Financial Times (Continuación)

Cottbus is the base of the coal miner Leag, whose plans to expand renewables in eastern Germany won it praise © Patrick Pleul/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

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There is a saying in the swath of eastern Germany known as the Lausitz that captures both the beauty of the region and the curse of its geology. “God created the Lausitz”, goes the expression. “But Satan put coal underneath”.

Local people did a deal with the devil over the past 100 years: they let mining machines carve chunks from the lush green forests, destroyed centuries-old villages to dig up millions of tonnes of the dirty lignite that lies under them and polluted the planet in the process. In exchange came thousands of jobs and the pride found in powering the German economic juggernaut.…  Seguir leyendo »

The ex-Eta terrorist bringing down Pedro Sánchez in Spain

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Pedro Sánchez’s struggling campaign to win another term as Spanish prime minister is being hurt by one person more than anything else: Arnaldo Otegi, a convicted member of the disbanded Eta terrorist group.

Otegi, who has served 14 years in prison, is the leader of EH Bildu, a leftwing Basque separatist party with a key role in national politics. Its parliamentary votes have helped Sánchez pass his signature reforms to labour law, pensions and housing.

But outside the Basque country Otegi, convicted for crimes including kidnapping and belonging to an armed group, has been vilified as a man of violence. He has never condemned Eta’s bloodshed and the taint of terror has made his party repulsive to many.…  Seguir leyendo »

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez, left, and opposition Popular party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo before their TV election debate © AFP via Getty Images

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Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez and his electoral rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo accused each other of failing to protect women, making pacts with disreputable allies and lying about the economy in an ill-tempered televised debate on Monday evening.

The two rivals interrupted, spoke over and aimed slights at each other in a series of testy exchanges, with the Socialist prime minister appearing more irritable on a night that was one of his final chances to rein in the poll lead of Feijóo’s conservative People’s party.

Sánchez called a snap general election after suffering an emphatic defeat in regional and local elections at the end of May.…  Seguir leyendo »

Nato’s dilemma: what to do about Ukraine’s bid to join?

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Whe Lithuanian capital with another strategic objective: to gain a seat at Nato’s table.

To Zelenskyy and his government, the US-led alliance represents long-term peace and security. Article 5 of Nato’s treaty is an ironclad mutual-defence clause backed up by American, British and French nuclear weapons.

But Kyiv’s objective goes beyond defence. Through Nato membership, Ukraine would receive an unambiguous ticket into “the west”, a break from centuries of subjugation by Moscow, and the security required for its reconstruction and economic revival.

Yet Ukraine poses a series of questions for Nato’s 31 members. Those questions reach to the heart of the alliance’s purpose, from how prepared its members are to fight a war against Russia to whether Nato’s mutual-defence clause is a security blanket to be thrown around states, or a badge of distinction to be earned.…  Seguir leyendo »

The last Brexit deal? Gibraltar fears a hard border with Spain

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Antonio Sánchez Morodo flashes his identity card at the border guards as he leaves Spain to get to work, riding his bike down Winston Churchill Avenue on the only land crossing into Gibraltar, a sliver of British-Mediterranean soil that is as wealthy as it is cramped.

Space is so scarce in the UK overseas territory, where everything is squeezed by the iconic hunk of limestone looming over it, that it relies on 15,400 cross-frontier commuters from Spain to double the size of its workforce on a daily basis, before they return home to sleep in Andalusia, mainland Spain’s southernmost autonomous community.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains the ultimate decision maker as inspectors warn that Iran’s nuclear centrifuges can create enriched uranium that could power a weapon © FT montage/AP/Handout

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When two UN atomic watchdog inspectors set off for Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant in January, they gave their Iranian counterparts virtually no notice of the impending visit.

It was what the International Atomic Energy Agency terms a routine unscheduled inspection, designed to give staff at one of the Islamic republic’s most secretive facilities as little time as possible to make any alterations to equipment.

On this occasion, they would make an alarming discovery. After the inspectors donned laboratory coats and descended into Fordow, built deep beneath a mountain to protect against US or Israeli bombs, they were immediately given cause for concern.…  Seguir leyendo »

Xi Jinping’s appointments to the Chinese Communist party politburo reflect his ambitions to harness commercial technologies for the benefit of the country’s modernising military © FT montage/Getty Images/Reuters/Bloomberg

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When the Chinese Communist party leadership gathered in Beijing for its quinquennial congress last October, the media spotlight was firmly on President Xi Jinping securing a precedent-shattering third term as China’s unchallenged leader.

Overlooked by many at the time was the rise of a new group of political leaders in the top echelons of power whose background diverges from the usual careers in provincial government or Communist party administration. Instead, they all have deep experience in China’s military-industrial complex.

