TheChek News Flow

DAX:

MDAX:

SDAX:

Italian government aims to add decades-old project to increased Nato spending pledge

Giorgia Meloni’s government on Wednesday was set to approve the construction of a €13bn bridge linking Sicily to the Italian mainland, resurrecting a controversial project that Rome now says is key for national security. 

Originally designed to spur economic development in one of Italy’s poorest regions, the 3.3km-long suspension bridge over the Messina Strait has had several false starts in recent decades. But the Italian government has now recast the project as a way for the country to help meet its Nato commitment to boost military spending.

Like all Nato allies, Italy has pledged to increase annual defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP within a decade, of which 1.5 per cent of GDP is earmarked for strategic infrastructure.

Meloni’s government aims to include the cost of the bridge as part of this effort, and has begun touting the project’s strategic value in the Mediterranean, where it believes Moscow is striving to increase its influence.  

“The Messina Strait bridge constitutes a fundamental infrastructure with respect to military mobility, taking into account the presence of important Nato bases in southern Italy,” Italian authorities wrote in an April report declaring the project of “overriding public interest”.

The road and railway bridge would assume a “key role in the context of defence and security — facilitating the movement of Italian and Nato allies armed forces”, the report said, citing “the growing role of the Mediterranean as a geopolitically sensitive area”.

However, Alessandro Marrone, who leads the defence programme at Rome’s Institute for International Affairs, said Rome’s claims were “stretching the concept” of a military asset, since Nato’s main priority is to ensure that troops stationed in western Europe can be rapidly deployed east if Russia attacks Nato’s eastern flank.

Marrone said Italy needed to instead focus on upgrading ports, airports and roads in regions where its troops are stationed: “If you have to go east, it’s either via the Adriatic, via plane, or via the Alps.”

Attempts to bridge the Messina Strait — whose turbulent waters were immortalised in Homer’s Odyssey — go back to ancient times. 

In 252BC, according to Roman chronicler Pliny the Elder, a consul managed to move 100 captured war elephants from Sicily to the Italian peninsula on rafts made of “rows of barrels tied together”.

The dream of linking up Sicily to the mainland took root in the 19th century with the unification of Italy. By 1970, it was deemed a national priority — critical to the economic development of one of Italy’s poorest regions.

Yet contemporary efforts to build the bridge have repeatedly faltered, hampered by Italy’s fragile public finances and persistent doubts about the project’s economic viability and structural integrity.

Messina residents also fought for years — and are mobilising again — to try to stop the project, which will require huge changes to the city, including the relocation of the train station.

In 2005, then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi issued the first €3.9bn contract for the bridge, but it was shelved months later after his government fell. On his return to power two years later, he tried to revive the project, only for it to be scrapped again in 2011 as Italy reeled from a sovereign debt crisis.

The cost of construction has ballooned from an expected €4.4bn when bidding first took place two decades ago to €13bn now. Still, Meloni’s government is committed to reviving the plan, and is talking up its strategic importance.

“We see Russia increasingly projecting itself into the Mediterranean,” Meloni told reporters on the sidelines of the Nato summit in June, as Italian strategists raised growing concerns about Moscow’s growing ties to Libya.

“There are many hybrid threats, many hostile actors operating on the southern flank of the [Nato] alliance,” she added.

But the bridge itself could turn into a vulnerability and add to Rome’s military costs if it had to defend it. 

“The infrastructure is destined to attract the attention of any potential aggressor, even a minor one,” wrote General Gualtiero Corsini all the way back in 1987. He said that of all the ways of connecting the island to the mainland “the suspension bridge has the highest vulnerability” and would require anti-aircraft and anti-missile protection.

Decades on, Marrone agrees that the bridge, if it were to be classified as military or strategic infrastructure, would need air and sea defences. But he is not convinced it would be considered a high-priority target for sabotage.

“It’s an easy target from a symbolic or political point of view — it will hit the headlines,” Marrone said. “But Russian military planners also know that Italian troops and reinforcements for the Baltic states or Poland will not transit that bridge.”

The Milanese maker is behind the most desirable frames on the market

Ernesto Colnago is to the bike what Enzo Ferrari was to the car. Over the years, the Lombardy-based maker’s frames have acquired the same aura of sprezzatura as the chilli-pepper-red sports cars. “They’re an aspirational brand,” says collector Julian Carpenter, who owns 22 Colnagos. “You dream about those bikes.”

