World Briefing: March 2, 2025

British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has announced a multibillion-pound funding package to bolster British defence and arm Ukraine. “This government is not going to choose between countries. We need to work with our allies and partners across the world and we’ll continue to do that. But Ukrainian people can know that this government, this country, stands fully behind the Ukrainian people,” Reeves stated. At the same time, she recalled that her country has committed to providing £3 billion per year for as long as necessary to support Ukraine. She also pointed out that a recently passed law in the UK allows the use of profits from frozen Russian assets to assist Ukraine. “And the first tranche of that £3 billion worth of funding will be unlocked in the next few days as a sign of our ongoing commitment to support the people of Ukraine,” she added - agencies

Zelensky and Starmer also signed a £2.26bn loan for Ukrainian military supplies, that will be repaid using profits from frozen Russian assets.

Some context: Worth noting that this is a loan and not a handout. During his Oval Office meeting last week, Starmer boasted to journalists that much of UK aid to Ukraine consisted of grants. And to place the loan amount into perspective, it will not even cover one month’s worth of Kyiv’s budget deficit (about US$3.5bn).

King Charles will hold an ­official audience at Sandringham with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday as the UK and EU demonstrate their “unwavering” ­support after his humiliation at the hands of Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also host European heads of government and the leaders of Canada and Turkey at a special defence summit aimed at presenting a united front on the Ukraine crisis. On arrival in Downing Street for a meeting with Starmer on Saturday night, just 24 hours after Trump and his vice-president Vance subjected him to a 10-minute tirade in the Oval Office, Zelensky said he was “very happy” that the king had agreed to the meeting. The offer of a royal audience was seen at Westminster as a deliberate move to give the Ukrainian president equal treatment to Trump, who was presented during his meeting at the White House on Wednesday by Starmer with an invitation to a ­second state visit to the UK, including a meeting with King Charles. At today’s defence summit, which demonstrates the increasingly central role being played by the UK in Europe’s defence and security, Starmer will be clear that Europe must stand united against President Putin.

Some perspective: Donald Trump spent part of yesterday swinging golf clubs in Florida. When news reached him that Zelensky received an invitation to visit with King Charles, it must’ve been received with a scowl and who knows who many golf balls subsequently ended up in the sand trap - along with Trump’s enormous ego. The visit today will be at least the third time Zelensky is meeting with King Charles, who has a well known soft spot for Ukraine. When Trump meets with the King sometime this year it’ll only be the second time they met together - even though it was described by Starmer as an “unprecedented” invitation. As I told BBC World News this morning, might it be that the King is well positioned to play an unofficial, background role to bring Trump and Zelensky back together - or at least to encourage Trump to take Ukraine more seriously?

In stark contrast to the White House meeting, Zelensky arrived at Downing Street to be met with cheers from crowds standing on Whitehall. Inside No 10, Starmer told his guest that the cheering outside was “the people of the United Kingdom coming out to demonstrate how much they support you, how much they support Ukraine”. Starmer said he had “absolute determination … to achieve what we both want to achieve, which is a lasting peace – a lasting peace for Ukraine based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine, so important for Ukraine, so important for Europe and so important for the United Kingdom”. Among the key issues to be discussed at today’s defence summit will be the extent to which Europe can beef up its military support for Ukraine, and maintain the strength of Nato if the US is seen to be reducing its involvement in European defence - The Guardian

Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or feel they could be soon, according to four people familiar with recent US intelligence on the issue and a document reviewed by CNN. The intelligence indicates that foreign adversaries are eager to exploit the Trump administration’s efforts to conduct mass layoffs across the federal workforce – a plan laid out by the Office of Personnel Management earlier this week. Russia and China are focusing their efforts on recently fired employees with security clearances and probationary employees at risk of being terminated, who may have valuable information about US critical infrastructure and vital government bureaucracy, two of the sources said. At least two countries have already set up recruitment websites and begun aggressively targeting federal employees on LinkedIn, two of the sources said. A document produced by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said the intelligence community assessed with “high confidence” that foreign adversaries were trying to recruit federal employees and “capitalize” on the Trump administration’s plans for mass layoffs, according to a partly redacted copy reviewed by CNN.

Vice President J.D. Vance’s ski trip went downhill fast when hundreds of protestors arrived to meet him at the slopes. Demonstrators were angry after watching Friday’s so-called “peace talks” between Vance, President Donald Trump, and Volodymyr Zelensky—and seeing Vance call the President of Ukraine “disrespectful” and repeatedly ordering him to thank the U.S. government. Vance, his wife Usha, and their three children drove to Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vermont, Saturday morning only to see powdery snow, a sprawling resort, and a slew of angry protestors. One demonstrator held a sign that said “Vance is a traitor go ski in Russia.” Vermont government officials had prepared for his arrival prior to the trip. On Thursday, Republican Gov. Phil Scott released a statement telling Vermonters that “while we may not always agree, we should be respectful.” That didn’t stop locals from showing up en masse to condemn the VP’s recent behavior. Protestors held pride flags, pro-Ukraine posters, and anti-Vance signs. Protestors were told to leave and Vance was relocated to an undisclosed location. - Daily Beast

