Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with close links to President Vladimir Putin, has been uploading photos, videos and audio files for months to his Telegram channel. In his most recent clip, posted last week, he filmed himself in a bloodied field, with rows of corpses laid out behind him, berating the Russian military leaders for failing to give him the munitions he needed to fight in Ukraine’s Donbass region. Prigozhin, who is the leader of the notorious mercenary unit, the Wagner Group, has given a face to the brutalisation of the Putin regime, but some have wondered if he is a megalomaniac. The video shows the story of one man’s rise to unimaginable power, a man who can promise people their freedom or send them to their deaths.
Prigozhin made the conquering of Bakhmut in the Donbass his personal mission. Russian and Ukrainian media outlets say that Prigozhin, together with army commanders, developed a suicidal battle plan. It was his idea to attack the city before Ukrainian supply lines were cut, thus turning it into a battle of attrition – from the standpoint of both personnel and material. He was also allowed to recruit his fighters from the prisons of Russia. Of 30 men who were recruited for the mission from Rustam’s colony, he was apparently among the most able-bodied. Only nine of them managed to complete the required fitness test, the sit-ups and the pull-ups. Prigozhin’s troops have been butchered, and he is no longer receiving the munitions he needs.
There are up to 10,000 Wagner fighters currently in Ukraine, according to a senior official in the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, and most of them have been deployed in and around Bakhmut where housing block by housing block, destroyed home by destroyed home, the Ukrainians have pulled back. Prigozhin poses as Putin’s loyal bloodhound, but has threatened the very system the president has built up. While he takes care of dirty work for Putin, Prigozhin has given a face to the brutalisation of the Putin regime, although his grip on power is unclear.
Russia's hypersonic missile programme risks collapse due to the detention of multiple researchers as treason suspects, several senior scientists have warned in a public open letter. The head of the Novosibirks’ hypersonic missile technology lab, Alexander Shiplyuk, and aerodynamics specialist 76-year-old Anatoly Maslov, have been detained since last summer. In a warning to the Kremlin and to the public, scientists from Novosibirsk-based Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics urged Russian authorities to cease the detention of their colleagues, arguing that it risked damaging national research into hypersonic weapons.
Former US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger has warned of a fast-approaching situation of “great-power confrontation” between China and the US. As both nations compete for pre-eminence in technology and the economy, Kissinger expressed his fears that the rapid advances in AI could lead to disaster. With a lack of principles on which to establish order as power balances shift worldwide, the risk of force becomes evermore likely. The fate of humanity is dependent on how the US and China interact with one another, says Kissinger, as he sees the two nations having just five to ten years to secure a good relationship. The focus for Kissinger now is on future international relations and how to prevent conflict between global powers.
Ukrainian air defences using US-made Patriot interceptors neutralised a heavy Russian missile attack against Kyiv, with six KH-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched missiles reported to have been stopped by Patriots. However, the Kinzhal missiles are modified air-launched versions of the ground-launched Iskander short-range ballistic missile developed three decades ago, and do not incur the additional hypersonic boost-glide system of manoeuvrable hypersonic descent hypersonic weapons that can be fired atop booster rockets, making them harder to intercept. Therefore, while Patriots can indeed stop Kinzhal missiles, they cannot necessarily intercept swerving-and-jinking weapons. Additionally, Russia has been developing an Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, deployed on Russian ICBMs, capable of descending at Mach 20 and outpacing any interceptors. China is also said to be developing similar weapons.
The Group of Seven meeting, set to begin on Friday, will see Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appeal to the seven wealthiest democracies to scrap nuclear arms and work towards “a world without nuclear arms”. The strength of his case will be challenged by the security situation in the region, with Japan’s neighbours, North Korea, China and Russia being the possessors of about half of the world's nuclear warheads. The US has recently brought more assets close to Japan and South Korea in a bid to increase deterrence to counter the rising nuclear threats around the world; G-7 statements have highlighted other concerns over non-proliferation, including the rising atomic ambitions of Iran. Critics argue that the US is pulling the group towards an increase in nuclear weapons capability when Kishida is appealing for disarmament. Leaders are therefore expected to try for a balance between disarmament and countering nuclear threats.
