FirstFT: Scott Bessent’s intervention to prop up US market fails to soothe investors
Also in this newsletter: Loan to Guggenheim Partners falls to distressed territory and North Korea fires barrage of ballistic missiles
Cosy crime drama Ludwig doubles down on the quirk
David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin are an engaging central pairing in the second series of the BBC show
Walmart shares tumble as sales growth slows to six-year low
Retailer to use almost $2.9bn in tariff refunds to deliver price cuts for squeezed American consumers
Heatwaves and waterways
How climate change is hurting Germany’s economy
Tory peer’s free speech group urged Vance to lobby UK government
Free Speech Union called on vice-president to focus on censorship at time of Starmer visit to US last year
Guggenheim loan trades in distressed territory after investor call
Chief executive Mark Walter’s business empire has come under pressure amid probe into his insurance holdings
Quant funds rocked as Treasury boosts buybacks and Moderna shares leap
Tumultuous session puts further pressure on momentum trades that have been unsettled since AI-related stock sell-off
Brazilian municipalities join BHP and Vale dam collapse payout scheme
Nineteen authorities reach agreement over 2015 disaster in blow to English High Court class action
Today’s China could learn from Jiang and Zhu
History might have been different had collegial, liberalising leadership continued
The US Treasury is buying long bonds, but not very many
Speaking loudly but wielding a teeny-tiny stick
Nvidia looks well placed to benefit from the next stage of the AI boom
The world’s biggest chip company is using its balance sheet to seed new markets and a new business model
Stripe bets that an AI world still needs middlemen
Payments company’s purchase of OpenRouter makes strategic sense
Monte dei Paschi readies twin takeover bids for Banca Generali and Banco BPM
Plan would create an Italian banking group with a combined market valuation of about €70bn
US long-term bonds slide as Bessent intervention fails to soothe investors
Yield on 30-year Treasuries rises despite move to ‘at least double’ purchases of securities
Meet Gregory Fenelon, the (self-declared) $14bn man
He has big stakes. We have big questions.
On Time by Jim Al-Khalili — at the border of science and philosophy
An attempt to reconcile the experience of time with physics comes up against the limits of what we know
Six films to watch this week
Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder reboot a 1980s slasher in ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’; Road Runner’s foe takes on his other nemesis in ‘Coyote vs Acme’; Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton light up family drama ‘& Sons’; Anthony Bourdain’s early years relived in ‘Tony’; dinosaurs run ram
Trump announces fresh ‘economic warfare’ on Iran
UAE, long a crucial trading hub for Tehran, has also suspended commercial ties
Trump’s South Korea defence flip reminds Japan that it has no Plan B
While alarming for Seoul, an abandonment of US guarantees could be disastrous for Tokyo
Moderna breakthrough brings back memories of pandemic mania
Biotech nearly triples as mRNA cancer treatment shows promise after company had struggled in recent years
Europe’s oil refining capacity set to shrink by 20% over next decade
North America and Europe to lose further capacity to turn oil into petrol, diesel and jet fuel because of investor wariness
From balloons to pans: in praise of useful tech
Companies developing new materials with previously unknown properties could change the material world
America’s national debt hits record $40tn
Also in today’s newsletter, how the story of the US is getting a Maga rebrand