Author: Arabian Media staff

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldIndia is on track to seal an interim trade agreement with the US as soon as this week to avert Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs, according to two people briefed on the talks.The interim deal, which would be among the first with a major US trading partner, would be an initial step towards a comprehensive bilateral accord between Washington and New Delhi. The two countries have said that they would seek to finalise the first tranche of the full agreement…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The EU will set out plans on Wednesday to pool funding and expertise in quantum computing, in a bid to build a competitive European ecosystem in a technology seen as key to future economic leadership.The move attempts to address financing gaps that risk undermining Europe’s efforts to develop a potentially transformative technology, just as the sector emerges from research to look for market opportunities. Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president overseeing tech policy, told the Financial Times: “Quantum is something [in which]…

Image: Getty Images/ For illustrative purposes The population of Abu Dhabi grew by 7.5 per cent in 2024 to reach 4,135,985 people, according to new data released by the Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi (SCAD). The latest figures underscore the emirate’s rising appeal as a hub for global talent and investment, with growth outpacing that of major international financial centres. The emirate’s population has expanded by 51 per cent over the past decade, increasing from 2.7 million in 2014 to over 4.1 million in 2024. The demographic expansion coincides with a period of sustained economic growth. Emirate’s GDP rises to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Liquidators who are trying to recoup billions of dollars siphoned initially from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund are seeking more than $2.7bn from Standard Chartered, in a lawsuit filed against the UK-headquartered bank over its alleged role in the scandal.The suit, filed in Singapore on Monday, represents the latest attempt to recover money taken from 1MDB as part of a decade-long hunt that has involved several of the world’s largest banks.The case against StanChart relates to the billions of dollars that were laundered…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Global Economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The writer is a professor at Cornell University, senior fellow at Brookings and author of ‘The Future of Money’To all appearances, the Chinese economy, which was struggling for most of last year, has stabilised. This is good news for China’s government and the world economy. But Beijing is yet again putting off fixing its deep-rooted economic problems. That, too, has consequences for China and the world. Last autumn, the Chinese government deployed fiscal and monetary policy stimulus to support growth. The Trump tariffs…

One scoop to start: Nearly four in 10 UK takeovers were reported in the media before their announcement in the 14 months to May this year, triggering concerns at the financial regulator that the London stock market is becoming leakier.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Tuesday to Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters. Get in touch with us anytime: Due.Diligence@ft.comIn today’s newsletter:Why hedge funds love…

A proudly independent European nation confronted with a stark political choice: keep EU single market access but only by making financial payments, taking migrants and giving up judicial power.This time the question is not one for Brexit Britain — but Switzerland.After more than a decade of grinding talks with Brussels, the Alpine country has reached a deal to keep and improve its access to the EU’s single market.But the agreement — which will be put to a referendum — includes all the same thorny issues that have bedevilled the UK-EU relationship, including budget contributions, migration policy and the role of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Asset managers made a “huge mistake” in claiming the investment industry could “save the world”, the departing chair of the UK’s Aberdeen Group said, over-egging their role in environment, social and government issues for marketing purposes. Sir Douglas Flint, a former HSBC chair, told a City of London conference this week that their “ridiculously extravagant claims” had opened up asset managers to legal risk. The most grandiose claims by financiers were driven by a mindset of “we’re not really about investing money, we’re just…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brazil and Mexico have begun preliminary talks to deepen their trade agreement as Latin America’s two largest economies seek to boost commercial partnerships beyond China and Donald Trump’s US.Diplomats from the two nations have held ongoing informal talks since Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October to try to set the terms for formal negotiations, three people with knowledge of the matter said. In that time, left-wing leaders Sheinbaum and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have met on four separate occasions.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nearly four in 10 UK takeovers were reported in the media before their announcement in the 14 months to May this year, triggering concerns at the financial regulator that the London stock market is becoming leakier.The Financial Conduct Authority has issued warnings to bankers about the leaks, which have come alongside an increase in the amount of unusual trading activity shortly before the announcement of British corporate takeovers.The release of the data in response to a Financial Times freedom of information request…