Your Evening Briefing: Xi’s Power Grab Spurs Historic Market Rout

A sense of exasperation swept across Chinese markets as Xi Jinping moved to stack his leadership ranks with loyalists. Stocks capped their worst day in Hong Kong since the 2008 global financial crisis and the yuan weakened to a 14-year low. China’s lurch toward one-man rule has made it more important than ever for investors to align portfolios with the priorities of Xi, but some have decided it’s not worth the trouble. The richest tycoons doing business in China have lost more than $12.7 billion in the market selloff that’s followed his consolidation of power.

Ukraine’s allies are increasingly concerned that desperation over battlefield failures may lead Russia to escalate its war, possibly attacking a target like a dam or even using a weapon of mass destruction. Unsubstantiated Russian allegations about dirty bomb threats and Kyiv’s alarm over potential false flags by the Kremlin triggered warnings to Moscow from the office of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.