Russia has invaded and devastated Ukraine without the smallest provocation. Most North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) nations, led thank goodness by the US — two years ago, we could have expected nothing from the White House — join in condemning President Vladimir Putin’s aggression. Some are supplying military aid. Yet there is nothing like unanimity in Europe, never mind elsewhere, ...

California has become the focus of a battle over how companies should address the lack of diversity on their boards: Should they actively seek out directors who aren’t White males, or should they simply seek to treat all candidates equally? A Superior Court judge has ruled in favour of the latter approach, declaring unconstitutional a law requiring publicly traded companies ...

  W Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel “The Painted Veil” features a harrowing description of a cholera outbreak in a provincial Chinese city. “The great city lay in terror; and death, sudden and ruthless, hurried through its tortuous streets … The people were dying at the rate of a hundred a day, and hardly any of those who were attacked by ...