Category: European Union

Russia occupies and uses Europe’s largest nuclear power plant for military demands. Moscow continues attacks on Ukraine electric stations that keep country’s nuclear power plants running. …

Russia occupies and uses Europe’s largest nuclear power plant for military demands. Moscow continues attacks on Ukraine electric stations that keep country’s nuclear power plants running. …

Following a successful prisoner swap with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a multifront diplomatic blitz Wednesday to end the Ukraine conflict, saying he would meet with Russia’s leader soon and dispatching a vice president-led team to meet with Ukraine’s leader on Friday. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell catches up on the latest, from Washington. …

Following a successful prisoner swap with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a multifront diplomatic blitz Wednesday to end the Ukraine conflict, saying he would meet with Russia’s leader soon and dispatching a vice president-led team to meet with Ukraine’s leader on Friday. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell catches up on the latest, from Washington. …

Talks in Austria to form a coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party and the conservative People’s Party collapsed Wednesday after the two sides failed to agree on disputed policy points. The coalition talks were the latest in a series of negotiations that have failed since parliamentary elections were held in September. Herbert Kickl’s Freedom Party, with its anti-immigration platform and opposition to the European Union’s support of Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, took almost 29% of the vote, pushing then-Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s People’s Party into second place. However, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen did not give the Freedom Party leader the mandate to form a coalition government until January, after attempts to form a coalition bloc without Kickl’s party failed.   There has not been a far-right leading party in Austria’s government since World War II. The president said Wednesday in a nationally televised address that Austria now has four options to move out of its political dilemma. He said a snap election, which would take at least three months to mount, could be held, or a minority government could lead Austria. Another option is for Austrian politicians to engage in talks once again to form a coalition with a majority. The fourth option, the president said, would be for a temporary government of experts to take on the job of leading Austria.   Van der Bellen said he will soon discuss the options with fellow politicians to determine which “could be successful, as quickly as possible, for as long as necessary.” The president also called on the political parties to engage in the spirit of compromise during their negotiations, something he said he felt was missing. Analysts thought the far-right and conservative parties could form a coalition, but challenges emerged during their discussions, including policy differences and ministry assignments. Kickl said in a letter to the president that there was no point in negotiating with the center-left Social Democrats, the only other party with which the Freedom Party could reach a parliamentary majority.  “I do not take this step without regret,” Kickl said in the letter. “Austria has no time to waste.” Some information provided by Reuters and the Associated Press.     …

Talks in Austria to form a coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party and the conservative People’s Party collapsed Wednesday after the two sides failed to agree on disputed policy points. The coalition talks were the latest in a series of negotiations that have failed since parliamentary elections were held in September. Herbert Kickl’s Freedom Party, with its anti-immigration platform and opposition to the European Union’s support of Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, took almost 29% of the vote, pushing then-Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s People’s Party into second place. However, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen did not give the Freedom Party leader the mandate to form a coalition government until January, after attempts to form a coalition bloc without Kickl’s party failed.   There has not been a far-right leading party in Austria’s government since World War II. The president said Wednesday in a nationally televised address that Austria now has four options to move out of its political dilemma. He said a snap election, which would take at least three months to mount, could be held, or a minority government could lead Austria. Another option is for Austrian politicians to engage in talks once again to form a coalition with a majority. The fourth option, the president said, would be for a temporary government of experts to take on the job of leading Austria.   Van der Bellen said he will soon discuss the options with fellow politicians to determine which “could be successful, as quickly as possible, for as long as necessary.” The president also called on the political parties to engage in the spirit of compromise during their negotiations, something he said he felt was missing. Analysts thought the far-right and conservative parties could form a coalition, but challenges emerged during their discussions, including policy differences and ministry assignments. Kickl said in a letter to the president that there was no point in negotiating with the center-left Social Democrats, the only other party with which the Freedom Party could reach a parliamentary majority.  “I do not take this step without regret,” Kickl said in the letter. “Austria has no time to waste.” Some information provided by Reuters and the Associated Press.     …

