Kremlin confirms Putin-Trump call on Tuesday
In the last few minutes, the Kremlin has confirmed that Russian president Vladimir Putin would talk to US president Donald Trump by phone on Tuesday.
Asked about the planned call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “Yes, that’s how it is. Such a conversation is planned for Tuesday,” Reuters reported.
Key events
Calls were mounting in Serbia on Monday for an independent investigation into reports that security forces used a prohibited sonic weapon on crowds at a huge peaceful anti-corruption rally last weekend, even though authorities vehemently denied it.
Serbian rights groups and opposition officials allege that such a weapon that emits a targeted beam to temporarily incapacitate people was used at the protest Saturday, even though it is banned in Serbia. They said they will file charges with international and domestic courts against those who ordered the attack.
Serbia’s authoritarian and pro-Russian President Aleksandar Vucic again on Monday denied that the crowd-control device was deployed, calling it a “wicked lie” aimed at “destroying Serbia.”
He said he will soon invite the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and also Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, to investigate the claims.
“It is important for history to see how they lied,” he said, referring to those who claim the sonic weapon was used.
Serbian officials have indirectly admitted that the police had about two years ago added the crowd control weapon to their arsenal, but insist that it was not used during Saturday’s rally.
The bodies of seven people were recovered in a search and rescue operation off Cyprus on Monday after a boat thought to be carrying migrants sank, Cyprus’s state broadcaster said.
Jason Burke
Israelis making a new home in Europe have become vital to previously declining Jewish communities on the continent, boosting numbers, bringing a range of cultural influences and marking a fundamental change in the relationship between the diaspora and the Jewish state, research has revealed.
A report released on Wednesday by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research will detail for the first time a dramatic reversal of decades of net outflow to Israel from Jewish communities in Europe.
“We can say that culturally and demographically there is a real turning point. Possibly the end of an era,” said Dr Daniel Staetsky, the report’s author. “The founders of the state of Israel would never have imagined that it would be Israel that would be rejuvenating European Jewish communities, not the other way around.”
Recent Israeli government statistics show accelerating emigration from Israel, driven by factors including political polarisation, the high cost of living, the impact of wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and security concerns after the bloody Hamas raid into Israel of October 2023 and Iranian attacks.
The biggest destination remains the US but many of Europe’s Jewish communities have also received a significant demographic boost, with some that have been shrinking for decades due to an elderly population and a low birthrate now growing again.
Researchers at the IJPR found about 630,000 Jewish people born in Israel or who had lived there for a significant time are now living elsewhere in the world. There are also about 330,000 people born overseas to one or two parents who are Israeli nationals whom the report described as “Israel-connected”.
Pascal Lamy also told Andrew Marr that Donald Trump’s actions will not damage the European Union’s trade arrangements with Canada.
Asked whether the EU would consider putting a “protective trade arm around Canada”, Pascal said:
We have a free trade agreement with Canada and I don’t think what Trump does will in any way damage this relationship. I think the issue between the EU and Canada is a much broader one.
It’s a sort of more geopolitical one. For instance, if Trump would sit on Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, what would Canada do? What would the EU do with Canada that it would not do with the US?
The big picture, given the various pronouncements of Trump at this stage, is much more on the geopolitical side than on the pure trade side.
On negotiating tariffs with the US, Lamy said, in his experience, “including when I was an EU trade commissioner … you do not negotiate with the US without a weapon in your pocket”.
Canada is more likely to become the 28th European Union (EU) state than the 51st American state, according to a former European trade commissioner.
Pascal Lamy told Andrew Marr on LBC, a UK radio station, today that Canada – as well as New Zealand and Australia – could join the EU in the future.
It comes as the US president, Donald Trump, has made repeated claims that its neighbour should become the 51st American state, while hitting Canada with trade tariffs.
