Author: Blake Anderson

S&P Global Ratings calls into question Tether’s ability to maintain its US dollar peg, and UK chancellor Rachel Reeves takes the wraps off the highly anticipated Budget. Plus, India’s booming steel production might be helping the domestic economy, but it’s causing environmental damage and trade tensionsMentioned in this podcast:S&P downgrades Tether’s assets to lowest level UK Budget 2025: Reeves raises taxes by £26bn to all-time high The cost of India’s hunger for cheap steel Note: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by…

This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. If you’re not a subscriber, you can still receive the newsletter free for 30 daysGood morning. Labour will freeze rail fares in England, which is as good an excuse as any to talk about what it wants to do with its renationalised railway. Inside Politics is edited by Georgina Quach. Follow Stephen on Bluesky and X, and Georgina on Bluesky. Read the previous edition of the newsletter here. Please send gossip, thoughts and feedback to insidepolitics@ft.comNetwork effectsLabour…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.There are rose petals scattered up Paris Rosina’s front path on the evening of her early autumn supper club. Inside, candles have been lit in every room and a tray of mismatched glassware awaits guests on a velvet pillow. Such gestures are typical of the chef, who wants her diners to “feel romanced”. The event is part of an ongoing series she calls “Come To My House, I’ll Make You Fat”. Tonight’s dinner is being hosted for London’s sex workers, and her guests have…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Councils in England are set to lose their power to obstruct large-scale housing projects as the government tries to boost building, in a move that has already been criticised as anti-democratic by town halls. Steve Reed, housing and communities secretary, will announce this week that local authorities will be prevented from refusing planning permission for housing schemes with more than 150 homes — and instead will have to refer the decision upwards to national ministers. Reed claimed last month that about 900 housing schemes…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Cryptocurrencies myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The head of crypto exchange Kraken has hit out at UK rules on the promotion of digital financial assets, arguing they hinder retail investors by slowing down the movement of funds. Arjun Sethi, co-chief executive, told the Financial Times: “In the UK today, if you go to any crypto website, including Kraken’s, you see the equivalent to a cigarette box [warning] — ‘use this and you’re going to die’.”He added: “Because of the speed at which they have to do the transaction, it’s…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday denied that he had authorised a “kneecap” attack on his health secretary Wes Streeting, as the UK prime minister struggled to contain a pre-Budget leadership crisis sparked by his own team.Starmer’s allies raised the prospect of a Labour leadership challenge by insisting in anonymous briefings that the prime minister would fight off any rival to stay in Number 10, with some suggesting Streeting was preparing a coup.The briefings were described by one minister as “mad” and left…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK’s statistics agency is scaling back work in critical areas such as crime and health to focus on repairing its core economic indicators, according to plans set out on Wednesday. The Office for National Statistics said it planned to reduce its “outputs” by 10 per cent in 2026 to free staff to work on improving the quality of its most critical statistics and surveys. The ONS is engaged in a huge turnaround effort after deep-seated problems within the agency led to a series…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Manhattans, Martinis, Spritzes, Negronis: vermouth-laced classics are in vogue. But which brands are being poured now in the world’s best bars?For traditional Italian vermouth, Cocchi is the go-to. Founded in Turin, in 1891, the family-owned producer makes a rich, red Vermouth di Torino (£24.25 for 75cl) that’s great in whisky drinks, and aperitivi like the sherry-and-vermouth-based Adonis, currently on the menu at London’s Bar Flor. Cocchi’s crunchy, green Extra Dry (£20.50 for 50cl) is also a mainstay of Martinis from The Dover to The Savoy. The hard-to-find Vergano Vermouth…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The man behind one of London’s most successful pizza operations, Crisp Pizza, started out in Hammersmith in 2017 with no experience as a chef or making pizza other than what he’d learned on a three-week course.“I was in a weird place back then,” says Carl McCluskey, 38. After a series of odd jobs in his 20s and time spent playing semi-pro football for teams such as Wealdstone, McCluskey had started working at The Chancellors pub, run by his grandmother. “I knew I was going…

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen dodged a meeting with the UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at COP30 in Brazil about Brussels’s demand that London pay billions of euros to secure improved ties.The British leader sought the meeting to complain about EU demands that the UK pay up to €6.5bn to participate in a loans-for-weapons programme and make separate contributions to the EU budget, according to two people briefed on the situation.A Commission spokesperson confirmed that Starmer had requested time with von der Leyen at the climate conference in Belém, Brazil, but said the meeting did not happen…