Netanyahu’s victory, the death of Internet Explorer and China’s foreign policy

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

Benjamin Netanyahu won a decisive victory in Israel’s national election, defeating a challenge from centre-left opposition leader Isaac Herzog. With nearly all votes in, Netanyahu’s Likud party was on course to secure 30 seats out of 120. The Herzog’s Zionist Union was on 24. (Reuters)

The results handed Netanyahu himself a clear victory but now he needs to form a coalition to go with it. Likud said that negotiations are already under way with the pro-settler Jewish Home party led by Naftali Bennett, as well as religious groups.

Likud’s result was unexpectedly strong – exit polls released on Tuesday after voting ended showed the centre left Zionist Union surging in the polls. The results vindicate the divisive strategy pursued by Netanyahu in the final days of campaigning, when he abandoned his commitment to peace talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state.(FT)

In the news

Goodbye, Internet Explorer Microsoft is sending its unloved browser into retirement and working on a successor which will pop up on the next Windows operating system. Once used by nearly 1bn people, Internet Explorer went on to be shunned by Microsoft itself when Dean Hachamovitch, then-head of the IE business, confessed: “We messed up”. (FT)

Money sharing on Facebook: Like The social network followed Apple and Google into finance with a peer-to-peer money transfer system. Users will soon be able to send paymentsto their friends via Messenger app. (FT)

Nintendo shares set to surge Investors welcomed the Japanese games console maker’s move to open up its Mario and Donkey Kong characters to smartphone and tablets. Shares in the company were untraded in Tokyo as bids swamped sell offers but were set to rise by their daily limit of 21 per cent. (FT)

HSBC checks up on Jersey accounts UK customers with accounts in Jersey will have to explain why they need them as HSBC strives to meet money laundering rules. The bank is checking the identity and addresses of thousands of accounts going back as far as 30 years. (FT)

It’s a big day for

UK finances It’s budget day and the last one before the May election. Economists think publicfinances look healthy enough for George Osborne to introduce some pre-election sweeteners but the chancellor insists there will be “no giveaways, gimmicks”. Here’s our checklist of what to expect. (FT)

The US Federal Reserve , which is finally expected to signal that it will start raising rates in June or September, ending six years of quantitative easing. The stakes are high. Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most powerful hedge fund managers, said the Fed risks triggering a 1937-style stock market slump; less dramatically IMF head Christine Lagarde has warned of consequent instability in emerging markets and “taper tantrum” redux. (FT)

Alibaba lock-up investors Open sesame: the end of the lock-up period frees owners of 340m shares worth about $29bn – a fair chunk of the $210bn market capitalisation – to sell, crystallising gains of some 24 per cent. IPO stocks typically fall ahead of these expiries as investors fear a flood of new shares but Alibaba is down only slightly in recent weeks. (WSJ)

Food for thought

From Germany, the case for reparations Greek demands for reparations from Germany have found support from unlikely allies in Berlin. Leading Social Democrats have urged the government to start talks with Athens and the case is not closed in legal terms. (FT)

A change to China’s cheque book foreign policy The model of using loans to secure resources and influence is a risky one, and Beijing is growing less tolerant of egregious risk. One solution: a more institutional and multilateral approach, as demonstrated by its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. (FT)

Singapore’s old left Members of the leftist movement of the 1950s and 60s meet each Chinese new year to reminisce about the good old days. Many feel that their contribution to the 50-year-old state – fighting colonialists – has been ignored. (Roads and Kingdoms)

The GNU manifesto turns thirty Richard Stallman’s gospel called on collaborators to help build a freely shareable operating system. Software developer Stallman understood that if commercial entities were going to own the technology that controlled computers, users would become beholden to them. The New Yorker looks at what has become of his free software dream since 1985.

Video of the day

BHP’s spin off It’s going to cost $738m to split off non-core parts of the world’s biggest miner by market cap. Lex writers discuss how that cost will be recouped. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web

Image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv. REUTERS/Amir Cohen.