In this Guardian live event, historian Timothy Snyder and Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding will discuss the causes of Putin's invasion and the impact of Ukraine's resistance after six months of conflict.
Monday 26 September, 8pm–9pm BST | | | | |  UK wages are continuing to lag behind inflation, as the cost of living squeeze hit British workers over the summer.
The latest UK labour market report, just released, shows that real pay is still falling, even as the jobless rate hits a new near-50 year low.
Average pay including bonuses rose by 5.5% per year in May-July, while basic pay, excluding bonuses, rose 5.2%, the Office for National Statistics reports.
Although that's quite high in nominal terms, the ONS says it's one of the worst drops in real pay this century.
Based on its CPIH inflation measure, the ONS says: "Growth in total and regular pay fell in real terms (adjusted for inflation) on the year in May to July 2022, at 2.6% for total pay and 2.8% for regular pay; this is slightly smaller than the record fall we saw last month (3.0%), but still remains among the largest falls in growth since comparable records began in 2001."
The headline CPI inflation is higher that CPIH. It hit 10.1% in July, and could remain high for months – despite the government's energy price cap announced last week.
The jobs report also shows that firms are also cutting back on hiring, as the energy crisis pushes the UK economy closer to recession.
The number of job vacancies in June to August fell by 34,000 to 1,266,000, the largest quarterly fall since June to August 2020.
But in better news, the total number of workforce jobs in the UK has risen by 290,000 to a record 35.8 million. This means it has exceeded the pre-coronavirus level of December 2019 for the first time.
The UK unemployment rate is now the lowest since May to July 1974 – the ONS reports it dropped to 3.6% in the three months to July, down from 3.8% in the previous quarter.
But the economic inactivity rate has risen by 0.4 percentage points to 21.7%, as more people dropped out of the labour market in May-July.
That's 1.5 percentage points higher than before the coronavirus pandemic, showing the long-term impact of Covid-19 on the labour force.
UK business are preparing for the Queen's state funeral. A string of retailers, including Aldi, John Lewis, Waitrose, Primark and Homebase have decided to shut stores next Monday.
London hotel rates have soared, in line with surging demand from foreign dignitaries, and members of the public keen to pay their respects
In economics….investors are hoping to learn today that the pace of US inflation may have slowed last month.
US CPI is expected to have slowed in August, for the second month running, to an annual pace of around 8.1%, down from 8.5% in July.
Prices may have dropped by 0.1% on a monthly basis during August, thanks to a drop in energy costs (gasoline has been falling steadily for weeks), having been flat in July.
But core inflation, which strips out volatile measures such as energy, is expected to have risen 0.3% during the month.
A slowdown in inflation could take some pressure off America's central bankers, who are expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points (three-quarters of a point) at the their next meeting.
European stock markets are set to open lower, after strong gains yesterday after Ukraine's sweeping advances against Russia eased some investor fears of a prolonged energy crisis in Europe.
The agenda
• 7am BST: UK labour market report
• 8am BST: Kantar's grocery inflation report
• 10am BST: ZEW index of German economic sentiment
• 1.30pm BST: US inflation report for August
• 3pm BST: TIPP survey of US economic optimism for September
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Centrica and EDF are at the table – now UK ministers must strike a fair electricity price 
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