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NoViolet Bulawayo burst on to the literary scene in 2013 with We Need New Names, whose exploration of the harshness of life in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and the immigrant experience won its author a place on that year’s Booker Prize shortlist. In her second novel, set in a thinly veiled Zimbabwe named “Jidada with a

It was, she says, “a bumpy start”. Surrounded by packing crates, Cecilia Alemani, curator of the 59th Venice Biennale, is speaking from the vast echoing spaces of the Arsenale, where her exhibition The Milk of Dreams is being installed. “What was very challenging was the total lack of certainty,” she adds, as she describes being

While 80 countries from Albania to Zimbabwe are participating in this year’s Venice Biennale, the national pavilion of one traditional participant now stands closed and empty: that of the Russian Federation. The pavilion — built just before the 1917 Soviet revolution and renovated last year — was to feature artists Kirill Savchenkov and Alexandra Sukhareva,

Beatrice Bulgari and her husband Nicola have two art collections. One is spread between their multiple homes — in New York, Rome, Paris and Sicily — and ranges from Bellotto to Cy Twombly, Michelangelo Pistoletto and William Kentridge. The other, created by Beatrice alone, “is about this size”, she laughs, spreading her hands wide apart.

So potently provocative is director Cecilia Alemani’s vision for a feminised Venice Biennale that, almost a month before the event, the effect was already pronounced in the city’s early-launching off-site shows. Alemani’s exhibition The Milk of Dreams, titled after a fairy tale by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, will include just 21 men out of

In Japan they have codified the art of arranging food. It’s called moritsuke, and chefs sometimes quote it as an inspiration for their “plating” techniques. We often quote the truism that we “eat with our eyes”, that how the food looks can affect how it is enjoyed, and moritsuke demonstrates this. But, like ikebana, the

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, said on Thursday that it would be impossible for the Baltic region to remain “non-nuclear” if Sweden and Finland joined the Nato alliance. “If Sweden and Finland join Nato, the length of the alliance’s land borders with Russia will more than double,” Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia’s Security

Three weeks ago, a month after Russia launched its invasion, a Ukrainian composer named Yuri Shevchenko died of pneumonia, aged 68. He was trapped in a basement in Kyiv as the city was preparing for a possible siege. His passing might have escaped my notice had I not witnessed a striking tribute that recently took

Good morning. A happy little bump in airline stocks yesterday from some good Delta earnings. Vindication for Armstrong! Sort of! Email us: robert.armstrong@ft.com and ethan.wu@ft.com. JPMorgan and the economy JPMorgan Chase is the most important bank on Wall Street and, arguably, the world. Its shares have fallen 25 per cent in the past six months.

Good morning and welcome to Europe Express. Among the last policy announcements expected before the Easter break is the outcome of the European Central Bank’s governing council meeting today, which may shed further light on how the Frankfurt-based bank seeks to reconcile apparently clashing priorities. We’ll explore the conundrum of helping countries borrow at affordable

Funding slowdowns in the tech industry tend to be staggered across three different markets. First, shares in public companies fall. Then venture capital deal valuations decline. Finally, early stage investment dries up. The first two stages are under way. But early stage investment is flying high. This is good news for anyone worried about a

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. US president Joe Biden announced yesterday he would send $800mn in additional military aid to Ukraine, the FT’s John Paul Rathbone outlines Russia’s changing military strategy, and our US financial commentator, Robert Armstrong, unpacks the debate

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. In a country besieged by war, Ukrainian politicians continued to meet in their parliamentary building, despite the clear threat of attack from Russian troops. Ukrainian MP Dmytro Natalukha shares his experiences of keeping parliament running while

Preserved Egg roams Shanghai’s empty streets with a megaphone strapped to its back. The robot dog is about the size of a terrier and barks orders to residents: stay inside, wash your hands, check your temperature. On some nights, when city officials have ordered mandatory midnight Covid testing, Preserved Egg – the name is reference

On May 9 1921, George V held a state dinner for Crown Prince Hirohito at Buckingham Palace — the first time a Japanese heir-apparent had “ever left his native shores”, according to the king’s toast. Consommé à l’Impérial and lamb chops à l’Orientale were on the menu, and the programme of music for that day

“The Woman Who Ate Photographs”, “The Woman Who Solved Her Own Murder”, “The Woman Who Was Fed By A Duck”. A cursory scroll through the episode titles of Roar may give the wrong impression. This new eight-part anthology series isn’t a catalogue of offbeat human interest stories but a work of inventive, feminist fiction. Developed

This is an audio transcript of the Rachman Review podcast episode: ‘That was frightening as hell’: Ukrainian MP on working in a war zone [MUSIC PLAYING] Gideon RachmanHello and welcome to the Rachman Review. I’m Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator of the Financial Times. This week we’re hearing from inside Ukraine. I’m joined from

In a speech delivered less than a week after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2018, chair Jay Powell acknowledged the historic challenge confronting the US central bank: tame the highest inflation in 40 years without causing a “hard landing” with painful job losses and a sharp economic contraction. “No

I am an 81-year-old widow. I own a flat in central London which is my second home. I inherited the flat from my husband who died last year, and there are no capital gains tax issues. On average, I stay in the flat two to three nights a month, and my three adult children, friends

Sajid Javid’s right to the “non-dom” status he held before entering parliament has been questioned by tax experts, who said the fact the UK health secretary was an international banker and his father was born in Pakistan would not be enough to entitle him to the perk. Javid, who was briefly chancellor just over two