News

The writer is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and an adviser to Allianz and Gramercy The first half of 2023 witnessed striking economic and financial dispersion, both within countries and across them. With some of this dispersion reversed in July, there is a growing tendency to forecast convergence in the period ahead, and the favourable

China has slapped export controls on a wide range of drones and drone components, a move with potential impact on the Ukraine war and on public security applications in many western countries. “The risk of some high-specification and high-performance commercial-use drones being converted to military use continues to rise,” the Chinese commerce ministry said on

Telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi has always turned to one man to tackle problems within his sprawling Altice empire: Armando Pereira. The Portuguese executive has maintained a low profile after helping Drahi found the group two decades ago. But behind the scenes he was considered the Franco-Israeli billionaire’s right-hand man, according to people familiar with their

GQG founder Rajiv Jain has one main argument when he defends investing some of his firm’s $93bn into a business run by a rightwing, yoga televangelist with ties to India’s prime minister: growth. “There is no political angle,” Jain told the Financial Times after his near $300mn investment in Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Foods became public

You might recall that last month I attended the Financial Times’ annual “Next Web” conference in Amsterdam. For an event sitting at the intersection between technology and finance, it was surprising to see fintech enthusiasts renege on crypto. As I reported at the time, most attendees told me digital assets have had their time in

After more than a decade on the investment scene, ESG is being put to the test as never before.   The past 18 months have exposed the short-term risks of sustainable funds. Many missed out on the oil price surge in 2022, raising questions not only about their short-term performance but also their long-term strategy in

My rather large shoe collection includes boots by Celine, loafers by Paraboot and sandals by The Row. But none have attracted as many compliments as my pair of £90 slingbacks from 20-year old Portland-based hiking brand Keen. The shoes are decidedly odd-looking, with flat rubber soles, toggle fastenings and an all-over elasticated construction that looks

The writer is a finance professor at Peking University and a senior associate at the Carnegie China Center While much of the debate about limiting US government debt assumes that rising debt is a consequence of profligacy on the part of Washington policymakers, the problem is in fact structural. Americans are forced to choose between

The ousting of NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose was sealed after midnight on a hastily-arranged board conference call following a personal intervention from the prime minister. The departure followed a month of turbulence for Rose, who had become the target of a vendetta waged by Nigel Farage over the closure of his bank account

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK’s highest court dealt a blow to the litigation funding industry on Wednesday after it ruled an agreement to finance a lawsuit brought in a truckmakers’ case was unenforceable. The Supreme Court’s decision will

Receive free Chinese politics & policy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Chinese politics & policy news every morning. China has insisted its diplomatic affairs are in an “orderly” state despite the month-long disappearance and sudden removal from office this week of foreign minister and favourite of President

Zaporizhzhia power station, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, has become a symbol of the wider dangers posed by a prolonged conflict in Ukraine, with both Kyiv and Moscow suggesting the other is putting the continent at risk from a radiological disaster. The plant, which was seized by Russian forces soon after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Consumer goods group Unilever has said inflation has peaked, as the maker of Marmite and Magnums reported better than expected sales growth in the first half of the year. Underlying sales in the first six

The US criticised elections in Cambodia on Sunday as “neither free nor fair” after strongman Hun Sen claimed a landslide victory, setting the stage to transfer power to his son. Hun Sen said his Cambodian People’s party won 120 of 125 National Assembly seats, according to unofficial results, with five for the royalist Funcinpec party.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. African leaders will this week travel to St Petersburg for a high-level summit hosted by Vladimir Putin that reveals how even Russia’s resurgence on the continent cannot mask the consequences of its war in Ukraine.

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Visual and data journalism myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Only a handful of European countries have successfully decarbonised, despite the EU’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, according to data from energy think-tank Ember. You are seeing a snapshot of

Emma Jacobs is right that cities will be poorer if fewer children live in them (“The prospect of the childless city”, House & Home, July 15). As someone bringing up my children in the City of Westminster in the heart of London, I am a strong advocate of city childhood. It is rare that any

Christopher Nolan enters the dining room in a dark sports jacket and blue button-down shirt, far exceeding the dress requirements at Little Dom’s, a local favourite in Los Angeles’s hip Los Feliz neighbourhood. This is perhaps not too surprising from a man who directs his films wearing a waistcoat and blazer, a high sartorial standard that

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The manufacturer that supplied faulty fire-resistant panels to as many as 45 ships has halted sales of its affected products, as authorities and the cruise industry raced to resolve the problem and reassure travellers. Finland’s

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Lex myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. British tourists were among thousands evacuated from the Spanish island of La Palma this week as wildfires raged. Heatwaves triggered by climate change are making summer trips to the Mediterranean fraught for northern Europeans. The holiday