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The prime minister has spoken of a “once in a generation moment” for the UK, US and Europe to work together and warned against NATO “divisions” – as two senior American officials head to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Sir Keir Starmer said the UK will “work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together” amid the threat faced from Russia.

His comments came after the Ukrainian president cautioned: “The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”

Earlier on Saturday, US officials confirmed Europe would not be involved in the upcoming peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Analysis: Peace talks risk short-term win that rewards Putin

Washington also sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in NATO,” said Sir Keir on Saturday night.

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“We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”

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Zelenskyy warns against the ‘danger’ of the Russian army

The French president is thought to be convening crisis talks between European leaders and NATO, which the prime minister will attend.

Sir Keir will then take messages from that meeting to Washington DC when he meets US President Donald Trump the week after, according to Downing Street sources.

During a talk at a security conference in Munich, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said he was “very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris” to discuss “in a very serious fashion” the challenges posed by Mr Trump.

Meanwhile, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff are thought to be going to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump said there had been an agreement to begin negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine, after holding phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian president alluded to the conversations at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, suggesting Europe should be playing a role in the negotiations as well.

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‘We need a European army’

“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement, and the same rule should apply to all of Europe,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

“The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”

He told world leaders it is time for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe”, adding his army was “not enough”.

Following his call with President Putin, Mr Trump posted on Truth Social saying: “We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.”

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‘Unlikely’ Ukraine gets old borders back

Mr Trump had told White House reporters he did not see any way “that a country in Russia’s position” could allow Ukraine to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get all of its occupied land back.

It comes after Sir Keir told Mr Zelenskyy in recent days that Ukraine was still on an “irreversible path” to joining NATO.

However, on Saturday, the US special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said peace talks could focus on territorial concessions from Russia and targeting Mr Putin’s oil revenues.

“Russia is really a petrostate,” he said as he suggested Western powers needed to do more to enforce sanctions on Russia.

Mr Zelenskyy said the main issue in peace talks was to “not allow everything to go according to Putin’s plan”.

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Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devs

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Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devs

Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devs

A coalition of crypto firms has urged Congress to press the Department of Justice to amend an “unprecedented and overly expansive” interpretation of laws that were used to charge the developers of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

A March 26 letter signed by 34 crypto companies and advocate groups sent to the Senate Banking Committee, House Financial Services Committee and the House and Senate judiciary committees said the DOJ’s take on unlicensed money-transmitting business means “essentially every blockchain developer could be prosecuted as a criminal.”

The letter — led by the DeFi Education Fund and signed by the likes of Kraken and Coinbase — added that the Justice Department’s interpretation “creates confusion and ambiguity” and “threatens the viability of U.S.-based software development in the digital asset industry.”

The group said the DOJ debuted its position “in August 2023 via criminal indictment” — the same time it charged Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Roman Semenov with money laundering.

Storm has been released on bail, has pleaded not guilty and wants the charges dropped. Semenov, a Russian national, is at large.

Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devs

Source: DeFi Education Fund

The DOJ has filed similar charges against Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, who have both pleaded not guilty.

The crypto group’s letter argued that two sections of the US Code define a “money transmitting business” — Title 31 section 5330, defining who must be licensed and Title 18 section 1960, which criminalizes operating unlicensed.

It added that 2019 guidance from the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) gave examples of what money-transmitting activities and said that “if a software developer never obtains possession or control over customer funds, that developer is not operating a ‘money transmitting business.’”

The letter argued that the DOJ had taken a position that the definition of a money transmitting business under section 5330 “is not relevant to determining whether someone is operating an unlicensed ‘money transmitting business’ under Section 1960” despite the “intentional similarity” in both sections and FinCEN’s guidance.

Related: Hester Peirce calls for SEC rulemaking to ‘bake in’ crypto regulation 

The group accused the DOJ of ignoring both FinCEN’s guidance and parts of the law to pursue its own interpretation of a money-transmitting business when it charged Storm and Semenov.

They said the result had seen “two separate US government agencies with conflicting interpretations of ‘money transmission’ — an unclear, unfair position for law-abiding industry participants and innovators.”

The letter said that if not addressed, the Justice Department’s interpretation would expose non-custodial software developers “within the reach of the U.S. to criminal liability.”

“The resulting, and very rational, fear among developers would effectively end the development of these technologies in the United States.”

In January, Michael Lewellen, a fellow of the crypto advocacy group Coin Center, sued Attorney General Merrick Garland to have his planned release of non-custodial software declared legal and to block the DOJ from using money transmitting laws to prosecute him.

Lewellen said the DOJ “has begun criminally prosecuting people for publishing similar cryptocurrency software,” which he claims extended the interpretation of money-transmitting laws “beyond what the Constitution allows.”

Magazine: Meet lawyer Max Burwick — ‘The ambulance chaser of crypto’  

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Resolution to kill IRS DeFi broker rule heads to Trump’s desk

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Resolution to kill IRS DeFi broker rule heads to Trump’s desk

Resolution to kill IRS DeFi broker rule heads to Trump’s desk

The US Senate has passed a resolution to kill a Biden administration-era rule to require decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report to the Internal Revenue Service, which will now head to US President Donald Trump’s desk.

