Today’s agenda: Stellantis chief resigns; Syrian crisis; calls for ‘Europe first’; Romanian election; and England’s metro mayors
We begin in Washington where outgoing US President Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter over convictions on gun and tax charges in an extraordinary reversal of his promise not to use executive powers to benefit his son just months before the end of his presidency.
What did Biden say: In a statement yesterday night, the US president accused political opponents in Congress of “instigating” the charges against Hunter to attack him.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden said.
“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” Biden added.
Brewing backlash: The incumbent president’s controversial action has already drawn ire. Steven Cheung, Donald Trump’s communications director, suggested that Biden’s move supported Trump’s claims of a politically motivated justice system.
Joe Biden has issued multiple statements supporting his son, but he has also said he would not pardon him. But his reversal comes ahead of sentencing for both cases, which was scheduled for this month. Read the full report.
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Trump transition: President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend made two key foreign policy appointments, nominating in-laws for both jobs as he fills out his incoming administration with loyalists.
Sign up for our White House Watch newsletter for more updates from Washington as it braces itself for Trump’s second term.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
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Africa: Joe Biden embarks on his first and final trip to the continent as US president with a visit to Angola starting today.
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UK: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer sets out his foreign policy agenda at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in the City of London.
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Economic data: Canada, the Eurozone, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and the US issue November manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices. The EU publishes the October Eurozone unemployment rate.
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FT Seasonal Appeal: The FT’s campaign, launched today, is backing two charities devoted to financial literacy and free school meals.
Five more top stories
1. Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares has resigned following a sharp decline in financial performance at the world’s fourth-largest carmaker, marking an abrupt exit for one of the automotive industry’s most high-profile leaders. In a statement yesterday, Stellantis said its board accepted his resignation, without explaining exactly why he had stepped down. Here’s what comes next amid the auto chief’s sudden departure.
2. Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified attacks on rebels who over-ran most of AleppoSyria’s second city, in a lightning assault that poses the biggest challenge in years to Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Air raids also struck the rebel-held city of Idlib for a second day yesterday. Read the full report.
3. Exclusive: The EU’s new industry chief has called for a “Europe first” strategy for key business sectors, in a bid to prevent the bloc becoming collateral damage in a potential global trade war sparked by Donald Trump. Here’s the FT’s interview with European Commission vice-president Stéphane Séjourné.
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Commitment phobia: European leaders must take long-term action on industrial, fiscal and monetary policy as well as support for Ukraine, writes Martin Sandbu.
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Monetary policy: Philip Lane, the European Central Bank’s chief economist, said that the ECB would scrap a crisis-era strategy in determining interest rates.
4. The UK government is set to unveil plans for a new defence industrial council with businessin a bid to deepen Whitehall collaboration with technology companies and smaller start-ups, as well as the sector’s giants. More on the proposals to be outlined by UK defence secretary John Healey today.
5. Romania’s mainstream political parties appeared on course to retain control of the country’s parliament, exit polls suggested after a general election yesterday, despite big gains by nationalist far-right groups. The election comes after a pro-Russia nationalist candidate secured victory in the first round of Romania’s presidential election last month.
Join us from December 4 to 6 at The Global Boardroom, where more than 100 experts including Luc Frieden, prime minister of Luxembourg, will tackle topics from the impact of a second Trump term to artificial intelligence, trade, and climate change. Register for free.
The Big Read
Levelling up — a flagship policy of the Boris Johnson government that promised to reduce regional inequality — has been largely abandoned by Labour. But some economic analysts see the empowering of so-called metro mayors, responsible for areas comprising more than one local authority, as a different route to the same destination. Can they really help fix England’s left-behind regions?
We’re also reading . . .
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JSW: The Indian steelmaker, which already has a joint venture with China’s SAIC in the world’s third-largest car market, plans to launch its own electric vehicle brand.
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Trump tariff threats: Exporters in China, Canada and Mexico are front-loading shipments to the US before president-elect Donald Trump takes office.
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Mother of all bubbles: America is over-owned, overvalued and overhyped to a degree never seen before, writes Ruchir Sharma.
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European business schools: French school Insead has topped the FT’s ranking for the region for the first time.
Chart of the day
Negotiations over the first legally binding UN treaty on plastic pollution collapsed in the final stage of discussions, after oil-producing nations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia blocked efforts by 100 countries to place limits on new production. The impasse over an accord to contend with the pollution crisis comes as global demand for the material is expected to nearly double by 2050.
Take a break from the news
Raspberry Pi chief executive Eben Upton says the company had no sales department for the first seven years. In this interview he shares how the group evolved from an educational charity spin-off to becoming a UK-listed blue-chip company.
