America and Russia concluded four hours of talks in Saudi Arabia, during which they discussed the war in Ukraine; Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, was not invited. America’s State Department said that the countries would appoint “high-level” teams to devise “a path to ending the conflict”. A Russian negotiator said that a possible meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was unlikely to take place next week.
European leaders clashed in Paris over whether to send troops to Ukraine following any peace deal. Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, called such discussions “highly inappropriate”. France reportedly proposed a “reassurance force” to be stationed behind a ceasefire line. Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, said he was “prepared to consider” deploying troops—though only with an American “backstop”. The countries also discussed boosting defence spending.
Israel confirmed that Hamas would return the bodies of four hostages on Thursday. On Saturday six captives will be released, including Israelis who have been held for more than a decade. Earlier Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said that it would begin negotiations on a second phase of the Gaza ceasefire this week.
Xi Jinping, China’s president, met top tech executives, including Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei, urging them to “show their talent” and boost China’s slowing economy. The meeting suggested that Mr Ma is back in the government’s good graces; he was on the outs after criticising regulators in 2020. On Tuesday tech stocks in Hong Kong rallied as much as 2%.
The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group in Sudan, killed more than 200 people during an attack on the country’s south, according to a local monitoring group. Hundreds more were injured. The UN said that continuous attacks on civilians in Sudan “may amount to war crimes”. Since the civil war began in April 2023, 12m people have been displaced.
A plane carrying 80 people crash-landed at an airport in Toronto, injuring at least 18. Amid strong winds and snow, the aircraft flipped upside down on the tarmac before passengers were evacuated. Delta Air Lines, the plane’s operator, said that two people are in a critical, but not life-threatening, condition. The crash adds to a series of recent aviation accidents.
Protesters marched on the Cook Islands’ parliament, over fears the government was turning away from New Zealand in favour of China. Last week the prime minister, Mark Brown, signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with China. Mr Brown has not released the details, though says he will soon. The self-governing Pacific island state has a constitutional “free association” with New Zealand.
Figure of the day: 9%, the fall in Europe’s benchmark gas price after Donald Trump raised the prospect of a peace deal in Ukraine. Read the full story.
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