Colnago has been working on bikes since 1945, when he lied about his age to get a job at the Gloria bike factory in Milan. After an injury put paid to his racing career he turned his focus to making frames, and quickly gained a reputation for his willingness to innovate. Since then, the slick road-racing bikes have been ridden by some of the greatest cyclists in the sport, including Eddy Merckx, whose exploits aboard a Colnago Super, an aggressive racing frame with highly responsive handling, in the early 1970s elevated the brand to new heights. Now 93, Colnago still works at the company’s Milanese headquarters.

“It’s not just about quality,” explains Brian Digby of Classic and Vintage Cycles, based in Hadfield, Derbyshire, of Colnago’s appeal. “Italy is full of artisan builders that are better than Colnago, but Ernesto is a great marketeer. He told a good story.”  

“People seek out Colnagos because they’re like a Ferrari — everyone knows what they are,” says Alex Bindon of east London-based independent bike shop The Hackney Peddler. 

There are a dizzying variety of frame designs to choose from. Of the non-limited-edition steel bikes, or the standard range of Colnago models, the decision is down to personal preference. Fans of classic steel frames are often drawn to the super-stiff Master with its signature “star-shaped” crimps, produced from 1983 and still made in Italy (a new model retails from £2,566, while a good condition vintage bike will cost around £1,900). 

Those looking for a more experimental frame might seek out the Nuovo Mexico, a lighter evolution of the Super Profil, which was ridden by Giuseppe Saronni’s Del Tongo cycle team in the early 1980s. Classic and Vintage has a restored 1983 Nuovo Mexico frame in candy-red Saronni colours for sale for £1,795. 

Models are distinguished by different crimps on the frame’s steel tubes, or details on the lugs that hold the frame together. It pays to become familiar with these marks before buying. “There are a lot of misdescribed models,” warns Digby. “Do your research and a bit of due diligence.” “If you’re spending £5,000 on a Nuovo Mexico, you want to be sure it’s not actually the more common Super Profil,” says Carpenter — the Nuovo Mexico has two crimps either side of the down tube to the Super Profil’s one. His blog, Saarf London, lays out the distinctive characteristics of each frame.

The market peaked in the aftermath of the pandemic, so a good build for riding is relatively affordable. “A quality frame will start from about a grand,” says Bindon, who sources them for clients and builds according to their specifications (a loud pink-and-purple Super frame he has in stock costs £900). “For neo-retro builds you’d be starting from £2,000, but nicer things will go for more.” The comparatively low price is attracting new buyers, says Carpenter. “There are a lot of car collectors buying now; it’s easier to spend £10,000 on a bike than £1mn on a car.”

Limited-edition models, produced to celebrate brand anniversaries, collaborations or one-offs for particular riders, can stretch into five figures. Slovenia-based Premium Cycling has a 1989 C35 Oro, an early carbon-fibre bike built in collaboration with Ferrari to celebrate Colnago’s 35th anniversary, in scarlet with gold-coloured components, for €26,999. Good condition similarly supercharges value. In May, Premium’s Jure Kocjan, a former professional cyclist, sold a one-of-a-kind 1986 Master Pista bike, an extremely aerodynamic steel-framed bike with twin disc wheels, in museum-quality condition for €25,000.

There’s a growing market, too, for Colnago’s carbon-fibre frames, which pushed lightweight bike construction to new levels in the early 1990s. The C40, a carbon-fibre take on Colnago’s signature construction, was the chosen bike for Mapei, the most elite professional Italian racing team, from 1994 to 2001. “The C40 and C50 [its even lighter successor, released in 2004] didn’t have the value in the past but are getting more desirable because they were among the last ‘made in Italy’ Colnago bikes,” explains Kocjan — newer models are now produced in Taiwan (he has a C40 from 2000 with a hand-painted “Art Decor” paint scheme on sale at €1,899). In 2023 he sold Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar’s V3RS, the top of the range carbon-fibre model, for an undisclosed sum. 

These days, Digby says, lots of collectors are simply looking for “a show pony, a wall wanger”. The most flamboyant of these is surely the gold-leaf-embellished C67 Gioiello, studded with a 2.3ct diamond, that sold at Sotheby’s in May 2023 for $133,000. You’d be a fool to ride it — but there’s no better expression of Colnago’s talent for turning a bike into a work of art.

FT analysis finds jump in departures with UAE the top destination

A wave of directors has left Britain since Sir Keir Starmer’s government abolished favourable tax treatment for non-domiciled residents and raised other duties on the wealthy, with the United Arab Emirates the most popular destination.

From last year’s October Budget until last month, 3,790 company directors reported leaving the UK, compared with 2,712 in the same period a year earlier, according to an analysis of Companies House filings by the Financial Times.

