FT News Briefing
Episodes
Warner Bros tells Paramount to make an offer it can’t refuse
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Meta has agreed to spend billions of dollars on millions of Nvidia’s chips, and Warner Bros Discovery has reopened sale talks with Paramount. Plus, ...
Orbán draws US support ahead of Hungary’s election
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lashed out at Ukraine at a meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Budapest. Fund managers are bett...
What’s with Wall Street’s weird selloffs?
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Cross-border EU banking deals reached their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, and regulation reversals are hitting global electric-vehicl...
Introducing 'The Kink Machine: The Hidden Business of Pleasure'
14 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the most watched business in the world. And the least understood. Streamed by millions every day, porn is everywhere. It shapes our culture, ou...
Private equity’s workaround to buy law firms
13 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration plans to roll back some tariffs, Schroders agrees to a US takeover, and Americans paid 90 per cent of the cost of US Presiden...
A wacky US jobs report
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The US economy added 130,000 jobs in January, beating market expectations, and documents appear to contradict testimony Jes Staley gave about his invo...
Should BP get more credit for its turnaround effort?
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said he visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island with his family in late 2012, Cuba is struggling under the US fuel emb...
Novo Nordisk hits back at copycat drugs
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Gilts rebounded from earlier losses on Monday afternoon, and Novo Nordisk is suing US telehealth company Hims & Hers over ‘knock-off’ versions...
Pressure mounts on Starmer even as top aid resigns
09 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff resigned amid controversy over the Mandelson scandal, and Japan’s conservative governing party...
A crunchy week for chipmakers
06 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon’s new AI spending blitz sent shares tumbling, chipmakers got swept up in a wider tech equities sell-off, Sir Keir Starmer has apologised to t...
Jeffrey Epstein’s web of influence
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Google said it plans to spend at least $55bn more on capital expenditure this year than Wall Street had forecast, US tech stocks were hit by a fresh w...
The Muskverse enters a new era
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US tech stocks fell on Tuesday over AI concerns, Elon Musk is charting a new path for his “Muskverse” of companies, and the US military shot down ...
Who will be Disney’s next CEO?
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
France has adopted a deficit-cutting budget for 2026 after months of political wrangling, and the FT’s Christopher Grimes tells us about the front r...
What would Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve look like?
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Europe’s largest oil companies are poised to curb share buybacks, and Kevin Warsh’s nomination to Fed chair could spark a rethink of how America’...
Blackstone lines up huge IPO pipeline
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Apple reported a blockbuster rise in revenue last quarter, and Blackstone is preparing to take a series of long-held investments public. Plus, Canada’...
Investors love heavy metal
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla on Wednesday reported its first-ever fall in annual revenue, Donald Trump has warned Iran that “time is running out” to reach a deal to...
US health insurer stocks call in sick
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US health insurance stocks plunged yesterday, and New Delhi and Brussels have agreed a trade deal that will eliminate up to €4bn of tariffs on EU ex...
US and Japan flirt with joint currency intervention
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration has linked security guarantees for Ukraine to Kyiv ceding the Donbas region to Russia, and there’s speculation that the US ...
Trump faces backlash on immigration crackdown after shooting
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agency faces growing backlash after federal agents fatally shot a second protester in two weeks, ...
Trump’s divisive 'Board of Peace’
23 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Intel shares slide 12 per cent as supply constraints limit growth, and Trump’s “Board of Peace” is dividing the US’s allies. Plus, Iran’s go...
Supreme Court appears sceptical over Fed firing
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump has dropped his tariff threat on Greenland, and the FT’s Derek Brower explains how Trump has navigated the World Economic ...
Greenland standoff rattles markets
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US equities and the dollar fell in response to transatlantic tension over Greenland, and the FT’s Robin Wigglesworth breaks down the idea of Europe ...
China's birth rate tumbles to historic low
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
China has registered its lowest number of births since records began. European governments weigh up options to bring down the high cost of their state...
EU readies retaliation for Trump’s Greenland threat
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As Europe considers retaliation measures to US President Donald Trump’s tariff threat to NATO allies that oppose his Greenland-takeover bid, Denmark...
China’s state iron ore buyer flexes muscles
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The EU is proposing a new way to allow Ukraine to join the bloc, and it was the best year for US investment banks since 2021. Plus, a look into the ir...
