cent, warning that the decline in commodity exports caused by the Ukraine war could cause mass hunger in developing countries. The Geneva-based body revised predicted growth in goods trade volumes down from 4.7 per

In the animal kingdom, fluorescent colours come as a warning – take the electric-bright spots on poison dart frogs signalling their toxic exteriors, or the luminescent glow of the blue-ringed octopus that cautions against its deadly bite. The dazzling hues seen on the spring/summer runways this season are more affable. At Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton’s cerulean wool suit

Investors keen on the listing of the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority bought up the shares by the bucketful on its first day of trading Tuesday. Dewa, as it is known, had already increased the size of its share offering twice before settling on $6.1bn for 18 per cent of the equity. That made it

In normal times this would be game over. In the longer term it probably still is. The news that Boris Johnson has been fined for the breaching of lockdown rules he imposed on the nation ought ordinarily to be enough to finish him off. It is a shocking event. The fact that his chancellor, Rishi

Sri Lanka’s finance ministry has suspended payments on its government bonds, breaking what it called its “unblemished record of external debt service since independence in 1948” in a deepening economic and currency crisis. In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry said keeping up with repayments had “become impossible”, adding that “although the government has taken