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April 17th 2023

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Catch up quickly on the global stories that matter

A Russian court sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza , a political dissident and critic of the Kremlin, to 25 years in jail on charges of treason and deliberately spreading falsehoods about the army. Mr Kara-Murza is a vocal opponent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sentence is the harshest since the start of the war, which triggered a crackdown on civic activism in Russia. Mr Kara-Murza denied all accusations.

The EU’s ambassador in Sudan was reportedly assaulted at his home in Khartoum, the capital, as fighting between the ruling military junta and the Rapid Support Forces, a militia, continued for a third day. At least 180 people have been killed so far, according to the UN. On Monday General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de-facto leader, labelled the RSF a rebel group.

The banking arm of Charles Schwab , an American brokerage giant, announced that customer deposits had fallen by 11% in the first quarter to $325.7bn, matching analysts’ expectations. Schwab’s net income rose to $1.6bn, a 14% rise. This week dozens of American mid-size banks will report earnings, in the first set of quarterly results after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank .

American prosecutors charged two men with acting as Chinese-government agents for operating a secret police station in New York to intimidate dissidents. One of the defendants allegedly helped find a Chinese pro-democracy activist and threatened a Chinese fugitive in America with the goal of getting him to return home. China is said to operate more than 100 overseas police stations in 53 countries.

The British Parliament’s standards committee made public that it is investigating Rishi Sunak , the country’s prime minister , over a failure to declare a financial interest. Mr Sunak allegedly neglected to mention his wife’s ownership of shares in Koru Kids, a childcare company, when discussing increasing funding for childcare. The committee opened the probe on April 13th.

Slovakia joined Hungary and Poland in imposing a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain . The EU warned against unilateral trade action; a spokesperson for the bloc said individual member states could not make trade-policy decisions. The bans were implemented to protect farmers from a glut of cheap grain from Ukraine. Bulgaria said it is also considering halting imports.

Sega , a Japanese video-game giant, offered to buy Rovio , the maker of the popular mobile game Angry Birds, for around €706m ($776m). Sega is hoping that smartphone games will provide long-term growth after the covid pandemic caused a drop in the number of pachinko and arcade-machine players, Japan’s traditional money-spinner. Rovio shares rose by about 20% during morning trading in Europe.

Fact of the day : 58%, the share of the G7’s GDP that America accounts for today. In 1990 it was 40%. Read the full story.

Is Australia coming off China’s naughty step?

PHOTO: Alamy

Mark McGowan, the leader of the state of Western Australia’s centre-left government, goes to China on Monday on a trip that aims to “reconnect” the two sides. China cut off bilateral ministerial contact and clobbered Australia with trade bans after the previous coalition government called for an inquiry into the origins of covid-19, in 2020. Under Australia’s new Labor government, the two countries are at least back on speaking terms .

Though Australia remains worried about China’s military ambitions, its politicians have become less confrontational. In return, China has allowed ministerial meetings to resume and seems to be relenting on its trade bans. It has quietly lifted remaining restrictions on Australian coal, and promised to review barley tariffs after Australia suspended a case against it this week at the World Trade Organisation. An end to those trade restrictions would be a big victory down under, especially as Australia has made no concessions on defence, instead pursuing a deal with America and Britain to secure nuclear submarines.

A Kremlin critic is jailed for 25 years

PHOTO: Getty Images

In his final remarks in a court in Moscow on April 10th, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political dissident and prominent critic of the Kremlin, compared his prosecution to the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. On Monday that assessment became a reality: Mr Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in jail on charges of treason and deliberately spreading falsehoods about the Russian army, stemming from his outspoken opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.

The harshest sentence of its kind in years aims to quash civic activism in the country. Shortly after Russia launched an assault against its neighbour in 2022, the Kremlin enacted harsh censorship laws around the war. More than 260 publications had been closed by December; Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have been walled off.

Mr Kara-Murza says he has already survived two poisoning attempts, in 2015 and 2017, for previous transgressions. And even after a year in detention, his show-trial left him as defiant as ever. As he told the court: “Not only do I not repent any of this, I am proud of it”.

Italian inflation

PHOTO: Getty Images

Economists will be waiting to see if figures published on Monday in Italy confirm a provisional finding that prices rose more slowly than expected last month, bearing out an optimistic trend across several EU countries. The preliminary estimate for headline inflation was 7.7%, down from 9.1% in February and well below market estimates averaging 8.2%. It hit its recent peak of 11.8% last October.

So far, so good. But annual core inflation , which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, has been provisionally assessed at 6.4%, and is still rising. Similarly, the official statistical agency’s “shopping trolley index” shows that frequently bought goods including food and household items were estimated to cost almost 13% more in March than a year previously. Maurizio Landini, who heads Italy’s biggest trade-union federation, complains that while wages and salaries have stagnated, company profits are rising. He has called for demonstrations in several Italian cities next month.

