MoneyWeek

Papal lawyers are seeking a jail sentence of 11 and a half years, plus £300m in “moral damages”, for Raffaele Mincione (pictured), a Catholic British-Italian fund manager, who they argue sold the Vatican an investment in west London flats at an infla

Last week shares in NatWest suffered their worst daily decline since the Brexit referendum in 2016, says Ben Martin in The Times. They slid by 18% before closing down 12%. Investors “took fright” at poor results. These were compounded by the “continu

Fast-food chain McDonald’s demonstrated its “resilience” in the face of economic headwinds in the third quarter, says Lex in the Financial Times. Sales rose by 14%, while operating profits increased by 16%. The group seems to have benefited from a “b

Two years of talks over a proposed merger between computer-drive maker Western Digital’s semiconductor business and Japan’s Kioxia Holdings, the world’s third- and fourth-largest manufacturers of flash memory, seem “to have fallen apart in the final

Much is “already known about poor-decision making, avoidable deaths, lockdown-breaking parties and atrocious procurement” during the pandemic, says The Guardian. But the evidence given by Dominic Cummings, Lee Cain and other key figures in the Covid

With the West now focused on the Middle East, Russia “has poured more men and equipment” into its series of “ferocious assaults” along the 1,000-kilometre front in Ukraine, says Michael Clarke in The Sunday Times. These counterattacks are “aimed at w

“Germany has a new populist party of the far left”, says Wolfgang Münchau in The New Statesman. Last week, Sahra Wagenknecht, the former leader of Die Linke (Left Party), created her own movement, along with nine of Die Linke’s MPs. This is “not a bu

When it comes to betting exchanges there are two options for politically minded punters: Betfair and Smarkets. Betfair has by far the biggest volume of money traded. For example, £6.2m has been matched on Betfair on the individual who will win the 20

Over the last few weeks the outlook for many French companies has deteriorated dramatically. The Altice empire, put together by billionaire Patrick Drahi, is in big trouble, ensnared in a corruption scandal, and raising emergency cash to stay afloat.

● ”Waiter, there’s a fly in my takeover,” says Matthew Brooker on Bloomberg. The bid for The Restaurant Group (TRG), owner of Wagamama, by private-equity firm Apollo, may yet turn into a battle, after Pizza Express indicated it is interested in explo

Crystal Amber Fund, the activist investment trust, has asked its shareholders to “be patient” after extending its wind-down process, says CityWire. Manager Richard Bernstein has opted to hike the trust’s stake in struggling banknote maker De La Rue.

■ Facing pressure from the passive fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) market, investment trusts have been cutting their fees over the past 12 months, says the Investors’ Chronicle. Figures from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) and Fitz

Will Dunn The New Statesman The second quarter of this year sounded the death knell for small landlords, says Will Dunn. Research by Savills finds there is “no longer any profit to be made” from buying and renting out a property with a deposit of les

conversableeconomist.com The “winds of public opinion and politics” have been blowing against globalisation for years now, says Timothy Taylor. Three main arguments are levelled against it: that it is bad for national security due to strengthening g

bbc.com/worklife Ever since the launch of AI chatbot ChatGPT, employers have “scrambled” to keep its use in the workplace under control, says Alex Christian. Many are concerned that their data will be leaked as employees unintentionally train the al

city-journal.org “Effective altruism”, the philosophy that purports to direct charitable giving to where it can do the most good, has been discredited by the disgrace of leading proponent Sam Bankman-Fried. Good, says Robert Wright. The idea fails b

Warsaw’s WIG 20 blue-chip benchmark is dominated by oil firm Orlen (15% of the index), the insurer PZU (14%) and the banking sector (collectively comprising over 30%). Investors can simply buy the market through the iShares MSCI Poland ETF (LSE: SPOL

Uber shares rose briefly after the last earnings announcement back in early August but have since performed broadly in line with the S&P 500 index of large US stocks during a difficult few months for markets. Macroeconomic concerns about inflation, h

● Motorists have had to pay parking fines of almost £850m over the past 12 months, says Lucy Evans in The Mail on Sunday. One in four male drivers were issued with a parking fine, “more than double the number of female drivers caught out”. Overall, o

● Small companies in Britain are spending 22% more on their credit cards each month than at the end of the Covid pandemic, new research from business software provider Intuit reveals. The increase reflects the financial pressures that many small busi

Small companies planning their finances for 2024 need to factor in the possibility of significantly higher energy bills. While gas and electricity prices have fallen from the huge peaks seen last year, the positive effect of this looks set to be outw

We are living in an uncertain environment, reflected in the high level of volatility across asset classes. But macroeconomic trends are difficult to forecast and building a portfolio of stocks based on such views is even more challenging. At Fidelity

Chip Wilson (pictured), the founder of Lululemon Athletica, has rarely been out of the headlines over the last ten years, attracting plaudits and courting controversy in equal measure. “The 68-year-old entrepreneur was at the forefront of the movemen

Autumn and winter is a great time to visit Gleneagles in Perthshire, says Helen Wilson-Beevers in The Independent. “The leaves change colour and the crisp mornings offer an opportunity to wrap up warm, venture outdoors and later retreat to a luxuriou

Il Picciolo Etna Golf Resort & Spa in Sicily has “a lovely outdoor pool”, says Chris Folley in the Evening Standard. “If you are very unlucky your peace might be disturbed by the sound of ‘fore!’ and a wildly hooked shot bouncing in your midst – the

Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita lies “along the pristine shores of Mauritius, where turquoise waters meet powder-white sands”, says Daniella Schoeman for Luxury Lifestyle Magazine. It is “a haven of tropical opulence and indulgence”. The gar

Follow the driveway through 300 acres of rolling Hertfordshire countryside, past the 18-hole championship golf course, and The Grove’s redbrick façade comes into view, says Ben Harris in Country Life. It is a spectacular sight and the gardens are “im

Moric Hausmarke Red S20, Austria £16.50, thewinesociety.com I am a massive fan of Roland Velich’s exceptional Weingut Moric wines. His favourite red grape variety is blaufränkisch, which he has elevated to Grand Cru-level heights in wines such as Lut

Thirteen Years, Five Prime Ministers and the Implosion of the Tories Ben Riley-SmithJohn Murray (£25) If you include the coalition years, Britain’s current period of Conservative government has not only outlasted Tony Blair’s and Gordon Brown’s time

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