Caroline Hepker

The spokesperson for President Putin, Dmitry Peskov, says that Russia is taking the talk seriously.

Dmitry Peskov there speaking via a translator.

Russia has for months repeatedly struck Ukrainian cities, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power in a bid to bring the country to its knees.

But Bloomberg analysis suggests that the war's human and economic cost to Russia is stark.

Both sides say that any potential progress today would need to be agreed by their leaders before it was accepted.

Bloomberg has learnt that Elon Musk's SpaceX is competing in a US military contest to produce autonomous drones.

The company and its subsidiary, XAI, are hoping to break into the weapons sector by winning a secretive $100 million contest to build voice-activated drones.

The news comes as Anthropix talks about extending a contract with the Pentagon.

are being held up.

Bloomberg understands the company wants guardrails that prevent Claude from being used to develop weapons or spy on Americans being removed.

U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a visit to Budapest.

The U.S.

is doubling down on its support for the populist leader as the country prepares for elections next month.

Speaking in Budapest, Rubio said that President Trump would provide assistance to Hungary if it ever ran into financial trouble.

He said the two countries are entering a golden era of relations.

Marco Rubio speaking there after President Trump gave his personal endorsement of Orban this month despite the Prime Minister's party trailing in opinion polls in Hungary.

And those are our top stories for you this morning.

Looking at the market, so Nasdaq futures this morning are currently down by eight-tenths of 1%.

The US is back from the President's Day holiday yesterday.