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Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:
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Modi addresses the deadly New Delhi explosion
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SoftBank sells its Nvidia stake for $5.8bn
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How the world’s biggest mining project boosts China
We begin with Monday’s deadly car blast in New Delhi, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has blamed on unnamed “conspirators” as he vowed the perpetrators would “not be spared”.
The latest: “Our agencies will get to the bottom of this conspiracy,” the Indian prime minister said yesterday from Bhutan during an official visit. “The conspirators behind this will not be spared. All those responsible will be brought to justice.” Eight people died in Monday’s explosion near the historic Red Fort — a highly symbolic site used by Modi for his annual Independence Day address. Indian security officials confirmed with the FT that the case had been handed over to the country’s counterterrorism law enforcement agency.
Terrorism concerns: India has suffered numerous attacks in recent decades. The last major attack in the capital happened in 2011, three years before Modi took office for the first time. In April, gunmen killed 25 Indians and a Nepali citizen in Pahalgam, a tourist hub in India-administered Kashmir, in an attack that spurred cross-border military skirmishes with Pakistan, which India accuses of harbouring terrorists. Islamabad denied involvement in the Pahalgam massacre and in turn accused New Delhi of backing militants in its territory.
Read more about the investigation into the New Delhi blast.
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Suicide bombing in Islamabad: Pakistan has accused India of pursuing “state terrorism” after a suicide bombing yesterday killed at least 12 people outside a judicial complex in its capital Islamabad.
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Thailand-Cambodia tensions: The south-east Asian neighbours have suspended their peace deal, which was brokered by US President Donald Trump, less than three weeks after it was signed.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
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Economic data: India releases October inflation data.
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Results: Tata Steel, Foxconn and Asahi Group report earnings.
Ask an Expert: Will China win the AI race? Submit your questions to the FT’s John Thornhill and Eleanor Olcott ahead of their live Q&A on November 13.
Five more top stories
1. Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group has sold its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.8bn as the Japanese company looks for ways to fund its growing investments in artificial intelligence. SoftBank’s announcement that it had sold 32mn shares of the AI chipmaker last month came as it reported net profits doubled to ¥2.5tn ($16.2bn) in the quarter to the end of September.
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More Japanese business: Elliott Management, one of the world’s most prominent activist investors, has taken a significant stake in Toyota Industries, putting itself in the middle of a controversial take-private attempt.
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More AI news: Investors have been selling off the debt of US tech heavyweights, showing how jitters over Silicon Valley’s AI spending boom have spilled into the bond market.
2. A crypto fugitive who orchestrated a multibillion-pound Ponzi scheme to defraud investors in China before she fled the country on a moped and made her way to London has been jailed in the UK. Zhimin Qian was sentenced to more than 11 years after defrauding thousands of victims out of £4.6bn in total.
3. Outgoing BBC director-general Tim Davie has told staff that Britain’s national broadcaster must “fight” for its journalism as its board weighs up demands for compensation in the threatened $1bn lawsuit by Trump. Read more about the deepening crisis at the UK institution.
4. Taiwan is hailing a foreign policy breakthrough after a flurry of overseas visits by senior figures, saying the ties show welcome support in the face of China’s persistent threat. Former president Tsai Ing-wen capped the outreach with a speech in Berlin on Monday, her first visit in 15 years to a country that has been cautious in engaging Taipei to avoid damaging its relationship with Beijing.
5. Indonesia is considering issuing its first “panda bonds” next year, as China works to expand the renminbi’s role in international finance and steps up de-dollarisation efforts. Here’s why overseas borrowers are increasingly tapping Chinese markets.
The Big Read
© Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images
A $23bn mine in Guinea could tilt the balance of power in the global iron ore market — one of the world’s most traded commodities — decisively towards China. The mine has also been called the “Pilbara killer” because it poses a potentially existential threat to the Australian iron ore producing region. And to the 15mn people of Guinea, the Chinese-led venture offers hope that the west African nation of 15mn can change its fortunes. Read more about the world’s biggest mining project.
We’re also reading . . .
Chart of the day
Rising cases of malaria in Myanmar and across the border in Thailand threaten to imperil dramatic progress in efforts to eradicate the disease in the wider Mekong region. Experts fear the situation could worsen due to international funding cuts and the spread of mosquitoes caused by rising world temperatures.
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Take a break from the news . . .
David Szalay was awarded the 2025 Booker Prize for fiction on Monday for Flesh, his portrait of a man from adolescence on a Hungarian social housing estate to the world of London’s super-rich. The judges praised the Hungarian-British author’s “creative courage” for his sparseness of language and dialogue.
© David Parry
