Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
SUMY
In July, I visit a special forces unit near Sumy in the north-east. A group of soldiers has returned from across the Russian border — wet, dirty, tired, yet satisfied. They review their GoPro and drone footage, read books, watch movies, eat and rest on couches, cleaning their weapons and chatting. I spend four days with them, watching them train and have fun by the nearby lake, joining in their volleyball games.
Advertisement
One day, during a game, we hear a distant but powerful noise. The servicemen take a quick glance up, and one of my teammates turns to me: “It’s Himars,” he says, referring to a rocket launcher used to strike Russian targets. “Come on, hit the ball!” A few days later, back in Kyiv, I discover that two of the guys I’d spent time with at the lake were killed on their next mission.
At the top of a hill in a field of high fresh green wheat, a drone falls. It is not easy to find — the men have to use another drone to spot where it landed. These drones had been used a couple of days before, during the mission across the border. They imitate attacks to drive the Russian servicemen inside while sappers lay mines to cut off access to the main road.
The Russian army occupied a piece of land in the north of the Kharkiv region in May. In the city of Kharkiv, there is an unremarkable building with shuttered windows. The entrance looks abandoned, but the door opens from inside when certain people want to enter. This is a base for the Khartia Brigade, a branch of the National Guard that was founded in Kharkiv in 2022. Inside, there is a drone workshop and an observation point to manage drones in the battlefield. Several large TV screens show around 20 video streams at the same time. There’s an active operation going on. Footage of the cratered soil being hit by thousands of projectiles moves slowly across the muted screens.
The next day, late in the evening, I am taken by the large drones unit to where they are stationed. It is about 5km from the front line. We are meant to arrive and leave in the dark. The car looks like one from Mad Max, with steel sheets attached to it and several large radio-electronic warfare pylons on the roof. Because the front line is so near, the car speeds along the rough, narrow roads at more than 120kph, despite the darkness. At one point, we nearly crash into a tank. In the village, the guys set up antennas and a drone, then quickly move into a basement for launch. The Vampire drone is loud. Above us, the starry sky buzzes with different types of drones.
In the middle of a hot day, we arrive at a sappers’ point, close to the front line. The sappers work with a huge range of ammunition, adapting them to attach to different types of drones. The ground is littered with explosive devices ready to be used. Some are homemade, from plastic bottles, some have been printed on a 3D printer. There are parts of an RPG-7 rocket launcher, some thermobaric vacuum bombs and other grenades. The sapper works carefully and confidently. He doesn’t talk much until I show him what I’ve drawn. Then he smiles.
Sergiy Maidukov’s work has appeared in the FT Magazine, as well as The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Washington Post. He was born in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, which is currently occupied by Russia and its militant proxies. Maidukov has been working with servicemen to cover the conflict
Follow @FTMag to find out about our latest stories first and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen
HOUSEHOLDS should be aware of these exact dates to help figure out how much money they will get to help with energy bills this winter.
The Winter Fuel Payment is a state benefit paid once a year to pensioners to help cover the cost of heating during colder months.
1
Pensioners should be aware of these dates to check how much they will getCredit: PA
The government handout was previously available to everyone aged above 66 and helped with pricey energy costs.
Advertisement
However, Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed earlier this year the cash would only be given to retirees on pension credit, or other means-tested benefits.
Those who qualify will receive a payment of either £200 or £300.
It is worth noting the amount you receive depends on the year you were born.
For example, if you live alone you will get £200 if you were born between September 23 1944 and September 22 1958.
Advertisement
But you will get £300 if you were born before 23 September 1944.
If you and your partner jointly claim any of the benefits, one of you will get a payment of either:
£200 if one or both of you were born between September 23 1944 and September 22 1958
£300 if one or both of you were born before September 23 1944
For those who live with a partner or spouse of pension age, the individual amount is split between you.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said pensioners will get a letter in either October or November to inform them of how much Winter Fuel Payment they will get.
What is the Warm Home Discount?
Who is eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment
You will receive the Winter Fuel Payment if you are aged 66 or above and on any of the following benefits.
Advertisement
Pension Credit
Universal Credit
income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
Income Support
Child Tax Credit
Working Tax Credit
It is worth noting that around 800,000 older people risk missing out on the £300 Winter Fuel Payment because they have not first registered for Pension Credit.
The benefit is a weekly payment from the government to those over the state pension age who have an income below a certain level.
