Good morning from the Financial Times.

Today is Tuesday, January 19th.

And this is your FT news briefing.

Europe's demand for Asian-Made products is up,

but getting the goods from one continent to the other

is posing a real challenge for the supply chain. Russian opposition leader Alexei

Navalny is sentenced to a month of jail time and the future of Italy's political leadership is anything but certain.

Plus it's been nearly a year since the pandemic caused many of us to work from home,

but one asset manager says investors shouldn't sleep on the lure of the office.

We'll find out why.

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

This is a story about something you might not have given a whole lot of thought to,

shipping containers.

But the demand for shipping containers in the pandemic has had a big effect on global trade.

The cost of sending a 40-foot container from Asia to Europe was $2,000 back in November.

Now, according to shippers and importers,

that cost is more than $9,000.

The main reason for this increase,

there's a limited supply of containers.

Early last year, coronavirus lockdowns hit global trade,

and shipping lines canceled hundreds of trips.

That meant thousands of empty containers

...