European leaders held talks on Ukraine and protection
At a gathering in Brussels yesterday, leaders of the E.U.’s 27 international locations mentioned how to bolster both the continent’s defenses and its support for Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Fee, referred to as it a “watershed second.”
The purpose for Europe is to raised arm itself to cope with Russia with out as a lot backup from the U.S. To achieve that goal, a plan from the Fee would provide 150 billion euros in loans to spend money on missile protection, anti-drone methods and different protection applied sciences.
The leaders additionally reviewed a peace plan for Ukraine and methods to help it financially and presumably with troops. “We’re very grateful that we aren’t alone,” mentioned Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended the assembly.
Jeanna Smialek, our Brussels bureau chief, advised me because the assembly was ongoing that E.U. leaders had been largely “vowing to face by Ukraine.” But it surely wasn’t fairly unanimous.
“Hungary didn’t signal onto a joint assertion of help after the European Council assembly,” Jeanna mentioned. It was “the primary time since Russia’s full-scale invasion that the E.U.’s unanimity on such a press release has damaged.”
Hungary has, up to now, been reluctant to affix an E.U. consensus on Ukraine.
U.S.-Ukraine talks: Steve Witkoff, a Trump envoy, mentioned that U.S. and Ukrainian officers plan to meet next week in Saudi Arabia to debate ending the warfare.
Nuclear umbrella: The French President, Emmanuel Macron, mentioned France is prepared to debate extending the protection afforded by its nuclear arsenal to European allies.
On the battlefield: A Russian missile hit a lodge yesterday in Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine, killing no less than 4 folks.
Trump gave Canada and Mexico a tariff reprieve
President Trump yesterday paused for one month new tariffs on exports to the U.S. from Mexico and Canada, saying he would exempt merchandise lined below the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Settlement.
The transfer got here a day after he granted a 30-day reprieve to automakers, who had complained to the president that his sweeping 25 p.c tariffs would severely injury them.
Trump’s strikes have was a sport of brinkmanship with the North American financial system. Inventory markets tumbled and confusion unfold amongst industries that rely on commerce with Canada and Mexico, two of the U.S.’s largest buying and selling companions.
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Who’s funding Britain’s populist chief?
Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform U.Okay. social gathering has surged in British polls. Yesterday, its donation figures for the final quarter of 2024 were released. In complete, the social gathering raised 4.75 million kilos final yr, up from lower than 160,000 kilos in 2023.
The Occasions analyzed each donation. We discovered an inflow of funding from fossil gas traders, local weather skeptics and multimillionaires. A 3rd of the cash got here from former donors to the Conservative Get together, exhibiting the hazard that the Tories face from a bunch that fashions itself on Trump’s MAGA motion.
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The director Bong Joon Ho’s new movie, “Mickey 17,” is, without delay, a scarily acquainted and enjoyably loony tunes story about class and greed. The principle character, performed by Robert Pattinson, is used to check viruses and different threats on an alien planet. He dies again and again, just for his employers to reprint a replica of him to get him proper again to work. However, as with every software program replace, there are bugs.
The film teeters near despair, but in addition “lifts you to the skies,” our chief movie critic, Manohla Dargis, writes. “Mickey 17” releases in many theaters worldwide this weekend.
The director: Bong, who additionally made the darkish comedy “Parasite,” turns funny-sad excavations of life below capitalism into blockbusters. My colleague Jonah Weiner interviewed him in Seoul.
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