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Sports lawyers only winners in football case

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It’s been a tough week for tennis line judges and (if you believe Elon Musk) taxi drivers.

Wimbledon, the oldest of the four Grand Slams, is bringing in automated technology next summer that will do away with the shrieked calls of “OUT” by those who have formed the human perimeter around the grass courts of the All England Club since 1877.

It fits with broader moves to make officiating in sport less subject to opinion, such as through semi-automated offsides in football and AI-powered points deductions for Olympic diving.

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Aside from by the judges themselves, the march of tech could also be felt by Ralph Lauren, which has dressed Wimbledon’s line judges since 2006.

The “Wimbledon collection” produced each year by the US fashion label forms the bulk of the Grand Slam’s premium retail offering (a line judge blazer retails for £949). But from next year, on-court marketing of the tailored range could be limited to the umpire — who is typically seated, off camera and often obscured under an umbrella.

This week we’re attempting to read the runes from another big legal case in football, and ask what the immediate future holds for the WNBA as its record-shattering season reaches its conclusion. Do read on — Josh Noble, sports editor

Send us tips and feedback at scoreboard@ft.com. Not already receiving the email newsletter? Sign up here. For everyone else, let’s go.

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Score draw heralds victory for sports lawyers

Who won? Jury out on Man City vs Premier League case © AP

Following a week of spin and counter-spin, one question has reverberated around English football since the outcome of the recent arbitration between the Premier League and Manchester City was published: Who won?

Lawyers and pundits have tried to unpick the 175-page ruling on Associated Party Transactions — the commercial agreements between a club and companies related to its owner — during a bitter post-match analysis. The Lawyer has a very neat summary for those interested in the detail.

Both sides claimed victory, but here are the key findings from the independent panel of legal experts:

  • The Premier League’s existing APT rules are “unlawful” because they fail to take shareholder loans into account.

  • The process of evaluating APTs is also unlawful because it deprives clubs of some relevant information before decisions are made.

  • Some of the changes made to the rules earlier this year are in breach of competition law.

  • The decisions to block two of City’s sponsorship deals will need to be reconsidered.

However, the same panel concluded that the league does need a mechanism for assessing APTs in order to make the broader regime of financial rules work. As such, the panel endorsed the overall framework for preventing clubs using inflated sponsorship deals to boost their revenue, and so their spending power.

The true answer to the question of who won is unlikely to become clear for some time. The Premier League insisted that it can simply tweak its rule book swiftly; City claims a complete rewrite will be required. It is hard to know who is right until the changes are made, voted on by the Premier League’s 20 clubs, and (presumably) judged again independently.

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The Premier League’s message this week — that a bit of fine-tuning is all that is required — echoes the response to recent judgments elsewhere in football.

When the European Court of Justice ruled late last year that Uefa and Fifa had acted unlawfully during their response to the European Super League, Uefa insisted its rules had already been updated so the verdict didn’t really matter. Similarly, Fifa said its regulations on player transfers was only in need of a light refresh following another ECJ ruling earlier this month. These positions will need to be properly scrutinised.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the City case (and the most recent ECJ ruling) is that taking the legal route is looking increasingly attractive to any club, player or stakeholder in football that feels hard done by.

As a result, we can surely expect more and more of football’s rules to be challenged in court. Indeed, a formal action against Fifa over the Club World Cup is set to be announced jointly by players union Fifpro and European Leagues on Monday in Brussels.

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Regulations that have stood for years, even decades, will doubtless come under greater pressure as governing bodies are forced to defend them. Every defeat — however small — adds a little crack in the edifice that is the status quo.

Ultimately there is be only one clear winner from all this: sports lawyers.

What next after the WNBA’s blowout year?

On the up: The WNBA is expanding © USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

The WNBA Finals began on Thursday after one of the most explosive seasons in the history of women’s basketball. In a best-of-five games match-up between two titans, the New York Liberty are making their second consecutive finals appearance in a bid for their first-ever championship, while the Minnesota Lynx seek their fifth title, after establishing a four-ring dynasty in the 2010s.

Off the court, it has been a transformational season for the league, led by the immediate impact of a rookie class featuring Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Two of the WNBA’s three media partners — Disney’s ESPN and Paramount’s CBS — averaged more than 1mn viewers per telecast during the regular season that ended in September, while its third partner, Ion, saw its average audience more than double over last year. The W had 154 sold-out games in 2024, up from 45 sell-outs last year. And the league is expanding, with a Bay Area franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, set to begin play next year, followed by new teams in Toronto and Portland. News broke on Thursday night, with W commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing that the 2025 season will expand to 44 regular season games and the finals growing to a best-of-seven series.

