Brussels’ plan to ease the energy crisis
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
US President Donald Trump said he’s sending senior officials to Pakistan for new negotiations with Iran, the European Commission will encourage remote working and public transport subsidies to cut fossil fuel use, and FTSE 100 companies boosted chief executives’ pay by almost a fifth in the past year. Plus, there’s a new craze hitting Wall Street: super-charged tax-loss harvesting.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Donald Trump to send US officials to Pakistan for fresh peace talks with Iran
Brussels pushes remote working to ease energy crisis
FTSE bosses receive 18% pay bump this year in global fight for talent
The tax-focused hedge fund craze taking over Wall Street
Note: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts
Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted by Sonja Hutson, and produced by Saffeya Ahmed and Victoria Craig. Our show was mixed by Alex Higgins. Additional help from Peter Barber. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s Global Head of Audio. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, April 20th, and this is your FT News briefing. |
| 0:10.9 | Donald Trump wants to restart talks with Iran, and Brussels is using the energy crunch to push renewables. |
| 0:18.8 | Plus, we look at a controversial new craze on Wall Street. It's |
| 0:23.4 | tax loss harvesting, but this time it's turbocharged. I'm Sonia Hudson, and here's the news you need to |
| 0:31.3 | start your day. |
| 0:44.3 | U.S. President Donald Trump says he's sending senior officials to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran again. |
| 0:51.0 | He told Fox News his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Whitkoff, would arrive in Islamabad today. |
| 0:55.0 | The previous round of talks were led by Vice President J.D. Vance. |
| 1:02.6 | But Iranian state-affiliated media said Tehran won't send anyone to the talks, not until the U.S. lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports. The two sides still have many sticking points, including |
| 1:09.1 | Tehran's stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and how the Strait of Hormuz will be governed. |
| 1:20.8 | The European Commission is pushing remote work and public transportation subsidies to cut fossil fuel use. |
| 1:29.1 | Brussels is trying to make the energy price shock from the U.S. Iran War a little less painful. |
| 1:35.4 | The recommendations also include measures to help move toward clean power. |
| 1:40.3 | The commission is going to present member states with its plan later this week. |
| 1:44.0 | And here to tell us more is the FTs Ian Johnston, who broke this story. |
| 1:48.0 | Hey, Ian. |
| 1:49.0 | Hi there. |
| 1:49.6 | So what are the highlights of these set of recommendations? |
| 1:53.3 | So some of the highlights are behavioral recommendations to try and convince EU citizens and businesses to use less energy. |
| 2:03.6 | That includes remote working, so encouraging businesses where they can to have at least one day of remote working per week, |
| 2:11.6 | measures to support the use of heat pumps, electric vehicles, and also encouraging member states to use subsidy schemes for |
| 2:19.7 | things like public transport. But they are also going to bring in laws to encourage more |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Forhecz Topher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Forhecz Topher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.