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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in a maximum-security prison in the country’s far north, Russia’s prison service has said. Navalny, 47 — President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent and a fierce critic of

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Brussels should incentivise Europe’s defence industry to ramp up production and promote consolidation, the president of the European Commission has said, as she warned that the “world has got rougher”. Ursula von der Leyen said

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “grow the economy” suffered a serious blow on Thursday as official figures showed Britain entered a technical recession at the end of 2023. Labour claimed the prime minister’s promises on the

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. UK inflation stayed steady at 4 per cent in January, undershooting expectations and bolstering hopes that the Bank of England will soon feel it has enough evidence of price pressures easing to cut interest rates.

Holzdorf military base was once the pride of Communist East Germany, a strategic linchpin for the Warsaw Pact countries who opposed Nato. Now it is being remade as one of the west’s biggest bulwarks against Russia. The base’s runway is being expanded, so any plane in the Nato arsenal can land there. Soon it will

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US foreign policy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Joe Biden sharply rebuked Donald Trump for saying he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies that did not spend enough on defence, as the US president pleaded for Republicans in Congress to pass

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Professional services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. US law firm Latham & Watkins is cutting off automatic access to its international databases for its Hong Kong-based lawyers, in a sign of how Beijing’s closer control of the territory is forcing global firms

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The EU’s chief diplomat and Germany’s president joined other western leaders in condemning former US president Donald Trump’s suggestion that he would allow Russia to attack any Nato member that failed to spend enough on

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Private equity myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The founders and top executives of the largest private equity groups in the US have seen the value of their shares rise by over $40bn since the beginning of 2023 as new assets have poured

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Tech companies have axed 34,000 jobs this year as they rejig their workforces to invest in new areas such as generative artificial intelligence to power their next phase of growth. Microsoft, Snap, eBay and PayPal

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Far more Americans trust Donald Trump to handle the US economy than Joe Biden despite months of strong growth, a new poll has found, underscoring the president’s difficulty in convincing voters his policies are improving

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The amount US financial institutions have loaned to shadow banks such as fintechs and private credit groups has passed $1tn, as regulators warn that growing ties between traditional and alternative lenders could present systemic risks.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Democrats sought to rally around Joe Biden on Friday after they were left reeling by a special counsel’s report that cast the US president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. As the

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Sir Keir Starmer has insisted the British public would “appreciate” him being “straight” about Labour’s plans for the economy after he slashed the party’s long-standing £28bn annual green spending commitment. Starmer on Friday said Labour

A US Department of Justice report on Thursday cast Joe Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in a damaging portrayal of the president even as he was spared from criminal charges following a months-long probe. The report from special counsel Robert Hur, who oversaw the DoJ’s investigation into Biden’s handling of

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rishi Sunak has attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to water down his flagship green investment programme, saying the move shows the Labour leader lacks a consistent plan. The Conservative prime minister said Starmer had a

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China’s consumer prices fell at the fastest rate in 15 years in January, missing analysts’ forecasts and underlining the challenges for policymakers trying to revive investor confidence in the world’s second-largest economy. The country’s consumer

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected as “delusional” Hamas’s conditions for a deal to release the hostages it holds in Gaza, warning that accepting the terms would lead to “another massacre”. In a press

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Standard Chartered has sounded out UK political heavyweights Sir Charles Roxburgh and Sir Sajid Javid as potential candidates for its next chair when José Viñals steps down. Executive search firm Spencer Stuart has been gauging

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Donald Trump cannot use presidential immunity as a shield against criminal charges over alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election, a US federal appeals court has ruled. In a unanimous decision handed down on Tuesday,