Amid this transformational growth, two near-term business questions to consider for women’s basketball:

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  • The next CBA. With a new media rights agreement between the league and its partners signed this year, eyes are on the WNBA players and how they might seek a bigger piece of the money flowing into the sport. The league is expected to receive media revenues of about $200mn per year beginning in 2026, up from $60mn per year. Salaries under the current collective bargaining agreement, ratified in 2020, top off at $242,000. The contract lasts until 2027 unless either side opts out; if players opt out by November 1, the contract would last through the 2025 season.

  • Do young girls wanna be like . . . Sab? As W players enjoy more name recognition, will signature shoes become sales drivers for brands such as Nike and Puma? The Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart both have eponymous shoes already on the market with those brands, respectively. Ionescu’s Sabrina 1 was the fifth most-worn shoe by men in the NBA this past season, according to KixStats, and was a rare sales highlight for an otherwise challenged Nike. Clark and reigning MVP A’ja Wilson both have forthcoming shoes with Nike.

Highlights

Adiós: Rafa bows out
  • Rafael Nadal will retire following this year’s Davis Cup, ending one of the most glittering careers in the history of tennis. The 38-year Spaniard has won 22 Grand Slam titles, second only to Novak Djokovic.

  • Bernard Arnault and his five children have teamed up with Red Bull to take over Paris FC in the second tier of French football as the luxury billionaire expands his involvement in sport.

  • Spanish football has embraced Saudi Arabia’s growing interest in sport with two new sponsorship deals this week. Riyadh Season — the months-long showcase of cultural events in the Saudi capital — has become a global partner of La Liga, while Riyadh Air has bagged naming rights to Atlético Madrid’s stadium.

  • Where are you most excited about skiing this winter? Don’t know? FT Mag asked seven professionals. These are the slopes they chose.

  • Would you wear the world’s first inflatable bike helmet? Check out the demonstration here.

Transfer Market

Jürgen Klopp: Red Bull © Action Images via Reuters
  • Look away, Borussia Dortmund fans. German football coach Jürgen Klopp is coming back to football. A few months after announcing his departure from Liverpool FC, where he won the Premier League and the Champions League, Klopp has signed up to be global head of football at Red Bull. Starting in January next year, his job will be to oversee the group of clubs owned by the energy drinks company. Klopp said he sees his role as being a “mentor to coaches and management” within the group, adding: “I want to develop, improve and support the incredible football talent that we have at our disposal.”

Final Whistle

Saka: No MMA

If Arsenal want any chance of winning the Premier League, they would be advised to protect winger Bukayo Saka from injury. So, it was something of a surprise to Scoreboard when footage emerged of mixed martial artist Conor McGregor unleashing a combo of kicks at the England star. Sure, the former UFC champ was just play fighting, but fans of the London football club would probably prefer a lower appetite for risk.

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

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Election showdown in Georgia

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Locator map of Georgia

This article is an onsite version of our Europe Express newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday and Saturday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here

Welcome back. In Tbilisi, which I visited this month, the political mood is ominously tense and polarised. Georgia’s October 26 parliamentary elections are set to be the most consequential for the mountainous south Caucasus country since it emerged in 1991 as an independent state out of the ashes of the Soviet Union.

At first sight, it seems that Georgia faces two possible futures: creeping authoritarianism and alignment with Russia if the ruling Georgian Dream party stays in power, or democracy and a pro-European path if the opposition wins and takes office. However, this black-and-white picture oversimplifies what is an altogether more complicated story. I’m at tony.barber@ft.com.

What is at stake

Since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Georgia has turned into a battleground with two fronts: between Georgian Dream and its opponents, and between each side’s respective Russian and western backers.

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The levels of political polarisation in Tbilisi are so extreme that, in this election campaign, there hasn’t been a single case of government and opposition representatives debating each other on television, radio or other media. Mutual trust is non-existent.

The opposition has painful memories of the fate of the first independent Georgian state of modern times. This led a precarious existence from 1918 to 1921 before being absorbed into the Soviet Union.

Now the opposition fears that, if Georgian Dream retains power, the nation could fall completely under Russian influence and lose its precious but fragile democracy and civic freedoms.