The analysis identified business figures whose departure from Britain was not previously known, including Mark Makepeace, founder of market index provider FTSE Russell, Bart Becht, former boss of Reckitt Benckiser, and Riccardo Silva, an investor in AC Milan and owner of Miami Football Club.

Eddie Hearn, the prominent Essex boxing promoter, has also changed his residence to Monaco, along with John Reece, the finance director of Britain’s largest private company Ineos, the FT found.

In the Budget, Labour confirmed the end of the tax regime for so-called non-doms, UK residents who declared their long-term home was overseas to avoid paying British taxes on their global income and assets.

Other changes included limiting inheritance tax relief on businesses, raising capital gains tax and increasing duties on private equity bosses.

The departures rose to a monthly peak of 691 in April 2025, just as the non-doms changes took effect. This figure was 79 per cent per cent higher than the same month in 2024 and 104 per cent per cent higher than in 2023.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering changes to the raid on non-doms but strained public finances mean she is unlikely to reverse the policy entirely. The government has said it will focus on taxpayers with the “broadest shoulders”.

A director of an investment firm who has recently left for Milan said: “People love the UK, they love the culture, the schools. But they are also in the business of wanting to grow their investments and the UK has created so much tax friction that it has become too uncertain and too risky to stay.”

No official data exists on the numbers of wealthy people leaving Britain in response to Labour’s tax changes. Some surveys showing a big increase in the number of millionaires departing have been criticised over their methodology.

Official assessments have assumed a rise in departures but the government’s modelling of the new non-doms policy did not give a public forecast of the overall number of people leaving the UK.

The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasted the changes to the non-dom regime would raise £33.8bn over the next five years, but added this was “highly uncertain” because it depended on the decisions of a relatively small number of wealthy people.

The FT analysis only captures individuals who chose to retain at least one UK directorship while registering a change in their country of residence. Their tax domicile is also unknown. But the surge in departures in this small sample will add weight to concerns about an exodus.

While the figures are swollen by large numbers of foreign nationals reporting a return home — particularly to China and Germany — the departures reported by UK nationals has also risen markedly.

A British private equity boss who recently left for Italy said: “The UK is now seen as less welcoming to wealth creators and there are plenty of other places they can go instead, and some are even setting up incentives to make it more attractive.”

Many British directors opted for the UAE, where Dubai has become a haven for the global wealthy in part because it has no individual income or capital gains tax, followed by Spain and then the US.

A large proportion of the British departures to the UAE are directors of small to medium-sized businesses.

Italy has also attracted billionaires, including Aston Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris, who holds Egyptian, Belgian, and Emirati citizenship, after the government introduced a €200,000 flat tax on foreign income that allows new arrivals to escape inheritance tax on foreign assets.

Sawiris blamed “years of incompetence” by the “most left-leaning Conservative party in history” for his decision to leave the UK.

Arun Advani, director of the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation, which has advocated for higher taxes, said: “It isn’t surprising that tax changes would have led to an uptick in departures. That was always expected and was included in OBR projections.”

He said the UK could benefit from imposing an exit tax on the capital gains of people who cease to be tax resident, a policy held by countries including Canada, Australia and the US.

A Treasury spokesperson said: “The UK remains highly attractive. Our main capital gains tax rate is lower than any other G7 European country and our new residence-based regime is simpler and more attractive than the previous one, whilst it also addresses tax system unfairness so every long-term resident pays their taxes here.”

Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, said that he had “no concerns in pitching how competitive a place we are”, with tax rates that compared well with other countries.

Reynolds claimed that the new four-year residence-based tax regime for non-doms was “comparable to other countries”. He added: “The non-dom regime itself is something from the colonial era. It’s right to have a modern tax system.”

Lebanese government tells army to prepare plan to disarm Hizbollah

The move includes terminating 22 vaccine investments and canceling and shrinking various contracts and solicitations

The Department of Health and Human Services said it is winding down its mRNA vaccine-development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

The move includes terminating 22 vaccine investments and canceling and shrinking various contracts and solicitations, HHS said Tuesday.

HHS said it reviewed its investments in mRNA-related programs initiated after Covid-19 broke out. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the review showed the vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections such as Covid-19 and influenza.

Included in the wind-down is the cancellation of BARDA’s grant to Moderna for its mRNA-based H5N1 vaccine, the termination of contracts with Emory University and Tiba Biotech and removing mRNA-related work in existing contracts with Luminary Labs, ModeX and Seqirus. The department is also rejecting or canceling multiple proposals for awards.

