![FT News Briefing show](https://d3dthqtvwic6y7.cloudfront.net/podcast-covers/000/088/523/small/ft-news-briefing.jpg)
Summary: Opioid maker Purdue Pharma and members of the controlling Sackler family have offered to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company for $10bn-$12bn, Phillip Morris International is in talks to merge with Altria in a deal that would create the world’s largest tobacco group, UK opposition parties agree to pursue legislation to prevent a no-deal Brexit, the Federal Reserve is forced to re-assert that “political considerations play absolutely no role” in policymaking and Amazon and Microsoft go unchallenged in a $10bn Pentagon cloud computing contract. Plus, the FT’s global finance correspondent Robin Wigglesworth explains why investors are concerned that the world economy is succumbing to “Japanification”. <br><hr><p style="color: grey;">See <a style="color: grey;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://acast.com/privacy">acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>