Good morning. At the moment we’re protecting:
However first, protests erupted in Venezuela yesterday in opposition to authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro’s re-election, after the opposition claimed it had proof that the vote depend was fraudulent.
Edmundo González, the opposition candidate, had been main Maduro in unbiased polls by no less than 20 factors earlier than polling day. The federal government-controlled election authority yesterday proclaimed Maduro the winner with out but having counted all the votes.
Russia, China, Iran and Cuba hailed his victory whereas the US, the EU and the UK have demanded to see an in depth breakdown of the depend. Despondent Venezuelans have taken to the streets throughout the nation, having tear gasoline and dwell ammunition from pistols fired at them by the police in some circumstances.
The oil-rich nation confronted a 75 per cent contraction in GDP between 2013 (when Maduro was elected) and 2021. Hyperinflation, common energy outages, a continual meals and drugs scarcity and a mass inhabitants exodus have blighted the nation.
“How lengthy is that this going to go on for?” requested one of many marchers. “Maduro isn’t our president any extra,” they told the FT’s reporters on the ground.
Right here’s what else I’m preserving tabs on right this moment:
-
Financial knowledge: Mexico publishes preliminary second-quarter GDP figures.
-
Federal Reserve: The US central financial institution’s financial policy-setting committee begins its two-day assembly.
-
Outcomes: Merck & Co, Pfizer, Airbus, BP, Diageo, PayPal, Procter & Gamble, Normal Chartered, Western Union, L’Oréal, Microsoft and Nomura report.
5 extra prime tales
1. Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina has withdrawn his title from consideration to be Kamala Harris’s operating mate, winnowing the sector of outstanding Democrats vying to be her choose for vice-president.
-
The Fed’s Trump dilemma: The US central financial institution won’t need to look as whether it is prejudging policies as inflationary throughout election season, writes Krishna Guha, previously of the New York Fed.
For extra, sign up for the US Election Countdown newsletter, the FT’s important information to the twists and turns of the 2024 presidential election.
2. Donald Trump has promised to make the US “the bitcoin superpower of the world”, as he seeks to courtroom an business frustrated with the fierce oversight leveraged in opposition to it by the Biden administration.
3. McDonald’s has suffered its first world drop in gross sales since 2020 as increased costs deter customers all over the world, fuelling issues that post-Covid consumer strength has peaked.
4. Mid-sized US accounting corporations are rethinking their world operations to fulfill the needs of increasingly multinational clients, whereas higher leveraging their world networks to unfold the price of expertise and employees.
5. BHP, the world’s largest miner, and Canada’s Lundin have agreed to amass South American copper miner Filo in a $3bn deal, giving them full management of the Filo del Sol prospect, which straddles the Argentine and Chilean border close to the copper-rich Atacama Desert.
The Massive Learn
The Biden administration has depended closely on Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to stem migration throughout the border. López Obrador has used this as a bargaining chip to push by leftwing nationalist reforms, which critics say have weakened the financial system and democracy in Mexico — and Washington has turned a blind eye.
We’re additionally studying . . .
-
‘Tremendous sneakers’: To know what makes sure sneakers so quick, the FT labored with specialists to dissect the technology behind record-breaking footwear.
-
AI battle strains: The worldwide chip struggle might flip right into a cloud computing struggle, as governments see AI-capable knowledge centres as a strategic resource, writes financial historian Chris Miller.
-
Paris Olympics: Star Olympian Simone Biles has billed her efficiency on the Video games as a “redemption tour”, three years after her shock withdrawal from most of her occasions in Tokyo.
Chart of the day
Starbucks’ chief govt Laxman Narasimhan has been dealing with criticism from many sides: the chain’s former boss, a barista union and aggressive activist investor Elliott Administration. Inflation, mass boycotts over its perceived place on the struggle in Gaza and flagging efficiency in China have stalled gross sales. Is there a approach again for the coffee house chain?
Take a break from the information
Alex Robertson-Texter discovered himself on the inaugural flight between Nuuk, Greenland and Nunavut, Canada, uniting two distant places that share an Inuit id. Not solely is the route commercially viable for the primary time, it’s difficult former colonial ligatures and “looks like household coming dwelling”, within the phrases of Nunavut’s premier. Read his dispatch here.
Extra contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm and Camille De Guzman