Business

Get the Editor’s Digest free In this weekly newsletter, Roula Khalaf, Editor at the Financial Times, chooses her favorite stories. Kyara, the “postmodern bar” in Barcelona’s new SLS hotel, is that it smells good: as soon as I step from the lift I’m wreathed in an exotic mix of labdanum, cedarwood, Mexican copal, white musk, neroli and oud. The theme is …

Aviva is taking over Direct Line. Credit: chrisdorney, Shutterstock Aviva is expected to complete its £3.7 billion (€4.35 billion) takeover of Direct Line Insurance on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, after receiving key approvals and expressing confidence in final clearance from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). CMA will publish its findings for phase one on 10 July, but Aviva and …

Britain’s clean technology bet in aviation aims at future proofing the skies. Credit: Matthew Turner via Canva.com Clean flight has become a reality. On June 16, 2025, at the Paris Air Show, the UK government pledged £ 250 million to develop zero-emission aviation technology. This is a plan that will help the UK to reinvent itself and put it in …

Telefónica, Madrid. Credit: JJFarq, Shutterstock. Telefónica has agreed to sell its Ecuadorian subsidiary to Millicom Spain for €330 million, continuing its strategic retreat from Latin America under chairman Marc Murtra. The sale of Otecel (which operates as Movistar Ecuador) which holds 28 percent of the local mobile markets with five millions customers was announced on Friday evening and is subjected …

Get the Editor’s Digest free In this weekly newsletter, Roula Khalaf, Editor of FT, chooses her favorite stories. In a conference in Barcelona last month with the headline “Europe: wake up call?””, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took to the stage and urged the continent to “wake up once and for all . . . Take charge of its fate and put words into …

Are you planning your next move yet? New research reveals which European countries are the best for women to work and live in by 2025. Credit : Iryna Kalamurza, Shutterstock The numbers have been released for women who are wondering where the grass is really greener in Europe, especially in terms of work, money and the chance to live a …

BBVA, Houston, Texas. Credit: Brett Hondow, Shutterstock. BBVA has become the fourth-largest bank financing data centres in the U.S. between January and May 2025, according to its Global Head of Sustainability and CIB, Javier Rodríguez Soler. Speaking at an event hosted by the Spain–U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Houston, Rodríguez Soler reaffirmed BBVA’s growing footprint in the U.S., calling it …

Get the Editor’s Digest free In this weekly newsletter, Roula Khalaf, Editor of FT, chooses her favorite stories. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has apologised to Spaniards for being misled by a top aide accused of corruption who resigned after working “side by side” with the prime minister for more than a decade. The alleged kickbacks received by Santos Cerdán, a …

Get the Editor’s Digest free This weekly newsletter features the favourite stories of Roula Khalaf Editor at The Financial Times. The UK and Spain are close to reaching a deal on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit situation, which is one of the few outstanding issues created by Britain’s exit from the EU. Gibraltar is in limbo ever since Brexit took effect early 2020. …

Get free updates to stay informed Just sign up. Sovereign bonds MyFT Digest – delivered straight to your mailbox Italian, Spanish, and Greek sovereign bonds emerged as the unexpected winners of this year’s bond markets ructions. Mounting a “relentless rally”, they have narrowed Germany’s benchmark lending costs to the smallest gap in over a decade. Bond fund managers claim that …