Ukraine said it had reached a “preliminary” agreement with America on a minerals deal. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is likely to meet Donald Trump on Friday to finalise it; he said that the success of the deal would rest on the conversation with his American counterpart. The agreement does not appear to include the security guarantees that Ukraine had wanted. Both countries will establish a joint fund to collect and reinvest revenues from Ukrainian natural resources.
Meanwhile Mr Trump said that he planned to impose a 25% tariff on imports from the European Union. During the first cabinet meeting of his second term, which Elon Musk attended, the president accused the bloc of being “formed in order to screw the United States”. Mr Trump said the levies would apply to “cars and all other things”.
Nvidia, a chipmaker, reported that quarterly net income rose by 80% year-on-year, to $22bn. The strong earnings beat analysts’ expectations, as did its $43bn sales forecast for its current quarter. Nvidia saw its share price tumble in January after DeepSeek, a Chinese firm, released its latest AI models, which were developed with fewer chips. The stock has since mostly recovered.
Iran has accelerated its production of highly enriched, near-weapons grade uranium, according to a confidential report from the United Nations nuclear watchdog. On February 8th Iran had 278 kilograms of Uranium enriched up to 60%, up from 182 kilograms in November. The fuel could be converted to 90% weapons-grade material within days.
Eli Lilly, a drugmaker, said it plans to invest $27bn over five years to open four manufacturing plants in America. Lilly’s boss, David Ricks, said he hoped the Trump administration would extend the corporate-tax cuts that the president, who has threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals, imposed during his first term. Earlier this week Apple said it would invest $500bn in domestic manufacturing.
Romanian police detained Calin Georgescu, a far-right populist, as part of an inquiry into possible election-campaign fraud. Mr Georgescu, who admires Vladimir Putin and believes covid-19 is fake, came first in the first round of presidential elections in November. But the country’s constitutional court annulled the election and instructed it be run again. The new election is due to be held on May 4th.
BP, a British oil giant, said that it would shift back to fossil fuels, about 25 years after it vowed to turn green. It will increase investment in oil and gas projects by $10bn a year, and cut spending on renewables by $5bn. On February 11th it reported that fourth-quarter profits dropped by 61% compared with the same period the previous year.
Figure of the day: 120, the number of public schools in Texas that teach mariachi, the most Mexican of music genres. Read the full story.
American politics matters intensely to the rest of the world. Read The US in brief—a daily update to help you keep on top of the political stories that matter. Sign up here to receive it as a newsletter, each weekday, in your inbox.