June 10 update

Donald Trump said he had been indicted for mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida. America’s Justice Department did not confirm the charges, which would be the first to be brought by federal prosecutors against a former president. (Mr Trump faces a separate criminal indictment, filed by prosecutors in New York.) According to media reports, the charges include conspiracy to obstruct justice and willful retention of secret documents. Mr Trump says he is due to report to court in Miami on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia will move tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus next month, during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. According to Mr Putin, the facilities to store nukes will be ready by July 7th or 8th. Russia resupplies its forces from Belarusian territory but the deployment of a nuke in Belarus would mark an escalation of the country’s role in the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s internal security service said that it had intercepted a call that proves a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka dam. Both Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the dam’s destruction, which has flooded Kherson, a region in south-east Ukraine. Residents have been left stranded and without drinking water. Some of those trying to escape have been shelled.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, hailed “results” in heavy fighting in Donetsk, a region in the country’s east. Hanna Maliar, the deputy defence minister, said Russian forces were “actively on the defensive” around Orikhiv, a city in the south-eastern province of Zaporizhia, where Ukraine has also launched attacks. Russia denied that Ukraine had achieved any breakthroughs.

The French government announced that 75 food companies had agreed to lower their products’ prices in line with falling commodity costs. French officials believe food firms have unfairly boosted their profits by raising prices by more than is needed to cover higher wholesale costs. Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, said the government would “name and shame” firms that refused to participate in the scheme.

Smoke from wildfires in Canada continued drifting towards America. Philadelphia and Washington, DC, recorded “very unhealthy” air quality levels. But the worst appears to have passed elsewhere, with air quality improving across much of America’s north-east, including in New York City. The state of New York, along with Maine and New Hampshire, will send forest rangers to Canada to help manage the wildfires.

Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former banker for Goldman Sachs, was appointed as the head of Turkey’s central bank—an indication the country may soon abandon its unorthodox monetary policy. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president, has repeatedly strong-armed the bank into slashing interest rates, despite vertiginous inflation. But, following his re-election in May, Mr Erdogan has shifted towards more conventional economics.

Figure of the day: 20m, the approximate number of people that travel by rail in India each day. Read the full story.

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PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

China’s faltering recovery

China’s state-owned enterprises have weathered the country’s recent economic setbacks better than most firms. Their pay and profits have been relatively resilient. That may help explain the frenzied online reaction this week when the married boss of a state-owned engineering firm in Beijing was photographed breezily out shopping with a young female employee holding his hand. Overall, consumer confidence is still weak and retail sales disappointing, though both have recovered a little this year.

How should policymakers respond to China’s faltering recovery? Elsewhere, central bankers’ hands are tied by high inflation, which obliges them to keep monetary policy tight. But in China inflation is dangerously low. Data out on Friday showed that consumer prices rose by only 0.2% year on year in May. This week China’s big banks said they would cut interest rates on many deposits. That could pave the way for the central bank to lower the interest rate on loans. Meanwhile the interest in scandals seems strong.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Progress in treating Alzheimer’s

Carers for the 6.7m Americans currently living with Alzheimer’s, the most common cause of dementia, should pay close attention to a meeting on Friday of a committee of the Food and Drug Administration. It may grant “traditional” approval to Leqembi (a brand name for lecanemab), a drug produced by Eisai of Japan and America’s Biogen. Leqembi won “accelerated” approval in January.

The change is more than semantic: it would mean that the FDA accepts that Leqembi offers proven clinical benefits—ie, that it actually slows cognitive decline. The earlier approval—like one granted two years ago to Aduhelm (aducanamab), another drug—was based on its effectiveness in attacking a build-up of protein plaques in the brain, a possible cause of Alzheimer’s. Traditional approval would also unlock coverage from both Medicare (federal health-insurance for the elderly) and private insurers. With Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical giant, hoping to win approval for a similar medicine this year, glimmers of hope are at last flickering for those with early-stage Alzheimer’s.

PHOTO: AP

Russia’s surprising economic stability

Following its latest monetary-policy meeting on Friday, Russia’s central bank is expected to leave interest rates at 7.5%—their pre-war level. Not long ago such loose monetary policy would have been unthinkable. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 the rouble tanked, causing inflation to spike. The central bank quickly raised rates to an astonishing 20%.

Even with this extraordinary policy in place, many were surprised by how quickly inflation subsequently came down. The rouble stabilised. Inflation expectations, which had mounted, fell once more. That has allowed the central bank to cut rates aggressively, supporting the economy. Energy prices, pushed up by the war, have fallen in recent months but, according to “real-time” data on everything from business confidence to consumer surveys, Russia’s GDP is growing about as quickly as before the pandemic—not fast, but considerably faster than expected. The Russian economy is poorer than it was before February 2022. But it is, against the odds, stable.

PHOTO: GETTY/REUTERS

Republicans converge in North Carolina

This weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina, Republicans hoping to lead the state will rub shoulders with those hoping to govern the country. The North Carolina Republican Party is hosting its annual convention of GOP candidates for local, state and national office. The speaking slots are much coveted—and prime podium time is carefully allocated.

Ron DeSantis, the Republican presidential candidate who is polling in second place, will address the Old North State dinner on Friday. Mike Pence, a former vice-president who jumped into the race on Wednesday, gets Saturday’s First in Freedom lunch. But the best speaking spot, at the Grand Old Party dinner on Saturday, will go to Donald Trump, who won North Carolina in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. (Expect him to have some choice words on his latest indictment.)

Republicans have so far been cautious about criticising the former president but—now that the field is growing more crowded—an elbow or two has emerged. As Mr Trump said recently, “this is a war of a certain kind.”

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Saudi Arabia plays the long game

After the golfing merger between the PGA Tour in America, the DP World Tour in Europe and the Saudi-funded LIV Golf on Wednesday, where will Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern governments invest next? The merger certainly represents an intensification of Saudi’s sports-investment programme. Although buying Premier League football clubs (such as Newcastle United) is expensive, taking control of an entire sport is a much more ambitious enterprise. That is what the merger amounts to: the PGA Tour has bent to the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s wishes.

Middle Eastern countries will continue to persuade fading footballers based in Europe—such as Cristiano Ronaldo, though not Lionel Messi—to play in their domestic leagues. Saudi Arabia remains determined to bid for the 2030 football World Cup. It also has a long-standing interest in launching a short-format cricket franchise that would be richer even than the Indian Premier League. The lesson from golf is that, no matter how vociferous the protest and disavowals, money eventually makes things happen.