FT News in Focus

What triggered the currency fallout in Argentina, and will Mauricio Macri's new austerity measures be enough to win over international investors? The FT's Benedict Mander explains.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chinese internet giant's proposed joint venture with Russia's Mail.ru sets the stage for a battle royale with Amazon for global dominance of the ecommerce market, James Kynge and Henry Foy tell Hannah Murphy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What prompted high profile investor Warren Buffett to move into India’s mobile payments sector? Jyotsna Singh talks to James Fontanella Khan in New York and Simon Mundy in Mumbai about the significance of Berkshire Hathaway's biggest ever investment in South Asia.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sweden is undergoing something of an identity crisis as the party that has held sway for decades faces potential defeat at the ballot box. Patricia Nilsson speaks to Richard Milne, the FT’s Nordics correspondent, about what has gone wrong for the Swedish Social Democrats.Read Richard's FT magazine article here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The FT's world trade editor James Politi explains how the US and Mexico came to a new bilateral agreement, where Canada stands and what the future holds for Nafta and North American industry. Read more from James on FT.com.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The elite Hong Kong horse racing club has enjoyed a gambling monopoly since colonial times thanks to its donations to good causes. But the FT's Hudson Lockett discovered that that the charity has been consistently overstating its largesse. Ravi Mattu talks to Hudson Lockett about his investigation. Read Hudson's report here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Darren Dodd discusses the WHO's decision to classify gaming disorder as a disease and why young people are worried about internet addiction with consultant psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden-Jones and Hannah Redler Hawes, curator of an upcoming exhibition on addiction and recovery at London's new Science Gallery.Sign up to the FT's weekly health briefing here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As more US states decriminalise the drug for medicinal or recreational use, Liberty Martin looks at the way America's black community has been excluded from profiting from the lucrative trade. Produced by Liberty Martin. Music credit: David Sappa Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Climate change is opening up new commercial possibilities for shipping companies. Danish company Maersk confirmed this week that it was about to launch its first container ship on an Arctic route over the top of Russia. Katie Martin discusses the new route with the FT's Richard Milne and Henry Foy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Cohen's court confessions show Donald Trump's former personal lawyer followed the business principles the president outlined in The Art of the Deal. Joshua Chaffin, the FT's New York correspondent, explains the details of his indictment, and how the verdict from the Southern District of New York could affect the special counsel's investigation. Read more on FT.com.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Hall discusses the Italian government's response to the disaster and the penalties facing the company licensed to operate the bridge with Hannah Roberts in Rome and Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT's Lex column.Read more:Italy’s transport officials were warned over Genoa bridge 6 months agoGenoa bridge collapse exposes a scourge that is not just in ItalyGenoa disaster shines light on Italy’s perceived inequalitiesSubscribe to the FT here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Swedish furniture retailer Ikea had to overcome big regulatory hurdles to open its first store in India. Jyotsna Singh talks to Amy Kazmin, the FT's South Asia bureau chief about Ikea's ambitions for expansion in India and the prospects for making the venture a success. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spain's new prime minister Pedro Sánchez has become the latest EU leader to feel the heat from the Mediterranean migration crisis. Elaine Moore speaks to Michael Stothard, FT Madrid Correspondent, about the big rise in the number of migrants arriving this year and how the country is coping. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are e-cigarettes a good way of getting people to give up smoking or just another way of feeding people’s tobacco addiction? Darren Dodd discusses different attitudes towards e-cigarettes and vaping in the US and Europe with the FT’s Camilla Hodgson and Linda Bauld, an expert in cancer prevention and tobacco control.Sign up to the FT's weekly health briefing here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew Jack discusses this year's A-level results, a key staging point for UK students hoping to go to university. What's the best advice for students who haven’t achieved the grades they needed? Hannah Morrish of The Student Room, Alex Scharaschkin of the AQA exam board and Ucas’s Helen Thorne offer their advice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After two consecutive quarters of blockbuster corporate earnings some analysts are worried share market values have reached a cyclical peak. The FT's Nicole Bullock and John Authers discuss what it all means for US equities. Read more here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Turkish lira has lost more than 40 per cent of its value since the start of the year and the slide has been exacerbated by a war of words between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump. Daniel Dombey discusses the currency crisis, what caused it, and its wider impact with Laura Pitel and Martin Arnold Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jyotsna Singh talks to the FT’s South Asia correspondent Kiran Stacey about why India is worried about China's growing investment in neighbouring Bangladesh. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Darren Dodd discusses the impact of climate change on human health with Leslie Hook, FT environment correspondent, and Laurie Laybourn-Langton, director of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Home sales in the Hamptons have slowed this year as the rising cost of credit and changes to the US property tax rules discourage buyers from investing in vacation properties along Long Island's south shore. Ben Foldy explains what the local picture might reveal about the US economy. Read Ben's story here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Indra Nooyi is to step down from PepsiCo after a 12-year tenure at the head of one of the world’s biggest consumer goods companies. Tom Braithwaite talks to our consumer industries editor Scheherezade Daneshkhu about Ms Nooyi’s legacy and about why there has been so much change at the top of the big food and beverage groups recently. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

