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What is included in my trial? During your trial you will have complete digital access to FT.com with everything in both of our Standard Digital and Premium Digital packages. Standard Digital includes access to a wealth of global news, analysis and expert opinion. Premium Digital includes access to our premier business column, Lex, as well

Wagner fighters made a makeshift memorial for their founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in St Petersburg on Thursday as the Kremlin maintained its silence on the warlord’s apparent demise in a plane crash. Supporters of Prigozhin, who is listed among the passengers of a private jet that crashed north-west of Moscow on Wednesday, killing all aboard, mourned

UK economic activity fell unexpectedly in August for the first time since January as higher borrowing costs hit demand, according to a survey that prompted markets to reassess their interest rate expectations and led to a sterling sell-off. The pound slid against the dollar after the release of the flash UK composite purchasing managers’ index

SoftBank-owned chip designer Arm has started the final countdown to the biggest US initial public offering in almost two years, filing a preliminary prospectus for a Nasdaq listing that is set to take place early next month. Arm is on track to be the most valuable company to complete a US IPO since at least

China will push the Brics bloc of emerging markets to become a full-scale rival to the G7 this week, as leaders from across the developing world gather to debate the forum’s biggest expansion in more than a decade. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has invited more than 60 heads of state and government to a

A group of Silicon Valley’s biggest private tech companies are dusting off long-delayed plans to list their shares, with the upcoming initial public offering of chip designer Arm set to provide a new gauge for market sentiment. Grocery delivery group Instacart, software company Databricks and identity verification start-up Socure are among those considered candidates to

SoftBank has bought a stake in UK chip designer Arm at a $64bn valuation, as the Japanese conglomerate takes full control of the Cambridge-based company and tries to set a floor for its stock price ahead of a listing that is expected next month. The deal saw SoftBank buy the 25 per cent of Arm

Labour has watered down plans to strengthen workers’ rights as Sir Keir Starmer tries to woo corporate leaders and discredit Tory claims that his party is “anti-business” ahead of the next general election. A pledge to boost the protection of gig economy workers was diluted by the party’s leadership at Labour’s national policy forum in

Federal Reserve officials have become more wary about the need to keep raising interest rates despite fearing the US central bank has not won its battle against inflation, according to minutes from its July meeting. Officials unanimously backed a quarter-point increase at last month’s meeting. However, a number of policymakers were concerned that the risk

Private equity group TPG Capital has approached EY about buying a stake in its consulting arm in a deal that would herald a second attempt at breaking up the Big Four firm. TPG outlined its plan for a debt-and-equity deal to separate the consulting arm from EY’s audit business in a letter sent to the

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are buying up thousands of the high-performance Nvidia chips crucial for building artificial intelligence software, joining a global AI arms race that is squeezing the supply of Silicon Valley’s hottest commodity. The Gulf powerhouses have publicly stated their goal of becoming leaders in AI as they pursue ambitious

US Steel, a corporate vestige from the era of American industrialists Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan, has put itself up for sale, saying on Sunday it has hired financial advisers to evaluate bids for the company. The company said it has already received multiple unsolicited bids that ranged from the possible acquisition of the whole

The era of cheap streaming is ending, as Hollywood’s largest studios turn the screws on customers with price rises that rival the expensive cable television “bundle” consumers began ditching for Netflix 15 years ago. A basket of the top US streaming services will cost $87 this autumn, compared with $73 a year ago, as Disney,

Saudi Arabia is pushing the UK, Japan and Italy to allow it to become a full partner in the landmark next-generation fighter jet project that the three countries signed in December. The request, confirmed by five senior officials in London, Tokyo and Rome, has already created strains within the tri-national alliance. While the UK and

US inflation in July is expected to have risen at roughly the same pace as in June, suggesting that price pressures in the world’s biggest economy are continuing to ease and strengthening the case for the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady at its next meeting in September.  The consumer price index (CPI) is

European natural gas prices surged almost 40 per cent on Wednesday as the potential for disrupted global liquefied natural gas supply from Australia spooked traders betting on further declines. Prices on the Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the European benchmark, rose to more than €43 per megawatt hour, up from almost €30 on Tuesday, reaching its

Google and Universal Music are in talks to license artists’ melodies and voices for songs generated by artificial intelligence as the music business tries to monetise one of its biggest threats. The discussions, confirmed by four people familiar with the matter, aim to strike a partnership for an industry that is grappling with the implications

A UK bank serving 14,000 charities has announced £15mn in fresh debt funding from its owner after reporting steep paper losses on the value of its bond holdings. CAF Bank said on Monday it had struck a deal with the Charities Aid Foundation, the UK’s largest charity by income, to cover the shortfall that the

US government scientists have achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the second time, a result that is set to fuel optimism that progress is being made towards the dream of limitless, zero-carbon power. Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but until December no