Tax inversion and the National People’s Congress

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

Vladimir Putin was ready to put the country’s nuclear weapons on alert during last year’s annexation of Crimea, a Russian state documentary has revealed. The same programme shows Putin admitting for the first time that the unidentified gunmen who seized the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol in February last year were Russian servicemen. (FT)

Putin is scheduled to meet his Kyrgyz counterpart in St Petersburg today – a highly anticipated event since he has not been seen in public since March 5. The Russian president has rarely been out of the spotlight in his 15 years in power so his absence has unleashed a wealth of rumours. (FT)

In the news

Anti-Rousseff protests More than a million protesters took to the streets of Brazil yesterday to call for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Anger has grown over economic hardship and the multibillion-dollar corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras. (FT)

Tony Blair to step down from Middle East peace role The former British prime minister has recognised that his frontline role as an envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators is no longer tenable. There is deep unease in parts of Washington and Brussels over his poor relations with senior Palestinian Authority figures and sprawling business interests. (FT)

Man charged with Ferguson shooting A 20-year-old was charged with shooting two policemen last week during a protest rally. Jeffrey Williams had been part of demonstrations over the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot by a white police officer, and said he had been aiming at someone else but inadvertently shot the officers. (FT)

Tax inversion crackdown spurs takeovers of US groups The Obama administration clamped down on deals that allow US companies to cut tax bills by acquiring rivals from lower tax jurisdictions, in a bid to keep receipts at home. But the unintended consequence has been quite the reverse, making American groups more attractive to foreign buyers. Inbound cross-border US deals have increased since the government’s initiative started and the biggest acquirers came from countries with lower tax rates. (FT)

China’s National People’s Congress closes The annual parliamentary session ended with the Chinese government on a collision course with the EU and US. It began implementing rules that require commercial banks to buy “secure and controllable” IT equipment, which will force banks’ IT suppliers to conduct research and development in China and file source codes with China’s banking watchdog. (FT)

It’s a big day for

The UK Treasury, which launches a review of business rates. Danny Alexander, Treasury chief secretary, is considering moving away from tax based on property values, seen as further a burden on high street traders already battling online competition. (FT)

The Litvinenko hearing Final arguments begin today for the inquiry into the death of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko. Marc Champion points out that without the two men who met Litvinenko for tea the day he was poisoned, we are unlikely to know the full story. (Bloomberg)

Nomura The Japanese bank goes on trial in the first case from a barrage of lawsuits alleging banks were at fault for packaging bad mortgages into securities. The US Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking more than $1bn from Nomura but the bank has denied any wrongdoing. (FT)

Food for thought

Baby boomers return to their drug addled youths The accidental overdose rate for people aged 45-64 is higher than that for 24-44-year-olds for the first time in the US. Health officials are worried that a generation with a predilection for mind-altering substances is also susceptible to painkiller abuse. (WSJ$)

National organs China has been trying to reduce executions and end the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners without consent from them or their families. But voluntary donors are in short supply – many Chinese belief that the body should be kept intact to show respect for ancestors. (Economist)

The blight on Etsy’s hipster cred The site prides itself on handmade authenticity and fans view it as an antidote to mass production and corporate branding but Etsy is struggling to maintain its indie credibility ahead of listing. “Handmade businesses aren’t infinitely scalable,” said one Etsy seller, on leaving the site. “As Etsy has gotten bigger, it’s gotten more like eBay.” (NYT$)

Video of the day

Indian resources sector The FT’s James Crabtree speaks to Anil Agarwal, founder and chairman of Vedanta Resources, about how Narendra Modi’s government can take advantage of the potential in the resources sector. (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: A man walks past buildings at the central business district of Singapore. REUTERS/Nicky Loh.