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The first outing for Jon Balke’s collective Siwan, a 2009 album of the same name, saw a wide range of texts set for the Moroccan singer Amina Alaoui and a baroque ensemble. Its soundscape, with Jon Hassell’s trumpet wobbling behind a scree of percussion on the prison love song “Itimad”, was mystical without being slavishly

During the long years when women composers were largely ignored the name of Ruth Gipps was never entirely absent. As an oboist, conductor and founder of two orchestras, she had a varied career that kept her in the public eye even if her music was only rarely getting performances. That neglect stemmed not only from

The seven movements of composer/vibraphonist Joel Ross’s The Parable of the Poet, his third album for Blue Note, use personal experiences as a springboard for collective endeavour. Solos emerge, but the dominant sonorities are the rich tones of four-brass layering overlapping melodies across a bed of rhythm. Titles like “Guilt”, “The Impetus (To Be and

Good morning. Who cares if Elon Musk buys Twitter, the whole thing is stupid and annoying, let’s all do our best to ignore it. So it’s the US economy, and more on Russian oil, below. Also, we’re taking Monday off. While we’re away, try other good FT Newsletters, like Moral Money (sign up here) and

In aviator shades and a brightly coloured jacket, Natalia Sindeyeva is not a person to let life’s troubles stand in her way. The 50-year-old was treated successfully for breast cancer in 2020; today she puffs happily on miniature cigarettes from a heated tobacco device. A competitive dancer, she is in Istanbul to take part in

My personal style signifiers are minimalist, comfortable clothing – black jackets, sometimes by Issey Miyake, and always T-shirts. My clothes are like my own designs: spare and simple. The last thing I bought and loved was a Danish chair for my furniture collection. The design is human and intimate. I have Mies van der Rohe and Hans

‘Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice From the World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs’, by Frederic Kerrest In 2011, as co-founder and chief operating officer of a failing business and facing bankruptcy, Frederic Kerrest received some advice from one of his board members who had been through it all before. Acting on it saved

Bookings for UK holiday parks and cottages in far-flung locations have been hit by holidaymakers’ concerns over rising fuel prices even though operators have reported a last-minute surge in reservations for the Easter weekend. Promises of unseasonably warm weather and travel chaos at airports have prompted a rise in late bookings for UK destinations, according

Russia’s defence ministry has said the Moskva naval missile cruiser, its flagship vessel in the Black Sea, has sunk, dealing a significant blow to Moscow’s offensive in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that the Russian vessel had been hit by one of their anti-ship missiles, causing an explosion on board. The Pentagon assessed

Elon Musk has made an offer to buy Twitter with a bid that values the company at $43.4bn, a move that could turn the Tesla chief executive into a social media mogul. Musk’s offer of $54.20 a share comes days after he took a 9 per cent stake in the company, becoming its largest shareholder

BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink’s pay increased 21 per cent to $36mn last year, after the asset management group reported record profits as a tide of money flowed into its funds. The bumper 2021 pay award for BlackRock’s 69-year-old founder includes cash and equity incentives, as well as a $1.5mn base salary. The world’s biggest

Wall Street banks detailed billions of dollars in potential losses from the war in the Ukraine this week, while warning that they saw no end in sight for the market turbulence unleashed by the Russian invasion. Industry analysts and executives described the losses as manageable, but expressed worries about the potential for spillover effects of

Brazilian oil major Petrobras sought to end weeks of turmoil on Thursday by appointing a new chief executive, after two previous bosses were removed within a year following tensions with President Jair Bolsonaro. The state-controlled company said its board had elected José Mauro Coelho, a public sector official specialising in the energy sector, as chief

A US jury has convicted an Isis fighter accused of abducting hostages from the US, Europe and elsewhere in Syria, some of whom were gruesomely executed for propaganda videos. El Shafee Elsheikh, a former British citizen, on Thursday was found guilty of all counts in the case, including hostage-taking resulting in death and conspiracy to

Pakistan’s military establishment has dismissed ousted prime minister Imran Khan’s claims that he was the victim of a US-led conspiracy, and described his visit to Moscow on the day Russia invaded Ukraine as “embarrassing”. In rare public comments on Thursday, Major General Babar Iftikhar, the army’s spokesperson, denied Khan’s assertions that Pakistan’s national security committee

A former Coca-Cola manager who received bribes of more than £1.2mn as part of a corrupt scheme to award contracts to favoured companies has been given a suspended jail term of 20 months by a London court. Noel Corry, 56, who worked at soft drinks bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises UK Ltd (CCE), pleaded guilty to five

Hurrah for Mario Draghi, prime minister of Italy. A decade ago, he promised to do “whatever it takes” to protect the euro, an iconic phrase that shaped policymaking in subsequent years. Now he has produced another pithy salvo. Last week, he was challenged about what Italy might do if the EU boycotted Russian energy, given

Belvedere Island, Marin County, $60mn Where On the southern tip of Belvedere Island in the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco airport is a 45-minute drive via the Golden Gate Bridge, in clear traffic. What A dramatically positioned three-bedroom home spread across four floors with a detached one-bedroom guest house. The building follows the contours of

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the great provocateurs of 20th-century American letters. Active from the 1920s to the 1950s, Hurston was best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, which fascinated readers with its vivid depiction of black female sexuality. Richard Wright, the black American author of the bestselling 1940 novel

The head of the Quds Force, the elite branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, has vowed to continue “leading” militias across the region at a time nuclear talks have stalled because of the force’s terrorist designation by the US. In a strong speech to supporters in Tehran on Thursday, Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani said his Quds

Remember Alphawave? In 2021, the once Toronto-based semiconductor IP company IPO’d on the LSE to great fanfare, with some drawing comparisons between its capital-light business model and previous stock exchange darling ARM. The valuation, at £3bn for a company with just £40mn of trailing revenues, matched the hype. Then it all went a bit pear