FT News Briefing
Episodes
Israel responds to historic Hamas attack
09 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The death toll from Hamas’s unprecedented multi-front assault on Israel passed 600 on Sunday, and Germany’s conservative opposition won two decisi...
Can artificial intelligence grow safely?
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Economists expect that jobs growth in the US slowed again in September, and the recent sell-off in bonds might be starting to cool. Plus, artificial i...
Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial begins
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lawyers for the crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried laid out their defence on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak axed the northern leg of the HS2 high-speed rail line...
McCarthy ousted as US House Speaker
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the yield on 30-year US Treasuries hit a 16-year peak on Tuesday, Indi...
Rating the ESG raters
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kristalina Georgieva backs reforms to the IMF that could eventually give more power to China, regulators are calling for more transparency for ESG rat...
McCarthy avoids US government shutdown
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US lawmakers were able to avert a shutdown over the weekend, Slovakia’s election results are adding pressure to the EU’s unity around the war in U...
Can AI help us speak to animals? Part two
30 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence has convinced some scientists that humans will eventua...
Tech IPOs lose their shimmer
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
European government bond prices dropped sharply as investors took fright at Italy’s larger than expected budget deficit, optimism for the IPO market...
What does China ‘de-risking’ actually mean?
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Global dealmaking is languishing at a 10-year low, western companies are insulating their China operations, and Chinese battery groups are avoiding or...
The FTC is primed for Amazon
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US Federal Trade Commission has accused Amazon of wielding monopolistic control over online markets, JPMorgan Chase said it settled lawsuits relat...
#MeToo’s mark on industry
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The writers strike hitting Hollywood looks like it’s nearing a close and the FT’s Brooke Masters explores whether recent CEO departures could be a...
Poland’s complicated relationship with Ukraine
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Russia has succeeded in avoiding G7 sanctions on most of its oil exports, Poland is calling for less support for Ukraine, China’s answer to the Worl...
Can AI help us speak to animals? Part one
23 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence is enabling researchers to listen in to all kinds of c...
Rupert Murdoch steps down
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chair of Fox and News Corp, Russia has barred the export of diesel and petrol, and the Bank of England has held int...
Fed signals fewer cuts in 2024
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday signalled support for another rate rise this year and fewer cuts in 2024, share buybacks on the US stock market...
Oil prices are not a barrel of fun
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shares in grocery delivery group Instacart jumped more than 10 per cent on their first day of trading, oil prices climbed above $95 a barrel for the f...
Can Singapore remain Asia’s ‘safe haven’?
19 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Instacart’s public listing this week is set to inch Nasdaq further ahead of the New York Stock Exchange in their closest fight for new listings in f...
A historic autoworkers strike
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US auto workers are striking to protect workers against the move to electric vehicles, and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak won’t attend the climate am...
Digital cash and culture wars
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shares in chip designer Arm jumped by 25 per cent as it began trading on the Nasdaq exchange yesterday, and the European Central Bank has raised inter...
CEO exit throws wrench into BP
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rising energy costs pushed US inflation above forecasts in August, Bernard Looney’s resignation from BP puts the oil company’s green energy transi...
IPO within Arm’s reach
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
BP’s chief executive Bernard Looney is resigning and SoftBank’s Arm is set to hit the public market on Thursday. Plus, we look at why Germany’s ...
Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to animals?
12 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’...
Why the euro is on a losing streak
12 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Norway’s $1.4tn sovereign wealth fund has become the biggest shareholder in UBS, a landmark antitrust trial between Google and the US government sta...
India shines at G20 summit
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
PwC is planning to give up tens of millions of dollars of consulting work for its US audit clients, Australia’s biggest pension fund is going big on...
Biden courts India at G20
08 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
India hosts the G20 summit this weekend, Germany is pushing the European Commission to postpone tariffs on electric vehicle sales between the UK and t...
EU pushes back on ‘too big to care’ tech companies
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US and European corporate bond markets have started September with a bang, the EU released a list of digital services that will have to comply with th...
Ukraine doubles down on counteroffensive
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager is stepping aside, and the UK has clawed back less than 2 per cent of losses owing to fraud and...
Solving America’s shortage of accountants
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lloyds Banking Group joins HSBC and US group Citi in ordering employees back into the office, a shortage of accountants is causing problems in the US ...
Secret paper trail reveals hidden Adani investors
04 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Global growth is set to slow next year after outperforming economists’ expectations so far in 2023, American mothers are re-entering the workforce a...
The ECB is in a pickle
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
UBS has reported the biggest-ever quarterly profit for a bank, eurozone core inflation has edged down, and Switzerland has proposed sweeping measures ...
Another coup in Africa
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Military officers in oil-rich Gabon said they had seized power, US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo wrapped up a visit to China, and the billionaire f...
Why Europe can’t quit Russian energy
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The EU is set to import record volumes of liquefied natural gas from Russia this year, asset management firm Grayscale won a US court ruling to launch...
An unlikely alliance in Brazil
29 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Goldman Sachs plans to sell one of its personal financial management divisions, Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is close to sealing an...
