One of the benefits of living in a vibrant metropolitan city like London is seeing live entertainment. For many, the highlight of their week — before the coronavirus crisis — was enjoying standup comedians at pubs, open mic nights and comedy clubs across the capital. As well as being a source of entertainment, live comedy also makes a big contribution to the UK economy, generating around £500m every year. But of course, due to the social distancing measures implemented to combat the current...

On 10 March 2000, the US Nasdaq stock market peaked at 5,048.62. By October 2002, the index had lost 78 per cent of its value, or about $5 trillion. The Nasdaq had swelled due to the proliferation of internet-related companies aiming to make money from this nascent technology. In fact, between 1995 and 2000, the Nasdaq rose by 400 per cent. This boom and bust has come to be known as the dot-com bubble. Over the past 20 years, tech has clearly recovered, and now forms a cornerstone of society....

Saturday marked the beginning of the Year of the Rat. This animal — representing the first of the 12 signs of the zodiac — is associated with wealth and prosperity in China. In other cultures, the rat is more often associated with plague and disease. It is unfortunate, then, that the dominant Chinese story this new year has been the outbreak of a health epidemic: the coronavirus. At the time of writing, 81 people have died from the disease, and there have been almost 3,000 confirmed cases in...

When did you last switch your energy provider? For renters and homeowners alike, managing the cost of our electricity and gas supply is a major headache. Consumers are encouraged to switch regularly, not only in order to find cheaper deals and save money, but also to ensure that the energy market remains competitive and offers the public a better service. Government statistics show that the number of energy switchers has been steadily growing since 2014. According to the trade body Energy UK,...

Coding was once a field dominated by women. From the 1940s to the 1960s, about 90 per cent of computer programmers and systems analysts in the US were female. Hardware was largely run by men, but software was treated as clerical work and offered to women who were good at maths and logical thinking. In 1967, Cosmopolitan magazine ran an article called “The Computer Girls,” highlighting the industry as an excellent career choice. And it was an important job too. During the Second World War, a...