FirstFT: Trump and Putin focus on finish to Ukraine warfare

Good morning. We begin right this moment with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s telephone name about ending the warfare in Ukraine. Plus:

• Foxconn confirms its curiosity in Nissan

• Can Trump make bitcoin helpful?

• Chinese language tech shares enter a bull market

President Donald Trump has stated Washington and Moscow will start negotiations “immediately” on ending the warfare in Ukraine after talking with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Yesterday’s name indicated a dramatic turnaround within the US-Russia relationship amid indicators Washington will dial again its help for Ukraine after nearly three years of warfare. Trump stated the 2 leaders additionally agreed to go to one another’s nations.

The decision, which the Kremlin stated lasted almost 90 minutes, was the primary time the US and Russia had spoken on the highest stage since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Trump spoke to Putin earlier than calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, in an indication that the US could not wish to work with Kyiv or the EU on a typical technique to convey Russia to the negotiating desk. Right here’s how European officers responded to the information.

• US pours chilly water on Ukraine’s peace objectives: A return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an “unrealistic objective”, the US defence secretary stated yesterday.

• Prisoner change: Alexander Vinnik, a Russian who operated cryptocurrency platform BTC-e, is to be launched as a part of the change that freed American instructor Marc Fogel, a US official stated.

• Defence spending: Army spending in Russia now outstrips all of Europe’s defence budgets mixed, in accordance with a examine.

Right here’s what else we’re protecting tabs on right this moment:

• Financial information: The US experiences fourth-quarter GDP estimates and PPI inflation figures for January.

• India-US relations: Narendra Modi meets Donald Trump in Washington, the place the Indian prime minister will search to fend off US motion on tariffs and migration.

• Nato: Defence ministers from the alliance meet in Brussels.

• Outcomes: Sony, Nissan and Honda report earnings.

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5 extra high tales

1. Foxconn will take into account buying Renault’s stake in Nissan if it’s a situation for working with both carmaker on electrical autos, the Taiwanese contract electronics producer stated yesterday. Foxconn chair Younger Liu confirmed earlier experiences of the discussions with Renault, which comply with the collapse of merger talks between Nissan and Honda. Learn extra in regards to the iPhone assembler’s curiosity in Nissan.

2. Chevron stated it might slash as much as 20 per cent of its world workforce by the tip of 2026 as a part of a cost-cutting drive designed to simplify the oil main’s enterprise and enhance development. The deep cost-cutting plans by Chevron come despite Trump’s name for producers to “drill, baby, drill” and generate one other oil increase.

3. Saudi Arabia has launched a scathing state media marketing campaign towards Benjamin Netanyahu, pointing to rising frustration within the Gulf state’s royal courtroom with the Israeli prime minister and the warfare in Gaza. The unusually hostile barrage was triggered by Netanyahu joking in an interview final week about making a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia.

4. Activist fund Farallon Capital Administration has taken a big stake in Astellas, certainly one of Japan’s greatest pharmaceutical firms. The transfer is a part of a wave of shareholder activism in Japan as governance reforms by the Tokyo change push firms to take investor calls for extra significantly. Listed here are the adjustments Farallon is pushing for.

5. Indian on-line brokerages face a hefty hit to their revenues, say trade executives, after the regulator intervened to curb younger retail buyers’ frenzied buying and selling of dangerous derivatives markets. Hundreds of thousands of younger Indians had been playing within the derivatives markets to attempt to rapidly revenue from the nation’s hovering inventory market, with 9 out of 10 dropping cash.

Visible story

Trump has vowed to make the US the world’s “crypto capital”, phrases which have helped supercharge bitcoin’s worth to six-figure highs. Fans are notably excited by discuss of a nationwide bitcoin stockpile. However how such a reserve would work, and what it might imply for the cryptocurrency, is unclear. And would taxpayers be left holding the bag if — or when — costs fall?

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Synthetic intelligence: Former Google chief Eric Schmidt warned that western international locations have to give attention to constructing open-source AI fashions or threat dropping out to China.

• Victoria’s Secret: Can the lingerie model that constructed a multibillion-dollar empire on extravagant exhibits and a provocative picture win over Gen Z?

• The battle over WFH: Firms are more and more monitoring workplace attendance and utilizing the info gathered in efficiency and pay critiques.

Chart of the day

A benchmark for Chinese language know-how shares has risen greater than 20 per cent up to now month, getting into a bull market following DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough.

Take a break from the information . . . 

What can we study negotiating from Donald Trump’s aggressive fashion? The US president is a helpful case examine within the techniques of unreasonable individuals, writes Jonathan Guthrie in his newest Monetary Considering column.