Why Japan’s prime minister might call a snap election
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump has not ruled out military action in Iran and Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi plans to call a snap general election....
London VC’s bet on Revolut pays off
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Two former senior executives at the collapsed subprime car lender Tricolor Holdings pleaded not guilty to fraud and financial crime charges, and Micro...
Markets shrug off investigation into Powell
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti is planning to step down in April 2027, and Paramount threatened a proxy fight in its latest move to force Warner B...
US opens criminal investigation into Fed chair
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, and civil unrest continues to threaten the Islamic regim...
Swamp Notes: Why Trump wants to ‘run’ other countries
10 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This is a repeat of an episode published on Swamp Notes, a sister podcast of the FT News Briefing on January 9, 2026. Subscribe to Swamp Notes on ...
Iranians protest over economic pain
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Glencore and Rio Tinto resume mining megamerger talks, protests in Iran over economic conditions are the largest in years, and the US trade deficit na...
Venezuela’s crumbling oil infrastructure
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The US wants to control Venezuelan oil sales ‘indefinitely’ but the ‘catastrophic’ state of the Latin American nation’s crude facilities pre...
A wave of repression in Venezuela
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Leading asset managers are positioning for a sharp sell-off in US technology stocks, Venezuela’s government has launched a crackdown after the US ca...
The investors eyeing Venezuela’s oil
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to narco trafficking charges, and smaller private investors are eager to invest in Venez...
Trump plans to ‘run’ Venezuela. What now?
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump has warned Venezuela’s defacto leader she must meet America’s demands following Nicolas Maduro’s capture. We explore w...
Predicting 2026: Will the Magnificent 7 tech stocks continue to diverge?
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett predicted that the Magnificent 7 tech stocks were not going to fall, but they wouldn’t ride a lot higher eith...
Predicting 2026: Will Trump and Musk officially reunite?
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Europe’s banking industry could shed 10 per cent of its workforce by 2030. Plus, the FT’s US national editor and columnist Edward Luce predicted A...
Predicting 2026: Will Ukraine finally get a peace deal?
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The FT’s Europe editor Ben Hall thought there would be a Ukraine peace deal in 2025. Despite lots of back and forth over ceasefire proposals, an agr...
Trump and Zelenskyy tout progress on peace but ‘thorny’ issues remain
29 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump hosted Ukraine’s leader at Mar-a-Lago for high-stakes peace talks but failed to reach a breakthrough. Plus, FT markets col...
Unhedged: Markets had an incredible year. Can that continue?
26 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What went right in 2025? What could go wrong in 2026? Recorded for the FT’s digital conference The Global Boardroom, Katie Martin and Rob Armstrong ...
The Rachman Review: Europe’s triple shock: Putin, Trump and Xi
25 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The French pioneer of European integration Jean Monnet believed that Europe would be ‘built in crisis’. The war in Ukraine is putting this theory ...
Behind the Money: KKR, Bain and private equity’s push into Japan
24 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When international private equity groups first entered Japan at the turn of the 21st century, newspapers criticised them as vulture funds and politici...
Political Fix: Labour's year in review
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is an episode of Political Fix, the FT weekly podcast that takes you into the corridors of Westminster to unwrap, analyse and debate British poli...
Tech Tonic: Defying death
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How much do we really know about ageing? For decades, scientists have been trying to understand the biology of the ageing process - what happens to ou...
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: Power, plutocracy and political economy
21 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this final episode of their series for the FT's The Economics Show, FT chief economics commentator Martin Wolf and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman cons...
Claer Barrett on spending wisely during the holidays
19 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year, but it's also the most expensive. Between gifts, food and travel, people can end up spendin...
India’s central bank governor cheers ‘goldilocks’ economy
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss has said he will step down after less than two years in the role, India’s central bank governor expects the co...
JPMorgan swaps cash for Treasuries
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Investors are snapping up Venezuela’s defaulted debt, JPMorgan Chase has withdrawn almost $350bn in cash from its account at the Federal Reserve sin...
EU-Mercosur trade deal hangs in the balance
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Shell’s merger chief departed after a bid to acquire rival BP was quashed internally, and the EU’s top trade official warns the bloc would lose gl...
