Kingdom battles to protect economy in face of oil rout and fallout from pandemic

Successful leadership depends on context, collaboration and character

Although the recruiter is resilient to downturns, it is not immune to them

Asset management leadership also changed in reshuffle at Swiss lender

Managers matter but it is hard to gauge what individuals contribute

China’s exports show signs of recovery but demand falters in US and Europe

Spate of arson attacks on telecoms masts fuelled by disinformation over pandemic’s origins

Liberty Global’s buccaneering owner sets his sights on Telefonica’s O2

How discarded laughing-gas cylinders were used to create glitter from litter

Style options distilled from a confluence of African, Arab and Mediterranean cultures

Nooks for books can be created anywhere in the home

Warmly burnished and gently cryptic, this is easy listening at its most enjoyable

Eric Clapton’s collaborator Duane Allman helped transform the song into a bravura rock showpiece

An alt-rock concept album whose concept is never clearly defined

The British composer interprets the Czech’s piano works with an unsentimental, sharply focused immediacy

Indigenous protests over gas project are snarling rail traffic and hurting businesses

London mayor wants to renegotiate £2bn of existing loans with government to ease cash flow

Safety and commercial concerns remain but football, rugby and cricket begin talks to resume play in pandemic

Companies must balance costs of staying shut against concerns for staff safety

Dr Kate Gaynor’s executive education was soon tested as general manager of a Chinese hospital

Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss UBS's cultural faux pas in China, Deutsche Bank's plan to set up a 'bad bank' and Facebook's bid to shake up the payments world. With special guest Jan Kvarnström, bank restructuring expert.  

Contributors: Patrick Jenkins, financial editor, Don Weinland, Beijing financial correspondent, Stephen Morris, European banking correspondent, Nick Megaw, retail banking correspondent, Caroline Binham, financial regulation correspondent and Elaine Moore, deputy head of Lex. Producer: Fiona Symon

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Patrick Jenkins discusses the Financial Conduct Authority's latest insider trading case and what it tells us about how market abuses are being tackled, why HSBC is on the defensive in China, and why Credit Suisse is suing the UK tax authorities.With special guest Mark Steward, Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight for the Financial Conduct Authority.

Contributors: Patrick Jenkins, financial editor, Caroline Binham, financial regulation correspondent, David Crow, banking editor, and James Kynge, global China editor. Producer: Fiona Symon

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Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss the outlook for the UK mortgage market, the reform of India's state-owned banks and leadership changes at UBS. With special guest Darren Cook, Mortgage Analytics Manager at Moneyfacts.

Contributors: Patrick Jenkins, financial editor, Nicholas Megaw, retail banking correspondent, Benjamin Parkin, Mumbai correspondent, Alice Ross, wealth correspondent, and Stephen Morris, European banking correspondent. Producer: Fiona Symon

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Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss Facebook's recent talks with the world's central bankers on its plans for a digital currency, whether the UK's challenger banks can maintain their astonishing rate of expansion, and a potential scandal at JPMorgan as three of its metals traders are charged with market manipulation. With special guest Tom Merry, managing director at Accenture Strategy.

All FT stories will be free to read on Wednesday September 18th when there will be a paywall freeze. Here are some recommendations to get you started:

ECB prepared to cut rates again, says its chief economist

Swedbank admits to money-laundering failings

https://www.ft.com/content/c65b32d8-d648-11e9-a0bd-ab8ec6435630

Contributors: Patrick Jenkins, financial editor, Mehreen Khan, Brussels correspondent, Nicholas Megaw, retail banking correspondent, and Henry Sanderson, commodities correspondent. Producer: Fiona Symon

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Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss RBS as Alison Rose, the first woman to lead one of the UK’s top banks, takes the helm, Iqbal Khan and the hiring spat between Credit Suisse and UBS, and the role of US investment banks in the failed WeWork IPO. With special guest John Cronin of Goodbody stockbrokers in Dublin.

Contributors: Patrick Jenkins, financial editor, Nicholas Megaw, retail banking correspondent, Stephen Morris, European banking correspondent, and Laura Noonan, US banking editor. Producer: Fiona Symon

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Patrick Jenkins and guests discuss push-payment fraud in the UK and who should compensate the victims, why Deutsche Bank is coming under pressure from investors to appoint a new investment banking chief, and why JPMorgan Chase in the US has been selling off loans from its balance sheet. With special guests: Stephen Jones, chief executive of the banking association UK Finance and Rushanara Ali, Labour MP and member of the UK Treasury Select Committee.

