Author: Arabian Media staff
This article is an on-site version of Free Lunch newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Thursday and Sunday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersWelcome back. The notion that China needs to rebalance its economy towards greater consumer spending is now well established. For over a decade, economists have been warning that there are limits to delivering high, sustained growth from Beijing’s investment- and export-led model.But there is widespread scepticism that the Chinese Communist party can oversee a significant boost to household consumption. So this week, I asked…
Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe Federal Reserve warned of rising economic risks when it kept interest rates on hold in early May, and minutes from that meeting — due to be published next week — will be poured over by investors for further signs of concern.Chair Jay Powell used his speech in the first week of May to highlight rising “uncertainty” surrounding the trajectory of the world’s biggest economy, with markets having swung sharply on President Donald Trump’s trade tariff announcements.Markets are currently pricing…
Microsoft sought to tighten its grip on the artificial intelligence industry this week, unveiling a raft of new products and partnerships with OpenAI, Nvidia and Elon Musk’s xAI in a bid to emerge a winner among those profiting from the cutting-edge technology.The $3.4tn tech giant held its annual Build conference in Seattle, where it revealed a series of AI-related advances, including a powerful coding “agent” that works using simple instructions and a tool for businesses to build and manage multiple of these so-called digital assistants. Another striking feature of the three-day conference was virtual appearances from tech titans such as…
The International Astronomical Centre has announced that the crescent moon marking the start of Dhul Hijjah 1446 AH will be observed on Tuesday, May 27, across the Islamic world. Engineer Mohammad Shawkat Odeh, Director of the Abu Dhabi-based centre, stated that moon sighting will be possible with telescopes from parts of Central and Western Asia, as well as most of Africa and Europe. Additionally, it may be visible to the naked eye in large areas of the Americas, a WAM report said. Based on these astronomical predictions, Wednesday, May 28 is expected to be the first day of Dhul Hijjah,…
Real estate transactions across five emirates in the UAE surged to over Dh239bn in the first quarter of 2025, underpinned by investor confidence, flexible regulations, and expanding project pipelines, official data showed. Read- Dubai property is booming: What every investor should know More than 94,719 sales, purchase, and mortgage deals were recorded from January through March in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, and Ras Al Khaimah, marking a robust start to the year for the UAE’s property sector, a WAM report said. Talal Al Dhiyebi, Group Chief Executive Officer at Aldar Properties, said the UAE’s real estate boom is fuelled…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Pensions industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Canada’s second-largest pension fund plans to invest more than £8bn in the UK over the next five years, in a boost to chancellor Rachel Reeves as she seeks external investment to fund big infrastructure projects. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which manages C$473bn (£254bn) on behalf of 6mn pension savers, planned to increase its allocation to UK assets by 50 per cent over the next five years, the fund’s chief executive Charles Emond told the Financial Times in an interview. “We’d…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Many employees got their companies to buy them a comfy office chair and a computer stand during the Covid-19 work-from-home era. Chief executives of S&P 500 companies did rather better when it comes to improving their working conditions. Among the high-class benefits for the C-suite were enhanced private jet privileges and paid-for mansions, and they have long outlasted the pandemic.Proxy adviser Glass Lewis recently studied executive pay filings from the last several years and found that perquisite costs — typically a fraction…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo are optimistic they can reach a deal with Washington next month to secure US investment in critical minerals alongside support to end a Rwandan-backed rebellion in the country’s east. The scope of Kinshasa’s negotiations with Washington is hugely ambitious, and combines giving US companies access to lithium, cobalt and coltan deposits in return for investment in infrastructure and mines, with efforts to draw a line under 30 years of conflict in regions bordering Rwanda. Two people…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.When Carol Wang, a 21-year-old from eastern China, whizzed into Hong Kong to catch the sights, she stayed for just one day and spent barely HK$400 (US$51), preferring to eat and sleep across the border in neighbouring and cheaper Shenzhen. “We call ourselves special forces travellers,” she said, referring to often young day-trippers who challenge themselves to pack as many points as possible into a brief itinerary, helped by tips shared on China’s Instagram-like Xiaohongshu app.She was among the more than 910,000…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Defence is the new tech when it comes to hot sectors. Or is it the other way round? That’s a question worth asking as defence stocks have rallied in recent weeks on everything from news of Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defence shield, to the new UK-EU security pact that would give UK defence companies access to Europe’s €150bn defence fund, to the broad understanding that US-China strategic competition is here to stay and Europe will be spending more on its own…