House of Fraser, once considered a jewel in the crown of Britain’s retail sector, has fallen on hard times and now faces liquidation if it can’t find a rescuer. Ursula Milton discusses whether it can survive and what its decline says about the state of the UK retail industry.Check out our subscriber offer at ft.com/offer50 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Darren Dodd discusses the latest measures to tackle the problem of poor diet and obesity with Tim Rycroft of the Food and Drink Federation, and Graham MacGregor of the campaign group Action on Sugar and Salt.Take up our subscriber offer at www.ft.com/offer50 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday Facebook exposed the first disinformation campaign designed to influence the upcoming US midterm elections. The FT's San Francisco correspondent Hannah Kuchler explains the scope of the campaign, and what details we have about who might be behind it. Read more here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leslie Hook, FT environment correspondent, discusses recent evidence that companies in China have been flouting rules banning the use of CFCs, with Steve Montzka and Matt Rigby, authors of a recent ozone report in Nature, and Julian Newman of the environmental investigations agencyTake up our subscriber offer at ft.com/offer50 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Companies are growing increasingly concerned about the Trump administration's trade policies as they start to count the cost of its tariff battles with China and Europe. The FT's North America correspondent Patti Waldmeir and global trade editor Shawn Donnan tell Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson what the trade war means for corporate America's bottom line, and whether a ceasefire in the trade battle with the EU will ease concerns. Read more on global trade at FT.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The music streaming service is turning to India to find new subscribers and to justify its $33bn valuation, but record labels are resisting the expansion. The FT's Anna Nicolaou explains. Read Anna's story here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Polls ahead of Wednesday’s election in Pakistan show a dead heat between Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party led by the country’s former cricket captain Imran Khan. The election should be Pakistan’s only second transition from one civilian administration to another, but it has also been called one of the country's dirtiest in recent years. Jyotsna Singh talks to Kiran Stacey about the election's importance and what to expect afterwards.You can read Kiran's story on the election on FT.com and see our podcast subscriber offer at ft.com/offer50 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Bernanke, former chair of the Federal Reserve, earlier this week warned against reading the US yield curve, or the difference between short term and longer term Treasury yields, as an indicator of a looming recession. Joe Rennison explains how the shape of the yield curve has changed over the past year, and whether it indicates a forthcoming economic downturn. Read Joe's story here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cuba is to end its freeze on issuing licences for private businesses, but the government has also issued new regulations aimed at limiting profits and increasing tax revenues that will have the effect of stifling entrepreneurship. Hannah Murphy discusses the impact of the new rules with the FT's Latin America editor John Paul Rathbone. Check out our subscriber offer at ft.com/offer50 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Narendra Modi is planning to privatise large parts of Indian industry. But his botched attempt to sell Air India has revealed big flaws in the plan. Jyotsna Singh talks to Kiran Stacey, the FT’s South Asia correspondent, about what went wrongRead Kiran’s story here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FT investigative reporter Tom Burgis talks to Esther Bintliff about the links he uncovered between a shadowy world of post-Soviet money and the future president of the United States. Image credit: HellovonRead Tom's report here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the Trump administration struggles to reunite migrants and their children forcibly separated at the US border, China has been separating families on a far larger scale as part of a crackdown against ethnic Uighurs. The FT’s Emily Feng tells James Kynge how children have been caught up in the crackdown.Read Emily's report here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denmark's biggest bank, previously a darling of the investor community, has become mired in a money laundering scandal related to the Magnitsky Case. Patrick Jenkins talks to Richard Milne, the FT's Nordic correspondent, about the scandal and what it tells us about the state of bank regulation in Europe.Read Richard's article hereListen to Banking Weekly Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

