Country living room ideas for a perfect rustic retreat in your own home

Jenny McFarlane

Create a warm and inviting feeling, using traditional, modern, shabby-chic or farmhouse style

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  • Gazprom swings to £5bn loss in blow to Putin

    Kremlin-owned natural gas giant Gazprom has plunged to its worst loss in at least 25 years in a blow to Vladimir Putin’s war economy.

  • Record loss for Russia's Gazprom as European market closed

    Russian energy giant Gazprom said Thursday it suffered a record annual loss last year as the European market was practically shut to its gas exports due to sanctions over Moscow's military operation in Ukraine.Exports to Europe have long been Gazprom's top earnings source, but following the start of the conflict in Ukraine European nations sought to reduce their reliance upon Russian natural gas.

  • EVs are getting smarter and cheaper in China

    STORY: Light-up emojis. Music for pedestrians outside. In China, electric carmakers are offering up luxury tech – without the luxury price tag – in the battle for buyers. Cars are being loaded with once-expensive interior features and technology for as low as $20,000 – less than half the cost of the average new car in the U.S. Analysts say that poses a big challenge for foreign heavyweights like Tesla and Volkswagen. This is the Nammi – on display here at the Beijing auto show. It’s made by state-owned automaker Dongfeng and sells for under $10,000. That’s around the same as BYD’s Seagull EV – China’s fourth best-selling electric vehicle. The market is also crowded with electric and plug-in vehicles that splash luxury technology. Xpeng is planning to offer an EV with high-level self-driving features – for under $21,000. Analysts say the price of specialized components like sensors needed for self-driving and screens for onboard entertainment has tumbled. That's making competition in the world’s largest auto market all the more fierce… And chipping away at the halo that once hung over foreign brands. That’s according to an outlook from McKinsey analysts released in March. Take Zeekr, for instance. It's the carmaker with those emojis. Here’s its Shanghai head of design, Javier-Garcia Gallardo: “When we see the differences between our product launch in China versus our product launch in Europe and, you know, the technical details are as important as the design and the brand. And this integration of technology is essential for the Chinese customer.” Still, German automakers say they’re not backing down. Here’s Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius: “We have a dedicated digital tech team here all the way down to providing things like in the new E-Class, you can sing karaoke. Maybe you don't have that feature in Germany. Maybe you should. But here, customers love it.” Mercedes, as well as Volkswagen, both told Reuters they’re working to deliver those so-called “wow effects” for Chinese buyers.

  • ‘The decisions you’re making are going to end with a smoking hole in the ground’: Inside the Boeing catastrophe

    ‘They were always caught flat-footed by some terrible problem that many people in the workplace knew would happen... And that happened over and over and over and over and over again.’ Io Dodds reports on a corporate nightmare

  • 'Careless' former Cardinal Heenan maths teacher cleared of misconduct

    Lauren Williams-Burgeen was accused of being “motivated by dishonesty”

  • US law firm Mayer Brown to split from Hong Kong partnership

    U.S. law firm Mayer Brown said on Thursday that it plans to separate from its current Hong Kong operations, as many international law firms rethink or reduce their presence in China. Chicago-founded, 1,800-lawyer Mayer Brown said it plans to continue to operate in Hong Kong through a new partnership focused on corporate and other work. Mayer Brown said its Hong Kong partners plan to reestablish their firm as Johnson Stokes & Master (JSM), which was the name of the Hong Kong-based entity that merged with Mayer Brown in 2008.

  • Opinion: Could these laws fix America’s broken work culture?

    Journalist Brigid Schulte examines the new “right to disconnect” efforts in California and around the globe that aim to give workers the prerogative to ignore work messages after hours, reducing the stress and burnout of our always-on and hyperconnected modern work culture.

  • Takeover bids, millionaire CEOs and angry members: Building societies are looking a lot like the big banks

    Runaway profits, big-ticket acquisitions and bumper executive pay rises, Britain's building societies are starting to look a lot like banks.

