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  Putin’s strongman ‘readies his thugs’ in high-stakes vote Aleksandar Vucic is using all means at his disposal to maintain his grip on power, writes Tom Kington in Belgrade Aleksandar Vucic reaches his constitutional term limit as president in May As night fell at a busy roundabout on the edge of Belgrade, Valentina Stanic, 30, was filled with dread. For all the dancing, whistles and lit sparklers as activists challenged the rule of the Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic, trouble seemed likely as next Sunday’s general election neared. Polls suggest it will be tight and Vucic has readied his supporters, placing 1,500 reports in pro-government media warning that there will be violence on the day. This week, his opponents had a glimpse of the danger when a security guard revealed that he had run gangs of thugs who beat up protesters, as well as “trampling the police so the students would be blamed”. Stanic, an advertising manager, said: “We know we are the majority, but if we win the...
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  L'editoriale di Ernesto Galli della Loggia NOI E L’IDEA DI UNA UE DIVERSA L a brutale intimazione rivolta da Trump a Zelensky perché si faccia da parte — una mossa che in realtà ha anche altri due destinatari: l’Ucraina perché smetta di difendersi dall’invasione russa cedendo alle mire di Mosca, e l’Europa perché smetta d’aiutarla — quell’intimazione, dicevo, suona per il nostro continente come allo stadio la campana dell’ultimo giro. Dopo l’intesa di fatto tra Trump e Putin che cosa c’è per l’Europa attuale se non la fine? Ogni elemento della scena mondiale ci dice insomma che il tempo sta per scadere. O in breve la costruzione europea riesce a imboccare la strada di una vera unione per diventare rapidamente un soggetto politico capace di esistere e di resistere nell’arena mondiale oppure per i suoi abitanti, cioè per noi, sarà finita. Ci avvieremo a diventare dei sudditi di fatto di uno o più dei poteri che oggi si contendono l’egemonia planetaria. Ciò che ancora sopravvive – e...
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  Listen Share Print Translate Article Settings Increase font size Decrease font size E-Mail Alerts & Support E-Mail Alerts Contact Us Feedback The secret fight around fin­an­cial flows Financial Times Europe Gil­lian Tett gil­lian.tett@ft.com 17 Oct 2026 Settings Print Share Copy Listen What on earth — or at sea — is hap­pen­ing with global sup­ply chains? It’s a burn­ing ques­tion ahead of Amer­ica’s forth­com­ing cor­por­ate earn­ings sea­son. It also haunted this week’s meet­ings of the IMF, as its eco­nom­ists scrambled to explain why the global eco­nomy has remained sur­pris­ingly “resi­li­ent” this year, amid (more) war and sur­ging interest rates, oil prices, infla­tion and debt. But if you want another insight on the eco­nomy, bey­ond the macro data, it pays to peer at the people dir­ectly hand­ling the gran­u­lar­ity of 21st-cen­tury glob­al­isa­tion, such as cor­por­ate treas­ur­ers. Nor­mally, this tribe tends to be ignored. Treas­ur­ers are pub­li­city shy by natur...
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  Listen Share Print Translate Article Settings Increase font size Decrease font size E-Mail Alerts & Support E-Mail Alerts Contact Us Feedback Recent ruc­tions were a dress rehearsal for an AI bubble burst Financial Times Europe katie.mar­tin@ft.com Katie Mar­tin 17 Oct 2026 Settings Print Share Copy Listen The past week brought a lively and very use­ful dress rehears­alfor what a burst­ing of the AI bubble in mar­kets might look like. First off, we got a hint of what will prob­ably cause it: not cold hard eco­nom­ics, not a blown fuse in an arcane bit of fin­an­cial wir­ing, but vibes. Every investor on the planet knows the prob­lems here. We have a highly con­cen­trated global stock mar­ket that is trundling along almos­ten­tirely on the fumes of spec­u­lat­ive excite­ment about this one big theme. We have eye­wa­ter­ing levels of bor­row­ing, often laced with rather cre­at­ive ways to shove lever­age off bal­ance sheets and into places where rat­ing agen­cies and investors...
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  Listen Share Print Translate Article Settings Increase font size Decrease font size E-Mail Alerts & Support E-Mail Alerts Contact Us Feedback A world on the path to war? As regional con­flicts rage and revi­sion­ist powers chal­lenge the estab­lished order, warn­ings of a new global con­flag­ra­tion are grow­ing louder. Gideon Rach­man asks how wor­ried we should be Financial Times Europe Gideon Rach­man is the FT’s chief for­eign affairs com­ment­ator. His new book ‘War is Inter­ested in You’ is pub­lished by Bod­ley Head on Octo­ber 22 17 Oct 2026 Settings Print Share Copy Listen Deadly mis­sile attacks shut down Riy­adh air­port. Rus­sian strikes on Ukraine kill more than 100 civil­ians. Poland warns of the danger of Rus­sian attacks inside the EU caus­ing fatal­it­ies. China begins a six-day live-fire exer­cise along its coast. All of these events took place over the past week. Col­lect­ively, they are part of a grow­ing sense of global insec­ur­ity. Regions and coun­trie...
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