No new mRNA-based projects will be initiated, HHS said. The department has also told Global Health Investment Corp., which manages BARDA, to cease all mRNA-based equity investments. That would affect 22 projects worth nearly $500 million, HHS said.

The funding would be reallocated toward broader vaccine platforms, Kennedy said.

The media giant will take ownership of NFL Network as part of swap valued in the neighborhood of $3 billion

• The NFL will take a 10% stake in ESPN, estimated between $2.5 billion and $3 billion, in exchange for media assets like NFL Network.
• ESPN will add NFL Network to its channel lineup and distribute NFL RedZone to pay-TV operators, retaining ownership with the league.
• The deal, subject to regulatory approval, aims to strengthen the bond between the NFL and ESPN amid growing competition in sports media.

The National Football League has struck a wide-reaching deal with Disney DIS -0.86%decrease; red down pointing triangle in which it will take a 10% stake in the ESPN sports empire in return for control of key media assets including NFL Network.

Neither Disney nor the NFL would disclose the value of the ESPN stake. Analysts have estimated ESPN’s valuation at between $25 billion and $30 billion, putting the NFL’s piece in the $2.5 billion to $3 billion range.

The tie-up, between two of the biggest names in entertainment and sports, furthers the symbiotic relationship between media companies and athletic leagues that is moving beyond just traditional rights deals to televise games.

Through a content partnership with Skydance Media, the NFL will also have equity in rights holder CBS after Skydance closes its deal to acquire the network’s parent Paramount Global this week.

Under the terms of the agreement, ESPN will add NFL Network to its stable of sports channels. It will also distribute the NFL’s Red Zone channel to pay-TV operators, although ownership and digital distribution rights will remain with the league.

For ESPN, the deal strengthens the bond with its most important content provider as it prepares to launch a streaming version of its flagship network later this fall. The addition of more NFL content will likely increase interest in the service.

The NFL in turn not only gets a piece of a key Disney asset, but also ensures the future of its two channels which, although popular, will benefit from being part of a media behemoth.

The deal will need regulatory approval and, given the power of the NFL and ESPN, might face scrutiny from lawmakers. Assuming the partnership is approved and closed, Disney’s stake in ESPN will drop to 72% from 80% while minority owner Hearst will go to 18% from 20%.

ESPN and the NFL have been dancing around each other for several years.

“These conversations really have gone on for well over a decade,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. “I would really say the last year even more so over the last couple of months where I think we’ve recognized the value that we both can bring to our consumers, to our fans, and that this was the right time.”

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who also chairs the league’s media committee, said in an interview that the equity element is “really a commitment beyond whatever the contract is” in terms of the partnership. He added that aspects of the new deal with ESPN will help the league grow the salary cap, which in turn could solidify the league’s relationship with the players union.

The NFL cozying up with one of its biggest rights holders might become a point of concern for its other media partners, one analyst said.

“The league being a part owner in one of its distribution partners should raise the question of whether that entity is getting favorable treatment relative to other networks and streamers that air games,” said Guggenheim Securities analyst Michael Morris.

Goodell and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger played down those concerns. Goodell said the league’s relationships with its other media partners will “continue to flourish.”

While ESPN has long been the most dominant player in sports media, it is facing increased competition not only from traditional players such as Comcast’s NBCUniversal but also deep-pocketed streaming services including Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video.

Citing the strength of the ESPN brand, Iger said of the competition, “it’s not like we’re losing sleep over our position eroding.”

In NFL Network, ESPN will have a 24-7 news channel for the league as well as home to seven exclusive regular season games. NFL Network is currently in about 50 million homes.

As part of the deal, ESPN will need to license NFL Network’s games from the league.

Although much smaller than NFL Network, the NFL’s RedZone has a very loyal audience. The in-season Sunday-only network that carries live action from all the afternoon games is particularly popular among hardcore fans and fantasy football players. The channel is in fewer than 10 million homes, which the league hopes can increase under ESPN’s guidance.

There have been limits to how aggressively the NFL can make RedZone available, as rights holders to Sunday games have expressed concern that the network is a potential threat to their own coverage of games.

“Somebody watching RedZone is arguably not watching the live game, so there is a question as to whether that network is additive to overall viewing or cannibalistic to full-game audience,” said Guggenheim’s Morris.

ESPN will also have the ability to launch RedZone type channels for other sports as part of the deal, although Iger said there is nothing on the immediate horizon.

One potential wrinkle is that ESPN’s NFL journalists and commentators will now be covering a league that owns a stake in the company.

Iger maintained that “Nothing in this deal in any way changes ESPN’s approach when it comes to journalism.”