The Kremlin confirmed Russian President Vladimir Putin expects to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump next week. Both sides have agreed on an as-yet undisclosed venue and continue working on their agenda. The announcement came a day after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin for nearly three hours of talks.
The diplomacy unfolds as Trump ups the pressure on allies still doing business with Russia. Indian officials continue to weigh whether to offer Trump concessions after his decision to impose a 50% tariff on Indian goods imported to the US. We’re told that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to head to China for the first time in seven years against the backdrop of worsening ties with Washington.
US tariff fallout continued to swirl over Switzerland after the Alpine nation’s president returned from Washington without a deal. President Karin Keller-Sutter convened an emergency cabinet meeting to assess the damages. The 39% surcharge on exports – from Swiss-made luxury watches to Nespresso coffee capsules – is the biggest among developed countries and compares with just 15% on the neighboring European Union. In response, Swiss politicians across parties are seeking to cancel an order of three dozen F-35A fighter jets from US defense conglomerate Lockheed Martin.
Investors are losing patience in European defense stocks after earnings failed to show a boom in orders. Rheinmetall shares tumbled today after disappointing first-half earnings. Although NATO countries have pledged to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, delays in passing Germany’s federal budget after a new government was elected, combined with the NATO summit at the end of June, have pushed any new contracts well into the second half of the year. A huge rally in European defense stocks has stalled this summer, as investor optimism over expanding military budgets turns to impatience about when this will be translated into profits. Now, they’re piling into assets that could gain if peace between Russia and Ukraine breaks out.
A Rheinmetall HX 6x6 heavy-duty tactical truck, developed and manufactured by Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV) Photographer: Nick Paleologos/Bloomberg
Inflation rates across Europe are sharply diverging, posing a huge challenge for European Central Bank officials trying to stick their landing at 2%. Among eurozone members, some are seeing next-to-no growth in consumer prices, while others have levels of more than two, or nearly three times the 2% level. Complicating policy even further are the nascent impacts and conflicting signals of US tariffs on European economies. German industrial production suffered its biggest drop in almost a year, raising the prospect that Europe’s largest economy shrank more than estimated last quarter. At the same time, shipping giant Maersk — a bellwether for world trade — raised its 2025 financial outlook because demand outside North America remains resilient.
Wall Street’s favorite payday is coming to Abu Dhabi. A growing number of job candidates are asking Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to offer them carried interest awards, with some executives in the region already getting a form of carry as part of their pay. The demands are being made as the race for talent has grown more acute in recent years, amid a flood of banks, hedge funds and private equity outfits that have opened local outposts. Against that backdrop, the Middle East investing giants are getting more serious about hoovering up the best employees from all corners of finance
Badri Patarkatsishvili’s family set up a firm to manage his multibillion-dollar fortune after the mustachioed Georgian tycoon died suddenly at his English mansion in 2008. As his heirs fended off opportunists seeking a slice of the billionaire’s assets, the money manager kept a low profile, offering few details of how it handled the wealth he amassed alongside fellow oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich following the collapse of the Soviet Union. That’s starting to change.
Badri Patarkatsishvili at a shareholders meeting in Moscow in 2001. Photographer: VASILY SHAPOSHNIKOV
Digital nomads have discovered a new place to encamp: Medellin. The mountain city in central Colombia is attracting a growing number of youngish visitors looking to stay for months at a time. Most new buildings going up in the city’s poshest neighborhoods are zoned as viviendas turisticas, or “tourist homes,” which combine elements of a boutique hotel, with co-living space and studio apartments.
Photographer: Edinson Arroyo for Bloomberg Businessweek
