Momentous

Hello and happy new year from the FT newsroom. 2024 is shaping up to be a momentous one. With watershed elections in the US, UK, India, Taiwan and many other countries, this year will put democracy to the test. We will also be watching the fallout as central banks start unwinding high interest rates, and can expect more developments in the world of artificial intelligence. 

In today’s Big Read, Ruchir Sharma has 10 predictions for 2024, looking across the global economy and markets to geopolitics and even Hollywood. 

Whatever happens, the FT newsroom will be busy bringing you news, insights and understanding as the year unfolds. So please keep reading. 

My choices this week

1. Alibaba has lost its way. It was once Asia’s most valuable company, but shares in China’s best-known tech group have fallen amid strategy U-turns and declining staff morale. Our Hong Kong reporters spoke with company insiders to find out what’s gone wrong. (Free to read)
2. More than 85 per cent of Gazans have been forced from their homes by Israel’s military campaign following the deadly October 7 attacks. This visually rich piece asks what will be left of Gaza when the war ends. (You can read this story for free by downloading our FT Edit app).
3. Scandal and strategic mis-steps set the tone for the Big Four consulting and accounting firms in 2023. Now, auditors and regulators are thinking about better ways to hold management to account. 
4. Russian prisoners are being pardoned in exchange for six months on the battlefield in Ukraine — after which, they can go home as free men. The FT’s Moscow correspondent Polina Ivanova spoke to the communities where ex-convicts are returning home.
5. “I long to be cool, but that’s never going to happen.” Over Lunch with the FT, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas told Henry Mance about directing her first film, what she makes of Four Weddings these days, and the loss of her father.
6. The start of a new year can present us with a host of ambitions; one of them often takes the form of a looming pile of books, be they Christmas presents or 2023 leftovers. While the temptation is to race through, Nilanjana Roy describes the joy — and the benefit — of slow reading. (Free to read)

Thanks for reading,

Roula

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