Their swift advancement is part of Xi’s efforts to reinvigorate China’s long-running project of “military-civil fusion”, a policy that seeks to harness new technologies from the private sector for the benefit of the country’s rapidly modernising military.…  Seguir leyendo »

Dr Maria Teresa Gervasi says women are having to choose between being a mother and working © Linda Scuizzato/FT

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Italy’s prestigious University of Padova made its name in the Middle Ages, when its medical scholars pioneered the dissection of human bodies to study anatomy.

These days, Dr Maria Teresa Gervasi, director of the medical school’s obstetrics unit, is dissecting the demographic crisis afflicting her university town.

An economically and culturally vibrant city akin to Oxford or Cambridge, Padova recorded a 27 per cent fall in annual births in the decade to 2020. Local primary schools are struggling to enrol children, raising the prospect of mergers or closures.

Yet the administration of the vast University Hospital of Padova — with nearly 9,000 employees, of whom 70 per cent are women — is resisting pleas for an on-site crèche to help staff reconcile child-raising with long, irregular hours as healthcare workers.…  Seguir leyendo »

The European Central Bank is expected to announce a pilot scheme for a digital currency this year as the EU seeks new ways of promoting the euro’s weight globally © FT montage/Getty/Bloomberg

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When more than 1,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Amsterdam in early February, they directed their ire at something that does not even exist: the digital euro.

The protesters voiced a kaleidoscopic array of objections to the European Central Bank’s plan to issue an electronic version of the continent’s single currency. Some feared the state would use it to track and control their spending, while others suspected a plot to replace cash. One protester told Dutch media she feared the authorities would stop her buying meat or alcohol.

Willem Engel, the event’s organiser who was a ringleader for Dutch opposition to Covid-19 vaccines, whipped up the crowd by telling them to “avoid companies that don’t accept cash”.…  Seguir leyendo »

A soldier from the Bureviy assault brigade © FT montage/AFP/Getty Images

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In a pine forest on the northern edge of Kyiv one afternoon this month, Senior Sergeant Yaroslav of the Bureviy (“storm”) assault brigade gathered his rookie soldiers for a pep talk.

In no uncertain terms, he outlined the mission ahead of them. “You are being trained to assault, not to defend”, he said. “We will teach you how to attack so that Ukraine will be victorious and you might stay alive”.

The exercise was to storm and clear enemy trenches. Unloaded Kalashnikovs in hand, the troops quickly but cautiously crawled through shrubs and dirt before dropping into the maze of earthworks.…  Seguir leyendo »

Rina Gonoi is releasing a book about her time in Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Forces © FT montage/Getty Images

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Next Wednesday, Rina Gonoi will publish her account of two harrowing years as a member of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Forces. It is a blow that will land heavily and with devastating timing.

The book, Raising My Voice, will hit Japan with a grim depiction of life in uniform. Gonoi’s description of a sexual assault involving four drunken officers — a story that emerged last year, triggering an investigation and a string of dismissals — forced unprecedented self-examination on the nation’s military.

Her shocking allegations arrived at what should have been a pivotal moment of confidence and optimism for the SDF, a military force that has existed since 1954 in an uneasy compromise with a constitution that forbids Japan from maintaining “war potential”.…  Seguir leyendo »

Kais Saied, Tunisia’s president, staged a power grab in 2021 © Kais Saied, Tunisia’s president, staged a power grab in 2021 | FT montage; AFP/Getty Images/AP

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On a recent Ramadan day in April, just before sundown when Muslims break their fast, dozens of Tunisian policemen swooped on the home of Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the country’s biggest political party and took the 81-year-old man to jail.

Ghannouchi, the former speaker of parliament and head of the moderately Islamist Nahda party, was charged a few days later with plotting against state security and ordered to remain in custody pending trial. The security services took over Nahda’s Tunis headquarters and banned meetings in its other offices. Several of the party’s other senior officials have also been detained.

The Islamist leader is the most high-profile politician to have been arrested since Kais Saied, Tunisia’s president, staged a power grab in 2021 and began dismantling the country’s young democracy.…  Seguir leyendo »

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde © FT montage/AP/Getty Images

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Christine Lagarde’s partner has asked her to stop changing jobs, the European Central Bank president likes to joke, because each time she begins a new role a major crisis seems to follow.

Soon after becoming French finance minister in 2007, she found herself handling the global financial crisis for which she eventually won plaudits.

After being appointed head of the IMF in 2011, the eurozone debt crisis escalated. Despite early criticism for siding with German-led austerity policies, she was admired for her calm diplomatic skills and played a key role in finding consensus on the 2012 Greek bailout that saved the euro.…  Seguir leyendo »

A convoy of tractors in Arnhem, Netherlands, protests against the Dutch government’s nitrogen reduction policy to meet EU targets. The sign reads ‘Come on child, we are no longer welcome in this country’ © FT montage: Jeroen Meuwsen/Orange Pictures/BSR Agency/Getty Images

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The barns and milking sheds of Takis Kazanas’s farm are dwarfed by the majestic mountains that overlook the Thessalian Plain.

