FirstFT: Today’s top stories

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Joe Biden raised concerns about China’s “coercive” behaviour and human rights abuses with Xi Jinping, in the first call between the US and Chinese presidents since Biden entered office three weeks ago.

The White House said the two leaders spoke on Wednesday evening Washington time. It added that Biden offered good wishes to Xi for the lunar new year but also registered his unease over a range of issues.

Xi told Biden that “China-US confrontation will hurt both sides — co-operation is the only choice”, according to a summary of the call released by Chinese state television.

Separately, the Biden administration says it is reviewing former president Donald Trump’s proposed ban of the Chinese messaging app WeChat in the US, a day after announcing a similar pause to consider the fate of the video app TikTok. (FT)

Coronavirus digest

• AstraZeneca aims to cut the time needed to mass-produce a version of its Covid-19 vaccine adapted to new virus variants, it said on Thursday.
• The arthritis drug tocilizumab saves lives and accelerates recovery in patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19, an extensive UK trial has confirmed.
• The spread of new Covid strains has made it even more urgent to launch rapid vaccination programmes in poorer countries.
• Tehran is struggling to convince Iranians to take Russia’s Sputnik V jab.
• President Joe Biden announced that the US has secured additional vaccine doses, which will allow 300m Americans to be inoculated by the end of the summer. (FT, AP)

Follow the latest updates on our live blog and the global race to vaccinate on our tracker.

In the news

Beijing bans BBC news channel in retaliatory move The BBC’s World News television channel has been officially banned from broadcasting in China a week after the UK’s media watchdog stripped Beijing’s state broadcaster of its licence in Britain. (FT)

Democrats say Trump gave ‘clear orders’ to violent mob The attempt to directly link Trump’s words with the actions of the mob that assaulted Congress last month came on the second and final day of arguments allotted to Democrats to make their case against the former president in the Senate trial. (FT)

Myanmar pushes punitive cyber security bill Myanmar’s military junta has drafted a draconian cyber security bill that would require online service providers in the country to store user data at a location identified by the government for three years, according to two English-language translations of the bill seen by the Financial Times. (FT)

White House scrambles to address global chip shortage The Biden administration has pledged to take immediate action to address a global shortage of semiconductors that has forced the closure of several US car plants. A surge in demand for consumer electronics during the pandemic has led to the shortage, which has been exacerbated in the US by sanctions on Chinese chipmaker SMIC. (FT)

• The US International Trade Commission has imposed a 10-year import ban on South Korean battery maker SK Innovation, dealing a blow to Ford and Volkswagen’s plans to build electric vehicles. (FT)

Tokyo Olympics chief to quit Yoshiro Mori is reportedly expected to step down on Friday after making sexist remarks that sparked outrage at home and abroad. Government and party officials expressed harsh views on Wednesday regarding Mori’s future in his current role following the derogatory remarks. (Japan Times)

Microsoft approached Pinterest Microsoft approached Pinterest in recent months about a potential deal to acquire the $51bn social media company. Microsoft has been pursuing an acquisition strategy aimed at amassing a portfolio of active online communities. (FT)

Meghan Markle wins UK privacy lawsuit The Duchess of Sussex has won a high-profile privacy claim against the Mail on Sunday after the newspaper published extracts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father. (FT)

Bumble valued at $14bn The online dating business received a warm welcome from Wall Street with shares debuting at $76 on the Nasdaq exchange on Thursday, 77 per cent higher than the price at which the company had sold shares to public investors the night before. (FT)

The day ahead

Vaccine Q&A Clive Cookson, the FT’s Science editor in London, and Hannah Kuchler, our pharma and biotech reporter based in New York, will answer questions about vaccine rollouts across the world and emerging variants of the virus throughout the day (GMT) on Friday February 12. Leave your questions for them in the comments here. (FT)

Australia lawmakers discuss tech giants paying for news An Australian Senate Committee is set to report on Friday on whether the government should amend proposed laws that would make Google and Facebook pay for news. The EU suggested this week it may follow a similar model. (APH, FT)

Navalny protests Leonid Volkov, an ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, has encouraged Russians to participate in a Valentine’s Day protest by shining flashlights on their mobile phone and light candles in heart shapes. (Guardian)

What else we’re reading

Murdoch in the climate hot seat For all the anxiety about fake news on social media, climate disinformation seems to stem disproportionately from one old man using old media: Rupert Murdoch. The media magnate offers a platform to sceptical voices in Australia and stands accused of holding significant sway in this arena, Simon Kuper writes. (FT)

A decade after Mubarak fell, Egypt is a diminished state Ten years ago this week, Egyptians fired the imagination of the world when they toppled Hosni Mubarak. But the promise of the revolution has given way to stifled dissent, reduced foreign investment and a decline in regional influence, writes David Gardner. (FT)

Biden’s vision to transform the economy The US president is taking a different tack from his recent Democratic predecessors. He’s embracing an economic nationalist, industrial policy-led approach over a free-trade mindset to revive US manufacturing. Plus, go behind the scenes of the crafting of Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus. (NYT, CNN)

Brazil’s agricultural boom — at what cost? Brazil’s far-western state of Mato Grosso has become one of the world’s leading producers of a crop so lucrative locals call it “green gold”: soyabeans. The boom has been spurred by shifting geopolitics, from the rise of China to the arrival of populist leader Jair Bolsanaro. Bryan Harris, the FT’s Brazil bureau chief, visits expansive frontier territory. (FT)

The Fed needs to call time on cheap money Over the past decade, central bankers started to offer a framework for how they would respond to future economic data, hoping this would reduce the chance of market shocks by creating more predictability. But now the Fed has taken this so-called “forward guidance” to a new level that seems dangerous, writes Gillian Tett. (FT)

How ‘design-thinking’ can help lawyers do a better job Design-thinking is an approach that puts user experience at the heart of the creative process. By using the approach to make legal services more about people, Fiona Philips, global head of digital legal at HSBC, saw the potential to make the law more accessible and open to all. This is the latest in our Digital Lawyers Special Reports series. (FT)

Video of the day

India, Covid-19 and vaccine politics As well as inoculating its population, India hopes it can boost its soft power by sharing its Covid-19 vaccines with the developing world. The FT’s Stephanie Findlay reports from the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing centre in Pune.