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Taipei agrees to buy some $85bn of US energy, aircraft and equipment in exchange for 15 percent tariff rate.
The United States and Taiwan have finalised a trade deal to reduce tariffs on Taiwanese exports and facilitate billions of dollars of spending on US goods.
The agreement announced on Thursday lowers the general tariff on Taiwanese goods from 20 percent to 15 percent, the same level as Asian trade partners South Korea and Japan, in exchange for Taipei agreeing to buy about $85bn of US energy, aircraft and equipment.
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Under the deal, Taiwan will eliminate or reduce 99 percent of tariff barriers and provide preferential market access to numerous US goods, including auto parts, chemicals, machinery, health products, dairy products and pork, the office of the US trade envoy said in a statement.
The US will, in turn, exempt a large range of Taiwanese goods from tariffs, including chalk, castor oil, pineapples and ginseng.
Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te said Taipei had secured tariff exemptions for some 2,000 Taiwanese products, hailing the agreement as a “pivotal” moment for the self-governing island’s economy.
Lai said the deal, when various carve-outs are included, would take the average tariff rate on Taiwanese goods to 12.3 percent.
“From familiar items such as Phalaenopsis orchids, tea, bubble tea ingredients (tapioca starch), and coffee, to pineapple cakes, taro, pineapples, and mangoes – these products that represent Taiwan will become more price-competitive in the US market,” Lai said in a statement on social media.
“We aim not only to sell Taiwan’s great flavors overseas, but also to ensure Taiwanese brands truly enter international markets,” he said.
Lai made no mention of Taiwan’s chip industry, a crucial driver of the island’s economy that is estimated to account for up to 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Taiwan’s exports rose by 35 percent in 2025 on the back of furious demand for its AI chips, hitting a record $640.75bn.
Thursday’s agreement notably does not include specific commitments from Taiwan to invest in the US chip industry, despite an announcement by US President Donald Trump’s administration last month that Taiwanese firms would pour $250bn into the sector.
A fact sheet released by the Office of the US Trade Representative said the two sides “take note” of the January deal, which included a prior commitment by chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to invest $100bn in the US.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Thursday’s agreement built on the longstanding trade relations between Taiwan and the US and would “significantly enhance the resilience of our supply chains, particularly in high-technology sectors”.
“President Trump’s leadership in the Asia Pacific region continues to generate prosperous trade ties for the United States with important partners across Asia, while further advancing the economic and national security interests of the American people,” Greer said.
Nearly one-third of Taiwan’s exports went to the US in 2025, making the country the island’s biggest market for the first time since 2000.
Puerto Rico’s Republican governor on Thursday signed a bill that amends a law to recognize an unborn baby as a human being, which opponents argued could eventually lead to outlawing abortion in the U.S. territory.
Gov. Jenniffer González said in a statement that the measure “aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.”
The amendment, in Senate Bill 923, altered an article within Puerto Rico’s Penal Code that defines murder.
The government said that the amendment complements a law affirming that it would be first-degree murder if a suspect intentionally and knowingly kills a pregnant woman, resulting in the death of the conceived child at any stage of gestation.
Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s governor, signed a bill that amends a law to recognize an unborn baby as a human being.(AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
The legislation was named after Keishla Rodríguez, a pregnant woman who was killed in April 2021. Her partner, former Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo, was convicted in the killing and received two life sentences.
Supporters of the law said it was designed to provide consistency between civil and criminal codes and focus on harsher punishments for the murder of pregnant women and that it was unrelated to abortion, but critics argued that it opens the door to eventually criminalizing the procedure in Puerto Rico, which remains legal.
“A zygote was given legal personality,” Rosa Seguí Cordero, an attorney and spokesperson for the National Campaign for Free, Safe and Accessible Abortion in Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press. “We women were stripped of our rights.”
Gov. Jenniffer González said the measure “aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.”(RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP via Getty Images)
Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of Puerto Rico’s College of Medical Surgeons, contends that the new law would lead to “defensive health care,” in which doctors may refuse to treat complicated pregnancies for fear of criminal prosecution on murder charges.