Locator map of Georgia

For the west, such an outcome would be a blow to its interests and credibility. The US and its European allies support Georgia’s independence. The EU has even made the country a candidate for membership, though the process is on hold because of the Georgian Dream government’s democratic backsliding and increasingly pro-Russian sympathies.

Russia’s role in Georgia

For its part, Moscow continues to think of Georgia as part of a rightful sphere of influence in the post-Soviet borderlands that separate Russia from the west. “The Russians have never left Georgia, even mentally,” says one western observer in Tbilisi.

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In a short war in 2008, Russia took de facto control of two Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where it keeps around 10,000 troops and FSB security service personnel. South Ossetia is scarcely an hour’s drive from Tbilisi.

Bidzina Ivanishvili
Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the Georgian Dream party, at a rally in support of the government’s ‘foreign agent’ law, which it adopted in May this year. Supporters of Georgian democracy fear that its implementation will bring the country closer to Russia © AP

There are no signs of imminent Russian military intervention in Georgia. Still, it is unimaginable that the Kremlin would passively accept an election result that brought a pro-western government to power in Tbilisi.

In this article for the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, Nicholas Lokker and Andrea Kendall-Taylor write:

Georgia now arguably has its most pro-Russian government since its independence in 1991 and, in many cases, [Georgian Dream] is following the Putin playbook in its attempt to weaken Georgia’s democracy. Moscow’s primary goal is to ensure the stability of these pro-Russian forces — in particular, GD founder and de facto leader Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Breakdowns in democracy

However, to portray the election as a straightforward contest between tyranny and freedom, or Russia and the west, is to overlook key features of Georgia’s political trajectory over the past three decades.

In this commentary for the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, Markus Greisz hits the nail on the head. He identifies three long-term issues that have plagued Georgia since independence:

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One issue is the deep political and societal polarisation; another is the tendency of all Georgian governments to turn authoritarian.

A third issue is the seemingly paradoxical simultaneous popular support for both the EU and Georgian Dream, which frustrates western leaders and calls into question whether Georgians actually understand what EU membership would entail.

Since 1991, all governments that started out as protectors of national independence and political freedom have lurched into deeply flawed forms of strongman rule, tainted by corruption and abuse of the rule of law.

This was true of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia’s first postcommunist president; Eduard Shevardnadze, once admired in the west as Mikhail Gorbachev’s far-sighted Soviet foreign minister; Mikheil Saakashvili, a reformer turned autocrat; and now Ivanishvili.

Weaknesses of the opposition

The legacy of the Saakashvili era is a serious problem for Georgia’s four main opposition parties, as set out in this thread on X by Bidzina Lebanidze, a political scientist.

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Both Georgian Dream and the opposition are “detached from the majority of the population, who feel alienated from [the] political process”, Lebanidze writes.

“During their rule, Saakashvili and [his party] alienated a critical mass of the electorate who refuse to vote for them ever again.”

A similar argument appears in this commentary by Beka Chedia for the Center for European Policy Analysis:

The opposition, in addition to fragmentation, has a problem of identification and identity. Voters find it difficult to be clear which small party is part of which alliance and what their promises to voters are.

In Tbilisi, one non-partisan election-watcher told me: “It’s not sufficient to frame the election as a contest between pro-western and pro-Russian forces. In the regions, outside the capital, voters seem to think it’s a kind of Saakashvili vs Ivanishvili contest.

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“In other words, the image of Georgian politics as an arena for strongmen persists.”

Slim chance of a free election

Public opinion polls for Georgia’s election need to be treated with caution. However, according to one independent expert, Georgian Dream’s private polling indicates it would struggle to win more than 40 per cent of the vote.

The point is, though, that under the system of proportional representation used for this election, Georgian Dream could win just over half the seats in parliament even with 37 to 38 per cent of the vote.

It would help the ruling party if one or more of the opposition parties failed to surpass the 5 per cent threshold required to win seats in the legislature.

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Given Georgian Dream’s influence over the nation’s election commissions, control of the judiciary, vote-buying and intimidation of opposition activists, it is all too easy to see how the party could manipulate the election to secure victory.

Shota Gvineria, a former Georgian ambassador and national security specialist, says:

The regime has systematically used state resources to influence voters by offering benefits such as pardons, early release from prison and amnesty [for fines] in exchange for electoral support …

By placing loyalists in the Central Election Commission and district commissions, manipulating voter lists and tampering with ballots, these tactics have severely undermined the integrity of Georgia’s democratic processes and elections.

