Switzerland appears to have rejected capping the population at 10m people, with 55% voting against the radical proposal, a projection by public broadcaster SRF showed bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Fair play, #Qatar well done

NEW: Bloomberg Saturday read — Andy Burnham is planning to move quickly after Makerfield to secure a coronation. His supporters think John Healey’s resignation kills off Keir Starmer’s chances of survival. They think Wes Streeting and Al Carns don’t have the numbers, and that Burnham can quickly get 250 Labour MPs and most of the cabinet to back him. — Starmer insists he’ll fight, but the question is what the cabinet does. Burnham’s supporters want them to tell the PM to agree a handover. Before Healey resigned, Starmer’s allies hoped he could battle on because most of the cabinet would back him to stay. Aides suggest the calculus is changing and Healey’s brutal exit makes it more likely they tell Starmer it’s over. — Even Starmer loyalists are very critical of the PM. They wish he’d been bolder, found the defence money from welfare, net zero or elsewhere, and sacked Ed Miliband. Several allies say they can’t believe Miliband and Shabana Mahmood (who they say privately plotted with Burnham and Miliband to oust Starmer) are still in the cabinet, but Healey isn’t. One says that’s the final evidence of his lack of authority, political judgment and decision-making ability. — Starmer’s relationship with Rachel Reeves has been tested to the limit. Her resistance led Starmer to renege on his Munich speech and overrule Healey and Jonathan Powell. She effectively buried his survival strategy of focusing on security. Reeves allies argue it’s her job to make the numbers add up and if Starmer wanted more money for defence he could have imposed more departmental cuts but was unwilling. — Burnham will not keep Reeves on as his chancellor, despite her allies pitching her to stay. Reappointing her would not be the change he’s promising, one Burnham supporter says. They say they spoke to Reeves around the locals and came away believing she would help them persuade Starmer to go, but she didn’t follow through. — The turmoil is rattling UK allies. European diplomats contacted British counterparts in recent days complaining about the uncertainty over the UK’s defence spending plans, the slow pace of the uplift and Healey’s departure. They’ve also asked for information about Burnham’s plans for foreign policy and defence but got no answer. — If Burnham does become PM he’ll face the same problems. His critics say he’s never uttered a word of substance on defence or foreign policy, shows no interest in it and has no plan. It is not impossible that in the next few months the British PM has to join negotiations with Putin over Ukraine. “Can you imagine Burnham doing that?” asks one official, especially with Powell likely to leave with Starmer. — Starmer’s chaos also distracted from what might otherwise have been a bad week for Burnham. He got away with his WASPI gaffe thanks to Healey. Labour MPs are also critical of his plans on immigration. One aide said his proposal to end asylum hotel contracts and move responsibility for housing migrants to local authorities is amateurish and toxic. — It all leaves Labour MPs in a state of total despair. Starmer looks finished but Burnham has no obvious plan and keeps making basic mistakes that foreshadow another troubled premiership, one said. If Burnham loses Makerfield, Labour appears to have no other options. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Germany looks for new partners after collapse of jet project bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via @mcnienaber

NEW: Fascinating analysis by Bloomberg @economics on what rolling back Brexit would mean for the UK economy Our economists’ central estimate is that the long-term hit to the British economy caused by leaving the EU is 2.5% of GDP That’s lower than some previous estimates but still about £30 billion in forgone annual tax revenue But they find closer relations with the EU would only deliver a limited long-term recovery Rejoining the customs union would add 0.4 percentage points to GDP A Swiss-style arrangement would add 0.8 percentage points Joining the single market for goods (rejected by the EU) would add 1.2 percentage points So as Labour debates its EU policy, this analysis suggests closer ties would provide a boost but hardly a silver bullet By @PhilAldrick @DanHanson41 >> bloomberg.com/news/features/…

Voters in Armenia go to the polls in parliamentary elections Sunday that will determine whether Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan can secure a mandate for a sweeping reorientation of the country toward Europe amid surging tensions with Russia bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

NEW: MI5 and Five Eyes partner agencies have just issued what they say is an unprecedented joint warning about attempts by Chinese spies to use LinkedIn to recruit Western assets

EXCLUSIVE with @AlbertoNardelli Ukraine’s key European allies are working on plans with Kyiv to engage Russia in negotiations to end the war as they see a shift in momentum strengthening President Zelenskyy’s position E3 officials (from the UK, France and Germany) and Ukraine have been discussing the possibility of holding talks involving both sides, according to people familiar with the matter With US-led negotiations stalled and Russian forces suffering mounting losses on the battlefield, the three nations see an opportunity to potentially bring Putin to the table, the people said Adding to the pressure on the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces have had increasing success with drone strikes deep inside Russia and there are some signs of resistance to Putin’s at the highest levels in Moscow By negotiating now, the allies would aim to avoid another winter that will likely see Russia intensify its attacks on civilians and energy infrastructure as Putin seeks to undermine the Ukrainian morale The people stressed that any final decision on whether to proceed with attempts to talk to Russia was for Zelenskyy and that European nations will not push the Ukrainian president to embrace a strategy he didn’t agree with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz are expected to speak in the coming days, the people said Starmer spoke to Zelensky tonight. A No10 spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister said the UK stood four-square behind Ukraine and would work in lockstep alongside President Zelenskyy and international partners to secure a just and lasting peace for the Ukrainian people.” Critics of the idea of engaging with Russia now, including some officials from so-called E3 nations, argue that it isn’t the time for talks with Moscow as Putin has shown no sign of being serious about negotiations and continues to harbor maximalist demands, including that Ukraine cede unoccupied territory bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Bloomberg News exclusive: Vladimir Putin has been told by senior Russian officials that the war in Ukraine is becoming unaffordable, the most serious sign of internal division in Moscow since the full-scale invasion began bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

RT @BelTel: As the case of Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife Eleanor gets under way this week, @SJAMcBride explains why you can't comment on i…

Pope Leo says AI should be "disarmed" to protect humanity in his new encyclical letter Magnifica Humanitas. "To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern." vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/e…

Great piece on the ground in Makerfield by @JacobReid02: bloomberg.com/news/features/…

RT @DNIGabbard: Today, with great humility and sincere appreciation, I shared the below letter with President Trump. It has been a profound…

As evidenced by the unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity, we are truly experiencing an eclipse of the sense of what it means to be human. It is imperative to recover an understanding of the true meaning and grandeur of humanity as intended by God. It is in this sense that the challenge we currently face is not technological, but anthropological, and it is my hope that the Encyclical Letter to be published within a few days will contribute to answering this challenge.

Good morning, Americas. Here’s what you need to know to start your day: Jamie Dimon chooses his words carefully on AI; Bill Winters may be regretting his. And Batman is trying to escape from a warehouse in Mississippi bloomberg.com/news/newslette…

Breaking News: Two officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sued to block the creation of the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion fund that would reward rioters and groups that committed violence on behalf of President Trump. nyti.ms/4v3rirl

The Financial Times reports that during his talks with Xi Jinping Donald Trump floated the idea that the US, China and Russia should co-operate against the International Criminal Court.

EXCLUSIVE: The EU is preparing to rubber-stamp the terms and conditions underpinning the bloc’s €90 billion loan to Ukraine early next week, two EU officials told POLITICO. 🔗 politico.eu/article/ukraine-…

A Russian court ordered the Euroclear clearinghouse to pay €200 billion ($233 billion) to the nation’s central bank, according to Interfax, in a suit related to the EU’s freeze of Russian assets. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…