Contributors: Patrick Jenkins, financial editor, Caroline Binham, financial regulation correspondent, Stephen Morris, European banking correspondent, and Robert Armstrong, US financial editor. Producer: Fiona Symon

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Israeli leader returns for fifth term as prime minister as head of emergency coalition 

Most mosques shuttered and gatherings banned as Islamic world prepares for holy month

Islamic republic eases coronavirus restrictions in effort to boost struggling economy

Rami Makhlouf’s complaints against his cousin show strains in power structure

Parka brand has no plans to change policy on down and says it is not bowing to pressure

Books that give creative inspiration and comfort during isolation

Why one of the biggest names in fashion also designs furniture textiles

The US requires a co-ordinated response on Covid-19 testing and getting people back to work

Conservative activists vow to step up street demonstrations against business closings

From business closures to movement restrictions, some countries’ policies show first signs of easing

Find any country in the customisable version of the Covid-19 trajectory charts

Putting up barriers to travel is proving much easier than taking them down

Many in Washington say Trump’s mini-deal with Beijing was a vehicle for political boasts

“The cultural bore of the autumn is the lover of Mad Men.” So wrote FT arts writer Peter Aspden in his weekly culture column, provoking a storm of reader responses – some grateful, others outraged. As it enters a fourth series, has Mad Men made the fatal mistake of falling in love with itself? Is the series losing its sense of time and place, and are the characters becoming stale? We look at Mad Men's plot, historical significance and, crucially, its impact on fashion – the skinny ties, hourglass figures, and excessive drink consumption. Has it influenced our own sense of style? In this week’s arts podcast, FT columnists Peter Aspden, John Lloyd and Nicola Copping are in the studio with arts editor Jan Dalley. Produced by Rob Minto and Griselda Murray Brown  

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Shadow Catchers, the latest exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, is a showcase for ‘camera-less’ photography – where images are captured directly on photographic paper without the use of a camera. Deputy arts editor Neville Hawcock and Francis Hodgson, the FT’s photography critic, discuss the ideas behind the exhibition, and the works of the five contemporary artists on show, with the show’s curator, Martin Barnes.  

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She's the most successful female recording artist ever – and now, 30 years after her first single, Madonna has released her twelfth album, 'MDNA'. It's already caused a stir, with the video for the opening track 'Girl Gone Wild' banned on YouTube for being 'too raunchy'. But is she still good? What's more important: Madonna the brand or the artist? And, at 53, should she really be wearing those hot pants? Neville Hawcock puts these questions to FT writers Lucy Kellaway, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney and Richard Clayton. With clips from 'Girl Gone Wild', 'I'm a Sinner' and 'I'm Addicted'. Produced by Griselda Murray Brown  

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The Cultural Olympiad spans four years and encompasses more than 500 events – culminating with the current London 2012 Festival. This unprecedented artistic marathon has cost a reported £97m – but is it worth it? Jan Dalley puts this question to Sarah Weir of the Legacy List, a post-Olympic charity for arts, culture, education and skills; William Sieghart, founder of the National Poetry Day and of Winning Words, a national project to incorporate poetry in the games; and Peter Aspden, FT arts writer. Produced by Nicholas Spencer  

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As the 10th edition of the London Design Festival launches, designer Tom Dixon, London Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic and designer and online thinktank founder Rabih Hage discuss its impact with FT architecture critic Edwin Heathcote  

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As the 10th edition of the London Design Festival launches, designer Tom Dixon, London Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic and designer and online thinktank founder Rabih Hage discuss its impact with FT Architecture critic Edwin Heathcote  

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As performance artist Marina Abramovic showed, the paradox of our digital age is our hunger for personal presence, says the FT's arts editor  

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Artists responded vigorously to the confrontational politics of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership – but the vivid creativity of the time had its roots in an earlier era, argues the FT’s arts editor  

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The French conceptualist’s exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo is a sense-scrambling rethink of the relationship between art and the environment in which it appears  

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Peter Aspden on 'A Whiter Shade of Pale', the melancholy 1967 Procol Harum song whose melody was 'sparked by Bach' and which set off a legal battle that went all the way to the House of Lords. Credits: ANM, AP Music, DLG Digital, Demon Music Group  

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Peter Aspden tells the story of Burt Bacharach’s feelgood anthem ‘Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head’  

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