KYIV, UKRAINE — Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday accused each other of blocking the rotation of staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.  Moscow’s troops seized the facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, in the first days of its invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site.  Staff from the U.N. nuclear watchdog have been based there since September 2022 to monitor nuclear safety.  Fighting meant the IAEA staff could not be swapped out as part of a planned rotation on Wednesday, the second such delay in a week, both Kyiv and Moscow said, trading blame for the incident.  Inspectors spend around five weeks at the plant in stints before being swapped out in a complex procedure that involves traveling across the front line under supervision from the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.  Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy accused Russia’s army of opening fire near where the planned rotation was taking place, saying Moscow’s goal was to force the IAEA team to travel through Russian-controlled territory and “violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”  Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian army blocked the IAEA team from traveling to an agreed meeting point and were attacking the area with drones, at which point the Russian military withdrew its support team and returned to the station.  “On their return, the convoy carrying Russian military personnel and IAEA experts … came under attack by drone and mortar strikes,” Zakharova said in a statement.  The IAEA staff members were supposed to leave the station on Feb. 5 in a rotation that was also delayed.  IAEA head Rafael Grossi was in both Ukraine and Russia last week, where he discussed the issue of rotations with officials from both countries. …

Pakistan rolls out the red carpet Wednesday for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader will jointly hold the 7th session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif during his brief visit ending Thursday. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman reports on key topics of discussion. …

WASHINGTON — A journalist with VOA’s sister outlet, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was released from Belarus on Wednesday, after spending more than three years imprisoned in a case that was widely viewed as politically motivated. Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Belarus service, was released from Belarus on Wednesday, the U.S. special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, said. Two other individuals were also released, including a U.S. citizen, but Boehler did not specify their identities. RFE/RL President Stephen Capus welcomed Kuznechyk’s release and thanked President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Lithuanian government for their help in securing the reporter’s release. “This is a joyous day for Andrey, his wife, and their two young children. After more than three years apart, this family is together again thanks to President Trump. We are also grateful to Secretary Rubio and his team, and to the Lithuanian government for their support,” Capus said in a statement. Boehler said that the release was unilateral, meaning no one was swapped with Belarus in exchange for the prisoners. Boehler attributed the release to Trump’s commitment to securing the freedom of wrongfully detailed Americans abroad. “He has made bringing Americans home a top priority,” Boehler said. “The smartest thing you can do to curry favor with the president of the United States is bring Americans home.” Kuznechyk had been jailed since November 2021. He was initially sentenced to 10 days in jail on hooliganism charges, which he rejected. When Kuznechyk was due to be released, authorities kept him in prison and added an additional charge of creating an extremist group. In a trial that lasted only one day, a regional court found Kuznechyk guilty in June 2022 and sentenced him to six years in prison. RFE/RL and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees RFE/RL and VOA, consistently rejected the charges against Kuznechyk and called for his release. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the prisoners’ release from Belarus “a remarkable victory.” Natalia Belikova, head of international cooperation at Press Club Belarus, celebrated the news of Kuznechyk’s release.  “I could hardly believe it,” Belikova told VOA.  It’s rare for journalists to be released early from prison in Belarus, according to Belikova.   “My joy at Andrey’s release is marred by the fact that 40 journalists are still behind bars in Belarus, many serving lengthy sentences,” she added. “Everyone, no matter where … “RFE/RL journalist released from Belarus jail” →