Possible outcomes

The list of possible election outcomes ranges from good to nightmarishly bad.

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Least likely is a Polish scenario. A year ago, an illiberal, conservative nationalist government in Warsaw lost elections to an opposition led by former premier Donald Tusk. Despite some difficulties, Tusk and his allies were able to take office peacefully.

Such an outcome strikes me as improbable in Georgia. The ruling party shows no inclination to give up power, controls almost all levers of state authority and has the means to fix the election.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili meets Polish President Andrzej Duda
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili meets Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, October 1 2024 © Piotr Nowak/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

At the opposite end of the spectrum is a Belarusian scenario. In 2020, mass protests broke out after Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator in Minsk, claimed victory in what were blatantly fraudulent presidential elections.

Lukashenko’s regime cracked down on the demonstrators, and Belarus today is as deprived of freedom as Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

A third possibility is a Serbian scenario. Elections in Serbia routinely produce victories for President Aleksandar Vučić and his ruling party. They aren’t completely free and fair, but Vučić receives little more than a rap on the knuckles from the west, which perceives some value in maintaining a working relationship with Serbia.

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Risk of instability or violence

If Georgian Dream wins the election fraudulently, or loses but refuses to concede defeat, anti-government street protests are likely. The history of postcommunist Georgia offers some clues to what then might or might not transpire.

In 2003, public anger at corruption and a fixed election triggered demonstrations that toppled Shevardnadze, Georgia’s then president.

Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze
Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze appealing to the public on TV from his office in Tbilisi in November 2003, ahead of a planned mass opposition protest that called for his resignation © Reuters

By stepping down, Shevardnadze ensured the Rose Revolution, as these events came to be known, was mostly peaceful. Could the same thing happen after October 26? I am doubtful. By temperament and motivation (he is a reclusive billionaire who made his fortune in Russia), Ivanishvili is quite different to Shevardnadze. The Kremlin openly supports him.

Ideally, the US and European governments would step in and play a mediating role in the event of a contested election result and power struggle. They did this during Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution.

But Ukraine’s new government and its western friends paid a heavy price for that change of power — Russia’s annexation of Crimea and fomentation of separatist rebellions in Donbas, followed by the 2022 invasion.

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The future of Georgia is very much in the balance.

More on this topic

Georgia’s Anaklia deep seaport project may open new routes, but at what cost? An analysis by Tymon Pastucha and Wojciech Wojtasiewicz for the Polish Institute of International Affairs

Tony’s picks of the week

  • Israel’s war in Lebanon may be longer and more grinding than the limited operation that was initially announced, the FT’s James Shotter, Neri Zilber and Andrew England report

  • In his newly published memoirs, Robert Bourgi, a French-Lebanese wheeler-dealer, has spilled the beans about how he helped leaders of former French colonies in Africa to subsidise presidential election candidates in France, the BBC’s Hugh Schofield reports

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Three major energy suppliers handing out tens of thousands of free energy-saving gadgets worth up to £70 this winter

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Three major energy suppliers handing out tens of thousands of free energy-saving gadgets worth up to £70 this winter

THREE major energy suppliers are giving out tens of thousands of energy-saving devices to households this winter.

Energy bills have risen for millions of households and winter fuel payments restricted to those on benefits.

Three major energy suppliers have launched multi-million support packages

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Three major energy suppliers have launched multi-million support packagesCredit: Alamy

But there is a host of help at hand if you’re struggling to cover bills.

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Octopus Energy, OVO Energy and EDF have all launched multi-million pound schemes offering free energy-saving gadgets to households in need.

From air fryers, to electric blankets and mattress toppers, here is everything you might be eligible for.

Octopus Energy

Octopus Energy is offering 20,000 electric blankets in total to customers in need this winter.

Read more on Energy Bills

One of the UK’s largest energy firms has already distributed over 60,000 since January 2022 through its £30million Octo Assist Fund.

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Octopus said customers with an electric blanket have saved an average £150 on their combined gas and electricity bills in previous winters.

The electric blankets are open to all customers, however Octopus said it is prioritising those in “particular circumstances”.

This includes those that are medically vulnerable, the elderly of people living alone.

The blankets provided to customers are made by Dreamland and usually cost £69.99 new.

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To apply for an electric blanket, visit: http://octopusenergy/blog/octo-assist.