If your claim is successful then the benefit will top up your income to £218.15 a week if you are single, or £11,343.80 a year.
It will also give you access to the Winter Fuel Payment.
What is the Winter Fuel Payment?
Advertisement
Consumer reporter Sam Walker explains all you need to know about the payment.
The Winter Fuel Payment is an annual tax-free benefit designed to help cover the cost of heating through the colder months.
Most who are eligible receive the payment automatically.
Those who qualify are usually told via a letter sent in October or November each year.
If you do meet the criteria but don’t automatically get the Winter Fuel Payment, you will have to apply on the government’s website.
Advertisement
You’ll qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment this winter if:
you were born on or before September 23, 1958
you lived in the UK for at least one day during the week of September 16 to 22, 2024, known as the “qualifying week”
If you did not live in the UK during the qualifying week, you might still get the payment if both the following apply:
you live in Switzerland or a EEA country
you have a “genuine and sufficient” link with the UK social security system, such as having lived or worked in the UK and having a family in the UK
But there are exclusions – you can’t get the payment if you live in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal or Spain.
This is because the average winter temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK.
You will also not qualify if you:
are in hospital getting free treatment for more than a year
need permission to enter the UK and your granted leave states that you can not claim public funds
were in prison for the whole “qualifying week”
lived in a care home for the whole time between 26 June to 24 September 2023, and got Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Payments are usually made between November and December, with some made up until the end of January the following year.
You will need to have been claiming Pension Credit in the ‘qualifying week’ of September 16 to 22, 2024.
Advertisement
But claims can be backdated by three months meaning you have until December 21 to make a claim and still get the Winter Fuel Payment.
If you want to check your eligibility then it is worth checking out our article here.
You can also find free-to-use online benefits calculators to work out what you’re entitled to.
For example, Age UK has an online calculator which helps you work out what benefits you could be entitled to including the Winter Fuel Payment and Pension Credit.
Advertisement
According to the site it takes 10 minutes to complete and you will need the following information:
Your savings
Your income, including your partner’s if you have one
Any benefits or pensions you’re already claiming, including anyone you’re living with.
The calculator is free to use and confidential.
Help at hand
The Sun has launched a Winter Fuel SOS campaign to help thousands of pensioners worried about their energy bills.
We want to hear from you by phone or email — and it’s fine if you are calling or messaging on behalf of a friend or relative.
Our panel includes former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, pensions expert Baroness Ros Altmann and consumer champion Martyn James.
Advertisement
They will be joined by The Sun’s Head of Consumer Tara Evans and Sun Savers Editor Lana Clements.
And even if you aren’t eligible for the payment, our team will be sharing tips on how to switch energy providers and save money, get help if you’re in debt or simply need to save this winter.
Your cases will be considered by our panel, who will aim to give you advice within one week of your call or email.
Caroline Abrahams, of the charity Age UK, said: “People often think if you have some savings or a small pension there’s no point applying for Pension Credit, but that’s often not the case.
Advertisement
“Don’t be put off by the forms — Age UK can help.”
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
When curator Pablo José Ramírez was asked to take charge of a section at the Frieze London art fair dedicated each year to special presentations, he wanted to shine a light on Indigenous and diaspora artists from the Americas, while acknowledging the unfixed and ambiguous identities these artists often inhabit. He titled it Smoke, inspired by “El Animal de Humo” (“The Smoke Animal”), a short story by Humberto Ak’abal, a Kʼicheʼ Maya poet from Guatemala, which describes a phantasmagoric creature that lives in the forest, part bogeyman, part guardian of the trees.
In Smoke, 11 artists, some of whom have Indigenous American heritage and others of whom are of mestizo (mixed) ancestry, show work in a variety of media, but predominantly clay. In Ramírez’s project, smoke is a metaphor, but it is also a byproduct of the fire needed to turn soft clay into hard ceramic.
Indigenous Mexican artist Noé Martínez says that his sculptural ceramics are a means of communicating with his ancestors, the Huastec people. “They are containers to store the souls of my ancestors, slaves who were extracted in the 16th century,” he says. “The dead never leave, they are always in our daily lives.” As with many Indigenous communities, many of the Huastec people are now in diaspora. While his grandmothers worked with clay, their knowledge has been lost. “I use different materials than my ancestors, but I use them with the same thinking about the world that they had.”