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO military allies on Wednesday that Ukraine’s hoped-for return to its 2014 borders is an “unrealistic objective,” and that the United States does not believe that Kyiv membership in NATO is a “realistic outcome” of a negotiated end to Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine. Speaking in Brussels at NATO headquarters, Hegseth told his fellow defense chiefs, “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.” No peace talks have been scheduled, but Hegseth said any durable conclusion to the war must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again.” “The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” he said, which would invoke the military alliance’s mutual defense provision among NATO’s 32 member nations that requires each of them to help defend each other when they are attacked.   Kyiv has long sought NATO membership, and the alliance’s other member nations have said they are committed to it, but not while the war rages on.   Instead, Hegseth said security guarantees for Ukraine should be backed by “capable European and non-European troops.” “If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article 5,” he said, referring to the alliance’s mutual defense clause. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, supported pro-Russian separatists fighting against Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine in the ensuing years and then launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. It now controls about 20% of Ukraine’s pre-2014 territory. Before taking office to begin his second term in the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict even before being inaugurated. More recently, his aides say he hopes for a peace pact in the first 100 days of his new term, roughly by the end of April. Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. was Ukraine’s biggest military benefactor. Trump has often voiced skepticism of continued U.S. support, refusing to say at a political debate last year that he wanted Ukraine to win the war. Now Trump appears intent on getting Europe to … “US defense chief: Return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders ‘unrealistic’” →

STATE DEPARTMENT — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to depart Thursday for Munich and later this week will visit the Middle East amid an intensive diplomatic push to end Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, as well as efforts to follow up on U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for the post-war Gaza Strip.  Preparations are also underway for Rubio to hold talks with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to people familiar with the plan who spoke with VOA on condition of anonymity.  If the meeting takes place as expected, it would be the first U.S.-Japan-South Korea foreign ministerial trilateral under the Trump administration.  Ukraine  As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches its third year, the U.S. is pursuing multiple diplomatic avenues to secure a peace deal.  Although not directly linked to efforts to secure a peace deal, U.S. officials have described Russia’s Tuesday release of American schoolteacher Marc Fogel as “a show of good faith from the Russians” and “a sign that we are moving in the right direction to end” the brutal war in Ukraine.  Rubio has said that the U.S. will reaffirm its determination to end the war during meetings at the Munich Security Conference, a high-profile international security forum running from Feb. 14 to 16.    U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to hold in-person talks in Munich. U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg and Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, will also attend the conference.  Ukraine has said that its delegation will present its position on ending the war and outline its vision for achieving a lasting peace. Meanwhile, negotiations are in progress as Ukraine seeks security guarantees from the U.S. and Europe.  Ukraine is willing to offer U.S. companies lucrative reconstruction contracts, Zelenskyy told The Guardian newspaper in an interview this week. He also said that if Trump manages to bring him and Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, he would offer a land swap: Ukrainian-occupied territory in Kursk in exchange for Russian-held land in Ukraine.  Rare earth minerals  Trump has expressed interest in making continued military aid conditional on access to Ukraine’s raw materials.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited Kyiv on Wednesday for talks on energy and rare earth minerals. He is the first cabinet-level official in the Trump administration to visit the country.  … “Rubio heads to Munich amid diplomatic push for Ukraine peace deal” →

Ukrainian forces are trying to slow down an ongoing Russian advance toward the city of Pokrovsk in Eastern Ukraine’s Dontesk region. The Ukrainian government has been evacuating civilians from the region, but constant shelling is making it dangerous. Kateryna Besedina has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. (Camera: Artyom Kokhan, Anna Rice)   …

Ukrainian officials said Wednesday Russian forces launched overnight attacks involving ballistic missiles and more than 120 drones, killing at least one person in Kyiv. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that three other people also were injured as a result of the attacks. Kyiv emergency services reported fires and other damage at buildings in four districts in the city. Ukraine’s military said missiles also targeted the city of Kryvyi Rih, located in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram that Russian attacks damaged a school, hotel, administrative building and three apartment buildings. Ukrainian air defenses shot down six missiles and 71 of the 123 drones that Russian forces deployed, the Ukrainian air force said. Drone intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions. “Putin is not preparing for peace – he continues to kill Ukrainians and destroy cities,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app. “Right now, we need the unity and support of all our partners in the fight for a just end to this war.” Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it shot down three Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region. …

