FirstFT: Gautam Adani indicted within the US

In at present’s e-newsletter:

• Gautam Adani indicted on US bribery fees

• A watershed Hong Kong nationwide safety trial

• The way forward for Mumbai’s greatest slum

Good morning. Indian tycoon Gautam Adani has been indicted within the US for an alleged multimillion-dollar bribery scheme.

Federal prosecutors in New York accused Adani of orchestrating a years-long scheme to bribe Indian officers in trade for billions of {dollars}’ price of solar energy contracts and concealing such funds from US banks and buyers.

Adani, considered one of Asia’s richest folks and a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was indicted in Brooklyn on fees together with securities fraud and conspiracy alongside seven different enterprise executives, together with his nephew Sagar Adani.

The indictments threaten to reignite a public relations disaster for Adani Group, the conglomerate he chairs, which has spent a lot of final 12 months attempting to maneuver previous the damaging claims of accounting fraud and inventory market manipulation made by US brief vendor Hindenburg Analysis.

Observe this creating story right here. And for extra on Adani scroll all the way down to at present’s in-depth piece, which seems to be at his controversial plan to redevelop Mumbai’s largest slum.

Right here’s what else we’re conserving tabs on at present:

• Financial knowledge: Hong Kong studies October inflation knowledge.

• Pony AI’s New York IPO: Shares of the Chinese language robotaxi firm will start buying and selling on Nasdaq. (Reuters)

• Sri Lanka: The brand new parliament convenes, and leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is predicted to stipulate his priorities in a coverage speech. 

5 extra high tales

1. Former media tycoon Jimmy Lai denied asking the US to intervene throughout Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-government protests, as he testified for the primary time in a watershed nationwide safety trial that might land him in jail for all times. Lai, a fierce critic of the Chinese language Communist social gathering, faces fees of colluding with international forces and conspiracy to publish seditious materials.

• Extra from Hong Kong: A high government at US hedge fund Bridgewater Associates has purchased a $12.2mn house in one of many metropolis’s most unique neighbourhoods, in a transfer that drew a spherical of applause at a finance convention within the territory.

2. Ukraine has launched British-made Storm Shadow missiles at navy targets in Russia for the primary time, in response to 4 folks acquainted with the matter. The transfer follows Kyiv’s first use of US long-range Atacms missiles on Russian soil on Tuesday, after authorisation from US President Joe Biden. Right here’s what to know in regards to the assault.

• Extra information: The US and several other European embassies in Kyiv have briefly closed their doorways after Washington acquired intelligence that Russia is planning a large-scale assault on the Ukrainian capital.

3. The US Division of Justice is predicted to ask a decide to drive Google to divest a number of of its core merchandise, together with its Chrome browser and Android cellular working system, among the many potential cures to curb its energy over on-line search. The requests come after Google was present in August to have illegally monopolised the search market.

4. Former Wall Road dealer Invoice Hwang has been sentenced to 18 years in jail, capping a rare fall from grace for the Archegos founder who was convicted of fraud and market manipulation earlier this 12 months. The decide within the case mentioned Hwang’s actions warranted “serious punishment”, and in contrast the dimensions of his crimes to these of FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried.

5. Greater than 40,000 folks marched on the New Zealand capital this week, in a present of anger at a proposed overhaul of a treaty underpinning Maori rights. The protest demonstrated the deep divisions in New Zealand, the place the political pendulum has swung away from the progressive insurance policies championed by former prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

Information in-depth

The way forward for Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, the well-known setting for the 2008 hit movie Slumdog Millionaire, has change into a political flashpoint forward of state elections this week. Opposition events allege a contract to redevelop Dharavi was wrongly awarded to Gautam Adani, a robust tycoon broadly thought to have shut ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Residents of Dharavi are involved about Adani’s plan to remodel the world right into a “world-class” district, which is predicted to displace an estimated 700,000 of the roughly 1mn folks who dwell there.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Delhi’s poisonous smog: What Indian media primly labels the “winter haze” is a collective motion downside, writes John Reed.

• Robotics revolution: Our newest visible story exhibits how advances in bodily AI imply machines are studying abilities beforehand thought inconceivable.

• Xi Jinping in Latin America: Two summit pictures function metaphors for the eclipse of the US by China in one of many world’s most resource-rich areas, writes Michael Stott.

Chart of the day

Support deliveries to Gaza have plummeted since Israel’s invasion of Rafah in Could and hit all-time lows in November. The shortages have led to a rise in looting by armed gangs who act with the tacit assist of the Israeli navy, officers say.

Take a break from the information

From navigating future crises and driving restoration in left-behind areas to the migration, digital currencies and the care economic system, listed here are the 12 months’s finest economics books as chosen by Martin Wolf.