Britain’s fintech bigwigs assemble

PHOTO: Getty Images

The great and the good of Britain’s once-booming fintech industry meet at the Guildhall in London on Monday for the annual Innovate Finance summit. More than a few of them will arrive bearing scars. Once flush with cash from more than a decade of cheap money, last year rising interest rates spooked their investors and prompted a sharp tightening of the purse strings. Valuations slumped, new funding collapsed and thousands of employees were laid off.

Yet some will come with a spring in their step. “Neobanks”, digital versions of the high-street kind, are at last reaching critical mass. Two, Starling Bank and Revolut, made profits for the first time in 2022—far from a given for fintech firms. A third, Monzo, expects to do the same in 2023. Their years as the hottest ticket in startup investing may be over. But with bottom lines at last turning from red to black, their bosses may not mind much.

Peril at sea, in print and on film

PHOTO: Rachel Mansell / Doubleday

A new book by David Grann chronicles a shipwreck and the conflicting accounts of its warring survivors. “The Wager”, published this week, takes its name from a British frigate that foundered off the coast of Patagonia in 1741. As the crew sheltered on a nearby island, the stuffy captain tried to maintain his command. Yet many sailors instead followed a crew member who was in charge of the ship’s cannon. Fearing court-martial, the captain’s rival kept a journal casting himself in a favourable light. Another shipwrecked journal-keeper—future grandfather to the poet Lord Byron—wrote of mutiny, murder and a desperate struggle to survive.

“The Wager” is a thrilling read, likely to become another bestseller for Mr Grann. It also looks to be headed for the screen. Apple has bought the film rights, with Martin Scorsese directing and Leonardo DiCaprio starring in the adaptation. The Hollywood duo’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”, based on another of Mr Grann’s non-fiction page-turners, debuts at Cannes in May. Awards, ahoy.

Daily quiz

Our baristas will serve you a new question each day this week. On Friday your challenge is to give us all five answers and, as important, tell us the connecting theme. Email your responses (and include mention of your home city and country) by 1700 GMT on Friday to QuizEspresso@economist.com . We’ll pick randomly from those with the right answers and crown three winners on Saturday.

Monday : Victoria is the capital of which Canadian province?

