America suspended all military aid to Ukraine in an apparent effort to get the war-torn country to sign up to Donald Trump’s plans for peace. Marco Rubio, America’s secretary of state, said squeezing Ukraine was a way “to get the Russians to a negotiating table”. In an interview recorded just before the announcement, J.D. Vance, the vice-president, said that Volodymyr Zelensky had displayed a “sense of entitlement” before Mr Vance’s and Mr Trump’s public dressing down of the Ukrainian president during a press conference last week.
Hours after America’s announcement, the European Union proposed a fund worth €150bn ($158bn) that would lend money to member states for spending on defence. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told European leaders in a letter that the bloc was ready to “massively boost its defence spending”. They will discuss the proposed instrument at a summit on Thursday.
Asian stockmarkets fell as America’s 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as an extra 10% levy on Chinese imports, went into effect. China’s retaliation was swift: a 10-15% levy on a range of American agricultural products. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, said his country would respond with 25% tariffs on American goods.
Anthropic raised $3.5bn in a deal that values the American artificial-intelligence startup at $61.5bn. The money will be used to boost its computing power amid increasingly fierce competition. Last week Anthropic released Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which it claims to be its most advanced AI model. It was followed by the release of ChatGPT 4.5, the latest model by OpenAI, a rival.
TSMC said it would invest $100bn to build new chip factories in America over the next four years. However, despite Mr Trump’s hopes, the Taiwanese chipmaker will probably continue to produce the world’s most advanced semiconductors at home. Mr Trump had previously accused Taiwan of “stealing” America’s chip industry. TSMC has already invested $65bn to construct three factories in Arizona.
Officials in Japan warned that wildfire, which has been raging for a week, could spread further in the coming days. The blaze broke out in the country’s north-east and has torn through 2,100 hectares already. More than 1,200 people have been evacuated. Parts of the region are experiencing their driest winter since 1946, fuelling the fires.
The Vatican said that Pope Francis had two episodes of “acute respiratory insufficiency”, caused by a buildup of mucus in his airways and a bronchospasm, that required “non-invasive” ventilation. The 88-year-old pontiff has been in hospital for two weeks with pneumonia, and suffered another bronchospasm, similar to an asthma attack, on Friday. The Vatican said that he remained “alert, focused and co-operative”.
Figure of the day: €210bn ($218bn), the value of Russian assets frozen in European banks. Read the full story.
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