FT News Briefing

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...

Rishi Sunak comes to Washington

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla and General Motors have struck a deal to let the Detroit carmaker’s customers plug in at 12,000 of the Texas company’s roadside chargers, an...

Introducing Unhedged

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We want to tell about a new podcast coming soon! On Unhedged, Ethan Wu, Katie Martin and other markets nerds at the Financial Times explain the big id...

The housing supply problem: Part 3

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The US, Taiwan and Japan will share real-time data from naval reconnaissance drones, India’s deadliest train accident happened despite years of inve...

Sequoia Capital to spin off its China business

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The UK Cabinet Office will tell central government departments to remove all surveillance equipment made by Chinese companies from sensitive sites; an...

SEC sues world’s largest crypto exchange

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

US securities regulators yesterday sued the world’s largest crypto exchange and accused Binance of a host of violations, sliding German butter price...

A daring high-wire act: Inside the Asda buyout

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Saudi Arabia is cutting oil production, Turkey has a new finance minister and Apple is unveiling a mixed-reality headset today. Plus, the FT’s Kaye ...

FTNB Live! FT Weekend Fest in Washington DC

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A special live recording of the FT News Briefing at the FT Weekend Festival in Washington, DC. Our terrific colleagues played a friendly game of news ...

Martin Wolf on saving democratic capitalism: the ‘democratic recession’

03 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this second episode of Martin Wolf’s series, the renowned FT columnist and economist speaks to Larry Diamond, a leading contemporary scholar in t...

What did the fight over the US debt ceiling cost?

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Binance has lost a quarter of its market share, the US government is on the verge of passing a deal to raise the debt ceiling, and Eurozone inflation ...

The housing supply problem: Part 2

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The US House of Representatives voted to raise the debt ceiling last night. Plus, in part two of our housing series, the FT’s Persis Love explores a...

Wall Street gives crypto a chance

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

China has called for “stable and constructive” ties with the US in a meeting with Elon Musk and some Wall Street companies are building their own ...

Ageing populations hit government credit ratings

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Democrats and Republicans are confident they can pass a deal to avert a US debt default, the lira slides after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan...

Martin Wolf on saving democratic capitalism

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the first of this four-part series, the renowned FT columnist and economist Martin Wolf tells the FT’s executive opinion editor Jonathan Derbyshi...

Nvidia closes in on the trillion dollar club

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

More large US companies are taking shelter in bankruptcy court, Nvidia is on course to become the first chipmaker to be valued at more than $1tn, and ...

The housing supply problem: Part I

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

UK gilt yields hit levels not seen since last year’s “mini” Budget crisis, and Australia’s government has referred a PwC tax leak scandal to t...

A new gold rush

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A double-digit drop in German exports to China has rattled Europe’s biggest economy and the UK is set to lose a high-profile solar power investment....

Adani tries to win back investors

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

China’s semiconductor industry fears Japanese curbs on exports of crucial chipmaking equipment are stricter than US limits, Meta has been hit with a...

China bans Micron’s products from key infrastructure

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Florida governor Ron DeSantis is expected to launch his campaign for US president this week, China has banned operators of key infrastructure from buy...

TikTok spied on our reporter

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The US Supreme Court rules to protect big tech companies from being liable for users’ posts, and G7 countries are preparing new sanctions against Ru...

Will the digital euro come online?

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ukraine’s allies worry that support from the US will lose steam during next year’s election cycle, and Japan’s stocks are reaching new highs. Pl...

US sues to block drug merger

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Federal Trade Commission sued to block the biotechnology company Amgen’s $28.3bn deal to acquire Horizon Therapeutics, Italy is struggling to sp...

Ford to scale back China investments

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ford plans to reduce its future investment in China, and prominent investors are upset with the record number of share buybacks. Plus, the FT’s Elen...

Turkey’s tight election

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu are locked in a tight battle for the presidency as the election count suggested ...

Markets shrug off potential US debt default

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk says he’s hired a new CEO for Twitter, and Turkey heads to the polls this weekend for what analysts say is the biggest presidential electi...

China makes a show of corporate raiding

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Disney sharply reduced its losses from video streaming in the second quarter, US inflation dipped to its lowest level since April 2021, and the FT’s...

Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky takes on Twitter

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump has been found liable for the sexual abuse of a journalist in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, Ireland plans to set up a sovere...