“This will bring complex clinical decisions into the realm of criminal law,” he told The Associated Press, adding that it would bring “disastrous consequences.”
Díaz said the amended law also allows a third person to intervene between a doctor and a pregnant woman, which violates privacy laws. He also said new protocols and regulations would need to be implemented.
“The system is not prepared for this,” he said.
Critics of the law argued that it opens the door to eventually criminalizing abortion in Puerto Rico.(KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images)
Opponents of the law also said the amendment was approved without public hearings.
“There is no doubt that the measure did not undergo adequate analysis before its approval and leaves an unacceptable space for ambiguity regarding civil rights,” Annette Martínez Orabona, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press. “The legislative leadership failed to fulfill its responsibility to the people, and so did the governor.”
The Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), led by Tarique Rahman, has claimed a sweeping victory in the country’s first election since a gen-Z uprising toppled the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina.
“This victory was expected. It is not surprising that the people of Bangladesh have placed their trust in a party … capable of realising the dreams that our youth envisioned during the uprising,” said Salahuddin Ahmed, a leading BNP committee member.
“This is not a time for celebration, as we will face mounting challenges in building a country free from discrimination.”
The party also confirmed their victory in a post on X. “The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is going to form the government by winning the majority of seats,” they said.
The US embassy was the first to congratulate the party on its “historic” election victory on Friday morning.
Counting was still ongoing for the final result, which had yet to be announced by the election commission.
By around 4am local time, the BNP had secured 185 seats in the 300-member Jatiya Sangsad, or House of the Nation, TV channels showed, easily crossing the halfway mark for a simple majority.
The election was widely seen as the country’s first free and fair polls in more than 17 years. Under Hasina’s regime, the past three elections had been marred by widespread allegations of vote-rigging, the stuffing of ballot boxes and harassment and jailing of political opponents.
As counting continued, BNP leaders said the party was confident of winning 200 seats and securing a two-thirds majority. “Of course, BNP is winning, the majority of course, and it would even be a landslide victory,” Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, a BNP standing committee member, said. “Winning two-thirds of the seats is called a landslide victory, I think we would cross the 200-seat limit.”
Voting on Thursday was largely peaceful in what was seen as a crucial test of Bangladesh’s democracy after years of political turmoil, and turnout far exceeded the 42% seen at the last elections.
According to the election commission, nationwide voter turnout was recorded at 60.69% on Thursday. This was also the first election which had given the overseas diaspora an opportunity to vote. Postal votes, which also included officials in the country who could not return home to cast their ballot, saw a massive 80.11% participation rate.
The parliamentary election follows a student-led uprising that toppled Hasina after 15 years in power and left an estimated 1,400 people dead according to the UN, amid a violent crackdown by the state.
A clear outcome had been seen as crucial for stability in the Muslim-majority nation of 175 million after months of anti-Hasina unrest disrupted everyday life and hit major industries, including the garment sector in the world’s second-largest exporter.
The BNP is led by Rahman, the 60-year-old son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and former president Ziaur Rahman.
Its campaign promises included financial aid for poor families, a limit of 10 years for an individual to remain prime minister, boosting the economy via measures including foreign investment, and anti-corruption policies.
Shafiqur Rahman, the head of BNP’s main rival, the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, conceded defeat, with his party on just 56 seats. Rahman said Jamaat would not engage in the “politics of opposition” for the sake of it. “We will do positive politics,” he told reporters.
The election had been seen as Bangladesh’s first truly competitive vote in years. Hasina’s Awami League party, which ruled the country for more than 15 years until her ousting, was barred from contesting.
More than 2,000 candidates – including many independents – were on the ballot, and at least 50 parties contested seats, a national record. Voting in one constituency was postponed after a candidate died.
Alongside the election, a referendum was held on a set of constitutional reforms, including establishing a neutral interim government for election periods, restructuring parliament into a bicameral legislature, increasing women’s representation, strengthening judicial independence and introducing a two-term limit for the prime minister.
There was no official word on the outcome of the referendum.