Vallejo’s sculptures at Frieze, made from found hunks of wood, paper pulp and other media, include no clay but — through their colours and materiality — allude to fire. As she explains, according to many Indigenous beliefs, “the fire lives within the wood”. Sandoval’s more conceptual works explore an Indigenous relationship to the land: a single Ohlone word (the traditional language of the Chalon people) is embossed on white paper, accompanied by a thick daub of adobe mud.
Not all the artists in Smoke claim Indigenous heritage, however. LA-based Roksana Pirouzmand was born in Iran. On the clay tablets she will present in Smoke, she paints bodies melding with mountainous landscapes, emphasising through her choice of medium the physical connection between a person and the land that claims them. Clay, for Pirouzmand, is a participant in her work: “I see the slow erosion that can occur between unfired clay and water as a performance of material,” she says.
Active, too, are works by the Brazilian artist Ayla Tavares. She places ceramic “totems”, as she calls them, in tanks filled with water. Tavares does not draw specifically on ceramic craft traditions, but instead references natural forms such as corals and anemones, fossils or slow-moving tectonic plates.
What binds this disparate group of artists is an understanding of land not in the nationalist sense but as terrain, as earth. (The soil on either side of any geopolitical border is, after all, the same.) For Ramírez this is a way of displaying work from distinct places, generations and traditions “with a certain degree of horizontality”, as he puts it. He sees a shift in the way that museums are framing craft-based, Indigenous and non-western artistic practices: “Institutions are finally trying to come to terms with the fact that art history doesn’t belong exclusively to the western world.”
His approach, as he demonstrates in Smoke, is to highlight connections while still acknowledging specificity, to question simplified models of identity and foster a climate of respect for difference.
Ireland’s finance minister Jack Chambers and the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves
As Ireland’s finance minister delivered his budget on Tuesday afternoon Dublin was bathed in golden autumn sunlight.
The minister, Jack Chambers, said his budget provided the “ways and means for continuing to deliver many more, bright and hopeful days for us all.”
He announced a series of one-off cost-of-living payments, including €250 (£208) for all households to help with energy costs.
He also gave the first details of how a €14bn (£11.7bn) tax windfall from Apple will be spent, which forms part of the €25bn (£20.8bn) budget surplus the government will have this year.
Advertisement
The contrast with the looming UK budget could hardly be more stark.
Expectation management?
Getty Images
Millions of UK pensioners will lose winter fuel payments
The prime minister set the tone in August warning that the budget will be “painful” and the government will have to make “big asks” of the public.
Much of the discussion around the budget has centred on the “£22bn black hole” in the public finances and whether that should be filled with tax rises, spending cuts or a tweak to the “fiscal rules” which would allow more borrowing.
It may be that the UK government is engaging in expectation management and the budget will be less miserable than advertised.
But there is a fundamental difference between the two economies at the moment.
Advertisement
The UK, like many countries, is running a budget deficit, meaning it is spending more than it receives in taxes.
Tax incentives
The UK is spending more than it receives in taxes, while Ireland is in the unusual position of running a big budget surplus
Ireland is in the unusual position of running a big budget surplus which gives the government lots of spending options.
Ireland is able to do this because a long standing pillar of its economic strategy has become freakishly successful in recent years.
Advertisement
Since the 1950s the country has had a policy of using tax incentives to attract foreign investment.
Even during the country’s bailout and austerity years in the late 2000s the government maintained a 12.5% rate of corporation tax, among the lowest in the developed world.
In the middle of the last decade some of the world’s biggest companies began to reorganise their affairs in a way which meant they would pay a lot more tax in Ireland.
Ironically this was partially a response to the pressure on big companies to clean up their act on tax.
Advertisement
Getty Images
In 2017 Ireland raised just over €8bn in corporation tax
The principle was that companies should declare profits in locations where they have substantial real operations or activities rather than just a low-tax location where they happen to have an office with few employees.
Ireland fitted the bill – it was a tax-friendly jurisdiction but companies like Apple had long had real operations in the country, employing thousands of people.
What came next was the legal relocation of intellectual property (IP) assets to Ireland – the most valuable profit-earning parts of these businesses.
Apple’s shift of IP assets in 2015 is widely believed to have been responsible for a wild swing in the country’s GDP that year.
Advertisement
The profits generated by these assets has seen a flood of corporation tax receipts into the Irish Revenue.
