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Hello dear readers, I hope you all had a good Easter break. Last week’s State of Fintech report from CB Insights had some striking stats. The first quarter of the year saw an 18 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop in funding, the largest since 2018 (though it was still the fourth strongest quarter on record). At the

European sanctions being imposed on individuals and companies believed to have ties to the Kremlin increases the danger that the internet could be split and siloed along political divides, according to the main internet registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. RIPE NCC, a non-profit which hands out IP domain names

France’s Caribbean overseas territories have often been demonstrative in their dislike of far-right presidential candidates. On the 1988 campaign trail, Jean-Marie Le Pen was met with protests at a Martinique airport, which prevented his plane from landing. In 2017, his daughter Marine’s highest score in the Caribbean region was just 35.1 per cent, in Guiana.

Good evening, A UK parliamentary report today hit out at “disproportionate” and “arbitrary” Covid-19 travel restrictions that had left air passengers confused and delivered a “severe financial shock” to the aviation sector. As our Big Read explains, the last two years have seen the global industry battling for survival against flight bans and strict restrictions

Twitter is edging closer to selling the social media company to Elon Musk for $43.4bn in what could be one of the largest buyouts in history, people briefed about the matter have said. Twitter’s board was still meeting early on Monday to finalise the terms of an agreement with Musk, said one person briefed on

One of the lessons from the banking crisis is that it didn’t entirely matter who made the mess — everyone had to be seen to pay for it. Energy suppliers now face similar demands for penance as the price crisis drags on. High prices are not the fault of UK energy providers but a function

Welcome back and good afternoon from a sunny London. We hope you enjoyed the Easter holidays. Today, we bring you stories you may have missed while you were away. Also, find out which MBA schools are rated the best for organisational behaviour teaching. Due to a UK national holiday, our newsletter will return on May

Robert Golob founded his Freedom party just a year ago and now the former energy executive has swept to power in Slovenia after voters turned away from the populist politics of outgoing prime minister Janez Jansa. Golob’s upstart centre-left party won about a third of the votes in Sunday’s elections, with Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic party

The ever-faster pace of business poses challenges for corporations — and offers opportunities for a range of legal knowhow providers to help with answers to those problems. The Financial Times is looking to turn a spotlight on these providers, from the established players to the upstart newcomers. For businesses of all kinds, the Covid pandemic

The writer teaches at MIT and is a founding partner at the design and innovation office Carlo Ratti Associati Imagine Travis Kalanick, the ousted founder of Uber, opening his company’s app in New York and finding a surprise: the presence of what he used to call an “asshole named Taxi”. After a decade of lawsuits

Honk honk! Here comes the crypto clown car. Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive and founder of Bahama-based crypto-exchange FTX, appeared on Bloomberg’s excellent Odd Lots podcast Monday, and was joined by the Borg’s Matt Levine alongside regular hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway. Bankman-Fried is widely regarded as one the smartest and most establishment-friendly fellows in

The US has pledged to resume diplomatic operations in Ukraine and said it wanted to see Russia “weakened” by its war after a stealth trip to Kyiv by secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin. Blinken and Austin met Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s president, in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, disclosing the

Melvin Capital, the highest-profile hedge fund casualty from last year’s meme-stock rally, has rapidly backtracked on a controversial plan to start charging performance fees again in the face of an investor backlash. The US-based firm, which lost 53 per cent in January last year after betting against retail investor favourite GameStop, had written to investors

The Ukraine conflict is a certainty for news events this week but activity will be largely off diary — except for events such as the UK reopening its embassy in Kyiv — for the next seven days. Somewhat ironically there is a long list of other war anniversaries this week — from Monday’s Anzac Day

Emmanuel Macron has secured another term as president, beating far right challenger Marine Le Pen by 58.5 per cent to 41.5 per cent. Macron’s victory makes him the first president in 20 years to secure a second term in the Elysée Palace. But despite winning with a much more comfortable margin than the polls predicted

Sales have soared at English winemaker Chapel Down, as a growing number of Britons swap champagne for sparkling wines produced in the UK. Andrew Carter, Chapel Down’s chief executive, told the Financial Times that it was good to be a “leading English brand” following Brexit, adding that people were “very proud” to drink sparkling wines

A sigh of relief from France’s European and Nato allies was heard after Emmanuel Macron won a convincing victory over his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in the final round of the presidential election on Sunday. France’s status as a linchpin of the EU and a strong contributor to Nato in its support for Ukraine against

Emmanuel Macron is set to be re-elected for a second term as French president after defeating his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the second round of voting on Sunday, according to projections by polling agencies based on early returns. Victory for the liberal internationalist Macron, first elected in 2017, will mean continuity in economic

Good morning. Friday was horrific for markets — US indices down 2.5 per cent or worse — but not surprising. The markets are telling an increasingly if not completely consistent story. If we’re missing something, email us: robert.armstrong@ft.com and ethan.wu@ft.com.  What happened and why Sometimes the simplest story is the best. The US stock market

Good morning and welcome to Europe Express. There was a quick and near-audible sigh of relief last night among European leaders as French exit polls came in, confirming Emmanuel Macron’s second term as president. The feeling of Europe dodging a seismic populist upheaval — even as Marine Le Pen scored more votes than last time

Just Eat Takeaway.com is set for a showdown with investors at next week’s annual meeting, with one top shareholder alleging that the company misled shareholders on its financial firepower ahead of two crucial votes to approve last year’s $7.3bn Grubhub deal. Cat Rock Capital, one of the food delivery group’s top five shareholders, published an