Three key benefits that YOU could be missing out on, and one even gives you a free TV Licence

OVO Energy

OVO Energy has launched a £50million package of support for struggling customers.

Applications for the fund opened on October 1 with households eligible for payment holidays and direct debit reductions.

But some may be eligible for free energy-saving gadgets including electric throws and mattress toppers.

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What you are entitled to depends on your personal circumstances although you do have to be an OVO Energy customer.

Find out if you’re eligible for help via https://www.ovoenergy.com/extra-support

EDF

EDF is pumping £29million into a range of support for hard-up households this winter.

Customers can get debt arrears wiped and free energy-saving gadgets such as air fryers, kettles and slow cookers.

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EDF said it will replace any broken or in poor working order appliances with energy-efficient ones.

But not everyone qualifies for help. EDF said its team will identify eligible customers and refer them on for extra support.

You can find out more and apply via https://www.edfenergy.com/energywise/how-edf-are-supporting-their-customers-through-uks-cost-living-crisis

What other help is on offer

If you’re not eligible for free energy-saving gadgets through Octopus, EDF or OVO Energy’s funds, there is other support at hand.

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You may be able to get free devices through the Household Support Fund between now and next March.

The fund is worth £421million and has been distributed among councils in England.

Each council gets to decide how to distribute its share of the fund but some are giving households free appliances and devices which could save you money on your energy bills.

Meanwhile, you might be able to get help paying for insulation or a new more energy-efficient boiler through the Energy Company Obligation.

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You might even be able to get them for free depending on your circumstances.

It’s worth noting though that you are only eligible for help through the Energy Company Obligation if you are on benefits, classed as vulnerable or have a home with a low Energy Performance Certificate.

An Energy Performance Certificate is a document that shows how energy efficient your property is.

If neither of these two options are available, you might be able to save money on your bills by installing a heat pump, which you can get subsidised through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

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The exact temperature to set your thermostat

ENERGY bills remain relatively high leaving many worrying over the thermostat.

Energy experts have revealed the exact temperature to set it at so that you can save cash and still keep warm.

When it comes to your thermostat, the Energy Saving Trust recommends you should set it to the “lowest comfortable temperature”.

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For the majority of us, this is between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius.

It’s just the right balance between keeping your home warm, and keeping those energy bills as low as possible.

If you have your thermostat set at a higher temperature you can probably afford to turn it down and still keep cosy.

Of course, there are exceptions like anyone who is in ill health, and there is support available to cover extra costs.

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Just by turning down the temp by a single degree, you could save as much as £100 a year.

If you cut it by more you will obviously make even bigger savings.

The Energy Saving Trust also says that you don’t need to turn your thermostat up when it is colder outside, the house will still heat up to the set temperature.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

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what does tomorrow look like?

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HTSI editor Jo Ellison

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HTSI editor Jo Ellison
HTSI editor Jo Ellison © Marili Andre

I first tried Apple’s Vision Pro goggles in May. It was a surreal experience at the company’s headquarters in Battersea, where I found myself swiping at 3D dinosaurs and dismantling Ferraris using tiny gestures to look at motor parts. The whole thing was designed to demonstrate the unlimited possibilities of augmented reality – an immersive world of giant cinematic screens where I could click and swipe through texts, apps and emails, looking all the while like a traffic controller with a giant screen strapped to my face.

If this was the future, it made me queasy. The Vision Pro has been designed to optimise our visual experiences, but its launch has coincided with a period of circumspection about our screen dependencies and how best to live with phones. Many establishments are now banning smartphones during school hours, and there is compelling evidence to suggest that our screen use is contributing to mental illness, sleep deprivation and general ill health.

Does Apple’s Vision Pro headset represent the future of screen time?
Does Apple’s Vision Pro headset represent the future of screen time? © Klaus Kremmerz

Rhodri Marsden, a techno first-adopter, has looked at the future of the screen in this week’s design issue, and how its all-pervading influence might change in years from now. I still can’t imagine a day where we routinely wear screens on our faces, but then again who would have known that we’d all be carrying palm-sized computers in our pockets when smartphones first launched 20 years ago?

