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Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Cyber Security myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. A few weeks ago, a friend was about to have life-saving brain surgery in Boston when her operation was suddenly cancelled. The reason? A unit of UnitedHealth, the gigantic American conglomerate, suffered a ransomware attack,

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Iran is exporting more oil than at any time for the past six years, giving its economy a $35bn-a-year boost even as western countries discuss stepping up sanctions in response to its attack on Israel.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak has been warned by the IMF to take much tougher action to rein in the UK’s public debt, putting a question mark over the prime minister’s cuts to national insurance. The IMF on

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. UK inflation slowed less than expected in March, fuelling the debate over how soon the Bank of England will start cutting interest rates. Consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 3.2 per cent, down

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Sovereign bonds myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Ukraine’s international bondholders have formed a creditor committee ahead of a $20bn debt restructuring that Kyiv is aiming to negotiate by September, amid uncertainty over the arrival of funding to help in its war with

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Oil and Asian equity markets were muted on Monday following Iran’s military strike on Israel as traders shrugged off fears the conflict could escalate into a full-blown war and curb supplies from the region. Brent

A growing number of health-conscious consumers rejecting beer, wine and spirits represents “a big opportunity”, said the chief executive of Japan’s biggest brewer Asahi, who forecast zero- and low-alcohol drinks would generate half of the company’s beverage sales by as early as 2040. Atsushi Katsuki, whose group produces beers including Asahi Super Dry, Peroni Nastro

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel’s war cabinet met on Sunday afternoon to discuss possible responses to a massive overnight Iranian drone and missile attack, with US President Joe Biden urging restraint as the Middle East edged closer to full-blown

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Iran has launched drones at Israel, an Israeli military spokesman said, following a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed several senior Iranian officials. In a statement late on Saturday, Daniel

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Middle Eastern politics & society myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have seized an Israeli-owned container ship in the latest escalation of hostilities between the Islamic republic and Israel. The capture of the ship comes as Tehran has been

Iran has signalled to allies and western nations that it will retaliate against a suspected Israeli air strike on its Damascus consulate in a “calibrated” manner to keep an all-out regional conflict at bay, according to officials briefed on the talks. Tehran is unlikely to target Israeli diplomatic facilities in the region, said an official

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner is being investigated by Greater Manchester police over allegations that she potentially broke electoral law by failing to properly disclose her main residence in official documents. Rayner was reported to

Wall Street stocks rose on Thursday, marking a sharp reversal from the previous session as shares in Big Tech companies led the march higher. The benchmark S&P 500 gauge closed up 0.7 per cent, after a drop of almost 1 per cent on Wednesday triggered by a hotter than expected US inflation reading for March. The Nasdaq

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is an external member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee As an American living in London, people regularly tell me England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

US stocks and Treasuries sold off after higher than expected inflation in March dimmed traders’ hopes for near-term interest rate cuts. Wall Street’s S&P 500 index closed 0.9 per cent lower on Wednesday. Every sector declined except for energy, which was helped by a rebound in the price of oil. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite declined

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Traders slashed bets on imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts on Wednesday after data showed US inflation rose to 3.5 per cent in March, surpassing expectations and marking the second increase in a row. The annual

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Artificial intelligence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The capability of new artificial intelligence models will surpass human intelligence by the end of next year, so long as the supply of electricity and hardware can satisfy the demands of the increasingly powerful technology,

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The evidence is strong, if not quite conclusive, that smartphones damage children and girls in particular. Governments should enact at least some of the legal curbs proposed in Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. But take

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had set a date for an assault on Rafah, after far-right allies warned that his premiership would not be tenable if he did not launch an attack on the town in

Simon Kuznets, the Nobel laureate known for his work on standardising the measurement of gross national product, used to group economies into four broad categories: under-developed, developed, Argentina and Japan. From the 1960s, Japan’s extraordinary growth appeared so unique to Kuznets that it warranted its own category. But, starting in the late 1990s, Japan became