Apple bets on AI future with iPhone 16 #UKFinance

Good morning. We begin with Apple, which unveiled the iPhone 16 yesterday. Chief executive Tim Cook said at the launch event that the latest model was the first of its smartphones to be “designed from the ground up” for artificial intelligence “and its breakthrough capabilities”.

The iPhone 16, which will go on sale on September 20 with pre-orders starting this Friday, comes as the tech giant moves to establish itself as a player in artificial intelligence and revive flagging iPhone sales with new generative AI features in its latest operating system, iOS18.

Some key elements of its “Apple Intelligence” offering will launch next month in US English, the company said. The features include an enhanced Siri voice assistant, writing aids, and mail and notification summaries. Michael Acton has more from Apple’s event in Cupertino.

And here’s what I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: UK has labour market figures, Germany releases August inflation data and Opec publishes its monthly oil market report.

• EU antitrust cases: The European Court of Justice is set to rule on landmark competition cases concerning Apple and Google, one day after Mario Draghi released a competitiveness report with radical recommendations for the EU’s antitrust division.

• US election: Presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off in a televised debate in Philadelphia.

Join Swamp Notes writer Rana Foroohar and other FT experts for a live webinar on Thursday as they assess both presidential candidates after the first Harris-Trump debate. Register for free.

Five more top stories

1. Donald Trump is escalating his threats to increase tariffs if he wins a second term in the White House. The Republican candidate has vowed to impose 100 per cent levies on imports from countries that move away from using the dollar, reviving fears of renewed trade wars that hit the global economy during his presidency.

• Forget tariffs: If US policymakers are truly concerned with offshoring, they have a potentially efficient tool at their disposal: the tax code, writes Kimberly Clausing of the UCLA School of Law.

2. Exclusive: PwC is set to parachute in a senior partner from the UK to run its business in China as the fallout from its audit of collapsed developer Evergrande continues to mount. Hemione Hudson, a runner-up in the race to lead PwC UK earlier this year, has been tapped to lead the scandal-hit China business. Read more about the firm’s highly unusual step.

3. Kazatomprom’s chief executive has warned that the war in Ukraine is making it harder for the world’s largest uranium producer to keep supplying the west as the pull towards Moscow and Beijing grows stronger. Sanctions caused by the war have created obstacles to supplying western utilities, the Kazakh state miner’s chief said. Read the full interview with Meirzhan Yussupov.

4. Exclusive: The hottest sector in the hedge fund industry has suffered outflows for the first time in seven years in a sign that investors who once raced to get access to so-called multi-manager funds may finally be losing interest. The funds have experienced net client withdrawals of more than $30bn in the 12 months to the end of June after weaker returns in 2023, Goldman Sachs data showed.

5. Sweden’s justice minister has warned that stamping out the country’s violent crime epidemic will take a decade or more, with immigrant drug gangs infiltrating courts, the police and prisons. The gangs behind deadly shootings were hiring out criminals, especially children, to work for groups in other countries, Gunnar Strömmer told the Financial Times.

The Big Read

Sudan’s devastating civil war has killed 150,000 people and displaced millions. As well as fighters from neighbouring countries, it has sucked in global and regional actors including Russia, Iran and the UAE, each competing for influence in one of Africa’s top gold producers.

We’re also reading and listening to . . . 

• UK sovereign wealth fund: As Britain builds its new fund, lessons from overseas show the key to success is strong governance design, writes Toby Nangle.

• A derided profession: Beijing’s crackdown on financiers is deterring China’s next generation of bankers from a career once viewed as a source of prestige.

• Tech Tonic 🎧: John Thornhill and Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation discuss Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest, encryption technology and digital privacy rights.

Chart of the day

The Bank of England is set to announce plans next week for how much it will shrink its balance sheet by over the coming 12 months. However, the sales of gilts will only cover maturities of three years or longer, while investors say the central bank should include short-dated debt that matures within one to three years.

Take a break from the news

From global conflicts to the climate crisis, it is hard to be optimistic about the world these days. But Sergei Guriev, dean of the London Business School, says there are reasons to be hopeful.

Additional contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm and Melody Abike Adebisi