Centre-right CDU and CSU parties win election, say exit polls

Germany’s centre-right CDU and CSU parties have won the federal elections with about 28.5 to 29 per cent of the vote according to exit polls, paving the way for CDU leader Friedrich Merz to become chancellor at a time of economic and political upheaval in Europe’s largest democracy.

The far-right Alternative for Germany co-led by Alice Weidel recorded its best result with 19.5 — 20 per cent of the vote on Sunday, according to the preliminary projections by state broadcasters ARD and ZDF. That is double what the anti-immigration party achieved in 2021.

Meanwhile Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party won just 16 to 16.5 per cent of the votes.

Shein profits slump in fresh challenge to long-planned London IPO

Competition from Temu adds to pressure on fast-fashion group’s valuation as it seeks approval for UK listing

Shein ships garments made in Chinese factories directly to shoppers around the world © REUTERS

Shein’s profits dropped by more than a third last year, adding to the fast fashion group’s challenges ahead of a long-planned flotation that would be one of the biggest on the London stock exchange this decade.

The Singapore-based group’s net profit shrank by almost 40 per cent to $1bn in 2024 as it suffered a difficult final quarter and battled competition from rival Temu, two people with knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times. 

Sales for the full year increased by 19 per cent to $38bn, according to the people, one of whom added that the figures were from internal projections ahead of finalised accounts.

As a private company, Shein does not publish profit guidance but the 2024 figures were far lower than the $4.8bn in net profit and $45bn in sales the company had projected for 2024 in a presentation to investors in early in 2023, which was seen by the FT.

Shein did not respond to a request for comment. 

The lower profits highlight Shein’s challenges as it attempts to win regulatory approval for a London listing and navigate geopolitical changes that have put pressure on its valuation. 

Shein was valued at $66bn during its most recent funding round in 2023 but some investors and other stakeholders are pressuring the group to cut its valuation to about $30bn, according to two people familiar with the situation, a move that could help it to complete an initial public offering in the first half of this year. 

Shein, which ships cheap garments made in Chinese factories directly to shoppers around the world, previously told investors that a listing could happen as soon as April, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

But an IPO could now be pushed into the second half of this year following US President Donald Trump’s decision to tighten a tariff exemption used by Shein when it sells to American customers, according to two people familiar with the process. 

Trump this month ended the de minimis rule that allows packages worth less than $800 to be imported into the US without incurring duties. He also hit Chinese goods with an additional 10 per cent tariff.

Implementation of the de minimis change is on hold but analysts expect it to drive prices higher for the goods sold by Shein and Temu.

A delay to the IPO into the second half of the year would force the company to refile fresh documents with UK regulators. 

Shein filed confidential IPO paperwork with British regulators last year before the introduction of new UK listing rules. However, a transitional period for completing IPO processes that kicked off before launch of the new rules is set to end in July. 

Refiling would be a largely procedural step, said three senior UK corporate lawyers, but the prospect that the company would miss the window for relying on its original filing highlights how its efforts to list have dragged on. 

Shein first launched plans to go public in New York in late 2023 but pivoted to the UK after being spurned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Its listing has become bogged down amid uncertainty about whether it will receive approval from regulators in London and Beijing.

The fall in profits at Shein comes as the group battles competition from Temu, which has replicated its model of shipping cheap Chinese-made goods to shoppers overseas. Temu has won over some of Shein’s suppliers in China while the competition has also driven up Shein’s air freight costs and marketing spending.

In late 2023, Shein responded to Temu’s threat by briefly diversifying beyond fashion, which The Information previously reported eroded Shein’s profitability. Shein has since refocused on its core business. 

Shein has ploughed money into lobbying efforts in western capitals from Washington to London, including hiring Trump loyalist Kash Patel to be a consultant for its parent company Elite Depot. Patel stepped down as a consultant ahead of his recent confirmation as FBI director but has retained shares in the company, which are worth between $1mn and $5mn.

Additional reporting by Ivan Levingston

Apple said current UK users of the security feature will eventually need to disable it © REUTERS Apple is withdrawing its most secure cloud storage service from the UK after the British government ordered the iPhone maker to grant secret access to customer data.

“Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature,” the US Big Tech company said on Friday.

Last month, Apple received a “technical capability notice” under the UK Investigatory Powers Act, people familiar with the matter told the FT at the time.

The request for a so-called “backdoor” to user data would have enabled law enforcement and security services to tap iPhone back-ups and other cloud data that is otherwise inaccessible, even to Apple itself.

