protests

 Read more

Leslie Hook has been reporting on a new vein of activism among young people in China, known as the “post-90” generation — born after 1990.

 Read more

Neil Buckley

Ukrainian opposition activists clash with riot police on July 4. SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/GettyImages

Ukrainian opposition activists clash with riot police on July 4. SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/GettyImages

Barely had supporters’ chants at the Euro 2012 final in Kiev’s Olympic Stadium on Sunday died out, before politics as usual returned to Ukraine. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning have seen violent clashes between riot police and demonstrators protesting against a law that would upgrade the role of the Russian language in the former Soviet state.

The law was rammed through parliament in a second reading at short notice on Tuesday, after being similarly rammed through a first reading a month ago – just before Euro 2012. It now needs only to be signed by president Viktor Yanukovich to take effect. Read more

Charles Clover

A storm of protest has broken out in Russian political circles over, of all things, protesting. A new law sharply raising fines for unsanctioned political demonstrations, effectively criminalising them, was passed this week by both houses of parliament, and awaits signature by President Vladimir Putin. But is it fair? Read more

Welcome to our continuing coverage of the eurozone crisis. All times are London time. Curated by Esther Bintliff and John Aglionby on the world news desk in London, with contributions from FT correspondents around the world.

 

14.44: We’re now handing over to our colleagues on Money Supply, who are  liveblogging the testimony of Ben Bernanke, US Federal Reserve chairman, before Congress. Thanks for reading today and we’ll be back soon.

14.37: A quick round-up of today’s events:

  • Eurozone finance ministers postponed the disbursement of the next tranche of Greece’s bailout money until November
  • However, the Eurogroup also indicated they were preparing to paper over Greece’s failure to meet international lenders’ mandated budget targets for 2011, saying they would now evaluate Athens’ performance based on goals that combine both this year’s and next year’s finances
  • Jean-Claude Juncker confirmed that the eurogroup will review the losses imposed on private sector bondholders (mainly banks) as part of the Greek bailout agreed in July. Last week, the FT reported that as many as seven of the eurozone members wanted private creditors to swallow a bigger writedown on their Greek bondholdings
  • The French and Belgian governments stepped in to stem investor panic on Tuesday by saying they would guarantee loans made by Dexia, amid fears of a funding crisis at the Franco-Belgian bank
  • Shares in Deutsche Bank fell after it said it was going to take an approximately €250m impairment charge on its Greek sovereign debt holdings
  • Ireland’s central bank downgraded its growth forecasts for Ireland in 2012 (see our 13.15 update) while upgrading its forecast for 2011

 Read more