Is commercial property the ‘next shoe to drop’?

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Bank of England is set to raise interest rates to their highest level since 2008 this week, and investors are worried about the impact of rising r...

US debt ceiling deadline looms

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The G7-led price cap on Russian oil exports has forced the Kremlin to raise the tax burden on producers, and education companies are struggling after ...

Another rough day for US regional banks

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple said on Thursday that revenues shrank for a second straight quarter, the European Central Bank raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentag...

Fed hints it might pause rate hikes

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Pres...

US regional bank stocks still under pressure

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The rescue of First Republic this week has failed to stop a sell-off in regional bank shares, Apple experienced a big boost in demand in India driven ...

Jamie Dimon’s big win

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chinese initial public offerings have raised more than five times as much money as those in the US this year, and Germany’s lawmakers are set to pas...

First Republic in limbo

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At least three large banks have submitted bids to buy all or parts of First Republic, the US is urging South Korea not to fill China’s semiconductor...

Big Tech props up US stocks

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Russia’s stock market has climbed to its highest level in more than a year, European commercial real estate deals hit an 11-year-low last quarter, a...

The Magic Kingdom goes to war

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Walt Disney sued Florida governor Ron DeSantis over the state’s ‘retaliation’ for the company’s stance on ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, UK regula...

Sudanese refugees pour into Chad

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Google’s advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2023 nearly matched numbers from a year ago, tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees have crosse...

UBS’s Credit Suisse challenge

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

US President Joe Biden is expected to announce on Tuesday that he’s running for re-election, UBS could lose customers as a result of its takeover of...

America's dollar stores get a makeover

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Santander is trying to poach some of Credit Suisse’s most senior investment bankers, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak looks to establish calm after dep...

Introducing Behind the Money: Night School

22 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There’s been a lot of big finance and economics news in 2023. Whether it's stories about rising interest rates, tech industry layoffs or bank runs, ...

Credit Suisse bondholders sue

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Regional banks across the US have largely stopped the massive outflow of deposits after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, investors representing $4...

Ukraine pleads for air defence missiles

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Natural gas consumption in the EU fell almost 18 per cent in the past eight months, Ukraine will plead for urgent shipments of surface-to-air missiles...

The TikTok divide

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox has agreed to pay $787.5mn to settle a landmark defamation case, Bank of America emerged from banking turmoil with higher first...

A power struggle in Sudan

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple and Goldman Sachs launched a new savings account with an interest rate more than 10 times the national average, a Chinese genetics company said ...

Turkey’s voters lose faith in Erdogan

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Companies have committed more than $200bn to US manufacturing projects since Congress passed sweeping subsidies last year, one of Charles Schwab’s l...

The quantum revolution: The way the world is

15 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the final episode of this Tech Tonic series, we hear how radical quantum ideas are reshaping our fundamental understanding of the universe. Nobel P...

Open AI’s ‘red team’

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

BP has started pumping crude through a new $9bn offshore platform as it slows its transition out of fossil fuels, global equities have recovered from ...

Emerging markets debt crunch

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump is suing his former lawyer Michael Cohen, an uptick in core prices in the US is keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to push ahead wit...

EY: Breaking up is hard to do

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

EY has scrapped plans to break up its audit and consulting businesses, the IMF has warned the global economy could be in for a “hard landing”, and...

Rise of the Russian informer

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Companies on the S&P 500 index are expected to report a 6.8 per cent decline in first-quarter earnings, Eli Lilly’s CEO told the Financial T...

The rising influence of Mrs Assad

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

China’s financial sector is reeling from a series of new corruption probes and the FT’s Middle East correspondent, Raya Jalabi, explains how Syria...

The quantum revolution: Brain waves

08 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Quantum computers aren’t the only form of groundbreaking technology that use quantum physics. Madhumita Murgia hears from Dr. Margot Taylor, ne...

Ukraine’s plans for Crimea

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brands keep spending on TikTok despite a threat by the US to ban the social media app, KKR is looking to buy a large stake in FGS Global, and Ukraine ...

Trump pleads not guilty

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges in court on Tuesday, Credit Suisse held its last annual general meeting, and ...

EU pressures China to help end war in Ukraine

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The president of the European Commission has called on Beijing to play a “constructive” role in bringing peace to Ukraine, EY has been banned from...

