‘Thousands’ of North Korean troops deployed to Russia

In today’s newsletter:

Good morning. Thousands of North Korean soldiers in Russia will be sent to fight Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in the next week, Kyiv intelligence officials have warned.

The officials said that overall more than 12,000 North Koreans had arrived in the far east of Russia ahead of their deployment in Kursk, although other countries differed on the size of Pyongyang’s force.

The US confirmed the North Koreans’ presence in eastern Russia for the first time yesterday, saying that Pyongyang moved at least 3,000 soldiers there from early to mid October.

“If they’re a cobelligerent, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said. “It will have impacts not only in Europe — it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well.” Here’s what else we know about the North Korean troops in Russia.

• Russian arms exports: State weapons giant Rostec may halt exports of its high-tech goods including jets, air defence systems and ships to fulfil the demands of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, its chief executive has warned.

And here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: Malaysia releases September CPI inflation data, Taiwan publishes the latest jobs report and South Korea reports third-quarter advance GDP.

• Summit: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol meets Polish President Andrzej Duda in Seoul.

• Results: SK Hynix, Hyundai Motor and Canon report earnings.

Five more top stories

1. Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi held their first formal bilateral meeting in five years, marking an apparent thaw in relations between China and India. Their meeting at a Brics summit in Russia yesterday came days after the two countries announced an agreement on patrols along their disputed border, the site of deadly clashes four years ago.

2. Shares in Tokyo Metro soared 45 per cent higher on their Tokyo Stock Exchange debut. The underground railway network carries more than 6.5mn passengers a day through the Japanese capital at levels of punctuality and cleanliness envied around the world. Read more on Japan’s biggest public offering for six years.

3. Kamala Harris attacked Donald Trump for seeking “unchecked power” if he wins the White House again. Harris’s remarks, which come less than two weeks before the election, were a reaction to comments in The New York Times from Trump’s former chief of staff, who called the ex-president a fascist who admired Adolf Hitler.

4. HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery’s planned overhaul of the bank has reignited debate about a break-up of the group. Rajiv Jain, founder of GQG Partners, a top 20 investor in HSBC, said it should consider a total split between operations in the east and west, an idea that was once championed by top shareholder Ping An.

5. Tesla’s quarterly profit beat analysts’ estimates and it forecast a “slight growth” in deliveries this year. The results pushed the stock of the world’s largest electric vehicle maker more than 8 per cent higher in after-hours trading.

News in-depth

Chinese scholar Hu Wei was one of the most prominent critics of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when he called for Beijing to “cut off as soon as possible” its ties with Vladimir Putin. His position ran directly against Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s policy of closely courting the Russian president. Hu has now been forced into early retirement, joining a growing number of scholars who have been fired or disappeared as the Communist party under Xi tightens its grip on academia.

We’re also reading . . . 

• E-bikes in China: Despite their ubiquity, the country seems to be having difficulty regulating, and even defining, these vehicles, writes Shanghai correspondent Thomas Hale.

• When venture capital goes wrong: The demise of Byju’s, an Indian edtech company, holds lessons for other ambitious scale-ups and investors, the FT editorial board writes.

• Global economy: The world economy has been surprisingly resilient but downside risks remain for policymakers, argues Martin Wolf.

Chart of the day

Investors are piling into emerging market funds that exclude China despite a recent blistering rally in Chinese stocks. Investment firms told the FT that clients increasingly see the world’s second-biggest economy as too large or risky to manage alongside other developing economies such as India.

Take a break from the news

Without fungi, there would be no bread, wine or cheese, among many other pleasures. But did you know that fungi are neither plants nor animals? This fact could be holding back their conservation owing to an oversight in the classification of living things, writes science commentator Anjana Ahuja.