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UK investors poured more than £1bn into venture capital trusts in the tax year just ended, in a record fundraising season for the early-stage businesses investment vehicles. Figures published by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) show that a record £1.13bn was invested in venture capital trusts in 2021-22, a 65 per cent increase compared

On the surface, April 2020 was apocalyptic. You could walk the sunny streets of Oxford and barely see a soul: shops closed, roads empty, just the occasional pedestrian nervously crossing to the other side of the street. Of course, it wasn’t just Oxford. The International Labour Organization estimated that, globally, more than 80 per cent

The largest living organism on our planet is neither animal nor plant. It lives in or, more accurately, under a forest in Oregon, spread over nine square kilometres. It glows eerily in the dark, and scientists reckon it’s about 2,500 years old. This is not the elevator pitch for a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, though I

Of the 1.5mn people living with a learning disability in the UK, just six per cent are in paid work. Despite the promises of the 2010 Equality Act, employment rates have shown little progress, with numerous reports of unfair hiring practices. But in a refurbished car park in Peckham, south London, an unusual design studio

Just Eat Takeaway: taking the piste Unperturbed by a recent share price that resembles a ski slope, Just Eat Takeaway staff decamped this week to Arosa in Switzerland. Hundreds of employees from the food delivery group’s two-dozen international markets were delivered to the Alpine resort for Snow Fest, an all-expenses-paid skiing and team-building junket. Snow

Imran Khan faces the greatest challenge of his political career after Pakistan’s supreme court ruled that the prime minister’s attempt to avoid a no-confidence vote by dissolving parliament was unconstitutional. The ruling, announced late on Thursday evening, set the stage for a weekend showdown in the national assembly that is widely expected to end the

Mexico’s Supreme Court on Thursday denied a bid to invalidate President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s electricity market reform in a decision that puts him on a collision course with the US government and creates a headache for the private sector. The 2021 reform, which has not yet taken effect, proposed to change electricity dispatch rules

Russian missiles on Friday hit a railway station in Kramatorsk, killing “dozens” in the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as Moscow strengthened its offensive in the east of the country. “Thousands of people were at the station during the missile strike, as residents of Donetsk region are being evacuated to safer regions of Ukraine,”

“It is not contrary to reason,” wrote David Hume, the 18th century Scottish philosopher, “for me to chuse my total ruin, to prevent the least uneasiness of an Indian or person wholly unknown to me.” The US, the UK, the EU and Nato have all said they will not directly intervene militarily to prevent the

I was surprised to read Jonathan Guthrie’s statement that “good governance . . . prescribes box ticking over the independence of non-executive directors and similar matters of little significance” (“ESG category errors need unbundling for ethical investors”, Opinion, April 5). Especially when the FT’s own non-executive director (NED) diploma — quoting from Sir David Walker’s “Review of Corporate Governance

Janan Ganesh follows a torturous line of logic by contrasting the real world approach of President Joe Biden in Ukraine, with some imagining of what Biden’s predecessor would be doing (“The war in Ukraine is not the end of Trump”, Opinion, March 30). Yet it strains credibility to assume tough talk or strategic ambiguity from

John Thornhill’s recent article looking at a potential artificial intelligence power imbalance between the public and private sectors (Opinion, April 1) certainly doesn’t understate the risks of a brain drain from AI research into industry. Translation of deep tech research into successful industrial applications has always been a challenge in the UK — and having

The delay in legislation to create a right to flexible working is to be welcomed (“Tories shelve flexible working plans”, Report, April 2). This will give more time for this movement to be exposed for what it is, an opportunistic attempt to secure four (or even three) day working by stealth. This movement is being

The UK government has moved fast after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to draw up a strategy for energy security. If its targets can be achieved it will do much to expand homegrown and green supply sources long-term. But internal wrangling has left two large holes. By backing away from targets for the cheapest and fastest

The writer is a former state department official and senior fellow at Hudson Institute US deputy Treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo toured Europe last month on a drive to strengthen EU sanctions and bolster asset-freezing measures against Vladimir Putin and his nomenklatura. His message to Moscow’s enablers was clear: “to anyone who may be in a

Warren Buffett has made tens of billions of dollars from buying dull, industrial companies at staid prices. Despite its Silicon Valley headquarters, the Sage of Omaha’s latest target should be considered in that same genre. A securities filing disclosed Berkshire Hathaway had acquired an 11 per cent stake in HP Inc, formerly known as Hewlett-Packard,

More than half of all new cars sold in the UK must be fully electric by 2028, under detailed government proposals unveiled on Thursday to pave the way for phasing out the sale of traditional petrol and diesel vehicles by the end of the decade. Ministers want to bring in a China-style sales mandate from

On Tuesday, Russia’s new AntiFake TV show aired on the most popular Kremlin-controlled television channel. Superimposed on the horrifying images that have emerged of Ukrainian civilians lying dead in Bucha’s streets was the word “FAKE”. As the TV hosts accused Ukraine of colluding with western media by hiring “poorly-trained actors” to play victims in the

The number of Britons living with long Covid stands at its highest level since official statistics on the phenomenon were first collected a year ago. Figures from the Office for National Statistics published on Thursday showed an estimated 1.7mn people, or 2.7 per cent of the UK population, reported experiencing symptoms lasting for more than

With Covid-19 restrictions now lifting and clear signs that business travel is recovering after an enforced two-year hiatus, companies large and small in the UK are starting to examine what that means — post-Brexit — for UK travel to the EU. According to the British Chambers of Commerce, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement contains more