Inside the secret talks that broke the Brexit deadlock

Hello from London. After years of post-Brexit bickering, Britain and the EU have clinched a deal to settle their dispute over Northern Ireland trading rules. On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a set of processes, called the Windsor framework, designed to reduce the impact of the trade border in the Irish Sea. FT reporters tell the inside story of the secret talks that broke the Brexit deadlock.

The deal has been viewed broadly as a significant political achievement for both camps. But what do Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists make of it? We take a reading of the mood at Stormont while columnist Stephen Bush explains why the deal could be transformative for Sunak and his premiership.

My choices this week

1. “Whether Covid came accidentally from a lab in Wuhan or a seafood market is almost beside the point.” In his column this week, US editor Ed Luce writes that America’s growing tendency to demonise China poses a threat to global health. (Free to read)

2. Western allies are pressuring the United Arab Emirates to halt exports of critical goods to Russia that could aid Moscow in the war against Ukraine. The increasingly close ties have raised red flags in the west, report FT correspondents.

3. Following the earthquakes that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria last month, thousands were crushed under buildings that should have withstood the quake. In our latest, remarkable, visual journalism project, the FT worked with structural engineers to investigate the collapse of a luxury development in the Turkish city of Antakya.

4. Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs held its investor day on Tuesday against a backdrop of falling profits, bruising job cuts and a botched strategic overhaul. The FT’s editorial board concludes that Goldman has lost its way.

5. Today’s inflation has not yet led to the kind of “wage-price spiral” that took hold in the 1970s — but it may yet. In this excellent Big Read, economics correspondent Delphine Strauss speaks to leading economists to find out if higher wages will prolong inflation.

6. Could the active ingredient in magic mushrooms help fight anorexia? In the FT Weekend Magazine, pharmaceuticals correspondent Hannah Kuchler looks into the Nasdaq-listed biotech firm hoping to treat this deadly psychiatric disorder with psychedelics. (Free to read)

Thanks for reading,

Roula

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