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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Italy, Spain and three other southern EU countries have criticised a proposed Franco-British migration deal, arguing it could leave them having to take back people returned from the UK to the continent.The five nations, which also include Greece, Malta and Cyprus, have sent a letter to the European Commission, seen by the Financial Times, objecting to France negotiating an arrangement to swap asylum seekers with Britain in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in boats. “We take note —…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK counterterrorism police have arrested four people after members of a pro-Palestinian campaign group last week broke into the country’s largest Royal Air Force base and damaged military aircraft.The police said on Friday that it had arrested three people — a woman and two men — on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Another woman was arrested on suspicion of assisting the offenders.The move comes after members of the Palestine Action group broke in to RAF Brize…

The much-loved, messy, inner-city play areas of postwar Britain, called adventure playgrounds, owe their existence to a maverick peer of the realm. Marjory Allen, Lady Allen of Hurtwood, a landscape architect educated at Bedales boarding school, pioneered a British outdoor play movement after visiting Copenhagen in 1945 and seeing secure spaces locals had created in the war-torn city centre for children to play freely — even under Nazi occupation.The way these children invented fun and games from the debris of war convinced Allen that the Danes had hit on the key to developing young minds, bodies and souls: adventurous play.…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Energy sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Greece’s Metlen Energy & Metals plans to list in London this summer, in a fresh boost to the ailing UK market following a string of departures. The mining and energy company said on Friday that it aimed to shift its primary listing from Athens to London in August, in a move that could see the company admitted into the FTSE 100. The move is the latest vote of confidence in the UK stock market after the Financial Times this week reported that…

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. Keir Starmer has decided that discretion is the better part of valour, making expensive concessions to Labour rebels over the government’s planned cuts to welfare. Some thoughts on what it means in today’s note. 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…

Some members of the UK’s parliament fight back against proposed welfare cuts, and early intelligence suggests Iran’s uranium stockpile is still intact, officials say. Plus, the rise of sports gambling in Nigeria is being powered by social media influencers.Mentioned in this podcast:Early intelligence suggests Iran’s uranium largely intact, European officials sayA defeat Keir Starmer cannot affordKeir Starmer in talks with rebel MPs in bid to head off welfare revoltThe football betting influencers behind Nigeria’s not-so secret gambling boomSend me your questions for the Swamp Notes podcast: marc.filippino@ft.com. We may even play your voicemail on the show.Today’s FT News Briefing was…

To turn off Piccadilly and into White Horse Street in London’s Mayfair is to enter a different world. The first is a traffic artery lined with Tube station entrances, swish hotels and flashy car showrooms, where distracted tourists bump into polite couples heading to the Royal Academy of Arts. The second is a winding lane, its tiny shops — a dry-cleaner, a wine bar — quaint finds. But forgotten it is not. On a sunny Friday in June, the latter’s slender pavement is busy with workmen communicating in all the languages of Europe, moving between a series of projects taking shape…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.I moved to Falmouth for university, then lifeguarded at the beaches at Holywell, a village further north, during my study years and for a few years after. When I started lifeguarding, I started surfing.Nothing compares to the feeling you get from being in the water. Sometimes it’s meditative. Other times it’s stormy and you’re beaten up a little bit, but it makes you feel so alive. My first sports were skating, BMX-ing and snowboarding; I ended up stunt-doubling on TV adverts before I was asked…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.When David Gentleman left art college in 1953, he was adamant that he would never want to teach anyone how to draw. “I didn’t like teaching because it stopped me drawing or designing,” he says, his lean frame perched on a stool in the fifth-floor studio of his Victorian townhouse in Camden, London, where he still works, aged 95. Instead, he has lived commission to commission. His most impactful designs include changing Queen Elizabeth’s image on British postage stamps from a portrait to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Bank of England is facing growing calls to scale back its bond-selling programme later this year, as investors warn it risks pushing up borrowing costs further and adding to pressure on a weakening UK economy. The central bank is shrinking its portfolio of bonds accumulated during bursts of quantitative easing over the past decade and a half, as it attempts to bring its balance sheet back to a more normal size. Unlike the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, the BoE’s so-called…