Pakistan security services pressured utilities over power deal

In immediately’s publication:

• How Pakistan’s safety providers pressured utilities over an influence deal

• China and Cuba’s weakening ties

• Hong Kong’s struggling economic system — in charts

Good morning. Final week, Pakistan’s energy ministry introduced that 5 native utility firms had agreed to finish costly electrical energy provide contracts with the federal government early.

However based on individuals conversant in the talks, Pakistan’s highly effective safety providers used heavy strain to coerce the impartial producers to terminate the contracts.

The facility ministry has mentioned agreements that have been introduced on Thursday to finish the contracts will save the cash-strapped authorities Rs411bn ($1.48bn) and assist it reduce electrical energy costs for households and companies.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s workplace mentioned the ability firms had “voluntarily agreed” to terminate their contracts. However power sector businesspeople mentioned the settlement with the 5 publicly listed “impartial energy producers” adopted “coercion and threats” from safety providers.

One army officer informed an power govt in a textual content message seen by the FT: “We’ll go to any measure even past our imaginations to get the problem settled. Time has come to provide a remaining blow to such IPPs.” Pakistan correspondent Humza Jilani has more details.

Right here’s what else I’m conserving tabs on immediately:

• Financial knowledge: India studies September inflation knowledge, China publishes commerce stability figures for the month and Singapore studies advance third-quarter GDP estimates.

• Singapore financial coverage resolution: The Asian monetary hub is broadly anticipated to maintain coverage unchanged amid lingering inflation dangers. (Reuters)

• Japan: Monetary markets are closed for Sports activities Day.

• New Nike CEO: Elliott Hill turns into the brand new boss of the sneaker large because it tries to raise itself out of a sales slump.

5 extra prime tales

1. China’s deflationary pressures picked up in September with weaker than anticipated client and manufacturing unit costs. The softer knowledge comes as China’s volatile markets await more detailed information on Beijing’s stimulus plans, after a Ministry of Finance press convention on Saturday that pledged extra spending however gave few new figures.

• China’s fastest-growing social media app: Revenues at Xiaohongshu, also referred to as China’s reply to Instagram, surged to $1bn within the first quarter of 2024.

2. The US is sending a sophisticated anti-missile system to Israel and 100 troops to function it in a uncommon transfer that may increase its ally’s defences as Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities plans retaliatory strikes towards Iran. Here’s what to know about the THAAD anti-missile system that Washington is sending to Israel.

• Center East information: The UN accused Israel of a “flagrant violation” of international law yesterday after Israeli tanks broke right into a place stationed by peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, hours earlier than Benjamin Netanyahu informed worldwide forces to withdraw from fight areas.

3. India’s highly effective copycat pharmaceutical trade is ready to roll out generic weight-loss medication within the UK inside weeks, with one main producer forecasting a “huge price war”. Bengaluru-based Biocon is the primary firm to win UK authorisation to supply a generic model of Novo Nordisk’s Saxenda weight remedy and is able to launch gross sales by November.

4. Elon Musk’s SpaceX achieved a momentous technical feat yesterday by catching a booster rocket with mechanical arms on its return from a take a look at flight. Watch the incredible footage of launch pad’s “chopsticks” catching the booster.

5. European carmakers are planning dozens of inexpensive electrical fashions subsequent 12 months as they brace for an “EV winter” pushed by powerful new EU carbon emission targets and fierce competitors from China. Read more about the pressure on the industry ahead of this week’s Paris Motor Show.

Information in-depth

Beijing describes Cuba, the one communist nation within the Americas, as a “good brother, good comrade, good buddy”. However regardless of their shared political legacy, the island’s financial collapse has damage industrial ties with China simply as Beijing’s strategic rivalry intensifies with Cuba’s arch-enemy, the US. “China is not Cuba’s sugar daddy,” mentioned Fulton Armstrong, former US nationwide intelligence officer for Latin America. “It’s largely a relationship of solidarity statements.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Hong Kong’s economic system remains to be struggling to regain momentum, based on an FT analysis of the latest data. The Asian monetary hub has been hampered by slowing progress in China, greater US rates of interest and a fall in vacationer numbers.

Take a break from the information

A group of images affords a peek into the lavish London homes of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.