Those who would give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

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April 17th 2023. SUBSCRIBER ONLY. Catch up quickly on the global stories that matter. A Russian court sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza , a political dissident and critic of the Kremlin, to 25 years in jail on charges of treason and deliberately spreading falsehoods about the army. Mr Kara-Murza is a vocal opponent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sentence is the harshest since the start of the war, which triggered a crackdown on civic activism in Russia. Mr Kara-Murza denied all accusations. The EU’s ambassador in Sudan was reportedly assaulted at his home in Khartoum, the capital, as fighting between the ruling military junta and the Rapid Support Forces, a militia, continued for a third day. At least 180 people have been killed so far, according to the UN. On Monday General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de-facto leader, labelled the RSF a rebel group. The banking arm of Charles Schwab , an American brokerage giant, announced that customer deposits had fallen by 11% in the first quarter to $325.7bn, matching analysts’ expectations. Schwab’s net income rose to $1.6bn, a 14% rise. This week dozens of American mid-size banks will report earnings, in the first set of quarterly results after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank . American prosecutors charged two men with acting as Chinese-government agents for operating a secret police station in New York to intimidate dissidents. One of the defendants allegedly helped find a Chinese pro-democracy activist and threatened a Chinese fugitive in America with the goal of getting him to return home. China is said to operate more than 100 overseas police stations in 53 countries. The British Parliament’s standards committee made public that it is investigating Rishi Sunak , the country’s prime minister , over a failure to declare a financial interest. Mr Sunak allegedly neglected to mention his wife’s ownership of shares in Koru Kids, a childcare company, when discussing increasing funding for childcare. The committee opened the probe on April 13th. Slovakia joined Hungary and Poland in imposing a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain . The EU warned against unilateral trade action; a spokesperson for the bloc said individual member states could not make trade-policy decisions. The bans were implemented to protect farmers from a glut of cheap grain from Ukraine. Bulgaria said it is also considering halting imports. Sega , a Japanese video-game giant, offered to buy Rovio , the maker of the popular mobile game Angry Birds, for around €706m ($776m). Sega is hoping that smartphone games will provide long-term growth after the covid pandemic caused a drop in the number of pachinko and arcade-machine players, Japan’s traditional money-spinner. Rovio shares rose by about 20% during morning trading in Europe. Fact of the day : 58%, the share of the G7’s GDP that America accounts for today. In 1990 it was 40%. Read the full story. Is Australia coming off China’s naughty step? PHOTO: Alamy. Mark McGowan, the leader of the state of Western Australia’s centre-left government, goes to China on Monday on a trip that aims to “reconnect” the two sides. China cut off bilateral ministerial contact and clobbered Australia with trade bans after the previous coalition government called for an inquiry into the origins of covid-19, in 2020. Under Australia’s new Labor government, the two countries are at least back on speaking terms . Though Australia remains worried about China’s military ambitions, its politicians have become less confrontational. In return, China has allowed ministerial meetings to resume and seems to be relenting on its trade bans. It has quietly lifted remaining restrictions on Australian coal, and promised to review barley tariffs after Australia suspended a case against it this week at the World Trade Organisation. An end to those trade restrictions would be a big victory down under, especially as Australia has made no concessions on defence, instead pursuing a deal with America and Britain to secure nuclear submarines. A Kremlin critic is jailed for 25 years. PHOTO: Getty Images. In his final remarks in a court in Moscow on April 10th, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political dissident and prominent critic of the Kremlin, compared his prosecution to the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. On Monday that assessment became a reality: Mr Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in jail on charges of treason and deliberately spreading falsehoods about the Russian army, stemming from his outspoken opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. The harshest sentence of its kind in years aims to quash civic activism in the country. Shortly after Russia launched an assault against its neighbour in 2022, the Kremlin enacted harsh censorship laws around the war. More than 260 publications had been closed by December; Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have been walled off. Mr Kara-Murza says he has already survived two poisoning attempts, in 2015 and 2017, for previous transgressions. And even after a year in detention, his show-trial left him as defiant as ever. As he told the court: “Not only do I not repent any of this, I am proud of it”. Italian inflation. PHOTO: Getty Images. Economists will be waiting to see if figures published on Monday in Italy confirm a provisional finding that prices rose more slowly than expected last month, bearing out an optimistic trend across several EU countries. The preliminary estimate for headline inflation was 7.7%, down from 9.1% in February and well below market estimates averaging 8.2%. It hit its recent peak of 11.8% last October. So far, so good. But annual core inflation , which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, has been provisionally assessed at 6.4%, and is still rising. Similarly, the official statistical agency’s “shopping trolley index” shows that frequently bought goods including food and household items were estimated to cost almost 13% more in March than a year previously. Maurizio Landini, who heads Italy’s biggest trade-union federation, complains that while wages and salaries have stagnated, company profits are rising. He has called for demonstrations in several Italian cities next month. Britain’s fintech bigwigs assemble. PHOTO: Getty Images. The great and the good of Britain’s once-booming fintech industry meet at the Guildhall in London on Monday for the annual Innovate Finance summit. More than a few of them will arrive bearing scars. Once flush with cash from more than a decade of cheap money, last year rising interest rates spooked their investors and prompted a sharp tightening of the purse strings. Valuations slumped, new funding collapsed and thousands of employees were laid off. Yet some will come with a spring in their step. “Neobanks”, digital versions of the high-street kind, are at last reaching critical mass. Two, Starling Bank and Revolut, made profits for the first time in 2022—far from a given for fintech firms. A third, Monzo, expects to do the same in 2023. Their years as the hottest ticket in startup investing may be over. But with bottom lines at last turning from red to black, their bosses may not mind much. Peril at sea, in print and on film. PHOTO: Rachel Mansell / Doubleday. A new book by David Grann chronicles a shipwreck and the conflicting accounts of its warring survivors. “The Wager”, published this week, takes its name from a British frigate that foundered off the coast of Patagonia in 1741. As the crew sheltered on a nearby island, the stuffy captain tried to maintain his command. Yet many sailors instead followed a crew member who was in charge of the ship’s cannon. Fearing court-martial, the captain’s rival kept a journal casting himself in a favourable light. Another shipwrecked journal-keeper—future grandfather to the poet Lord Byron—wrote of mutiny, murder and a desperate struggle to survive. “The Wager” is a thrilling read, likely to become another bestseller for Mr Grann. It also looks to be headed for the screen. Apple has bought the film rights, with Martin Scorsese directing and Leonardo DiCaprio starring in the adaptation. The Hollywood duo’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”, based on another of Mr Grann’s non-fiction page-turners, debuts at Cannes in May. Awards, ahoy. Daily quiz. Our baristas will serve you a new question each day this week. On Friday your challenge is to give us all five answers and, as important, tell us the connecting theme. Email your responses (and include mention of your home city and country) by 1700 GMT on Friday to QuizEspresso@economist.com . We’ll pick randomly from those with the right answers and crown three winners on Saturday. Monday : Victoria is the capital of which Canadian province? Those who would give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here . This email has been sent to: gian.filice@gmail.com . If you’d like to update your details please click here . Replies to this email will not reach us. If you don’t want to receive these updates any more, please unsubscribe here . Keep updated. Advertising Info. Terms & Conditions. Help. Privacy Policy. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. All rights reserved. Registered in England and Wales. No.236383. Registered office: The Adelphi, 1–11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT.