In 1900, the UK had 3.3mn horses. These animals provided pulling power, transport and cavalry. Today, only recreation is left. Horses are an outmoded technology. Their numbers in the UK have fallen by around 75 per cent. Could humans, too, become an outmoded technology, displaced by machines that are not just stronger and more dexterous
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He is only 25 years of age, but Lewis Judd looks a natural at the wheel of a 40-tonne truck, performing a tricky reversing manoeuvre in the training yard of the East Midlands haulage company where he soon hopes to have a full-time job. Under the watchful eye of his instructor, Judd successfully backs up
Fox chief executive Lachlan Murdoch on Tuesday defended his decision to settle litigation over the network’s role in airing conspiracy theories about election fraud, telling investors it “in no way alters Fox’s commitment to the highest journalistic standards”. Fox last month agreed to a last-minute deal to pay nearly $800mn to settle a lawsuit from
Investment banks are turning more bullish on sterling as it trades close to a one-year high against the dollar and a five-month high against the euro, on expectations that the UK economy is performing better than many had feared. The pound was trading at $1.2618 on Tuesday, close to the $1.2688 it hit on Monday,
Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair has struck a multibillion-dollar deal to buy up to 300 Boeing aircraft, signalling a big expansion of its fleet in the latest sign of the travel industry’s revival. The agreement for the 737 Max-10 aircraft, including 150 options, is valued at more than $40bn at current list prices, although the airline
No less a figure than Bill Gates expected the Covid-19 pandemic to resemble a world war. Armistice came last week, on the fifth day of the fifth month, when the World Health Organization declared the official end of the emergency. “Armistice”, I say, not victory, because a global death toll in the tens of millions
European stocks fell at the open on Tuesday as traders turned cautious ahead of the release of US economic data likely to inform the Federal Reserve’s future decisions on interest rates. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 benchmark fell 0.3 per cent in the first hour of trade and France’s CAC fell 0.4 per cent. Meanwhile, contracts
Good morning. I promised a more detailed set of thoughts on the local elections once all the results were in, and so that is the topic of today’s note. As a consequence, you’re all spared my grumbling about the Metropolitan Police’s policing of the coronation, for today at least. That said, I feel certain that
Good morning. Just a few years ago, if you mentioned the Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey — even in the FT newsroom — people’s eyes would glaze over by the time you got to the word “officer”. Now that we’re all waiting for a Fed-induced credit crunch, everyone is tossing around the term
The Bank of England is set to raise interest rates to their highest level since 2008 on Thursday in the wake of official data last month that showed inflation remained stubbornly high. The expected increase in the cost of borrowing would represent the 12th successive boost by the central bank since it started raising rates
The compensation bill for those affected by the NHS contaminated blood scandal could reach £10bn, according to officials, in a further blow to the UK’s stretched public finances. Ministers have accepted the “moral case” for compensating families of the victims of the scandal, in which tens of thousands of people were infected with HIV and
There was a moment when Turkey’s election debate came down to an onion and a warship. It began when Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the man leading the charge to break President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s grip over Turkish politics, sat at his kitchen table last month, his shirt collar open, sleeves rolled up, and held up an onion.
Staff burnout and demographic changes threaten a permanent contraction in the European health workforce, with the sector’s leaders warning they may never restore the capacity to treat patients to pre-pandemic levels. Across the continent, clinicians are confronting a damaging mismatch between demand and resources, with public spending cuts forcing them to consider different ways of treating patients.
Work has been getting a bad press lately. We’ve had the “great resignation” trend, the “anti-work” movement, “quiet quitting” and a wave of strikes. It all seems to add up to a sense that work is getting worse and people are fed up with it. I was even asked to join a podcast discussion last
UK consumer spending grew at about half the pace of inflation in April as fast-rising prices continued to suppress demand, even as the leisure sector noted some “renewed momentum”, according to new sector data. The value of retail sales increased 5.2 per cent in the year to April, according to figures compiled by KPMG and
Rishi Sunak has announced plans to cut the time it takes to see a GP in England as the prime minister hurried to deliver on his promise to cut NHS waiting lists before voters go to the polls in a general election expected by late next year. The measures will allow people suffering from a
Mexico’s supreme court on Monday declared unconstitutional part of an electoral reform law pushed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador which advocates said threatened to undermine the country’s democracy. The justices voted 9-2, meeting the minimum threshold of eight votes under Mexican law, to strike down the bill, which completely restructured and shrank the electoral
Britain’s privatised water and sewage companies paid £1.4bn in dividends in 2022, up from £540mn the previous year, despite rising household bills and a wave of public criticism over sewage outflows. The figures, based on a Financial Times analysis of the 10 largest water and sewage companies’ accounts, are higher than headline dividends in the year to
US regional banks rallied further in pre-market trading on Monday as concerns over their health eased, with the momentum also underpinning gains for stocks in Europe and Asia. Futures tracking the US S&P 500 were trading 0.2 per cent higher while those following the Nasdaq were flat as investors grew more optimistic over the battered
Apple announced a five-part bond offering, continuing what is shaping up as a busy month for investment grade corporate debt issuance. The company’s filing on Monday to the Securities and Exchange Commission was preliminary, so did not contain details about the size of the offering or pricing. Those details are expected later today. The notes
Rishi Sunak is facing criticism from the rightwing of his ruling Conservative party over his “shameful” China policy and his failure to build more homes, as he tries to limit the fallout of last week’s dire Tory local election results in England. The UK prime minister will convene his cabinet on Tuesday and seek to