In 2017 Ireland raised just over €8bn in corporation tax.
By last year this had ballooned to almost €24bn and is expected to be just under €30bn this year.
Getty Images
The PM said the government will have to make “big asks” of the public
The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, an independent budget watchdog, said that while large headline surpluses are forecast for the coming years, these are “driven entirely by extraordinary corporation tax receipts”.
Advertisement
It has used Department of Finance estimates of how much of this tax is a “windfall” to calculate that underlying budget deficits over the period 2024-2030 will add up to €50bn.
The government has acknowledged that this tax bonanza could one day end and has begun setting up a sovereign wealth fund which will invest some of the windfall corporation tax proceeds.
The consultation document for that wealth fund involved a glance across the Irish Sea.
It noted that when the UK struck oil in the North Sea no long-term savings vehicle was established, instead income tax and corporation tax rates were lowered over successive years during the 1980s.
Advertisement
“In effect, therefore, at least part the windfall receipts were used to fund reductions in direct taxation.”
It also looked at Norway, which used its oil money to establish one of the world’s largest wealth funds, and concluded that “the contrasting approaches of two mature, advanced economies that recorded major windfall gains offers important lessons.”
A PUB is selling pints for as little as £2.60 – but punters have to stick to a strict set of rules or face being kicked out.
The Abbey, located in Derbyshire near the banks of the River Derwent, re-opened last week after a five-year hiatus.
8
The Abbey pub in Darley Abbey has a zero tolerance policy on swearingCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
8
Advertisement
Lizzie Mazza, a learning co-ordinator, said: ‘Having no phone is so good and refreshing’Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
8
Fiona and her husband Nathan have bold reminders pinned to the wallsCredit: Social Media
Sessions at the boozer are focused on enjoying a cheap drink and, according to landlady Fiona Ashley, “the old fashioned art of conversation”.
Fiona and her husband Nathan have bold reminders pinned to the walls and even on beer mats that state: “We are a digital detox pub.”
Other signs at the hostelry in historic Darley Abbey, on the outskirts of Derby, warn: “Use of mobiles, laptops and other digital devices are not allowed.”
Advertisement
Other notices include “No swearing – zero tolerance”, and “Beer and conversation encouraged”.
When The Sun visited the pub – which is set in a former monastery’s sleeping quarters – not one person was seen daring to break the rules.
Food is yet to be introduced, but the busy lunchtime crowd seemed content simply having a drink and chatting, with many even making new friends.
Customers all raised a glass to the ban on phones.
Advertisement
Other bans include no TV, no dogs, no taking photos inside – and children are only allowed in if they are having a meal with adults.
When our reporter asked Fiona and Nathan – affectionately knowns as Fee and Nath – to pose at the bar pulling a pint, they looked horrified, and replied in unison: “No!”
The mum-of-four explained: “There’s no photos allowed inside… You can’t even take a sneaky picture.”
8
Advertisement
Ian Holden-Smith said: ‘It’s the first time I’ve heard of a phone ban in a pub so people better get used to it’Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
8
Paul Eley said: ‘I’ve been coming to this pub for years before it closed’Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Fiona added: “It’s a strict pub, probably the strictest in the country but it makes it more pleasant!”
For those people too shy to talk there’s a range of popular board games to play, plus darts.
The pub boasts a cosy downstairs bar with a roaring fire and a huge bar upstairs with a dining area set off by exposed 15th century brickwork.
Advertisement
Teaching assistant Zoe Heslop from Belper, Derbyshire, said: “This is an iconic pub and we’re pleased it’s finally re-opened after being closed for five years.
“But I’m not sure I like being told what to do, and not to use my phone, but those are the rules so I’ll go with the flow.
“It makes you realise how much you rely on your mobile so it’s good to put it away.
“It’s nice not to hear the ring, ring or ping, ping of texts. It’s very refreshing.”
Advertisement
Zoe, 50, was sipping a lemonade while her boyfriend Seton Watson went to the upper bar to get a pint of Alpine lager – for a bargain £2.60.
She said: “My automatic reaction was to get my phone out but I can’t!”
Instead she got chatting to stranger Tommy Dowd, a double glazing company boss, who had popped in for a pint.
IT consultant Seton, 53, agreed the phone ban was “a good idea,” saying: “We all use our mobiles too much.
Advertisement
“We were aware of the ban when we came in but didn’t know how seriously they took it.