The law, dubbed a “Snooper’s Charter” by its critics, has extraterritorial powers, meaning UK law enforcement could access the encrypted data of Apple customers anywhere in the world, including in the US.

This is a developing story

Apple said current UK users of the security feature will eventually need to disable it © REUTERS Apple is withdrawing its most secure cloud storage service from the UK after the British government ordered the iPhone maker to grant secret access to customer data.

“Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature,” the US Big Tech company said on Friday.

Last month, Apple received a “technical capability notice” under the UK Investigatory Powers Act, people familiar with the matter told the FT at the time.

The request for a so-called “backdoor” to user data would have enabled law enforcement and security services to tap iPhone back-ups and other cloud data that is otherwise inaccessible, even to Apple itself.

The law, dubbed a “Snooper’s Charter” by its critics, has extraterritorial powers, meaning UK law enforcement could access the encrypted data of Apple customers anywhere in the world, including in the US.

This is a developing story

Apple said current UK users of the security feature will eventually need to disable it © REUTERS Apple is withdrawing its most secure cloud storage service from the UK after the British government ordered the iPhone maker to grant secret access to customer data.

“Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature,” the US Big Tech company said on Friday.

Last month, Apple received a “technical capability notice” under the UK Investigatory Powers Act, people familiar with the matter told the FT at the time.

The request for a so-called “backdoor” to user data would have enabled law enforcement and security services to tap iPhone back-ups and other cloud data that is otherwise inaccessible, even to Apple itself.

The law, dubbed a “Snooper’s Charter” by its critics, has extraterritorial powers, meaning UK law enforcement could access the encrypted data of Apple customers anywhere in the world, including in the US.

This is a developing story

Trump calls Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ as US rift with Ukraine deepens

US president warns Ukrainian leader he ‘better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left’

Donald Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and warned that he “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left”, in a deepening rift between the two leaders.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, the US President hit out at his Ukrainian counterpart hours after Zelenskyy accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” and disputed his $500bn bill for aid to Kyiv.

The bitter exchange comes after Trump upended decades of US policy by convening bilateral talks with Moscow on the Ukraine war without inviting Kyiv and blaming Zelenskyy for the 2022 Russian invasion.

In his most overt threat yet to end the war on terms favourable to Moscow, Trump wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

He added that Zelenskyy had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won”.

Speaking in Kyiv earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskyy, who was sidelined this week from high-profile talks between the US and Russia in Riyadh over the conflict, blasted Trump for pushing “a lot of disinformation coming from Russia”.

“Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly . . . is living in this disinformation bubble,” ​he said.

He made his comments as Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the US-Russian rapprochement and argued that European leaders had excluded themselves from the talks.

Zelenskyy’s retort was prompted by Trump’s remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, in which the US president falsely claimed Kyiv had started the conflict, the largest on European soil since the second world war.

Trump added he was “very disappointed” that Ukraine was “upset about not having a seat” at Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia.

“Today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited’,” the US president said. “Well, you’ve been there for three years . . . you should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

Zelenskyy’s comments came a day after the US and Russia agreed to “lay the groundwork for future co-operation” on ending the war, in their first high-profile talks since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

Amid a dramatic reversal of decades of US policy towards Russia, Trump last week announced that he had spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war, without consulting Kyiv or its European allies.

In his first comments since his conversation with Trump, Putin said he “highly appreciates” the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, which he said “made the first step to resuming our work on all sorts of issues of mutual interest”.

“The US negotiators were totally different — they were open to a negotiating process without any biases or judgments about what was done in the past,” he said. “They intend to work together.”

Putin said Russia would not “speculate” on US-European relations, but claimed EU leaders had “insulted” Trump during his election campaign and said “they are themselves at fault for what is happening”.

Putin said he would meet Trump “with pleasure” but that any summit required substantial preparation.

On Wednesday, Zelenskyy pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that elections should be held in Ukraine, after the US president claimed that his Ukrainian counterpart had an approval rating of just 4 per cent.

Pointing to polling from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which in February found that 57 per cent of Ukrainians trusted their president, Zelenskyy said: “So if anyone wants to replace me right now, that will not work.”

Putin has long sought regime change in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian president also disputed Trump’s claim that Ukraine owed the US $500bn worth of rare minerals and other resources for past military assistance.

Kyiv has spent $320bn on its war efforts against Russia, with $200bn coming from international military assistance, Zelenskyy said. 

“The United States has contributed approximately $60bn so far, with an additional $31.5 billion in financial assistance,” he said. “That’s $67bn in weaponry and $31.5bn in direct budgetary support.”

US state department data broadly supports Zelenskyy’s figure for US military support for Ukraine.