European leaders rallied behind Volodymyr Zelensky after Donald Trump called him “a dictator without elections” on Wednesday. Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, said he would visit Kyiv to “reaffirm” support. Germany’s Olaf Scholz rejected Mr Trump’s claim that Ukraine was to blame for the war. Ukrainian opposition figures also dismissed calls for elections, calling them “impossible and immoral” during war.
Israeli police said they were investigating a “suspected terror attack” after three empty buses exploded in Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv. No casualties have been reported. The incident comes hours after Hamas handed back the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children; Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s president, threatened to “settle the score” with their killers.
America’s Senate narrowly confirmed Kash Patel by 51-49 to lead the FBI. Two Republicans opposed. Mr Patel’s overt partisanship and affinity for conspiracy theories make him a controversial choice to oversee law enforcement. He once called the organisation that he now runs “one of the most cunning and powerful forces of the deep state”.
Russia retook 800 square kilometres in Kursk, reversing 64% of Ukraine’s gains from last year’s offensive, local media said. In Ukraine, Russian strikes killed at least seven and injured 30. The worst attacks hit Kherson in the south and Kharkiv in the north. In Odessa, 49,000 were left without power after strikes on energy infrastructure.
Mercedes-Benz warned of a sharp profit drop in 2025. Operating profit margins, which fell to 8.1% in 2024 from 12.6% the year before, could shrink to 6% this year. The German carmaker is struggling with weak demand in China and Europe; rising trade tensions will deepen the downturn. It announced a plan to cut production costs by 10% by 2027.
Mexico arrested a leading player in the Sinaloa drug cartel. José Ángel Canobbio, otherwise known as “El Güerito” (little blond one), is said to have managed security for a son of “El Chapo”, the notorious drug lord. The arrest of Mr Canobbio—who was indicted in absentia in America last year—came after the Trump administration designated the cartel a foreign terrorist organisation.
Luis Rubiales, the former head of Spain’s football federation, was found guilty of sexually assaulting Jenni Hermoso, a footballer, with a non-consensual kiss after her team won the 2023 World Cup. He was fined €10,800 ($11,300) and ordered to stay 200 metres away from her for a year. He was acquitted of coercion: the court found no proof he pressured Ms Hermoso to say the kiss was consensual.
Figure of the day: $18bn, the amount America’s biggest consultancies received from the federal government last year, up from $5bn a decade ago. Read the full story.
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