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 here
Good morning, happy Friday. In today’s newsletter:
-
EU leaders stall Ukraine loan using frozen Russian assets
-
Trump says he is ending Canada trade talks
-
Labour trounced in UK by-election
-
Ireland set to elect hard-left president
We begin in Brussels, where EU leaders have failed to back a €140bn loan to Kyiv using frozen Russian state assets.
What happened: EU leaders meeting yesterday in Brussels discussed using funds from the €190bn in sovereign Russian assets immobilised on Belgian soil to fund a “reparations loan” for Kyiv.
But Belgium demanded cast-iron guarantees it would not suffer financially, fearing legal and financial repercussions should Russia retaliate against the plan.
Why it matters: Belgium’s resistance to the plan dashed Ukraine’s hopes for an immediate financial lifeline. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who attended the EU summit, pointed out that Kyiv would need the money next year when it faces significant funding requirements in its war against Russia. Read more on yesterday’s talks and what happens next.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:
-
Ukraine war: Leaders of the “coalition of the willing” countries meet today amid faltering peace talks.
-
US-China trade war: US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and trade representative Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng in Kuala Lumpur for trade talks. The negotiations come ahead of an Asean summit in the Malaysian capital on Sunday — with US President Donald Trump expected to attend.
-
Marco Rubio in Israel: Washington’s top diplomat meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the Gaza ceasefire.
-
Economic data: The US releases inflation rate data for September.
-
Results: ENI, NatWest, Procter & Gamble, Sanofi and Schindler report earnings.
How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.
Five more top stories
1. Donald Trump said he had ended trade talks with Canada out of anger with an anti-tariff advertising campaign launched by the province of Ontario. Read more on this developing story.
2. The Labour party has suffered a by-election defeat in a Welsh stronghold, after it lost Caerphilly to the nationalist party Plaid Cymru in a blow to UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership. The setback comes ahead of May elections that could end a quarter century of Labour leadership in Wales.
3. Hungarians exasperated by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his allies have backed a protest party called the Two-Tailed Dog, which secured Budapest’s 12th district in a mayoral contest. The opposition movement is now hoping to replicate that success at the national level.
4. Anthropic has agreed to secure access to 1mn Google Cloud chips to train and run its artificial intelligence models, increasing its ties to one of its largest investors. Read details of the deal.
-
AI-powered scams: Criminals are using the technology to increase their “attack rate” on UK victims, with fraud cases hitting record levels.
5. Exclusive: Blackstone-backed Merlin Entertainments is under strain ahead of a critical refinancing, as the Legoland-owner’s weak performance has led to a sell-off in its bonds and heightened fears over a potential restructuring.
The Big Read
© FT montage/Getty Images/Reuters
Fidelity’s distribution network and a tradition of innovation have helped the Boston-based family-run group navigate the shift to passive investing. It now has a presence in the lives of millions of Americans that rivals cannot match. But despite its size and reach, new challenges are looming for one of the world’s largest asset managers.
We’re also reading . . .
-
The Trump Supremacy: With opponents in disarray and allies in line, the US president is on his way to building a new world order.
-
US-Israel relations: Vice-president JD Vance branded a vote by Israel’s parliament backing annexation of the West Bank a “very stupid political stunt”.
-
‘Wellness’ boom: Supplement manufacturers in the US are positioning themselves to exploit the Trump administration’s openness to fringe science.
-
Tanzania disappearances: Dozens of other critics of the ruling party have either exiled themselves or vanished.
Chart of the day
A recent study found that, while mortality rates continue to fall for older people, deaths among younger adults have been increasing in many countries. The rise is mainly due to self-destructive behaviour attributed to long-term joblessness and social isolation. John Burn-Murdoch weighs what this means, given that AI might bring about joblessness at scale.
Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.
John Burn-Murdoch and Sarah O’Connor explore how AI is transforming the world of work in their new newsletter, “The AI Shift”. Premium subscribers can sign up here. Standard subscribers can upgrade their subscription to receive it.
Take a break from the news . . .
In The Mastermind, Josh O’Connor plays a former art student, married with two young sons, who is failing to get his career off the ground. He is planning instead to pull off an art robbery but the heist is just the starting point for this film about things going awry in Nixon-era America.
Josh O’Connor as light-fingered family man James Blaine Mooney
