FirstFT: Today’s top stories | Financial Times

Joe Biden has asked US intelligence agencies to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid renewed questions over the role a laboratory in China might have played.

The US president said that he had asked his officials to deliver within 90 days their conclusions on how the Sars-Cov-2 virus first spread to humans.

Andy Slavitt, one of Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisers, on Tuesday said the investigation carried out earlier this year by the World Health Organization had not done enough to explain how the disease first started spreading among humans.

Slavitt was speaking after a report in The Wall Street Journal claimed that three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s highest-level biosafety lab, fell ill with Covid-19-like symptoms in November, a month before the first official case was reported.

China angrily rejected the White House calls for a more thorough investigation into the possibility that Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan laboratory, a theory that state media described as “a conspiracy created by US intelligence agencies”. (FT, WSJ)

Coronavirus digest

• India’s Covid-19 infections are steadily declining because of lockdowns and the population’s increased level of antibodies, according to experts. Official figures say at least 150,000 people have died in the past two months, but the true number could be much higher.

• Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, launched a stinging attack on the prime minister over his handling of the Covid crisis. Here are his five most explosive claims.

• Scientists in Germany claim to have cracked the cause of the rare blood clots linked to the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines.

• The EU is set to demand billions of euros from AstraZeneca if the company fails to increase deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine by next month.

• Labour shortages are emerging across developed economies as businesses seek to speedily rehire workers after lockdowns, especially in the US. (FT, NYT)

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In the news

Climate pressure rises on Big Oil A climate backlash hit the oil industry yesterday after a court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to aggressively slash carbon emissions and ExxonMobil shareholders backed an activist investor that said the supermajor faced “existential risk” because of its fossil fuel focus. At Chevron, shareholders called on the company to “substantially reduce” emissions. (FT, Bloomberg)

Amazon agrees deal to buy MGM Amazon has agreed to buy MGM, the storied film studio behind James Bond and Rocky, for $8.45bn including debt, propelling media dealmaking so far this year to its highest level since the turn of the century. Will MGM be Amazon’s ticket to Hollywood’s big leagues? Get the latest corporate finance news in our Due Diligence newsletter. Sign up here.

Senior Fed official says it may be time to begin tapering debate Randal Quarles, a Federal Reserve vice-chair, said he believed that even after “discounting temporary factors”, the increase in US inflation since December would “prove sufficient” to merit a drawdown in asset purchases later in 2021.

Fall in Pinduoduo shares adds to $100bn drop since February Shares in China’s fastest-growing ecommerce company Pinduoduo fell again yesterday — down as much as 6.3 per cent in early trading — adding to a rout that has knocked $100bn off its market value since February.

Lukashenko accuses west of ‘planned provocation’ In his first comments since he sent a fighter jet to escort the Lithuania-bound plane to Minsk, President Alexander Lukashenko accused the west of staging a “planned provocation” that he claimed forced Belarus to intercept a Ryanair flight carrying a prominent dissident at the weekend.

Crypto crackdowns around the world Many of South Korea’s 200 crypto exchanges face an “existential crisis” as they struggle to meet conditions for regulatory approval; Iran has temporarily banned cryptocurrency mining after the energy intensive industry triggered electricity blackouts; and several US bank executives expressed caution about dealing in cryptocurrencies.

IAEA chief sounds alarm over Iran nuclear programme In an interview with the Financial Times, Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — has warned that the country is enriching uranium at purity levels that “only countries making bombs are reaching”.

The day ahead

Australian writer appears on espionage charges in China On Thursday Australian citizen Yang Hengjun will be tried on espionage charges in China, where he has been held since January 2019. (AP)

G7 trade ministers meeting Liz Truss, UK international trade secretary, called on G7 trade ministers to back an overhaul of the World Trade Organization ahead of the group’s meeting today. Meanwhile, Britain is closing in on a post-Brexit trade deal with six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. (Telegraph)

UNHRC special session on Palestinian Authority The UN Human Rights Council is expected to approve a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli actions against Palestinians in the lead-up to and including this month’s 11-day conflict that ended on May 21. (Jerusalem Post)

What else we’re reading

Oil producers face costly transition The fallout of Covid-19 has battered Iraqi businesses as their most important customers, public employees, cut their spending. Yet this scenario — a fall in revenues as demand for oil drops — is not just a pandemic phenomenon. It is the future for fossil fuel-dependent economies as they struggle to diversify.

Australia shrugs off China trade dispute When China imposed punitive tariffs on Australian barley imports last year, grain farmers feared it would decimate a A$2bn industry. But 12 months later, Australian growers have limited the damage by opening new markets in Asia and Latin America.

Gillian Tett: A return to status quo is not guaranteed As Covid-19 lockdowns are scaled back, economic optimism is rising and investors and advisers are contemplating a boom decade. But Covid has exposed inequality and reminded people just how uncertain the future is, breeding a broad desire for reform.

Bitcoin as a call option Like an option on an unproven but promising tech company, Bitcoin is either worth a whole lot more than it is now — or nothing at all, writes Robert Armstrong in the latest edition of the new daily markets email Unhedged. Sign up here.

Cruises face a choppy voyage back to profitability Cruise operators have been one of tourism’s big success stories, especially in the US. They have bounced back from crisis before, like the 2012 sinking of the Costa Concordia, but recovery will be particularly choppy this time, writes Brooke Masters.

Cartoon of the day

‘He’s got herd immunity but we’re not sure which herd’