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Stockpiles of some of the world’s most important industrial metals have dropped to critically low levels as record power prices in Europe hit production and the war in Ukraine threatens output from Russia. Inventories of aluminium, copper, nickel and zinc — four of the main contracts traded on the London Metal Exchange — have plunged

Are you a woman who is spacey? Forgetful? Or chatty? asks one advert on TikTok, portraying a teenage girl acting out these characteristics for the camera. The text across the top of the screen explains that if so, you may have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And that now is the time for you to “take

One thing to start: Two of the most influential proxy advisers have counselled Credit Suisse shareholders to vote against a motion to absolve executives and board members from blame for the multiple scandals afflicting the Swiss lender. Saying auf Wiedersehen to German banks In February 2020, as disappointing revenue growth, negative interest rates and the

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: Volkswagen’s U-turn Marc Filippino Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, April 13th, and this is your FT News Briefing. [MUSIC PLAYING] US banks are out with quarterly earnings this week. We’ll get a preview from FT US banking editor Josh

Oleg Bril’s high-rise apartment block in Chernihiv was ripped apart by a rocket fired by Russian troops last month. Looking up at its remains, Bril still wonders why they did it. “I have no explanation. There are no military units here,” he said. “There are only civilians, and across the street a cardiology hospital and

Microsoft has escaped the recent backlash against the power and wealth of the biggest US tech companies. Despite a stock market value that has soared to more than $2tn on its dominance of various parts of the business software market, it has avoided a repeat of the complaints that made it the most prominent target

I am sitting in a homely pizzeria in Jokkmokk, a Swedish town tucked just north of the Arctic Circle, talking to Anders Sunna, a Sámi artist whose small studio is a couple of blocks away. The Sámis are the indigenous people of the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula, whose presence also stretches into north-western

Gideon Rachman’s “Strongman syndrome” article (Life & Arts, April 2) damns Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, by crude association with the likes of Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan claiming “even in the UK, Boris Johnson’s plan for ‘Global Britain’ draws on nostalgia for a period when Britain was a great imperial power rather

There are many reasons to expand UK universities but subsidising young people to make themselves poorer is not one of them (Opinion, April 7). It should be unconscionable to university leaders that nearly a fifth of graduates earn less than if they had not gone at all and nearly half of recent graduates are in

New York police say they are seeking a “person of interest” in connection with an attack on a Brooklyn subway train in which 10 commuters were shot and at least 13 more were injured. James Essig, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives, on Tuesday evening described the shooter as a heavyset black man

With thousands of protesters on the streets of Colombo, soaring food and fuel prices and this week the first-ever suspension of government bond payments, Sri Lanka’s escalating economic crisis has shaken the governing Rajapaksa family’s grip on power. But while demonstrators accuse Gotabaya Rajapaksa of mismanaging the economy, the president’s elder brother, prime minister Mahinda

Count me among the minority of Americans, according to Niels Erich, who believe we should not risk nuclear war to defend Ukraine (“Trump in wartime — that’s a thought to conjure with!”, Letters, April 8). Those who argue that direct attacks on Russia using a no-fly zone, medium range missiles and Nato fighter aircraft pose

Gideon Rachman (“We need to think about a Le Pen victory”, Opinion, April 12) is spot on with his claim that “rather than dismissing Le Pen’s chances, it is time to think seriously about what her possible victory would mean for France and beyond”. Her victory, if she kept her word, would most certainly mean,

The formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board and the publication of their new proposals (Report, April 1) is a welcome step in a landscape of well-intentioned but increasingly uncoordinated, complex and nationalised taxonomies. As the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report once again reiterates, the time is indeed “now or never” for action,

The US will extend a public transportation mask mandate for 15 days while the country’s top public health agency monitors a recent rise in coronavirus cases. The federal mandate, which requires travellers on public transport including aeroplanes, trains and buses to wear masks, was set to expire on April 18. “In order to assess the

The governor of Texas is facing growing calls to abandon a vehicle inspection programme that has led to blockades and long queues at Mexico border crossings, threatening billions of dollars in trade at a time when supply chains are already under strain. Mexican truck drivers have blockaded border crossings since Monday in protest against the

The World Trade Organization has cut its goods trade growth forecast for this year by about a third to 3 per cent, warning that the decline in commodity exports caused by the Ukraine war could cause mass hunger in developing countries. The Geneva-based body revised predicted growth in goods trade volumes down from 4.7 per

Two of the most influential proxy advisers have counselled Credit Suisse shareholders to vote against a motion to absolve executives and board members from blame for the multiple scandals afflicting the Swiss lender. On Tuesday, ISS and Glass Lewis both released reports that said they would not recommend discharging the board and top executives from

Fears about the outlook for global economic growth among large institutional investors have risen to their highest level in more than a quarter of a century, as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third month. A net 71 per cent of fund managers in March said they expected the global economy to weaken over the

It is springtime for Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour party is readying for another by-election. It has yet to make a by-election gain in this parliament but this is a fight it has a chance of winning. In Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, Starmer is hoping to kick off the party’s fightback in its former

Before the pandemic, New Yorkers John Newton and Marc Perrotta bought a one-time dental office in the Mexican city of Mérida, about 300km west of Cancún. The city’s laid-back lifestyle fit nicely with their plan to relocate from Brooklyn. “We wanted to leave New York and had thought about Canada and even Germany,” says Newton,