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South Korea leads rebound from market rout after Iran attack

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. South Korea led a rebound in stocks on Thursday as investors clawed back some losses from a rout triggered by fears of a prolonged conflict in the Middle East. The Kospi benchmark, which bore the brunt of an earlier sell-off in Asian markets, jumped 10 per cent after South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung ordered the activation of a Won100tn ($68bn) market stabilisation fund. Other markets in the region also…

Is looming Xi-Trump summit behind the PLA’s break in air sorties near Taiwan?

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Over six consecutive days since Friday, for the first time in at least three years, Beijing dispatched no warplanes near Taiwan, a pause which analysts say reflects deliberate caution ahead of this month’s Xi–Trump summit. The absence of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft near the self-ruled island from Friday through to Wednesday is the longest such pause in the past three years, according to Taiwanese defence ministry data compiled by the South China Morning Post. The number of PLA naval vessels detected in the same period by Taipei, however, remained…

China to step up tech, energy and decarbonisation efforts in next 5-year plan

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China will set priorities for technological innovation, economic security, public well-being and carbon reduction over the next five years, vowing to lay a solid foundation for its 2035 target of doubling per capita gross domestic product from 2020 levels. The world’s second-largest economy will release 20 growth targets, including both binding and non-binding ones, in areas covering the economy, technology, healthcare and economic security, Premier Li Qiang said when outlining the broad strokes of the next five-year plan in the government work report he delivered to the annual meeting of…

Will China own the green energy future? – podcast

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The conflict in the Middle East has sent energy prices soaring, and for countries that import a high proportion of their fuel, it’s a reminder of the perils of energy dependence. As the recipient of almost 90% of Iran’s crude oil, China knows this only too well. Which partly explains why the country spent the last decade heavily investing in clean power. To find out what else could be driving the strategy, Madeleine Finlay speaks to senior China correspondent Amy Hawkins. And energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose reflects on how China’s…

A Europe of clean, green cities and resurgent industry is a fantasy – unless we get really creative | Hans Larsson

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“Bitterfeld, Bitterfeld, where dirt falls from the sky,” went a popular saying. Located in the intensely industrialised Chemical Triangle of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in the 1980s Bitterfeld became known as the dirtiest town in Europe. Its chemical industry and lignite mines dumped toxic waste in waterways, and the air carried a concentrate of sulphur dioxide some 40 times today’s levels. Europe would soon be rattled out of its postwar reliance on heavy industry, in favour of cheap imports from abroad. In the last days of the GDR, environmental…

Nvidia refocuses TSMC capacity as export controls stall China sales

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Nvidia has stopped production of chips intended for the Chinese market, betting that regulatory barriers in Washington and Beijing will continue to limit sales to China. The US chipmaker has reallocated manufacturing capacity at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company away from making H200 chips to its next-generation Vera Rubin hardware, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The move suggests Nvidia no longer expects significant H200 sales in China…