Dear readers,

It has been a week of European exclusives for us at the FT.

I travelled to Paris to meet Marine Le Pen, the frontrunner for the presidential election next year, and then on to Berlin for an interview with the conservative chancellor Friedrich Merz. The position of the two politicians — the first exceedingly confident, the second under growing pressure from a rising German far right — encapsulates the looming battle for Europe’s future.

With a string of elections due across the continent, the far right could make significant gains in France, Poland, Italy and Spain and the mainstream will be fighting for relevance. In this excellent Big Read, our Europe editor explains exactly what’s at stake.

In London, meanwhile, my colleagues sat down with a defiant Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is furiously fighting back against pressure from Donald Trump. In another reflection of Europe’s trials, the US president continues to blame Ukraine and its leader, rather than Russia, for the war that Vladimir Putin launched.

In the past week, Washington has agreed a cynical diesel deal with Moscow and restricted intelligence sharing with Kyiv. For Zelenskyy’s response, watch our interview here.

1. Thirty years ago, US television networks and venues wanted nothing to do with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Now, its fights draw in politicians, celebrities and tycoons. This is the story of how Trump’s America fell in love with UFC. (Free to read)

2. Yemen’s Houthis have made dramatic gains since their years-old conflict with Saudi Arabia reignited in July. Why is the Islamist group stepping up the fight?

3. Eric Kutcher is the frontrunner in the race to become the next leader of McKinsey. But nothing is guaranteed in the consultancy’s conclave-style election system.

4. Abdulrahman Alfozan was lauded as a rare Saudi national working for OpenAI. Then the ChatGPT maker found a bug wrapped in toilet paper at its headquarters. We uncover the fallout from Alfozan’s downfall.

5. Aarav Dengla became a chess grandmaster at the age of just 16 earlier this year. In this refreshing column, Dengla explains how he used AI to get there — and how the technology can transform education for the better. (Free to read)

6. Robert Armstrong suggests that instead of thinking of America’s economic recovery as K-shaped, we should imagine it as an E that’s leaning back a bit. Here’s why.

Thanks for reading,

Roula