Hello. Here’s the document we’ve been waiting for, the draft proposal to create flexibility in World Trade Organization rules to allow countries to waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines. It’s less than 900 words*, about the length of a Trade Secrets newsletter, quite concise for such a politically fraught subject. It was mooted more than 18

The world’s oldest grandmaster, Yuri Averbakh, passed away aged 100 on May 7. The venerable Russian had been a world title candidate, an aide to champions, and chief arbiter at top matches, as well as a renowned author of multiple books on endgames and chess history. As a child, Averbakh watched Emanuel Lasker; on his

Whether or not money buys happiness is an age-old question. But it’s something the super-rich are grappling with as never before. As the realm of the mega-wealthy grows ever larger – Forbes estimated a global population of more than 2,600 billionaires whose collective wealth equals some $14tn, as of December 2021 – so too are accompanying issues

Good morning. The dust is still settling on last week’s elections. We’ll be exploring the new lie of the land over the next few days. For now, today’s newsletter looks at the most significant result from the action last week, and explains the calculations Conservatives and Labour MPs will be making about Sir Keir Starmer’s

The industry for outsourcing investment mandates is booming, offering large prizes for asset managers as challenging markets, a deluge of compliance and governance requirements and rising costs push big asset owners to seek their help. The industry has more than doubled in size since 2016, growing to $2.46tn in assets under management worldwide. The pace

In the run-up to the Muslim feast marking the end of Ramadan, Mona, a teacher in Lebanon for more than 30 years, worked in a parking lot to supplement her meagre income, now worth less than $150 a month. After a years-long crisis and the collapse of the Lebanese pound, “the only ones who can

There are many things that I dislike about flying, but I think I can put my finger on the most important. It’s the moment when you catch sight of the screen flashing: GATE CLOSING. You look at your ticket, you look at your watch, you know that it’s impossible that the gate is actually closing.

When record-breaking bushfires tore through much of eastern Australia in late 2019, Melbourne resident Carolyn Glascodine suffered a severe bout of depression. “I was in despair,” the 58-year-old editor says. “I literally couldn’t get out of bed.” For years she says she watched Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government brush aside warnings of climate scientists and continue

The lung game A clear jar filled with a miniature forest of lush lichen is gently whirring on the table next to me, exhaling Arctic-clean air and an air of calm. My little green companion – basically a terrarium with oomph – is purportedly the world’s “most sustainable” air filter. An elegant new creation from

The International Energy Agency says in a net zero world there would still be 20 per cent of global energy supply coming from fossil fuels. As Pilita Clark explains in “Magical thinking on fossil fuels endangers safety” (Opinion, April 30) there is a now a scramble by energy companies, who want to produce that final

Israeli spyware company NSO Group has stonewalled questions over whether it is operating legally, according to consultants acting on behalf of the controversial company’s owners. Berkeley Research Group, the US consultancy that was last year put in charge of the private equity fund that owns 70 per cent of NSO, has told EU lawmakers that

Every week, employees at Fujitsu block out an hour in their calendars for a non-work activity of their choice. They reserve periods for undisturbed “protected focus time” and squeeze their remaining essential online meetings into 25 and 45 minute periods to ensure they have breaks between calls. “These were really simple things that got so

It’s commonly said that people use the most offensive swear words through laziness, ignorance or a juvenile wish to shock. Whereas great writers such as Dickens never used the F-word, why does your newspaper allow its columnists, such as Jemima Kelly (“Twitter isn’t the town square, it’s the theatre”, Opinion, May 5), to gaily employ

Why wait to reform banks’ capital buffers (“Sieving the alphabet soup of banks’ capital requirements”, FT View, May 2)? Now is as good a time as any to make changes. It was clear during the Covid-19 downturn that the current operation of capital buffers was not working as banks were reluctant to release excess capital

Boris Johnson will attempt to re-energise his faltering government this week with a new legislative programme intended to show he has ideas to improve voters’ lives after the Conservative party’s dire local election results. The prime minister is facing calls from Tory colleagues to put a particular focus on winning back voters in the “blue

Wm Morrison has mounted a last-ditch rescue bid for McColl’s, prompting petrol station operator EG Group to improve its offer to buy the struggling UK convenience store chain out of administration. Just hours before a court was expected to formally appoint an administrator, supermarket operator Morrisons tabled an improved offer to win over McColl’s lenders,

British ministers have rejected claims that Sinn Féin’s election victory in Northern Ireland heralds the break-up of the UK, in spite of the nationalist party’s push for a referendum on a united Ireland within five years. Brandon Lewis, Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, on Monday begins the painstaking process of trying to coax pro-UK unionists to

Renewable energy developers are facing delays of up to a decade to connect new capacity to the electricity grid, threatening the government’s pledge to shift away from fossil fuels and meet net zero targets. The UK recently set out ambitious new goals to more than double existing renewable generation capacity, adding 50 gigawatts of offshore

Northern Ireland is a place where democracy is weakly rooted. So it is troubling that while there are clear winners from last week’s historic election and widespread backing for constructive government, it is in a rut. The big news was the victory of Sinn Féin, the one-time political wing of the Provisional IRA. It is

May 9 will be celebrated as Victory Day in Russia and as Europe Day in much of the rest of Europe. The coincidence in time between a cult of military victory and a celebration of European peace and unity has long been a little jarring. Today the clash is more sinister, reflecting as it does