Author: Olivia Carter

This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters hereGood morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. Today we’re covering: Trump hints at Iran talksWhy Big Tech cannot agree on AGIChina’s drone pushZuckerberg’s macho-man makeoverDonald Trump has said there could be new talks with Iran in the “near future” and that he would decide whether to join Israel’s attack on the country “within the next two weeks”.What to know: Trump appeared to signal that he…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg tries on Orion AR glasses at the Meta Connect annual event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., September 25, 2024. REUTERS/Manuel OrbegozoManuel Orbegozo | ReutersMeta and EssilorLuxottica plan to release versions of their AI-powered smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands, CNBC has learned.The addition of Prada and Oakley underscore the breakout success Meta had with its second-generation Ray-Ban glasses released in partnership with Luxottica in 2023. The Oakley expansion will be done in partnership with Luxottica, while the addition of Prada signifies Meta’s first step toward bring its wearable hardware to…

Lou Christie, the pop singer who indeed had lightning strike in a big way with his “Lightnin’ Strikes” smash in the 1960s, died Wednesday at 82, his family announced on social media. No date or cause of death was given. Christie had three top 10 singles in the U.S. across a period of six years in the ’60s, the biggest being “Lightnin’ Strikes,” which was released in 1965 and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1966. Written by Christie with Twyla Herbert, the MGM-label single was famous for a soaring hook with a nearly Frankie Valli-level…

The prosecution: Amina I’m not saying we should have no cakes ever, I just think we should stop assuming cake is always welcome I know how this sounds: I am the miserable cake police. But this isn’t about being joyless, it’s about creating a healthy working environment. There are 20 of us in the office, and there’s sugar everywhere. We have free biscuits and a constant rotation of cakes, doughnuts and baked goods that descend on us without warning. It’s so normalised, and if you politely decline, people ask if you’re on a diet.Ruby takes the lead in guilt-tripping. If you…

Jun 17, 2025, 07:00 AM ETEvery week, we gather a panel of our MLB experts to rank every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we knew going into the season. Those power rankings look at teams as a whole — both at the plate and in the field.But, how different would those rankings be if we were to look only at major league offenses?We’ve seen a number of offensive explosions so far in the 2025 season — from torpedo bats taking the league by storm on opening weekend thanks to the Yankees’ barrage…

It was as strange a sight as you could stumble upon in the English countryside. As a muggy summer’s day began outside Shildon, County Durham – rain threatening, bees drowsy in the hedgerows – I found myself standing on an embankment, surveying two rows of colossal stone teeth jutting through the earth. It looked as if someone had buried a sleeping giant.“You wouldn’t believe it by looking at it, but this is one of railway history’s most amazing feats,” my companion, rail expert Richie Starrs, said as we gazed down at the molars beneath our feet. A closer look revealed…

Piles of trash-filled caves in Zhangjiajie, China, famous for its towering sandstone pillars.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept interest rates steady amid expectations of higher inflation and lower economic growth ahead, and still pointed to two reductions later this year.With markets expecting no chance of a central bank move this week, the Federal Open Market Committee kept its key borrowing rate targeted in a range between 4.25%-4.5%, where it has been since December.Along with the rate decision, the committee indicated, through its closely watched “dot plot,” that two cuts by the end of 2025 are still on the table. However, it lopped off one reduction for both 2026 and 2027,…

Hideo Kojima – the acclaimed video game director who helmed the stealth-action Metal Gear series for decades before founding his own company to make Death Stranding, a supernatural post-apocalyptic delivery game this publication described as “2019’s most interesting blockbuster” – is still starstruck, or perhaps awestruck. “George [Miller] is my sensei, my God,” he proclaims gleefully.Kojima is visiting Australia for a sold-out chat with Miller, the creator of the Mad Max film franchise, at the Sydney film festival. The two struck up an unlikely but fierce friendship nearly a decade ago, and Kojima says that, as a teenager, the first…

One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded during a routine test in Texas. The Starship 36 suffered ‘catastrophic failure and exploded’ at the Starbase launch facility according to the Cameron County authorities. Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, is central to Musk’s long-term vision of colonising Mars. This is the latest setback, with SpaceX betting that its ‘fail fast, learn fast’ ethos will eventually pay off