Your daily market briefing

Inquiry follows an FT investigation that found four former directors enriched themselves through a sanctions-busting trading scheme

Also in today’s newsletter: Oil surges as Hormuz talks postponed and Warsh and Trump on collision course

Grocery price inflation has ticked up from 2024 lows amid fears rising energy prices and poor harvests will place further upwards pressure on the cost of living this winter.

Average customer spending on school uniform fell in the back-to-school period compared with a year ago.

Rome-based company is developing a foundation model to protect billions of internet-connected devices, from robots to lightbulbs

Son of PC billionaire building a network of batteries in US homes to power households and supply energy to the grid during peak demand

Slowing down could reduce the enormous amounts of cash being lavished on training new models

Tory and Whig MPs were central to funding trafficking of enslaved people and many opposed abolition of the slave trade There is a British culture of celebrating the abolition of slavery without acknowledging that the country enslaved and trafficked millions of African people for centuries. The newly published Register of British Slave Traders, which documents the thousands of investors in Britain’s near 250-year trafficking of more than 3 million enslaved African people, shows that it was a state-backed operation, fully supported by both major political parties at the time, the Tories and Whigs – the forerunners of today’s Conservatives and Liberal Democrats respectively. Continue reading...

As human development and roads increasingly fragment their habitats, a study suggests traffic noise could be altering the animals’ wake-up call Dawn has broken, and the air is cool and still. It’s at about this time that gibbons usually erupt into song, wa-oo-ing and wa-ing from the highest branches and filling the tree tops with rich melodies. But in this corner of Malaysian forest, bordered by housing and roads, the resident white-handed gibbons are quiet. All that can be heard is the hum of traffic from a nearby highway. This isn’t a rare occurrence for this group of gibbons, according to research, which found these particular gibbons, named Mambang and Walinong, appeared to be producing far fewer morning songs than others that are not exposed to the same level of traffic noise. Continue reading...

The cost of filling up a vehicle has rebounded, according to the RAC, as oil prices remain elevated.

Move continues dismantling of environmental protections during the president’s second term as he boosts fossil-fuel industry

Iran war and turbulent global bond markets add to pressure as rate decisions loom this week in major western economies Economics viewpoint: perilous UK economic conditions trace back to Trump Central bankers in economies including the US, Japan and the UK will face a moment of truth this week, as surging inflation raises the prospect of higher interest rates. Policymakers in all three countries will set rates in the next seven days against the backdrop of turbulent global bond markets. Continue reading...

Investors expect BoE to hold borrowing costs this week but signal a possible increase later in the year

Dismissed in Taiwan as simply propaganda, the Long Watch, or Jiaofeng, has proved a sensation across the strait with its references to real-life crises After shaking off the people trailing her through a crowded market and emerging from a bathroom in disguise, the double agent appears to have escaped. But a sip of water on a plane eventually gets her. She is poisoned after Taiwan’s military intelligence service discovers that she has been working secretly for China. The plot comes from a new Chinese spy drama co-produced by the Ministry of State Security. Since its premiere on 6 September, it has become a TV hit, with a fictionalised take on a subject rarely treated so directly: the modern history of tensions with Taiwan. Continue reading...

President Xi Jinping steps up efforts to secure state secrets, advanced technology and highly skilled workers

Technology is going to drastically reshape the economy, and it’s within our power to decide what that looks like The idea that autonomous, thinking machines may one day destroy property, hierarchy and inequality is as old as western political thought. In Aristotle’s Politics, the philosopher cites a fantasy from the Iliad, in which machines begin to act independently of human direction, concluding: “If every tool could perform its own work when ordered, or by seeing what to do in advance … if thus shuttles wove and quills played harps of themselves, master-craftsmen would have no need of assistants and masters no need of slaves.” The dream that automation could inaugurate a classless society is also present in the writings of Karl Marx. In 1858 he imagined the replacement of intellectual property with “socialised knowledge”, which would merge into a “general intellect”, blowing the foundations of capitalism sky high. Continue reading...

London’s ‘quality of life’ score has been dragged down by a housing affordability crisis as workers spend more as a share of their income on housing than residents of “nearly every city in the world”, a new report has found. The latest Global Cities Index by Oxford Economics found that Londoners’ financial wellbeing was hindered [...]

