The Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin often brags about his supposedly fearless exploits on Ukraine’s battlefields, but his most reckless manoeuvre may have been at home: flying too high in the Kremlin. For months, the founder of the Wagner group has been sparring with Russia’s military over a series of calamitous defeats in Ukraine, in
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“The glory and freedom of Ukraine have not yet died.” Scarcely has the first line of a national anthem proved so apt. Russia’s assault on its neighbour on February 24 2022 brought large-scale war, with all its bloodshed, misery and mass dislocations, back to Europe. A year later there are grounds for solace. Ukraine has
Germany’s economy shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter according to revised figures, raising doubts over the ability of Europe’s biggest economy to escape recession and recover swiftly from its energy crisis. High inflation drove sharp falls in German consumer spending and investment in buildings and machinery in the final quarter of 2022, the
On February 24 last year, the world awoke to news that Russian tanks had rolled into Ukraine from the east and north. Troops had been massing on Ukraine’s borders for months and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had made a series of fiery speeches on the long-running conflict in the Donbas region. There were fears that
China has called for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine and a return to negotiations as Beijing attempts to position itself as a peacemaker in the conflict on the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The Chinese foreign ministry on Friday released a 12-point paper on its position on a “political settlement” to the war
Each February, the team at NPR’s fabulous Planet Money podcast announce their Valentines, nerdy love letters to under-appreciated data releases or obscure supply-chain trackers. This year, co-host Amanda Aronczyk revealed that her Valentine would be for . . . the office. She loved the camaraderie of office life. As love letters go, it was bittersweet. At the beginning of
31.1.23 The train taking me from Poland to Ukraine is full. The passengers are almost all women, and I share a compartment with one who’s mostly silent. In the long hours when the train is at a standstill, passport control and customs come around. Then we trade a few sentences. She’s expecting a child and
The US will make “no apologies” for prioritising American jobs in its bid to lead the global clean energy contest, the White House official responsible for the $369bn green funding drive has said. In an interview with the Financial Times, John Podesta, Joe Biden’s senior clean energy adviser, pushed back at criticism that the US
Job cuts at McKinsey and KPMG this month are the first concrete sign that a boom in spending on consultants that started during the pandemic might be over, as clients move to reduce costs and battle inflation. Companies short on staff and desperate to make their operations digital after the pandemic paid record amounts to
Europe needs to do more to boost supply chain self-sufficiency in renewable energy, the head of French utility Engie has warned, as huge US subsidies help it steal a march in creating an independent green tech industry. Catherine MacGregor, the gas distributor’s chief executive, said it was branching heavily into renewables in Europe as well
On February 22 1946, 77 years ago this week, George Kennan sent a 5,000-word telegram to James Byrnes, then US secretary of state. It was to become known as the “long telegram” and would form the basis of America’s policy towards the Soviet Union for nearly half a century. A shy and introverted Midwesterner, Kennan
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to defeat Russia in 2023, as Ukraine marked the solemn anniversary of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion and a year that forever altered the country and upturned the global order. “A year ago on this day, from this same place around seven in the morning, I addressed you with a brief
US prosecutors have widened their criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried, adding new charges and detailing a “series of systems and schemes” through which they allege the FTX founder siphoned off billions of dollars from customer deposits. The updated indictment, released on Thursday morning, added charges including securities fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. That
Humza Yousaf launched his bid to be leader of Scotland’s governing Scottish National party in the town of Clydebank, where his Pakistani late grandfather settled in the early 1960s with hopes of a better life but “barely a word of English”. “I don’t think he could have imagined, in his wildest dreams, that his grandson
Joe Biden has nominated former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga as World Bank president, picking a Wall Street veteran raised in India to oversee the institution’s biggest mission change in a generation. Banga’s nomination, a week after sitting president David Malpass abruptly resigned, comes as the US and other shareholder nations seek to expand the
Should books be sanitised? And is it even possible to rewrite sections of text while remaining true to the author’s style and intentions? The debate over whether to retrofit historic literature, especially children’s books, for modern readers is not new — but it was reignited this week with The Daily Telegraph’s revelations that several of
From the moment he stepped off a plane in Moscow this week, Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi lauded China’s friendship with Russia. The bilateral relationship was “mature” and “as stable as Mount Tai”, he told Russian president Vladimir Putin, invoking a sacred mountain in China’s eastern Shandong province. Wang’s visit to Moscow concluded a week
This was the warm-up act. The visit of Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, to Moscow this week was designed to set in train a fresh Chinese approach to bilateral ties almost a year after Russia ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Although the headline quotes from Wang’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin played up promises to
Join our webinar for FT subscribers from 1pm-2pm UK/GMT on Thursday February 23. Put your questions to our panel with Ukraine correspondent Christopher Miller, Europe editor Ben Hall, and expert guests Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist with 1mn followers on YouTube, Sergey Aleksashenko, former deputy governor of the central bank of Russia, and Andriy
“It’s my second time in Paris,” says Marina Ovsyannikova, sitting in the dingy offices of Reporters Without Borders, the NGO for press freedom. “Yesterday my daughter said, ‘Last time I threw coins into the fountains, but I didn’t expect to come back this way.’” Ovsyannikova was the editor on Russian state TV who burst into
US futures and European stocks advanced on Thursday after suffering recent declines, as investors took heart from the prospect that stronger economic growth would boost corporate earnings. The region-wide Stoxx 600 added 0.2 per cent, while Germany’s Dax rose 0.5 per cent and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.4 per cent. Traders’ optimism was boosted by