In search of a new economic playbook
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese corporate earnings reports are forecast to log poor performance and companies are set to downgrade outlooks, and policy makers walked away fro...
Putin breaks his silence on Prigozhin
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Russia's leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday publicly said warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin was dead, the emerging markets group Brics has invited six more cou...
Wagner group’s Prigozhin presumed dead
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has reportedly died after a plane crash north-west of Moscow, Nvidia’s revenue more than doubled in ...
All eyes on Jackson Hole
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Markets are looking for signals from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell during this week’s Jackson Hole symposium, global stock markets have lost a...
Can Arm’s listing reignite the IPO market?
22 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Description: The sell-off in US government debt continued to hit the world’s largest bond market on Monday, and Silicon Valley start-ups are wo...
Drought causes headaches for Panama Canal
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some of private equity’s biggest names are handing over companies they own to the lending arms of rivals, and Iran is dealing with the consequences ...
Saudi Arabia and UAE race to buy computer chips
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US mortgage rates have soared to a 21-year high, US retailer earnings reports send mixed messages on consumer spending, and Saudi Arabia and the Unite...
Introducing: The Russian Banker
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Who is Sergei Leontiev? To the US asylum system, he’s an exiled Russian banker who was persecuted by the state and forced to flee. To Russia, he’s...
New pain for China’s property sector
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lower gas and electricity costs drove a sharp drop in headline UK inflation in July, Fitch Ratings has downgraded WeWork, and there’s increasing anx...
A year of the Inflation Reduction Act
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US stocks hit a five-week low as a warning of potential Fitch downgrades sent bank shares lower, Beijing is making one of its biggest top-down efforts...
A looming ESG crackdown
15 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A surprise election result in Argentina spooked markets, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn is trying to pivot to India, and it looks like there’s a US reg...
The new commodity superpowers
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The rouble has fallen to a 16-month low against the dollar, airlines have joined forces with farmers to lobby in Washington so that corn helps power t...
Peak social media: The future
12 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of this Tech Tonic season, FT correspondents weigh in on the trends that will determine the future of social media. From Meta’s...
US inflation is still on the right track
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Iran has transferred five US citizens from prison to house arrest, US headline inflation in July rose slightly from June, and in Mexico the influence ...
China’s economy falls into deflation
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Walt Disney reported quarterly results that showed declines at its television and movie businesses, China’s economy has fallen into deflation, and P...
The weight-loss drug craze
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The UK government is pushing back against an attempt by some members of the House of Lords to close loopholes in transparency legislation, US ban...
Why admitting Ukraine into the EU is tricky
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Meta has axed a team that used artificial intelligence to create the first database of more than 600mn protein structures, and PayPal is launching a s...
Latin American central banks’ head start
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Private equity firms are increasingly offering sweeteners such as fee discounts to secure backing from deep-pocketed investors, US banks are still rel...
Peak social media: Building better platforms
05 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Can we get rid of the bad bits of social media and keep the good? Is it possible to create a more positive social media experience than the ...
Bank of England continues interest rate rise campaign
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stronger than expected online sales helped Amazon beat Wall Street expectations for last quarter, and the Bank of England raised interest rates for th...
A hard landing for Europe?
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Investors are increasing their bets that Europe will sink into a painful economic downturn, and luxury groups are bracing for the end of the post-pand...
Trump indicted over attempt to overturn 2020 election
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US prosecutors have charged Donald Trump in connection with his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Uber reported its first operati...
Booming markets neutralise impact of Fed's interest rate rises
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rising stock prices and falling bond yields in the US have essentially neutralised the impact of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate rises, western ...
The economic impact of extreme heat
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Bank of Japan announced that it’s going to allow bonds to rise more freely, and China’s politburo has signalled several target measures meant ...
Peak social media: The power of influencers
29 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Social media today is less about making friends and more about following popular content creators. While those creators are starting to hold some powe...
Stricter rules for US banks
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The European Central Bank has raised interest rates back to their record high, and US bank regulators have advanced plans to impose more arduous capit...
US hits highest interest rates in 22 years
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, Facebook parent Meta returned to double-digit revenue growt...
A glimmer of hope for the global economy
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alphabet earnings beat expectations, a new report from the IMF says the future of the global economy is looking a little brighter than it did a few mo...
Spain in political limbo
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Credit Suisse has been fined $388mn by US and British regulators, and Spain is facing an uncertain political future as the right and left failed to se...
A missed shot for women’s football
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
America’s risky corporate loan market has been hit by the biggest slew of downgrades since the depths of the Covid crisis in 2020, and European bank...
Peak social media: The debate over young users’ mental health
22 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a growing feeling that social media is bad for us: bad for society and bad for our wellbeing. That trend has culminated in a new wave of leg...
Treatments for Alzheimer’s, finally
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Nasdaq Composite had its biggest one-day drop in more than four months, the winner of Thailand’s general election has been suspended from parlia...
Signs of a UK inflation cool-down
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A crackdown on password sharing helped Netflix add nearly 6mn subscribers, UK inflation fell to a 15-month low of 7.9 per cent in June, Ukraine’s ar...
