Biden tells Congress to face as much as Putin

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Joe Biden has vowed to battle for “democracy and freedom” within the US and all over the world in a fiery, unabashedly political speech to Congress wherein he took on Donald Trump and Republican critics to make his case for re-election.

In the course of the deal with, which lasted greater than an hour, the US president didn’t point out Trump by identify however repeatedly attacked his “predecessor” for being too lenient in the direction of Russia, blocking a bipartisan deal to curb immigration and paving the best way for strict abortion curbs throughout the nation.

Biden additionally laid out his plans for a second time period, together with populist measures reminiscent of increased taxes on large corporations and the rich, and vowed to drive down home costs and lower drug prices, whereas hailing the US as probably the most envied financial system on the earth.

The supply of the speech, which was carefully watched following criticism that he was too outdated to serve a second time period, was punchy and loud and included a number of off-the-cuff interactions with Republican lawmakers.

On the outset, Biden mentioned freedom and democracy had been “below assault, each at residence and abroad, at the exact same time” — and known as on Congress to “rise up” to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, and approve extra funding for Kyiv.

“If anyone on this room thinks Putin will cease at Ukraine, I guarantee you, he is not going to,” Biden mentioned. Learn the complete story.

Right here’s what I’m preserving tabs on at the moment and over the weekend:

• Financial information: The EU publishes revised gross home product and eurozone employment information for the fourth quarter at the moment, whereas Germany releases January industrial manufacturing numbers.

• Company earnings: UK writer Informa and insurance coverage firm Royal London report full-year outcomes at the moment.

• African Video games: The thirteenth Video games start at the moment in Ghana, with sporting occasions in Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast.

• Oscars: The ceremony for the 96th Academy Awards will probably be held in Hollywood on Sunday.

• Daylight saving time begins: Clocks go ahead one hour within the US on Sunday.

• Worldwide Ladies’s Day: To mark the event, the Monetary Instances is internet hosting a free one-hour digital occasion at 12.30pm GMT that includes distinguished campaigners who will focus on the affect of childcare prices on ladies’s funds, careers and future earnings potential. Click on right here to register.

How properly did you retain up with the information this week? Take our quiz.

5 extra high tales

1. Instagram overtook TikTok in new app downloads final yr, in accordance with market intelligence agency Sensor Tower. Downloads of Instagram jumped 20 per cent to 768mn, whereas TikTok edged up a mere 4 per cent to 733mn. The expansion of Meta’s photo-sharing platform has been powered largely by copying its Chinese language rival’s success with short-form movies, after chief Mark Zuckerberg recognized TikTok as among the many greatest threats to his social media empire.

2. An influential committee of MPs has discovered a “surprising” degree of misconduct within the UK’s monetary companies sector and heard that non-disclosure agreements are nonetheless being “misused” by employers to “cowl up” allegations of abuse, harassment and discrimination. The Home of Commons Treasury choose committee has known as for banning using NDAs in sexual harassment instances. Learn extra from the committee’s inquiry into sexism within the business.

3. Eire votes at the moment on constitutional amendments to scrap language that claims a lady’s “life” and “duties” lie within the residence. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has mentioned the referendums might delete “some very old style, very sexist language” principally written by males born within the 1800s. The proposals would axe references to ladies’s “life throughout the residence” and alter the definition of household, however polls present many citizens have but to make up their minds.

4. The UK has no “credible plan” to ship the army capabilities it seeks over the following 10 years, in accordance with a cross-party group of MPs. The committee mentioned the Ministry of Defence confronted a £17bn deficit in its plans to equip the army over the approaching decade and warned that this determine might develop by one other £12bn — a shortfall that they mentioned left the nation in an “alarming place”.

5. UK asset supervisor Jupiter is contemplating dumping £1bn of holdings in its personal funds as one in all its star managers prepares to depart the corporate. David Lewis, a supervisor of Jupiter’s Merlin vary, which invests in different funds, mentioned the agency was contemplating pulling the cash from Ben Whitmore’s mandates when he leaves the corporate later this yr.

Private finance

After the tweaks made by chancellor Jeremy Hunt to the UK’s tax and funding regime this week, many Britons are asking: Will the Finances depart me higher off? Second-home house owners seeking to promote, center earners with kids, buyers with a spare £5,000 and other people transferring abroad for at the least a decade are amongst those that gained. However pensioners, house owners of furnished vacation lets, “non-doms” and the rich will all see their funds take successful.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Greater than 7,300 timepieces had been reported stolen to London’s Metropolitan Police final yr, with a complete worth of £44mn, up from 6,015 in 2022, in accordance with the crime prevention database Watch Register. The posh watch crime wave, pushed by the comparative ease with which they are often stolen and a current increase within the pre-owned market, is impinging on the UK capital’s picture, with shadow international secretary David Lammy slammed by the enterprise elite throughout a visit to India over a Rolex theft in Mayfair and the alleged lack of police response.

Take a break from the information

Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and big sandworms return in Dune: Half Two. Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi sequel now strikes with a sure vindicated ease, assured in its Machiavellian intrigue, gooey romance and battle aggro, writes FT movie critic Danny Leigh.

Extra contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm

Correction: Yesterday’s FirstFT misstated the dimensions of Brookfield’s property below administration. It needs to be greater than $900bn, not $900mn