Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, met European leaders in Paris. Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, and Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, said that Europe should maintain sanctions on Russia. They also reiterated their willingness to deploy a European “reassurance force” in Ukraine after a peace deal. Earlier France pledged €2bn ($2.2bn) in defence aid.
Vladimir Putin said it was “wrong” not to take Donald Trump’s ambitions to annex Greenland seriously. Russia’s president also said he planned to expand his country’s military capability in the Arctic, and expressed concerns over NATO activity in the region. J.D. Vance, America’s vice-president, will visit Greenland on Friday; his itinerary was scaled back following uproar in the country over the trip.
Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, said the country would hold its next federal election on May 3rd. Mr Albanese’s left-leaning Labor Party edged into power only narrowly during Australia’s last election in 2022. Australians may end up with a minority government; both Mr Albanese and his main rival Peter Dutton, from the right wing of the Liberal Party, are unpopular with voters.
Turkey dismissed international condemnation of the jailing of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and a rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Officials said Western countries should view Mr Imamoglu’s detention with “common sense”; Mr Imamoglu’s party calls the allegations against him politically motivated. Nearly 1,900 people have been arrested in protests across Turkey following his arrest last week.
Robert F. Kennedy junior, America’s health secretary, announced that the Department of Health and Human Services would reduce its full-time staff from 82,000 to 62,000. Roughly half would be dismissed; the rest had already decided to leave the department after Donald Trump returned to the presidency. Mr Kennedy, long critical of HHS before his appointment, said that the decision would “streamline” the agency.
Six Russian tourists died when a submarine sank in Egypt’s Red Sea. Fifty people—39 other foreign tourists, who were all rescued, and five Egyptian crew members—were on board, exploring the coral reef near Hurghada, a resort city. Several Egyptian tourist boats have capsized in recent years. The latest incident could further turn off travellers, an important source of cash for the struggling economy.
Fenix International, the parent company of OnlyFans, a subscription platform for adult entertainment, was fined £1.05m ($1.4m) by Ofcom, Britain’s media watchdog, over inconsistencies in its age-verification process. Ofcom said the website failed to provide accurate information about its use of third-party facial estimation technology to screen the age of its users, who must be over 18 to enter.
Figure of the day: 458, the number of elephant statues in the opulent Eisenhower Lounge of the Capitol Hill Club, a gathering spot for Washington’s Republican elite. Read the full story.
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