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Good morning from the Financial Times.
Today is Tuesday April 22nd and this is your FT News Briefing.
Markets are getting jittery about Jay Powell's job security and the world is mourning the death of Pope Francis.
He took groups that felt that they had no home in the Church and tried to make them feel more welcome.
Plus, European carmakers are taking a page out of the book of Chinese companies.
I'm Mark Filippino and here's the news you need to start your day.
US President Donald Trump has been picking on Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell for a It's been a while now, but it looks like his threats finally spooked markets.
The dollar sank yesterday, and the S &P 500 fell as much as 3 % after Trump posted on social media about Powell.
The president pressured the Fed chair, once again, to cut interest rates to stimulate the economy.
The Fed is waiting to lower interest rates because of the potential inflationary effects of Trump's global trade war.
Now, this is all happening while there are growing concerns over the independence of the Fed.
Trump is even threatening to remove Powell from his position.
It's unclear whether he has the authority to do that, though.
Powell, for his part, said that he will not step down or be influenced by political pressure.
His term is scheduled to end next May.
Pope Francis passed away on Monday morning at the age of 88.
The Argentina -born pontiff challenged lots of long -standing practices during his 12 -year reign.
For one thing, he was the first non -European to lead the church since the 8th century.
But it's safe to say he'll be remembered for a lot more than that.
Joining me from Rome to discuss his life and legacy is the FT's Amy Kasman.
Hi Amy. Hey. So Amy first of all what will Pope Francis best be remembered for?
Pope Francis was a man who really radically He reformed the church in many different ways.
He came into a role which had traditionally been seen as an absolute monarch of the church and he brought a kind of humility, he spurned all the accoutrements of the office, the grandeur of the papacy.
He tried to make the church a lot more inclusive.
he took groups that felt that they had no home in the church, that they were demonized in the church, LGBT Catholics and sometimes also women and tried to make them feel more at home.
He talked about issues like social and economic justice, he talked about climate change and the need to protect the planet, he talked about migration and the need to be kind to the strangers in our midst, he He is a person who was really trying to bring the Church into a modern world, to grapple with contemporary issues and to ensure the Church leadership really reflected the diversity of the global faithful.
And to do that he was pretty outspoken.
How was his papacy viewed by his fellow Catholics?
Well, in fact, Pope Francis was actually a rather divisive figure.
Many people really appreciated his attempt to make the church more inclusive, however for some, for liberals, many people were dissatisfied that he didn't go far enough.
He would embrace LGBT Catholics but still say that homosexual acts were a sin.
On the other hand, traditionalist Catholics really felt that he had veered far away from traditional church principle and they very very much against him and the kind of path that he took of trying to make the church more inclusive.
Do you think that his leadership style will serve as a model for future popes?
I think that every pope puts his own stamp on the papacy, and different popes come to the role with different focuses and different sets of priorities.
Pope Francis, who in many ways was very much a player on the global stage, could be open to criticism that when it came to the management of the Vatican itself, of the Catholic Church as an institution, he wasn't really so focused on that.
And in fact, the management of the Catholic Church suffered as a result.
So it is possible that as people gather to choose the next Pope, they will look for someone maybe is a little bit less of a global traveler weighing in on the global issues of the day and maybe somebody that will look a little more at strengthening the church as an institution itself because the finances of the church are in a very precarious position right now.
So it sounds like the next pope, whoever they are, has their work cut out for them.
Amy, what happens next?
So, within two to three weeks the Cardinals of the church, or at least those under the age of 80, will gather for a papal conclave when they will be basically locked away inside the Sistine Chapel and they will stay there until they can agree on who should succeed Pope Francis.
I think it's likely that someone who's considered a middle -of -the -road centrist, who can gather the support of two thirds of the electors is likely to emerge.
And I think that many people suggest that the College of Cardinals may be looking for a unifying figure who has some managerial capacity and will be interested in the details of actually running the church as an institution while kind of unifying the different wings of the church with their different points of view.
Amy Kasman joins us from Rome.
Thanks, Amy. Thank you very much. Companies still want to shift to renewable energy despite U .S. President Trump's attacks on climate policies.
A survey found that most companies aren't on board with his efforts to boost fossil fuel production.
The big reason? Security and resilience.
Lots of the business leaders associated fossil fuels with volatility.
They said renewables were more reliable and could help create jobs back at home.
There used to be this joke between German engineers.
How every new Chinese car model was basically a copy of their own.
Well now they're realizing that this joke has come full circle.
More and more European car makers are cutting deals with their Chinese rivals so that they don't fall behind.
My colleague Kana Inagaki has been looking into this flip and she joins me now.
Hey, Kana. Hi. All right, so walk me through this transition that I just mentioned.
Europe used to help China make cars and now it's the opposite?
That's right. Decades ago, when China opened up its market to foreign companies, it was the European and other Western and Japanese car makers that used to teach the various knowhow in car manufacturing to Chinese companies.
But now the position has reversed.
Chinese companies are now more advanced when it comes to technologies for electric vehicles and autonomous technology as well.
And so we're seeing more and more European car makers partnering with Chinese companies to learn from them these cutting -edge technologies.
That's interesting.
And how is that playing out in policy circles in Europe?
Like, what does this new relationship look like in practice?
We're seeing more and more Chinese companies trying to expand sales overseas.
But there has been rising concerns recently that as Chinese companies set up their local manufacturing capability in Europe, that there hasn't been a kind of the know -how and the technology transfer.
And so Europe released recently an industrial action plan for the automotive industry, which basically says that if foreign companies are to set up joint ventures, then they will need to sign licensing agreements and also to transfer skills to local European partners.
Europe has already been moving in this way because last October, they set up higher tariffs for imports of Chinese electric vehicles, and this new industrial strategy follows that protectionist measure as well.
Well, why did it even come to this, Kana?
Why did Europe lose its edge in car manufacturing?
I think there are various factors, obviously, to how this change happened.
One could be, I guess we could call it arrogance on the part of traditional car makers.
There's this assumption that Chinese car makers would never be able to match the quality of cars made by Western or the Japanese or the Korean brands, and so there's underestimated the technological developments that were happening in China, and so they were caught off guard when they suddenly realized that, actually, the pace of innovation has been much, much faster than what they had realized.
Yeah, and now they're threatened to the point where they need to collaborate with China.
What are the risks of doing that, though, Kana?
Obviously, partnering with Chinese companies in this very sensitive period poses various geopolitical risks.
But also, there have been some rising speculation that Beijing perhaps does not want the most advanced technology to be transferred to the Western rivals.
And so it may become more and more difficult for Chinese companies to bring their most advanced technologies to overseas markets.
Kanna, is this a do or die moment for Europe's auto industry?
What's at stake here if the pivot to China doesn't pan out?
So yes, that's a very big question.
Obviously there's a lot at stake for the success of these partnerships, but also just the whole question of whether European car makers can really rebuild their position in China and also build the kind of cars that are attractive to Chinese consumers.
I mean, the big risk is that obviously with Donald Trump's tariff war that's going around globally, the attractiveness with the U S market itself is now under question.
And so if European companies lose their position, both in two of these big markets, China and the U .S., then obviously that will pose a huge threat to any car maker.
So that's why it is critical that some of these collaborations work and that they are able to develop the best software and also some of the autonomous technologies that will be driving growth in the next decade or so.
Kana Inigaki is the FT's industry editor.
Thanks so much, Kana.
Thanks so much. You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes.
This has been your daily FT News Briefing.
Check back tomorrow for the latest business news.
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