Philippa Kaur

Plastic is ubiquitous. Around 1m plastic water bottles are sold every minute and 5trn plastic bags are used around the world every year, according to the un’s Environment Programme. Half of all production, which is growing faster than that of any other material, is designed for single-use applications. The world’s annual output of over 400m tonnes is set to reach 1,100m by 2050. Mountains of waste mean pressure from both the public and regulators to improve recycling. More

“Nobody is getting off the hook for unfair trade balances,” insists Donald Trump. The exemptions and exclusions to the tariffs he has imposed on imports to America would suggest otherwise. His “reciprocal” tariffs announced on April 2nd included a 37-page annexe with exemptions for $644bn-worth of American imports, about a fifth of the total. On April 11th another 20 products were exempted, including smartphones and computers. More

“The future is bright” is a phrase rarely uttered by European business leaders these days. But José Manuel Entrecanales, the chief executive of Acciona, is brimming with optimism for both Spanish business and his family’s company, which he has transformed from a construction firm to one focused on renewable-energy infrastructure. He reflects a mood in Madrid that is happy and enthusiastic—in contrast to the anxiety in Berlin or Paris. More

Congratulate LinkedIn on its work anniversary! Next month the business world’s favourite social network will turn 22. The 1.1bn users of LinkedIn—which is a year older than even Facebook—can celebrate two decades of humblebrags, motivational quotes and automated congratulations from long-forgotten acquaintances. Microsoft, its owner, can meanwhile toast a canny acquisition. Since the tech giant bought LinkedIn eight years ago, for $26bn, the platform’s annual revenue has grown from $3bn to $17bn. More

AS DONALD TRUMP’S tariff tantrum destroyed trillions of dollars in shareholder value, shrieks of horror from American chief executives grew high-pitched. If you think America Inc had it bad, then spare a thought for Hong Kong. The self-governing Chinese territory is the world’s gateway to Asia, and China in particular. It is also Asia’s, and China’s, gateway to the world. And for the trade-warmonger-in-chief, China and Asia are enemies number one and two. More

When Monica Lewinsky, once an intern at the White House, was cajoled into a lunch date by Linda Tripp, a colleague wearing a wire, she was met by fbi agents and taken to a room in Washington’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel to be interrogated. What seemed like an innocent lunch date was one of the first steps towards a presidential impeachment. Yet one of the more remarkable aspects of the story is that even lowly workers took lunch in a restaurant back in those days. More

For decades politicians in Washington might have been mistaken for lobbyists for American companies in China. They pushed for the country to be opened up to American banks, planes and fast-food chains. Boeing, an American plane manufacturer, for example, began receiving orders from China just after Richard Nixon visited the country in 1972. Now many American executives in China believe they are witnessing their government dismantle much of that work. More

WARREN BUFFETT must be feeling smug right now. Months before American stockmarkets started sliding from record levels in late February, as investors began to question President Donald Trump’s stewardship of the world’s largest economy, the nonagenarian billionaire was cashing out of equities. In 2024 his industrial conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, sold a net $134bn of stocks, including two-thirds of its $174bn stake in Apple. By the end of March the S&P 500 index of America’s biggest companies was 9% down from its peak. So was the iPhone-maker. Berkshire, meanwhile, was sitting pretty on a 10% gain—and a pile of cash to make Scrooge McDuck blanch. Converted into $100 bills, its $334bn in liquid assets would fill 1,900 king-size mattresses. The internet buzzed with memes about preternatural market timing. More