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You're reading the Evening Briefing Europe newsletter.
You're reading the Evening Briefing Europe newsletter.
Understand the most important stories of the day with context and analysis only Bloomberg can deliver.
Understand the most important stories of the day with context and analysis only Bloomberg can deliver.
Understand the most important stories of the day with context and analysis only Bloomberg can deliver.
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US allies in Europe and Asia are in no hurry to bow to Donald Trump's demand that they send ships into a war he started -- and has claimed to have won already.
Their response to the US president's call for help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for about a fifth of the world's oil, has ranged from caution to ambivalence if not outright rejection.
European officials have begun debating whether to redirect a Red Sea naval mission toward Hormuz, but the move requires unanimous approval and faces resistance in some capitals, including Berlin. In Asia, key US partners including Japan and South Korea have also stopped short of committing ships.
The reluctance is hardly surprising.
Without an end to the war with Iran, reopening the narrow waterway would require the kind of multinational effort Trump has often derided, leaving him reliant on partners he has spent years pressuring over trade, defense spending and democratic norms.
What You Need to Know Today
The last two days of the war have seen the fewest number of drones and missiles fired at the UAE, which may be a sign that Iran is running low on or trying to preserve its stockpiles with hostilities now in the 17th day. Still, Iran continues to cause havoc, as today's damage to the oil port of Fujairah and Dubai's main airport showed.
Oil prices dipped in a volatile session today, on signs that emergency supplies will be available in the US crude market soon but investors remain on edge.
A tanker laden with crude oil appears to have cleared the Strait of Hormuz and is sailing to Pakistan, according to ship-tracking data, making it the latest in just a trickle of vessels that have left the Persian Gulf since the war began. The Karachi, controlled by Pakistan's National Shipping Corp., made the perilous journey over the course of yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By this morning, the Pakistan-flagged Aframax was seen in the waters off Oman's Sohar.
Meanwhile, the global semiconductor industry is facing mounting threats the conflict will choke off key supplies vital for chipmaking and spike the cost of power in Taiwan -- the foundation of today's technology industry.
In France, the far right improved its showing in the first round of municipal elections yesterday, signaling momentum for Marine Le Pen's National Rally ahead of next week's runoffs and the 2027 presidential race. Le Pen and her populist allies won outright in Perpignan, clinched a strong lead heading into the second round in Nice -- France's fifth-largest city -- and are running neck and neck in Marseille, where a victory would mark a landmark breakthrough.
Russia agreed to stop enlisting Kenyans to fight in the Kremlin's war on Ukraine amid mounting concern among a number of African countries about their citizens being recruited to the conflict. In many cases, the governments say, their citizens have been duped into joining Moscow's military, traveling to Russia for what they believed were civilian jobs. "We have now agreed that Kenyans shall not be enlisted through the Ministry of Defense," Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya's prime cabinet secretary, said in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "They will no longer be eligible for enlisting and special operations."
Bank of America has reached an agreement in principle to settle a proposed class action lawsuit on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein victims who accused the bank of aiding in the deceased financier's sex-trafficking, according to a court record. The tentative agreement was noted today in the court docket in the case. Terms of the deal were not immediately available. Any settlement must be approved by US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is shifting gears in his campaign to stay in power after failing to mobilize as many supporters onto the streets as his rival less than a month before one of Europe's most critical elections this year. The five-term premier will head to towns and cities, swapping carefully choreographed rallies for publicly accessible stump speeches like his challenger Peter Magyar. Orban was due to start his nationwide tour today in Kaposvar, southwest of Budapest.