A court in Vietnam sentenced one of the country’s most influential journalists to two and a half years in prison Thursday for “abusing democratic freedoms” with about a dozen posts on Facebook that criticized or questioned the government. The journalist, Truong Huy San — known to many by his pen name, Huy Duc — was arrested in Hanoi, the capital, in June. He was convicted under the criminal code for 13 articles he posted on his personal Facebook page between 2015 and 2024 that, according to state-run media, “negatively impacted state interests, as well as the legal rights of organizations and individuals.” Mr. San’s family was not allowed into the courtroom. Mr. San’s case has been closely watched by international human rights groups and journalists, in part to better understand the direction of a rising regional power and one-party state that has often signaled it wants to be seen as more open to the world and innovation — while frequently cracking down on speech and civil society organizations. At least one of the posts from Mr. San that led to the charges involved arguments against heavy-handed policing. A screenshot of a deleted post from Mr. San last year that was preserved by the 88 Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on human rights issues in Vietnam, declared: “A COUNTRY CANNOT DEVELOP BASED ON FEAR.” By that point, his Facebook page had around 370,000 followers. Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Mr. San “was convicted and sentenced for gathering and publishing independent news, which Vietnam treats as a criminal offense.” It added: “San and all independent journalists wrongfully held behind bars in Vietnam should be freed immediately and unconditionally,” Mr. Crispin said. Vietnam currently has at least 16 reporters in custody, according to CPJ’s latest global prison census — many of them held for posting on social media, which the government has tried to strictly regulate. Vietnam is the seventh worst jailer of journalists worldwide, based on the CPJ tally, tied with Iran and Eritrea - NYT

The latest data from the US Department of Homeland Security shows that arrests of alleged illegal migrants still have not kept up with the goals set by Trump administration officials. At first, the administration published frequent updates announcing the daily ICE arrest totals, which peaked at more than 1,000 per day. But in February, those daily updates stopped. The most recent DHS data released this week shows that fewer than 600 people per day have been booked into ICE detention facilities across the country during the first three weeks of February — well below the pace of 1,200 to 1,500 arrests a day that administration officials have said they want. That hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from making some bold claims. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced this week that the administration had arrested 20,000 immigrants without legal status in its first month. That’s more than ICE had been arresting on average under the Biden administration, though still not enough to satisfy the White House’s stated quota. Then Noem went a step further. In an official statement from DHS, she said that ICE’s February arrest total represents a “627% increase in monthly arrests compared to just 33,000 at large arrests under Biden for ALL of last year,” a claim she repeated on social media. But immigration experts say Noem’s math is misleading because she’s comparing total ICE arrests under the current administration with a smaller subset of arrests under another. “She’s comparing apples to coconuts” in order to exaggerate the difference in arrests numbers, said Jason Houser, a former chief of staff at ICE during the Biden administration. ICE made a total of more than 113,000 arrests last year. The vast majority were “custodial” arrests, meaning the target was already in the custody of state or local officials. A far smaller number of the arrests that ICE makes are considered “at large.” - NPR

Ex New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his long-expected NYC mayoral bid Saturday — a late entry threatening to eclipse a crowded Democratic primary and deal embattled incumbent Eric Adams a political death blow. Cuomo enters the crowded race widely considered the front runner after a months long shadow campaign, in which he coyly avoided officially announcing his political comeback while ruthlessly capitalizing behind-the-scenes on Adams’ scandal-plagued first term. “The city just feels threatening, out of control,” Cuomo said in his 17-minute, 30-second long announcement video posted on YouTube. “These conditions exist not as an act of God, but rather as an act of our political leaders. Or more precisely, the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders.” Cuomo’s backroom maneuvering quietly amassed key support and siphoned off many of Adams’ prominent backers, even before the three-term governor jumped into the race. - NY Post

A new study disputes a long-held fear that climate change will lead to a quick, total collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the ocean current that brings warmth to northwestern Europe. Scientists from the UK’s Met Office and University of Exeter examined 34 models showing future planetary warming, with emissions growing as much as fourfold, and said the AMOC did not completely collapse under any of them. The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that even if the melting of the Greenland ice sheet adds high amounts of freshwater to the North Atlantic, it will only weaken the ocean current. The system would be sustained by Southern Ocean winds, which continue to pull deep water to the surface, maintaining the current and preventing total collapse this century. “Climate change is still happening. The AMOC is very likely to weaken. And so we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jonathan Baker, a scientist at the Met Office and the paper’s lead author, in an interview with Bloomberg Green. “But it’s reassuring that the AMOC is unlikely to collapse this century because that would have really devastating impacts, especially an abrupt collapse.” - Bloomberg

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