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David McKelvey had the relaxed dress of a former police officer whose days of sprinting after suspects are well behind him: shorts, Crocs, a polo shirt. I met him last summer at the headquarters of his company, TM Eye, which investigates shoplifters and counterfeiters for private clients. The office is located in a small suburban

If Zoom, Peloton and pet shops were some of the unexpected winners of the early phase of the global pandemic, one of the biggest losers was apartment living. From March 2020 onwards, trends in house and flat prices diverged dramatically as lockdowns and remote working put a premium on domestic space. So ubiquitous was this

Russia’s flagship economic forum in St Petersburg has named former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt as a participant at this year’s event in a draft programme that is disputed by many of the supposed attendees. Several people listed on the document, dated Tuesday and seen by the Financial Times, said they did not plan to

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend the G7 summit this weekend in person, four people briefed on the preparations told the Financial Times. Zelenskyy is expected to participate in meetings in Hiroshima on Sunday, they said. His unexpected attendance is aimed at bolstering western support of Ukraine as the war with Russia heads towards its

There is a definite whiff of “something must be done” in the air. UK supermarkets were last week discussing food prices with the Treasury. This week came a Downing Street summit on the food industry and the launch of a “farm to fork” parliamentary inquiry.  Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, had called

The writer is prime minister of Japan When I visited Ukraine in March and met President Zelenskyy, I expressed to him my commitment to maintaining the unwavering unity of the G7 for strict sanctions against Russia and our robust support for his country. At my invitation, he will participate in discussions at the G7 summit

G7 summit: The gathering of world leaders will open in Hiroshima today. The summit will seek to affirm the rule of law in the international order, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida said. As well as leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, those from Australia, South Korea and India will

G7 countries are preparing new sanctions against Russia, covering ships, aircraft, individuals and diamonds, officials say, as they seek to increase economic pressure on the Kremlin’s war machine. The plan to curtail imports of diamonds from Russia — which comes as G7 leaders meet in Hiroshima, Japan — targets one of Moscow’s few remaining export

Allies of Ukraine gathering in Japan this week for the G7 summit may approach the next round of sanctions talks with trepidation. An agreement on restricting the Russian diamond trade is welcome but, from here, many of the grander proposals to stem the flow of money and critical goods to Russia raise diplomatic problems. The

Carl Icahn has admitted he was wrong to make a huge bet that the market would crash after the ill-fated trade cost his firm nearly $9bn over roughly six years. According to a Financial Times analysis, the prominent activist investor lost about $1.8bn in 2017 on hedging positions that would have paid out if asset

How can an investor protect themselves against a US government default? Once, that was a crazy question to ask. But today the bizarre has become almost normal in American politics. And while US president Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have both indicated they want to cut a deal to raise America’s $31tn debt

Calpers, the biggest US public pension plan, is considering bigger bets on private equity despite despite growing fears that higher interest rates will curb the industry’s returns. Chief executive Marcie Frost said that the $442bn-in-assets retirement fund, one of the world’s biggest investors in private equity, will start an extensive review of its holdings in

South Africa’s foreign policy has become a study in inconsistency. One moment it is about to depart the International Criminal Court. The next moment it isn’t. Here it is condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There it is accusing the US of having provoked it. Sometimes South Africa is a democracy with a progressive constitution and

The writer is founder of Sifted, an FT-backed site about European start-ups At the start of this century, a visiting investor from Mars might well have bet big on Germany emerging as one of the winners of the internet revolution. Crammed with world-leading engineers, industry-friendly bankers and hustling entrepreneurs, the country looked strongly placed to

European equities rose on Thursday, joining an overnight rally on Wall Street, as concerns over a potential US government default and the health of regional banks eased. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 was up 0.4 per cent, recovering from two days of losses, while France’s Cac 40 rose 0.6 and Germany’s Dax rose 1 per cent. London’s

G7 leaders will discuss a proposal for a Ukraine peace summit during their three-day meeting in Hiroshima this week, in an effort to promote Kyiv’s proposal for ending Russia’s war against the country rather than rival plans proposed by China. The G7 talks on the proposed event, which has been championed by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr

In 1989, the businessman Michael Knighton bid £20mn for Manchester United. At the time it was the highest price ever offered for an English football club. United’s owner hastily accepted. But the takeover fell through, partly because Knighton raised questions about his own psychology when he insisted on juggling a ball in front of a

BT is to cut up to 40 per cent of its workforce by the end of the decade, as it seeks to slash costs and become a “leaner business”. The group said on Thursday that it would cut between 40,000 and 55,000 jobs, including employees and third-party contractors, by 2030. The group’s current workforce totals

Ukraine’s allies fear military support for its battle against Russia is nearing a peak, with senior European officials increasingly concerned about the flow of aid next year as the US enters a divisive presidential campaign. Washington has been Ukraine’s dominant source of weaponry and US officials say sufficient preapproved funds remain to sustain Kyiv for

UK ministers have been put under pressure over planned crypto regulations by a group of crossbench MPs who are seeking a more radical overhaul of the industry. The Treasury select committee published a report on Wednesday in which members said crypto should be treated like gambling, given it had “no intrinsic value, huge price volatility

Just after lunchtime on a sunny day in late November, Senna Matkovic passed out and turned blue. The 10-month-old had been playing with his twin brother in the grass at Moscone Park in a quiet enclave of San Francisco. Panicking that he was choking on something she couldn’t see, his nanny called 911. A fire