FT News Briefing

Beijing orders all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign computer equipment and software within three years, the FBI is treating a US naval base shooting as an apparent terrorist attack, even though the White House is not and UK officials are questioning Boris Johnson’s claims that Britain will make a clean break with the EU in December in 2020. Plus, the FT’s Laura Hughes l...

Dark money has made it way into political advertising in the UK general election, buyout group CVC Capital Partners holds talks with Fifa and Real Madrid about creating new global football tournaments and Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Uber releases its first-ever safety report and Nancy Pelosi, instructs fellow Democrats to draw up articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. Plus,...

Former World Bank president Robert Zoellick delivers a public rebuke of Donald Trump’s China policy, Boris Johnson vows not to involve Huawei in Britain’s 5G telecommunications networks if it compromises the country’s ability to work with security allies and the owners of the New York Mets are in talks to sell up to 80 per cent of the baseball club to hedge fund manager Steven Cohen. Plus, Saudi A...

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin step back from their day-to-day roles at Alphabet, US senator Kamala Harris drops out of the 2020 presidential race and the 70th-anniversary summit of Nato begins on a fractious note.  Plus, US House Democrats have accused Donald Trump of abusing his office for political gain. The FT’s Peter Spiegel unpacks the report that will pave the way for ar...

The Trump administration is on a tariff blitz, proposing levies on goods from France, the EU, Brazil and Argentina. In the UK, the Conservative party braces for what could be the most perilous week of the election campaign, and Sweden backs away from negative rates despite a weakening economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Federal Reserve is considering letting inflation run above its 2 per cent target, UK politicians play a blame game after Friday’s tragedy at London Bridge and the EU’s ambitious new commission is likely to be overshadowed by a festering row over the budget. Plus, we will look at what Brussels is doing to retool industrial policy.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

US political parties develop new technology that will access voters through the phone contacts of their supporters, OECD data shows the European Union is hit hard by the global trade slowdown and premium economy class overtakes business on several airline carriers as the most profitable seats. Plus, the latest on Japan South Korea tensions. The FT’s Edward White explains why South Korean forced la...

US President Donald Trump signs two bills supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters, Christine Lagarde pushes for climate change to be part of a strategic review of the European Central Bank’s purpose and assets under management at Fisher Investments hit a record high of $115bn at the end of October despite lewd remarks by its founder, Ken Fisher. Plus, India’s growth numbers are due out Fri...

Xerox said it would take its proposal for a $33bn takeover of HP directly to the personal computer maker’s shareholders, Nasdaq’s listings business is on course to eclipse that of bitter rival the New York Stock Exchange this year and Manchester City’s owner has agreed to sell a $500m stake to private equity firm Silver Lake in a deal that breaks a record in sports valuations. Plus, the FT’s Lesli...

Companies unleash a wave of global takeovers, agreeing to more than $70bn in deals, famed investor Bill Gross warns that US stock and bond markets are set for a tougher time in 2020, a judge rules that Donald Trump cannot stop his most senior advisers testifying to Congress and revised official data show that Mexico’s economy has entered a technical recession. Plus, Uber has been stripped of its L...

Pro-democracy candidates take more than half of seats in Hong Kong’s local council elections amid record voter turnout, UK prime minister Boris Johnson launches a low-risk Conservative manifesto and Michael Bloomberg officially announces he is running for US president. Plus, LVMH is set to buy Tiffany & Co for $16.7bn. The FT’s Eric Platt breaks down the latest offer. Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Politicians and privacy campaigners call for Google’s $2.1bn deal for Fitbit to be blocked, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be hit by prosecutors on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges, and a subsidiary of China’s largest construction group has suspended work on one of the nation’s tallest skyscrapers. Plus, the FT’s Eric Platt explains why Charles Schwab is ready to put down...

The US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, turns against Donald Trump in an explosive impeachment testimony, Saudi Arabia marginalises global banks in the final stage of Saudi Aramco’s flotation process and GM sues rival Fiat Chrysler, claiming FCA bribed officials of the UAW union during bargaining talks with GM. Plus, the FT’s Alistair Gray explains why Walmart is thriving once again.  H...

