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There was a moment when Turkey’s election debate came down to an onion and a warship.  It began when Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the man leading the charge to break President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s grip over Turkish politics, sat at his kitchen table last month, his shirt collar open, sleeves rolled up, and held up an onion.

Russian forces launched a barrage of air strikes on Kyiv ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, in what the city’s mayor said was the largest drone attack on the capital since Moscow’s full-scale invasion last year. Ukrainian forces said they had shot down 30 “kamikaze” drones in the Kyiv area in the early hours of

Veteran Balkan politicians know better than to be enthusiastic about deals made under pressure in diplomatic back rooms. But the events of March 18 gave Visar Ymeri, a former leader of Kosovo’s ruling party, reason to be optimistic. “We have a deal,” the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said as he wrapped up a

Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III will be the most public display in seven decades of the curious relationship in the UK between England’s established church and the hereditary monarchy. The King will be accompanied to and from the ceremony by thousands of military personnel, a reminder that Britain’s constitutional monarch remains head of state.

A flood of gilt sales is driving up the UK government’s borrowing costs, investors say, as markets are asked to absorb record volumes of bonds without the Bank of England stepping in to hoover up supply. Bond yields in most large economies have shot up over the past 18 months as soaring inflation drove a

The US Federal Trade Commission is seeking to ban Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, from monetising children’s data and further limit its use of facial recognition technology. The FTC’s proposal on Wednesday called for a blanket prohibition on Meta’s ability to commercialise data it collects from users aged 18 and under, including

Energy stocks tumbled on Tuesday, falling in tandem with oil prices in response to cooling demand for fuel in the US and China. Shares in large oil companies including Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil each lost more than 3.5 per cent, while Houston-based Halliburton fell by more than 8 per cent. ExxonMobil closed almost 4

5/1/2023, 11:10:12 PM What to watch in Asia today FT reporters Events: The Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy rate-setting meeting begins. The Asian Development Bank’s annual gathering starts in Incheon, South Korea. Finance ministers and central bank governors of Asean Plus Three countries hold a news conference on the event’s sidelines. Data: South Korea

Last week was the tenth anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, in which 1,100 garment workers were killed because a shoddily constructed factory collapsed on top of them. It turned out that the factory was making goods for major global brands. The managers who took the decision to outsource to unknown individuals

Silicon Valley Bank’s failure last month stemmed from weakened regulations during the Trump administration and mis-steps by internal supervisors who were too slow to correct management blunders, the US Federal Reserve said in a scathing review of the lender’s implosion. The long-awaited report, released on Friday, had harsh words for the California bank’s management but

Richard Sharp has been forced to resign as BBC chair after an investigation found that he breached the rules after failing to declare a role in the loan guarantee made to Boris Johnson before his appointment. Sharp has been under increasing pressure after an investigation was launched by Adam Heppinstall KC into whether he had

The US is significantly stepping up its commitment to use its nuclear arsenal to defend South Korea, as it seeks to reassure Seoul about the strength of their alliance in the face of threats from North Korea. President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol are set to announce on Wednesday that

Credit Suisse suffered SFr61.2bn ($68.6bn) of asset outflows in the first quarter as clients fled the stricken bank, exposing the scale of the task UBS now faces after taking over its Swiss rival. The speed with which clients deserted Credit Suisse was the chief reason Swiss authorities stepped in last month to orchestrate a rescue

A lobbying firm is launching a one-year business engagement operation ahead of the next general election in what is likely to be one of multiple attempts to exploit the vacuum left by the crisis at the CBI. WPI Strategy, a public affairs group behind the imminent launch of “BizUK”, insisted that it was not trying

Many of the biggest names in British business quit the CBI on Friday after a second allegation of rape threatened the survival of the employers’ organisation. Groups ranging from insurer Aviva and car manufacturers Jaguar Land Rover and BMW to payments company Mastercard and retailer John Lewis said they were cancelling their memberships after the

Google plans to introduce generative artificial intelligence into its advertising business over the coming months, as big tech groups rush to incorporate the groundbreaking technology into their products. According to an internal presentation to advertisers seen by the Financial Times, the Alphabet-owned company intends to begin using the AI to create novel advertisements based on

UK inflation remained in double digits in March with annual price rises of 10.1 per cent, raising the chances of further interest rate rises from the Bank of England. Consumer price inflation had been 10.4 per cent in February and was expected to drop to 9.8 per cent last month. Although petrol and diesel prices

China is starting to target western interests in the country after five years of snowballing trade and technology restrictions spearheaded by the US under presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Over the past two months, Chinese officials have slapped new sanctions on US weapons companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, launched an investigation into US chipmaker

The head of the IMF’s Africa department has called for a significant increase in international support to help countries overcome a funding squeeze that is jeopardising the continent’s economic development. Abebe Selassie told the Financial Times that reform of the current mechanisms for dealing with unsustainable debts of African countries was “desperately needed”. “Do we

The writer is executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia, and author of ‘The Billionaire Raj’ Two recent Beijing trips by global leaders have shed light on the many paradoxes of a future age of economic decoupling. A visit by Emmanuel Macron, president of France, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission