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A Hong Kong lawmaker has sparked concerns over the health of Xi Jinping after testing positive for Covid-19 just two days following his meeting with the Chinese president. Steven Ho, a member of Hong Kong’s biggest pro-Beijing party, returned a positive test on Saturday. But Ho said he was negative when he was tested on

To succeed in business today, you need to be flexible and have good planning and organizational skills. Many people start a business thinking that they’ll turn on their computers or open their doors and start making money, only to find that making money in a business is much more difficult than they thought. You can avoid

Anaemic personal income growth in the UK since 2005 has left many households “brutally exposed” to rising inflation and the cost of living crisis, according to a leading think-tank. The Resolution Foundation concluded in a report published on Monday that real household disposable income growth for working-age families averaged just 0.7 per cent a year

Rules governing childminders and nurseries in England could be relaxed as part of a raft of proposals to reduce the escalating cost of childcare that is increasingly squeezing working families. The Department for Education announced on Monday it would consult on plans to change adult-child ratios for two-year-olds in nurseries from 1:4 to 1:5, a

As issues surrounding healthcare and insurance continue to evolve, members of LGBTQ+ communities may begin to see improvements in a long history of under-treatment and poor treatment. LGBTQ+ Americans have faced a long struggle to get the healthcare they need. This struggle intersects with issues such as the training and cultural competency of health professionals

A Citibank sign in front of one of the company’s offices in California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images Investors just can’t seem to find a trough in this bear market, and are struggling to hold on to any optimism amid growing concerns of a possible recession.  However, the key to surviving a bear market successfully

At least one-third of UK mortgage holders on fixed-rate contracts are likely to see their repayments rise within two years as their current terms expire. While 83.1 per cent of existing mortgage holders are on fixed-rate contracts, as many as 32.7 per cent of this group are on short agreements of 24 months or less,

Millions of UK consumers are currently embroiled in Britain’s biggest ever “class action” lawsuit — even if they don’t yet realise it. Walter Merricks, the former financial ombudsman, is representing 46.2mn people in a £10bn lawsuit against payments company Mastercard, a case that is testing new ground in the English legal system. Merricks claims that

The highest and lowest unemployment rates in the world vary dramatically, even among the Earth’s largest economies. Unemployment in the United States, the largest economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), was at 3.5% by the end of February 2020—the lowest rate in half a century—but quickly rose to 14.7% by April in the wake

The Sunday sermon that Metropolitan Longin, a senior bishop in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, aimed at Moscow’s patriarch Kirill in early June did not hold back. Previously Longin had prayed at every service for the blessing of Kirill — the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, his own church’s spiritual parent. But now Longin lambasted

Humanities degrees are falling out of favour in the UK. This month, Sheffield Hallam University nixed its English Literature course, sparking an immediate backlash from writers and others in the arts world. The University of Cumbria took similar steps last year. Aston University’s languages programmes and modern languages at Hull University have also been cancelled.

When evaluating stocks, most investors are familiar with fundamental indicators such as the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), book value, price-to-book (P/B), and the PEG ratio. Also, investors who recognize the importance of cash generation use the company’s cash flow statements when analyzing its fundamentals. They acknowledge that these statements offer a better representation of the company’s

The writer is leader of the Scottish Labour party When the first minister of Scotland entered the chamber of the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, announcing plans to hold an independence referendum on October 19 2023 was not her foremost aim. Keen observers of Scottish politics will know that last week’s statement was really about one

Parts shortages and pandemic-related production shutdowns at Tesla’s plant in Shanghai caused a big drop in the electric car maker’s latest global vehicle deliveries, according to figures released on Saturday. The US automaker said it had delivered 254,000 vehicles in the second quarter. Though up 27 per cent from a year before, the Chinese shutdowns

One of the scariest things about a home equity loan is that the lender has permission to sell your house if you fail to keep up with repayments. In exchange for loaning you a big lump sum of cash, the financial institution is granted a legal claim on your property and the right to take

