MoneyWeek

The “War of the Rosé” may be drawing to a close, says David Chazan in The Times. Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been engaged in a years-long legal battle over Château Miraval, the €150m wine estate in Provence they had bought in 2008. The c

There is a cloud over copper. Prices are still 20% below the level they hit in March last year just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Copper rallied at the start of 2023 on “upbeat sentiment” about China’s post-pandemic reopening, but that recovery

“I love seeing my cash [earn interest]... while I know inflation is an invisible tax on that growth... The sense of comfort that comes from having a [cash] reserve is undeniable, and the prospect of earning interest on your money makes it even more e

Britain is “on track to incur the highest debt interest costs in the developed world this year”, adding to pressure on public finances, says Mary McDougall in the Financial Times. Creditratings agency Fitch forecasts that the Treasury will spend £110

BP’s second-quarter profits came in far below expectations, slipping by almost 70% to $2.6bn as oil and gas prices and refining margins retreated from 2022’s peaks, says Ben Martin in The Times. The fall in oil prices is due to investors shifting the

Uber Technologies has reached a key milestone: its first ever quarterly operating profit, says Preetika Rana in The Wall Street Journal. While it has technically made money in the past, that was due to investments outweighing losses elsewhere. These

Despite “a touch of bravado” from NatWest’s chairman Howard Davies at a recent press conference, questions remain about his future, says Ben Martin in The Sunday Times . He has had a “disastrous fortnight”. After initially backing the bank’s CEO Alis

The Mail on SundayThis technology business helped clients to process over £7bn in customers’ payments globally last year. Bango is now expanding into “super-bundling”: technology that lets telecoms firms offer a one-stop platform to manage and cancel

US telecoms business Frontier Communications filed for bankruptcy in 2020, says Nicholas Jasinski in Barron’s. But it is now back with new managers and “a refreshed balance sheet”. The firm is upgrading its network from copper to fibre – which allows

L Catterton, a private-equity group backed by luxury-goods giant LVMH, is planning to float Birkenstock, the famous German sandal-maker, in America next month, says Bloomberg. The initial public offering (IPO) could value the group at up to $10bn. Th

Russia has carried out further attacks on Ukraine’s ports and grain infrastructure this week, damaging a grain silo in Izmail. This city, which sits on the Danube river near the border with Romania, is a key alternative to Black Sea ports, say Andrew

There were three UK by-elections last month, but there are likely to be several more in the near future. One of these is in Scotland’s Rutherglen and Hamilton West, where the current MP Margaret Ferrier, who sits as an independent after being suspend

Donald Trump has been indicted for the third time, setting the stage for what could be the “most momentous” case in US history”, says David Charter in The Times. The new indictment alleges that the former US president knew that he had lost the 2020 p

The Bank of England, and its increasingly hapless governor Andrew Bailey, is facing a growing wave of criticism. Inflation may have come down a little, but it is still way over its 2% target, and, more seriously, it is way higher than in almost every

● Speed is not typically associated with BT, says Alistair Osborne in The Times. “Normally there’s more of a call-centre vibe… investors left hanging on for yonks.” So the news that Allison Kirkby (pictured) will be taking over from outgoing CEO Phil

The arrival of an activist investor has given shares in Dr Martens “ a much-needed kick in the right direction”, says The Times. The bootmaker’s share price rose 6% after reports that Sparta Capital – which describes itself as a “constructive activis

■ Abrdn is calling time on its underperforming Global Absolute Return Strategies (Gars) fund, says Citywire. The fund, which managed £45bn at its peak in 2016, will be folded into Abrdn’s diversified multi-asset funds after assets slumped to £1.4bn.

Robert Colvile The Sunday Times Ulez, the ultra-low emission zone, has become “hugely toxic” as a result of Sadiq Khan’s plan to extend it, but it “ought to be popular,” says Robert Colvile. Britain’s air is too dirty and there is a “large volume of

“It can be dangerous. I’ve seen it a lot. Four out of ten professional footballers, after their career, they are broke.” Arsenal and Italy footballer Jorginho, on the dangers of getting rich too quickly and squandering money, quoted in The Times “Th

econlib.org The conservative insistence on personal responsibility often comes across to left-wingers as callous and selfish, says Kevin Corcoran. Yet it is worth remembering that the need for personal responsibility applies not only to those in tro

adamsmith.org This summer’s Mediterranean forest fires have been widely blamed on climate change, says Tim Worstall. That is part of the picture. Climate models do predict wetter winters, and “the major determinant for any one fire season is... how

cepr.org/voxeu Much Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation happens in Europe, yet European firms lag behind the US and China when it comes to actually adopting AI technologies, say James Harrigan, Ariell Reshef and Farid Toubal. The missing link be

The story of Midas, and how everything he touched turned to gold, is perhaps the most famous golden myth of all. His touch led to one of the most successful and underrated technologies in history: coinage. Midas was the king of Phrygia, which is now

The simplest and cheapest way to gain exposure to Mexico is through a country-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF), such as the Xtrackers MSCI Mexico UCITS ETF 1C (LSE: XMEX). It tracks Mexico’s main share index by holding shares in 23 leading corporat

Bank accounts used to be very sticky – people tended to stay with the same bank they’d been with for years, whether that was the best option for them or not. This may be changing. Customers are shifting current accounts at an ever-increasing pace, ju

● British Airways may have to charge VAT on its Avios air-miles scheme in some situations after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) launched a review of how Avios are taxed, says Head for Points. At present, Avios are exempt from VAT since flights are not su

As your business grows, it becomes harder to keep track of your customers. There will hopefully be more and more of them; each one may be giving you more business; and you may have a growing team of people to look after them. At this stage a firm sho

● Almost a quarter of research-and-development (R&D) tax credits paid to small businesses in the 2020-2021 financial year were fraudulent or paid in error, HM Revenue & Customs has revealed. The R&D scheme suffered losses of £1bn, HMRC now believes,

The TB Amati UK Listed Smaller Companies fund provides comprehensive coverage of the UK Smaller Company and Aim universe. We apply our bottom-up, fundamentally driven stock-picking approach to the bottom 10% of the UK equity market by market capitali

After doing a politics degree at Exeter, Anthony Cross joined Schroders, working on their smaller-companies team, which managed roughly £2bn of investors’ money, mainly for pension funds and other financial institutions. In 1997 Cross was approached

The recently opened Barnsdale hotel in Rutland is housed in a Georgian former hunting lodge that used to belong to the earls of Gainsborough, says Ian Belcher in The Sunday Times. Today, it is the third-largest hotel in the Signet Collection, the nas

2022 Côte-de-Brouilly, Cuvée de l’Heronde, Domaine Vavril, Beaujolais, France £15.45, reduced to £13.75 by the case of 12 bottles, hhandc.co.uk I have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to Piemonte, in north-west Italy, to taste every elite bot

Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent ThemLinda YuehPenguin Business (£22) From Covid to the collapse of Credit Suisse amid soaring interest rates, recent years have brought a steady stream of economic and financial crisis. In The Great Cr

How They Rise and How They Fall, from Julius Caesar to Boris JohnsonFerdinand Mount Bloomsbury (£20) One by one, the “toxic giants” of modern politics have “come crashing to earth”, with Boris Johnson quitting, Donald Trump indicted and Silvio Berlus

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