Boris Johnson narrowly beats rival Jeremy Corbyn in a high-stakes televised duel, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a current White House official, testifies that Donald Trump made an ‘improper” demand in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, and the US National Transportation Safety Board says the main cause of a fatal accident involving a self-driving Uber was the back-up driver...

Alibaba is set to raise up to $13.4bn in a secondary listing in Hong Kong even as violence in the financial centre intensifies. Many see the IPO as a critical test of confidence in both Hong Kong and Beijing. Next, Coty buys a controlling stake in Kylie Jenner’s cosmetics company and UK prime minister Boris Johnson shelves a proposed cut to corporation tax at the CBI’s annual conference on Monday....

Saudi Aramco scales back the initial public offering of its state oil giant, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, says she will “make sure” President Donald Trump does not “intimidate” the whistleblower who sparked the impeachment inquiry, UK prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to pledge to reduce business rates and provide a series of tax breaks worth about £1bn a ye...

The US and China are struggling to complete a ‘phase one’ deal to halt their trade war, former Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein takes aim at US Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, saying that “maybe tribalism is just in her DNA” and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is fighting back against the Trump administration award of the $10bn Jedi military contract to Microsoft. Plus, t...

WeWork said its losses more than doubled to $1.3bn in the third quarter of 2019, researchers say a smartphone app developed by the Home Office for EU citizens has serious vulnerabilities, Google is talking to US banks about offering checking accounts to its customers and outgoing European Council president Donald Tusk takes aim at Brexiters “longing for the Empire”. Plus, the FT’s Peter Spiegel an...

Some popular UK health websites are sharing people’s sensitive data to ad-targeting giants such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, and US president Donald Trump threatens to escalate the trade war with China if no truce is reached. Plus,Tesla has plans to bring its first European production site to Berlin and Spain’s Socialist party strikes a deal with the radical leftwing Podemos party in what could...

Sources tell the FT that US private equity firm Cerberus has lost faith in Deutsche Bank’s chairman Paul Achleitner and is pushing for him to be replaced, WeWork has held talks with T-Mobile US boss John Legere to become its new chief executive and KKR woos Walgreens with a $70bn buyout proposal. Plus, the FT’s political editor George Parker unpacks how the UK elections have unravelled and what to...

Christine Lagarde is expected to face calls for an overhaul of how the European Central Bank decides monetary policy, Apple has piled on more than $400bn of market capitalisation so far this year, Bolivia’s socialist President Evo Morales has stepped down after almost 14 years in power and elections in Spain failed to break the country’s political impasse. Plus, the FT’s Anna Nicolaou explains why...

We have another FT podcast to share. With FT Politics: UK Election Countdown, you can keep up with the twists and turns of the December 12 poll. The first week of the election did not go to plan for the Conservatives, as their campaign was beset by gaffes and mistakes. Can Boris Johnson get back on track? Is Labour pleased with how its campaign is going? Plus, the politics team delves into the new...

Bankers for Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering have dangled the possibility of bonus payouts that could take the company’s annual dividend past $100bn and Disney’s costs climb as it gets ready to debut its new streaming service. Meanwhile, billionaire and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg has taken his first official steps to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020...

Airbnb is being valued at up to $42bn by investors buying indirect stakes ahead of an IPO next year and the US Department of Justice has charged two former Twitter employees with using the platform to spy for the Saudi government. Meanwhile, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son admits turning a “blind eye” to governance lapses at WeWork, Uber shares hit a new low on Wednesday following the end of the ea...

Donald Trump’s envoy to the EU acknowledges Ukraine aid was linked to a probe into Joe Biden, Ikea and H&M resist retail disruption by investing hundreds of millions of euros into venture capital investments and Germany’s finance minister, Olaf Scholz, offers hope of a breakthrough in plans to create a full eurozone banking union. Plus, an FT investigation shows that air pollution on the Londo...