Author: Arabian Media staff

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Lockheed Martin has approached the UK government to offer assistance in the construction of a new missile defence system for Britain, amid rising geopolitical tensions and moves by the US to invest in a “Golden Dome” project.Frank St John, Lockheed’s chief operating officer, said the US defence group believed it could offer critical capabilities to the UK as the government decides on what approach to take. Labour’s recent strategic defence review highlighted the importance of air defence systems but did not include…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Utilities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Thames Water’s creditors, who are providing a £5bn backup rescue of the utility, are demanding waivers that would exempt the UK’s largest water company from key environmental laws.The lenders are calling on the government and regulator Ofwat to grant licence changes and even emergency legislation to shield Thames Water from laws and regulations, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.“It is a core requirement of the creditors that the government demonstrates its commitment to creating the conditions for delivery of the transformation…

Image: WAM/ For illustrative purposes The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) thas announced its decision to maintain the base rate applicable to its overnight deposit facility (ODF) at 4.40 per cent. This move follows the US Federal Reserve’s announcement to keep the interest rate on reserve balances (IORB) unchanged. The CBUAE will also maintain the interest rate for borrowing short-term liquidity from the CBUAE at 50 basis points above the base rate, applicable to all standing credit facilities. This decision by the CBUAE directly stems from the UAE dirham‘s peg to the US dollar, which necessitates mirroring the monetary…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Late last year, California almost passed a law that would force makers of large artificial intelligence models to come clean about the potential for causing large-scale harms. It failed. Now, New York is trying on a law of its own. Such proposals have wrinkles, and risk slowing the pace of innovation. But they are still better than doing nothing. The risks from AI have increased since California’s fumble last September. Chinese developer DeepSeek has shown that powerful models can be made on…

This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereToday’s agenda: Lockheed’s UK pitch; Fed cuts US outlook; China’s drone push; Leo Lewis on Trump’s “stick-holder capitalism”; and is AGI another Silicon Valley buzzword?Good morning. We’ll start with the latest on the Middle East war and its global fallout. The situation now: Donald Trump has made his most explicit comments yet about possible US military action against Iran, saying: “I may do it. I may…

Stefan Bollinger knows how to work his way up from the bottom — literally. As a teenage apprentice in Switzerland he started out in subterranean bank vaults and was repeatedly told that with no university degree, his banking career was over. Three decades later, the former Goldman Sachs banker has landed one of the top jobs in Swiss finance: chief executive of the country’s second-largest listed wealth manager, Julius Baer. But far from an easy homecoming for a novice chief executive, Bollinger’s first six months have been marred by risk management revelations that threaten to undermine his effort to move the…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldAfter 18 months of bargaining, multiple White House interventions, a presidential election, a snarling lawsuit, a xenophobic rant, two national security reviews and a government golden share, Nippon Steel has finally secured approval to buy US Steel.The $15bn takeover makes history for many reasons, but perhaps most potently as a marker of era-change: it is the first large-scale cross-border deal in the age of “stick-holder capitalism” — which is like stakeholder capitalism but with at least one particularly heavy-handed stakeholder.It…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Renewable energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.An “industrial sunbelt” made up of countries around the globe from India to Mexico is tipped to overtake the US and Europe for green-powered industry, according to research on the investment pipeline by a business advocacy group.More than half of the proposed investment in new industrial projects was located across a band of emerging economies, found the report from the Mission Possible Partnership, a non-profit organisation focused on industry.The report calculated that 59 per cent of the $1.6tn pipeline of global clean…

Image: Supplied In the UAE, what was once a routine errand is now a high-speed, tech-powered experience built around personalisation, speed, and instant gratification. With $38.29bn in revenue generated in 2024 — and a projected CAGR of nearly 5 per cent through 2028 — the e-grocery industry isn’t just growing, it’s transforming. From AI-driven inventory to delivery that’s faster than you can write a list, this shift is powered by innovation that’s redefining how, when, and why we shop. The popularity of e-grocery is perhaps the most telling sign of change. With the segment hitting $1.14bn in 2024, commanding 17…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The family that owns the Los Angeles Lakers is closing in on a deal to sell its majority stake in the National Basketball Association team to Guggenheim Partners chief executive Mark Walter at a valuation of about $10bn, which would be the largest-ever sale of a sports team. The sale would mark the end of an era at one of the sporting world’s most fabled brands, which the Buss family, who originally made their money in real estate, has owned since 1979.…