Hi there. I'm off this week.

Apparently we're more productive at work after a good holiday.

So I'm counting this Caribbean rum distillery tour as professional development. Yours calling. Take your holiday as seriously as British Airways

holidays take your holiday. Atul protected. This episode is sponsored by Tradeu, the multi-asset platform that lets you trade with an institutional edge.

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Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

In London, I'm Jason Palmer.

And in New York, I'm John Fastman.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Being on a company's board of directors has long been seen as a cushy gig, a fat paycheck for just a few meetings a year.

The reality is increasingly different. Boards are busier than ever and harder than ever to fill with the skills they need today.

And Antonio Livaldi was among the most prolific classical composers of all time, churning out more than 500 concerti. Most have fallen into obscurity, but we'll tell you how one of his compositions became ubiquitous.

First up, though.

In recent weeks, two stories have dominated coverage of the war in Ukraine.

The first is Bahmoud, a city at the edge of the Donbas region that once held 70,000 people,

but has been almost entirely flattened by Russia's seven-month effort to capture it.

The Kremlin now claims to have the city surrounded.

...