News

BlackRock will not go ahead with plans to switch a €1.4bn iShares corporate bond exchange traded fund to an environmental, social and governance index, after a shareholder meeting to approve the change failed to reach quorum. Last month the world’s largest asset manager proposed changing the index for its €1.4bn iShares € Corp Bond ex-Financials

It’s always intriguing when you get to view an organisation’s internal emails, particularly when they’re about you. A recent Freedom of Information request made to the Scottish Government has yielded more than 100 pages of internal communications, revealing its discussions between staff about how it should deal with the final stages of a separate and

UK investors poured more than £1bn into venture capital trusts in the tax year just ended, in a record fundraising season for the early-stage businesses investment vehicles. Figures published by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) show that a record £1.13bn was invested in venture capital trusts in 2021-22, a 65 per cent increase compared

On the surface, April 2020 was apocalyptic. You could walk the sunny streets of Oxford and barely see a soul: shops closed, roads empty, just the occasional pedestrian nervously crossing to the other side of the street. Of course, it wasn’t just Oxford. The International Labour Organization estimated that, globally, more than 80 per cent

The largest living organism on our planet is neither animal nor plant. It lives in or, more accurately, under a forest in Oregon, spread over nine square kilometres. It glows eerily in the dark, and scientists reckon it’s about 2,500 years old. This is not the elevator pitch for a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, though I

Most coffee shops have customers who drop in occasionally and Starbucks has a boss who does the same. Howard Schultz started his third stint in 35 years as chief executive this week with a pledge to restore the heart of a global chain that grew from one café in Seattle. “We are longing for love,

If the tech movement known as Web3 represents the internet’s next big gold mine, then why aren’t we hearing more about the truly useful applications that will be built on this new platform? And why aren’t more developers flocking to it to make their fortune? Those questions hang uncomfortably over Web3 as the boom in

Goldman Sachs is offering its network of former partners, who range from tech executives to prime ministers, exclusive access to a new investment vehicle that will put money into the Wall Street firm’s private market funds. The so-called 1869 fund, which takes its name from the year Goldman was founded, invests across multiple private funds

Of the 1.5mn people living with a learning disability in the UK, just six per cent are in paid work. Despite the promises of the 2010 Equality Act, employment rates have shown little progress, with numerous reports of unfair hiring practices. But in a refurbished car park in Peckham, south London, an unusual design studio

Just Eat Takeaway: taking the piste Unperturbed by a recent share price that resembles a ski slope, Just Eat Takeaway staff decamped this week to Arosa in Switzerland. Hundreds of employees from the food delivery group’s two-dozen international markets were delivered to the Alpine resort for Snow Fest, an all-expenses-paid skiing and team-building junket. Snow

Imran Khan faces the greatest challenge of his political career after Pakistan’s supreme court ruled that the prime minister’s attempt to avoid a no-confidence vote by dissolving parliament was unconstitutional. The ruling, announced late on Thursday evening, set the stage for a weekend showdown in the national assembly that is widely expected to end the

I was surprised to read Jonathan Guthrie’s statement that “good governance . . . prescribes box ticking over the independence of non-executive directors and similar matters of little significance” (“ESG category errors need unbundling for ethical investors”, Opinion, April 5). Especially when the FT’s own non-executive director (NED) diploma — quoting from Sir David Walker’s “Review of Corporate Governance

Janan Ganesh follows a torturous line of logic by contrasting the real world approach of President Joe Biden in Ukraine, with some imagining of what Biden’s predecessor would be doing (“The war in Ukraine is not the end of Trump”, Opinion, March 30). Yet it strains credibility to assume tough talk or strategic ambiguity from

John Thornhill’s recent article looking at a potential artificial intelligence power imbalance between the public and private sectors (Opinion, April 1) certainly doesn’t understate the risks of a brain drain from AI research into industry. Translation of deep tech research into successful industrial applications has always been a challenge in the UK — and having

The delay in legislation to create a right to flexible working is to be welcomed (“Tories shelve flexible working plans”, Report, April 2). This will give more time for this movement to be exposed for what it is, an opportunistic attempt to secure four (or even three) day working by stealth. This movement is being

Mexico’s Supreme Court on Thursday denied a bid to invalidate President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electricity market reform in a decision that puts him on a collision course with the US government and creates a headache for the private sector. The 2021 reform, which has not yet taken effect, proposed to change electricity dispatch rules

Russian missiles on Friday hit a railway station in Kramatorsk, killing “dozens” in the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as Moscow strengthened its offensive in the east of the country. “Thousands of people were at the station during the missile strike, as residents of Donetsk region are being evacuated to safer regions of Ukraine,”

“It is not contrary to reason,” wrote David Hume, the 18th century Scottish philosopher, “for me to chuse my total ruin, to prevent the least uneasiness of an Indian or person wholly unknown to me.” The US, the UK, the EU and Nato have all said they will not directly intervene militarily to prevent the

The UK government has moved fast after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to draw up a strategy for energy security. If its targets can be achieved it will do much to expand homegrown and green supply sources long-term. But internal wrangling has left two large holes. By backing away from targets for the cheapest and fastest

The writer is a former state department official and senior fellow at Hudson Institute US deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo toured Europe last month on a drive to strengthen EU sanctions and bolster asset-freezing measures against Vladimir Putin and his nomenklatura. His message to Moscow’s enablers was clear: “to anyone who may be in a