FT News Briefing

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/2d52df0d-ba41-45e3-9a0f-bb72a22f7d7c The rising cost of fuel is threatening airlines’ recovery from the pandemic. Plus, a listener asked us if economic growth is tied to population growth. The FT’s statistical journalist, Federica Cocco, has been exploring this very question and says the answer is more complex than it may...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/50168b7b-c72d-4443-965f-4a26d79f6a40 Fumio Kishida talks to the FT in his first interview as Japan’s new prime minister, an academic paper suggests that entry into the S&P 500 could be influenced by whether companies buy other services from the index’s parent company S&P Global. Plus, the FT’s Pilita Clark explains that...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/d8781394-95a8-4411-9f19-69ddbb7e3200 UK ministers trying to fund the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda are looking to relax rules shielding tens of millions of retirement savers from high charges, Latin American tech start-ups are attracting more investment than south-east Asia. Plus, the FT’s business columnist, Helen Thomas,...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/9a0a8048-a6e1-4557-8b0a-37fb5bf67e84 The global economy is entering a phase of inflationary risk, the IMF warned on Tuesday, as it called on central banks to be “very, very vigilant” and take early action to tighten monetary policy should price pressures prove persistent; resurgent consumer demand in the US is feeding hopes of...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/ee0421e8-e101-4b0b-811e-0125c6be2449 Henry Kravis and George Roberts stepped down from KKR on Monday after nearly half a century in charge of one of the most formidable financial enterprises that Wall Street has ever known, the price of US crude oil hit a fresh seven-year high on Monday on fears that fuel demand was recovering...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/4ce62a29-5401-4fa1-8af4-20e892e50fe8 Divisions between the US and Europe over whether Kristalina Georgieva should remain in her post as IMF chief are set to overshadow the fund’s flagship annual meetings this week, and the Chinese company BYD is one of the world’s biggest electric vehicles battery makers and also makes its own...

The story of how a tiny, unknown hedge fund took on a giant of corporate America over climate change - and won. Charlie Penner of Engine No 1 talks about the very public proxy campaign he launched against Exxon Mobil, forcing the oil major to prepare for a future free of fossil fuels.   In the third episode of our special five-part series on sustainable or ESG investing, produced in partnersh...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/fca004be-9f93-4681-bdd1-931ba5c2f50f Ireland has finally abandoned its cherished 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate and signed up to a minimum 15 per cent global rate that will cost the country about €2bn in lost revenues; it was a volatile week for energy markets; and stagflation has returned as a risk for investors and cast a s...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/411bb70a-8fe9-41ef-bd58-e4798b12c2a2 Vladimir Putin hinted that Russia’s state-backed monopoly pipeline exporter, Gazprom, may increase supplies to help Europe avoid a full-blown energy crisis, and US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has raised the prospect of releasing crude oil from the government’s strategic petroleum rese...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/eb1b2bc3-1edf-444b-ac44-8e3a79cd8887 Private equity firms are offering the highest premiums for listed companies in more than two decades, and the Facebook whistleblower told Congress on Tuesday the company repeatedly chose to maximise online engagement instead of minimising harm to users. Plus, the FT’s Africa editor, David Pi...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/bc24e812-a089-43e1-bc7a-289916c97229 US oil prices rose to the highest level in seven years on Monday after Opec and its allies declined to accelerate plans to increase crude production, and shares of big tech companies slid on Monday, with stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon dragging the S&P 500 to its low...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/fc9fe04c-96ad-4127-ac98-2fbf579c36b6 The International Monetary Fund’s board will meet this week to examine allegations that managing director Kristalina Georgieva manipulated data to favour China while she worked at the World Bank; Deutsche Bank severed relationships with “a very small number” of wealthy clients with criminal...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/5f0402b7-812a-4314-aba1-cee242f9e161 US senators are pressuring Facebook to release all its internal research into how its products affect users after a series of revelations about the harm some its platforms cause to vulnerable groups including children. FT European technology correspondent Madhumita Murgia argues that it’s ti...

