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Yen weakens after Takaichi picks dovish candidates for Bank of Japan

Academics favouring lower interest rates could challenge governor Kazuo Ueda’s efforts to normalise policy, analysts say

Marc Filippino talks to Simon Foy and Humza Jilani

Plus AMD and Meta

AI and policy; AI and workers; Russian imports; farmers; PE ratios; backstops; SRTs; celebrations; billionaires; Venezuela; El Mencho

German chancellor expected to meet Xi Jinping on Wednesday as part of two-day visit to Beijing

Also in this newsletter: New Italian far-right party joins European parliament’s fringe

Baby, it’s cold outside

Also in today’s newsletter: Germany’s arms deals and Paris mayoral race

President warns Islamic republic is rebuilding nuclear weapons programme amid huge US military build-up

Michela Tindera talks to Peter Andringa

UK bank’s warning comes after $13.6bn privatisation of Hang Seng Bank

Cristina Criddle talks to Megan Garcia and Karandeep Anand

Investment banks capitalised on volatility in 2025, with Barclays and Deutsche Bank leading the pack

Senior figures in both sectors worry that latecomers are pushing into ever-riskier assets

A recent trial shows the difficulty of disentangling medical hope from hype

Ministers also planning to link patient data to benefit claims and employment statistics

Tom Enders warns that any future national project risks becoming a ‘gigantic misallocation of resources’ for Berlin

Easing the child penalty in the labour market could also increase fertility

Changes are in stark contrast with rearmament push by European allies in face of growing geopolitical tensions

Investor backlash against US markets appears to be real

Right or wrong, dissent gives us permission to think for ourselves

Olia Hercules’s smoky Ukrainian kapusniak will warm you through

German chancellor enters debate over funding conventional weapons made by Rheinmetall vs defence start-ups

Read the central bank’s February forecast from the FT’s Monetary Policy Radar team