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Good morning from the newsroom of the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, December 20th, and this is your F.T. News briefing.

Today we raised our target range for the short-term interest rates by another quarter of a percentage point.

That's U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell making the fourth rate rise for the year.

At the same time, he tempered economic growth forecasts,

and that triggered the most negative stock market response to a rate rise

since 1994.

The FT's Mike McKenzie is joining us today to talk about what that means.

But first we'll be looking at a US regulator taking Facebook to court,

Altria taking a stake in e-cigarette company Jewel Labs that could make it one of the

world's most valuable private companies, and the world's biggest brewer in a tie-up to bring

cannabis-infused drinks to market. I'm Eric Krupky and here's the news you need to

start your day. Facebook is being taken to court by a US regulator.

It could be the first of a barrage of claims in the US against the social media group over data leaks.

The court action involves the sale of personal data of about

70 million Facebook users to research firm Cambridge Analytica. The attorney general

for the District of Columbia, law. The lawsuit seeks

restitution or damages for about 340,000 DC residents who are said to have been affected by the breach.

So far, the only penalty Facebook has faced for the Cambridge Analytica scandal is a 500,000

pound fine imposed by the UK. This suit comes in the same week as the

latest privacy storm to hit the social networking company. It was revealed that

...