8
Zoe Heslop, pictured with boyfriend Seton Watson, said: ‘This is an iconic pub and we’re pleased it’s finally re-opened’Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
8
The Abbey has banned mobiles, laptops and tabletsCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
“Anyone caught using a mobile will be thrown out. Those are the rules so it’s fair enough.”
Advertisement
Local Tommy, 39, a former regular at the refurbished pub before a chimney fire closed it down, recalled: “In the good old days you could use your phone and bring your dog in but not any more.
“I get the no phones, and I’ve put mine on silent, but it’s a shame you cant bring dogs into the bar downstairs because it’s such a lovely area for dog walking and I reckon they’ll lose a lot of customers.”
He added: “The beer’s pretty cheap, not as cheap as Wetherspoon, but the building is impressive and full of character.”
Kevin Eley, an electronics engineer from Burton upon Trent, was enjoying a pint with his dad Paul Eley, a retired consultant engineer, and his father-in-law Ian Holden-Smith, a retired brewery manager.
Advertisement
Kevin said: “I agree with the ban on mobiles. People should be talking to each other, not into their phones.”
His dad chipped in: “It’s a brilliant idea. I’ve been coming to this pub for years before it closed, it’s a great place and the ban won’t put people off, as long as they’d swear about it!”
Ian added: “It’s the first time I’ve heard of a phone ban in a pub so people better get used to it.
“The beer prices are very fair here, much cheaper then when we were in Devon the other week where is was £6.30 a pint.”
Advertisement
Lizzie Mazza, a learning co-ordinator, was having a drink with her mum.
She said: “Having no phone is so good and refreshing.
“People should be making conversation. You come to a pub to chat not call up your mates.”
Former beauty therapist Lizzie, 34, added: “I’m in two minds about the dog ban but all for the no phones and no swearing.
Advertisement
“It’s a lovely old pub with a lot of charm and heritage and the brewery boss sets the rules. Yes, they’re strict and he may be a bit of a control freak but he’s doing a good job.”
Fiona and Nathan, who are both trained chefs and looking forward to introducing meals this month, refer to themselves as “caretakers” of the pub not managers.
Fiona, a gran, said: “We are taking care of the pub. It’s such a warm and cosy place and we live right next door.”
The former chef added: “It was always Nigel’s dream to run a pub and I’m supporting his dream.
Advertisement
“He saw an advert and we had a an interview with the main man, Sam Smith. We must have impressed him because we got the job.
“We love the fact there is a ban on anything digital and so do most of our customers. If we see people breaking the rules and on their phones we’ll politely show them to the door.
“Now people sitting around a table talk to each other and tables talk.
“It is wonderful to hear conversation and not someone shouiting down their phone or looking at social media.
Advertisement
“The other night a father and son came in, they sat down with a pint and played a game of Scrabble. A lady comes in on her own and she sits by the window reading a book.
“The best thing is hearing the old fashioned art of conversation!”
Nathan, who admitted he has to switch his phone off and hide it away to stop him from mistakenly using it, said: “Banning phones encourages customers to have a conversation.
“It’s an old fashioned place and you come in and find yourself in a different world away from digital.”
Advertisement
8
Tommy Dowd, a double glazing company boss, popped in for a pintCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
The Abbey is owned by millionaire chairman Sam Smith, 79, from Tadcaster in North Yorkshire.
He is renowned for imposing his unique rules on his premises.
Local councillor Martin Repton, who had been campaigning for the pub’s reopening, wrote: “Many hundreds of people are talking about their excitement.
Advertisement
“It’s an integral part of our community. It is of immense national importance, and I am just excited to hear it is back.
“I met with the new managers and I am sure they will do an amazing job.”
Fiona pointed out that when it re-opened, the original pub sign – which had been swiped by a group of locals dressed as monks – was mysteriously returned.
She said: “It’s the same old sign with one side still authentic, the other side restored.
Advertisement
“That’s worth a picture on your phone and it’s allowed because it’s outside!”
This article is an online version of our Scoreboard newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delievered every Saturday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters
Welcome to October, the equivalent to a full moon for North American sports fans. With the NFL, college football, and Major League Soccer seasons in full swing, ice hockey and basketball return this month while baseball and the WNBA are in playoff mode. Any given night or afternoon features something engrossing to watch.
