Setting up your own business brings both challenges and rewards. Introducing our special issue on entrepreneurial success, we seek advice from two special experts in the field.

The things they make are so familiar we barely notice their presence. Allow us to introduce the masters of ubiquity whose products always seem to be exactly where you need them.

Lithuania no longer looks enviously across the Baltic at its well-to-do Nordic neighbours and its capital illustrates why. Self-confident, creative and well-educated, the city typifies how a small nation can realise big ambitions.

Work spaces in Paris and sexy dog food.

Berlin’s new urban lido in the post-industrial RAW-Gelände district is a welcome summer retreat. But it’s not just where the German capital’s 24-hour party people head to cool off: a whole community, young and old, is laying claim to its luxury loungers.

Greece has recently been grabbing the headlines for all the wrong reasons. But while commentators indulge in unhelpful schadenfreude, we think it is high time to celebrate the things the country still does rather well.

Auctioneering is an exacting blend of salesmanship and performance art. So says Christie’s veteran auctioneer Hugh Edmeades as he brings his years of expertise to training Marlous Jens, a new recruit to the profession.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a 1,000-year-old institution that played a role in the Crusades and issues its own passports. Now it is fighting a very different battle: defending its honour as a paragon of Christianity and humanitarian aid.

EU trade talks with the US turn prickly, plus the UK's Labour party's trials and tribulations.

The man who succeeded Hugo Chávez, plus race relations in the US and a red-letter day for Canada Post.

Tackling pollution in China and rebuilding Nepal's schools after April's earthquake.

Iran plans a major port expansion and the transport choices of Rwanda's president.

Pensions in the Pacific, easing Sydney's rush hour and Burmese migrants to Australia.

Strengthening Lebanon's army, plus Sweden's arms industry comes under scrutiny.

Having overcome cultural preconceptions, competitive figure skater Zahra Lari is sharpening her skates as she trains in advance of 2018 to become the first athlete from the Gulf to compete in the Winter Olympics.

France's consul-general to Turkey on why the countries are like a married couple, plus peace-keeping today.

For the first time in Turkey’s history, a pro-Kurdish party has won a place in the legislature. Peoples’ Democratic party’s leader Selahattin Demirtas expounds on his hopes for the coming years – and the challenges that lie ahead.

While Indonesia’s capital chokes with traffic pollution and bureaucracy, to the east Surabaya is following a fresher route to modernity. Find out why being a second city can put you in first place.

As Globo, Brazil’s most powerful broadcaster, celebrates its 50th birthday, there are whispers of it becoming a monopoly. With its coverage of next year’s Olympics high on the agenda, we paid a visit to find out how it stays atop the TV podium.

Despite challenging times for many newspapers, Austria’s ‘Die Presse’ newspaper has kept faith with the training programme it founded nearly 50 years ago. Today half its staff are alumni and the paper’s investment in talent is paying off – in sales.

The Savannah College of Art and Design produces graduates full of inspiration and savvy – and the surrounding city feels much the same. Monocle visited for a lesson in considered development.

US TV's new season and Turkish sports writing

London's Start Art Fair promises fresh discoveries, plus the emerging art scene in Pondicherry.

Our pick of this month's arts offerings.

How do you fit out a new office? We created four fantasy firms and gave four very real architects the task of creating the perfect spaces, from home office to full-steam-ahead operation.

Japan has an ageing popluation, which makes innovative nursing home Ebino Ryofuen a welcome presence. That said, a lot of countries would benefit from a little more respect for their elders.

Rethinking Olympic stadiums, plus a new homeware shop in London and Chicago's architecture biennal

Our sartorial offering this month includes smart spectacles, elegant tartan skirts and dandy silk handkerchiefs.

When a husband-and-wife team decided to transform their apartment behind Madrid’s Paseo de Prado into a space in which they could live and work, little did they know that the project would provide so much comfort.

Our favourite grooming kits from around the world will keep you preened, trimmed and well-kempt, whatever challenges your business brings and wherever in the world it takes you.

Cedar-wood bathtubs in Bali, ancient caves in Cappadocia, jungle-print textiles in Barcelona and a dockside rental in Normandy: this month’s openings will have you knocking on nature’s door.

Berlin’s Wedding quarter, once dismissed as a drab industrial district best avoided, has emerged as an engaging home for creative types thanks to its mix of eclectic architecture and a laidback atmosphere. Monocle got a spot on the guestlist.

Chef Stefano Manfredi has spent more than 30 years pioneering unpretentious, fresh northern-Italian food in his adopted hometown of Sydney. We visited his Balla restaurant to share a few choice recipes.

From Auckland's burgeoning culinary scene to a Madrid newsroom turned restaurant, here are our tastiest finds.

Food is a hard-won passion for museum director and art critic Lars Nittve.

Monocle editor in chief Tyler Brûlé walks us through his ideal summer afternoon: stimulating reading material, restorative swims and inspiring start-up ideas. He also touches on the presence of various clothed animals in the issue…

A rural retreat set up for the staff of a Polish news magazine combines the relaxed vibe of a holiday home with the quiet of a writer's bolthole.

Converted from the holiday hangout of its CEO, this bucolic sanctuary for Tokyo firm Smiles offers a chance for staff to enjoy the best in modern Japanese living.

A former baronial castle in South Tyrol offers an arresting getaway for both serving and retired officers in the Italian police force.