Russia’s emergency services said on Wednesday that it had rescued all 139 fishermen stranded on an ice floe drifting in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Western Pacific. Earlier, the ministry said that about 300 were stranded and that some of them refused “to leave without a catch, under any circumstances.” The ministry posted several videos from the rescue operation, including one showing fishermen walking on snowy ice away from the rescuers. But later the ministry said on the Telegram messaging service that a rescue operation involving helicopters and vessels had brought all 139 stranded people ashore. It was unclear why so many fishermen had gathered at the location in Russia’s Sakhalin region. Traditionally, the Sakhalin winter fishing season begins in early February with a period of active biting until April. About a 10-meter ice crack formed from the Russian village of Malki to the mouth of the Dolinka River in the Sakhalin region, setting the fishermen adrift in the Sea of Okhotsk, the ministry said earlier. Winters in the Sakhalin region in Russia’s Far East, which comprises the Sakhalin Island and the chain of the Kuril Islands, are cold, snowy and long, often lasting more than five months. …

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed American teacher Marc Fogel to the White House late Tuesday after Fogel was freed from Russia where he had been detained since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country. “I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” Fogel said as he stood next to Trump. Fogel praised the president, U.S. diplomats and lawmakers for working to secure his release. “I am in awe of what they all did,” Fogel said. Trump said he appreciated what Russia did in letting Fogel go home but declined to specify the details of any agreement with Russia beyond calling it “very fair” and very reasonable.” Trump also said another hostage release would be announced Wednesday. Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said earlier Tuesday the United States and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S. has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange.  Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides.  Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office Jan. 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April.  “Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances.  Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained. …

The U.S. State Department has determined that dual U.S.-Russian national Ksenia Karelina, also known as Ksenia Khavana, was wrongfully detained in Russia. Karelina was jailed by a Russian court for 12 years for donating $51 to a Ukrainian charity. The new determination will enable U.S. authorities to operate more actively in securing her release. Karelina’s civil partner remains optimistic that efforts by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will eventually get her out of the Russian prison in which she is being held. Click here for the full story in Russian.   …

The 27-nation European Union and Canada quickly vowed Tuesday to stand firm against U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to impose 25% tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, verbal sparring that could lead to a full-blown trade war between the traditionally allied nations. “The EU will act to safeguard its economic interests,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. “Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers. “Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered — they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures,” she said. Trump said the steel and aluminum tariffs would take effect on March 12. In response, EU officials said they could target such U.S. products as bourbon, jeans, peanut butter and motorcycles, much of it produced in Republican states that supported Trump in his election victory. The EU scheduled a first emergency video on Wednesday to shape the bloc’s response. Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU presidency, said it was “important that everyone sticks together. Difficult times require such full solidarity.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a conference on artificial intelligence in Paris that Trump’s steel and aluminum levy would be “entirely unjustified,” and that “Canadians will resist strongly and firmly if necessary.” Von der Leyen is meeting Tuesday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Paris, where they are expected to discuss Trump’s tariff orders. “We will protect our workers, businesses and consumers,” she said in advance of the meeting. Trump imposed the steel and aluminum tariff to boost the fortunes of U.S. producers. “It’s a big deal,” he said. “This is the beginning of making America rich again.” Billionaire financier Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, said the tariff on the imports could bring back 120,000 U.S. jobs. As he watched Trump sign an executive order, Lutnick said, “You are the president who is standing up for the American steelworker, and I am just tremendously impressed and delighted to stand next to you.” Trump’s proclamations raised the rate on aluminum imports to 25% from the previous 10% that he imposed in 2018 to aid the struggling sector. And he restored a 25% tariff on millions of tons of steel and aluminum imports. South Korea — the fourth-biggest steel exporter to the United States, following Canada, Brazil and Mexico — also vowed to protect its companies’ interests but did … “EU, Canada vow to stand firm against Trump’s tariffs on metals” →

Russia has hit a record low in the newly released 2024 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International. It occupies the 154th place out of the 180, the lowest placement for the nation in the history of the index.  VOA Russian spoke to the head of Transparency International in Russia, Alyona Vandysheva, who said the collapse of the Kremlin’s anti-corruption efforts shows the negative impact the war in Ukraine has had on Russia’s government sector.  Click here for the full story in Russian.   …