The end of a decades-old prohibition has been welcomed by owners but is prompting disquiet from some patrons

A Gulf-war windfall has boosted balance-sheets and enriched shareholders. Next: expansion

UK jobs market stays soft before BoE rate call Reuters

It comes as the AI firm's boss has called for the technology's development to be slowed down, citing "serious" risks.

US President Donald Trump dismisses calls to slow the development of AI, saying that claims of it "taking over the World" are a "HOAX".

A new Tennessee-U.K. partnership targets the next frontier in nuclear power Knoxville News Sentinel

Pricing equity punters’ collective histrionics in a credit context

Hedge fund founder’s fine reduced to £1.5mn but verdict is blow to attempts to repair his reputation after allegations of sexual harassment and assault

Resort operator plans to offer more premium all-inclusive breaks but it is a tough business in a highly competitive market

Fulkrum, a London-headquartered technical services company providing inspection, expediting, auditing and technical staffing solutions to energy and industrial projects, has landed an inspection services contract with Vår Energi, an independent oil and gas operator on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). This deal expands the UK firm’s offshore footprint in Norway and enables it to provide inspection and testing support across three subsea developments in the Gjøa area. The post Fulkrum steps up Norwegian offshore oil & gas presence with Vår Energi deal appeared first on Offshore Energy.

A €5bn (£4.3bn) EU fund which invests in some of the continent's most promising scale-up technology companies is leading a $100m (£73.9m) funding round for Tandem Health, an AI medical assistant which has built a presence at the epicentre of Britain's private healthcare industry.

UK Mulls Supporting Saudis Amid Fears of Houthi Economic Hit

Exclusive: Currently under federal law, up to 25% of a worker’s take-home earnings can be collected House Democrats introduced a bill Monday that would prevent workers from having their wages garnished for medical debt collection. The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include a ban on wage garnishment for medical debt and prohibit any state or court from issuing or enforcing such wage garnishments. Continue reading...

Firm, once part of Sanjeev Gupta’s empire, fell into administration last year but has failed to find buyer Business news – live updates One of Britain’s steelworks is to come into public ownership after the government said it would take over Yorkshire-based Speciality Steel UK (SSUK). Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said officials would “work towards” acquiring the company to protect the jobs of its 1,300 workers in Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Brinsworth in South Yorkshire and Wednesbury in the West Midlands. Continue reading...

The findings are part of a project documenting British involvement in the slave trade between the 16th and 19th Centuries.

Donald Trump’s blithe comments at the weekend were characteristically unhelpful. A careful and considered discussion on the subject has yet to begin A decade ago, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) viewed Brexit as a potential gamechanger in the struggle to resist future pressure for a united Ireland. As the author and journalist Fintan O’Toole wrote in an essay published last year, the DUP hoped that the 2016 referendum would deliver “a double exit. Brexit would not simply mean the UK’s departure from the EU. It would also be an act of separation from the Republic. It would reverse the slow drift towards integration.” That proved to be, to put it mildly, a deeply flawed judgment. The direction of travel since 2016 has instead been the opposite. Rather than leading to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which would have disastrously undermined the Good Friday agreement, the UK’s divorce agreement from Brussels eventually placed one in the Irish Sea. The logic of further economic integration between north and south within the EU’s single market was reinforced. Continue reading...

Plans to strengthen legislation already going through parliament might mean donors having to meet stricter UK residence requirements Andy Burnham’s government could thwart Reform’s unprecedented £72m donations with retrospective restrictions on political donors that will include tough new residency requirements, ministers have announced. In a move that is likely to set off furious complaints from Nigel Farage’s party, the government will table amendments to legislation going through the House of Lords within weeks that puts the legality of Reform’s latest donations in doubt. Continue reading...

DFO Management and Sequence clinch acquisition of Baldwin Group as industry undergoes wave of consolidation

US President Donald Trump attacked what he called a ‘sick conspiracy’ against AI, rejecting calls for regulation.