Investors hunt for protection against AI debt bust
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A terror attack on a Jewish event in Sydney kills more than a dozen people. Plus, investors are increasingly concerned about how much debt is funding ...
Disney and OpenAI team up
12 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon is sentenced to 15 years in prison on two counts of fraud, and the Walt Disney Company will allow OpenAI to use it...
Fed cuts rates amid growing division
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter point, and Oracle shares fell on Wednesday after it reported disappointing revenues. Plus, there’...
Australia is first country to ban social media for children
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
EU countries want to fast-track a decision to indefinitely immobilise up to €210bn in Russian sovereign assets, investors have increased bets that i...
A double bubble for gold and US equities
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Paramount has launched a $108bn hostile bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery, US natural gas prices are soaring as the country ships record amounts of the...
Federal Reserve set for divisive final 2025 rate decision
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Europe seeks to rally support for Ukraine as US pressure builds, and there’s likely to be plenty of debate ahead of the Federal Reserve’s final ra...
Big Four maintains stranglehold on UK audits
05 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Big Four accounting firms maintained their iron grip on auditing the UK’s largest companies last year, the industry watchdog has found. Plus, Ja...
Wall Street frets over Hassett as potential Fed chair
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bond-market investors worry that the leading candidate for Fed chair is too close to US President Donald Trump, while HSBC finally picks its new chair...
AI chatbot race enters crunch phase
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nigel Farage has told donors he expects to do an election deal with the Conservatives, and the race to narrow OpenAI’s dominance in the chatbot race...
Swiss prosecutors file charges against Credit Suisse and UBS
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
UK pension funds are cutting back their exposure to US equities, and Swiss prosecutors have filed charges against Credit Suisse and its owner UBS over...
Key week for Russia-Ukraine peace talks
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence is threatening starting consultancy salaries, and the push to end Russia’s years-long invasion of Ukraine continues this wee...
The Wolf-Krugman Exchange: Trump’s ‘vibecession’
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As President Donald Trump approaches the one-year anniversary of his second term in office, the FT’s chief economics commentator Martin Wolf, and No...
How AI is changing warfare
28 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence has the potential to disrupt almost every industry we work in, from manufacturing to stock trading. Defence is no exception, a...
UK Budget boosts taxes to all-time high
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
S&P Global Ratings calls into question Tether’s ability to maintain its US dollar peg, and UK chancellor Rachel Reeves takes the wraps off the h...
Google closes in on Nvidia in the AI race
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Google’s parent company got close to a record $4tn market capitalisation, and more than $1tn has been wiped from the cryptocurrency market in the pa...
How Ireland became the weak spot in Europe’s defences
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Traders are piling into bets that Wednesday’s UK Budget will push the pound lower against the dollar, and the pharmaceutical industry saw some promi...
The scramble for a Ukraine peace deal
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US pressure on Ukraine and its allies to agree a peace deal with Russia ignites fresh concern in Europe, and the US has officially designated Venezuel...
The Big Tech stock rollercoaster
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tech stocks have been on a rollercoaster since Nvidia reported earnings, the US added 119,000 jobs in September but unemployment reached its highest l...
The bidding war for Warner Brothers Discovery begins
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nvidia grew sales of its chips even faster than Wall Street anticipated in its latest quarter, and UK inflation fell to 3.6 per cent in October. Plus,...
Brussels sprouts critical minerals plan
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meta has won the antitrust case that threatened to break it apart, the EU plans to create a central body to co-ordinate the purchasing and stockpiling...
Crypto’s 2025 U-turn
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The cryptocurrency market is struggling as bitcoin has lost all its gains from this year, and HSBC leaders cannot agree on the bank's next chair of th...
UK bond market wades through Budget uncertainty
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Goldman Sachs is on track to notch its best performance in the global deals market in 24 years. Plus, what UK gilt markets are looking for after Frida...
British chemicals empire Ineos feels the squeeze
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Oracle’s enormous borrowing to fund a push into artificial intelligence computing has spooked investors, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s heavily indebte...
Scottish kilts set to enter the bond market
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US government shutdown nears an end as House approves funding deal, European carmakers and other industrial companies continue to face “devastating”...
SoftBank divesting from Nvidia could be good, actually
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The International Energy Agency says global oil and gas demand will rise for the next 25 years if the world does not change course; Masayoshi Son’s ...
