Author: Liam Porter

Will Keir Starmer allow himself to celebrate his first anniversary as prime minister this weekend? Or will he be taking a long, hard look in the mirror and asking himself what went wrong?That is what is in my mind as he greets me in the Terracotta Room on the first floor of 10 Downing Street for a long-planned conversation about his first 12 months in office, this week.He looks surprisingly relaxed, given that his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had been in tears sitting behind him in the Commons just hours earlier. That triggered fevered speculation about how long she would last…

Getty ImagesSoon after Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he began raising tariffs, brushing off warnings from economists and businesses about the risks of economic damage. He started with Mexico, Canada and China, then targeted steel, aluminium and cars, and finally in April, on what he called “Liberation Day”, unleashed a blitz of new taxes on goods from countries around the world.The plans hit trade and roiled financial markets. But as worries mounted, Trump quickly suspended his most aggressive plans to allow for 90 days of talks.As that 9 July deadline approaches and the president crafts his…

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. If you need me after this newsletter publishes, I will be busy poring over photos from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding, the gaudiest and most star-studded affair to disrupt technology news this year. I found it a tacky and spectacular affair. Everyone who was anyone was there, except for Charlize Theron, who, unprompted, said on Monday: “I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that’s OK, because they suck and we’re cool.”AI companies start winning the copyright fightLast week, tech companies notched several…

Japanese trio Number_i is outright earnest about the way they love making music. Made up of members Sho Hirano, Yuta Jinguji and Yuta Kishi, the chart-topping J-pop act is wading into the U.S. music market. Last year, the group joined management company and music label 88Rising’s Futures stage lineup at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It was their first U.S. performance and first major music festival as Number_i. The three-member group performed their first featured festival set in the U.S. at 88Rising’s Head in the Clouds Festival at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The performance came on the…

“The aim of this collection is to position ourselves as a fashion label. We are more than just ‘the ones with the sweater,’” said Sezgin Kivrim during his recent presentation, looking at the eight models next to him wearing his new collection. To understand what he means, we need to take a brief look back to last year.September 2024, Vogue’s first Forces of Fashion event in Berlin was coming up, and I was looking for an outfit by a local designer to wear. At the time, a nasty debate about deportations was raging in Germany. Kivrim, a graduate of the…

Welcome to NFL Thoughts, a wide-ranging, in-depth look at some of the top storylines of the 2025 season. In last year’s series, we assessed the Chiefs’ three-peat chances (close but so far away), how star running backs in new places would fare (very well, it turned out) and if the 49ers would finally fall off (TBD, but 2024 certainly wasn’t pretty) among several other topics. This year, we’re starting with the quarterbacks from the historic 2024 rookie class.The 2024 quarterback class was unprecedented in both superstar power and depth. In Caleb Williams (No. 1, Bears) and Jayden Daniels (No. 2,…

Lome, Togo – The chants have faded in the streets, the barricades have been cleared, and an eerie calm hangs over Togo after days of mass protests in the West African nation’s capital. But beneath the surface, anger simmers, security forces remain stationed at key intersections, and many fear the storm is far from over. From June 26 to 28, thousands took to the streets of Lome to protest constitutional reforms that critics say enable President Faure Gnassingbe to remain in power indefinitely. The 59-year-old leader – in office since 2005 after the death of his father, who ruled for…

She is not the first chancellor to cry in public, and may not be the last. But Rachel Reeves is the first whose tears have moved markets. No sooner had the realisation dawned that she was silently weeping – over a personal sorrow she won’t be pushed into revealing, she insisted later, not a political one – as she sat beside Keir Starmer at Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, than the pound was dropping and the cost of borrowing rising. The bond traders who forced out Liz Truss’s hapless chancellor still clearly rate her judgment and want her to stay, even…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Air France-KLM is to take a majority stake in Scandinavian Airlines, as the Franco-Dutch carrier bulks up in the face of competition from low-cost and Gulf carriers.The company said on Friday that it would lift its stake in SAS, the airline of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, from 19.9 per cent to 60.5 per cent. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.It comes as air travel has recovered after the Covid-19 pandemic but also at a time when high-end European carriers face…

We still think getting a live TV streaming service is a better deal than paying for cable — but the gulf between the two options is narrowing. Now that many of the major providers go for more than $80 per month, it’s not the amazing deal it once was. Still, live TV streaming plans have no contract, offer relatively simpler pricing and need no special equipment beyond your smart TV and an internet connection.After testing all the major players, we found to be the most well-rounded. But other services have their advantages, too, and there are plenty of free services…