Trump calls Russia and Ukraine, inflation, and Modi’s offers
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Today, Donald Trump turns his focus to the war in Ukraine. We're just one month into 2025, but inflation has reared its ugly head. And India's prime minister heads to the White House. It's Thursday, February 13th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. And I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago.

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First, to some breaking news. A car has driven into a group of people in the German city of Munich. The Bild newspaper reports that 15 people were injured. The Munich security conference is set to start tomorrow, and US Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are arriving later today. More on this breaking story on Reuters.com and the Reuters app.

U.S. President Donald Trump had a busy day working the phones yesterday, speaking by phone to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and, separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about ending the war in Ukraine. I think President Putin wants peace and peace.

President Zelensky wants peace, and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed. After speaking with Putin, Trump said they had, quote, agreed to have their respective teams start negotiations immediately. The Kremlin says Putin has invited Trump to visit Moscow. In fact, we expect...

That he'll come here and I'll go there and we're going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia. Now, Trump has long said that he would quickly end the war in Ukraine without spelling out exactly how. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the new administration's bluntest statements so far on its approach to the war. Returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders.

is an unrealistic objective. Hegseth was at a meeting of Ukraine's military allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He rejected the prospect of welcoming Kyiv into that group.

Mike Collett-White is our news editor-at-large for the Ukraine War. So Mike, what's been the reaction to all this in Ukraine so far? I think it's fair to say Ukraine is disappointed. It's kind of extraordinary, I think, that the United States has given away arguably its best bargaining chips with Russia in any future negotiations, and that certainly doesn't strengthen Trump. It weakens him and certainly leaves Ukraine exposed.

So what does Ukraine have left as leverage if these bargaining chips have effectively been given away for them? It does have some, and you can rest assured that President Volodymyr Zelensky will be making the best of this. It's not all over yet, i.e. negotiations haven't even begun, let's not forget. It's interesting that yesterday Scott Besant, the US Treasury Secretary, was in Kiev to discuss U.S.

US access to Ukrainian critical minerals and rare earths. Zelenskyy has deliberately promoted these deposits, large deposits of very valuable minerals that are used in all sorts of tech, as something that they can use to appeal to the Americans. As we all know, Trump sees himself as some kind of master of the deal.

And so he is looking at these as a way of getting something back for helping Ukraine in any future negotiations. A U.S. judge is giving the go-ahead to the Trump administration's buyout program for federal workers. The decision could cut tens of thousands of workers off government payrolls as a part of sweeping efforts to downsize the U.S. civil service. Labor unions that brought the lawsuit didn't immediately say whether or not they would appeal the judge's decision.

Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed as the top US spy. The Senate voted mostly along party lines to confirm Gabbard, who was once seen as among Trump's most controversial picks given her past statements praising US adversaries and for her lack of intelligence experience. Israel is mobilizing military reservists in preparation for a potential resumption of fighting in Gaza.

The move comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to end the ceasefire if Hamas fails to release additional hostages by a Saturday deadline. Donald Trump roared back into the White House with a bow to tackle inflation. But faster-than-expected price increases in January show just how challenging that's going to be.

Dan Burns is our economics editor. So, Dan, where specifically are we seeing these price increases? So they're happening across the board in a pretty broad fashion. We saw substantial increases in the price of groceries. Food at home rose by 1.9%. Year over year, for instance, the price of eggs just on the month went up more than 15%, which is the largest in more than a decade. Gasoline prices went up.

Rents, cost of shelter generally, which is proving to be a sticky point for the effort to bring inflation lower, was also up again. So this was a pretty broad-based increase in consumer prices. And it's very early in Trump's term, but is there any indication that his policies are playing a role here?

It's not, there doesn't seem to be a clear path of evidence suggesting that what Trump has done so far is a contributor to the price increases that we saw through January. There may have been in some categories, some front loading of demand for certain items that people fear are going to be subject to tariffs. And they may have tried buying them earlier and that may have contributed to some increases, but it's not,

There's not a real clear picture that that was the driver. Instead, this looks like some of what we've seen over the last several years for the month of January, which is it's a month when companies put through annual price increases. And those price increases on balance have been larger than they were before the pandemic. There is an argument to be made that this is a hump that will get over pretty quickly.

But that will be something that we won't know for certainly a few weeks, if not a few months. And sticking with economics, this week's Econ World episode looks at why the Fed is standing pat on rates. Spoiler alert, it's all about inflation and why other major central banks are cutting. You can catch it on the Reuters app or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the White House today.

bearing some diplomatic gifts to ease emerging tensions between the US and India. Trade will be high on the agenda as Modi works to keep India out of Trump's tariff crosshairs. South Asia editor Sanjeev Miglani joins us to break down what to expect. So India is in quite a precarious position. Trump has been very, very careful about not criticising Modi, but he has attacked India. He has said India is a big abuser of trade.

We understand he's carrying a whole bunch of initiatives in terms of things they can do to sort of lower the trade-off walls here. They are considering sort of cutting back on custom duties on surgical equipment, electronics, stuff that India buys from the US. They might be looking at the US as a source of LNG imports for a desperately energy-hungry India. And then there is this defense relationship with America where

They've been buying a lot of weapons, but Trump wants much more. He wants really India to be scaling up sort of weapon purchases. So there's a lot to play for. There's a lot riding on this. Motorbikes are an actual part of this, right?

Yeah, President Trump had been in an earlier term, harking back on India's very high tariffs on Harley Davidson bikes. And they have gone and sort of brought them down dramatically. It seems like it's a symbolism of this country that is seen as a very protectionist, at least in American eyes. But India has its limits also. So he has to balance the demands of make America great with making India great.

And of course, after last week's military deportation flight back to India, immigration will be on the agenda too. Yeah, I mean, the idea of, you know, people being deported on military flight and they were chained on the seats, handcuffs. I mean, that didn't go down too well here. They want to make a distinction to Trump between...

And for today's recommended read, I'd say something lighter, but I'm not sure masses of compacted snow feel that light when they smash into you.

That's right, it's all about a massive snowball fight in Japan with 120 teams battling for victory. You can read all about the ice-cold determination it takes to win by following the link in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.