Daily SumUp

Chancellor Merz says Kyiv and European allies have prepared a new Ukraine peace proposal and discussed it with US President Trump during their recent phone call

President says European leaders are weak and Russia holds the cards in any peace talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reaffirmed his support to Venezuela in a phone call with longtime ally President Nicolás Maduro, the Kremlin said.

María Corina Machado said Thursday in Oslo, where she collected the award, that President Donald Trump's "decisive" actions had made the Venezuelan regime "weaker than ever."

The M23 rebel group consolidated control over the strategic town of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, residents said, as Kinshasa warned that the Rwanda-backed advance could derail U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to broker peace in the region.

Japan's government on Monday submitted the draft of a huge supplementary budget covering the period through March for debate in the Diet. It is mainly aimed at cushioning the impact of inflation.

Bulgarian government resigns after mass anti-corruption protests

Disney has signed a deal with OpenAI to let the firm's video generation tool produce short videos featuring more than 200 Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters.The Walt Disney Company has announced a sweeping partnership with OpenAI that will see it take a $1bn (€852mn) stake in the tech giant. The deal will notably allow cult Disney characters to appear in AI-generated short videos created through Sora, OpenAI’s generative video platform.The licensing agreement marks the first time a major entertainment studio has licensed their intellectual property to a large-scale AI video tool.

Russia said ‌on ​Thursday that Ukraine ‌had launched a major aerial attack ​with at least 287 drones downed over a ‍number of regions including ​Moscow.Russia's defence ministry said at least ​40 drones ⁠were shot down over the Moscow region, which along with the city itself has a population of more than 22 million.The extent of the ‌damage was not immediately clear but flights were diverted ​from ‌at all of Moscow ‍main ⁠airports.Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukrainian territory.Russia has pummelled its smaller neighbour with missiles and drones, recently targeting its energy sector. Ukraine this ​year sought to knock out Russian oil refineries and oil terminals with drones.