  • Real-Life Lessons for Thriving in the Energy Transition

    The U.S. is assembling a new power grid infrastructure—and not a moment too soon. The need for dynamic new approaches in the power and utility sector has never been more urgent. New kinds of distributed

  • County Durham NHS pharmacy sold off as new owner's plans for service set out

    Specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co, has announced the sale of Moorside Pharmacy in Consett, County Durham.

  • Judge in landmark antitrust case grills Google, Justice during closing arguments

    The judge overseeing a pivotal antitrust trial focused on whether Google is stifling competition and innovation repeatedly indicated Thursday that he believes it would be difficult for a formidable rival search engine to emerge. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta went back and forth with Google’s lead litigator, John Schmidtlein, during the first day of the trial's closing arguments, questioning whether another company could amass the money and data needed to develop a search engine that could eventually compete against Google.

  • ConocoPhillips misses quarterly profit estimates on lower gas prices

    (Reuters) -U.S. oil producer ConocoPhillips missed Wall Street bets for first-quarter profit on Thursday, as lower natural gas prices and increased costs offset gains from higher oil production. A milder-than-expected winter hurt demand for the heating fuel in the quarter and pulled down U.S. natural gas prices to a three-and-a-half-year low in February, also affecting earnings of U.S. oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron. ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said energy prices have been volatile, but should not prevent the company from increasing cash distribution to shareholders.

  • Apple unveils record buyback as results beat forecasts

    STORY: Apple announced a record share buyback program on Thursday as the iPhone maker revealed a smaller-than-expected drop in revenue.The company upped its cash dividend by 4%, and is buying back $110 billion worth of stock.It's the largest buyback in Apple's history, fueling a jump in shares after hours.Apple reported a revenue drop of 4% to almost $91 billion in the fiscal second-quarter.That's not as steep a fall as analysts had predicted.A positive forecast came from CEO Tim Cook.He told Reuters the iPhone maker expects "to grow low-single digits" in overall revenue in the current quarter ending in June.Wall Street is predicting closer to 1.3% growth, according to LSEG data.The results and guidance suggest the company may be regaining its footing in the smartphone market, despite stiff competition and regulatory challenges.Long considered a must-own stock on Wall Street, Apple shares have underperformed other Big Tech firms in recent months.It's fallen 10% this year while struggling with weak iPhone demand and tough competition in the Chinese market.Smartphone rivals like Samsung have also introduced competing devices aimed at hosting artificial intelligence chatbots.Though Cook said Thursday that iPhone sales still experienced "growth in some markets, including China."He also said Apple has spent more than $100 billion on AI research and development in the past five years.And that the company would be sharing "some very exciting things" about its AI plans later this year.

  • UPDATE 2-JPMorgan says its Russia assets may be seized after lawsuits in Russia, US

    JPMorgan Chase said in a filing on Wednesday that its assets in Russia may be seized after lawsuits in Russian and U.S. courts. The bank faces several legal challenges over its Russian dealings after the U.S. and European nations imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The value of claims and orders to freeze assets exceeds JPMorgan's available assets in Russia, the largest U.S. lender said.

  • More than 10,000 London black-cab drivers launch £250m Uber lawsuit

    Individuals could win £25,000 or more if they are successful in claim Uber broke taxi booking rules

  • How to become a contractor – and significantly boost your salary

    Becoming your own boss is a dream many people will have at some point in their careers. The freedom to manage your own time and benefit from tax breaks are just some of the sought-after benefits of being self-employed.

  • Starbucks plunges £12bn as consumers cut back on costly coffee

    Starbucks’ shares fell by more than 16pc on Wednesday after a surprise drop in sales sparked a sell-off among investors.

  • UPDATE 2-Dominion planning to power 15 more data centers in 2024

    (Adds data center details and executive quotes in paragraphs 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9. Dominion Energy expects to service 15 more data centers through the end of 2024 as the utility receives bigger power requests from computer warehouse developers, executives said on Thursday.

  • GSK raises profit guidance as vaccine demand grows

    Emma Walmsley, chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical firm hailed a ‘strong start to 2024’.

  • Big-name Inverclyde employer recruiting apprentices

    The employer is inviting applications