Monling Lee (left) and Justin Donnelly of Jumbo in their New York studio
Monling Lee (left) and Justin Donnelly of Jumbo in their New York studio © Jeremy Liebman

Design has always looked to the future, but it’s a strange irony that its most innovative efforts can look quaint in retrospect. Perhaps the trick is not to think about what’s coming, but to focus on what seems relevant right now. Jumbo in New York has built a practice based on taking objects and reducing them to their essence until they make “emoji” sense. Their work – fortune-cookie furniture, pasta pool floats and barricade-fence chairs – is inspired by quotidian stuff that has been reimagined as “memes”. It’s contemporary, clever and a conversation starter, despite their insistence that what they do is “dumb”. It also contributes to a design narrative that I think will make sense for many years to come

A Francis Picabia on the study wall in Casa Tabarelli near Bolzano, designed by Carlo Scarpa
A Francis Picabia on the study wall in Casa Tabarelli near Bolzano, designed by Carlo Scarpa © Stefan Giftthaler

Venerated by the design world, the late architect Carlo Scarpa’s work synthesised ancient craft techniques with the exigencies of industrial design. His buildings are a striking expression of something unflinchingly modern yet rooted in a familiar history. When business owner and art collector Josef Dalle Nogare purchased Casa Tabarelli, Scarpa’s mountain masterpiece near Bolzano, Italy, he did so on the understanding he was merely its custodian. In the years since, however, he has made his own addition to the property: a two-storey structure with concrete stairs designed by Walter Angonese that yields a partly subterranean 5,000sq ft gallery to house his art next door. The result is a stunning confluence of aesthetics and artistic choices. It takes a brave soul to build something so close to the Scarpa home: we’re very excited to take the first look inside.

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Will you be going to space any time soon? As Jeff Bezos and his cohort get ever closer to their orbital ambitions, we look at the direction of space travel and the possibilities ahead. According to Clive Cookson, the FT’s senior science writer, Virgin Galactic is set to offer 125 flights a year, taking some 750 passengers into sub-orbital space. As with wearing the face screen, I’ve never harboured much desire to be an astronaut. But I’ll happily sit through your phone snaps of the “overview effect” when you get back down to Earth.

Jeep Wrangler, from £61,125
Jeep Wrangler, from £61,125

We also welcome here another FT writer, the Weekend Magazine editor Matt Vella, who is making his debut with a new motoring column. Matt has been car-mad since childhood, and so we’ve asked him to do a regular piece about all things four-wheeled. “Squat and snub-nosed, with a vertical front window and four-wheel drive,” he writes of his first subject, the Willys-Overland Jeep, which was conceived as a flat-packed, all-terrain vehicle in 1940. Its subsequent success has been built on the fact it has retained its distinctive looks, its “two-box silhouette” and most importantly its compact size. The form has emerged as the leader in a global market that’s expected to grow to $590bn by 2034. Small is beautiful, goes the argument. Especially when it comes to SUVs.

Finally: do you own a Casio watch? Beatrice Hodgkin, the FT’s House and Home editor, has been wearing her hot-pink Casio F-91W for years now and is passionate about its charms. The brand has become a cult classic, as spotted on Marty McFly, Barack Obama and Sigourney Weaver in Alien. On its 50th anniversary, she writes a tribute to the “future classic” – surely the very hallmark of cool design. 

@jellison22

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I won £333k on People’s Postcode Lottery… I was ecstatic until call from my boss seconds later ruined everything

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I won £333k on People's Postcode Lottery... I was ecstatic until call from my boss seconds later ruined everything

A MUM who won £333,000 on the People’s Postcode lottery was ecstatic – until a call from her boss ruined everything seconds later.

Angela Plant split the Millionaire Street Prize with a neighbour in the Hertfordshire village of Abbots Langley.

People's Postcode Lottery winner Angela Plant

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People’s Postcode Lottery winner Angela PlantCredit: Postcode Lottery
Angela with lotto presenter Danyl Johnson

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Angela with lotto presenter Danyl JohnsonCredit: Postcode Lottery

She wanted to go on a shopping spree after presenter Danyl Johnson knocked on her door with the huge cheque.

But just seconds later Angela’s boss rang her up asking if she could do a shift the next day at the old people’s home where she works.

Angela said: “I’m going to work tomorrow. I do their shopping, take them out for a coffee.”

She added: “I just chat to them. It keeps my mind buzzing and I love it.”

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Angela said she would stick a “little bit” away – but plans to splash out on a string of exotic holidays.

The wish list of getaways includes a Greek wedding for her eldest son and a trip to Florida for her first grandchild, who is due in December.

She said: “I’m speechless. Oh my God! I was expecting about £10,000 or £15,000.

