Marco Rubio, America’s secretary of state, said that “the next few days” will show whether Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, is serious about peace in Ukraine. Mr Rubio confirmed that he would meet Sergey Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, in Saudi Arabia this week. Mr Rubio appeared to contradict America’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, saying that Ukraine and Europe would, in fact, be given a seat during any “real” negotiations.
European leaders will meet in Paris on Monday. Ahead of the meeting, Sir Keir Starmer said he was “ready and willing” to send British soldiers to Ukraine once a peace deal is reached, the first time the prime minister has offered to deploy peacekeeping troops. Meanwhile Hungary, whose government is aligned with Russia, criticised “pro-war” European leaders for criticising America’s plans.
A busy Mr Rubio also met Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Afterwards Israel’s prime minister praised Mr Trump’s “bold vision” for Gaza, which includes America taking over the territory, and said that the two leaders are working in “full co-operation”. Mr Netanyahu declared that he could “finish the job” on Iran and thwart its nuclear ambitions.
Japan’s GDP grew by an annualised 2.8% in October-December, topping analyst expectations and marking the third consecutive quarter of expansion. The economy was buoyed by rising consumer spending on home appliances and capital investment on new semiconductor plants. Nominal GDP surpassed ¥600trn ($4trn) for the first time in 2024.
South Africa could let Russia and Iran bid for contracts to expand its nuclear power infrastructure, according to Gwede Mantashe, the African country’s minister for minerals and petroleum. South Africa plans to more than double its nuclear-power capacity by the early 2030s. The suggestion may anger America, which has cut aid to South Africa over its land-reform policies.
South Korea blocked new downloads of the app that lets users query DeepSeek, China’s flagship artificial-intelligence model. Last week, South Korea’s spy agency accused the Chinese firm behind the chatbot of “excessively” collecting personal data, and criticised its dubious responses to politically sensitive questions. Taiwan, Australia and Italy have also imposed restrictions or launched investigations into DeepSeek.
“Conclave” was named the best picture at the BAFTAs, Britain’s most prestigious film awards. The papal drama, which stars Ralph Fiennes, took four awards in total. “The Brutalist”, a movie about a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor, was the night’s other big winner. The BAFTAs are the last of the big film awards before the Oscars.
Figure of the day: 40%, the share of Germans who say Friedrich Merz—leader of the Christian Democrats and the probable next chancellor—is suitable for the job. Read the full story.
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