“Marketa parties in a gown . . . but keeps her trainers on,” marvelled a headline in the Daily Mail last week about Markéta Vondroušová, Wimbledon’s new women’s tennis champion. A photo with the report confirmed that the 24-year-old Czech had gone to a celebratory ball on Sunday night in a strapless black gown and a pair of white
News
One of India’s best-regarded public policy think-tanks is struggling to continue its work after authorities stripped it of its tax-exempt status and permission to raise foreign funds as part of an intensifying crackdown by the Modi government on civil society. The New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, which conducts grassroots data collection, publishes research and
UK stocks this week staged their biggest rally since early January, as investors warmed to a market that has missed out on global gains this year. A bigger than expected drop in UK inflation in June helped London’s FTSE All-Share index rise 3.1 per cent in the week to Friday, its best run since notching
Oilfield services groups are feeling the squeeze from a slowdown in activity in the US shale patch as companies scale back on oil and gas drilling. The world’s biggest oilfield services providers, responsible for the industry’s grunt work from drilling wells to building roads, reported a hit to North American revenues this week amid dwindling
London “stands ready” to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games with an estimated cost of £500mn from central government, according to City Hall officials, as organisers rush to find a new home for the competition. The nearly 100 year-old games, staged every four years, involve nations from the Commonwealth — made up largely of states with
Few business strategies inspire as much debate as share buybacks. Activist investors often demand them as a quick way of getting cash back to shareholders that would otherwise be wasted. Corporate executives argue that they are not only a tax-efficient alternative to dividends, but can also signal that the company is underpriced. They all hope
The UK’s two biggest political parties are having a fierce row about university courses. Unusually, they are both right. Rishi Sunak is correct in saying that some courses offer students poor value for money and leave them with prospects that are no better than if had they not taken the courses at all. But his
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted his military’s counteroffensive against Russian forces was about to “gain pace”, as he sought to reassure western governments that have grown alarmed at the slow progress of the operation. The weeks-old effort to push back Russian forces in Ukraine had begun later than Kyiv had hoped, said Zelenskyy, due to
The UK has missed out on this year’s stock market party, but a bit of catch-up may be in order. Up to now, it has been very much off the guest list, putting in a paltry just-about-positive performance while most big national stock indices are off to the races. Sure, flipping the FTSE 100 into
The message of Thursday’s three UK by-elections was muddied somewhat by the Conservatives’ success in clinging on to the seat Boris Johnson vacated in outer London. But it was clear enough: this was a disastrous night for the Tories. Striking swings to Labour and the Liberal Democrats in northern and south-west England respectively confirm that
The Acropolis has stood above the city of Athens for centuries, its ancient walls and pillars withstanding war, siege and conquest. But as temperatures crested 40C across southern Europe this month, Greece’s top tourist attraction briefly fell victim to extreme heat. Officials shut the site for several hours during the hottest parts of the day,
Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, has vigorously defended plans to expand a flagship clean air policy in the UK capital after the scheme was blamed for Labour’s failure to win Thursday’s by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Conservative and opposition party figures on Friday both cited widespread fury among voters at Khan’s blueprint to enlarge
US prosecutors have accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of leaking personal writings by Caroline Ellison, the former head of the cryptocurrency exchange’s affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research and a crucial witness in the criminal case against him, to The New York Times. In a letter filed to a Manhattan federal court late on Thursday, the
The state of New Jersey has sued to suspend the rollout of the first congestion charge in the US, planned for cars driving through central Manhattan, saying that such a scheme would divert pollution to neighbouring areas and impose an unfair cost on commuters crossing the Hudson river. In a complaint filed in federal court
A sharp rise in international students who pay higher tuition fees at top English universities is squeezing the number of places for UK students, according to data analysis by the Financial Times. The crunch in places at the research-intensive Russell Group of universities — including Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol and the London School of Economics —
Ambitious NatWest once stood tall in the City, as occupant of London’s first modern skyscraper. The bank has a humbler mien today. A spat with Nigel Farage reflects poorly on the UK lender. Private bank Coutts, which is owned by NatWest, closed the account of the former pro-Brexit party leader without his consent. NatWest boss
For more than three centuries, Coutts has discreetly handled the finances of the UK’s wealthiest people, from royalty to rappers. However, the private banking arm of government-backed lender NatWest now finds itself uncomfortably thrust into the spotlight after deciding to cut ties with one of the country’s most divisive and combative figures, Nigel Farage, former
Russia is pushing a plan to supply grain to Africa and cut Ukraine out of the global market after Moscow’s withdrawal this week from a UN-backed deal, according to three people familiar with the matter. President Vladimir Putin has proposed a replacement initiative whereby Qatar would pay Moscow to ship Russian grain to Turkey, which
Christopher Nolan enters the dining room in a dark sports jacket and blue button-down shirt, far exceeding the dress requirements at Little Dom’s, a local favourite in Los Angeles’s hip Los Feliz neighbourhood. This is perhaps not too surprising from a man who directs his films wearing a waistcoat and blazer, a high sartorial standard that
Greg Hands, Conservative party chair, on Friday morning surveyed a scene of by-election devastation in two rock-solid Tory seats in Yorkshire in the north and Somerset in the south of England and admitted: “We need to do better.” The Tory defeats in Selby and Ainsty, and Somerton and Frome were on a massive scale, the
Borrowers are facing difficulties budgeting for cars and white goods, as rising rates and a squeeze on interest-free offers from lenders puts the brakes on demand for UK consumer credit. Introductory periods on credit cards have shrunk by nearly one-fifth since the middle of last year, according to data from provider Moneyfacts. This has reduced