As sanctions derail its traditional business, China’s Huawei is scrambling to reinvent itself by shifting into areas less dependent on foreign chip supplies. China’s Belt and Road Initiative has left scores of lower and middle-income countries saddled with “hidden debts” totalling $385bn. Hong Kong’s stock market is on track for its worst quarter for new listings since the earliest days of the Cov...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/6cd13eb2-0ab7-40a5-816f-43e963a3ce05 The government bond sell-off that began last week on the prospect of higher interest rates ricocheted into the $51tn US stock market on Tuesday, weighing heavily on technology stocks, and Treasury secretary Janet Yellen warned that the US risks running out of money by October 18. Plus, the F...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/1505ec37-b798-4016-8f80-d959bd6eac9c Two senior Federal Reserve officials whose trading activity prompted the US central bank to launch an ethics review on Monday announced they will resign, and today Fed chair Jay Powell will join other central bank chiefs at a European Central Bank forum. Plus, where does Germany go after its...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/c2d3fe11-799d-4f66-be2c-806dda7a9f87 At least two Chinese cities are seizing presale revenues from indebted property developer Evergrande in order to block potential misuse of funds, and the SPAC bubble appears to be deflating as investors pull cash out of special purpose acquisition vehicles at increasingly higher rates; more...

Introducing our new FT Weekend podcast. New episodes every Saturday. This is the last episode of the FT Weekend which will be published in this feed, so if you want to keep listening, subscribe now by searching ‘FT Weekend’ in your podcast app of choice. In our third episode, we explore the question of how we’ve changed. Host Lilah Raptopoulos talks to the writer Imogen West-Knights about the phen...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/74160c71-c5b0-435c-9c09-1c5e9572bb1c German voters head to the poll this weekend and the FT’s Berlin correspondent, Erika Solomon, previews this momentous election. Turkey’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate on Thursday despite accelerating inflation that had already turned borrowing costs negative in re...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/a3b42914-2e0e-4246-bc45-1ea9b19b690b The Federal Reserve has given its strongest signal yet that it will start tapering its bond buying stimulus programme this year and more central bank officials see a first interest rate rise in 2022; Japan’s SoftBank has followed Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/bde35a2f-ae3f-4fc5-920f-a6bca45d9eb3 Poland and Hungary could lose billions of euros in EU regional aid as the European Commission prepares to wield powers linking the funds to human rights standards in member states, and the ride-hailing group Uber says it is on course to report its first-ever profitable quarter, on an adjuste...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/dd3aef66-5189-4b85-873a-e82c80be3c2d Global financial markets are jittery about the possible default of indebted Chinese property developer Evergrande but the FT’s markets editor Katie Martin explains why it is unlikely to be another Lehman Brothers; foreign investors, especially from China and Japan, have become major buyers o...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/efcae358-e439-4135-9600-55b23dcd7dc8 Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK is set to provide a political boost for Scott Morrison’s conservative government, and UK business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is due to meet energy suppliers on Monday amid fears that dozens of companies could go bust in the comin...

Introducing our new FT Weekend podcast. New episodes every Saturday. We will soon stop publishing FT Weekend on this feed, so you if want to keep listening, subscribe now before you forget! Search FT Weekend in your podcast app of choice. In this episode, Life & Arts columnist Enuma Okoro explores what our cities tell us about ourselves. Then Lilah speaks with Elif Shafak—the most widely read...

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com https://www.ft.com/content/8e3784f8-5605-40aa-a8b5-3d0e5bdae9a9 An unpublished internal model seen by the FT shows that the European Central Bank expects to hit its elusive 2 per cent inflation target by 2025, and Myanmar’s shadow government is fighting back against the military junta. Plus, the FT’s markets editor, Katie Martin, explains why Laos is all...