Hasina fled to India, a long-term ally, after a war crimes tribunal sentenced her to death for crimes against humanity, committed during the final throes of her regime. Her escape has frayed ties between Dhaka and New Delhi and opened the window for China to expand its influence in Bangladesh.
In a statement sent after polling stations closed, Hasina denounced the election as a “carefully planned farce”, held without her party and without real voter participation. She said Awami League supporters had rejected the process.
“We demand the cancellation of this voterless, illegal and unconstitutional election … the removal of the suspension imposed on the activities of the Awami League, and the restoration of the people’s voting rights through the arrangement of a free, fair, and inclusive election under a neutral caretaker government,” she said.
As documented for years by human rights groups and the UN, Hasina’s regime routinely suppressed dissent of its critics and opponents, thousands who were disappeared, tortured and killed in secret jails; many emerged only after Hasina was toppled. Freedom of the press and judicial independence was crushed and elections were reduced to a staged farce.
A sensation spread over the death of a 21-year-old student under suspicious circumstances in Rajpur police station area of Dehradun on Wednesday (February 11). The deceased has been identified as Rahul Raj. His friends took the deceased to Max Hospital in a critical condition, but the doctors declared him dead after examination. As soon as information about the incident was received, there was panic in the police department.
According to sources, a call was received on emergency number 112 in the evening, in which it was reported that the condition of a young man was critical. After this, Rajpur police station immediately reached the hospital and started interrogating Rahul’s friends present there. The matter remains mysterious in the initial investigation. Because clear causes of death have not been revealed. The police is investigating the case from every aspect and the post mortem report is awaited so that the truth can come out.
The student was studying B-Pharma from GBIT College.
The deceased Rahul lived on Johri Road, but although the deceased was originally a resident of Chhapra area of Saran district of Bihar and was a second year B-Pharma student at GBIT College, Sahaspur. The information also revealed that Rahul was under suspension from the college for two months. During this time, the deceased was staying with his friends in a paying guest house on Johri Road.
Friends took Rahul to Max Hospital
The companions of the deceased told the police that Rahul suddenly became unconscious during the day on Wednesday. Everyone got scared and immediately took him to Max Hospital, but the doctors there declared him dead. After this the family members of the deceased were informed about the incident. Hearing the incident, other family members also came to the spot.
Police engaged in investigation of the incident
According to his friends, Rahul was also a drug addict. Police have informed Rahul’s family about this accident. Currently the necessary legal process is going on including filling the Panchnama of the dead body. The real reason as to how Rahul lost his life will be clear only after the postmortem report comes.
Switzerland is set to vote this summer on a proposal aimed at capping the country’s population at 10 million, the latest effort by the nation’s leading right-wing party to restrict immigration.
The Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which holds the most seats in parliament, announced the referendum on Wednesday after gathering enough support through petition signatures.
The measure, which will be put on the national ballot on June 14, comes just as the population neared 9.1 million, according to the Federal Statistics Office.
The anti-immigration campaign was proposed as officials noted that foreign-born residents now make up about 27 percent of the population.
Snow covers the hills around Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 19, 2020.(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
The SVP, which has long sought to curb rising migration, said that more than 1 million immigrants from the European Union (EU) came to Switzerland in 2024.
The party called the situation “uncontrolled immigration,” saying that “the majority of the Swiss population suffers” from increased demand on environmental resources and infrastructure.
“Our small country is bursting at the seams,” the party said. “Nature is being paved over. There are ever more traffic jams on the roads, overburdened public transport, overburdened schools, housing shortage and rising rents, massively increasing crime and exploding costs for Swiss taxpayers.”
A massive crowd waves numerous Swiss flags on January 10, 2026, in Adelboden, Switzerland.(Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)
If the measure is enshrined into law, both Swiss citizens and foreign residents must not exceed a total population of 10 million before 2050.
If the population reaches 9.5 million before then, the government may take steps to curb growth by introducing measures on asylum and family reunification, noting that many immigrants — primarily Muslim men from North Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan — enter through asylum applications.
Flags of the member states of the European Union blow in the wind at dusk in front of the European Parliament on November 27, 2019 in Strasbourg, France.(Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)
In response, the SVP said lawmakers “could not have made it clearer that they don’t care about the concerns of the population, which is increasingly suffering from uncontrolled immigration.”
