Stay ConnectedAn audio version of the best of the Financial Times’s Big Reads — in-depth reporting from FT correspondents around the world. Listen to longform stories that explore and explain key themes in world news, science and business. Produced by Anna Dedhar.
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Since Britain voted to leave the EU, the Irish “backstop” has become the primary obstacle in the way of a Brexit deal, say Alex Barker and Arthur Beesley. The plan is the result of intense diplomacy by Dublin, but Theresa May faces implacable opposition to it from Brexiters and Arlene Foster’s DUP. Just how did the issue become so important? Produced by Harry Robertson
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Under the stewardship of its young crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has sought to turn around its oil-dependent economy, say Andrew England and Simeon Kerr. Yet the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has made the task of reshaping the kingdom’s economy by attracting overseas money much harder. Produced by Harry Robertson
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Next month’s US midterm elections will be some of the most important in a generation, says Demetri Sevastopulo. Should the Democratic party regain a majority in the House of Representatives, they could make life very difficult for President Donald Trump. But conservatives are also fired up for the fight
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The nightmare of robots controlling the human race will not come true, says Richard Waters. The future of AI will see semi-autonomous systems rely on close cooperation with people, uniting machine learning and human judgement. But there are dangers in robots leading humans astray
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Since Howard Wilkinson, Danske Bank’s then head of markets in Estonia, blew the whistle on money laundering in 2013, the enormous scale of wrongdoing has emerged, report Richard Milne and Caroline Binham. It has cost chief executive Thomas Borgen his job, and raised grave questions about the bank’s relationships with Russian entities and its regulators
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Emerging economic powerhouses like China, India, and Turkey are jockeying for opportunities and influence in sub-Saharan Africa. While many of the continent's leaders see this as a great opportunity to boost growth, others warn of the dangers of increasing foreign domination
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The Italian football club will pay some €340m over four seasons for Cristiano Ronaldo, gambling that he will lure fans and deals with sponsors and kitmakers, says Murad Ahmed. But it is a risky strategy. Can it pay off?
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Purdue Pharma faces more than 1,000 lawsuits claiming it ignited and fuelled the US opioid crisis, reports David Crow. Prosecutors say the company exaggerated the benefits of its painkiller OxyContin, but through their ownership of Rhodes Pharma, Purdue’s owners also have a far bigger market share than was realised.
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On August 14, the Morandi bridge in Genoa collapsed, killing at least 43 people. Since then, many Italian politicians have blamed the tragic event on a lack of maintenance, says Hannah Roberts, and linked it to crony capitalism and policies of privatisation. This argument over privatisation is emblematic of a divided Italy
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PwC’s mechanical interpretation of the rules failed to produce results representative of Bank of Ireland’s dangerous position leading up to the financial crisis. This, say Jonathan Ford and Madison Marriage, raises questions about auditing judgment, and who the ‘Big Four’ firms really serve. As part of our ‘Auditing in Crisis’ series, they report on the history and future of “true and fair” accounting
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