Paris — U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Europeans on Tuesday their “massive” regulations on artificial intelligence could strangle the technology, and rejected content moderation as “authoritarian censorship.” The mood on AI has shifted as the technology takes root, from one of concerns around safety to geopolitical competition, as countries jockey to nurture the next big AI giant. Vance, setting out the Trump administration’s America First agenda, said the United States intended to remain the dominant force in AI and strongly opposed the European Union’s far tougher regulatory approach. “We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry,” Vance told an AI summit of CEOs and heads of state in Paris. “We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” he added. Vance criticized the “massive regulations” created by the EU’s Digital Services Act, as well as Europe’s online privacy rules, known by the acronym GDPR, which he said meant endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms. “Of course, we want to ensure the internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation,” he said. European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology. Vance is leading the American delegation at the Paris summit. Vance also appeared to take aim at China at a delicate moment for the U.S. technology sector. Last month, Chinese startup DeepSeek freely distributed a powerful AI reasoning model that some said challenged U.S. technology leadership. It sent shares of American chip designer Nvidia down 17%. “From CCTV to 5G equipment, we’re all familiar with cheap tech in the marketplace that’s been heavily subsidized and exported by authoritarian regimes,” Vance said. But he said that “partnering with them means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in and seize your information infrastructure. Should a deal seem too good to be true? Just remember the old adage that we learned in Silicon Valley: if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.” Vance did not mention DeepSeek by name. There has been no … “Vance tells Europeans that heavy regulation could kill AI “ →

Russia and Ukraine attacked each other’s energy infrastructure overnight, just days before U.S. and Ukrainian officials were set to discuss steps toward ending the nearly three-year war sparked by Russia’s 2022 invasion. Russian strikes damaged natural gas production facilities in Ukraine’s Poltava region overnight, using a combined attack of 19 cruise, ballistic and guided missiles, the Ukrainian air force said. As a result of the attack, Ukraine imposed emergency power restrictions on Tuesday, according to Ukraine energy minister German Galushchenko. “The enemy launched an attack on gas infrastructure overnight,” Galushchenko said in a post on social media. “As of this morning, the energy sector continues to be under attack.” Russia, which previously focused its missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian electricity sector, recently stepped-up attacks on gas storage and production facilities, Reuters reported. The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that it had struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov region overnight, causing a fire. It said the refinery produces more than 20 types of petroleum products and is involved in supplying the Russian forces. Saratov regional Governor Roman Busargin posted on the Telegram messaging app that a fire at an industrial facility in the region had been extinguished. He did not name the facility. Russia’s defense ministry said air defense units intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory. Eighteen of the drones were destroyed over the Saratov region, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. The rest were downed over four other regions in Russia’s south and west, it said. The Russian military also said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Yasenove in eastern Ukraine. Talks between US and Ukraine As U.S. Vice President JD Vance prepares for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later this week, President Donald Trump suggested that Ukraine “may be Russian someday.” Trump talked about the war in a Fox News interview that aired Monday. “They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday,” he said. Trump also discussed trading Ukraine’s natural resources, such as rare minerals, in exchange for U.S. military support. “We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth,” Trump said. “And they … “ Russia, Ukraine strike energy infrastructure “ →

PARIS — Europe will invest an additional $51.5 billion to bolster the bloc’s artificial intelligence ambition, European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday. It will come on top of the European AI Champions Initiative, that has already pledged 150 billion euros from providers, investors and industry, von der Leyen told the Paris AI Summit. “Thereby we aim to mobilize a total of 200 billion euros for AI investments in Europe,” she said. Von der Leyen said investments will focus on industrial and mission-critical technologies. Companies which have signed up to the European AI Champions initiative, spearheaded by investment company General Catalyst, include Airbus, ASML, Siemens, Infineon, Philips, Mistral and Volkswagen. …

