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2021-11-05 20:30:57 Pfizer’s Covid-19 oral antiviral drug cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89% in a late-stage trial. Here are more details. (Free to read)

Cocaine users are partly responsible for deforestation in the Amazon, Colombia’s president told the FT. ‘[Environmentalists] don’t realise that when they consume [cocaine] they’re doing great damage to the environment’.

Food prices around the world are rising due to droughts, heavy rains and supply chain problems. Should we worry?

We'll be back on Monday with more key stories. Open / Comment

2021-11-04 19:15:11 The Merck antiviral drug has been authorised by the UK medicines regulator for use by people with mild to moderate Covid symptoms and at least one risk factor. But UK health authorities stressed the drug should not be used as a substitute for vaccination. (Free to read)

China is planning to quadruple its nuclear stockpile to 1,000 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2030, according to a Pentagon assessment.

The International Criminal Court is going to investigate Venezuela’s socialist government for alleged crimes against humanity over accusations of torture, rape and extrajudicial killings by the country’s security forces.

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2021-11-04 00:12:26 We’re back with one last round of free to read stories. Be sure to check out ft.com while our paywall is still down.

Best of data pieces:
The California redwoods are a great wonder of the natural world. Click here to see just how tall the world’s tallest tree is compared to other landmarks.

Could we be happier? Yes, but we’ll need connections to others and it requires high levels of social trust. Find out here with who and when we’re most unhappy.

Young people are actually drinking less alcohol. Why?

FT journalists’ favourites:
To wrap up the day, here are a few more favourites from the journalists that bring you your daily updates: the Audience Engagement team.

How far does a chef have to go to be truly good?

Branson, Bezos and the pointless billionaire space race

Can we defeat death?

How mRNA became a vaccine game-changer

We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest news. Open / Comment

2021-11-03 22:42:06 We’re back with more free to read stories.

Best of FT Weekend columnists:
Janaan Ganesh on the way pets fill an emotional gap for a sad generation.

Robert Shrimsley on what to do if you didn’t watch Squid Game.

Gillian Tett on crypto and the societal split between a small minority of expert investors and a kindergarten audience.

Tim Harford on whether or not we can really change our personalities.

Jo Ellison on the wisdom of terrible career advice.

Nilanjana Roy on how to avoid the twin traps of finishing books we don’t care for and ditching those that might have brought us joy.

Robert Armstrong on James Bond and the spectre of tight suit tailoring.

FT journalists’ favourites:
Emily Goldberg, US curated content editor, recommends this story about what the pandemic taught us about loneliness.

US managing editor Peter Spiegel recommends this FT scoop on the two hypersonic missiles that China secretly tested this summer. Open / Comment

2021-11-03 20:34:11 We’re back with more free to read stories.

Top 3 most-read FT Opinion pieces of 2021:
‘What caused a boat to get stuck in the Suez Canal? Perhaps it was the wind. But in hydrodynamics, size matters,’ wrote Brendan Greeley.

‘Having won early access to supplies of the BioNTech/Pfizer jab, Israel is a closely watched indicator for where well-inoculated developed economies are heading,’ Mehul Srivastava wrote on Israel’s response to the Covid pandemic.

London's Sky Pool experiment is obscene, rubbing luxury in the faces of hard-working people in a deprived neighbourhood, claims the FT's Edwin Heathcote.

FT journalists’ favourites:
Taylor Nicole Rogers, our US labour and equality correspondent, recommends a piece about Brendan Greeley, who ran when the Twin Towers fell. He shares his story of surviving 9/11 and how he’s ‘still captive’.

Shannon Gibson, the art director for FT Weekend Magazine, recommends a story about ‘treat brain’ — how the pandemic is rewiring our minds. The comfort-seeking behaviours of Covid may be here to stay, but is that such a bad thing?

We’ll be back later today with more FT favourites. Open / Comment

2021-11-03 18:01:13 For one day only: The Financial Times is dropping its paywall. All of our content is free on November 3 2021. Read, share and enjoy: https://www.ft.com

Today’s key stories:
Rich governments pledged $100bn to help poorer countries reduce emissions at COP26, but there is no agreement on how to spend the funds. Where does all the climate finance money go?

Ethiopia has declared a state of emergency as authorities in Addis Ababa prepare for a possible military assault by forces from the northern Tigray region.

The US is starting to vaccinate children aged 5-11. The Pfizer jab will be administered in ‘kid-sized’ doses.

Top 2 most-read FT interviews of 2021:
Our chat with James Murdoch, the younger son of US media tycoon and Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch.

'The present changes our perspective on the past’ – scholar and newsletter star Heather Cox Richardson draws historical parallels with today’s US politics over Lunch with the FT.

We’ll be back later today with more FT favourites. Open / Comment

2021-11-02 18:45:12 India pledged to cut the nation’s emissions to net zero by 2070 on the first full day of the COP26 climate summit, a big turnaround for the world’s third-largest polluter. (Free to read)

China has warned citizens to stockpile food and essentials as the government drastically tightens restrictions to contain a small Covid-19 outbreak.

US airlines have cancelled a record number of flights ahead of the holiday season as they face historic staffing constraints, from shortages of pilots to customer service representatives.

We'll be back tomorrow with the latest news. Open / Comment

2021-11-01 13:43:03 Bill Gates writes in the FT: 'At COP26, the world should put scaling up clean technology innovation — both for mitigating the worst impacts of climate and for adapting to the effects that we will already feel — on the agenda in the same way it put R&D on it in 2015.' (Free to read)

How liveable could the earth be in 2070? Up to 3 billion out of the projected world population of about 9 billion could be exposed to temperatures on a par with the hottest parts of the Sahara by 2070, according to research.

 Will the ailing Turkish economy bring Erdogan down? Opposition parties are becoming bullish about defeating a leader who appears unwilling to change his idiosyncratic economic policies.

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2021-10-29 17:52:52 Can we defeat death? Life extension research is trying to. Our essay explores whether longer lifespans are at last possible –– and at what cost. (Free to read)

North Korea is struggling with a self-acknowledged food crisis as it endures the effects of international sanctions, pandemic border closures, heatwaves and flash flooding. The crisis is so bad that the government is telling people to eat black swans.

Sudanese women are leading the resistance after a military coup dissolved the government earlier this week, hoping to once again pressure army leadership to reverse the coup and reinstate Sudan’s fledgling democracy like they did in 2019.

We’ll be back on Monday with the latest news. Open / Comment

2021-10-28 18:18:43 A cheap antidepressant cuts the risk of hospitalisation from Covid-19, a new study finds. This discovery is ‘promising’, but experts say it is unclear whether the drug has benefit for broader populations and if it protects against breakthrough cases. (Free to read)

The Evergrande founder lost $25bn after President Xi Jinping’s regulatory crackdowns. He now ranks as China’s 70th richest person, compared with his ranking at No 5 last year.

Traders are betting ethereum prices will surge to $15,000, expecting an exchange traded fund to be approved by Wall Street's top securities regulator next year.

We'll be back tomorrow with the latest news. Open / Comment