They also stressed that they do not intend to terminate the “free movement of persons agreement with the EU,” which allows European citizens to move and work freely across borders, and said such cancellation would remain a last resort if the Federal Council fails to limit immigration.
Bonny Chu is a Digital Production Assistant at Fox News Digital.
Donald Trump on Thursday continued to brush off widespread backlash over a racist video posted to his social media account last week, and said no White House staffer had faced consequences for the offensive post.
Asked by Weijia Jiang of CBS News on Thursday whether he had “fired or disciplined that staffer who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas”, Trump said that he had not.
The president then went on to excuse the racist clip, which depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as cartoon apes, as a reference to The Lion King, an animated film that has no apes in it.
The video posted on Trump’s Truth Social account late at night spliced together part of a documentary that presented conspiracy theories about the 2020 election as fact, and a few seconds of the racist animation of the Obamas.
As Trump sought to downplay the abject racism his White House initially defended, before blaming an unnamed staffer, he described the video as a “fairly long video, they had a little piece that had to do with the Lion King”. The entire video was, in fact, just over a minute.
In Trump’s telling, that racist video was not a problem because it had already been widely seen online. “It’s been very well – it’s been shown all over the place, long before that as posted,” Trump claimed, apparently referring to the full-length animated clip the racist depiction of the Obamas was taken from, in which he was depicted as a lion.
“But that was … a very strong piece on voter fraud,” Trump added, of the video laying out baseless conspiracy theories, “and the piece that you’re talking about was all over the place, many times, I believe for years.”
JD Vance also dismissed concerns about the racist video on Wednesday, telling reporters in Azerbaijan that, because Trump’s vice-president was traveling, “the controversy had started and then died out before I even paid attention to it”.
Vance then repeated Trump’s false claim that the video, which was up for 12 hours, was taken down as soon as the racist imagery was discovered. In fact, the White House press secretary initially defended the video and it remained on Trump’s account for hours until it was deleted after even Republican supporters of the president denounced it as a racist.
“You know, the president said a staffer posted a video, he hadn’t even watched the whole thing, when he watched the whole thing he took it down,” Vance said. “It’s not a real controversy.”
“Should he apologize for posting a video and then taking it down? No, I don’t think so,” Vance said. “I think people post things on social media and if you post something and you don’t like it, you can take it down.”
The initial post from Trump’s account drew immediate backlash from both sides of the aisle, including several prominent Republican lawmakers.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Tim Scott, the Senate’s sole Black Republican, said on X.
“Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this,” wrote Nebraska senator Pete Ricketts. “The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”
Mike Lawler, a New York representative, called the video “wrong and incredibly offensive”, later telling ABC he thought the creator of the racist animation “is an idiot”.
But even as the White House took the rare step to remove the video, the president has refused to apologize for the overtly racist post.
Democrats believe a one-vote GOP margin for error in the House of Representatives would give them newfound leverage in negotiations over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other priorities as rumors circulate that yet another Republican may cut his time in office short.
A Republican majority hangs by a thread as questions continue to circulate over whether Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., will resign his seat in the coming days.
To members like Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., that prospect strengthens Democrats’ hand.
“Look, yeah, the less of a majority they have, the better it is for us to actually get real stuff done that benefits the country,” Jayapal said Wednesday evening.
A Republican majority hangs by a thread as questions continue to circulate over whether Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., will resign his seat in the coming days. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
It’s unclear when Dunn, who has wrestled with health concerns in the past, might come to a decision.
If Dunn steps aside, Republicans will have just a one-seat majority and almost no margin for error that will prevent them from passing most pieces of legislation with just one vote to spare among their own party or secure help from Democrats.
With persistent rebels like Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., in the mix, Democrats are willing to bet they’ll be asked for help.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., believes that even just one less vote changes how Republicans have to think about DHS funding and the list of demands Democrats have made for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“This place runs on numbers,” DeLauro said. “I think what I’ll do is take the circumstance and, for me, we need to be bold, transformational but do what is attainable.”
