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  • Hello, and welcome to The Week Ahead from the Financial Times in London.

  • Here are some of the big stories we'll be watching this week.

  • Migration and Brexit will top the agenda at a key EU summit.

  • Uber appeals against losing its licence in London.

  • Leftwing Amlo looks set to win Mexico's presidential election.

  • And results from South Africa's Steinhoff,

  • the owner of Poundland, will show

  • if the scandal-hit retailer can bounce back.

  • First, in Brussels, EU leaders gather on Thursday

  • for one of the most difficult summits in years, with member

  • states badly divided over migration

  • and how to respond to the US under Donald Trump.

  • The two-day gathering will cover some of the most fraught issues

  • for the union - how to break the impasse on a common asylum

  • policy, how to reform the eurozone,

  • how to salvage the transatlantic alliance,

  • and how to handle Brexit.

  • Gideon Rachman has more.

  • From the British point of view, the thing

  • they'll be most worried about is Brexit,

  • because time is running out.

  • Britain is meant to be out of the EU by March of next year.

  • And there are all sorts of incredibly important details

  • which have not been agreed.

  • The British will be hoping for some advances.

  • Frankly, I'm skeptical.

  • However, from the German and French point of view,

  • there are other more pressing issues.

  • Migration is number one.

  • The government of Angela Merkel in Germany

  • is actually under threat because its coalition partners

  • want a much tougher migration regime.

  • Merkel is pleading for time and saying maybe

  • she can get a pan-European deal at this council.

  • So that will be really important,

  • whether she can do that.

  • And finally, there's the question of eurozone reform.

  • Merkel and Macron, the French and German leaders,

  • have just agreed to have a separate budget

  • for the eurozone, the countries that use

  • the European single currency.

  • But the details are yet to be filled in,

  • and it's not clear whether the other EU

  • countries will go for that.

  • But if it happens, it's a huge development.

  • Uber will face London's transport authority this week

  • in a much anticipated hearing about its licence

  • to operate in the capital.

  • The ride-hailing app was banned by Transport

  • for London, or TFL, in September over safety concerns.

  • Aliya Ram has this analysis.

  • It's a really important case for Uber

  • because London is Uber's biggest market in Europe.

  • TFL banned Uber primarily because of concerns

  • over how it dealt with security incidents

  • and how it reported violent incidents to the police.

  • And since the start of the year, Uber's made

  • a series of changes intended to appease TFL.

  • So they've invested millions of pounds in call centre staff

  • so drivers and riders can call if they have a question or a concern.

  • They've said they'll start reporting violent incidents to the police.

  • They've also capped the number of hours

  • that drivers can work before they

  • have to take a break, which is a response to concerns

  • about tired drivers on the road.

  • So I think they will be going into the hearing

  • this week very confident and hopeful that they'll

  • get their licence back, although there were

  • some expectations that the licence issue would

  • be settled before the hearing.

  • And that hasn't happened, so we'll have to see.

  • Mexico looks set for one of the most profound political shifts

  • in decades when voters go to the polls on July the 1st.

  • Andrés Manuelpez Obrador, a leftist nationalist,

  • is more than 20 points clear of his rivals and is predicted

  • to win a landslide with his Morena party,

  • dealing a major blow to the ruling Institutional

  • Revolutionary party.

  • Amlo, as the 64-year-old is widely known,

  • is vowing to eradicate corruption

  • and to revive Mexico's poor south.

  • He has pledged also to pause the energy

  • reform that opened Mexico's oil sector to private investment.

  • But his opponents warn about a return

  • to the failed policies of Mexico's populist governments of the 1970s.

  • Steinhoff has been one of the more spectacular

  • high-profile corporate scandals of recent years.

  • Equity in the South African retail group,

  • which owns Poundland in the UK, collapsed

  • after the discovery of accounting irregularities six months ago.

  • Jonathan Eley says investors will

  • be watching Steinhoff results very closely this week

  • Steinhoff, which is a pan-African retail group,

  • was the biggest flotation of 2015 on Frankfurt's markets

  • when it floated there.

  • Since then, its shares have lost 90% of their value.

  • Its bonds are junk.

  • Its former major shareholder is suing it.

  • And its former chief executive is under investigation

  • for corruption and fraud.

  • It's been a quite spectacular fall from grace.

  • It reports interim results this week.

  • The key focus with results is normally profits.

  • In this case, it will be the balance sheets.

  • There are enormous doubts about what

  • assets exactly this company owns and how much those assets are worth.

  • The balance sheet hopefully should give creditors

  • some confidence as to the financial picture of the company.

  • That's important because Steinhoff

  • needs to renegotiate its substantial debts.

  • And that's what the week ahead looks like from the Financial Times in London.

  • Goodbye.

Hello, and welcome to The Week Ahead from the Financial Times in London.

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