America and Russia concluded four-hour long talks in Saudi Arabia, during which they discussed peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. A Russian negotiator said that a possible meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was unlikely to take place next week. Meanwhile Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, met Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey; he was not invited to the table in Riyadh.
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.
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.
Argentina’s main stock index fell by 4% after Javier Milei, the country’s libertarian president, became embroiled in a scandal over $LIBRA. The memecoin’s value plummeted after Mr Milei deleted a boosterish post on social media on Friday. He denied any connection to $LIBRA’s developers. A judge has been assigned to evaluate several cases that investors have brought against him.
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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