With that comes an onslaught of dealmaking. Scoreboard hears that the first round of the sale of the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics got under way this week, with banks reaching out to and engaging with interested individual bidders. (The Celtics, meanwhile, open their 2024-25 pre-season with exhibitions in Abu Dhabi this weekend.) And weeks after the NFL formally approved institutional investment in teams, the Miami Dolphins are in talks to sell a minority stake to private equity firm Ares. Stay tuned on both of these deals and more, and meanwhile we have dispatches on LVMH’s continued sports push and the race for the next president of the International Olympic Committee. Do read on — Sara Germano, US sports business correspondent
Send us tips and feedback at scoreboard@ft.com. Not already receiving the email newsletter? Sign up here. For everyone else, let’s go.
That victorious F1 drivers currently spray Italian spumante over each other rather than actual champagne has been something of a running joke. Made with Chardonnay grapes grown in the Italian Alps, Ferrari Trentodoc may have a very motorsport name, but still lacks a certain je ne sais quoi on the podium.
That looks set to change after F1 signed up French luxury behemoth LVMH as a new global partner from next year. The 10-year deal is worth more than $1bn, and will involve several of the company’s high-end brands, which include fashion labels Louis Vuitton and Dior, jewellery brand Tiffany & Co, and Benefit Cosmetics. LVMH will become F1’s top sponsor by annual spend.
The most obvious starting point will be for LVHM’s Tag Heuer brand to replace Rolex as F1’s timepiece partner. Rolex has been tied to F1 since 2013, but its 11-year deal is about to run out. Tag Heuer has long fostered links to F1 through individual sponsorships, such as with drivers Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton and even the late Ayrton Senna.
As for French bubbles, LVMH has plenty of options to pick from, including Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Ruinart. Which one LVMH executives go for may tell us more about who they see as the F1/LVMH crossover audience.
LVMH’s foray into motorsport has long been in the works, but its firm commitment to F1 comes hot on the heels of its lauded debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
For F1, landing such a big sponsor is evidence that it is still reaping the financial rewards of the growing US and female fan base brought to the sport by Netflix show Drive to Survive. According to earnings from F1 owner Liberty Media, sponsorship accounted for 18 per cent of the sport’s revenue in 2023, so around $580mn; this deal suggests there is still plenty of room for growth.
Advertisement
More broadly for sport, it offers hope to those who believe that big brand sponsorships can help pick up some of the slack as the media rights boom tapers off.
Barely two months after the successful Paris Olympics, the games have a new contest ahead of them: the selection of the next president of the International Olympic Committee.
With current leader Thomas Bach set to complete his term limit of twelve years next spring, the candidates to succeed him include World Athletics chief Lord Sebastian Coe, the son of former president Juan Antonio Samaranch, Zimbabwean swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, Prince Feisal al-Hussein of Jordan, among others. The election is set to take place in Greece in March, preceded by presentations from each of the candidates in January.
At stake is an Olympic movement steadying itself amid global political and economic instability. Since Bach’s tenure began in late 2013, the IOC has shifted from its bullish push into new geographies, such as the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games, to a more conservative approach favouring recycled host cities (Los Angeles, Salt Lake City) and sustainability (tap water and public transit-reliant Paris). Through this period, Bach has sought to make the Olympics a distinguished advocate for political refugees, while also staging games through the help of authoritarian leadership in Sochi and Beijing.
“If we start taking parts as an organisation saying ‘this country’s human rights record I don’t like’ or ‘this other country is guilty in this war’, we will disappear” said Samaranch Junior of Spain in an interview about his candidacy with Reuters. He also proposed moving summer Olympics to winter months if global warming makes such events unfeasible.
Advertisement
The younger Samaranch’s father served as IOC president from 1980-2000 and developed the lucrative advertising scheme, known as TOP, which turned the games profitable. In recent years, a clique of Asia-based corporates signed on for sponsorship to cover the 2018-2022 stretch of three straight regional games in Pyeongchang, Tokyo, and Beijing; this week Bridgestone Tires joined fellow Japanese brands Toyota and Panasonic in opting not to renew with the IOC.
Other candidates are still forming their public message. Coe, the current World Athletics president and two-time Olympic champion, has said on his personal social media that he will release “a detailed manifesto” in the coming weeks. Kirsty Coventry, who would become the first woman and first African IOC president if elected, emphasised recent efforts by the Olympics to reach gender parity. Unlike other political elections this year — this one is just warming up.
