Dutch court reinstates $50bn Yukos award against Russia February 18, 2020 A Dutch appeals court today reinstated a $50bn (£38bn) award to shareholders in the now defunct oil giant Yukos. Yukos went bust in 2006 after its former chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky fell out with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian government began demanding billions in back taxes from Yukos and the company was ultimately expropriated [...]
The best luxury resorts in the Alps – where to stay and where to ski February 17, 2020 Tap your ski pass, perch on our comfortable chairlift and let City A.M. take you for a tour of the Alps’ best new (or newish) hotels. We’ve had the enviable task of spending the early part of this winter season reviewing the peaks of high-end hospitality and the black runs of flashy facilities; a blizzard [...]
Fighting dirty: The most outrageous US election advertising hit jobs February 17, 2020 Earlier this month, millions of Americans were treated to six identical seconds of election advertising from two opposing political parties. “America demanded change,” booms a Don LaFontaine-esque Hollywood trailer-style voice over. “And change is what we got.” The clip featured first in Donald Trump’s Super Bowl re-election TV ad on 2 February, which touted the President’s [...]
Trump’s tweets ‘make it impossible for me to do my job’, says William Barr February 14, 2020 US attorney general William Barr has said President Donald Trump’s use of Twitter “make it impossible for me to do my job” amid a high profile court case. His comments came in response to claims Trump pressured the Department of Justice (DoJ) into recommending a reduced jail sentence for the President’s former adviser, Roger Stone. [...]
Burford Capital faces setback in bitter battle over £350m mega-yacht February 11, 2020 Litigation funder Burford Capital has faced a setback in its battle to secure control of a £350m yacht in Dubai as part of a bitter divorce battle. Burford has funded Tatiana Akhmedova’s fight to secure the £453m divorce settlement granted against her ex-husband Farkhad Akhmedov by the English courts in 2016. Akhmedov refused to pay [...]
Aluminium group EN Plus to buy back a fifth of shares February 6, 2020 Russian aluminium and power producer EN Plus said it would buy back a fifth of its shares from state bank VTB for $1.6bn (£1.24bn) in response to the US lifting sanctions on the group. Oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, offloaded his controlling stake in EN Plus to VTB [...]
Oil price edges up on Opec production cuts hopes February 4, 2020 Oil prices showed signs of recovery this morning as officials from oil cartel Opec were set to meet in Vienna to discuss the rapid fall in prices due to China’s coronavirus outbreak. Brent crude clawed back 0.7 per cent to reach $54.92, whilst West Texas Intermediate, which on Monday breached the $50 mark, gained 1.5 [...]
Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre review: Toby Jones delivers an acting masterclass January 31, 2020 Just as Dickens charted the plight of the underclass in Victorian England, Chekhov chronicled the slow collapse of the Russian aristocracy at the end of the 19th century. In Ian Rickson’s production of Uncle Vanya, adapted by award-winning playwright Conor McPherson, this breakdown is made literal, with trees winding through broken windows and vertiginous bookcases [...]
Coronavirus: Brits returning from Wuhan face two weeks in quarantine January 29, 2020 British citizens being flown back to the UK from the Chinese city of Wuhan tomorrow will be put in quarantine for two weeks as a precaution against coronavirus. The government will evacuate Britons from Wuhan, where the outbreak started, and the surrounding Hubei province as the virus spreads across China. Hundreds could be flown home. [...]
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote review: Terry Gilliam goes balls-to-the-wall in this kaleidoscope of imagination January 24, 2020 Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote begins with a title card: “After 25 years in the making… And unmaking”. He’s not kidding – Gilliam started work on the film in 1989, it entered full production almost a decade later with Johnny Depp starring, only to see illness and floods destroy the work and [...]