Democrats led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have made a list of 10 demands for ICE reform that, among other items, include a ban on masks, an end to racial profiling, stiffer warrant requirements and an end to paramilitary policing practices.
Gridlock over those demands looks poised to force a partial government shutdown as lawmakers run up against a funding deadline Friday without a compromise in sight.
“Let’s look at what we can get done,” DeLauro said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., didn’t believe Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would be honest brokers in the upcoming DHS negotiations. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
While control of what legislation goes to the floor likely won’t change with an even tighter majority, Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Md., believes Democrats could press their priorities through the amendment process.
Most bills have what’s called a “closed” rule process by which only preapproved amendments are considered.
Olszewski hopes that’s one area Republicans could allow some give.
“I have, in good faith, tried to offer amendments to make bills better and potentially able to support,” Olszewski said. “I know that many of my colleagues have done that. And, so, I guess, you know, if we’re serious about coming together and finding solutions — especially on the cost of living crisis that’s crushing America — maybe we’ll see that.
“I don’t think that’s a good way to get Democratic support for anything to continue to shut them out of the process.”
When asked if he sees Democrats locking down legislative efforts Republicans can’t unite on, Olszewski said he hopes that’s not how things play out.
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Olszewski said. “Since I’ve been sworn in, I’ve been pleading to Speaker Johnson and the Republican majority to strike a more bipartisan tone.”
Jayapal believes previous votes Republicans and Democrats have forced together indicate that there’s more room for collaboration.
“I mean, you’ve seen the success with discharge petitions,” Jayapal said, referring to the legislative process Republican rebels have used to force votes over the objection of the chamber’s leadership.
Notably, the legislation that forced the release of the Epstein files came about through a discharge petition effort.
Chauntae Davies speaks during a news conference to discuss the Epstein Files Transparency bill, which directs the release of the remaining files related to the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Sept. 3, 2025. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Lawmakers have filed 16 discharge petitions this Congress. Of those, four have reached the needed 218 signatories to advance.
While Dunn’s picture remains uncertain, Republicans can expect to add to their razor-thin majority when Georgia holds its special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., March 10. Greene resigned from Congress in January.
The heavily Republican district was last won by Greene by a 28.8% margin of victory.
Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.
These are the key developments from day 1,450 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 13 Feb 202613 Feb 2026
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Here is where things stand on Friday, February 13 :
Fighting
Russia launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities in overnight attacks on Thursday, officials reported, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow was “hesitating” about another round of United States-brokered talks on stopping the war.
Russian forces launched 219 drones and 24 ballistic missiles on Thursday night, causing injuries, deaths and damage to energy infrastructure in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro, President Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Two people were killed and six more wounded in an attack on the railway hub of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region bordering Russia, local prosecutors said.
Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that close to 2,600 high-rise apartment buildings were left without heating following the latest Russian attacks, particularly in the capital’s Desnyanskyi, Dniprovskyi, Pecherskyi and Solomyanskyi districts.
The attack on the capital came as 1,100 high-rise buildings in the Dniprovskyi and Darnytskyi districts were already “without heat after the previous shelling”, Klitschko said, as temperatures in Kyiv are forecast to fall as low as -13 degrees Celsius (8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this week.
More than 220,000 people in Russia’s Belgorod region have been left without electricity after a Ukrainian attack caused an accident at a substation, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
In Odesa, the State Emergency Service said that Russian drones hit a nine-storey residential building, an outdoor market and a supermarket, causing multiple fires to break out. The drone attack also damaged energy infrastructure, the emergency service added in a post on Facebook.
Ukraine’s General Staff said that, according to preliminary reports, Ukrainian forces hit an oil refinery in Ukhta in Russia’s Komi Republic, about 1,750km (1,087 miles) from the border with Ukraine, causing a fire to break out.
A Russian attack last month on the Ukrainian branch of the Soviet-built Druzhba oil pipeline halted the transit of Russian oil to eastern Europe, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said. Despite its war with Russia, Ukraine continues to transport Russian oil to Slovakia and Hungary even though it stopped the transit of Russian gas last year.