Fifa’s rules on the transfers of professional footballers break EU rules on free movement, Brussels’ top court said, in a ruling that could disrupt the European game’s system of player sales between clubs. The ECJ’s verdict came as a result of a case brought by Lassana Diarra, a former French international player.
The world’s top ranked men’s tennis player Jannik Sinner could be banned for up to two years after the World Anti-Doping Agency challenged an earlier decision by an independent panel to clear the Italian of any wrongdoing after he tested positive for a banned substance in March. Sinner said he was “surprised” and “very disappointed” by Wada’s decision to take the case to the Court of Arbitration in Sport.
Nike withdrew its guidance for its fiscal 2025, which began in June, as sales and profits continue to decline and the world’s largest sportswear maker prepares for a CEO transition this month.
GMR Group, part-owner of the Delhi Capitals Indian Premier League team, has acquired Hampshire County Cricket Club, making it the first English side to become foreign owned. GMR, an energy and infrastructure conglomerate, also has investments in crickets teams in Dubai, Pretoria and Seattle.
Renault will cease making Formula One engines at the end of next year. Alpine, the F1 team part-owned by the French carmaker, could instead turn to Mercedes to supply its future power unit.
Youth sports are not immune to the forces of commercialisation, and are now estimated to be a $30bn-$40bn per year industry. Private equity investment is now threatening to make Little League — baseball for tykes — too expensive for the average US family.
Chart of the week: Juve’s pain
Column chart of Annual net loss, €mn showing Juventus losses mount as lack of European football hits revenue
Italian football club Juventus, which has a public listing, posted another year of losses, after failing to qualify for European football last season. That alone pushed revenue for the 2023-34 season down by €76mn compared to the previous year, while losses widened to €199mn after tax. The club has not made a profit since 2017, while cumulative losses over the past six seasons are now just shy of €900mn.
However, the club, owned by the Agnelli family, gave a more upbeat outlook for the year ahead. Executives believe the return to the Champions League this season plus cost cuts will help the club break even this year, with the aim of returning to profit in 2026-27.
Final Call
Advertisement
The lengthy trailer for the Six Kings showcase depicts a gigantic clay Rafael Nadal, a floating wolf pack leader Novak Djokovic, and a lightning-struck Viking chieftain Holger Rune all pinging tennis balls to each other. It’s pretty weird.
What’s it all for? Well, according to Andy Murray it’s to promote “an exhibition tennis event that nobody cares about”. See for yourself.
Scoreboard is written by Josh Noble, Samuel Agini and Arash Massoudi in London, Sara Germano, James Fontanella-Khan, and Anna Nicolaou in New York, with contributions from the team that produce the Due Diligence newsletter, the FT’s global network of correspondents and data visualisation team
Recommended newsletters for you
Due Diligence — Top stories from the world of corporate finance. Sign up here
Advertisement
Moral Money — Our unmissable newsletter on socially responsible business, sustainable finance and more. Sign up here
A MAJOR UK banking app is down causing chaos for customers.
Scores of users rushed online to complain they were unable to access online banking services.
2
A major banking app is down which has left thousands unable to access accountsCredit: Getty
2
Advertisement
Customers were met with a message with steps to resolve the issueCredit: The Sun
The Royal Bank of Scotland said they were experiencing “connection issues”.
An online post reads: “We have been receiving reports that the online banking and mobile app are experiencing connection issues.
“We are currently looking into getting this resolved.
“Thanks so much for your patience. We’re sorry for any inconvenience. Please try again later.”
Advertisement
Customer trying to access their accounts online were met with a message telling them: “Some kind of error has occurred.”
The app advises several steps to resolve the issue including checking Wi-Fi and ensuring the latest version of the app is installed.
However the tech gremlin has caused upset with bank users as they vented their frustration online.
One said: “So frustrating when it’s a Saturday and no local branch is open.”
Advertisement
Another said: “RBS is definitely having issues. I can’t sign into online banking or the app.”
A third added: “Smashing… full morning away to s**t thanks to the RBS app.”
LinkedIn user’s bank account drained of $100,000 life savings after receiving ‘helpful’ message on site
The Royal Bank of Scotland was asked for comment.
It comes just over a month after similar issues on the RBS online banking service.
Advertisement
More to follow…
For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Scottish Sun.
Thescottishsun.co.uk is your go to destination for the best celebrity news, football news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login