Update at 13:40 GMT, Jan 31, 2023

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, called on allies to speed up the delivery of weapons and asked them to send more equipment, including long-range missiles. The tanks promised by countries like Germany and America could take months to arrive. Mr Zelensky said weapons were needed sooner to repel a Russian offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. For months Ukraine has been asking the West to send fighter jets to help fend off Russian missiles and drones. A growing number of American officials support doing so, according to reports. Germany, however, has ruled it out.

Germany’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2022 was slightly worse than expected, shrinking 0.2% compared with the previous quarter. Despite pressures from high energy costs and rising interest rates, most analysts had expected GDP to be flat. Another contraction, as is predicted for the first quarter of 2023, would mean a recession, which it had previously seemed as though Germany might narrowly avoid.

America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met with Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Monday as part of a three-day tour of the Middle East. In the meeting, they discussed regional stability and human rights. Mr Blinken will continue his trip in Jerusalem on Monday, and then the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, amid a fresh spate of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

In Pakistan an explosion at a mosque killed at least 32 worshippers and injured scores more in Peshawar, close to the Afghanistan border, as they performed afternoon prayers. At least 260 people were in the building, located near to the city’s police headquarters. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the city has previously been terrorised by the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan, a militant group.

 

Adani Group, a conglomerate that underpins swathes of India’s economy, responded to a scathing report by Hindenburg Research, a New York investment firm. The report accused Adani Group of market manipulation and accounting fraud, sparking a $48bn stockmarket rout. In the 413-page retort, the conglomerate denied wrongdoing and claimed Hindenburg issued the report in order to book gains. Hindenburg said Adani’s response “largely confirmed our findings and ignored our key questions”.

Unilever, a consumer-goods giant that makes everything from soap to soup, appointed Hein Schumacher as its new chief executive. Mr Schumacher replaces Alan Jope whose four-year stint was beset by sagging sales and profits; a failed bid to buy GlaxoSmithKline, a drugmaker, last year precipitated his resignation. The appointment was welcomed by markets with Unilever shares rising by about 1% in morning trading.

Novak Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas to win his tenth Australian Open—and his 22nd tennis grand slam—equalling a men’s record held by Rafael Nadal. The Serbian player returned to the tournament after being kicked out of Australia last year, having refused to be vaccinated against covid.

Fact of the day: $25bn, the revenue of the listed companies of the Adani Group in the last financial year. Read the full story.

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Israel’s heavy-handed response to shootings

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Israel’s far-right government has responded to the worst terror attack against Israeli citizens in 15 years with collective punishment. The family of the Palestinian gunman who murdered seven passers-by in a shooting spree in Jerusalem on Friday night have already had their home sealed, as a prelude to its demolition. Similar steps are planned for the home of the 13-year-old who shot and wounded two Israelis on Saturday. Palestinians in Jerusalem found to be involved in terror activity will have their residency rights revoked.

Legal and moral qualms aside, these tactics have all been tried with only limited success in the past. But the ministers are playing to their nationalist audience. Likewise, with the incendiary decision by Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday to encourage more Israeli civilians to carry guns. Help is unlikely to come from America’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, when he visits on Monday. The last serious American initiative to solve the conflict ended, fruitlessly, in 2014.

Germany’s economy braces for a chill

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On Monday, when Germany’s statistics office unveiled its final figure for GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2022, the number was slightly worse than expected. The country’s economy shrank by 0.2% compared with the third quarter. That followed a 0.5% rise in GDP between second and third quarters. Another contraction, as is predicted for the first quarter of 2023, would mean a recession, which it had previously seemed as though Germany might narrowly avoid.

War in Ukraine, lingering supply hiccups and surging inflation, especially in energy prices, has made Germany’s energy-hungry and export-reliant economy look especially wobbly. But after a relatively mild weather kept energy prices down, some optimism returned. In fact both production and demand have been hurt by high energy prices and rising interest rates. Now the German government is saying it expects a return to growth in the spring.

 

Rahul Gandhi’s long walk back

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The de facto leader of India’s opposition party, Congress, finishes his near-3,500km “unite India March” on Monday. Rahul Gandhi has billed his country-spanning walk as a riposte to the strident Hindu-nationalism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is part of an effort to revive Congress’s electoral prospects before a general election next year. The former juggernaut of Indian politics has suffered successive humiliating defeats.

Such pilgrimages, yatras, have long been a feature of Indian politics. Marches in the 1990s were central to the BJP’s rise to prominence. Mr Gandhi has drawn crowds; he is planning more to galvanise local support. That is sorely needed: Congress controls just three of India’s 28 states and less than 10% of seats in the lower house of parliament. Polls say Narendra Modi, the BJP prime minister, is backed by twice as many Indians as Mr Gandhi. Mr Gandhi’s long walk may be over, but Congress still faces a daunting trek.

The opposition’s vision for Turkey

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Turkey’s opposition parties are hopeful about their chances of unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May, when the country holds both presidential and parliamentary elections. On Monday they will unveil their manifesto, which includes bringing back the country’s old parliamentary system. Executive lawmaking powers were transferred to the president in 2018. Since then Mr Erdogan has expanded his grip over Turkey’s courts and electoral board. He is also eyeing more constitutional change, to enshrine the right of Muslim women to wear the headscarf and to protect family values against “perverted currents”.

To put a stop to that, the six opposition parties have formed a coalition which will field a single candidate. But they cannot agree on who that should be. The likely choice—Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the uncharismatic chairman of the CHP, the biggest party in the bloc—has led his party to four successive parliamentary election defeats since 2010. The coalition has two weeks left to squabble until a planned announcement.

 

The cost of hurricanes in America

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Residents of America’s Gulf coast have several months yet before they batten down the hatches when hurricane season starts in June. But their property-insurance bills offer a constant reminder of the risk of disaster: firms charge homeowners in Florida and Louisiana some of the dearest premiums in the country. Still, insurers are struggling to stay afloat after a run of terrible storms. More than eight went bankrupt in Louisiana last year; 15 have gone under in Florida since 2020.

The result is that states are reluctantly playing an ever-larger role in propping up their insurance markets. On Monday Louisiana lawmakers will gather for a special legislative session and probably allocate money—officials have requested $45m—to induce firms to keep operating. They want to limit homeowners’ reliance on the state-backed insurer of last resort, lest that undermine the private market, while insisting that premiums stay affordable. But what is affordable for homeowners is not economic for firms.