At the outset of the pandemic, James Daunt instructed managers at US chain Barnes & Noble to take every book off their shelves, “weed out the rubbish”, make each section flow and put their stores back together again. The overhaul is a strategy that the managing director of Waterstones, the chain’s owner, has deployed many

Isaiah switches effortlessly between Greek and Russian as he welcomes visitors to his church in Tamassos, deep among orange groves in the Cyprus countryside. With its five shiny gold domes — brought from St Petersburg — it is the first Russian Orthodox church in Cyprus, funded by the owner of a Russian construction company and

Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett’s 10-month-old coalition government is facing its stiffest challenge to date under the combined pressures of a wave of attacks and the shock loss of its parliamentary majority. Fourteen people have been killed in a spate of Palestinian attacks inside Israeli cities, the most recent in Tel Aviv on April 7,

Shares in start-ups are sinking in private trading as a sell-off in public technology companies and a pause in new listings send shockwaves through Silicon Valley. Forge Global, one of the largest venues for trading in private start-ups, said the prices of companies on its platform had fallen 19.9 per cent in February and March

Petrochemicals group Ineos has warned that British manufacturing is coming under threat from competing regions such as the US because of its higher energy costs. Britain’s largest privately owned company said European chemical producers were suffering from gas prices that had hit seven times the levels paid by competitors in the US, where abundant shale

Daimler Trucks, eBay and a US energy company were among the recent buyers of carbon offsets created by projects that involved injecting carbon dioxide underground in order to extract more oil. Three US-based extraction projects were eligible to generate credits because their processes involved the capture of CO2. But this was used as a way

Donald Trump’s political machine slowed its spending in the first quarter of the year compared to 2021, as fundraising ebbed slightly and the former president turned to high-profile endorsements to influence this year’s midterm elections. According to an FT analysis of federal campaign finance filings submitted ahead of a Friday night deadline, the former president

The cocktail trolley is back in vogue. Dolce & Gabbana has included one as part of its first homewares line. Meanwhile at the luxury design ecommerce site 1stdibs, sales are up 30 per cent. “People are trying to recreate that experience of happy hour at home,” says 1stdibs editorial director Anthony Barzilay Freund. “And who doesn’t

George Osborne is advising Todd Boehly’s bid to buy Chelsea Football Club from sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, as the auction enters its final stages, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The former UK chancellor, now a partner at boutique advisory firm Robey Warshaw, is adding his political experience as Boehly competes against

This year’s hawkish change in tack from central banks is close to ending the era of negative-yielding debt, shrinking the global tally of bonds with sub-zero yields by $11tn. Bond prices have tumbled this year as central banks move to end large-scale asset purchases and raise interest rates in their battle with soaring inflation, pushing

British households face paying tens of millions of pounds in administration costs for the government’s controversial scheme to reduce energy bills by £200 in October. The energy bills support scheme has been widely criticised by opposition parties and consumer groups because the £200 discount will have to be repaid by consumers in annual instalments of

If Elon Musk thought that casting himself as Twitter’s saviour would win widespread backing for his $43bn hostile takeover bid, he was in for a rude awakening. The world’s richest man laid out some sweeping claims for this week’s unsolicited approach. Shareholders, he promised, would “love” the rich premium he was offering. He would bring

Covid-19 cases are once more on the rise in the US, but this time there is little impetus for new restrictions or funding to help combat them. The number of daily new cases in the US has increased by 14 per cent since the beginning of April, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, reaching

Olga Rudenko, editor of The Kyiv Independent, has had a punishing six weeks. Faced with the prospect of trying to run her publication from a bomb shelter with unreliable internet and fearing Russian soldiers would target journalists, she fled the capital for western Ukraine the day after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion began. Yet while the

The industrial zone and sprawling lorry park in the small Dutch town of Oss give almost no indication of the opulent yachts being built inside nine covered dockside sheds, or of the identity of their clients or owners. But Heesen, the local shipyard that boasts of “producing some of the finest superyachts in the world”,

Memphis Milano, the design movement beloved of ’80s obsessives, shows no sign of going away. And why would it? With its playful shapes and primary colours, its daring, positivity and spirit, we are still irresistibly charmed. Founded by Ettore Sottsass, who brought together the collective of designers and makers known as the Memphis Group in 1980, the gang first showed together

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. This week, we bring our classic Life of a Song series to your ears, with the dramatic story behind ‘Bam Bam’, Sister Nancy’s reggae dancehall classic. Despite being one of the most sampled reggae tracks of

Anglo American’s annual shareholder meeting next week will mark the end of an era as chief executive Mark Cutifani steps down after almost a decade at the top of one of the world’s biggest mining groups. The affable but pugnacious Australian has turned the London-listed miner from an industry laggard to a leader that many

Welsh designer Bethan Gray did something she hadn’t done for some time during the enforced hiatus of 2020: she started to paint. Choosing Chinese calligraphy brushes, she began to create freeform lines in ultramarine ink on a canvas laid on the floor of her studio. It was a spontaneous act, but what emerged was progress

When legendary designer Philippe Starck met Spanish investment banker Pedro Gómez de Baeza 30 years ago in Madrid they bonded through their quickfire, raucous sense of humour. The occasion was the opening of Starck’s transformation of a dilapidated old theatre into Teatriz, a restaurant with dramatic decor and an experimental menu. “Madrid had seen nothing