The most advanced models are starting to escape human control

The vast sums given to Nigel Farage’s party in recent days must lead to action on political funding The staggering sums gifted to Reform UK over the weekend have transformed the context for the representation of the people bill making its way through parliament. The announcement of two £36m donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, both crypto billionaires who have lived abroad, makes Andy Burnham’s decision not to impose a limit on political donations – a move he supported before becoming prime minister – look even more misguided. Fortunately the House of Lords still has the chance to amend the bill. It should take it by imposing meaningful limits on both political donations and party spending. It is unclear whether either man meets the criteria set out in the Rycroft review into foreign influence in politics. It set a maximum of £100,000 per annum for people who have not been in the UK for at least a year. Mr Delo previously lived in Hong Kong while Mr Harborne is based partly in Thailand; Nigel Farage said on Monday that he does not know the details of their movements. While ministers will view the prospect of a legal fight over eligibility with trepidation, they must do

In the midst of a trade war with the US, the prime minister leveraged his connections in global finance to invite some of the world's biggest investors to Canada.

From the UK to Japan, so many countries need to quickly be brought inside the European tent without the rigours of full membership The worst conclusion to draw from Iceland’s EU referendum result last month would be that the country, apparently now on Donald Trump’s imperial map along with Canada and Greenland, wanted to distance itself from Europe. Rather, the decision to refuse the reopening of EU accession talks shows that asking voters to choose between membership of the 27-nation bloc and staying outside the club is too binary. Some countries want to be inside the European tent without necessarily becoming members. The EU needs a new status for them. There are existing models of close cooperation. Iceland and Norway, for example, participate in much of the single market through the European Economic Area (EEA). A range of other partial, gradual or associated membership options for candidate countries is being debated. Fabian Zuleeg is chief executive and chief economist at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

The City stands ready to help the Chancellor deliver good growth in every postcode at the Budget, says Chris Hayward Recent years have been challenging for people, policymakers and industry leaders alike. Conflicts have been compounded by subsequent, successive economic shocks; damaging supply chains and leaving less well-prepared boardrooms bewildered. Globally, public finances are under [...]

Paris replicates Viktor Orbán’s tactics in bid to free French nationals from Azerbaijan

Borrowers are bracing for more mortgage woes ahead of the Bank of England’s interest rate decision this week. Mortgage rates have climbed to their highest level in nearly five months after some 25 lenders hiked their deals in the last week including the likes of HSBC, Lloyds and Nationwide. The average two-year fix has risen [...]

A slowdown would reduce the enormous amounts of cash being lavished on training new models

There’s been a huge backlash against Reform UK after the party received £72m from two crypto billionaires over the weekend. Paul Nowak, the TUC leader, said the money showed democracy was ‘in crisis’. Labour is pushing for tighter restrictions on political donations which could be retrospective, but Reform is confident this will not affect its new war chest. How much does this money change the political landscape? And with Labour receiving millions from unions, will its new rules backfire? The Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar and policy editor Kiran Stacey discuss. Continue reading...

Judges uphold ruling that financier tried to ‘frustrate’ investigations into harassment claims against him The former hedge fund boss Crispin Odey has lost a legal challenge to overturn his lifetime ban from the City for trying to “frustrate” investigations into sexual harassment allegations against him. A ruling by judges at the upper tribunal upheld the ban imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in March last year, while reducing a proposed fine of £1.83m to £1.53m. Continue reading...

The government is poised to take the UK’s third-largest steelworks into public ownership, after months of talks to find a buyer broke down. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Monday that ministers would seek to use recently ratified legislation to nationalise Speciality Steel UK (SSUK) from failure, a matter of weeks on from a similar [...]

Legislation defeated in parliament last week was so narrowly defined as to be unworkable

The FT’s guide on what to look out for on September 18

We must stop companies from allowing AI to self-improve into an uncontrollable level of intelligence Major AI lab CEOs advocated for slowing the pace of AI development this weekend. They are right to be concerned: the field runs an extremely dangerous race towards superintelligent AI. We can and should be demanding that our governments protect us from the catastrophe of out-of-control AI. This July, OpenAI’s AI swarm of 700 agents broke containment to hack Hugging Face, a multi-billion dollar company. OpenAI didn’t tell the AIs to hack that company, but the AIs had different priorities: cheating on the unrelated challenge OpenAI gave them. AI researchers call this a “misalignment” between what OpenAI wanted and what the AI actually prioritized. Continue reading...