March 6, 2025

Good morning. We’re covering more U.S. halts in military aid to Ukraine and a Supreme Court ruling on President Trump’s foreign aid freeze.

Plus, the return of moviegoing in France.

Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbas region last month. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

How Trump’s halt on Ukraine aid could reshape the war

European leaders are set to meet in Brussels today to discuss how to support Ukraine and strengthen their own military capabilities. President Trump’s decision yesterday to halt U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine, on the heels of his pause on military aid shipments, could reorder the battlefield.

U.S. officials have suggested that the pause in weapons shipments and intelligence sharing could be relatively short-lived if Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, bends to White House demands.

My colleague Andrew Kramer, our Kyiv bureau chief, told me that “if Russia sees potential for quick military gains from a weakened Ukraine, the incentive for talks will diminish for Moscow.”

By halting U.S. assistance, Andrew added, Trump “is essentially asking Ukraine to agree to terms in advance, without knowing what they are.”

Without American-made weapons, Ukraine’s forces could start to buckle in as little as four months, analysts said. About 20 percent of Ukraine’s military hardware comes from the U.S. But that 20 percent “is the most lethal and important,” an expert said.

Fence-mending: To smooth things over with Trump after a clash at the White House last week, Zelensky is receiving some coaching from European leaders to get back in his good graces.

Russia: State-controlled television in the country is changing its tune: The U.S. isn’t so bad after all.

Demonstrators outside of the Capitol last month. Valerie Plesch for The New York Times

The Supreme Court weighed in on Trump’s aid freeze

The Supreme Court yesterday rejected President Trump’s request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid as part of his efforts to slash government spending. The vote, 5 to 4, moved the aid freeze decision back to a lower court, where a judge had said the Trump administration had offered no explanation for the blanket suspension of aid.

Two conservative justices joined the three liberal members of the Supreme Court to issue the ruling, one of the court’s first moves in response to Trump’s spending cuts. The fact that a majority of the court ruled against Trump on one of his signature projects suggests that he’ll have to face a more skeptical Supreme Court than its mostly conservative composition might indicate.

More on Trump Trump said he would pause tariffs on cars coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico for one month. Oil prices dropped as economic uncertainty over tariffs rippled through global markets. House Republicans accused the Democratic mayors of New York, Denver, Boston and Chicago of harboring criminal immigrants. Trump confidently told Greenlanders that he’d “make them rich.” They weren’t impressed. The president made a major address to Congress on Tuesday night. He celebrated his disruption of the government, but glossed over the costs. South Africa is preparing a new trade offer to present to Trump, hoping to ease boiling tensions with Washington. Track Trump’s actions since he took office.