Three Arrows Capital has filed for bankruptcy in the US, highlighting the scale and reach of the prominent crypto investment firm’s borrowings across the industry before it collapsed into liquidation this week. The Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing in Manhattan federal court late on Friday came just days after Three Arrows was pushed into liquidation in

Viktoriia Vasylieva, a wedding photographer, and her eight-year-old daughter returned to their home in Kyiv in recent weeks — enjoying the relative peace in a city that felt distant from the brutal artillery war raging in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. But the calm was shattered again this week in a deadly rocket attack. In a

Reinvestment, in which the generated interim income is reinvested back into the investment, is known to increase long-term returns. However, some investors opt to receive periodic payments from their investments, depending on their specific needs. Periodic coupon or interest payments from bonds, which are debt instruments, and regular dividends, which are cash payments from stocks and mutual funds, can

The things that might have emerged if only Sophie Freud had just once hauled herself on to a couch for a session of psychoanalysis. There was the wartime escape from Europe, the estrangement from an uncaring father and the conflicted feelings for her mother. Looming over it all was the shadow of her famous family

Europe wants to cut tobacco use to less than 5 per cent of the population by 2040. Encouraging locals to stub out their Gauloises will be easier if young users never pick up the habit. A proposed ban on the sale of flavours for heated tobacco products such as British American Tobacco’s Glo is one

When it was launched, Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was envisaged as a medium for daily transactions by its inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto. The idea behind a decentralized cryptocurrency was to eliminate centralized control of money from government agencies and ensure speedy processing of transactions. More than a decade later, observers are questioning whether the cryptocurrency has failed to

At one point in February 2020, a single cruise ship — the Diamond Princess — accounted for more than half of the world’s confirmed cases of Covid-19 outside China. The 3,700 passengers and crew endured a grim quarantine off Japan; seven died. But Covid has not proved to be an existential threat for the industry.

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here. Specification: Market failure, government intervention and government failure Click to watch the short video below and then answer the questions: Draw an externalities diagram related to the farming industry What policies could a government introduce

While the S&P 500 posted its worst performance for the first half of the year since the 1970s, and other global markets have struggled as central banks raise interest rates, there’s a bull market underway in China. Easing virus restrictions and a looser policy stance have helped Chinese equities defy the recent sell-off of global stocks. Chinese authorities also

Russian president Vladimir Putin has already drawn his energy battle lines in Europe. On Friday, he added Asia. Russia will force the ownership of its Sakhalin-2 natural gas project into a local entity, threatening the investments of foreign groups including Shell and Japanese trading companies. It is a shot across the bows of energy producers

US government bonds rallied sharply on Friday and stocks pulled back after a gloomy report on America’s factory sector intensified concerns over the outlook for the world’s biggest economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, a benchmark for global government bond markets as well as consumer loans and mortgages, dropped 0.1 percentage points to

Pro bono is short for the Latin phrase pro bono publico, which means “for the public good.” The term generally refers to services that are rendered by a professional for free or at a lower cost. Professionals in many fields offer pro bono services to nonprofit organizations. These organizations include hospitals, universities, national charities, churches,

Turkey has banned access to two international public broadcasters, striking a blow to freedom of expression in the country and risking renewed tensions with the west. The websites of Germany’s Deutsche Welle and the Turkish-language version of US public radio service Voice of America were blocked by an Ankara court on Thursday night after they

For the best part of a century Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s name was known, if at all, for his choral work Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, and even that only enjoyed a shadowy presence. Although music students knew of its existence, performances were few and far between. Now Coleridge-Taylor’s music is undergoing an overdue re-evaluation. The three works on

The Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ability to regulate carbon emissions could ultimately lead to decisions that impact the federal government’s ability to regulate everything from climate change to tech. In a 6-to-3 decision, the court ruled that the EPA overstepped its authority by passing rules to cut power plant