The New York Post published an article on Wednesday suggesting that Hillary Clinton and "Clinton operatives" invented the investigation into Russian election interference. The article claimed that the entire investigation was based on disinformation in the "Steele dossier" compiled by former intelligence officer Christopher Steele, and that Clinton operatives invented the Russian collusion conspiracy and put it into the Steele dossier. The article was written by Jonathan Turley, an attorney who has become a vocal supporter of former US President Donald Trump’s claims of an unfair investigation. The claims made by Turley have been popular in right-wing circles, but have been refuted by the recent report of special counsel John Durham. In an attempt to counter the report, Turley incorrectly claims that the dossier was the origin of the Russia probe rather than based on credible intelligence sources, and that the Clinton campaign invented the conspiracy theory linking Trump to Russia. A detailed timeline of the events that preceded the investigation into Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election shows that the claims made by Turley are unfounded.
A Russian family has asked for permission to change their son's name from Putin back to Rasul. The family renamed the boy Putin in honour of the president when he was one-and-a-half years old, but in an unexpected move asked registry officials in the town of Aleksandrov, 90km north-east of Moscow, to restore his original name. No reason for the request to change the boy's name has been given. His grandfather is a strong supporter of Putin.
European officials are growing concerned that support for Ukraine against Russia has peaked and fear that the flow of aid will be disrupted in 2023 as the US enters a divisive presidential campaign. Although there are sufficient preapproved funds to sustain Kiev for five more months, major questions remain over whether the US government will meet its existing $48bn aid package, particularly as it requires a vote in Congress in the autumn against a background of increased partisan debate on the war. European allies say that current levels of support could be sustained for a year or two but not for longer.
Air raid alerts have sounded throughout Ukraine while the military has warned of potential missile strikes due to the ongoing conflict with Russia. Several explosions have been reported in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and neighbouring cities, including Darnytskyi and Dnipro. Warning to take cover have been issued across much of the country, including central and the southern regions. Heavy fighting and territorial gains by the Ukrainian army in Bakhmut have been reported, but the mercenary group Wagner, spearheading the assault, has not reported ammunition shortages, according to Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesperson. The Russian brigade group has continued to fire all available weapons as it seeks to gain control of Bakhmut. Paul Kolbe, the Executive Director of the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence has stated that Moscow’s ultimate aim remains annexing the Donbas region of Ukraine, not war by attrition.
Dr Li Hui, special representative of the Chinese government for Eurasian Affairs, will travel to Ukraine, Germany, France and Poland this week, seeking to boost ties and push for an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. China continues to cast itself as a potential mediator in the conflict, which has deepened Ukrainian ties with Europe and the US, and caused Western sanctions to be imposed on Russia. Dr Li's visit is part of a wider European tour, and comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China would send an envoy to Ukraine on a call to Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month. When Chinese and Russian leaders met in Moscow in June, they unveiled a vague plan designed to bring peace to Ukraine that included a cease-fire that would freeze Russian troops on Ukrainian soil and was criticised by the US and other Western countries that urged for the complete withdrawal of Russian soldiers from Ukrainian land.
As Norway's wealth tax rises, an increasing number of wealthy people are leaving the country with Kjell Inge Røkke and Fredrik Haga being two high-profile Norwegians who have left for Switzerland. However, this has led to the question: what is living in a tax haven actually like and is it worth it? The majority of tax havens are rather strange places to live full-time, due to their small size and limited geographical location. However, there are countries such as Switzerland, that have tax regimes that are favourable to wealthy foreigners but are sizeable and well-connected.
Three major players, the likes of Visa-Mastercard, China’s payment apps and card network UnionPay, and India’s state-led Unified Payments Interface (UPI), are competing to process vast and diverse flows of funds for a global audience in a payment transformation that’s going global. With cross-border retail spending and remittances set to hit $5tn this year, and business-to-business payments worth eight times that, the three blocs are heating up competition. China is the most advanced challenger with Alipay accepted at 2.5 million merchants overseas, while UnionPay, the world’s biggest card network by transaction volume, is accepted at 65 million merchants globally. India's UPI has also grown in ambition, with talks underway with more than 30 countries on exporting payments kit. While countries may fear a fragmentation of global financial infrastructure that could let wrongdoers escape future sanctions, more options will benefit consumers and businesses alike.
