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Daily Briefing

It has been a busy morning in Brussels, where EU leaders agreed on more aid for Ukraine, while farmers threw eggs and stones at the European Parliament. We also report exclusively on Iran's Guards pulling officers from Syria after Israeli attacks.

Plus, a look inside Donald Trump's election A-team.

By Edson Caldas

Today's Top News

A person throws eggs towards the police officers as Belgian farmers use their tractors to block the European Union headquarters. REUTERS/Yves Herman

EU SUMMIT IN BRUSSELS

European Union leaders unanimously agreed to extend 50 billion euros in aid to Ukraine, overcoming weeks of resistance from Hungary. Europe Affairs Editor Andrew Gray tells the Reuters World News podcast how this money will help the country as the war against Russia rages on.
Meanwhile, farmers descended on Brussels to press EU leaders to do more to help them with taxes, rising costs and cheap imports, throwing eggs at the European Parliament, starting fires near the building and setting off fireworks. Their revolt is fueling a narrative that the EU is riding roughshod over farmers.

MIDDLE EAST

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their officers in Syria and will rely more on allied Shi'ite militia to preserve their sway there, sources familiar with the matter said. Recent Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen of their members, among them one of the Guards' top intel generals.
Tankers carrying Russian oil have continued sailing through the Red Sea largely uninterrupted by Houthi attacks on shipping and face lower risks, according to shipping executives, analysts and flows data. On Wednesday, the United States struck up to 10 drones in Yemen that were preparing to launch.

US ELECTION

A veteran tactician who worked on Ronald Reagan's campaign. An ex-Marine wounded in the Middle East. The former voice of UFC cage-fighting. A golf caddie turned social media maestro. Meet Trump's election A-team, a tight, disciplined inner circle around the former president in his bid for the White House.
President Joe Biden will visit autoworkers in Michigan, where he is likely to face protests over his handling of the war in Gaza, after several leaders of the state's Arab-American community declined to meet his campaign team last week. For more election news and analysis, sign up to On the Campaign Trail.

Business & Markets

The Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged, after officials split three ways on the right course for policy and Governor Andrew Bailey wanted more evidence inflation would return permanently to target. Six out of nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep rates at a 15-year high of 5.25%.
Investors hoping for imminent rate cuts by the Federal Reserve received a sobering reminder of the US central bank's focus on fighting inflation, after Chairman Jerome Powell poured cold water on bets policymakers would lower borrowing costs in March.
Deutsche Bank will cut 3,500 jobs, buy back shares and pay dividends, in its latest pitch to investors that its turnaround remains on track. The news came as Germany's biggest bank, seeking to put years of turmoil behind it, reported a 30% drop in fourth-quarter profit that still beat analyst expectations.
Tesla will hold a shareholder vote to transfer its state of incorporation to Texas from Delaware, CEO Elon Musk said. On Tuesday, a Delaware judge invalidated his $56 billion pay package at the electric vehicle maker, calling it "an unfathomable sum" that was unfair to shareholders.
Nvidia has started taking pre-orders for a new China-specific AI chip from distributors who are pricing it on par with a rival product from Huawei, sources said. The graphics card, the H20, is the most powerful of three Nvidia has been developing for the Chinese market after the US expanded bans on chip exports.

The Wider Image

Babou Diouf, 46, a fisherman from Senegal, rolls up a fishing net on the Sarridal ship at the Cantabrian Sea. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Babou Diouf was part of a migration surge in 2006 from West Africa through Spain's Canary Islands, with more than 30,000 migrants fleeing poverty exacerbated by a dramatic plunge in coastal fish stocks.

Deprived of his livelihood in Senegal, Diouf ventured north. Today it is his fishing experience which has secured him a new life in Spain, where the EU's largest fishing fleet is recruiting foreigners to survive.

See our photo essay.

And Finally...

A Homo sapiens bone fragment from excavations at a cave site in the German town of Ranis. Tim Schuler/TLDA/Handout via REUTERS

Bone fragments unearthed in a cave in central Germany show that our species ventured into Europe's cold higher latitudes more than 45,000 years ago - much earlier than previously known - in a finding that rewrites the early history of Homo sapiens on a continent still inhabited then by our cousins the Neanderthals.

Read more here.

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