World business, finance, and political news from the Financial Times

Brittan on Britain
Veteran columnist on his 50 years at the FT

Philip Stephens
Best of times making way for the worst

Highlights

©Alamy

Facebook works on drones and lasers

9:59pm WORLD

Berlin boosts Cameron stance on EU talks

Osborne and Schäuble seek fair treatment of members outside euro

Osborne and Schäuble Protect UK’s EU interests
Schäuble push for eurozone fusion
Farage reawakens Tory election fears

6:59pm

Fed feels backlash over stress tests

Bank executives and investors attack system as ‘opaque’

6:40pm

Turkey blocks access to YouTube

Ban follows release of recording of spy chief and defence minister

12:04am

Microsoft boss launches Office for iPad

Satya Nadella aims to catch up on mobile and cloud

6:58pm

Disability claims in chaos as Atos quits

Government’s key provider of work capability assessments pulls out

The Battle for Ukraine

$Workers use machinery to move drill sections on the drilling floor of the oil derrick in the Salym Petroleum Development oil fields near the Bazhenov shale formation in Salym, Russia, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014. Salym Petroleum Development, the venture between Shell and Gazprom Neft, has started drilling the first of five horizontal wells over the next two years that will employ multi-fracturing technology, according to a statement today. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg$

©Bloomberg

6:11pm COMPANIES

Total and Lukoil in talks over shale deal

Highlights corporate desire to continue business in Russia

6:52pm WORLD

Old constraints spike Kremlin’s firepower

Moscow would be foolish to go further into Ukraine, say experts

IMF’s £14bn Ukraine rescue is balancing act
Editorial The hard road ahead for Ukraine
Baltic states to up defence spending
IMF pledges $14bn-$18bn for Ukraine
Leszek Balcerowicz Ukraine can flourish

Martin Wolf: Osborrne, spenders and savers

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne delivers his keynote speech at the annual Conservative party conference in Manchester, northern England

©Reuters

Don’t be fooled. Osborne’s plan is not to raise savings: the Budget is aimed at encouraging ‘dissaving’

Are you better than an algorithm?

Abstract flowchart diagram Computer program algorithm

©Alamy

If they are a threat to jobs from accountancy to journalism, will they start to determine our social position?

©Bloomberg

6:03pm UK

Centrica delays power stations investment

Company cites uncertainty after regulator orders inquiry

9:59am COMPANIES

UBS suspends six more forex traders

Swiss bank’s internal move extends to Singapore for first time

An employee holds a one-kilogram gold bar next to other gold bars arranged for a photograph at a Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. store in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, March 25, 2014. Gold rose from a five-week low after the U.S. and its allies in the Group of Seven threatened more sanctions to deter Russia from further incursions into Ukraine, boosting demand for the precious metal as a haven. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

©Bloomberg

9:50am MARKETS

Gold rush in Japan as tax rise looms

Precious metals specialist reports ingot sales up 500% this month

Andrew Smithers Cut Japan depreciation allowances
Tax rise gives Abe something to chew on

©PA

1:34pm UK

Workplace pension charges capped at 0.75%

Ministers threaten more cuts in new blow to sector after Budget

Martin Wolf Osborne had to aid spenders
Sleeping partner or good steward
Chris Giles Pension changes to benefit 400,000

A worker operates an electrolysis furnace, which produces aluminium from raw materials, at the Rusal Krasnoyarsk aluminium smelter in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk

©Reuters

6:06pm MARKETS

LME forced to halt plan to cut warehouse queues

UK judge rules consultation unlawful in case brought by Rusal

Comment and Analysis

3:26pm

Robert Shrimsley from COMMENT

Licence evaders should not face charge

This is a crime only because the BBC has yet to find a way to block free viewing

RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / NO ARCHIVE

©AFP

3:08pm

Gary Silverman from COMMENT

Breasts, buttocks and boomers redux

Our happy plastic surgeons are showing that we don’t get older, we just get better

Emma Jacobs A female face of breast implants
Thousands gather to fight ravages of time

©David Parry

3:54pm

Emma Jacobs from MANAGEMENT

Part of office life, but not colleagues

Cleaners are central to the debate on a fair wage in rich economies

Best comments from our readers

"Then there is quantitative uncoupling, in which the monetary economy becomes so besotted with itself that it comes to believe it has no need or use for its lifelong partner, the real economy."
By Rory Harden on Case studies in conscious coupling

"I disagree with Mr Farage's views on the EU, but there is something refreshing about seeing a politician genuinely care and fight for an issue of personal import - it's the original good reason to go into politics. Just wish he wasn't able to bring so many people round to his view."
By Centre-right Brit on Business needs to take on the far right

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