Asked if Canada could be the 28th EU member instead, Pascal said:
I think so. I’ve always thought that if you look at this planet, a few countries could, without any big issue, join the European Union. Canada, Australia, New Zealand would probably be part of that.
There is a sort of civilizational commonality which I think allows the sort of very close and good relations we have.
And, of course, if Trump was to be serious about putting his hand on Canada, probably in order to ensure the US water for the future, the EU would side with Canada.
Asked if Canada is more culturally European than nations like Turkey, in order to be considered for membership, he added:
Absolutely. And I think there are many ways to work together again, including on the geostrategic side, where, of course, Canada plays a big role.
Jakub Krupa
And on that note, it’s all from me Jakub Krupa, as I leave you with Tom Ambrose to guide you through the late afternoon.
St Patrick’s Day – in pictures
It’s St Patrick’s Day and up to half a million people were expected in Dublin to take part in main celebrations, according to the Irish Times, with tens of thousands joining in other parts of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The Dublin parade features performers dressed in various costumes and lots of colours, who will make their way past Dublin’s landmark streets, PA agency noted.
Let’s take a look at some pictures we are getting from agencies…
‘More than 30’ countries involved in coalition supporting Ukraine, UK says
The UK has said that more than 30 countries could be involved in the “coalition of the willing” plan to provide military support to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, my colleague Andrew Sparrow reports over on the UK politics blog.
The prime minister’s spokesperson reported Keir Starmer saying, after the virtual summit that he hosted on Saturday, that different countries would be offering different capabilities.
The spokesperson went on:
In relation to what the coalition are willing to be able to provide, we’re expecting more than 30 countries to be involved, but obviously the contribution capabilities will vary.
But this will be a significant force, with significant number of countries providing troops, and a larger group contributing in other ways.
You can get more details on our UK politics blog here:
Rasmussen backs European nuclear umbrella, wants Nato countries to spend 4% GDP on defence
Former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen backed the idea of including the British and French nuclear weapons in a broader “European nuclear umbrella,” he said in an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske.
Speaking to the paper in Taiwan, he also said that Nato allies should ramp up their defensive spending commitments and double the current target of 2% to 4% GDP to “send a pretty clear signal to Trump … that we are serious about defending Europe.”
He believed that the issue of defence spending will be the focus of Nato’s summit in The Hague in June.
As per latest Nato figures, only one member country – Poland – was expected to spend more than 4% in 2024.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy meets with defence minister, army chief
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with defence minister Rustem Umerov and new chief of the general staff, Andrii Hnatov to discuss “the frontline situation and engagements with partners on security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy said he told Umerov to build a team that could discuss “all the details of the security system Ukraine needs, as well as the implementation of decisions made at the military-political level,” starting from the army heads meeting in London on Thursday.
Hnatov was told to work on the army structures, and “audit the current needs of combat brigades” and check they are properly backed to “ensure the resilience of our position.”
The brigades must be supplied to the maximum to ensure the resilience of our positions, both at the front and in diplomatic efforts,” he said.
Zelenskyy added that “strengthening the army is a constant priority, and there can be no steps back in this regard,” with the country’s defence system remaining “the foundation of our independence.”
Germany probes three cases of its citizens being denied entry to US
Three German citizens have recently been denied entry to the United States and placed in detention, leading Berlin to question if there has been a possible “change in American immigration policy,” AFP reported.
Tourists from several western countries have reportedly been detained by US immigration authorities in the past few weeks, apparently caught up in president Donald Trump’s tough crackdown on immigration.
“We have recently become aware of three cases in which German citizens were unable to enter the United States and were taken into custody,” foreign ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer said.
Two of the cases had been resolved, Fischer said, but Germany remained “in contact with the local authorities” regarding the third case.
Germany was “monitoring the situation” and liaising with other EU countries to assess “whether this represents a change in American immigration policy… or whether these are isolated cases”, he said.
“Once we have a clear picture, we will then, if necessary, adjust our travel and security advice,” he said.
