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Hans van Leeuwen

Today

Sanjeev Gupta, pictured at one of his plants in 2017, is presiding over a manufacturing empire in crisis.

Whyalla collapse wrecks Gupta’s plans to save British steel mills

Last month, the industrialist said he was on the verge of striking a deal to repay billions of dollars. But a deadline to finalise it is in doubt.

This Month

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky ‘ready to work’ with Trump to secure peace deal

The Ukrainian said he wanted to “make things right” with the US president and lauded his “strong leadership”, after he abruptly froze military aid.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron in London on Sunday.

Starmer, Macron seek to wrest Ukraine initiative back from Trump

European leaders have hatched plans to develop their own Ukraine peace deal that they’ll sell to the US president, including a peacekeeping “coalition of the willing”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump says Zelensky has a bad hand. But he still holds an ace

The US president can put the Ukrainians in peril, but cannot force them into peace. This gives Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron a chance to deal the Europeans back in.

Listed UK veterinary company CVS Group has been buying up vet practices in Australia. 

Why a British vet giant is circling Australia

London-listed pets-and-vets company CVS Group has already spent more than $200 million on buying vet practices Down Under. Here’s why the UK player is so keen.

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Zelenskyy and Keir Starmer meet at No 10 Downing

‘Full backing’: Europe rallies for Zelensky after Oval Office meltdown

Keir Starmer made a show of hugging the Ukrainian leader outside Downing Street, and will be joined by leaders from all over the Continent for crisis talks.

February

As Trump sides with Putin, Europe’s urgent race to rearm

If the US military ships out, the Europeans will need speed, cohesion and piles of money – not exactly attributes they’re famous for.

Fancy a golden visa? Greece looks like a bargain.

Don’t like Trump’s $8m ‘gold card’ visa? Try Europe for $413,000

The president wants to charge almost $8 million for a visa. Yet for as little as $413,000, you can buy a flat in a Mediterranean country and get permanent residency too.

President Donald Trump meets France’s President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office.

Trump, Macron bromance: ‘We’re gonna get this’ Ukraine deal done

The French president wants to heal the trans-Atlantic relationship. Meanwhile, Trump says a deal on Ukraine’s minerals is imminent.

Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz is set to become the next German chancellor.

Germany’s new leader may face Trump with one hand tied behind his back

Friedrich Merz faces urgent economic and geopolitical crises. But to form a coalition he needs to turn foes into friends – and that will make it hard to govern.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and US special envoy Keith Kellogg during their meeting in Kyiv.

‘Disgusting graft machine’: Musk backs Trump’s attacks on Zelensky

The rant came as Trump’s team swings behind his strategy of courting Russia, while Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer prepare to visit Washington.

It’s hard to see how the US-Russia deal won’t hand Ukraine to Putin on a platter.

Trump has smashed the Western alliance. Here’s what could happen next

With his broadsides against Ukraine, Trump has turned the world order on its head, leaving Europe reeling. Why is he doing it, and how can US allies respond?

Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.

Trump warns Zelensky time is running out for Ukraine

The US president said his Ukrainian counterpart must move quickly to secure peace, and suggested he was prolonging the war to “ride the gravy train”.

Sanjeev Gupta in the Whyalla steelworks in 2017, when his GFG Alliance acquired the business out of administration.

Gupta says Whyalla seizure ‘unprecedented’ and ‘wrong’

In an internal memo to his executives, the British industrialist defended his time running the steelworks, suggesting legal action to recover debts owed to him.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he “will not accept … any bilateral negotiations about Ukraine without us”.

Trump demands Zelensky hold elections if he wants peace deal

The US and Russia agreed to lay the groundwork for ending the conflict, something unthinkable a month ago. The Ukrainian president was excluded from the talks.

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Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny, spent New Year’s Eve with then-president-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, at their Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.

Dutton is not playing Trump card, Morrison says

The former prime minister says the opposition leader isn’t trying to mimic the US president, and the Australian political system wouldn’t let him.

Ready for trans-Atlantic fisticuffs? French President Emmanuel Macron.

Europeans fail to agree on troops for Ukraine as peace talks loom

French President Emmanuel Macron gathered key leaders for crisis talks, as Trump’s top advisers gathered for a summit in Riyadh with their Kremlin counterparts.

Sanjeev Gupta at one of InfraBuild’s Melbourne plants in 2017. The collapse of his main financier has sent the industrialist scrambling to pay down big debts.

Gupta poised for $800m sale of Tahmoor coal mine, debt deal nears

Sanjeev Gupta says selling the NSW mine will aid the Whyalla steelworks, but a sceptical SA premier thinks the steel entrepreneur is running out of time.

Lex Greensill in London in 2018.

Lex Greensill scores a rare win in the British courts

The businessman and his failed financing empire is at the centre of a series of legal claims that has drawn in IAG and creditors who lost billions of dollars.

US Vice-President JD Vance gives a keynote speech at the AI Summit in Paris.

‘We have to cut red tape and we will’: Europe talks big on AI

At a summit in Paris, Donald Trump’s vice president lays bare growing global divisions over promoting and policing AI while Europe looks to back winners.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/hans-van-leeuwen-h159q1