Category: FT

The writer is professor of Korean Studies at Kookmin University Last month, two strongmen met in the wilderness of Russia’s far east. The second summit between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un took place at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a major long-range rocket and missile base. This time, the military implications were much emphasised. Both delegations included an unusually high share of top military brass, and after the summit’s crabmeat dumplings lunch, Kim and his entourage embarked on a tour of Russian military facilities, including an air force base and a…

Receive free Batteries updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Batteries news every morning. Korea Zinc, the world’s largest zinc smelter by output, is expanding its nickel business and embracing battery materials to drive growth as it aims to capitalise on US efforts to reduce dependence on China in the global electric vehicle supply chain. “This China decoupling momentum is creating great opportunities for us and Korea as a whole,” Park Ki-deok, the chief executive of the South Korean company, told the Financial Times.…

Receive free Currencies updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Currencies news every morning. Afghanistan’s currency was the best-performing in the world in the third quarter of this year, as foreign aid inflows and strict capital controls helped the afghani recover from the historic lows it reached after the Taliban’s takeover two years ago. The afghani’s near-10 per cent climb makes it the third-best performing currency this year, behind the Colombian peso and Sri Lankan rupee. Its strengthening helps to bolster the Taliban’s finances…

Receive free Collecting updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Collecting news every morning. The scope of the Indian miniature isn’t miniature at all. This genre, which flourished across the south Asian continent for centuries, covers a vast terrain – various cultures, religions and subjects, from formal portraits of bureaucrats to fantastical mythical scenes. Mostly small in size, these images, produced originally for albums or folios, are distinguished by brilliance of colour, attention to detail and often very precious materials – many are made using…

Receive free Markets Insight updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Markets Insight news every morning. Japanese stocks have a way of turning people into professional cynics. So it is perhaps fitting that after months of gains, some investors are starting to wonder whether this famously fickle market has gone too far.  There is no small irony in getting to this point. It has taken more than 30 years for the Topix and Nikkei indices to meaningfully recover from the market’s spectacular crash, and…

In the playground on the western edge of Ichinono, a mother watches fussily over a group of children as steel-grey clouds pause between autumn downpours. Two children are on scooters. One is on a wooden swing. A fourth is pedalling off towards the woods on a pink bicycle. None of them are actually real. The rain begins again and the five figures — along with the dozens of other life-size stuffed dolls positioned around Ichinono and conceived to populate a depopulating village — remain rooted to their spots.  The roughly…

Receive free Chinese economy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Chinese economy news every morning. China has started its longest holiday break of the year with officials predicting record tourist travel that they hope will help to lift an economy struggling to emerge from its post-pandemic doldrums. Economists will be watching in particular whether Chinese consumers will use the eight-day break, which combines the October 1 National Day and the mid-Autumn festival holidays, to spend not only on restaurants and outings but also…

Receive free Vedanta Resources PLC updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Vedanta Resources PLC news every morning. Indian tycoon Anil Agarwal is pressing ahead with a plan to break up his energy and mining conglomerate into six companies, betting that the move will raise the valuation of a business empire trying to stave off a debt crunch. Vedanta said on Friday that it will split into six units — aluminium, power, base metals, steel and ferrous metals, oil and gas — in a sweeping…

Receive free Pakistan updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Pakistan news every morning. Suicide bombers killed at least 56 people and injured scores of others on Friday in three separate bomb attacks in Pakistan’s volatile border region near Afghanistan. The attacks will heighten security concerns in Pakistan as the nuclear-armed south Asian nation of 220mn people grapples with escalating economic and political crises. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Pakistan security officials said the bombings resembled other attacks carried out by…