The cases against Trump

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former President Donald Trump will turn himself in to New York prosecutors on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia and other members of the Opec+ group announced sur...

The quantum revolution: First port of call

01 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Port of Los Angeles is one of the world’s busiest — and most inefficient. It’s now using an early quantum computing application to help solv...

Oleksandr Gryban: Investing in Ukraine’s future

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump has been indicted in what is the first criminal charges against a former US president in the country’s history, Ukraine’s deputy econ...

Binance hid links to China

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Social media giant Meta is deliberating a company-wide ban on political advertising in Europe, crypto exchange Binance hid substantial links to China,...

Beijing’s big bailouts

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon will testify about his bank’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the Middle East is enjoying an IPO boom, China has expand...

Israel’s PM Netanyahu agrees to postpone judicial reforms

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a bitterly contested judicial overhaul, the first consignment of German Leopard 2 tanks has re...

Money market madness

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Fidelity are the biggest winners from investors pouring cash into US money market funds over the past two weeks, sen...

The quantum revolution: ‘Spooky action’

25 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

 In this episode, Tech Tonic dives into the science at the heart of quantum computing. How do technologists use unexplained subatomic phenomena t...

A congressional TikTok smackdown

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

TikTok’s CEO faced bruising questioning in US Congress over the social media app’s links to its Chinese parent company ByteDance, short seller Hin...

The Fed passes on a pause

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The US Federal Reserve pressed ahead with its monetary tightening campaign despite the recent turmoil in the banking sector and the FT’s Andrew Jack...

Banking crisis complicates interest rate decisions

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The IMF has struck a deal with Ukraine to provide a $15.6bn loan, some former central bankers say pausing rate increases because of the banking s...

Will a $3bn bailout be enough for Sri Lanka?

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The IMF’s board has finally backed a $3bn bailout for Sri Lanka to help relieve a ‘catastrophic’ economic and social crisis, shares in Firs...

UBS agrees to buy Credit Suisse

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for $3.25bn after a frantic weekend of negotiations brokered by Swiss regulators, leading central banks have taken fre...

The quantum revolution: The race to build a quantum computer

19 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tech companies including Google, Microsoft and IBM are all working on plans for a commercially viable quantum computer. They say that these machines w...

Wall Street banks rescue First Republic

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The largest US banks have banded together to deposit $30bn into First Republic Bank in an attempt to bolster its finances, the European Central Bank h...

Swiss central bank backs Credit Suisse

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Swiss central bank said it would provide a liquidity backstop to Credit Suisse, UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled a Budget that includes a £4bn ...

The Fed’s SVB balancing act

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The world’s largest private investment firms are exploring the purchase of loans from the remains of Silicon Valley Bank, the Federal Reserve is cau...

SVB jitters spread to global markets

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The collapse of Silicon Valley bank rattled global markets, investors continue to worry about banks, US regional banks were hit hard by a sell-off, an...

SVB’s cardinal sin

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is leading an auction to find a potential buyer for Silicon Valley Bank after the US government said it woul...

The quantum revolution: Q-Day

11 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the cybersecurity world they call it Q-Day, the day when a quantum computer will be built that can break the encryption of the internet.John Thornh...

Silicon Valley Bank rattles Wall Street

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A US bank index suffered the worst one-day fall in market value since June 2020, the first France-UK summit in five years will focus on resetting rela...

Britain’s stuck economy

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

EY employees were told that the plan to spin off the consulting business needs to be reworked, and Chinese president Xi Jinping is preparing to shore ...

How Hindenburg shorted Adani

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jay Powell warned US lawmakers that the Federal Reserve is prepared to return to bigger interest rate rises to fight inflation, and the US gender pay ...

FTX trading arm sues Grayscale

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

FTX affiliate Alameda has sued crypto investment company Grayscale and its owner over the structure of their large bitcoin and ethereum trusts, Chines...

China’s military spending to outpace economic growth

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Huawei is lobbying to build the Malaysian government’s 5G network, China will aim for an economic expansion of “around 5 per cent” for 2023, Isr...

Introducing Tech Tonic Season 6: The Quantum Revolution

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tech companies and labs around the world are building a revolutionary new computer. Quantum computers harness the mysteries of quantum physics to perf...

London Stock Exchange gets the cold shoulder

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The US will launch a renewed crackdown on countries that are helping the Kremlin evade western sanctions, the world’s largest building materials gro...