Ukraine said the bodies of two Nigerians fighting for Russia have been found in the east of the country. Hamzat Kazeem Kolawole and Mbah Stephen Udoka both served in the 423rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, according to a statement by Ukrainian intelligence.
Military aid
Ukraine’s allies have pledged about $35bn in military aid to Kyiv this year, British Defence Minister John Healey said. The figure includes new commitments by individual countries, but also previous promises of weapons made by Ukraine’s allies, including the 11.5 billion euros ($13.6bn) already announced by Germany, a diplomat told the Reuters news agency.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said his country was ready to deliver five new PAC-3 interceptors for Ukraine’s air defence, provided Ukraine’s other allies deliver at least 30 more of their own.
Norway announced it was buying a “large volume” of French glide bombs as part of a bilateral agreement to support Ukraine militarily against Russia’s invasion.
The United Kingdom announced it will “urgently provide” air defence missiles and systems worth more than 500 million British pounds ($681m) “to protect Ukraine from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s brutal attacks on energy sites and homes”.
US military aid to Ukraine fell by 99 percent in 2025 compared with 2024, according to a report from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a think tank based in Germany. “European military aid rose by 67 percent above the 2022–2024 average” in 2025, the Kiel report found.
Peace talks
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that another round of talks on ending the war in Ukraine was expected “soon” but gave no further details.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha said that Russia’s more recent overnight attacks on Ukraine further undermined efforts to end the war through dialogue. “Each such strike is a blow to peace efforts aimed at ending the war. Russia must be forced to take diplomacy seriously and de-escalate,” Sybiha wrote on X.
Regional security
Estonia is to buy 12 more Caesar self-propelled howitzer artillery pieces from France to strengthen its defence capabilities.
European Union leaders broadly agreed Thursday on a plan to restructure the 27-nation bloc’s economy to make it more competitive as they face antagonism from US President Donald Trump, strong-arm tactics from China and hybrid threats blamed on Russia.
Ukraine will begin exporting weapons, including drones, in the coming weeks, Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a news conference, according to Ukraine’s Ukrinform news agency.
Energy
Power plants in Ukraine that have been damaged by Russian missile and drone attacks continue to produce far too little electricity to supply the country’s citizens, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal told a parliamentary energy committee.
Politics and diplomacy
French President Emmanuel Macron said there was no rush to open dialogue with Russian leader Putin, stressing the need for Europeans to fine-tune their objectives. Macron raised the prospect of reviving dialogue with Putin in an interview published on Tuesday by several newspapers.
Six more Russian and Ukrainian children are being reunited with their families, Washington and Moscow said. One child would return to Russia, and five children would be reunited with their families in Ukraine, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, said in a post on Telegram.
Ukraine has accused Russia of abducting thousands of children, and the International Criminal Court has called for the arrest of President Putin and Lvova-Belova on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would have a chance to meet Zelenskyy at this week’s Munich Security Conference.
Sport
Ukrainian athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych has lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after he was barred from competing in the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. The skeleton racer was banned over a dispute concerning a helmet he wanted to wear in the event to honour Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement: “[The decision] was taken by the jury of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) based on the fact that the helmet he intended to wear was not compliant with the rules.”
Zelenskyy reacted to the decision, accusing the IOC of playing “into the hands of aggressors” as Ukraine’s Sport Minister Matviy Bidnyi said Ukraine would go through legal channels to reverse the decision.
“We are proud of Vladyslav and of what he did. Having courage is worth more than any medal,” Zelenskyy said.
To deal with the increasing traffic jams and pollution in the capital, Delhi Police has prepared a proposal to implement Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS). The proposal has been sent to the Home Ministry for approval and once approved, it will be implemented in three phases over 24 months.
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The Delhi government has shared this proposal in the report submitted to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) under the Pollution Action Plan 2026. According to officials, its aim is to reduce traffic jams, reduce travel time and strengthen action against violation of rules. The proposed ITMS will be based on advanced analytics, intelligent traffic signals and real-time decision support system. Under this, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology will be linked to the challan system, which will enable identification of traffic violations and automatic issuance of challans.
