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Where is Paris Hilton when you need her? After boosting non-fungible token investments on late night US chat shows, the reality star has gone quiet. NFTs, the most speculative of speculative assets, are crashing. The value of an index developed by cryptocurrency researchers is down 78 per cent from its high point last October. That

Italian oil major Eni plans to spend at least €2.5bn in the UK over the next four years as the government demands oil and gas companies significantly increase investment in Britain’s energy system or face a windfall tax on their soaring profits. The commitment by the group — the ninth-largest gas producer in the North

Big Pharma is offering to reserve vaccines, medicines and tests for low-income nations in preparation for the next pandemic in exchange for a fee and a commitment that governments not impose restrictions on trade. Ahead of talks on pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization next week, the industry is lobbying to win a slice

The opening of the world’s first metro system in London in 1863 was a chaotic event: steam in the tunnels obscured signals and choked drivers, the gas lighting frightened travellers — and “there were so many anxious passengers trying to get on board, that there were fights for seats”, according to the Penny Gazette. Nearly

Britain’s opposition Labour party has called on Boris Johnson to consider sanctions on Alexander Lebedev after the former KGB officer, whose son sits in the House of Lords, was placed under sanctions by Canada. The move by the Canadian government is politically challenging for the prime minister, given his close links to the Lebedev family.

The world’s biggest funds focused on ethically-minded investments have been battered this year as their heavy weightings towards technology stocks has left them at the centre of a market squall. Parnassus Core Equity Fund, with $25.9bn under management, has fallen by over 18 per cent in 2022 while Vanguard’s $14.3bn FTSE Social Index fund is

“It’s so toxic at the moment. It’s like Guess Who — with everyone trying to figure out the next harasser,” said one senior Conservative MP. “This place is like a university frat house.” The Palace of Westminster, which for centuries has represented law, order and integrity, has of late become synonymous with sexism and sleaze. From

Vacation rental companies are scrambling to secure accommodation as a burst of pent-up summer demand and a drop in the number of holiday lets during the pandemic prompts fears of a supply squeeze. Henrik Kjellberg, chief executive of Awaze, which operates across the UK and Europe, said the company was going “gangbusters” recruiting new homes

It has been said that 2022 will be the year of revenge travel as people starved of foreign exploration seize the opportunity to traverse a less restricted world. Last year was a dry run – this year it’s serious, and while not all countries have lifted their embargoes there can be no denying that the

The family of one of Egypt’s best-known regime critics fears for his health after almost seven weeks of hunger strike mostly spent in prison conditions labelled “inhumane” by British lawmakers. Alaa Abdel Fattah, a dual Egyptian and British national who has spent eight of the past 10 years behind bars, rose to prominence during the 2011

China is intensifying its drive for influence in the Pacific by negotiating security deals with two additional island nations following a pact with the Solomon Islands, according to officials in the US and allied countries. Beijing’s talks with Kiribati, a Pacific island nation 3,000km from Hawaii where US Indo-Pacific Command is based, are the most

Decisions. We make so many in our lives. From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, our days are filled with opportunities to make decisions. Some are grand in scope, determining the sort of life we will pursue in different seasons; we choose this particular job, to start or end

“No matter what you may be selling, your business in China should be enormous, if the Chinese who should buy your goods would only do so.”  Never did an “if only” clause carry more weight. In the 85 years since Carl Crow, a Shanghai-based American advertising executive, wrote these words in his book Four Hundred

Regarding Sam Leith’s column, thank goodness someone is honest enough to come clean about the real rationale for working from home (Opinion, May 7). Forget the concocted justifications of attraction and retention etc, the real attraction is more money for less work. What’s not to like about that? No wonder unions and academics are such

I enjoyed Peter Aspden’s witty quip that people would rather have gone sailing with Duran Duran than listen to the “ugliness and rancour” of punk (“Punk comes to Disney and Sotheby’s”, Life & Arts, May 14). But it’s arguable that without the Sex Pistols there would be no Duran Duran. The group maintained that their

Fixed to a gallery wall in New York City, are a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers adorned in Louis Vuitton’s trademark Damier chequerboard. They’re assigned the number 1 because the design is the one Virgil Abloh – the brand’s late men’s artistic director, who died in November 2021 – wore himself. They, along

The runaway house price growth of the past two years is set to slow as the wider economy braces for a period of stagflation, according to housing economists and analysts. Warning lights have flashed across the economy in the past fortnight. Inflation is running at a 40-year high and faces further upward pressure from a

A self-made billionaire by the age of 40 and the face of an institution once described as the “Goldman of the Tropics”, at one time André Esteves was the wunderkind of Latin American finance. Then the Brazilian suffered a dramatic fall. Arrested in connection with a sprawling political corruption scandal, in November 2015 he resigned

Rail executives are drafting emergency plans to cut Britain’s train network to a 12-hour service ahead of union members voting this week on what would be the biggest rail strike to hit the country in 30 years. The RMT Union has asked 40,000 workers at infrastructure operator Network Rail and members at 15 train operating

Stocks are being repriced across the board as the sell-off on Wall Street intensifies. Technology companies, especially unprofitable and richly valued names, have been hit hardest. Yet even companies that boast sales growth and rising profits have not been spared. Deere, the US tractor maker, turned in a solid performance on Friday. It overcame supply