Rail traffic has been suspended between Simferopol and the city of Sevastopol following the derailment of a freight train carrying grain. Crimean railways said in a statement that the incident was caused by “interference by outsiders” and Baza, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, said it had been caused by an IED that detonated on the tracks. Reports claim that eight cars came off the tracks, five of which overturned. The incident comes following two previous explosions on freight trains in Russia's Bryansk region earlier this month. There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the attacks to date.
Russian forces recently launched a missile attack on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, using Iranian Shahed loitering drones, Kalibr 'hypersonic' cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, as well as some other weaponry. Although Putin's attack intended to demonstrate force, it proved to expose Russia's weaknesses and military corruption. Moreover, after Ukraine defeated every missile, it showed how their ability to repel the military, resulting in more support from Western countries. Ukrainian forces' bravery is prevalent, but they need significant military aid from the West to continue fighting.
China's special envoy to Europe, Li Hui, has visited Ukraine in an effort to ease the country's conflict with Russia. The visit followed a discussion between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in the first contact between the two heads of state since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Ukraine has warned China not to tacitly approve of Moscow's action by refusing to call it an invasion or war and saying that it will only accept a peace agreement respecting Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Li will also visit Russia, Poland, France and Germany.
The ideals of Traditionalism, a belief system that claims that there exists a primordial order beyond the visible world to which only certain individuals may be initiated, have resurged in recent years, according to a new survey by author Mark Sedgwick. Traditionalism's emphasis on the contrast between sacred order and modern disorder is fueling the resurgence. A combination of critique and alternative understanding of reality in response to modernity's perceived flaws has made Traditionalism attractive to political figures who support it, such as Aleksandr Dugin, said to be the ideologue behind President Putin, noted Sedgwick.
Satellite images have revealed the extent of the damage caused by heavy fighting in the Ukrainian frontline city of Bakhmut, which has changed hands several times since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The city, previously home to around 70,000 people, has been an epicentre of fighting in the east, with Russia keen to capture it to gain control over the rest of Donbas. Following months of fighting, including attacks by the mercenary Wagner Group, Ukraine has successfully mounted a counter-attack, recapturing nearly 20 square kilometres around the city, with further advances made recently. However, Russian forces continue to send in fresh units as "they are moving new units there (to Bakhmut), primarily paratroopers, in an attempt to achieve some kind of intermediate success," said Ukrainian military spokesperson, Serhii Cherevatyi.
The G7 leaders are set to debate endorsing a proposed Ukraine peace summit with the aim of promoting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's proposal for how to end Russia's war against Ukraine rather than Beijing's proposal. Zelenskyy's 10-point plan includes a demand for Moscow to withdraw all its troops from Ukraine and for the country's full territorial integrity to be restored. China's version requires Russia to withdraw troops before peace negotiations are opened. The move by the G7 is seen as an effort to bolster support for Zelenskyy's peace plan, which has its Western allies concerned over the possible decline in US military support to Ukraine ahead of next year's US election. Ukraine has confirmed that it has contacted Beijing to reiterate that it will not accept a peace agreement involving a loss of Ukrainian territory and that it is interested in getting China involved in implementing the Ukrainian peace formula. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has blamed Ukraine for the lack of progress in peace talks, has so far not indicated that he will accept any solution other than a complete capitulation from Kyiv.
The motives behind the purchase of football clubs by wealthy individuals are often misunderstood, according to Simon Kuper in the Financial Times. Many rich owners believe they will “run the club like a business”, using their savvy to generate profits and success. However, this oftentimes fails to materialise as clubs balance the demands of chasing trophies with the financial realities they face. Kuper said owners often end up with neither, citing the example of billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, whose football investments have yet to bear fruit. However, clubs such as Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal, which tend to disappoint fans but have large followings, have tended to thrive financially. Kuper suggested that most billionaire owners are motivated by either fun or status and wrongly believe they can make an impact on their football clubs. However, clubs often significantly appreciate in value, therefore pleasing owners once they decide to sell.
African countries will send a delegation to Moscow to present an initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. It has not been revealed what the details of the African plan are, but South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had agreed to meet African leaders. Several countries have offered to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia, including China, whose special envoy started touring Europe this week in a bid to promote Beijing's plan.