How the world’s biggest mining project is a win for China
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Saudi Aramco is shifting its focus to natural gas, Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for at least $1bn over an edit of a speech he gave on Ja...
Senate secures breakthrough on US shutdown
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The US Senate takes the first step to ending the government shutdown, and COP30 climate talks kick off in Brazil. Plus, stricter regulation puts the s...
Hungary looks to Trump for sanctions exemption
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla investors have overwhelmingly backed Elon Musk’s $1tn pay deal, Hungary’s prime minister travels to Washington to make the case for a Russia...
Supreme Court questions emergency Trump tariffs
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US Supreme Court justices appeared sceptical of Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs, and Argentine President Javier Milei has r...
AI bubble worries spread to Asia
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US voters issued a rebuke of President Donald Trump, US stocks dropped on Tuesday as jitters over highly elevated valuations for many artificial intel...
Pfizer plays hardball in weight-loss drug fight
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Palantir lifted its 2025 revenue guidance and Pfizer has filed a second lawsuit against Novo Nordisk and obesity drug start-up Metsera. Plus, OpenAI i...
Trump’s economy on the ballot
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The US Supreme Court begins hearing arguments this week for President Trump’s tariff policy. Plus, voters will head to the polls for state races see...
Will Trump’s progress in Asia last?
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon and Apple delivered solid earnings reports, and the FT’s Gideon Rachman explores whether Donald Trump’s foreign policy wins in Asia will ho...
RIP QT
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meta and Microsoft had mixed earnings reports, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and said it would halt quantitative tightening and South Korea h...
OpenAI’s long-awaited restructuring deal
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
OpenAI said it had completed a long-awaited restructuring, and Tesla’s chair has stepped up her campaign to win shareholder support for Elon Musk’...
Markets surge on Argentine election results
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US companies struck more than $80bn worth of deals, Argentina’s currency and government bonds surged after a landslide electoral victory for Preside...
The stage is set for high-stakes Trump-Xi meeting
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump is in Asia this week ahead of high-stakes trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Plus, the UK chancellor is pushing ...
Untold: Toxic Legacy, Ep. 1: Silent Danger
25 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Hughes receives a tip that horses are dropping dead in Wales. As she investigates, she finds decades of academic studies researching the problem...
Trump’s Russian oil sanctions shake energy markets
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump’s sanctions on Russian oil companies shook energy markets on Thursday, and the US president pardoned Binance co-founder Ch...
Sequoia Capital’s free speech debate
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla said its quarterly profit fell by more than a quarter, Sequoia Capital’s chief operating officer resigned over comments made by partner Shaun ...
South Africans question future of Black empowerment policies
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Netflix shares fell as a dispute with Brazilian tax authorities cut into its profits, Unilever said it has delayed the spin-off of its €15bn ice cre...
Japan’s transformational coalition deal
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
European governments have rallied behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and are rushing to secure a deal on the use of Russia’s frozen asse...
Why Beijing still loves its five-year plans
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart to accept Russia’s war terms during Friday’s volatile White House meeting, and five-year...
Matcha mania strains Japan
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Shares in US regional banks fell on Thursday after two lenders disclosed that they were exposed to alleged fraud by borrowers, and the UK economy grew...
A financial power grab in Turkey?
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Big investors are cutting back their exposure to riskier corporate debt, the IMF doled out some advice to the US and the UK, and China’s economy rem...
Investors turn to private economic data
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The leaders of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citi warned that investor exuberance risked driving financial markets into bubble territory, and US i...
The Netherlands takes over Chinese-owned chipmaker
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US stock markets rebounded on Monday, and the Netherlands has taken control of a Chinese-owned semiconductor company. Plus, US President Donald Trump ...
Trump ups the trade war ante
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
US President Donald Trump has threatened new “large scale” export controls on China, and Wall Street’s investment banks just wrapped up a record...
Israel approves ceasefire plan
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Israeli government approved the US-brokered deal for a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, the US Treasury has intervened in Argentina’s curr...
Quantitative easing is under the microscope
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump has said Israel and Hamas have agreed the first step in his plan for a Gaza ceasefire, and Washington wants its companies exempt from EU ...
Carmakers are falling back in love with petrol
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A UBS fund has 30 per cent of its portfolio tied to the failed First Brands Group, and carmakers across much of the world are scaling back on electric...