Author: Blake Anderson

Donald Trump asked lawmakers whether he should fire Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, and Wall Street saw a surprise comeback in investment banking fees. Plus, the UK’s inflation rate rose higher than expected last month, and yields on Japan’s 10-year government debt jumped ahead of Sunday’s election.Mentioned in this podcast:Donald Trump asked lawmakers whether he should fire Fed’s Jay Powell Goldman Sachs profits jump 22% after investment banking gains UK inflation unexpectedly rises to 18-month high of 3.6%Japan’s 10-year yield hits highest level since 2008 financial crisisCredit: Fox NewsSend in your Swamp Notes questions (Marc.Filippino@FT.com)Today’s FT News Briefing was produced…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Ministers should push ahead with plans to reform the prison recall system in England and Wales in order to ease staffing pressures at the independent body that assesses whether the most serious offenders are safe to be released, its outgoing chair has said.Caroline Corby said recommendations by David Gauke, former Conservative justice secretary, to overhaul how some offenders released from custody as part of a fixed-term sentence are dealt with if they breach their licence conditions would help the Parole Board cut…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Electric vehicles myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.A new UK subsidy scheme designed to boost the sales of electric cars has created confusion across the industry and is likely to hit short-term sales and second-hand car prices over the longer term, automotive executives have warned. The application for the £650mn grant kicked off on Wednesday, but carmakers will have to wait for weeks to learn which of their models will be eligible for the subsidies. Only Nissan has said its new electric Leaf model, which will be produced at…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A record number of Americans have applied to undergraduate courses at UK universities, according to new data, as Donald Trump’s attack on higher education shows signs of putting people off studying in the US.Data published by the UK’s university admissions service on Thursday showed 7,930 US students applied for undergraduate courses starting this autumn, an annual rise of 13.9 per cent and the highest number since records began in 2006. Student recruiters said the data reflected the Trump administration’s assault on the higher…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Aerospace & Defence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Britain and Germany will on Thursday vow to work more closely to sell jointly made weapons, including Typhoon jets, in a deal that Downing Street claims can unlock “billions of pounds of additional defence exports”.Exports of jointly made defence kit have been a source of tension between the two countries for years, with Germany exercising its veto right to block sales to countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.Sir Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, and German chancellor Friedrich Merz will sign…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Eight healthy babies have been born following mitochondrial transfer, which creates “three-parent” embryos, in the world’s first clinical assessment of the treatment developed to reduce the risk of DNA diseases. Genetic defects in mitochondrial DNA affect about one baby in 5,000, leading to a wide range of medical problems from muscle atrophy to heart failure and brain disease. “Mitochondrial disease can have a devastating impact on families,” said Sir Doug Turnbull, one of the Newcastle team of scientists who led the trial.…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The deputy leader of Reform UK has told green energy bosses that the party will “strike down” industry subsidies if it wins power in the next general election, in a warning shot that will put energy policy at the forefront of political debate. Richard Tice said in a letter sent to leading renewable energy developers, including SSE, Scottish Power and Ørsted, that it would “reassess all net zero-related commitments” as a result of their “intolerable costs” to the economy. The Boston and Skegness MP…

Ministers must urgently clarify the costs of the UK’s secret resettlement programme for thousands of Afghan nationals following a disastrous data leak, the head of parliament’s spending watchdog has said. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, head of the House of Commons public accounts committee, told the Financial Times on Wednesday there is “confusion” over the costs of the policy, which was kept secret until this week. He said he was “concerned about the cost,” after the courts and parliament heard seemingly different cost estimates for the government’s response to the data breach, ranging from around £850mn to upwards of £7bn.A forecast of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer, a former government lawyer, is an FT contributing editorFor a court in the UK to grant a so-called “super-injunction” is supposedly an extraordinary event. These court orders where disclosure of the existence of the injunction itself is forbidden are exceptionally rare. Indeed, after a spate of such orders over ten years ago resulted in immense political criticism, super-injunctions were thought by many to no longer exist.But one super-injunction has been in place, and its existence was revealed yesterday. This extraordinary…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Keir Starmer suspended several Labour MPs on Wednesday afternoon following this month’s large-scale rebellion over welfare cuts.The intervention is a dramatic attempt to restore party discipline ahead of the summer recess after Starmer’s government was forced to drop plans to cut £5bn from the welfare bill by slashing payments to disabled people.One Labour veteran said party whips were targeting those who were “the main organisers and spokespeople urging the government to change direction” on welfare reform, adding: “The executions are continuing.”The…