Why environmentalists are so worried about this lawsuit
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What are the key topics discussed in today's episode?
Good morning. It's Friday, February 28th. I'm Shmeeta Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, a lawsuit that could sink Greenpeace. This year's Oscars wildcards. And Katy Perry is going to space.
Why is the mineral agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. important?
But first, to Washington, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet with President Trump to discuss and potentially sign an agreement for Ukraine to share rare minerals with the United States, which are estimated to be worth trillions of dollars. This was an idea proposed by Zelensky last fall, though at the time he suggested Kyiv would, in return, want assurance that the U.S. would provide ongoing support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia. Trump has criticized U.S. aid for Kyiv as a drain on resources. And disagreements over the terms of this mineral deal are a big reason why the relationship between the United States and Ukraine has soured in recent weeks. Zelensky rejected an earlier version of the agreement because it didn't include security guarantees for Ukraine.
And the United States initially asked for the rights to up to $500 billion in revenue from mineral development, which is roughly five times more money than the U.S. has contributed to Ukraine during the war so far. Zelensky spoke at a news conference about why he rejected the initial offer.
I'm not signing something that will have to be repaid by generations and generations of the Ukrainians.
The new version of the deal that could be signed today does not include that revenue stipulation, and it also still does not include security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump has said that it would include a form of peacekeeping that's acceptable to everybody, but did not specify what that meant. However, The Wall Street Journal's Ian Lovett told us Ukraine ultimately agreed to this version of the deal in the hopes that it could reset the relationship with Trump.
They really want to keep the U.S. on the Ukrainian side, which seems much less clear since Trump took office. They want the U.S. to be invested in Ukraine economically and ideally also militarily.
So far, the Trump administration has seemed to reverse the U.S. 's position as a strong ally of Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that Ukraine will have to accept that it will not get back the land that Russia has seized. That's roughly 20 percent of the country. Last week, Trump falsely suggested that Ukraine, not Russia, was the aggressor.
How could the U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal affect international relations?
And in his first cabinet meeting this week, Trump said that Russia will have to make concessions to end the war, but did not specify what kind. Trump has maintained that his objective is to establish peace in the region, but Lovett told us it's not entirely clear what that means.
There have been a lot of questions about what Trump's goal is exactly, whether it's just to end the conflict as fast as possible, even if that means Ukraine giving up not only territory, but perhaps other concessions to Russia. And Ukraine has been working with European allies to try to come up with a contingency plan, basically, to continue to be able to fight if the U.S. pulls its backing.
Trump has also been meeting with European allies. Yesterday, he met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House, who urged the president to stand by Ukraine.
Because it can't be peace that rewards the aggressor. We agree history must be on the side of the peacemaker, not the invader.
In that same speech, Starmer said the UK is ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a peace deal. If the US and Ukraine sign today's mineral deal, one outstanding question will be how the US plans to extract the resources. Up to 40 percent of Ukraine's rare mineral deposits are in parts of the country currently under Russian occupation. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations told the journal that means if the U.S. wants to access these deposits, it'll have no choice but to get involved in defending and protecting Ukraine's physical security. Now to a trial that started this week involving Greenpeace, which environmentalists have warned could bankrupt the group and threaten the future of advocacy work.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What are the key topics discussed in today's episode?
0:05–0:34
2
Why is the mineral agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. important?
0:34–2:46
3
How could the U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal affect international relations?
2:46–5:13
4
What is the Greenpeace lawsuit and why is it significant?
5:13–7:46
5
What are the implications of the Greenpeace trial for environmental activism?
7:46–13:32
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Apple News Today
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