FirstFT: Today’s top stories | Financial Times

The world’s leading economies are close to agreeing a set of principles that would revolutionise the taxation of multinationals after France and Germany threw their support behind a new US approach to the issue.

Talks on how to make it difficult for international companies to shift profits round the world to minimise tax have been stuck at the OECD for years, but are now progressing rapidly according to several governments.

On Monday the US set out plans for a global minimum corporation tax; on Tuesday European countries backed the proposal but made it clear this ambition of Joe Biden’s administration would need to be accompanied with a deal to enable them to tax an element of technology giants’ global profits.

Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, removed the US’s blanket opposition to such a compromise in February, and on Tuesday the French and German finance ministers indicated that the US was on the verge of supporting it. (FT)

Coronavirus digest

• North Korea has withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics, citing the pandemic. The decision dashed Seoul’s hopes of using the event to improve inter-Korean relations.

• Jacinda Ardern has announced that quarantine-free travel will recommence between New Zealand and Australia on April 19.

• Most advanced economies will emerge from the pandemic with little lasting damage, however a stark difference is expected among emerging economies, the IMF said Tuesday.

• Joe Biden directed US states to make all adult residents eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine from April 19. The White House has insisted it will not introduce mandatory federal vaccine passports.

• UK aviation chief executives have called for a travel corridor with the US to be opened as soon as next month.

Follow our live blog for the latest Covid-19 news and sign-up to our Coronavirus Business Update email.

In the news

Goldman Sachs propped up Deliveroo IPO price Goldman Sachs bought about £75m in Deliveroo shares to prop up trading in the UK food delivery group after investors shunned its market debut, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. (FT)

Credit Suisse removes investment bank and risk chiefs Credit Suisse revealed a $4.7bn loss following the blow-up of family office Archegos Capital and jettisoned two senior executives, as the bank reels from the twin crises involving Archegos and supply-chain financing company Greensill Capital. Separately, Morgan Stanley reportedly sold $5bn in Archegos’ stocks the night before the massive fire sale. (FT, CNBC)

SoftBank invests in robotics group AutoStore The Japanese group has struck a $2.8bn deal for a 40 per cent stake in Norwegian warehouse automation company AutoStore, in the latest addition to its web of investments in ecommerce and robotics. (FT)

English pork processors seek help after China ban English pork processors are seeking up to £15m of government support after China halted imports of meat, including trotters and pigs’ heads, from plants experiencing coronavirus outbreaks. (FT)

Talks to pursue Modi-Khan meeting Pakistan’s army chief has launched back-channel negotiations with nemesis India to secure an eventual meeting between the neighbouring countries’ prime ministers Imran Khan of Pakistan and India’s Narendra Modi, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter. (FT)

Israel’s president invites Netanyahu to form government Announcing the decision on television on Tuesday, President Reuven Rivlin admitted that no party leader had “a realistic chance of forming a government that will have the confidence of the Knesset”. But he indicated that it was his legal obligation to ask someone to do so. (FT)

Alexei Navalny ‘seriously ill’ in prison, lawyer says The most prominent opponent of Russian president Vladimir Putin has contracted symptoms of a respiratory illness in prison. Olga Mikhailova, a lawyer for Navalny, said on Tuesday that he was in “quite bad condition” after losing some feeling in both his legs from severe back and nerve pain, then developing a cough and a 38.1C temperature. (FT)

The day ahead

Seoul and Busan mayoral elections Rival parties made the final appeals to voters on the eve of the April 7 elections. The results are expected to signal public opinion ahead of next year’s presidential poll. (Yonhap)

Fed releases meeting minutes Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting on monetary policy will be released on Wednesday, giving investors further insight into continuing debates at the central bank about the trajectory of the economic recovery and the recent rise in US borrowing costs. (FT)

What else we’re reading

Can Japan innovate its way out of a climate and energy crisis? Japan has encouraged the development of solid-state batteries, which it hopes will eventually become the standard. But much nearer is the prospect of cars running on hydrogen, the fuel source that is a cornerstone of Japan’s plan for a carbon-neutral future but has major automotive industry detractors. (FT)

Brexit ignites the debate about a united Ireland Less than five years after the Brexit referendum, the debate about Northern Ireland’s constitutional future is raging with a new intensity as stresses caused by Brexit and the possibility of an independent Scotland reopen questions of identity and allegiance that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement had looked to push off into the distant future. (FT)

A turning point in Africa’s ignored war More than a hundred insurgents laid waste to Mozambique’s coastal town of Palma at the end of last month. Thousands fled the violence. Now, the French group Total has suspended work at a gas plant near Palma despite authorities’ claims order has been restored. (FT)

Is New York turning on the wealthy? Business leaders and wealthy residents in New York have been feeling strangely unappreciated of late. Their angst is in part caused by plans for roughly $7bn in taxes that would fall upon their shoulders, prompting some to depart for Florida. (FT)

Australian Parliament’s #MeToo moment “It is the most unsafe workplace in the country,” said one woman of working in Australia’s Parliament. Six weeks after a former legislative staffer accused a senior colleague of raping her in the defence minister’s office, thousands of women are sharing their stories and demanding change. (NYT)

Why ranking employees by performance backfires When Bill Michael, the former chair of KPMG, told staff to “stop moaning” in February, one of the issues they were complaining about was the “forced distribution” model used to assess their performance. This way of appraising people is a zombie idea that should be killed off, argues Sarah O’Connor. (FT)

Meet our journalists: Chris Nuttall

Chris Nuttall is the assistant tech news editor in London and the creator and lead writer of our daily #techFT newsletter. Sign up here.

What’s an interesting fact we should know about you? I’ve been reporting on tech since the birth of the world wide web, opting for a safer place to be than the war zones I was covering previously, with stints as a correspondent in Iraq, Sri Lanka, Kashmir and Haiti.

Tell us about your newsletter, #techft: From Apple to Alibaba, robotics to regulation, Silicon Valley to Shenzhen, #techFT brings you news, comment and analysis on the big companies, technologies and issues shaping this fastest moving of sectors from specialists based around the world. We also cover the latest gadgets and major tech events as well as providing data on the performance of the top companies.

Have you ever considered going tech free? Not as long as I’m working, I’m afraid. I’m always striving to achieve Inbox Zero and honing my ways of dealing with email. Even on holiday, I get satisfaction from catching up and cutting down.

Who are your journalistic heroes? In roughly chronological order, William Cobbett, Woodward and Bernstein, Sir Harold Evans and Ryszard Kapuściński. I’m also a big fan of the documentary essayists Chris Marker and Adam Curtis, whose latest series, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, I’m currently enjoying on BBC iPlayer.

Podcast of the day

Will having a baby break my finances? Jenny and her partner are planning to have a baby, but beyond forking out for nappies and a pushchair, she has no idea how much becoming a parent will cost. Claer Barrett, consumer editor at the FT, talks to Tobi Asare, founder of parental finance blog My Bump Pay, and Maike Currie, FT columnist and investment director at Fidelity International, in the latest episode of Money Clinic. (FT)