The UK's energy partner.

Learn more at equinore.

At equinore. UK. Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, February 26th, and this is your

F.T. News briefing. Israel plans to raise more funds for defense spending.

Investors are feverish about biotech again,

and a new report gives mixed grades to the EU's signature COVID recovery fund.

So will this fund actually deliver higher growth in the long term?

I think the jury is still out.

I'm Jess Smith in for Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. A top Israeli finance official told the F.T.

His government plans to raise about 60 billion dollars in debt this year. It also plans to raise taxes and

freeze government hiring. These measures are to fund a near doubling of defense

spending to continue Israel's war in Gaza, the war's been costly for Israel's

economy, which shrunk by nearly 20% at the end of last year.

The finance official says he expects the economy to begin recovering

as large numbers of reservists are sent home and consumer spending picks up. American biotech companies are rushing to raise funds on U.S. stock markets

at the fastest rate since the biotech boom of the pandemic.

Last month, drug developers pulled in more than $6 billion on U.S. equity markets.

And that ends a two-year fundraising drought that forced many companies to cut jobs and

shelve projects.

The F.T. is Nick McGaugh joins me to talk more about what's going on now.

Hey Nick.

Hey. So, Nick, the last boom in biotech stocks was during the pandemic.

...