He is maligned by Moscow and enmeshed in scandal in London, but when Boris Johnson visited Kyiv this month, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky could barely restrain his enthusiasm for the UK prime minister. With Britain playing a key role in the western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky thanked Johnson for “your leadership, your

South Korea’s growing global pop culture presence, from boy band BTS to the television series Squid Game, is driving a new marketing push into Japan, as consumer goods companies leverage the country’s soft power to drive sales of everything from liquor to clothes. Hite Jinro, South Korea’s leading beverage maker, said this week it will

At the advanced age of 123, Yoshinoya has a decent claim to being the world’s oldest fast-food chain: an arch survivor in Japan’s low-end culinary cage-fight for 24-hour dining on a budget. Competition among the ladlers of cheap, comforting bowls of gyudon beef on rice is intense, and Yoshinoya has consistently prevailed. But a dismayed

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at the Kremlin after Russian missiles killed eight civilians in the port city of Odesa, as America’s top diplomat prepared to visit Ukraine for the first time since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began eight weeks ago. In heated remarks, Zelensky called the Russians “bloody bastards”, “Nazis” and “Rashists” — a

Turkey has banned Russia’s armed forces from using its airspace to reach Syria in a bid to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin as Ankara tries to revive peace talks with Ukraine. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russian military aircraft would no longer be able to transit through his country en route to Syria, where

Ares Management is backing two bidders in the race to buy Chelsea Football Club from billionaire Roman Abramovich, who put the team up for sale after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The investment group, which has more than $300bn of assets under management, is prepared to take a minority stake in the English Premier League team,

Before Russian forces began withdrawing from territory around Kyiv at the start of the month, US war policy appeared aimed at delicately threading a geopolitical needle: bolstering Ukraine’s defences without triggering a conflict between Nato and the Kremlin. In the past two weeks, however, current and former US officials say that much of the caution

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. This weekend we’re returning to the first-ever episode of the FT Weekend podcast, from September. Lilah talks to Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm and Chez Panisse’s legendary Alice Waters to discover how the world’s top chefs

Perched on a reflective gold stool, beneath psychedelic tessellated wallpaper, surrounded by films of black women singing jazz, folk music and blues-infused a cappella, I am chilling in the British pavilion at the head of the main Giardini avenue in the Venice Biennale — a location declaring the imperial order circa 1900, when Britain led

There are two types of hard decisions. There are those where, after enough thought, you can arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. And there are those that, however many permutations you explore, you still end up in a bad place. It’s in this second bucket that we find Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian tennis

Pandora Flower rug by Allegra Hicks, from £1,092 per sq m Individually made by hand, this design can be crafted to any size. allegrahicks.com Leo Rose lampshade by Matthew Williamson for John Lewis, from £40 This collaboration includes a range of different accessories designed by Williamson. johnlewis.com Daisy water jug by Petra Palumbo, £120 Hand

To hold a nutmeg in your hand — a tiny brown globe veined with mysterious patterns — is to be reminded how much our ideas of what is precious can change. This spice (which is actually a seed, not a nut) was once so prestigious that one of the monikers of an 18th-century Persian ruler

I am not a punctual person, so I leave slightly late for dinner. (There is, inevitably, a dispute between my partner Felicity Slater and me about which one of us bears responsibility: I tend to start getting ready first but do so at a very leisurely pace, while she is very efficient but only gets

Once among the fastest ships afloat, the Cutty Sark has been stationary for almost 70 years, dry-docked beside the Thames in Greenwich. It has become one of London’s classic tourist attractions but I was to get a novel view of its teak decks, soaring masts and finely tapered prow. After two years of negotiation, Wire

The beautiful Douro valley in northern Portugal is in a real pickle. It is best known as the home of port, but today an increasing proportion of the vines, which are virtually the Douro valley’s only crop, produce stunning table wine too. But who will tend and pick those vines? And will anyone pay the

Emmanuel Macron likes to take risks. Confronted with anti-vaccination protests during the Covid-19 pandemic, the French president could have backed down as he did in the face of the anti-government gilets jaunes demonstrations three years earlier. Instead he raised the stakes, declaring his wish to “piss off” the unvaccinated and insisting that only the inoculated

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

Defence stocks have outpaced the global market this year by the most in almost a decade, on expectations of higher military spending by western governments and as ethically minded investors re-evaluate the sector. An MSCI index tracking aerospace and defence shares has beaten a broader gauge of worldwide equities by 17 percentage points in dollar

Among all of the cost pressures racking up for British supermarkets, one of the most persistent and intense is staff wages. Tesco this month became the latest big grocer to increase basic hourly pay rates above £10, higher than both the statutory minimum wage of £9.50 and the voluntary “UK real living wage”. Asda is

Boris Johnson flew back to London from India on Friday, probably wishing he could stay longer in a country where he was greeted by dancers, avenues lined with children waving union jack flags and billboards featuring his ruffled features. “I felt like Sachin Tendulkar,” the UK prime minister said, referring to the Indian cricketing demigod.