Good morning from the Financial Times.
Today is Thursday, March 13th and this is your FT news briefing.
New data shows just how hard it is to cut U.S. government spending.
And Europe's electric battery darling has gone belly up.
Plus we look at how China is trying to edge out American soft power in Africa.
I'm Sonia Hudson and here's the news you need to start your day.
US federal spending increased by $40 billion in February year over year and it hit a new record.
That's according to treasury data out yesterday.
This comes despite.
Despite efforts from Elon Musk to cut spending.
His so called Department of Government Efficiency claims to have saved $100 billion already.
But only a handful of departments reported any decreases in spending in February.
One of them was the Department of education, which cut $6 billion.
Now it is still early days in Doge's efforts.
A source told the FT that a lot of layoffs might not be reflected in last month's data.
Data.
Sweden's Northvolt has filed for bankruptcy.
It marks the end of Europe's best hope for competing with car batteries from Asia.
Northvolt was once considered Europe's best funded startup,
but it's now unable to secure enough financing to continue.