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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Iran has activated air defence systems across several provinces, according to official news agency IRNA, after reports that an explosion was heard near the city of Isfahan. Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran’s

The UK government has told the country’s port authorities that it will not “turn on” critical health and safety checks for EU imports when post-Brexit border controls begin this month because of the risk of “significant disruption”. In a presentation seen by the Financial Times, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) outlined

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Two senior women are leaving BP in the first major changes to the company’s management team since the departure last year of chief executive Bernard Looney in a scandal over his past relationships with colleagues.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak has been warned by the IMF to take much tougher action to rein in the UK’s public debt, putting a question mark over the prime minister’s cuts to national insurance. The IMF on

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. UK inflation slowed less than expected in March, fuelling the debate over how soon the Bank of England will start cutting interest rates. Consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 3.2 per cent, down

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has raised the possibility of further tax cuts before the next general election as he counts on recent reductions to national insurance and the prospect of lower interest rates to improve the

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Global stock markets sank and Asian currencies were hit by a rising dollar on Tuesday, as investors’ hopes for rapid US interest rate cuts waned and fears grew over the conflict in the Middle East. Indices

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Oil and Asian equity markets were muted on Monday following Iran’s military strike on Israel as traders shrugged off fears the conflict could escalate into a full-blown war and curb supplies from the region. Brent

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Western leaders increased pressure on Israel on Monday to exercise restraint following Iran’s drone and missile attack, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet prepared to reconvene to discuss how it will respond. French President Emmanuel Macron

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel’s war cabinet met on Sunday afternoon to discuss possible responses to a massive overnight Iranian drone and missile attack, with US President Joe Biden urging restraint as the Middle East edged closer to full-blown

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Joe Biden condemned Iran’s “unprecedented” drone and missile attacks on Israel on Saturday night, as he called for a co-ordinated diplomatic response by the G7 to Tehran’s “brazen” assault. Biden said that the US military

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Iran has launched drones at Israel, an Israeli military spokesman said, following a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed several senior Iranian officials. In a statement late on Saturday, Daniel

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Macquarie, the former owner of Thames Water criticised for loading the utility with debt, is a lender to its stricken parent company. Macquarie’s investors lent about £130mn to the utility’s holding company Kemble Water Finance

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Thames Water shareholders backed away from supporting the group after the UK regulator demanded they slash the company’s debt pile and make other structural changes they calculated would cost as much as £8bn. The backtracking

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK economy grew for the second month in a row in February, driven by expansion in manufacturing, raising hopes the UK may be emerging from a technical recession. Gross domestic product rose 0.1 per

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Rishi Sunak’s hopes of going into a general election on the back of lower taxes and cheaper mortgages suffered a blow on Thursday as traders scaled back expectations of interest rate cuts in 2024.

A new rise in US inflation is undermining Joe Biden’s re-election message, threatening the president’s effort to defend his economic record in a crucial phase of the campaign against Donald Trump. The 3.5 per cent annual increase in the March consumer price index followed a 3.2 per cent gain a month earlier, and has made

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Traders slashed bets on imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts on Wednesday after data showed US inflation rose to 3.5 per cent in March, surpassing expectations and marking the second increase in a row. The annual

Big investors are selling US Treasuries and buying European government bonds, betting that cooler inflation in Europe will allow its central bank to start cutting interest rates sooner than the Federal Reserve. Money managers at Pimco, JPMorgan Asset Management and T Rowe Price have all increased their exposure to European government debt in recent weeks.

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. OpenAI and Meta are on the brink of releasing new artificial intelligence models that they say will be capable of reasoning and planning, key steps towards achieving superhuman cognition in machines. This week, executives at