A power shift in Lebanon

FT News Briefing

Forhecz Topher

News, Unknown, News & Politics, Daily News

4.4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Goldman Sachs is building a new private credit unit, and Nawaf Salam is named as Lebanon’s new prime minister. China’s trade surplus with the rest of the world reached a record of almost $1tn in 2024, and Amazon races to transplant Alexa’s ‘brain’ with generative AI.

Mentioned in this podcast:

Goldman Sachs to deepen exposure to booming private credit industry

Nawaf Salam is Lebanon’s new prime minister

China’s trade surplus hits annual record of almost $1tn

Amazon races to transplant Alexa’s ‘brain’ with generative AI

The FT News Briefing is produced by Niamh Rowe, Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson, Kasia Broussalian, Lulu Smyth, and Marc Filippino. Additional help from Breen Turner, Sam Giovinco, Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Our engineer is Joseph Salcedo. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We're Equinor, an energy company searching for better.
0:03.0	Currently, we supply 27% of the UK's gas, 15% of its oil,
0:07.7	and we're playing our part in the UK's energy transition.
0:11.0	Our wind farms power 750,000 homes,
0:14.0	and we expect that to grow to over 7 million.
0:16.5	Last year, we invested 20% of our global growth spend in renewables
0:20.1	and lower carbon solutions.
0:22.0	We plan to increase that to 50% by 2030.
0:25.4	We're an energy company searching for better.
0:28.4	equinore.co.uk.
0:33.5	Good morning from the Financial Times.
0:36.2	Today is Tuesday, January 14th, and this is your FT News briefing.
0:42.2	Goldman Sachs is digging in deeper on private credit.
0:46.6	And there's been a big political shift in Lebanon.
0:50.7	Plus, Amazon is trying to give Alexa a new AI brain.
0:56.1	If it does work, it could really be a sort of entirely new type of product.
1:02.0	I'm Sonia Hudson, and here's the news you need to start your day.
1:21.9	Thank you. Goldman Sachs announced yesterday that it's building a new unit to focus on private credit funds.
1:27.0	The Wall Street giant faces fierce competition from private credit firms, which are increasingly financing
1:29.3	large corporate transactions. And this growing industry leaves banks in a tricky spot for another
1:36.4	reason, too. You see, banks compete with them on financing, while also serving them as clients.
1:51.2	So this new unit will be tasked with wooing private credit, but also beating them at offering loans.
	...

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