Cattle have been raised on this green expanse of land in northern Greece for millennia, but now regulators in Brussels are discussing rules that will lead to farms like his being treated as industrial plants, akin to steel mills or chemical works.

Should that change come into force, the farm on which the 66-year-old and his four sons manage 300 cattle and 230 acres of land will be legally obliged to cut greenhouse gas emissions and pollution levels. With ambitious climate targets to hit by 2030, Brussels is finally forcing farming to go green.…  Seguir leyendo »

The economic environment is making it harder to find investors who have the confidence to buy offices in areas such as Canary Wharf © FT Montage/Getty Images

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From Canary Wharf in London to La Défense in Paris and Frankfurt’s Bankenviertel, the logos of major banks adorn Europe’s grandest office buildings. But there is early evidence that these buildings could become liabilities for banks and investors as they are buffeted by rising costs and post-Covid workplace changes.

Offices are the largest component of a commercial property market which lenders and investors have backed with €1.5tn of debt in Europe alone. About €310bn of new or replacement borrowing is issued to keep the market moving in a typical year, according to Bayes Business School at City, University of London.

Developers and landlords were already having to adjust to life since the pandemic began.…  Seguir leyendo »

Chinese lithium deals in Africa have heightened fears in the west over access to critical minerals © FT montage; AFP/Getty/Dreamstime

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The settlement of Uis in a remote part of Namibia seems an unlikely hotspot for a mineral cold war over the future of electric vehicles.

Uis lies in the arid hills of Erongo, a large and sparsely populated province of the south-west African country. For decades the only signs of its mineral wealth were the gemstones sold to tourists by artisanal miners, who scrabbled a living in the shadow of a disused tin mine.

But soon the site of that mine will be part of a global race for lithium, the alkali metal that is a key raw material for automotive batteries.…  Seguir leyendo »

China’s fake science industry: how ‘paper mills’ threaten progress

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As part of his job as fraud detector at a biomedical publisher, John Chesebro trawls through research papers, scrutinising near identical images of cells. For him, the tricks used by “paper mills” — the outfits paid to fabricate scientific studies — have become wearily familiar.

They range from clear duplication — the same images of cell cultures on microscope slides copied across numerous, unrelated studies — to more subtle tinkering. Sometimes an image is rotated “to try to trick you to think it’s different”, Chesebro says. “At times you can detect where parts of an image were digitally manipulated to add or remove cells or other features to make the data look like the results you are expecting in the hypothesis”.…  Seguir leyendo »

An Iranian woman lights a firework during a traditional festival celebration earlier this month in Tehran © Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters

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When the Islamic regime called, hundreds of thousands rallied. In cities across Iran, women, mostly in traditional black chador body cloaks, joined huge crowds of men carrying banners, portraits of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and national flags to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the 1979 revolution.

The mass gatherings last month offered a chance for the leadership to put on a muscular display of support after months of nationwide protests that presented one of the biggest domestic threats to the republic since its founding.

President Ebrahim Raisi did not let the moment go to waste. In Tehran’s Freedom Square, a flashpoint for the anti-regime demonstrations months earlier, he railed against the republic’s enemies and boasted of the unity of his nation.…  Seguir leyendo »

Swiss president Alain Berset and finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter at a press conference about Credit Suisse in a week that challenged Switzerland’s notions of identity © FT montage: AFP/Getty Images

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“No one becomes a murderer more easily than a fatherland”, wrote Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Switzerland’s national playwright.

Last weekend, the country killed one of its own. At a hastily convened press conference in the capital Bern on Sunday evening, the government and regulators announced Credit Suisse’s 167-year run as one of the pillars of Swiss society was over. The huge bank, the locomotive of Switzerland’s industrial miracle, weakened by years of scandal, was to be folded into its bigger rival UBS.

The talk was of staving off an unthinkable financial collapse. There was little time for sentiment. The government “regrets Credit Suisse wasn’t able to master its own difficulties”, said Karin Keller-Sutter, Switzerland’s finance minister.…  Seguir leyendo »

A factory worker in Taizhou, east China, prepares overseas orders. Since 2011, Beijing has invested 10 times more than Europe in new solar panel manufacturing capacity © CFOTO/Sipa USA/Reuters

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At the annual gathering of Europe’s solar power lobby in Brussels this month, industry executives celebrated the rapid rollout of panels across the region after the retreat from Russian gas.

Standing behind a DJ deck, Walburga Hemetsberger, SolarPower Europe’s chief executive, said that the night should be “the best party ever”, adding that the European industry had broken records on solar installations last year. But EU officials speaking at the same event had their minds on an even bigger challenge.

“Switching from fossil fuels to renewables should not mean replacing one dependency with another”, announced energy commissioner Kadri Simson, who has spent the past year marshalling the bloc’s efforts to wean itself off Russian gas.…  Seguir leyendo »