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    Simon Kuper

    Life & Arts Columnist

    Simon Kuper joined the Financial Times in 1994. He wrote the daily currencies column, before leaving the FT in 1998. He returned in 2002 as a sports columnist and has been there ever since. Nowadays he writes a general column for the Weekend FT on all manner of topics from politics to books, and on cities including London, Paris, Johannesburg and Miami.

    Email Simon Kuper @KuperSimon  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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    • Thursday, 28 September, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      Democracies need to work quicker and smarter. Here’s what that might look like 

      Politicians often reach the right answer — but years too late

    • Thursday, 21 September, 2023
      FT MagazineWorking from home
      Bosses won’t like it but WFH is a happier way to work

      Homeworking is not just a corporate issue, it’s a chance to create a better society

    • Thursday, 14 September, 2023
      FT MagazineUK
      Britain’s dawning self-awareness

      The nation has realised what it is: a small country that needs immigrants, high taxes and European allies

    • Thursday, 7 September, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      We should pity (some of) the incels

      Beyond the dangerous misogynists there’s a growing group of unseen incels who live in harmless but frustrated misery

    • Thursday, 31 August, 2023
      FT MagazineUS presidential election 2024
      The biggest risk to US democracy? You’ve probably never heard of them

      The threat that a third party could swing the 2024 election is barely discussed

    • Monday, 28 August, 2023
      Football
      Now is football’s moment to change

      The scandal over a non-consensual kiss by Luis Rubiales needs to be an ‘enough’ moment

      Protesters demand the resignation of Luis Rubiales at a rally in Madrid. Female footballers’ voices are being heard — they don’t have to take it anymore
    • Friday, 18 August, 2023
      House & Home
      A laboratory of solar energy gives Lyon its moment in the sun

      A boom in residential panel installations is fuelling large-scale projects in French cities

      Illustration of house with solar panels on the roof receiving energy from the sun
    • Wednesday, 16 August, 2023
      ReviewBooks
      Answered Prayers — how England’s 1966 team delivered on Ramsey’s words

      Duncan Hamilton’s book, based on interviews with the footballers and their often prickly manager, aims to place the World Cup victory in a fresh light

    • Tuesday, 8 August, 2023
      Working It podcast16 min listen
      Shared workspaces are growing up

      Ping-pong tables and beer-on-tap are out. Privacy is in

    • Thursday, 3 August, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      Israel and the US are battling identity crises

      Could they both end with the dismantling of democracy?

    • Thursday, 27 July, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      The red-hot issue in the Spanish elections should be climate, not culture wars

      The results offered an insight into how voting changes once climate change becomes a ‘now’ problem: it doesn’t

    • Wednesday, 26 July, 2023
      Work & Careers
      Out of office: the rise of the ‘workcation’

      Companies including Google and American Express are allowing staff to work from their holiday locations

      A person in holiday clothing looks at a monitor, with a view of mountains behind it
    • Sunday, 23 July, 2023
      Women in business
      Women in football fail to score top jobs off the pitch

      Female tournaments are generating record interest but the sport is still overwhelmingly run by men

      Lise Klaveness, president of Norway’s football federation, during training before Spain v Norway UEFA Qualifiers, Euro 2020 at Estadio Mestalla in 2019 in Valencia, Spain
    • Thursday, 20 July, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      It may not feel like it, but the planet has many reasons to be cheerful

      Energy generation, health and working life could all transform for the better this decade

      An illustration of the Earth cracked open, with an egg spilling out from it – the yolk has a smiling face
    • Wednesday, 19 July, 2023
      House & Home
      How I made my perfect office

      After three months of renovations, the FT’s Simon Kuper has turned his little Parisian work flat into the ideal space to write and think

      Simon sits reading papers by a wooden desk with drawers and pale green bookshelves above
    • Saturday, 15 July, 2023
      The Weekend Essay
      Tourists are back. Is it time to tell them to stay away?

      Complaints about overcrowding and cultural insensitivity are getting louder. Now some destinations have decided to act

      Hundreds of people gather around a fountain in Rome
    • Thursday, 13 July, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      Inside the secret world of the authors’ club

      What goes on when the people in ‘the world’s worst business’ get together?

    • Tuesday, 11 July, 2023
      News in-depthNews in-depth2 min
      Messi vs Ronaldo: measuring greatness | FT Scoreboard

      What is the legacy of Messi and Ronaldo – and can either of them claim to be the greatest?

      Messi vs Ronaldo: who won?
    • Thursday, 6 July, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      Hope for the Parisian suburbs

      The banlieues have seen riots in recent weeks but there are reasons for optimism

    • Thursday, 29 June, 2023
      FT MagazineClimate change
      How will climate change affect the holiday map?

      For many well-off people, the first tangible effect of rising temperatures will be a shift in vacation destination

    • Friday, 23 June, 2023
      Summer Books 2023
      Best summer books of 2023: Sport

      Simon Kuper selects his best mid-year reads

      book cover montage
    • Thursday, 22 June, 2023
      FT MagazineRecep Tayyip Erdoğan
      Another five years with Turkey’s not-so-strong strongman

      Beyond the bravado, Erdoğan is an opportunist who prizes power above ideology

    • Thursday, 15 June, 2023
      FT MagazineLife & Arts
      What elite American universities can learn from Oxbridge

      US colleges could make themselves more meritocratic — but do they want to?

    • Sunday, 11 June, 2023
      Champions League
      European football has become a status competition between Gulf monarchies

      Middle Eastern money will keep shaping the game after Manchester City’s Champions League win

      Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates after winning the Champions League
    • Saturday, 10 June, 2023
      Champions League
      Manchester City celebrate historic treble after beating Inter Milan

      Manager Pep Guardiola’s team takes third trophy of the season with Champions League victory in Istanbul

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