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Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:
North Korea ‘unconditionally’ backs Putin’s war in Ukraine
Inside Linda Yaccarino’s X departure
China falls for American-style bulk buying
We start with North Korea and Russia’s deepening ties, after Kim Jong Un told visiting Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov over the weekend that Pyongyang will “unconditionally support” Moscow’s goals in Ukraine.
What happened: Lavrov met with Kim on Saturday on the leader’s yacht near the coastal resort of Wonsan after arriving in North Korea to a red-carpet welcome on Friday. The Russian foreign minister thanked his host for the weapons and troops already sent by Pyongyang to aid Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, describing it as a “sincere expression of solidarity”, according to North Korea’s state news agency.
Why it matters: North Korean ammunition and troops played a decisive role in Russia’s fight this spring to restore control over the Kursk region, swaths of which were seized and occupied by Ukrainian forces last year. It remains unclear whether North Korean troops will be involved in fighting beyond Russia’s internationally recognised borders.
Alongside military co-operation, Moscow and Pyongyang have increasingly fostered economic and social ties. Some North Korean products are now appearing in Russian supermarkets, while Moscow is promoting joint infrastructure projects including the construction of a large bridge connecting the two countries.
Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:
Economic data: India releases June inflation figures, China reports monthly trade data and Singapore publishes advance second-quarter GDP estimates.
China-EU climate talks: The high-level discussions in Beijing come as Brussels pushes China to pledge greater efforts to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
India-China relations: India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar is visiting China for the first time in five years, according to Bloomberg. He will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s council of foreign ministers meeting in Tianjin today.
Five more top stories
1. Germany’s defence minister has told weapons makers to stop complaining and “deliver” on re-arming Europe, as he called for production to increase to match his country’s booming spending plans. “The industry knows perfectly well that it is now responsible for delivering,” Boris Pistorius said in an FT interview.
2. The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a notice to its international counterparts that fuel control switches in Boeing aeroplanes like the Dreamliner involved in last month’s fatal Air India crash do not pose a safety issue. The notice followed a preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau that the engines on Air India Flight 171 briefly cut off shortly after take-off. Here are more details.
3. The EU will delay its plan to hit the US with tariffs on €21bn of its annual exports to Europe on Tuesday in the hope of coming to an agreement with Washington. The move comes after Donald Trump said he would hit the bloc with 30 per cent tariffs from August 1.
4. Boston Consulting Group was paid more than $1mn for work with a private US company trying to move food into Gaza by sea, over the same period it began a controversial association with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the FT has learned. Details of the assignment indicate that BCG was willing to ally itself with multiple private sector efforts to provide relief to Gaza outside the traditional UN-led system.
5. Muhammadu Buhari, who was president of Nigeria for eight years after first serving as a military head of state, has died aged 82. Buhari, who served two terms as Nigeria’s president from 2015 to 2023, died in London yesterday following a “prolonged illness”, according to a spokesperson for his successor, President Bola Tinubu. Read the full story.
News in-depth
Vietnam was one of only two countries that clinched a trade deal with the US by a July 9 deadline to avoid Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs. But Vietnamese businesses were left puzzled over the lack of detail in the agreement and wondering whether by moving quickly, Hanoi has scored favourable terms or gave up too much.
We’re also reading . . .
‘She tried to ride the tiger’: FT reporters go inside the former X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s tumultuous partnership with Elon Musk.
How the Catholic Church views AI: This moment of change is so profound that we might compare it to the Renaissance, writes Paolo Benanti, a technology adviser to the Vatican.
Summertime sadness: There is nothing quite so miserable as feeling unhappy when we are meant to be feeling good, writes Jemima Kelly.
Chart of the day
Sam’s Club, Walmart’s warehouse chain, is one of China’s fastest-growing foreign retailers, with 56 stores in the country and plans for 60 by the end of the year. Even as economic momentum has slowed in China, customers are flocking to the warehouses for their low prices and American-style bulk purchases.
Take a break from the news
A journey to Switzerland’s Aletsch offers the promise of blissful respite from the summer heat — but also a poignant sense that, for the Alps’ greatest glacier, time is running out.
