Russia and the US talk Ukraine

Good morning. US and Russian officials are meeting to discuss Ukraine, but Europe’s not invited. Why the NYC mayor’s days may be numbered. And Elon Musk claims his new AI bot is a winner. Listen to the day’s top stories.

Talks about how to end the war in Ukraine started without Ukraine being present. Top US and Russian officials are meeting in Saudi Arabia for discussions after Donald Trump launched a diplomatic blitz last week with a call to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

European nations don’t have a seat at the table either, although the US did ask them to spell out how they’d react if any peacekeeping troops deployed in Ukraine were attacked by Russia. Evidently, the Europeans are fuming and struggling to respond to the rapid pace of events. For now, they’re considering ways to raise defense spending.

When an apparently routine approach turns into chaos. Investigators are looking into why a Delta plane flipped upside down after landing in Toronto, injuring 15 people. Almost miraculously, there were no fatalities. Sticking with airlines, Southwest is planning its first-ever layoffs and some of the biggest Middle East carriers are preparing to go on an aircraft buying spree.

The crisis around NYC Mayor Eric Adams intensified. Four top deputies have resigned and Governor Kathy Hochul cited her power to remove the mayor as she called for a meeting today to discuss the path forward. The controversy centers around allegations of a quid pro quo between Adams and the Trump administration, and the Justice Department’s order to drop the bribery case.
Elon Musk’s new AI chatbot is out. His xAI launched its updated Grok-3 model, which he claimed outperforms rivals including OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini across math, science and coding benchmarks. Remember how Chinese start-up DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the industry with its low-cost AI models? It’s now in the running to power China’s weather forecasts.

Deep Dive: Golden Run

Goldman Sachs has a new target for gold as central banks load up on bullion and inflows into exchange-traded funds continue.

The Big Take

Gaming the visa system. India’s biggest IT firm allegedly violated US immigration laws by claiming frontline workers were managers. Ex-staffers say it was to get around H-1B rules.

Opinion

There’s no template for the shock Europe just got, writes John Authers. Upending trans-Atlantic security means an initial boom for defense stocks, but the long term is much less clear.

Before You Go

Treasure trove. The Torlonia Collection, a private collection of Roman antiquities, has been locked away for almost 70 years. Now it’s being opened up to the public through exhibitions and conservation efforts. That may answer critics who had argued that the whim of a single person was behind the treasure trove gathering dust.

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