British woman Dawn Sturgess has died after coming into contact with the nerve agent novichok, four months after a former Russian double agent and his daughter were poisoned in the same area. Elaine Moore talks to the FT's defence correspondent David Bond about what we know so far.Read David Bond's article here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New revenue sharing proposals are causing growing discord between regional parties and the government in Delhi, the FT's Amy Kazmin tells Jyotsna Singh.Read Amy's article hereBecome an FT subscriber Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two of Europe’s biggest supermarkets, Carrefour in France and Tesco in the UK have agreed to team up to purchase supplies, hoping their combined purchasing power will enable them to win better deals from suppliers and beat off competitors. Vanessa Houlder discusses the pressures the supermarkets are facing in their search for profitability with the FT’s Harriet Agnew and Jonathan EleyRead more on the Tesco-Carrefour deal here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has won a landslide victory in Mexico’s presidential elections, making the veteran leftist politician the most powerful president in more than a generation. Amlo, as he is popularly known, has promised to make the poor his priority and will have the capacity to unpick some of the market-friendly policies favoured by his predecessors. Daniel Dombey discusses what kind of president he will make with the FT’s Jude Webber in Mexico City. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Global dealmaking reached $2.5tn in the first half of 2018, breaking the all-time high for the period. What's driving the consolidation and what might bring the boom to an end? The FT's Sujeet Indap and James Fontanella-Khan explain. Sign up for Due Diligence, the FT's must-read daily email briefing on M&A, corporate finance and private equity here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Weeks of chaos on the railways of northern England in June resulted in angry denunciations of rail bosses, showdowns in parliament and long odysseys for frazzled commuters. But in one small corner of the rail network, locals and tourists were enjoying a taste of 1970s nostalgia. Andrew Bounds reports on Britain's DIY railway from Windermere in Cumbria. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

EU leaders are gathering for one of the most difficult summits in years, with member states divided over migration and the German chancellor Angela Merkel facing an ultimatum by her conservative coalition allies to come up with a pan-European approach. The FT’s Mehreen Khan and Michael peel discuss what’s at stake for the EU and Germany.Contribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite some efforts at recycling, more than half of all plastic waste created in the industrialised world has been exported for recycling elsewhere, mainly to China. But now Beijing has banned imports of most plastic waste. So where will the waste go now and how much of it is ending up in the ocean? Leslie Hook puts the question to Amy Brooks and Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia, who’ve recently published a study on the global trade in plastic wasteRead the study by Amy Brooks and Jenna Jambeck hereContribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For generations, ambitious young Americans flocked to the country’s biggest cities, looking for opportunity in commercial hubs like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. But the generation who came of age around the year 2000 is breaking the mould. Liberty Martin discusses how their choice of where to live is redrawing the map of America with the FT's Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Hannah KuchlerRead more hereContribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With just nine months left before Britain leaves the European Union, the government remains deadlocked on key decisions relating to the single market and customs union. For the first time since the referendum two years ago, industrial giants like Airbus, BMW and Honda are sounding the alarm. Elaine Moore discusses their fears with the FT's Peter Campbell and Alex Barker.Contribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The US Supreme Court has overturned a ruling that enabled many ecommerce retailers to avoid collecting sales tax from customers. The FT's Jessica Dye explains the move, and the implications for the consumer economy. Contribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last year, a violent campaign of military repression forced nearly 700,000 Rohingyas to flee from Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh. Now, seasonal Monsoon rains spell further disaster for the refugees, the FT’s South Asia correspondent Kiran Stacey tells Jyotsna SinghContribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ZTE, one of China’s biggest telecoms equipment makers, has been plunged into crisis after being barred from operating in the US. The company is being punished for shipping banned products to Iran and North Korea, but it is also at the centre of the US’s escalating trade war with China. Its plight has highlighted China’s reliance on imported silicon chip technology. Aliya Ram discusses the story with the FT’s Nic Fildes and Edward White.Contribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Challenger companies have been taking on established food brands by catering to the tastes of millennials, who drink less alcohol, want to know what is in the food products they buy and are increasingly eco-conscious. Madison Darbyshire discusses how big food companies are responding to the challenge with the FT’s Scheherazade DaneshkhuContribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Donald Trump claims that after his summit with Kim Jong UN, nuclear-armed North Korea is no longer a threat to the US, but has torn up a multilateral treaty with Iran, which does not have nuclear weapons. John Murray Brown discusses what’s behind the US administration’s contrasting approaches to the two countries with the FT's Katrina MansonContribute to our listener survey and enter our prize draw here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few mergers in recent memory have been as contentious as the AT&T/Time Warner deal that was approved last week by a US district court judge. Rana Foroohar, the FT's global business columnist, explains what the verdict means for M&A activity, and how it might inform antitrust regulation in the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.