UN talks, water on Mars and how the Tube could power London

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

Russia and America’s stark differences over how to end the Syrian conflict were laid bare, as Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama exchanged rhetorical barbs not seen at the United Nations since the Cold War.

Mr Putin urged the west to work with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, whom he described as the legitimate president of the Middle Eastern country. However, Mr Obama insisted that there could be no place in Syria’s future for a “tyrant who drops barrel bombs on innocent children”. (FT)

In the news

Taking aim at drug pricing Shares in Canadian pharma group Valeant fell sharply after a group of influential US policymakers called for the company to be issued with a subpoena to hand over documents relating to “massive price hikes”. The move follows a controversy last week surrounding Turing Pharmaceuticals, which raised the price of one of its drugs by 5,000 per cent. (FT)

Life on Mars? Satellite images from US space agency Nasa have served up the strongest evidence yet that water is flowing on the red planet. The findings strengthen the idea that the planet may harbour microscopic lifeforms. (FT)

An iPhone record-breaker Apple has dispelled any anxiety about demand for the iPhone by revealing it sold more than 13m of its latest device in the first three days of sales. “Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first-weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” said chief executive Tim Cook. (FT)

Qatar fund suffers $12bn loss The country’s sovereign wealth fund had a quarter to forget, suffering as much as $12bn of losses on Volkswagen, Glencore and Agricultural Bank of China, three of the biggest equity investments of its roughly $250bn fund, according toFinancial Times calculations. (FT)

Banks impatient with the Fed With officials at the Federal Reserve again pushing back the start of a tightening cycle, large US banks are shifting more of their assets out of cash and into longer-term assets to try to eke out profits. (FT)

It’s a big day for

Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected leader of Britain’s Labour party, who gives his keynote address at the party’s annual gathering in Brighton. Mr Corbyn is set to use the speech to try to shake off suggestions he is unpatriotic, saying: “I love this country and its people.” (FT)

Food for thought

Stop sitting, stop standing Health experts tell you that sitting for a long time is bad for you, while standing for prolonged periods can be just as unhealthy. So what are the world’s sedentary office workers to do? Build time into your day to do both, according to a new study. (WSJ)

China data: seeking truth from facts Scepticism about the accuracy of the official numbers has intensified. But what if the underlying figures are reliable? (FT)

How the Tube could power London Say what you will about the Underground, but the 150-year-old train system is testing technology that puts it at the cutting edge of energy conservation. An experiment on the Victoria line found that energy captured and recycled from the trains’ brakes could power an entire station for two days every week. (Science Alert)

The ideas that divide American and Chinese presidents are like “computers running on different operating systems” – they do not really know how to talk to each other. The FT’s Gideon Rachman examines the big differences between how Washington and Beijing view the world. (FT)

‘Nazi gold train’ latest The hunt for a locomotive – missing since the end of the second world war and rumoured to be filled with precious minerals – continues in Poland, with chemical, radiation and explosives experts deployed to a hidden tunnel where it might be located. The Polish government has warned the train could be booby-trapped. (The Guardian)

Video of the day

Cash is king John Authers reports on another negative day for world stock and commodity markets, which leaves cash as the best performing asset for the year — even though it yields nothing. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with FirstFT. 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 Jordanian boy poses with an image of Mars projected on a wall. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji.