Global Hotspots: US and Ukraine Reach Deal on Critical Minerals

New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy

This week, the United States conducted Ukraine-related diplomacy with Russia, France, and the U.K., while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington to finalize a critical minerals deal. In the Indo-Pacific, Taiwan is investigating a Chinese ship’s possible role in recent damage to one of its undersea cables, while the Trump administration unveiled sanctions against entities in the Chinese oil industry. In the Middle East, the first phase of hostage and prisoner swaps between Hamas and Israel was completed, and Israel deployed tanks into the West Bank. Global trade escalations continued as U.S. President Donald Trump announced he will impose 25% tariffs on EU imports, drawing promises of retaliation from the bloc, and that he will press ahead with tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China on March 4. Read the full Weekly Forecast Monitor here: https://newlinesinstitute.org/forecast/week-20250228/ Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/