EU prepares €20bn back-up plan for Ukraine

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At present we start with a scoop out of Brussels: The EU is making ready a back-up plan price as much as €20bn for Ukraine after the bloc’s leaders didn’t agree a €50bn four-year package deal for the war-torn nation earlier this month.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vetoed the EU’s earlier plan, however this scheme sidesteps his objections through the use of a debt construction that doesn’t require unanimous backing from all 27 member states. The association is much like that used to fund short-term work-support schemes through the top of the Covid pandemic.

An individual briefed on the discussions mentioned there is no such thing as a “technical drawback” to offering price range finance to Kyiv, however that politically “it’s extra sophisticated”. Right here’s what EU leaders must make the plan a hit.

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4 extra high tales

1. JPMorgan Chase captured virtually a fifth of all US financial institution income within the first 9 months of 2023, capitalising on a 12 months of turmoil for the nation’s monetary sector to emerge much more dominant. Its US banking subsidiary earned $38.9bn in income — about 18 per cent of the trade’s complete — based on FT calculations.

2. Israel’s defence minister has warned of a rising threat of a regional battle within the Center East as tensions with Iran enhance. Yoav Gallant informed a parliamentary committee yesterday that Israel was being attacked in a “multi-arena conflict” from seven areas, which he recognized as Gaza, the West Financial institution, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. Listed here are the newest developments from the area.

3. Massive Tech has vastly outspent enterprise capital teams with investments in generative synthetic intelligence start-ups this 12 months, with Microsoft, Google and Amazon hanging a sequence of blockbuster offers final 12 months that amounted to two-thirds of the $27bn raised by fledgling AI firms in 2023. Right here’s what this implies for the much-hyped sector.

Apple: The tech big has been banned from promoting the Watch Collection 9 and Watch Extremely 2 within the US after the White Home refused to grant a reprieve from a commerce tribunal’s ruling over patent infringement.

4. The UK tax authority opened 23 per cent extra circumstances on worth added tax avoidance in 2022-23 than the earlier 12 months, new knowledge from a freedom of data request has revealed. HM Income & Customs opened 109,413 VAT circumstances within the 12 months to March 31 2023, in contrast with 88,673 the 12 months earlier than. Right here’s why HMRC has elevated scrutiny.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Essentially the most-commented tales of 2023

Maybe unsurprisingly, the items that almost all engaged the FT’s readers in debate this 12 months was information on the conflict in Ukraine. One story which drew over 2,200 feedback got here at a essential level of the conflict in January, once we reported that Germany was resisting strain from different western allies to ship its Leopard 2 battle tanks to assist Kyiv in its counteroffensive in opposition to Russia (Berlin later relented).

In August, the demise of the rebellious Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had led his infamous Wagner paramilitary group in a failed mutiny in opposition to Moscow, additionally attracted vigorous dialogue and hypothesis: was this an act of retribution from Vladimir Putin?

Further contributions from Sarah Ebner and Emily Goldberg