Putin a no-show in key Ukraine talks; UK economy expands

National Business Review

15-05-2025

Kia ora and welcome to the end of another working week. Let's bring you up to speed with the latest news from overnight.
First this Friday, the leaders of Russia – and now Ukraine – won't be attending peace talks in Türkiye, with other officials set to discuss the path forward in Istanbul on Friday local time, the ABC and Reuters reported.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was "not serious" about ending the conflict. US President Donald Trump previously said progress was unlikely until a proper face-to-face meeting between him and Putin.
Ukraine's defence minister will attend for the first direct negotiations between the two sides since 2022. Putin sent a team of negotiators, which the BBC said was a 'very junior delegation'. Zelensky called them "stand-in props".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US did not have high expectations about what will happen in the peace talks.
'I hope that those talks will be between Ukraine and Russia, with our Turkish counterparts in the room, along with someone from our team or members of our team at the appropriate level.
'I don't think we're going to have a breakthrough here until the President [Trump] and President Putin interact directly on this topic,' Rubio added.
Putin last met his Zelensky at a summit in Paris in December 2019, Reuters noted. Zelensky took office in May 2019 and Putin also held talks with President Emmanual Macron and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
French President Emmanuel Macron.
In the Middle East, at least 115 Palestinians were killed in a wave of attacks by Israel on the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reported.
Rubio spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling reporters that the US was not immune to the suffering of the people in Gaza.
The latest attacks killed mostly women and children. To date, about 53,000 Palestinians had been killed, with about 120,000 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army declared large areas of Gaza unsafe, telling residents to leave ahead of "intense strikes", the BBC reported.
Israel said ongoing bombing and aid blockades were meant to pressure militant group Hamas to release the remaining hostages.
Elsewhere, the UK economy expanded at the fastest pace in a year, against warnings of a fall in activity, as businesses digested Trump's trade tariffs, the Guardian reported.
The Office for National Statistics said the economy rose 0.7% in the March quarter, slightly above expectations, and followed 0.1% growth in the December quarter last year.
The services sector expanded 0.7%, production – which included manufacturing, mining and energy – gained 1.1%, while the construction sector was flat.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said longer-term interest rates could be higher as the US economy changes and because of policy uncertainty, CNBC reported.
He was commenting on the central bank's policy framework review over the past five years.
'Higher real rates may also reflect the possibility that inflation could be more volatile going forward than in the inter-crisis period of the 2010s,' Powell said.
'We may be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocks – a difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.'
Finally, Trump said he told Apple chief executive Tim Cook that he doesn't want the technology company to build its products in India, as it diversifies production away from China, CNBC reported.
'I had a little problem with Tim Cook,' Trump said.
'I said to him: 'My friend, I treated you very good. You're coming here with US$500 billion, but now I hear you're building all over India. I don't want you building in India'.'
Trump referenced Apple's commitment in February of US$500b investment in the US.
CNBC said Apple had increased production in India with the aim of making around 25% of global iPhones in that country over the coming years to cut reliance on China production.