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Brazilian oil and gas producer Petrobras has defended its level of spending on decarbonisation initiatives, even as the country’s incoming government pushes for it to play a bigger role in the clean energy transition. Leftwing president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticised the state-controlled company’s generous dividend payments on the campaign trail, calling for it

Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao has blamed the collapse of FTX and the fraud charges levelled against its founder Sam Bankman-Fried for a wave of withdrawals that struck the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange this week. Zhao sought to reassure nervous customers on a Twitter ask-me-anything discussion that Binance is financially healthy after clients pulled more

Jeffrey Sachs’s letter “A misreading of the true choices facing Ukraine” (December 9) in turn misreads Martin Wolf (Opinion, December 7). Wolf nowhere specifies any “maximalist” victory of regaining Crimea. Neither does he decry a negotiated settlement as Sachs implies. Wolf’s concern is that world powers should continue backing Ukraine, a view which likely has

When Sandro Botticelli’s voluptuous Venus drifted to the shores of Cyprus on a scallop shell in the mid-1480s, she epitomised a male interpretation of beauty that persisted for centuries. But recent decades have welcomed a shift towards both more representative portrayals and female perspectives – and lately, this has been picking up pace across the design world.

It should be interesting to see if it’s easier to refuse a subpoena from US Congress while incarcerated. The attorney-general of the Bahamas announced late Monday that the country’s royal police force has arrested Sam Bankman-Fried. The US attorney for the Southern District of New York has filed an indictment against him, and the office

The government’s sale of nationalised energy supplier Bulb may be in breach of EU state aid rules in Northern Ireland, Centrica has said, risking one of the UK’s first significant showdowns with the bloc since Brexit. Companies challenging the sale to Octopus Energy have focused on the government’s alleged provision of state funds to smooth

The UK government is confronting a “winter of discontent” in public services. In response, it insists that it cannot afford higher pay and seeks to limit the right of public servants to strike. This may work politically. But it does not make sense economically. Public sector pay should be set at levels needed to attract

Arab states and China pledged deeper ties at a summit with president Xi Jinping on Friday, with Saudi Arabia saying it would balance its relationships with Beijing and the kingdom’s traditional partner, the US. Xi wrapped up a three-day stay in the Saudi capital Riyadh, saying China would work more closely with the region and

Are you sitting comfortably? We’ll soon fix that. Matthew Bourne’s 2012 Sleeping Beauty is back at Sadler’s Wells for a seven-week residency. Though sumptuously staged and strongly danced, Bourne’s lavish, subversive makeover of Marius Petipa’s 1890 ballet is let down by pedestrian choreography and a vampire-themed storyline that is already showing its age. Lez Brotherston,

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘FTC hits pause button on video game deal’ Marc FilippinoGood morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, December 9th, and this is your FT News Briefing. [MUSIC PLAYING] An antitrust watchdog is trying to stop a huge video game deal in the

In reference to Tim Clissold’s letter (“Here’s a solution for those pupils struggling with Mandarin”, December 3) and Yuan Yang’s article “If the UK is to understand Beijing, it must speak to it” (Opinion, November 19), I am an Oxford graduate in Chinese (Oriel College, Oriental Institute 1964-1967), have a PhD from the School of

At long last there are signs that global inflationary pressures may be peaking. Factory gate prices and shipping rates are easing. Food prices are cooling, and European natural gas prices have fallen sharply from August highs. With international supply chain snags and commodity price surges underpinning this year’s inflation acceleration, headline numbers have fallen too.

A trip to the ice-cream parlour can leave consumers overwhelmed by the variety of flavours on offer. Unilever seems keen to opt out of the paradox of choice. The consumer goods company is reported to be mulling a sale of certain ice-cream brands. Jettisoning smaller names in order to focus on leading brands can be

Hello and welcome back to Energy Source. The first auction for offshore wind leases along California’s coastline finished yesterday. It was a two-day bidding war that eventually drew more than $757mn in winning offers for the five leases up for grabs. The winners include familiar names, as European companies continue to hold dominance over the

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has criticised the decision by Rishi Sunak’s government to row back on its manifesto commitment to build 300,000 new homes a year. Speaking in the House of Commons, Starmer questioned why the decision was made “without asking a single voter”, accusing Sunak of “wobbling” in the face of Tory backbenchers.

Tiffany smoothed her hair in the bathroom mirror and took off her wedding ring. Little knots were tightening in her stomach. The former civil servant climbed into the car next to her husband, who dropped her off near a plush hotel in Cardiff. She slipped into the hotel bar, weaving through the hum of conversation

The writer is author of ‘Black Wave’ The US vs Iran football match in Qatar, one of the most politically charged games in the World Cup, produced a series of jokes and memes in Lebanon, which does not have a team playing there. One joke stated that whoever wins the match gets the Middle East.

As a life-long New Yorker, I take pride in knowing out-of-the-way corners and glittering avenues, as well as the art that takes my city as its subject. And yet I wasn’t aware that Edward Hopper spent decades roaming the boroughs from his base in Greenwich Village. I had always assumed that the unpeopled, dawn-lit places

The industrial dispute gripping the UK’s railways deepened on Monday after the RMT union announced new strike action over Christmas and urged its members to reject a new industry pay offer. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said members at infrastructure operator Network Rail would walk out between 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December

This article is part of a guide to Paris from FT Globetrotter It is a wintry evening in the Marais, and despite the ban on outdoor heaters, the bar terrasses are brimming with people, many smoking furiously to stay warm. Some are cradling cups of tea. From these cups waft potent scents of fruit, flowers and smoke