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Northern Ireland is a place where democracy is weakly rooted. So it is troubling that while there are clear winners from last week’s historic election and widespread backing for constructive government, it is in a rut. The big news was the victory of Sinn Féin, the one-time political wing of the Provisional IRA. It is

May 9 will be celebrated as Victory Day in Russia and as Europe Day in much of the rest of Europe. The coincidence in time between a cult of military victory and a celebration of European peace and unity has long been a little jarring. Today the clash is more sinister, reflecting as it does

The Taliban have ordered all women in Afghanistan to cover their faces in public, the latest in a series of policies that have systematically eroded women’s rights and liberties in the country despite earlier assurances. The Islamist group’s ministry for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice, a religious police force, announced the restriction

You and I, dear reader, are in an unequal relationship. Although you are not obliged to read this article, I do have to write it. If you stick with me, however, we will both be rewarded, because I’m going to encourage you to share a few motivational treats. As soon as I have typed my

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. In the final episode of this season of Tech Tonic, we ask if the growing tensions between the US and China could split the world into two competing technological spheres. It has been dubbed ‘the great

Customers at the exclusive Shinsegae department store in the Gangnam district of Seoul prefer to display their wealth discreetly. But their high spending was exposed to the wider world when it revealed annual sales had topped $2bn in 2021 — the highest turnover for a single store in the world. It outpaced even Harrods in

Ascension beckoned for Li Qiang. Shanghai’s top official seemed only months away from securing one of the seven positions on the politburo standing committee, China’s most influential political body, as his longtime patron Xi Jinping prepared to secure a third term as leader in November. Yet in China’s most modern and one of its best-run

Two of the biggest landlords in the West End are in talks over a £3.5bn merger that would bring together some of central London’s best known tourist destinations under the ownership of a single company. Capital & Counties, which owns Covent Garden and the surrounding area, and Shaftesbury, which has a portfolio spanning parts of

In 2005, Fiona Rogers joined Magnum, the prestigious photography co-operative, as an unpaid intern. She spent 16 years there, working her way up to chief operating officer. Founded in 1947, Magnum has long been dominated by its white, male membership, although that is beginning to change. During Rogers’ time there, she became familiar with debates

At the start of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hugh Grant’s character can’t remember at which of his friends’ weddings he has just turned up late. “Who is it today?” he asks caddishly, as he rushes into his pew. Personally, I’m not sure I ever went to so many weddings that I lost track of

US accounting regulators are discussing a potential deal with their counterparts in Beijing that could pave the way for American officials to inspect audits of Chinese companies, according to people briefed on the matter. A deal that would allow officials from the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board access to the audits could help resolve

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The surging dollar has prompted some analysts and investors to forecast a new period of “reverse currency wars” as many central banks abandon a longstanding preference for weaker exchange rates. The new dynamic marks a departure from the period of low inflation that followed the 2007-09 global financial crisis, when historically low interest rates and

As supermarkets grapple with fraught supply chains and the highest food price inflation in decades, they are also facing another pressing challenge: predicting which of the many pandemic induced trends will endure. From panic buying and a surge in home deliveries, to a collapse in sales at city centre convenience stores, consumers have upended the

Just six years ago, Boris Johnson departed London’s City Hall as a popular mayor who had softened the party’s once toxic brand in the capital. But on Friday, Conservatives were left clinging on to only a few remnants of electoral power within the city as voters in key boroughs, concerned with the cost of living

Anyone reading your review of the book by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel, Dead in the Water (“Fire, fraud and murder”, Life & Arts, April 30), would suppose that the spectacular attempted fraud by the Greek shipowner who faked a Somali pirate attack on his own vessel was only exposed in London legal proceedings by

The repercussions of Elon Musk’s brand of “free speech absolutism” for Twitter have of late received much comment (“Musk, Twitter and the need to vet new media owners”, FT View, April 29). The EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, went so far as to remind Musk of his need to comply with EU rules, a

Pilita Clark writes with her customary verve and clarity on the dangers ahead from climate inaction and special pleading by the corporate sector (“Magical thinking on fossil fuels endangers safety”, Opinion, FT Weekend, April 30). Separately, you report that resolutions demanding stricter fossil fuel financing policies at three big American banks were backed by only

While how art works indeed remains an enigma (Opinion, FT Weekend, April 23), neuroscience and Marcel Proust come to the rescue. Our brains (Jeff Hawkins: On Intelligence) use memory-based models to make predictions of future events, and the best art breaks some expected patterns while teaching us new ones. The artist (as Proust wrote of

The review of Adrian Duncan’s The Geometer Lobachevsky (Life & Arts, April 30) had me humming the classic 1953 song “Lobachevsky” by satirist Tom Lehrer: “Who made me the genius I am today/The mathematician that others all quote?/Who’s the professor that made me that way/The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat?/One man deserves