How Ireland became the weak spot in Europe’s defences
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Traders are piling into bets that Wednesday’s UK Budget will push the pound lower against the dollar, and the pharmaceutical industry saw some promising — and not so promising — clinical trial results. Plus, US tech stocks leapt on Monday and Ireland’s military neutrality has created a weak spot in Europe’s defences.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Currency traders bet against sterling ahead of Budget
Novo Nordisk shares slump after drug failure in Alzheimer’s trial
Bayer soars on promising trial results for stroke prevention drug
US tech stocks surge as Fed rate cut bets fuel rebound
How Ireland became the weak spot in Europe’s defences
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Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by Fiona Symon, and Sonja Hutson. Our show was mixed by Kelly Garry. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann, Michael Lello and David da Silva. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Topher Forhecz. The show’s theme music 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 | Good morning from The Financial Times. |
| 0:04.0 | Today is Tuesday, November 25th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:08.0 | Traders are gearing up for tomorrow's autumn budget, and we'll give you an update on Europe's pharmaceutical sector. |
| 0:15.0 | Plus, European countries are grumpy with Ireland over its weak defenses. |
| 0:19.0 | We'll see if that can change. |
| 0:22.5 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:33.3 | A bunch of investors are betting that the UK budget will send the pound lower against the dollar. |
| 0:39.2 | Chancellor Rachel Reeves is unveiling her budget tomorrow. |
| 0:42.4 | Traders are worried that she'll raise taxes, and that would hurt an already struggling economy. |
| 0:48.6 | Now, an increase in taxes has long been expected. |
| 0:51.6 | The pound is sliding on this, and it's close to its weakest level against |
| 0:55.1 | the dollar since April. |
| 1:02.6 | Good news for Bayer and bad news for Novo Nordisk in the pharmaceutical sector this week. |
| 1:07.9 | Bayer shares rose on reports of a successful trial for its stroke prevention |
| 1:12.3 | medicine. Novo shares slid on news that one of its diabetes drugs had failed to slow the progression |
| 1:18.1 | of Alzheimer's. Here to explain is the FTs, Anu Adioje, who covers the sector. Thanks for joining |
| 1:23.7 | us, Anu. Thanks for having me. All right, let's deal with the good news first. |
| 1:30.1 | Tell us about Bayer's new anti-stroke medicine. |
| 1:31.6 | Who is it for? |
| 1:33.2 | And how effective is it? |
| 1:44.4 | So Bayer's drug called Asundexian is intended for people who have suffered something called a non-cardiomboic stroke or people who have suffered a mini-stroke. |
| 1:49.2 | Because people who have suffered these types of strokes are at risk of a second type of stroke. So patients who took a 50 milligram daily dose of this drug combined with a standard antipaternity |
... |
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