US and Ukraine sign natural resources deal after weeks of fraught talks

Today’s agenda: UK local elections; Meta AI copyright lawsuit; Apple referred to criminal prosecutor; Trump’s vow to “stop wars”; and an English town’s theme park dreams

Good morning. The US and Ukraine have agreed an “economic partnership” that will give Washington access to the country’s critical minerals and natural resources. Here’s what we know.

The terms: A “reconstruction investment fund” will invest in critical mineral, oil and gas extraction, as well as related infrastructure and processing. Ukraine will determine what natural resources are extracted, and for the first decade, all profits will be reinvested in the country. First deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the fund would be “jointly managed” with neither side holding a dominant role. The agreement includes no provisions on any Ukrainian debt obligations to the US.

Why it matters: The deal has been a huge source of tension between Washington and Kyiv, and comes as Donald Trump is struggling in his effort to broker a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said it signalled to Russia that the US was “committed to a peace process centred on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term”. Svyrydenko said the US, in addition to making financial contributions to the fund, might offer further support, including air defence systems.

Here are more details on the fraught talks leading up to the deal.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• UK local elections: The Tories are bracing for heavy losses while Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens are expected to make gains. Sign up for Stephen Bush’s Inside Politics newsletter for more analysis on the contests.

• Meta lawsuit: The company heads to court against a group of US authors in one of the first big legal tests of whether tech groups can use copyrighted material to train AI models.

• Results: Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Eli Lilly, KKR, Lloyds and McDonald’s are among those reporting. Full list in our Week Ahead newsletter.

• Labour Day: Major European markets are closed.

How should central banks navigate the new world order? Pose questions to Chris Giles and other FT experts about monetary policy, and have them answered in a live Q&A next Wednesday

Five more top stories

1. The Trump administration’s early trade deals could trigger a binary reaction from financial markets and determine how investors view tariffs, said the president of Goldman Sachs. “It may or may not be bullish, but it could serve as a template,” John Waldron, widely viewed as the most likely successor to chief executive David Solomon, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

2. Apple has been referred to a criminal prosecutor by a US judge who found the tech giant “thwarted” her legal order to change its US App Store rules. The judge ruled that one of Apple’s executives lied under oath to cover up an attempt to bypass the injunction, marking a stunning rebuke to the iPhone maker and a new twist in its long legal battle with Epic Games.

3. Microsoft shares jumped after it posted better than expected earnings yesterday. Its cloud division reported robust sales growth on strong demand from artificial intelligence-related services, calming fears of a slowdown. Here’s more from the results.

• Meta earnings: The social media giant reported better than forecast results and said it would boost AI spending.

• Eyeball-scanning ‘orbs’: Sam Altman’s digital ID project, in which users scan their irises to access its Worldcoin crypto token, has launched in the US.

4. Exclusive: The EU is threatening to set an expiry date on any deal over UK food exports across the Channel unless it gets long-term access to British fishing waters. The sensitive issue is one of the last remaining hurdles as the two sides close in on a deal to “reset” relations five years after Brexit at a summit on May 19.

5. Exclusive: Greensill Capital’s administrator has filed a lawsuit against its founder and six other former directors, adding to Lex Greensill’s legal challenges. The claim’s full details and the nature of the allegations against each of the defendants have yet to be made available, but court records list the case type as “breach of fiduciary duty”.

News in-depth

As Trump basked in his election win in November, he promised he was “going to stop wars”. Yet his order in March to use “overwhelming lethal force” against Houthi rebels in Yemen has propelled the US military into its most intense bombing campaign since the war against Isis a decade ago. Can he defang the group without getting sucked into a costly, long-term conflict with no clear end goal?

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• Australian election: As it heads to the polls, the “lucky country” finds itself caught between a slowing China and a chaotic US.

• ‘Fish hippies’ vs Spurs: Bodø/Glimt take on Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur today, in a giant-killing run that has put their remote Arctic town on the map.

• AI’s next competitive advantage: Success will be measured not by how much capital a company can raise, writes June Yoon, but how little it needs to win.

• Pope Francis’s reforms: The late pontiff sought to battle corruption in the Vatican, but his successor will face a steep challenge in balancing the books.

Chart of the day

What lessons can Brexit offer on Trump’s trade war? Just as the UK economy has yet to fully recover, when it comes to a reckoning in some years’ time, the US economy will be weaker and its standing in the world diminished, writes Chris Giles.

Take a break from the news

. . . and read about the English town that can’t wait to be a theme park. The sixth Universal Studios-branded theme park is coming to Bedford, and residents are overwhelmingly supportive of the plan, despite the widespread disruption expected.