On March 26, the Senate voted 70-28 to pass a motion repealing the so-called IRS DeFi broker rule that aimed to expand existing IRS reporting requirements to crypto.

The Senate had voted to pass the resolution earlier in March, which also passed the House, but it was sent back to the Senate for a final vote before it could be sent to Trump.

The White House’s AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, has said Trump supports killing the rule.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

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OBR slashes UK growth forecast for 2025 but upgrades it for rest of parliament

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OBR slashes UK growth forecast for 2025 but upgrades it for rest of parliament

The Office for Budget Responsibility has halved the UK growth forecast for 2025 from 2% to 1%, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.

However, the fiscal watchdog said that while growth has been downgraded for this year, it had been upgraded for every year after for the rest of this parliament – which is due to end in 2029.

The chancellor said she is “not satisfied with the numbers” for this year as she delivered her long-awaited spring statement in the House of Commons.

Politics latest: Follow live updates

But, she explained, the OBR has forecast growth to hit 1.9% in 2026, 1.8% in 2027, 1.7% in 2028, and 1.8% in 2029.

Some tough forecasts beyond headline figures

The independent forecaster also published its economic outlook on Wednesday, showing there’s a 54% chance the chancellor will not break her self-imposed fiscal rules to bring down government debt and balance the budget by 2030.

Living standards, as measured by household disposable income, will fall after this year to almost no growth in 2027-28 before rising again due to firms rebuilding profit margins, wage growth slowing, taxes rising, and welfare measures taking effect.

The OBR also raised its expectation for unemployment and net migration – the number of people immigrating to the UK minus those emigrating.

The unemployment rate, the percentage of people out of work, will rise to 4.5% this year. This is 0.4 percentage points or 160,000 people higher than first thought in the October forecast.

Net migration will fall sharply, the OBR said, due to a tightening of visa policies and higher levels of emigration. But the forecast has been upped by 25,000 since October as a higher share of immigrants are staying in the UK under the new migration system.

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The Chancellor said the OBR has downgraded the UK growth forecast for 2025 from 2% to 1%.

At the same time, there will be a reduction in people neither in work nor looking for work due to a reduction in caring as birth rates fall and childcare provision is expanded.

But there are also fewer people in this position, classed as “economically inactive” than previously thought, the OBR said. The government launched its welfare cuts in an effort to reduce this economic inactivity.

Further cuts are to come, the OBR said, as “unprotected” government departments such as local government justice, the environment, Home Office and culture may need to be cut by 0.8% a year from 2026-27 “to accommodate assumed commitments in other areas”.

Prices overall will go up even higher than initially anticipated, according to the OBR, which now forecasts inflation will rise to 3.8% in July due to higher energy, food and water bills. This will fall rapidly, however, from next year.

‘No shortcuts to growth’

Ms Reeves told MPs: “There are no shortcuts to economic growth. It will take long-term decisions. It will take hard yards. It will take time for the reforms we are introducing to be felt in the everyday economy.

“It is right that the Office for Budget Responsibility consider the evidence and look carefully at measures before recognising a growth impact in their forecast.”

The chancellor pointed to changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, saying mandatory housing targets and bringing “grey belt” land into scope for development will “permanently increase the level of real GDP by 0.2% by 2029-30”.

This will bring an “additional £6.8bn in our economy and by 0.4% of GDP within the next 10 years”, she said.

Ms Reeves also highlighted reforms to the pension system and a national wealth fund, adding it was part of a “serious plan” for economic growth.

Also announced in the spring statement today:

  • The budget will move from a deficit of £36.1bn in 2025/26 and £13.4bn in 2026/27, to a surplus of £6bn in 2027/28, £7.1bn in 2028/29 and £9.9bn in 2029/30;
  • The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates Labour’s cuts to the welfare budget will save £4.8bn, with changes going further than initially thought;
  • Reeves says the health element of universal credit will be cut by half and frozen for new claimants;
  • There are no more tax rises today, but the chancellor claims she’ll raise an extra billion pounds by cracking down more on tax evasion;
  • Day-to-day spending will be protected, other than the aid budget, with spending increasing above inflation every year;
  • The defence budget will get a £2.2bn boost for next year, paving the way for spending eventually hitting 2.5% of GDP;
  • House building will hit a 40-year-high thanks to Labour’s planning reforms.

The chancellor confirmed that a voluntary redundancy scheme is set to launch for civil servants as part of her mission to “make government leaner”. She said this will deliver £3.5bn in “day-to-day savings by 2029-30”.

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Ed Conway examines chancellor’s numbers

Political reaction

Shortly afterwards, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Labour of financial “chaos”.

She said the spring statement was “all smoke and mirrors”, adding: “I remember the last budget when Rachel Reeves said she was smashing glass ceilings, now it feels like the roof is falling over all our heads.”

A handful of Labour MPs were unimpressed with the moves around welfare, with Debbie Abrahams – the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth – claiming “all the evidence points to cuts in welfare leading to severe poverty and worsened health conditions”.

An impact assessment into Labour’s welfare reforms, which include narrowing the eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP), found there could be an additional 250,000 people in “relative poverty” by 2030 due to the changes.

Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, said “taking away the personal independence payments” from disabled people is an “especially cruel choice”.

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