Category: News

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “gambling with world war three” as the US president cut short the Ukrainian leader’s long-sought meeting in the White House and told him to return “when he is ready for Peace”. In a joint appearance in the Oval Office on Friday, the two leaders clashed even before the…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world Donald Trump has specialised in heaping scorn on America’s traditional allies since arriving in the White House, but on Thursday he adopted a strikingly new approach: lavishing praise on a “fantastic” Britain and…

Donald Trump said he is working on a trade deal with the UK and suggested that Britain could escape tariffs if the countries secure one, but the allies failed to agree on US security guarantees for Ukraine. During a warm joint press conference at the White House on Thursday, the US president said his UK…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world Once upon a time, before everything else happened, Donald Trump’s defining obsession could be measured in billions. Whether the billions were real never seemed to matter much. “Donald’s verbal billions were always a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Sir Keir Starmer told MPs on Tuesday that Britain was confronting a “world where everything has changed”, as he shredded the country’s overseas aid budget to fund a rearmament programme not seen since the cold…

Despite the air of gloom hanging over China’s property market, work is well under way at a construction site in the north-west of Beijing. Yellow and green cranes nestle among the scaffolding, while lines of crushed limestone trail across the upturned earth. Backed by private developer Longfor, projects like this have helped power the world’s…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said for the first time that he is willing to step down as Ukraine’s president if the move secured Nato membership or lasting peace for his country. “If it brings…

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Work & Careers myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Companies take over other companies all the time. Even in a slower M&A year, of which there have been a few lately, thousands of businesses hook up with one another around the world. But…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world European stocks have outpaced the US in the month since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, as hopes rise that the region might escape a worst-case scenario trade war. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Ministers are to refocus lending by the British Business Bank on small companies operating in high growth sectors, in an attempt to put financial muscle behind the government’s new industrial strategy. The BBB, the government’s…

European officials are awakening to a reality that Donald Trump has long underscored: the US no longer wants to be the primary guarantor of security for either Ukraine or the continent as a whole. For anyone who missed that message, Pete Hegseth, US defence secretary, rammed it home last week in a speech that left…

Donald Trump’s inauguration last month marked the latest peaceful transition of power in the US, a feat the country has navigated, with only a few hitches, for more than two centuries.  In China, by contrast, the topic of leadership change is off-limits. Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader since Mao, has given no signs about…

Western capitals are braced for a potentially decisive week for European security, as the US and Russia begin talks to end the war in Ukraine and European leaders hold an emergency meeting to respond to the fast-moving negotiations taking place without them. Europe’s most powerful leaders will gather in Paris on Monday for crisis talks…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a US bid to take ownership of around 50 per cent of the rights to his country’s rare earth minerals and is trying to negotiate a better deal, according to several people familiar with the matter. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered Zelenskyy the deal during a visit to Kyiv…

The US has asked European capitals to provide detailed proposals on the weaponry, peacekeeping troops and security arrangements they could provide Ukraine with as part of any security guarantees to end its war with Russia. The request was sent to capitals this week, four western officials briefed on the document told the FT. It came…

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Social affairs myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. How on earth has Britain got itself into a situation where an assisted dying bill that will contain the strongest safeguards in the world is being presented as an attack on the vulnerable? Those of…

Emmanuel Macron has described Donald Trump’s return as an “electroshock” that should force Europe to secure its own future as well as Ukraine’s. In an interview at the Élysée Palace shortly after Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin of Russia to hold imminent peace talks, the French president championed the need for Europe to “muscle up”…

European officials fear they will have to bear the cost of postwar security and reconstruction as they reel from being cut out of US-Russia peace negotiations on Ukraine. Donald Trump said on Wednesday, after talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that their delegations would “start negotiations immediately” to end the war, blindsiding European capitals. More…

President Donald Trump said Washington and Moscow will begin negotiations “immediately” on ending the war in Ukraine after speaking with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Wednesday’s call indicated a dramatic turnaround in the US-Russia relationship amid signs Washington would dial back its support for Ukraine after almost three years of war. Trump wrote on his…

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. US inflation unexpectedly increased to 3 per cent in January, bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to proceed slowly with interest rate cuts and hitting stocks and government bonds. Wednesday’s consumer price index figure…