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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine looks increasingly likely to lead to Finland and Sweden applying to join Nato. But whereas Helsinki appears to be doing so with something resembling gusto, Stockholm is inching towards the western military alliance more reluctantly. As early as December and January, Finnish politicians started a national debate across party lines on

Henry VI: Rebellion Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Henry VI is a curiously muted presence in the second and third of his namesake plays, early works by Shakespeare. As reframed here, they split neatly into the chattering and the battering phases. In Rebellion, the Lancastrian monarch fails utterly to quell his cantankerous nobles. The next play,

In December 2020 Tiffany Dover, a nurse manager from Tennessee, was interviewed by reporters shortly after receiving her first Covid vaccination. Then, live on television, she fainted. A rumour subsequently took hold that Dover had died and the vaccine was to blame. A few days later, she gave another television interview announcing she was fine,

As the debate on a new Bretton Woods continues with the excellent article by Rana Foroohar (Opinion, April 18), it might be wise to remember what John Maynard Keynes, the “father” of the IMF and the World Bank, said at their inaugural meeting in March 1946. Drawing on an analogy with Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty

Meet the most powerful iPad ever I love an iPad. For the past year, I’ve used the Air 4 (released in 2020) as a laptop lite. I enjoy the ease of slinging the Air – which sits between the Mini and basic iPads, and the Pro – into my tote and sliding it out in cramped cafés.  So the release of

Balfour Beatty chief executive Leo Quinn has predicted a decade of UK “infrastructure growth” as the construction industry gears up for a potential boom because of the billions in investment set aside for the sector by the government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has outlined a range of funding commitments, including £4.8bn for infrastructure investment in

We all deserve to have a day at work without having the fear of God put into us. Which is why one of the most striking recent examples of “a bad day at the office” remains alarmingly fresh in my memory, almost two months on. “Say what you mean,” snapped Vladimir Putin at Sergei Naryshkin,

It is more than 30 years since Robert Maxwell’s body was found at sea, but many remain fascinated by him. A new biography, Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, by John Preston, published last year, brings the number of books about the late publishing magnate to at least 12. A three-part BBC series, House of

We’ve been writing about the international monetary system for long enough to be somewhat dubious about oft-repeated claims of the dollar’s demise. Sure, we can see why the greenback ought to be dethroned. The US is no longer the economic power it once was, inflation’s at multi-decade highs, and now Washington has frozen hundreds of

One of China’s top government health officials has repeatedly promoted Covid-19 remedies included in Beijing’s official treatment protocol for the disease without disclosing his links with the manufacturers. Epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan was appointed to head an expert group at the National Health Commission, the body responsible for formulating China’s health policy, at the start of

By Martin Brudnizki I grew up in a house that was filled with stuff. But it was stuff — books, art, my mother’s collection of trinkets — that had been carefully curated; it wasn’t cluttered. My mother had impeccable taste and was always playing around with how she styled our home. She loved nothing more

Janan Ganesh writes that “no grand theory can explain the Ukraine crisis” (Opinion, April 13). Oh yes it can! Bashar al-Assad in Syria, leaders in the Middle East, the great Singaporean statesman Lee Kuan Yew, Lenin, Stalin, Che Guevara. All claim that “the end justifies the means”. In a clash of civilisations all sides will

Fiesole’s finest reborn Villa San Michele has been the stalwart on the Fiesole hill above Florence since it first opened in 1982, with painterly views, patrician gardens, and a rich historical heritage (the 15th-century villa was originally a monastery; the oak woods above it are where da Vinci is said to have first launched his

Voters in France are going to the polls to elect either Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen as president, with opinion polls suggesting that Macron will repeat his 2017 win over his far-right rival, albeit by a narrower margin. A second five-year term for Macron, a champion of the EU, would come as a relief

Conservative party chair Oliver Dowden has insisted there is a “strong case” for Boris Johnson to remain as prime minister, despite growing backbench anger over the government’s handling of the partygate scandal and fears over upcoming local elections. Johnson now faces three probes into the allegations of rule-breaking throughout the pandemic: the House of Commons

Vladimir Putin has lost interest in diplomatic efforts to end his war with Ukraine and instead appears set on seizing as much Ukrainian territory as possible, according to three people briefed on conversations with the Russian president. Putin, who was seriously considering a peace deal with Ukraine after Russia suffered battlefield setbacks last month, has

The head of the world’s largest ship manager has urged Nato to provide naval escorts for commercial vessels passing through the Black Sea, which lies off Ukraine’s southern coast, as dozens remain stuck in the conflict zone. René Kofod-Olsen, chief executive of V.Group, said the western military alliance should intervene to ensure trade can flow

The writer is global head of sanctions, compliance and risk at ACAMS It has been two months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began and the fog of war continues to obscure the country’s future. A similar uncertainty is now settling across global markets, where a deluge of economic and trade restrictions aimed at punishing Vladimir

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here. Specification: AQA Component 1, Section3.1.1.2: The structure and role of Parliament; Section 3.1.1.3: the Prime Minister and Cabinet — the difference between individual and collective responsibility Edexcel Component 2, Section 3.2: The concept of ministerial

Cambridge Innovation Capital has raised its largest round of funding to date as the venture investor seeks to capitalise on the UK city’s growing life sciences and tech economy. CIC — which benefits from a unique contract with Cambridge university — has raised £225mn to invest in early stage start-ups operating in areas from cell