Senior advisers in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump are preparing to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to an Associated Press interview with retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. Kellogg, a special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said planning continues for talks with Zelenskyy at the annual conference.  Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kellogg are among those who could participate in the sideline conversations with Ukraine’s president, AP reported.  Trump has been critical about how much the war is costing the U.S. and has said European countries should repay the U.S. for helping Ukraine.  During his campaign, Trump said if he were elected president, he would bring a swift end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but he did not specify how he would accomplish that.  Recently, he has said that he wants to make a deal with Ukraine to continue U.S. support in exchange for access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.   On Monday, AP reported the president said there are people currently working on a money-for-minerals-deal with Ukraine.   “We have people over there today who are making a deal that, as we give money, we get minerals and we get oil and we get all sorts of things,” Trump said.  Kellogg told AP that “the economics of that would allow for further support to the Ukrainians.” Meanwhile, Russian drone attacks caused a fire in Kyiv, injured a woman in Sumy and damaged several homes, according to Ukrainian officials.  The Russian military reported downing 15 Ukrainian drones overnight, including seven in the Krasnodar region. Nobody was hurt as a result of the fire in Kyiv, which was sparked in a non-residential building, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Five houses were damaged and a woman was reportedly injured in the northeastern city of Sumy, regional governor Ihor Kalchenko said on Telegram.   Material from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse was used in this report. …

French President Emmanuel Macron wants Europe to become a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, he told a global summit of AI and political leaders in Paris Monday where he announced that France’s private sector has invested nearly $113 billion in French AI. Financial investment is key to achieving the goal of Europe as an AI hub, Macron said in his remarks delivered in English at the Grand Palais. He said the European bloc would also need to “adopt the Notre Dame strategy,” a reference to the lightning swift rebuilding of France’s famed Notre Dame cathedral in five years after a devastating 2019 fire, the result of simplified regulations and adherence to timelines. “We showed the rest of the of the world that when we commit to a clear timeline, we can deliver,” the French leader said. Henna Virkkunen, the European Union’s digital head, indicated that the EU is in agreement with simplifying regulations. The EU approved the AI Act last year, the world’s first extensive set of rules designed to regulate technology. European countries want to ensure that they have a stake in the tech race against an aggressive U.S. and other emerging challengers. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to address the EU’s ability to compete in the tech world Tuesday. Macron’s announcement that the French private sector will invest heavily in AI “reassured” Clem Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, a U.S. company with French co-founders that is a hub for open-source AI, that there will be “ambitious” projects in France, according to Reuters. Sundar Pichai, Google’s head, told the gathering that the shift to AI will be “the biggest of our lifetimes.” However, such a big shift also comes with problems for the AI community. France had wanted the summit to adopt a non-binding text that AI would be inclusive and sustainable. “We have the chance to democratize access [to a new technology] from the start,” Pichai told the summit. Whether the U.S. will agree to that initiative is uncertain, considering the U.S. government’s recent moves to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. U.S. Vice President JD Vance is attending the summit and expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday. Other politicians expected Tuesday at the plenary session are Chinese Vice Premier Zhan Guoqing and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. About 100 politicians are expected. There are also other considerations with a … “France seeks AI boom, urges EU investment in the sector” →

