FT News Briefing

@ftnewsbriefing · Podcast

Latest segments

• Alphabet's Q3 miss, 2026-10-30
  Adds the $100 billion debt figure to Alphabet's miss
  Walks through the day after the earnings report: the near-13% drop, the AI spending, the slowing search business and the cash burn. Adds two figures not yet on the record - about $100 billion of debt raised and the stock still up 2% over twelve months.
• Fed holds at 3.75-4%, 2026-10-29
  Recaps the hold and the political timing
  Recaps the October hold and the groundwork laid for it, then goes to the political timing: the last meeting before the midterms. Walsh, on the record, says politics played no role and that the Fed wants more evidence inflation is broadening.
• Israeli election, final week, 2026-10-29
  Walks through the coalition arithmetic
  Walks through the seat count and the coalition arithmetic: Netanyahu's bloc at 53, the opposition at 48, Arab parties at up to 19, and the president's role in picking a formateur. England's read is that a return to elections is the likeliest outcome.
• China's AI stock slide, 2026-10-28
  Puts numbers on China's AI stock slide
  The FT's Asia financial correspondent puts numbers on the slide: the CSI 300 is down 20% from its June peak and a top tech index is down 33% this year. He ties the selling to offshore-wealth tax changes and the property bust.
• Lula wins fourth term, 2026-10-28
  Interviews Pooler on the post-election sell-off
  Interviews the FT's Michael Pooler in Sao Paulo on the post-election sell-off: the real's 8% drop, the index's 14% fall, and the missing fiscal plan behind both. Also covers Bolsonaro's reported flight and US visas for him.
• Oleshky humanitarian ceasefire, 2026-10-28
  Reports the Oleshky truce and the town's isolation
  Reports from a briefing on Oleshky: the town is cut off, residents are killed in drone strikes and cannot safely bury their dead. Frames the truce alongside Putin's first calls with European leaders since last summer and US talk of energy majors returning to Russia, and rejects the word momentum.
• Israeli election expat vote, 2026-10-27
  Interviews the correspondent on deadlock polling
  Interviews the FT's Jerusalem correspondent on the first Israeli election since October 7, 2023, laying out the two blocs' positions on Gaza, the West Bank, the judicial overhaul and military exemptions, and the polling that points to deadlock and possibly fresh elections.
• OpenAI and Anthropic IPO economics, 2026-10-27
  Breaks down the 335-page prospectus warnings
  Walks through the 335-page prospectus filed the day before, separating the business-model sections from the risk factors: rogue states building chemical or biological weapons, major hacks, and a self-improving AI that outruns human understanding. Notes investors skim the existential warnings for the hard numbers, and frames the listing as the biggest test yet of the AI trade.
• Lula wins fourth term, 2026-10-26
  Reports Lula's narrow runoff win over Flavio
  Reports Lula's narrow runoff win over Flavio Bolsonaro, his fourth term, the campaign promises, the Workers' Party's Supreme Court appeal over blocked transport and Bolsonaro's vow to contest the result.
• Brazil's first-round shock, 2026-10-23
  Previews Brazil's Lula-Bolsonaro runoff
  Previews Sunday's runoff between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro, tracing Lula's digital overhaul and his attacks on Bolsonaro's 2%-of-GDP spending cut, and reads the first-round result as a vote for change.
• Musk floats SpaceX-Tesla merger, 2026-10-22
  Walks through the merger math and hurdles
  Walks through what a combined SpaceX-Tesla would look like - the $3.6tn valuation, 150,000 employees, $150bn revenue - and the hurdles: a majority vote of all Tesla shares, then antitrust scrutiny in Europe and China. A J.P. Morgan analyst's China ring-fence idea is the one addition, and it stays inside the merger story as already told.
• Barclays floats Tesla-SpaceX merger, 2026-10-21
  Reports special committees formed for a merger
  Reports that Musk used SpaceX's earnings call to say both companies have formed special committees to explore a merger at shareholders' request, and that a deal would need a 50 percent vote of all Tesla shares. The first on-the-record confirmation that the process has moved past a Barclays note.
• Witkoff's Oslo talks, 2026-10-21
  Lays out the cyclical talks and winter risk
  Reports on Witkoff's Oslo meeting with Zelensky and his planned St Petersburg trip to Putin, then lays out the cyclical pattern of talks with no Russian movement and Ukraine's winter risk from interceptor shortages.
• AI CDS buying surge, 2026-10-20
  Explains the rush into AI-linked credit swaps
  Richard Waters explains the rush into AI-linked credit default swaps: capex is outrunning demand, rates are rising and data centers are debt-funded. SpaceX and Meta earnings are framed as short-term reassurance against a long-term unknown.
• French debt contagion, 2026-10-20
  Adds the bond selloff and spreading unrest
  Ben Hall walks through the political fallout of the weekend riots: the government looks out of control, Mélenchon has climbed in the polls, and Le Pen gains from the disorder narrative. Adds a fresh selloff in French bonds on Monday and unrest spreading to Italy and Belgium.
• Hot CPI selloff, 2026-10-19
  Interviews the FT's VC correspondent
  Interviews the FT's venture capital correspondent on the AI infrastructure sell-off. It puts numbers on the week: CoreWeave down about 25% from a $44 billion valuation, some bonds in distressed territory, and a Microsoft-Nscale deal that broke down over the weekend.
• Alberta separation vote, 2026-10-19
  Interviews the FT's Canada correspondent
  Interviews the FT's Canada correspondent on the Alberta separation vote: the oil-resentment roots, the Covid-protest lineage, the Quebec precedent, US State Department contacts with separatists, and an Angus Reid survey showing 66% want to stay.
• Hot CPI selloff, 2026-10-16
  Adds CoreWeave's push for an investment-grade rating
  Katie Martin ties the chip selloff to AI debt nerves and adds a new thread: a senior CoreWeave executive says the company wants an investment-grade rating so it can tap insurance-company money. Also notes Korea closed down 8 percent and that Treasuries rallied despite hot inflation.
• OpenAI and Anthropic IPO economics, 2026-10-16
  Adds KBRA's unreported double-B rating
  Adds a previously unreported credit fact to the IPO story: KBRA gave Anthropic a double-B rating in June, one notch below investment grade, using an in-house score and only a limited set of financials, while bankers lobby for an investment-grade rating after the listing.
• September CPI shock, 2026-10-15
  Recaps the CPI print before the midterms
  Recaps the September CPI print - 3.7% headline, up from 3.4%, core also climbing, fuel driving it - and frames it as the last inflation report before the midterms, with traders betting the Fed hikes later this month. Stays inside the week's coverage.