Help for Greek banks, F1 takeover, and US trade

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

The European Central Bank raised the limit on the emergency liquidity assistance available to Greek banks to about €89bn. The banks need the loans to pay back depositors, who have been withdrawing funds for fear that a default cannot be prevented.

Germany has given the Greek parliament only until Monday to approve all the economic reforms (summarised here) that creditors were promised. This has put intense pressure on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is facing pensioners on the warpath and mutiny from his own party.

Elsewhere, Portugal is fretting because it could be next if Greece goes and Tokyo is eyeing up a potential default on a 20-year-old samurai bond. Even if a deal is reached, there arewidespread doubts that the new measures will do much to address Greece’s deep-rooted problems. (FT)

In the news

US-Qatari move to take over F1 The owner of the Miami Dolphins, the American football team, is joining with Qatar to take control of Formula One, in a $7bn-$8bn deal . Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s chief executive, would also sell his holding of about 5 per cent but Qatar is keen to keep him involved to help expand into US and China. (FT)

Scottish land reform The Holyrood government could gain the power to force landownerswho block sustainable development to sell land and impose business taxes on shooting estates. Its land bill has been praised for addressing a “feudal and archaic” system of ownership but some say it would threaten rural jobs and owners have even compared it to Robert Mugabe’s seizure of farms in Zimbabwe. (FT)

Weak tides for Jay Z The rapper’s paid streaming service lost its second chief executive in two months just as Apple was muscling in on the subscription market. Despite its high-profile backers, Tidal has struggled to gain traction and has only 800,000 subscribers compared with Spotify’s 20m. (FT)

Google launches Not to be outdone by Apple, Google introduced a free version of itssubscription music service, adopting the same “freemium” strategy as Spotify. It will also start testing a wrist-worn medical device, which it says will carry sensors to amass data about the wearer. It says the device could be used to monitor heart attack patients and changes in people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. (FT)

It’s a big day for

US trade The senate will vote to pass legislation that will give Barack Obama the authority to close the biggest trade deal in a generation. After months of bitter debate and manoeuvering in Congress, Obama could sign the bill allowing him to seal the Trans-Pacific Partnership by the end of this week. The news comes as public support for free trade has fallen over the past two months, from 37 per cent in April to 29 per cent. (FT, WSJ)

Nato Defence ministers will gather in Brussels and face something they have not confronted since the cold war: vocal nuclear threats from the Kremlin. The US, which has said it will store tanks and weapons across eastern Europe to deter Russia, accused Vladimir Putin of wanting to “turn back the clock” in Europe. (WSJ, FT)

Francois Hollande The French president is meeting his top defence advisers today after WikiLeaks published documents allegedly showing that the US spied on him and his predecessors. The White House said US intelligence agencies were not currently spying on Hollande but declined to respond to allegations of targeting previous French presidential communications. (WSJ, FT)

Food for thought

Syria: a fight for credibility After more than four years of a civil war that has killed over 300,000 people and displaced nearly 10m, both rebel and government forces have been accused of war crimes and it is a huge struggle for any group to claim credibility. (FT)

South Carolina’s Confederate flag The FT’s Christopher Grimes, who grew up in the American South in the 1970s and 80s, explains that for African-Americans, the flag “was a symbol not of an honourable heritage but of something else: the noose, injustice , never having a fair chance”. (FT)

Cocaine cowboys Roberto Saviano, the young Italian author who exposed the dirty world of the Neapolitan Camorra, takes on the global groups that have built empires on drug trafficking, leaving a trail of bodies behind them. “If you had invested EUR1,000 in Apple stock in the beginning of 2012, you would have EUR1,670 in a year. Not bad. But if you had invested EUR1,000 in cocaine … after a year you would have EUR182,000.” (FT)

From Sid and Nancy to Wall Street money pit The owners of the Hotel Chelsea – including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman – have poured millions into renovating the storied Manhattan building where Bob Dylan wrote “Visions of Johanna” and Arthur C Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey. (WSJ)

Half the sky The BBC follows three generations of women in a rural family whose lives have been shaped by and reflect the growth of urban Chinese populations . “She feels the unequal treatment of girls has left her handicapped in life, short of money, education and luck. But now that White Horse Village has become a city, she’s hoping for a more equal world for her daughter.” (BBC)

Don Featherstone The inventor of the pink flamingo died aged 79 on Monday. “Mr Featherstone had not contemplated creating an enduring emblem of kitsch in 1957… he was simply heeding career advice that would become a sardonic watchword for young people: Plastics.” (NYT)

Video of the day

China or bust High-tech stocks are down 22 per cent in seven days – extreme even in the country’s volatile markets. Is this the bursting of the bubble, or just a correction on the way to further highs? (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: People hold Greek flags. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis.