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On Thursday, Matt Hancock apologised. The former UK health secretary was sorry, he said, to “political colleagues, civil servants and friends”. Not for anything he did in office, but because a national newspaper had obtained around 100,000 of his WhatsApp messages, covering his time in office at the peak of the pandemic. Personal conversations and

Few of us have exhausted our list of places to visit. That is what Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr thinks. His airline is “back” as bookings soar. Really he means his airline should start earning more from shuttling people rather than cargo fares. That is the key to Lufthansa shares staying aloft. Shareholders loved Lufthansa’s

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. This week Lilah goes to Savannah, Georgia, to visit chef Mashama Bailey. In 2022, Mashama won Outstanding Chef at the James Beard Awards. Since 2014, she has been chef and partner at The Grey, a restaurant

Good morning. Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan went head to head last night in Cumbernauld in the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon. Some thoughts on the shape of the SNP leadership contest in today’s note. First fisticuffs The SNP leadership election kicked off in earnest with its first televised hustings last night (livestream

Vanguard is closing its UK financial planning arm less than two years after its launch in April 2021 after a disappointing number of customers signed up to a new low-cost retirement advice service designed to appeal to millions of savers. The US-based company believed it could start a price war in the UK pensions advice

Abrdn has become the latest manager to enter the increasingly crowded European exchange traded fund market. The launch of its first European ETF comes a day after the Edinburgh-based group said 2022 was “one of the toughest investing years in living memory”, with outflows tripling to £10.3bn, even stripping out a large planned redemption by

Disruption from a ransomware attack on a little-known supplier to the world’s largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers will continue into March, in a new setback to chip production after years of coronavirus-related delays. US-based MKS Instruments told investors and suppliers this week that it had yet to fully recover from a “ransomware event”, first identified on

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. Shell’s top executives explored moving the company to the US, and Britain and the EU clinched a deal on Monday to settle their dispute over Northern Ireland trading rules. Plus, the FT’s Robert Armstrong explains why

The EU has implemented its tenth sanctions package against Russia. The bloc has excluded three more lenders from the Swift payments messaging system, including Tinkoff Bank, further reducing financial conduits between Russia and the west. The impact of sanctions has been more limited than western governments had hoped, reflecting the ability of Russia to continue

Tim Peake is part of UK space history. He was the first British astronaut with the European Space Agency and the first British astronaut to undertake a spacewalk. He ran the London Marathon while orbiting on the International Space Station 400km away. But freshly retired from ESA missions, Peake wants to put the past in

A cardholder’s haven in midtown Manhattan Those in possession of American Express’s invitation-only Centurion card know the privileges of membership are many, from hotel room upgrades to the oodles of points they earn with various purchases. As of next month, it has another one to enjoy, in the heart of Manhattan: Centurion New York is

“We don’t want that here.” The remark by philosopher AJ Ayer when watching Spurs at the old White Hart Lane could be an apt summary of Lionel Barber’s proposition in “A Spurs takeover would be the final nail in the glory game’s coffin” (Opinion, February 18). Ayer was reacting to a new neighbour who was

How would you like your burger? Plant-based, cultivated in a vat or swapped out for a salad? Beyond Meat was hoping to entice carbon-conscious carnivores with the first option, creating a massive new market in the process. That has spectacularly failed to occur. As a result, even after Friday’s bump in the stock on the

The writer is author of ‘The 15-Minute City’ When people drop the inverted commas from an awkward idea, something has changed. Witness the 15-minute city, which for years was known as “the 15-minute city”, because no one really understood what it meant. Suddenly, everyone from rule-making guru Jordan Peterson to Conservative MP Nick Fletcher seems

Charming school-set sitcom Abbott Elementary returns for a new term as a veritable critics’ pet, having been awarded many gold stars and three actual Golden Globes (as well as a few Emmys). While some of its comedic forebears — Parks and Recreation, The Office (US) — were under pressure to improve on shaky beginnings in

One thing to start: The US Virgin Islands is demanding more documents from JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon in a lawsuit over the bank’s alleged decision to retain the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates as customers despite numerous red flags. And one big event: Join the biggest names in football and

A Saudi real estate business is spinning out its international luxury development operations in London’s first main market listing so far this year. The new company, DarGlobal, will raise $72mn through a direct listing on the main market in London, which is expected to value the business at about $600mn. A direct listing works differently

The vast majority of Federal Reserve officials supported slowing the pace of US interest rate rises to 0.25 percentage points last month, according to an account of their most recent meeting that showed the central bank is still determined to bring inflation back to target. Heading into the meeting, some investors were concerned the minutes

Investors are betting the European Central Bank will raise interest rates to all-time highs, spurred on by the eurozone economy’s resilience and signs that inflation could prove tougher to rein in than expected. The Frankfurt-based central bank, widely seen as one of the world’s most dovish during its eight-year experiment with negative borrowing costs, is

Smith & Nephew has warned that chip shortages are still hitting the medical device maker’s sales of surgical robotic technology and wound-protecting products, even as supply recovers at major chipmakers. Deepak Nath, Smith & Nephew’s chief executive, said demand outstripped supply for products that rely on semiconductors and added that chipmakers did not prioritise the