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The House of Shades Almeida Theatre, London A tight-knit group of people caught up in vast socio-economic changes — it’s a scenario that has given us some of the greatest plays ever written: Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat . . . That same approach drives two new plays just opened

For nearly two years, a crackdown under President Xi Jinping’s banner of “common prosperity” has brought a clutch of China’s biggest companies to heel and reasserted the Communist party’s control over the country’s tycoons. But a stark change of rhetoric from policymakers in recent months, including vice-premier and top economic official Liu He and premier

Melvin Capital Management, the hedge fund that lost billions of dollars during last year’s meme-stock rally, has told clients it is winding down its funds. Gabe Plotkin, the New York-based firm’s founder, told clients he planned to return cash to investors after a difficult stretch. “The past 17 months has been an incredibly trying time

US president Joe Biden has invoked Korean war-era powers to boost production of baby formula in an effort to ease shortages that are becoming a political liability for the White House and congressional Democrats. Biden’s move came after growing criticism from Republicans in Congress, who have seized on the limited availability of baby formula as

As Canon kicked off Japan’s corporate earnings season in late April with an upgrade to its annual profit guidance, chief executive Fujio Mitarai welcomed the yen’s sharp decline as “a big plus” for the printer maker. Canon has been one of the biggest beneficiaries as the Japanese currency fell through ¥130 against the dollar just

The proposed privatisation of Eletrobras, Latin America’s largest power utility, has received the green light from Brazil’s audit court, paving the way for president Jair Bolsonaro to fulfil an important pledge ahead of elections. A majority of the court’s members on Wednesday ruled in favour of allowing the state to reduce its controlling stake in

The chief UK financial regulator will gain new powers to ensure that banks and building societies continue to provide access to cash, the government will announce on Thursday. New legislation will enable the Financial Conduct Authority to intervene to ensure communities are not cut off from banking services as ministers seek to address the impact

Target shares tumbled on Wednesday after the US retailer said rising costs would hit its annual profits, echoing a warning from rival Walmart and sparking a wider equity market sell-off on fears that companies are struggling to pass higher prices on to consumers. Shares in Target fell 25 per cent — the biggest one-day decline

Wall Street stocks fell on Wednesday as a bounce for global equity markets faded and downbeat earnings from discount retailer Target intensified jitters about inflation and choked-up supply chains. The benchmark S&P 500 share index dropped 1.5 per cent in early dealings and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.8 per cent. Shares in Target plunged

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged targeted tax cuts for business in the Budget later this year in a bid to boost investment ahead of a sharp rise in headline corporation tax from next spring. He used a speech to the CBI on Wednesday to call on business leaders to “invest more, train more and innovate

Good evening, The cost of living crisis is pounding the British economy. Official figures released today showed a jump in inflation to 9 per cent, the highest level the country has seen in more than 40 years. The increase in prices, which is double the amount expected by the Bank of England just six months

Westminster has come under renewed pressure from unions to ban MPs accused of sexual misconduct from parliament following the arrest of a Conservative MP on suspicion of rape. The move follows the Metropolitan police arrest of a man in his 50s on suspicion of “indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and

The US death toll from coronavirus has surpassed 1mn, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Although the average daily pace of deaths in the US is less than a tenth of levels reached last winter, the grim milestone comes against the backdrop of rising cases around the country, which on Tuesday prompted New York

“Let us start now to liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti genetic modification rules and . . . develop the blight-resistant crops that will feed the world.” So said Boris Johnson as he spoke outside Downing Street on the day he became prime minister. With all the fury of Brexit, here was a bold pledge to fight

Germany’s governing parties have decided to strip former chancellor Gerhard Schröder of his parliamentary privileges, as anger grows over his refusal to distance himself from the Kremlin despite the invasion of Ukraine. Schröder, a close friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin, is chair of the board of Russian oil giant Rosneft and has been closely

Dear reader, Brussels describes it as a lightning dash into renewable energy. Wind power is tipped to expand by two-and-a-half times by 2030, under plans set out on Wednesday to reduce dependence on Russia’s fossil fuels. That is a boost for Europe’s wind turbine manufacturing industry. But it may not be enough to shore up its

British Land, one of Britain’s biggest commercial property landlords, said it was leasing space at the fastest pace in a decade as tenants bet on the future of work and shopping. The FTSE 100 group said on Wednesday that it had leased just under 4mn sq ft of space in its workplaces and retail and

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. Behind the Money is back with all-new episodes! From hostile takeovers to C-suite intrigue, Behind the Money takes you inside the business and financial stories of the moment with reporting from Financial Times journalists around the

CMA CGM, the French shipping group, is set to become a leading shareholder in Air France-KLM and will forge a partnership in air cargo with the carrier, part of a drive to expand its reach after a boom in its business during the pandemic. The Marseille-based container company, which in recent months has made investments

The cognitive impairment caused by severe Covid-19 is comparable with the decline that takes place between the ages of 50 and 70, according to a recent study by Cambridge university and Imperial College London. Researchers said the degeneration was equivalent to losing 10 IQ points. The findings, published earlier this month, were the latest in