WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
US intelligence, Chinese sabre-rattling, and the end of El Salvador's bitcoin dream

 
today's europe story

US stops sharing intelligence on Russia with Ukraine

What happened
The US has suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine just two days after Donald Trump paused military assistance to the country.

Who said what
"We are pausing, assessing, looking at everything across our security relationship," National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told CBS News.

The suspension represents "another serious blow to Kyiv in the war with Russia", said The Guardian. The loss of intelligence will hinder Ukraine's ability to carry out long-range drone strikes and prevent its military from seeing the movements of Russian strategic bombers and the launches of ballistic missiles.

Trump's decision to pause military assistance and intelligence sharing could "re-order the battlefield", said The New York Times, either "halting the fight or potentially giving Russia a decisive advantage".

Trump administration officials have suggested that the pause in support could be relatively short-lived if Volodymyr Zelenskyy "bends to the demands of the White House", added The New York Times.

What next?
Waltz has projected optimism on the state of talks since Zelenskyy issued a statement yesterday praising Trump's "strong leadership" and saying that he is ready to negotiate peace. The Ukrainian president's top aide, Andriy Yermak, said officials from both nations had agreed to meet "in the near future".

According to James Waterhouse on the BBC, Zelenskyy's apparent willingness to sign a mineral deal without the security guarantees he had been hoping for suggests that he has now "run out of political road".

 
 
today's Asia story

China says it is ready for 'any type of war' with US

What happened
As China's leaders gathered in Beijing for the annual National People's Congress, the country has warned the US that it is ready to fight "any type" of war in the wake of Donald Trump's growing trade tariffs.

Who said what
The world's top two economies "have edged closer to a trade war", said the BBC, after Trump increased tariffs on China from 10% to 20%. China retaliated by imposing a 15% tariff on American agricultural goods.

"If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we're ready to fight 'til the end," said the Chinese embassy in Washington on X, repeating a line from a government statement on Tuesday.

What next?
The threat comes as China said it would boost its defence spending by 7.2% this year. President Xi Jinping aims to complete a "full military modernisation by 2035", said The Independent, with the country developing new missiles, ships, submarines and surveillance technologies.

 
 
Today's justice story

Pregnant offenders could avoid jail

What happened
Campaigners have hailed new sentencing guidelines under which pregnant women will be spared jail in all but "unavoidable" cases. The new measures from the Sentencing Council for England and Wales will also advise against the imprisonment of mothers of children under the age of one.

Who said what
Janey Starling of campaign group Level Up welcomed the "landmark measures", telling The Guardian they "clear the path for statutory sentencing reform".

Calling it a "seismic change", No Births Behind Bars campaigner Liz Forrester said the move "finally" recognised that prison could have a "deadly impact" on pregnant women and babies. The Royal College of Midwives had previously said that prison was "no place for pregnant women".

What next?
The guidance comes into force on 1 April and is expected to make a "significant difference" to the number of pregnant women given jail sentences, added The Guardian.

 
 

It's not all bad

Four wild beavers have been set free at Purbeck Heath in Dorset, marking England's first legal release in more than 400 years. The National Trust says the species will boost biodiversity by creating wetland habitats. Transported from Scotland by the Beaver Trust, the animals were set free in Little Sea, a 33-hectare lake. Conservationists hope this trial will lead to further releases, noting that beavers improve water quality, reduce flooding and can help attract nature tourism.

 
 
under the radar

The collapse of El Salvador's bitcoin dream

In 2021, El Salvador caught the world's attention by becoming the first country to make cryptocurrency legal tender, alongside the US dollar.

Last December, as the price of bitcoin broke through $100,000 (£77,765) for the first time, President Nayib Bukele posted on social media that the Central American nation's crypto holdings had more than doubled in value.

But now – as the price for securing a $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) loan deal from the International Monetary Fund – the country has had to roll back its controversial bitcoin policies.

Salvadoran businesses are now free to decide whether or not to accept bitcoin, and taxes are no longer payable in the cryptocurrency. "The potential risks of the bitcoin project will be diminished significantly, in line with fund policies," said the IMF. Effectively, bitcoin's days as legal tender in El Salvador are over.

Bukele's embrace of bitcoin was part of an attempt to "rebrand the tiny and impoverished" nation as a "surfing and cryptocurrency paradise", said the Financial Times. El Salvador is still "a focal point for the global bitcoin community", said Forbes. But the mood is now "somewhat subdued" among crypto enthusiasts, one local journalist told the news site.

Yet bitcoin's "demotion may be more of a blessing than a concession", said The Economist, with Crypto having brought El Salvador "more costs than benefits". Overall, the policy has cost $375 million (£291 million), according to estimates by rating agency Moody's.

Bukele's "obsession with cryptocurrency has done little to ease El Salvador's economic woes", added the magazine. He is "just the latest crypto-utopian to see his wild ideas dissolve on contact with reality".

 
 
on this day

6 March 1924

The Egyptian government opened the mummy case of Tutankhamen, the ancient pharaoh whose burial chamber had been discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter two years prior. Last month archaeologists found the last undiscovered royal tomb of the so-called Boy King's dynasty: that belonging to King Thutmose II.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The Guardian calls Donald Trump's decision to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine "another serious blow" to Kyiv. The Times leads with a warning from a Ukrainian MP that "more people will die" after the US cuts. There's a "new two-tier justice fiasco", says the Daily Mail, reporting on planned changes to sentencing guidelines, which would ask judges to consider whether an offender is from a minority when deciding whether to impose a custodial sentence. 

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Words on the street

Residents in Florida's Miami-Dade County could soon find themselves walking down Chase Dis Money St under a plan to honour Miami-born rap and hip-hop artists. Local politician Keon Hardemon has called for streets in the Liberty City neighbourhood to be renamed with lyrics and titles from home-grown musicians in order to create a tourist attraction. After an hour-long debate, Miami-Dade commissioners were split on the idea and will vote again at their next meeting.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, Ross Couzens, and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Marian Femenias-Moratinos.

Image credits, from top: Sergey Shestak / AFP / Getty Images; Kevin Frayer / Getty Images; Martin Pope / Sopa Images / LightRocket / Getty Images; Illustration by Marian Femenias-Moratinos / Getty Images.