Greedy Fifa rinsing fans over World Cup tickets – even Americans are baulking December 11, 2025 Ed Warner finds that even Americans accustomed to paying through the nose for live sport are outraged at the prices Fifa is allowing to be set for tickets at the 2026 World Cup. It was a bitterly cold evening in Boston, the temperature well below zero, and yet the Bruins fans still rolled up to [...]
FTSE 100 Live: BoE rate decision in focus after Fed cut December 11, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. Last night the US Federal Reserve met and agreed to lower interest rates by a quarter-point to between 3.5 and 3.75 per cent. But it was far from a tranquil meeting, with policymakers battling it out over whether to prioritise high inflation or a poor labour market. [...]
Is Microsoft becoming the new Vodafone? December 11, 2025 America’s biggest tech firms – Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google – have thrown the kitchen sink at becoming leaders in AI. They have forked out whatever is necessary to get to the front of the race. The four firms spent a combined $16bn on capex in the first quarter of 2020. Fast-forward to the third quarter [...]
English Common Law: Britain’s greatest soft power December 11, 2025 From London’s boardrooms to Abu Dhabi’s courtrooms, English law shapes the rules of global business as it quietly but decisively finds itself at the heart of international deals and disputes. The late Joseph S. Nye defined ‘soft power’ in the 1980s as “The ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction [...]
Building Safety Regulator delays ‘unacceptable’, say peers December 11, 2025 A cross-party House of Lords committee has blasted the government for leaving residents trapped in unsafe buildings and increasing costs for leaseholders due to regulatory delays. The Industry and Regulators Committee’s report, The Building Safety Regulator: Building a better regulator, warned that the delays mean the government is in danger of missing its target to [...]
Momentum 25 and the reality of Saudi Arabia’s mega-projects December 11, 2025 The ‘Momentum 25’ conference is taking place in Riyadh this week, at a definitive juncture for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The midpoint of the Vision 2030 timeline, launched in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to diversify the nation’s economy away from hydrocarbon dependence. For nearly a decade, the global business community has [...]
Labour rail pledge in doubt after £3bn private contract to run London Overground December 11, 2025 London Mayor Said Khan has caused a row within the Labour party after First Group was awarded a £3bn deal to operate the London Overground, a move which seemingly flies in the face of Labour’s manifesto commitment to bring railways back into public ownership. On Tuesday the London-listed transport group revealed that it would begin [...]
Whisky Business: A New Zealand brand blazing a trail December 11, 2025 Whisky Business: City AM’s monthly look at the world of whisky. If you’re looking for exciting ‘new world’ whiskies, New Zealand is a good place to start. In many respects, the country’s whisky industry is still in its infancy, but it’s carving out a niche in the market by leaning into New Zealand’s strengths. The country’s [...]
Will the land of the free take a dim view of my social media posts? December 11, 2025 Earlier this year one of our journalists booked a holiday to India, and I had to provide him with a letter confirming that he was travelling in a personal capacity and wouldn’t be doing anything as nefarious as journalism while in the country. Days later another of our reporters decided to follow suit, and I [...]
Brits may have to hand over social media profiles to visit US December 10, 2025 US officials will vet the social media activity of Brits travelling into the US as President Trump increasingly turns his fire on a “decaying” and “weak” Europe. Those planning to visit on short term Esta visas would have to give personal details of family members, including dates and places of birth, and phone numbers used [...]