PARIS — In front of political and tech leaders gathered at a summit in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a strategy on Monday to make up for the delay in France and Europe in investing in artificial intelligence (AI) but was faced with a “counter-summit” that pointed out the risks of the technology.  The use of chatbots at work and school is destroying jobs, professions and threatening the acquisition of knowledge, said union representatives gathered at the Theatre de la Concorde located in the Champs-Elysees gardens, less than a kilometer from the venue of the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence.  Habib El Kettani, from Solidaires Informatique, a union representing IT workers, described an “automation already underway for about ten years,” which has been reinforced with the arrival of the flagship tool ChatGPT at the end of 2022.  “I have been fighting for ten years to ensure that my job does not become an endangered species,” said Sandrine Larizza, from the CGT union at France Travail, a public service dedicated to the unemployed.  She deplored “a disappearance of social rights that goes hand in hand with the automation of public services,” where the development of AI has served, according to her “to make people work faster to respond less and less to the needs of users, by reducing staff numbers.”  Loss of meaning  “With generative AI, it is no longer the agent who responds by email to the unemployed person but the generative AI that gives the answers with a multitude of discounted job offers in subcontracting,” said Larizza.  This is accompanied by “a destruction of our human capacities to play a social role, a division into micro-tasks on the assembly line and an industrialization of our professions with a loss of meaning,” she said, a few days after the announcement of a partnership between France Travail and the French startup Mistral.  “Around 40 projects” are also being tested “with postal workers,” said Marie Vairon, general secretary of the Sud PTT union of the La Poste and La Banque Postale group.  AI is used “to manage schedules and simplify tasks with a tool tested since 2020 and generalized since 2023,” she said, noting that the results are “not conclusive.”  After the implementation at the postal bank, La Banque Postale, of “Lucy,” a conversational robot handling some “300,000 calls every month,” Vairon is concerned about a “generative AI serving as … “On sidelines of AI Summit in Paris, unions denounce its harmful effects” →

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS — Judges at the International Criminal Court have officially asked Italy on Monday to explain why the country released a Libyan man suspected of torture, murder and rape rather than sending him to The Hague. Italian police arrested Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, last month but rather than extraditing him to the Netherlands, where the ICC is based, sent him back to Libya aboard an Italian military aircraft. “The matter of state’s non-compliance with a request of cooperation for arrest and surrender by the court is before the competent chamber,” the court’s spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah said in a statement. Addressing parliament last week, Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio defended the decision to send al-Masri home, claiming the ICC had issued a contradictory and flawed arrest warrant. The court, he said, “realized that an immense mess was made,” he told lawmakers. Al-Masri was arrested in Turin on the ICC warrant on Jan. 19, the day after he arrived in the country from Germany to watch a soccer match. The Italian government has said Rome’s court of appeals ordered him released on Jan. 21 because of a technical problem in the way that the ICC warrant was transmitted, having initially bypassed the Italian justice ministry. The ICC said it does not comment on national judicial proceedings. Al-Masri’s arrest had posed a dilemma for Italy because it has close ties to the internationally recognized government in Tripoli as well as energy interests in the country. According to the arrest warrant, al-Masri heads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Defense Force, which acts as a military police unit combating high-profile crimes including kidnappings, murders as well as illegal migration. Like many other militias in western Libya, the SDF has been implicated in atrocities in the civil war that followed the overthrow and killing of longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Additionally, any trial in The Hague of al-Masri could bring unwanted attention to Italy’s migration policies and its support of the Libyan coast guard, which it has financed to prevent migrants from leaving. In October, the court unsealed arrest warrants for six men allegedly linked to a brutal Libyan militia blamed for multiple killings and other crimes in a strategically important western town where mass graves were discovered in 2020. …

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — Europe’s Euclid space telescope has detected a rare halo of bright light around a nearby galaxy, astronomers reported Monday. The halo, known as an Einstein ring, encircles a galaxy 590 million light-years away, considered close by cosmic standards.   A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Astronomers have known about this galaxy for more than a century and so were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring, reported in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.   An Einstein ring is light from a much more distant galaxy that bends in such a way as to perfectly encircle a closer object, in this case a well-known galaxy in the constellation Draco.   The faraway galaxy creating the ring is more than 4 billion light-years away. Gravity distorted the light from this more distant galaxy, thus the name honoring Albert Einstein. The process is known as gravitational lensing. “All strong lenses are special, because they’re so rare, and they’re incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it’s so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful,” lead author Conor O’Riordan of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics said in a statement. Euclid rocketed from Florida in 2023. NASA is taking part in its mission to detect dark energy and dark matter in the universe. …