“I’m in shock. I just kept seeing threes and thought, ‘When are the threes going to end?’

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“I would have been happy with £333, that could still get a bit these days.

“This year has been up and down. I’m just going to make sure all my close pals and family are looked after.

“I had a couple of knee replacements two or three years ago. Before that, I couldn’t walk down the garden path.”

She added: “You don’t want profit in the bank, you want to go out and spend it.

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“We’ve got our first grandchild on the way, and she is going to be spoiled rotten.

“I’ve always, always wanted to be a grandmother. She is due on December 19. We’ll have a really good Christmas.”

Angela said: “It’s important to do things as a family. Good memories last forever.

“I’ve got good memories from the past of going with the children to Florida, so I would like to take my granddaughter there.”

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Bliss was it in that dawn to be in retail

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Long hours, low pay, not much job security and rude customers — why would anyone work in retail? Spare me the gloom. I was never happier than when I worked in London’s department stores between the ages of 17 and 20.

Warm memories washed over me when I read this week that Ted Decker, CEO of Home Depot, plans to make senior managers work an eight-hour shift in their stores each quarter of the year. The idea is that white-collar employees should “truly understand the challenges and opportunities our store associates face every day”.

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To which I say, well done, Ted. All the same, I’m disturbed by the implication that shop floor work is more drudgery than fun. That was not my experience.

Take Peter Jones, the Chelsea store where I was a temporary worker in Towels, Furnishing Fabrics, and Lightings and Fittings before finding my true home at Boyswear on the third floor. Ah, joy! Friendships made on the shop floor lasted for years outside the store.

True, training for temps was minimal. You were taught how to use the electronic till. That was about it. As a result, when mothers arrived to spend a fortune on school uniforms for their sons, I had, at first, no idea what size shirt, cap, trousers, gym kit and so on they needed.

What’s more, I was squeamish about measuring the neck or inside leg of an 11-year-old. After one of my worst guesses, a mother complained I’d brought a pair of trousers a couple of sizes too big. “They shrink in the wash,” I said hopefully — before fleeing her irascible stare to get a better fit from the stockroom.

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Meanwhile, I would hear a mischievous staffer answer the phone in front of customers: “Good morning, Empire Pool Wembley — I beg your pardon, Peter Jones Boyswear . . . ” That’s right, he never became an executive.

The point was, you learned fast. After a few weeks, I could glance at any boy emerging from the lift with his mother and correctly estimate all his sizes. To this day, I look at politicians or businessmen I’m talking with and my mind calculates: “16 neck, 36 waist . . . ”

This was the 1970s, the decade of soaring oil prices, so there were plenty of high-spending customers from Opec countries. Tips fluttered from their pockets like confetti. A £20 note could keep you in beer for a week at the Royal Court pub across Sloane Square.

And because this was the 1970s, the store closed at lunchtime on Saturdays. Time to put on the safety pins, leather tie and white T-shirt with the crimson word “scurvy” emblazoned on it (not an item sold in Boyswear), and join the punks parading down the King’s Road.

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Sometimes we would head over to the Chelsea Drugstore, but not, as Mick Jagger sang, to get our prescriptions filled.

At Boyswear, we all had punk names. Mine was Mark Acid. Nicky Vamp, recruited from Girls’ Shoes, quit to run a gift shop in the spa city of Bath. Vince Vomit emigrated to Australia and made it big time, becoming a board member of the airline Qantas.

For sure, London retailing had its downside five decades ago. Selfridges was soulless. Worse still was Harrods, recently in the news because of claims of sexual assault against Mohamed Al Fayed, the store’s owner from 1985 to 2010.

I worked at Harrods before Al Fayed’s tenure, but it was a grim place even then. Management barked like prison wardens at me and other temps.

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The only light relief took the form of a lift attendant who used to say to a new employee: “Do you want me to keep an eye on this package for you?” If the employee said yes, the attendant removed his glass eye and put it on the package.

We temps were unanimous that, among London’s grand department stores, Peter Jones was the place to be. I liked it so much I had dreams of running Boyswear one day. Eight hours a quarter on the shop floor? Worth every second.

tony.barber@ft.com

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3 Reliable Dividend Stocks With Yields Above 5% That You Can Buy With Less Than $100 Right Now

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3 Reliable Dividend Stocks With Yields Above 5% That You Can Buy With Less Than $100 Right Now


There’s no wrong way to put your money to work on Wall Street, but some methods produce more reliable gains than others. If you’re looking for a relatively safe and easy way to grow the stream of income you’ll have to work with during your retirement years, buying dividend-paying stocks and holding them for long periods is a terrific option.

