Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, February 19th,

and this is your FT News Briefing.

Key players and the GameStop trading episode appear before Congress.

Inflation concerns spark a sell-off in U.S. Treasury bonds,

plus the FT's editor, Rula Halov, spoke with Emmanuel Macron.

She'll tell us about her conversation with the French President

and his plans to send COVID vaccines to poorer countries.

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

In an interview with the Financial Times, French President Emmanuel Macron

urged wealthy countries to help developing states have access to coronavirus vaccines.

Speaking shortly before today's G7 summit,

Macron said Europe and the United States should allocate up to 5% of their

current vaccine supplies to poorer countries.

Here he's speaking to the FT's editor, Rula Halov.

And Macron said developed countries are wrong if they think that treating

vaccination in Africa and other poor countries is a secondary priority.

No, he said wealthy countries have to act fast to prevent variants of the virus from emerging.

He called it a global health priority.

I spoke with Rula about her interview with the French President.

She told me why Macron sees this as so urgent.

I think because the supply of vaccines is quite limited,

and attempts by developing countries also through the COVAX initiatives to get

...