Europe is planning a peace plan for Ukraine in order to persuade the USA to provide security guarantees. France is proposing a limited ceasefire and a European peacekeeping mission is possible. Europe also wants to increase defense spending in order to convince Trump. Trump holds talks with Russia on his own authority and questions aid to Ukraine.
Selensky believes he can salvage his relationship with Trump, but wants further talks behind closed doors. He emphasized that Ukraine would not cede any territory to Russia and was still interested in a minerals deal with the USA. Following the scandal in the White House, he is hoping for security guarantees from the USA. While some Republicans are calling for his resignation, he rejects this.
Before his meeting with King Charles, Trudeau emphasized that protecting Canadian sovereignty was a top priority after Trump proposed making Canada the 51st US state. He sees this proposal as a serious threat, particularly because of Canada's wealth of natural resources. Trudeau also declared his support for Selenskyj after his meeting with Trump.
The drama “Anora” won five Oscars, including Best Picture. Director Sean Baker received awards for directing, screenplay and editing. Mikey Madison was honored as Best Actress in a Leading Role. Adrien Brody won Best Actor in a Leading Role for “The Brutalist”, while Zoe Saldana and Kieran Culkin won Supporting Actor awards. The documentary “No Other Land” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict won in its category. “Flow” from Latvia was awarded Best Animated Film.
US President Trump announced that five cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana and Cardano - would be included in a new strategic reserve. Following the announcement, crypto prices rose sharply, with Bitcoin up 11% to $94,164. Analysts see this as a turning point for institutional acceptance and regulation. Trump's administration has already taken crypto-friendly measures, including the end of SEC investigations into Coinbase. Experts expect further price rises, depending on regulatory clarity and interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.
Falling demand for Kweichow Moutai exacerbates Guizhou's debt problem. Prices fell by up to 22% in 2024, the luxury image is crumbling. Moutai accounts for 5% of the province's GDP - a further decline could exacerbate the debt crisis. Attempts to attract younger buyers remain unsuccessful.
Abkhazia's incumbent president Badra Gunba wins the election with 55% of the vote. The election follows protests against an agreement with Russia, which led to the resignation of his predecessor Aslan Bzhania. Georgia condemns the election as a violation of its sovereignty.
Andrew Cuomo runs for mayor of New York City, three years after resigning as governor over allegations of sexual harassment and false COVID-19 reports. He denies the allegations and wants to run with a program against crime and housing shortages. Incumbent Eric Adams, who is under pressure due to allegations of corruption, is running again.
Yamandu Orsi took office as President of Uruguay on March 1, 2025, marking a political shift towards the center-left. Orsi, supported by former president José Mujica, narrowly won the election against the ruling center-right coalition. He promised to find a balance between social welfare and economic growth without making drastic political changes in the stable country. His focus is on combating poverty and promoting investment without raising taxes. In foreign policy, Orsi must find a balance between the USA, China and neighboring countries such as Brazil and Argentina.
China wants to boost consumption, but faces major challenges. Reforms could include higher social benefits, tax adjustments and greater urbanization of migrants. The real estate market and state-owned enterprises also require reforms, but these entail high costs and risks. Long-term fiscal adjustments would be necessary to finance these measures.
Tschentscher leads the SPD to victory with 33.5%, despite losses. The CDU comes in with 19.8% and the Greens with 18.5%. Red-Greens can continue to govern. The Left Party reaches 11.2% for the first time, the AfD gains slightly to 7.5%, while the FDP fails with 2.3%. Voter turnout rises to 68%. Tschentscher plans talks with the Greens and CDU.
The USA shifts its focus to China, while Europe is expected to bear the brunt of the war in Ukraine. Pete Hegseth set out a “division of labor” at his public reading of the policy derived from Project 2025 in Brussels earlier this month.
The USA is shifting its focus to China, while Europe is to bear the main burden of the war in Ukraine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have instructed the IDF to prepare to protect the Druze community in Jaramana.
Slovakia stops military and financial aid to Ukraine. “We propose an immediate ceasefire,” says Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Elon Musk says via 𝕏 that he “agrees” that the USA should leave NATO and the UN.
Israel stops humanitarian aid to Gaza after the end of the first ceasefire. Israel has stopped all humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip following the end of the first phase of the ceasefire. The Israeli government wants to exert pressure on Hamas to negotiate a second phase of the ceasefire on Israeli terms. The measure significantly exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that he will use his emergency powers to speed up the delivery of 4 billion dollars in military aid to Israel.
France and the UK propose a one-month ceasefire in Ukraine, which French President Emmanuel Macron says will initially be limited to air and sea rather than land. In an interview with Le Figaro, Macron admits that it would be difficult to verify compliance due to the size of the front. He also points out that the peacekeepers will only be deployed later and rules out a short-term presence of European troops in Ukraine. He also calls on European countries to increase their defence spending to 3.0 to 3.5% of GDP in response to Russian militarization and Washington's changing priorities.
The Chinese government instructs executives and researchers from AI companies to stop traveling to the US. As the Wall Street Journal reports, security concerns play a role here, as Chinese AI experts could disclose confidential information and research successes when traveling abroad. (WSJ)
DeepSeek is accelerating the launch of its next AI model R2, which is expected to offer better programming capabilities and multilingual support. The company has moved up its original schedule from May to take advantage of current market momentum. (RT)
OpenAI has announced plans to move three quarters of its computing capacity from Microsoft to SoftBank by 2030. This decision follows the establishment of the Stargate project, a joint initiative between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build AI infrastructure in the US with investments of up to $500 billion. (TI)
Crypto had a good day yesterday - because US President Trump announced for the first time the names of the cryptocurrencies to be included in a new strategic reserve. Currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether are to be “the centerpiece of the reserve”, but XRP (Ripple), SOL (Solana) and ADA (Cardano) were also named. (IBD)
Siemens Energy will be the exclusive supplier of non-nuclear parts that the British industrial group Rolls-Royce wants to install in “mini-nuclear power plants” in the future. A final contract with all the details is to be signed by the end of 2025. (RT)
Matthias Warnig - first a Stasi officer, then a Putin confidant, Schröder friend and Nord Stream 2 mastermind - has launched an attempt to resupply Europe with energy via the Russian gas pipeline with the support of US investors, according to the Financial Times. (FT)
- Europeans: Want to work out a plan for a ceasefire in Ukraine after the scandal in the White House (HB)
- Inflation: Stays at 2.3% in February (STAT)
- EU: Wants to adopt free trade pact with India (TAG)
- Wirecard trial: Damper for tens of thousands of shareholders - EY not liable to pay (MM)
- Volocopter: Ailing air taxi company opens insolvency proceedings (MM)
- US government: Indicates that Mexico and Canada tariffs could be <25% after all (FT)
- US economy: Q4 GDP growth remains unchanged at 2.3% (BBG)
- Hedge funds: Betting on a recovery of the real estate crisis in China (RT)
- Berkshire Hathaway: Sells all S&P 500 ETF holdings (FT)
- Japan: Birth rate at lowest level in 125 years (FT)
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