Ukraine cut off from US intelligence

Good morning and welcome back. In today’s newsletter:

• US cuts off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine

• An alleged Chinese ‘hacker-for-hire’ campaign has targeted American agencies

• How BlackRock’s $23bn Panama Canal ports deal unfolded

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The US has cut off intelligence-sharing with Kyiv in a move that could seriously hamper the Ukrainian military’s ability to target Russian forces.

The step follows the decision on Monday by Donald Trump’s administration to suspend deliveries of military aid to Ukraine and comes after a dramatic breakdown in relations between the US president and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Four officials familiar with the decision confirmed that Washington had frozen intelligence channels with Kyiv. John Ratcliffe, director of the CIA, later told Fox Business: “Trump had a real question about whether President Zelenskyy was committed to the peace process, and he said let’s pause.”

But he added that there was hope of the support being restored. “I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away.”

Here’s how the cut-off of US intelligence could affect Ukraine’s military in the meantime.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: Vietnam reports monthly inflation, trade and industrial output figures. South Korea reports February CPI inflation data.

• Monetary policy: Malaysia announces its rate decision.

• China: The annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp legislature, continues.

• European defence: EU leaders will hold an emergency summit in Brussels about Europe’s defence strategy and military spending, as Donald Trump presses Ukraine to reach a peace deal with Russia.

Five more top stories

1. The US has charged 12 Chinese nationals with involvement in a hacker-for-hire campaign on Beijing’s behalf whose targets included American government agencies. According to the justice department, 10 of the suspects — including two public security officials — worked for a Chinese company called i-Soon, which generated millions of dollars in an extensive “hacker-for-hire ecosystem”.

2. Donald Trump has handed carmakers a one-month reprieve on tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, the White House said, in the latest last-minute policy shift to roil corporate America. The carve-out comes after markets reacted turbulently to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration which took effect on Tuesday.

3. France’s President Emmanuel Macron has said he will open talks with allies over how the country’s nuclear weapons could protect Europe. In a television address, Macron responded to a call by Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz about whether France and the UK would be willing to do some form of “nuclear sharing” if the US became a less reliable partner.

4. Exclusive: Billionaire Izzy Englander is exploring opening up the ownership of his $76bn hedge fund Millennium Management to its top executives for the first time, in the latest step to prepare it for life beyond its founder. The move would be “a massive statement by Izzy”, said one person familiar with the situation, and “a clear sign that he wants the firm to survive him.” Read the full story.

5. German borrowing costs surged by the most in 28 years yesterday, as investors bet on a big boost to the country’s ailing economy from an agreement to fund investment in the military and infrastructure. Deutsche Bank economists described the deal to loosen the country’s strict borrowing limit as “one of the most historic paradigm shifts in German postwar history”.

News in depth

Within days of Trump taking office, BlackRock’s $22.8bn takeover of CK Hutchison-owned ports, including two at either end of the Panama Canal, was being mapped out. The US president said in his inaugural address that “China is operating the Panama Canal . . . and we’re taking it back”, and the deal, driven by some of the biggest names in finance in Hong Kong and New York, underscores the speed with which companies’ most powerful executives are responding to Trump’s wishes.

We’re also reading . . .

• Chip war: US sanctions meant to shut down China’s chipmaking sector have instead fuelled it, writes June Yoon.

• Chinese EVs: GAC’s new strategy in Europe illustrates the new barriers for Chinese carmakers in a rapidly changing European market.

• Science under fire: Elon Musk’s role in threatening American research has sparked protests in the UK’s Royal Society, writes Anjana Ahuja.

Chart of the day

Ghanaian cocoa farmers are abandoning beans for bullion in an illegal gold mining boom that has helped drive global chocolate prices to historic highs.

Take a break from the news . . . 

A company aiming to revive extinct animal species has unveiled genetically engineered “woolly mice” that it says are an important milestone in its quest to bring back mammoths.