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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)
  • Thursday, 28 November, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Europe’s fear of the outsider

    Surrounded by an unfriendly Russia, China and Trump-led US, how should Europeans respond? 

  • Thursday, 28 November, 2024
    FT Globetrotter
    Bureau zone: how to navigate French workplace culture

    Contrary to our fantasy, it is not all 35-hour weeks, long holidays and leisurely lunches (well, maybe the latter)

  • Tuesday, 26 November, 2024
    FT SeriesThe best books of the year 2024
    Best books of 2024: from our own stable

    Books by FT journalists and editors

  • Thursday, 21 November, 2024
    FT MagazineEnergy sector
    Will China win the clean-energy era?

    Trump loves fossil fuels but his sidekick Musk wants a piece of the action

  • Tuesday, 19 November, 2024
    FT SeriesThe best books of the year 2024
    Best books of 2024: Sport, Health and Wellness

    Simon Kuper and Anjana Ahuja select their must-read titles

  • Thursday, 14 November, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Lamentations of a lost liberal

    Liberals have learnt pessimism since 2016. This time, we are neither baffled nor energised by Trump’s win

    Cartoon of a person staring out a window, appearing thoughtful or concerned, with an American flag and crowd seen outside in a dimly lit setting
  • Thursday, 7 November, 2024
    FT MagazineGenomics
    We are a bit Neanderthal

    What modern genetics has taught us about human history

  • Thursday, 31 October, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    How the media is failing us

    I include myself in the under-reporting of the most consequential global stories

  • Thursday, 24 October, 2024
    FT MagazineEU defence
    Trump II: the military threat to Europe

    Nato without the US is a hypothetical, but it could happen as early as next year

  • Thursday, 17 October, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Taboos take a back seat in a new Europe

    Fewer voters are put off by the roots of some far-right parties

  • Thursday, 10 October, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Political freebies matter immensely

    Britain needs what it has never had: serious rules curtailing money in politics

  • Thursday, 3 October, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Why I stopped making election forecasts

    The shocks of recent times have shown the rational voter is a myth

    Illustration showing two contrasting voting booths: one minimalist and grey, the other bright and adorned with American flag colours and stars, with a hand casting a ballot
  • Thursday, 26 September, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    After the strongman

    What happens when a personalist regime inevitably falls

  • Thursday, 19 September, 2024
    Life & Arts
    Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa

    The parallels between South Africa then and the US today are striking

    Illustration of a red bench labelled ‘MAGA ONLY’ on a green background
  • Thursday, 12 September, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Serious Starmer leads a Roundhead revival

    Categorising him as left or right ignores the prime minister’s distinctively puritan streak

    An illustration depicting Keir Starmer dressed as a Roundhead, against a pale-green background
  • Thursday, 5 September, 2024
    FT MagazineParis Olympics
    How the Olympics changed Paris 

    The city’s mood has shifted from disaster mitigation to opportunity

  • Thursday, 15 August, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    How taking a holiday went global

    More people have acquired the means to experience the life-altering effects of a vacation

  • Friday, 9 August, 2024
    The Weekend Essay
    How to read a riot

    Violence on British streets has reopened an age-old debate about what drives disorder — and what can be done about it

    A group of men are gathered on a grassy area, holding planks and sticks. Some are draped in England flags, one waves a union jack and many are filming with phones
  • Thursday, 8 August, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    What the Olympic medal table really tells us

    The list of winning countries is much more than just a guide to sporting achievement

  • Saturday, 3 August, 2024
    InterviewFT Magazine
    How Roger Federer rode the ‘beautiful wave’ of tennis for 24 years

    The court legend on rivalry, reinvention and regret

  • Thursday, 25 July, 2024
    FT MagazinePolitics
    A tale of three very different elections

    We’ve got a rare opportunity to compare the UK, US and French systems. What have we learnt?

  • Thursday, 18 July, 2024
    Paris Olympics
    The Paris Olympics will be political. That’s a good thing

    For some athletes the podium can be a platform

  • Sunday, 14 July, 2024
    Uefa Men's European championship
    Spanish teamwork exposes England’s lack of co-ordination

    La Roja’s well-drilled pressing game exposed limitations of Gareth Southgate’s team

    Spain’s Lamine Yamal celebrates
  • Saturday, 13 July, 2024
    The Weekend Essay
    Paris, the Olympics and the reinvention of a city

    After a divisive election, this summer’s Games will fire the starting gun on a vast project to transform the French capital

    Stands being erected in a square with a statue of a woman on a winged horse and also at the base of the Eiffel Tower, which bears the symbol of the Olympic rings
  • Friday, 12 July, 2024
    Uefa Men's European championship
    Young wingers give Spanish football a fresh face

    Black stars Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams help steer La Roja to Euro final but racial tensions still dog Spanish game

    Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal together and separately
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