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Vladimir Putin has moved to shake up Russia’s security services in the wake of the Wagner group’s failed insurrection, rewarding loyalists with promotions and freezing out figures sympathetic to the paramilitary organisation’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. Sergei Surovikin, a senior Russian general known to have a good relationship with Prigozhin, has not been seen since recording

Russia dropped charges against participants in the Wagner paramilitary force’s armed insurrection and said the group had agreed to hand over its weaponry. The announcements on Tuesday came in the wake of the deal between the Kremlin and Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and appeared to mark progress towards resolving the stand-off. The FSB, Russia’s main

The head of the Wagner private military group has denied trying to overthrow the Russian government but redoubled his criticism of the country’s defence establishment in his first public comments since Saturday’s abortive march on Moscow. In an 11-minute voice recording posted on Telegram on Monday, Yevgeny Prigozhin said his goal had been to protest

The images that defined Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a leader were filmed on February 25 last year. As Russian troops closed in on Kyiv, the Ukrainian president walked the streets of the city with his close colleagues, reassuring citizens that: “All of us are here, protecting our independence and our country.” Now contrast that with Vladimir

Russian strongman Yevgeny Prigozhin has been charged with organising an armed uprising after threatening to attack Russian forces in retaliation for what he claimed was an air strike against his own paramilitaries. Prigozhin, founder of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, said on Friday that a “huge number” of fighters had been killed in the alleged

Halfway through watching Grandpa Was An Emperor, a fascinating recent documentary about Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, I was thrown by a minor, but completely unexpected, plot twist. Not long before he was killed in a coup, one of the film’s key protagonists, Ethiopia’s agriculture minister Kassa Wolde Mariam, had appeared on the

European equities followed Asian stocks lower on Tuesday as investors questioned whether China’s smaller than expected cut to its benchmark lending rate would be sufficient to boost the country’s sluggish economy. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 lost 0.1 per cent, extending its losses from the previous session, while Germany’s Dax was down 0.3 per cent. London’s

Credit Suisse has asked London’s High Court to strike out a lawsuit brought by Mozambique over the bank’s role in the $2bn “tuna bonds” scandal, claiming failures to disclose government documents mean there cannot be a fair trial. The Swiss bank and other parties are defending a lawsuit brought by the Republic of Mozambique, one

Italy has stripped China’s Sinochem of its influence as the largest shareholder in Pirelli, removing its right to appoint the chief executive or set the tyremaker’s strategy in response to worries about interference by the Chinese state. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has invoked national security concerns about the potential for misuse of Pirelli’s

Donald Trump indicted; Boris Johnson practically fleeing parliament; Silvio Berlusconi gone from the Italian stage he had dominated for decades. Pundits might be forgiven for declaring the death of populism alongside that of Berlusconi. Liberals are likely to feel confirmed in their view that populism always ends not only in policy failure — since populists

The writer directs the Center on the US and Europe at the Brookings Institution “Look at us! We’re a serious, grown-up country now!” This was the self-congratulatory message Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz had to convey to the world on Wednesday, when he stepped in front of the assembled national press, accompanied by his foreign, defence,

Stocks rallied in Asia after the People’s Bank of China cut its medium-term policy rate in the face of slowing economic growth and the US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index, which tracks mainland Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong, rose 1.4 per cent and the CSI 300 of

Boris Johnson will be found to have committed “multiple” contempts of parliament in a report by MPs into his conduct as prime minister during the partygate scandal, according to people close to the inquiry. The House of Commons privileges committee is set to publish its long-awaited report about Johnson on Thursday morning following a 14-month

Gilt yields surged to the highest since 2008, surpassing the level reached during the turmoil following Liz Truss’s mini Budget, after strong UK wage growth data on Tuesday. Wage growth accelerated in the three months to April against a backdrop of rising employment, raising the likelihood of further interest rate rises. Two-year gilt yields rose

Both Britain and America flatter themselves that their political systems are admired all over the world. The UK is the home to the “mother of parliaments”. The US is the “leader of the free world”. The two countries see themselves as mature democracies; models that other nations can emulate. But the last few years have

Rishi Sunak has finally approved Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, which includes appointments for Tory MPs and a senior official who worked in Downing Street during the partygate scandal. The former prime minister nominated several senior Conservative MPs who are his allies. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conor Burns, and Simon Clarke were knighted, while Priti Patel and

European markets traded cautiously at the open on Thursday as Canada’s surprise interest rate rise stoked fears the world’s central banks will push global rates higher for longer than expected. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 fell 0.1 per cent, following Wall Street lower overnight, as traders were unsettled by the Bank of Canada’s decision on Wednesday

UK hopes of securing a quick deal to deepen digital trade ties with the US have run into the diplomatic sands amid growing resistance to such pacts in Washington, technology industry insiders have warned. The sector’s frustrations emerged as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak landed in Washington for a meeting with President Joe Biden at which

Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s vice-president, has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to launch his candidacy for president, joining a crowded field of Republicans vying to take on Trump for the party’s nomination in 2024. Pence, 63, was loyal to Trump for four years in the White House, but broke with the president when

Apple unveiled its long-awaited “mixed reality” headset on Monday, in its most anticipated hardware product launch since Steve Jobs revealed the iPad in 2010. The gadget, called Vision Pro, will be available “early next year”. It combines virtual reality with augmented reality, which overlays digital images on top of the real world. Apple said it