During the 50-year period that ended in 2023, dividend-paying stocks in the S&P 500 index returned 9.17% annually on average. That’s more than double the return produced by their non-dividend-paying cousins. During the same period, the average dividend non-payers in the benchmark index returned just 4.27% annually, according to Ned Davis Research and Hartford funds.

You don’t need to be rich to put your money to work for you. At the moment, shares of AT&T (NYSE: T), Hercules Capital (NYSE: HTGC), and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) offer dividend yields of 5% or better, and you can buy a share of all three with less than $100. Adding them to a portfolio now gives you a good chance to outperform the market while they beef up your passive-income stream.

1. AT&T

AT&T lowered its dividend payout in 2022 to adjust for the sale of its unpredictable media assets. Now that it’s strictly a telecommunications business, the cash flows it uses to make dividend payments should be extra reliable. At recent prices, the stock offers a 5.2% dividend yield.

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Traditional-wireline subscriptions are still shrinking, but this headwind is easily overcome by demand for services that run on its 5G network and a growing web of fiber-optic cables. In the second quarter, mobility-service revenue rose 3.4% year over year, and this isn’t the only operation driving growth.

The three-month period ended June 30 was the 18th consecutive quarter in which AT&T added over 200,000 new fiber-internet subscribers. Late last year, the company also launched a fixed-wireless service for folks who aren’t located next to fiber optic cables. As a result, Q2 consumer-broadband sales rose 7% year over year.

At $2.7 billion in Q2, consumer broadband is responsible for less than 10% of total revenue. AT&T is one of just three telecom companies with a nationwide 5G network, so investors can reasonably rely on its consumer-broadband business to drive growth for many years to come.

2. Hercules Capital

Hercules Capital is a business development company (BDC), which means it can avoid income taxes by giving nearly all of its earnings to shareholders as a dividend payment. At recent prices, the stock’s regular distribution offers a big 8% yield.

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Hercules also offers a supplemental dividend that it set at $0.32 per share this year. If next year’s supplemental dividend remains unchanged, investors who buy this stock at recent prices will receive a 9.7% yield.

Most BDCs originate relatively high-interest loans to established mid-sized businesses that already earn money. Hercules Capital takes a riskier approach to financing by engaging start-ups in the life science and technology industries before they have any recurring revenues to report.

In isolation, the bets Hercules makes are extremely risky. The potential payoffs are so large, though, that the company can report strong-earnings growth if just a fraction of its investments succeed.

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Hercules has raised or maintained its regular distribution since 2010, and continued movement in the right direction seems likely. In the first half of 2024, the BDC reported $1.07 billion in total-gross funding, which was 28% more than the previous-year period.

3. Pfizer

Sales of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral treatment broke records regarding its rate of growth and decline. Sales of Comirnaty and Paxlovid shot up to a combined $56.7 billion in 2022. Less than a year and a half later, sales of the same two drugs collapsed to an annualized $1.8 billion.

Don’t let its recent ups and downs confuse you. Pfizer is a reliable dividend payer that has raised its payout every year since 2009. At recent prices, it offers a 5.7% yield that will be easier to predict now that sinking sales of its COVID-19 products are responsible for less than 3% of total revenue.

Pfizer’s dividend payout is supported by one of the largest catalogs of drugs with patent-protected market exclusivity. In the first half of 2024, a dozen of its products grew sales by a double-digit percentage compared to the previous year period.

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One of the investments Pfizer made with its pandemic-related earnings haul was the $43 billion acquisition of cancer drug developer Seagen. The purchase gave Pfizer access to four commercial-stage treatments, including Padcev. In late 2023, Padcev became a chemotherapy-free option for newly diagnosed bladder cancer patients. As such, sales are expected to reach $8 billion annually by 2030.

Padcev is one of several blockbuster drugs that could help Pfizer continue its dividend-raising streak. Adding some shares to a diverse portfolio now seems like the right move.

Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

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  • Amazon: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2010, you’d have $21,022!*

  • Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $43,329!*

  • Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $393,839!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See 3 “Double Down” stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of October 7, 2024

Cory Renauer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Pfizer. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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3 Reliable Dividend Stocks With Yields Above 5% That You Can Buy With Less Than $100 Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool



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