FT News Briefing

SoftBank wants Gulf money to expand AI bet

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to raise as much as $100bn from Gulf investors to further his massive bet on AI, the Flydubai co-pilot who tried to hijack a fli

Oil companies are full speed ahead in the Middle East

Oil executives expressed their appetite for investing in the Middle East despite the war, the conflict has blown a near-£12bn hole in Britain’s public finances, and big i

Skydance’s debt pile takes the spotlight

Paramount Skydance is tackling a huge pile of debt following its takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, oil tanker captains are being paid rates equivalent to $100,000 a mont

The bond sell-off comes for corporate America

A sharp rise in US government borrowing costs this year is bleeding into the corporate debt market and Hong Kong’s de facto central bank questioned HSBC on why its new AI

The Tories go back to basics

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch will solidify her role at the head of the party during this week’s conference, and corporate dealmaking was on the decline last quarter after th

Unhedged: An ode to stock picking

We're bringing you a recent episode from our fellow FT podcast, Unhedged. Over the summer, the FT held a revamped version of its stock picking game – think fantasy footb

Zelenskyy says Putin’s gloves are off

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government is searching for a British alternative to Palantir, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed his military leaders t

US Big Tech gets the most facetime with EU

One pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed the other and attempted to crash the aircraft. An FT analysis reveals US Big Tech companies have an outsized influenc

Trump shrugs off AI regulation

UK businesses react to Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s speech to the Labour conference, US and French bonds are in hot water, and could an American ban on diesel exports ba

Nvidia turns to insurers to offset AI risks

UK chancellor John Healey has told the Labour Party conference that the economic conditions enjoyed by New Labour are “simply not there now”, Nvidia has held talks with i

Andy Burnham’s first Labour conference as prime minister

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham returns to the Labour conference to sell his vision, EU countries are considering a Nato-style joint response to Russia’s hybrid war, and f

Bond rout pushes US mortgage rates past 7%

Xi Jinping said the US and China should avoid being drawn into a “conflict” in remarks at the White House, and Brussels has warned Britain needs to raise tariffs on Chine

US Treasury yields soar

US Treasury yields soared on Wednesday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was prepared to negotiate with the US, and the FT’s Sam Fleming explains why the UK

Will Trump and Xi extend their trade truce?

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will discuss a potential extension of their trade war truce this week, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham met Trump for the first time, and the co

How a Russian forgery scheme evaded sanctions

Standard Chartered, Citigroup and other international banks have handled billions of dollars from a Kremlin-backed fintech company that tricked its way into the global fi

Germany’s Merz vows to stay despite ‘disaster’

German chancellor Friedrich Merz faces a crisis of confidence as exit polls show his party missed the threshold for representation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The right-wi

Reform UK mega-donors stir controversy

The Venezuelan government and the country’s opposition are close to reaching an agreement to transfer the central bank’s gold reserves, critics are scrutinising donations

Fed interest rate rises are back

The Federal Reserve has raised rates for the first time since 2023, and the EU has asked China to restrict exports of hybrid cars as part of a deal to prevent a trade war

US billionaires bankroll Republican election push

US and Chinese experts meet to discuss mitigating AI risks despite an ongoing tech rivalry, and US megadonors are largely backing Republicans in this midterm election sea

What an AI slowdown could mean for investors

Tech stocks fell yesterday as markets reacted to ongoing talk of an AI apocalypse, industrial America is contending with a fresh wave of supply chain inflation, and forei