Germany has asked Switzerland to sell some of its decommissioned Leopard 2 tanks as it struggles to cobble together two battalions of the fighting vehicles to send to Ukraine. Berlin has requested that its neighbour sell some of its 96 mothballed Leopard 2 tanks to the German arms producer Rheinmetall. That could allow European countries
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In 2002, I moved from London to what was then a blessedly cheaper Paris. London had its almighty banks; Paris was the “Capital of the 19th Century”. In fact, I felt I was emigrating from modernity. France then had lower average incomes than the UK and got less foreign direct investment (FDI), partly because of
UK house prices registered the largest decline in more than a decade last month as higher interest rates and the wider cost of living crisis hit demand, according to a closely watched survey. Property prices fell 1.1 per cent in February compared with the same month last year, the biggest drop since November 2012, and
The UK energy regulator Ofgem has lowered the energy price cap by almost £1,000 for a typical home, but consumers will still end up with higher bills from April as the government reduces subsidies to households. The price cap, which governs the amount paid for gas and electricity bills for typical usage, will fall to
President Joe Biden’s speech in Warsaw was thickly coated in the kind of idealistic rhetoric many western Europeans discreetly roll their eyes at. Of Vladimir Putin, he said: “He thought autocrats like himself were tough and leaders of democracies were soft . . . And then, he met the iron will of America and the nations everywhere that refused
Joe Biden has said he did not think China would send weapons to Russia to help its military campaign in Ukraine, in comments that appeared to undercut claims from his top officials that Beijing was considering the idea. In an interview with ABC television on Friday that was aired on the evening of the anniversary
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
The EU and its allies are investigating a surge in exports to economies in Russia’s vicinity as they seek to prevent companies from evading western sanctions imposed on Moscow. David O’Sullivan, the EU’s newly appointed sanctions envoy, told the Financial Times that big increases in trade with countries in Russia’s neighbourhood raised questions as to
Citigroup has forecast that UK inflation will plunge from the current double-digit rates to close to 2 per cent by the end of this year as rapid falls in gas prices give Rishi Sunak’s government hope of solving some of its biggest economic challenges. Citi said on Wednesday that consumer price inflation was likely to
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will suspend its participation in its only remaining nuclear arms treaty with the US, scaling up tensions to a level unseen since the cold war as his invasion of Ukraine nears its first anniversary. In a state-of-the-nation address on Tuesday, the Russian president claimed the US had effectively forced him
US president Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday in a dramatic show of American commitment to Ukraine ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. His stopover, shrouded in secrecy owing to security concerns, comes at a pivotal moment in the war as Ukraine is gearing up for a counteroffensive
The prime minister of Sweden has warned against delinking his country’s Nato membership bid from Finland’s, after the alliance acknowledged for the first time that the two might have to join separately owing to Turkey’s obstruction. Ulf Kristersson said in an interview that for strategic reasons, the two membership applications should be ratified at the
Welcome back. Maia Sandu, the pro-western president of Moldova, accused Russia this week of plotting to overthrow her country’s democratic institutions. It’s time to pay more attention to Moldova — and to recognise that not every problem in this precarious, politically splintered state on Ukraine’s south-western border is connected directly to Russia’s war next door.
European stocks fell and yields on US Treasuries rose in early trade on Friday as robust economic data and hawkish comments from officials fanned fears that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates high to combat inflation. The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 was down 1 per cent while Germany’s Dax fell 1.1 per cent. France’s Cac
The Pentagon is reviewing its weapons stockpiles and may need to boost military spending after seeing how quickly ammunition has been used during the war in Ukraine, the most senior US military official said. General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the return of 20th-century ground warfare tactics in Europe was
Global stocks fluctuated and the dollar strengthened on Wednesday as investors weighed the outlook for interest rates in the wake of fresh inflation data in the US and UK. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 declined 0.1 per cent and Germany’s Dax rose 0.4 per cent as fund managers and economists digested news that US consumer prices
What’s the best language through which to understand the complex events of the world today? Is it economic? Political? Cultural? I’ve begun to think it might be psychological. Psychologists (at least many of those I know) tend to divide the world up into two types of personalities: paranoids, who operate as if they are always
Gemma Hatvani has worked in the energy industry for 20 years but has not experienced anything like the past couple of months as struggling households flock to her Facebook-based service, Energy Support and Advice UK. “It’s horrendous . . . the demand from people needing food parcels, top-up vouchers . . . I know we hear this word a lot but it’s unprecedented,”
Debt market specialists have been banging the drum on this for months: bonds are back. Now it appears this message has cut through sufficiently clearly — particularly on corporate bonds — that the popularity of the bet is one of the few things they think could hold the asset class back, at least in the