Russia targets western companies
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Big investment banks are turning more bearish on the dollar, and Europeans struggle with a near-record heatwave. Plus, the FT’s Anastasia Stognei ex...
China’s economic slump
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thames Water’s biggest investor slashed the value of its stake last year, Ford’s steep price cut for its electric pick-up truck rattled shareholde...
Can Tories prevent a massive defeat?
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The EU wants other polluting nations to cut emissions faster. Three of the largest US banks reported a surge in profits last week from charging more f...
Peak social media: The ads machine
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Zuckerberg used advertising to turn Facebook into the first global social media giant, boasting 3bn users around the world. But today there are q...
ChatGPT generates US investigation
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The UK government has invited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to London, and US regulators are going after the company behind ChatGPT. Plus, th...
US inflation cools
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US inflation fell sharply to 3 per cent in June, the $1.35tn US junk bond market has shrunk by almost $200bn since its all-time peak in late 2021, and...
A big win for Microsoft’s Activision deal
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Hunt has ordered ministers to find more than £2bn to fund public sector pay rises this year, JPMorgan is trying to scoop up Silicon Valley Ban...
Nato torn over Ukraine’s membership bid
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hedge funds have cut their bets on a rising US stock market to the lowest level in at least a decade and pivoted to Europe, a top US banking regulator...
Loan losses mount for US banks
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Israel is set to start voting on controversial judicial reforms on Monday and the largest US banks are expected to report the biggest jump in loan los...
The Congo river conservation debate
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Investors sold stocks and bonds across the world on Thursday as US borrowing costs touched a 16-year high, US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen is in Ch...
Protecting elephants in the Congo River Basin
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US and Germany are among the western allies falling behind in delivering promised heavy weapons to Ukraine, and big asset managers are flocking to...
Tracking the gorillas of the Congo Basin
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Israel’s raid on the West Bank reignites fears of escalating violence, Switzerland is looking into potential Russian sanctions violations and we con...
A deep look inside the Congo River Basin
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The UK’s financial watchdog has summoned bank chief executives to address concerns that savings rates are lagging behind the surging cost of mortgag...
France’s George Floyd moment
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Apple has been forced to make drastic cuts to production forecasts for the mixed-reality Vision Pro headset, French president cancels a trip to German...
Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s...
The Thames Water debt debacle
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US Supreme Court has curbed universities’ ability to consider race in admissions, turmoil at the top of Thames Water has left the UK government ...
Banks try to avoid ending up like SVB
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sterling suffers biggest one-day fall against the dollar in a month following UK growth fears, US banks are stepping up the sales of their loan portfo...
Japan goes all in on chips
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, has won a second term in office, the US Supreme Court rejects a Republican election plan, and a New York...
Wagner head downplays attack on Russia
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The head of the Wagner militia has denied trying to overthrow the Russian government, and western banks may not be able to participate in the Shanghai...
Wagner’s 24-hour coup
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wagner troops withdrew from Russia late Saturday night after an abandoned coup attempt on Moscow, Greek prime minister Kyriako Mitsotakis won re-elect...
The housing supply problem
25 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Home prices in the US and UK skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic. In a special four-part series, we explored how they got so out of whack and ...
The UK’s ‘mortgage bomb’
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Bank of England’s 50 basis point interest rate rise is causing concern for the UK’s already-high mortgages, and Germany has signed another lon...
Modi tries to deepen US tech ties
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi is set to address the US Congress today, and US regulators are accusing Amazon of duping customers into signing...
The trials and tribulations of AI voice tech
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has accelerated dealmaking in the US, and US president Joe Biden’s son has agreed to plead guilty to tax and...
US and China meet in an attempt to ease tensions
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has met with China's President Xi Xinping in an attempt to ease US-Sino tensions. Plus, the aerospace industry s...
AstraZeneca could spin off China business
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
AstraZeneca has drawn up plans to break out its China business, and France is challenging a German-led plan to build up Europe’s air defences. ...
Martin Wolf on saving democratic capitalism: epilogue
18 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this last episode of Martin Wolf’s series, the FT’s chief economics commentator sits down with the FT’s executive opinion editor, Jonathan De...
Martin Wolf on saving democratic capitalism: Hillary Clinton
17 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this fourth episode of Martin Wolf’s series, the FT’s chief economics commentator discusses the rise of populist politics with someone who was ...
Central banks all over the place
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
UK hedge fund firm Odey Asset Management is being dismantled in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against its founder and Saudi Arabia has spe...
Fed skips an interest rate increase
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The US Federal Reserve paused its interest rate rise campaign on Wednesday after 10 straight increases, and former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has...
The housing supply problem: Part 4
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
EY’s global chief executive Carmine Di Sibio says he is planning to retire next year, and the FT’s Joshua Franklin explains the impact of JPMorgan...
The Crispin Odey investigation
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
France is drumming up support for a global levy on greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping industry, and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlu...
Scotland’s Sturgeon arrested
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The former first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, was arrested on Sunday, Boris Johnson’s exit from UK parliament will have consequences for t...
Martin Wolf on saving democratic capitalism: resisting autocracy
10 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this third episode of Martin Wolf’s series, the renowned FT columnist and economist speaks to the journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, who ha...