FirstFT: Today’s top stories | Financial Times

Apple Daily, the pro-democracy Hong Kong tabloid founded by media tycoon Jimmy Lai, will close after its assets were frozen and its journalists were arrested, delivering a blow to the city’s free press.

The newspaper said its final edition would be printed on Thursday and its website would stop being updated from midnight the same day. Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, had initially said it would continue publishing until Saturday, but its closure was expedited because of concerns for its employees’ safety.

Apple Daily has long been known for its willingness to confront, investigate and criticise the government. But Lai and the newspaper became a top target for the Chinese government over their support for the pro-democracy protests that engulfed Hong Kong in 2019.

Authorities have mounted a crackdown on the Chinese territory’s civil and political life following the demonstrations, imposing a sweeping national security law that has severely curtailed opposition and stoked fears of interference in the education system, the courts and the media.

Pro-Beijing legislators have also successfully intervened for the first time in a senior judicial appointment in Hong Kong, in what lawyers said was the latest attack on the city’s cherished independent legal system. Meanwhile, US president Joe Biden is pushing for high-level meetings with Beijing officials after five months of pursuing a hardline stance.

Five stories in the news

1. Russia claims it fired at Royal Navy destroyer off Crimea Russia accused the UK of staging a “crude British provocation” after a Royal Navy warship sailed through Black Sea waters off the coast of Crimea. The Russian defence ministry claimed it fired warning shots to chase away HMS Defender, but the UK’s Ministry of Defence denied that any shots were fired directly at the vessel, saying the Russians had given prior warning that they were “undertaking a gunnery exercise” in the area.

2. UK urged to rethink process for Hong Kong’s young asylum seekers
Campaign groups have demanded the UK authorities rethink procedures for handling teenage refugees from Hong Kong, after claiming that several had been misidentified as trafficking victims and endured traumatic treatment.

3. John McAfee found dead in prison The cyber security and software entrepreneur was found dead in a Spanish prison cell on Wednesday, the same day the country’s high court ruled he should be extradited to the US on charges of evading millions of dollars in taxes. 

4. Warren Buffett resigns as trustee of Gates Foundation Warren Buffett is leaving the board of the Gates Foundation, casting further uncertainty over the world’s largest private philanthropic organisation after its co-chairs, Bill and Melinda Gates, announced they were divorcing.

5. South Korea seizes crypto assets in clampdown on ‘tax dodgers’ A television host and a doctor are among thousands of wealthy South Koreans whose cryptocurrency holdings have been seized in a tax sting as a crackdown intensifies in one of the world’s most active markets for trading digital assets.

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The day ahead

EU Summit Ahead of the meeting of world leaders on Thursday, Germany and France called for a new EU strategy of closer engagement with Russia. Also at the summit, member states plan to pressure Hungary’s Viktor Orban to drop LGBT+ legislation the commission has labelled discriminatory.

Results of latest US bank stress tests announced America’s biggest banks will learn the results of their latest stress tests from the US Federal Reserve Thursday, with a passing grade expected to be a catalyst for billions of dollars in stock buybacks and dividends.

What else we’re reading and watching

Toshiba vs investors On April 11 2020, Toshiba’s head of communications called an urgent meeting to ask whether it was possible to “eliminate or control undesirable organisations and institutions”. Masayasu Toyohara was referring to silencing the Japanese conglomerate’s most outspoken shareholders. But it could lead to the whole board being dismissed.

Inflation, made in China The standard explanation for why inflation has been so low for so long in so many places is three words long: “technology and globalisation”, writes Robert Armstrong in Unhedged. The technology side has a lot to do with Moore’s law. The globalisation side has a lot to do with China. Sign up to the newsletter here.

How will Brexit reshape the City of London? Brexit has eroded the City’s position as Europe’s financial hub. From Singapore-on-Thames to a lawless Dodge City, the FT’s Lex looks at how the City will reinvent itself in this new video.

Why pushy car salesmen are biting the dust Luxury malls are the new hotspot for automobile shoppers, writes Brooke Masters. Changes in the way we buy cars have been turbocharged this year by the pandemic, chip shortages and the shift to electric vehicles. Mall stores address several of these issues simultaneously.

Lego makes breakthrough in quest for greener bricks The world’s largest toymaker Lego has made a big breakthrough in its attempt to move away from oil-based plastics, unveiling the prototype for its iconic brick made from recycled drinks bottles.

Food and drink

It has taken quite a while for the country to embrace its native ferments but English sparkling wine is now fully respectable, writes FT’s wine correspondent Jancis Robinson. Here are which ones to drink this summer.