What to Know About Franklin Richards, Sue Storm and Reed Richards’ Baby in Fantastic Four

The new Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer reveals the quite literal meaning behind the film’s title: Sue Storm and Reed Richards, two of the Fantastic Four team members, are expecting a baby. In the comics, the couple has two children, Franklin and Veleria. It will perhaps come as no surprise that these children are born with superpowers. So this could be the introduction of yet another set of superheroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

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Here’s what you need to know about Marvel’s First Family, little baby Franklin’s role in the Fantastic Four, and what his arrival means for the MCU.

Read more: All the Future MCU Movies Announced in Marvel’s Major Revamp

The premise of Fantastic Four: First Steps

Previous spots for the new Fantastic Four movie revealed that the film will not be an origin story. It is set years after the Fantastic Four—Reed Richards, his wife Sue Storm, her brother Johnny Storm, and their friend Ben Grimm—travel into space, encounter radiation, and return to earth with superpowers. Reed (played by Pedro Pascal) becomes the ultra-stretchy Mr. Fantastic; Sue (Vanessa Kirby) becomes the Invisible Woman; Johnny (Joseph Quinn) becomes the Human Torch; and Ben (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) transforms into an ultra-strong rocky creature called simply the Thing. In their universe (one that presumably runs parallel to the universe in which Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man exist), they serve as Earth’s only superheroes.

Early in the new trailer, Sue announces that she is pregnant and reassures Reed that they can raise a family together despite their superhero responsibilities. Johnny and Ben celebrate the fact that they’ll get to be fun uncles.

Then a villain named the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) shows up to inform the Fantastic Four that their planet is “marked for destruction.” The Silver Surfer traditionally heralds the coming of Galactus, a cosmic entity who consumes planets. Reed, a scientist and one of the smartest men in the world, desperately scribbles out calculations trying to find a way to save the planet. We see the Fantastic Four team don space suits, presumably headed into the cosmos to find or fight either the Silver Surfer or Galactus himself.

Will Franklin arrive in First Steps?

Given the title of the film, I think we may just see little Franklin’s—ahem—first steps. The baby is not featured in the trailer. But Sue is visibly pregnant when the Silver Surfer first arrives and does not seem to be in later fight scenes in the trailer. It’s a reasonable assumption that Sue will give birth to their elder child, Franklin, at some point in the movie. In another shot, Reed and Sue are seen gazing into an empty crib, presumably in preparation for Franklin’s arrival.

The Fantastic Four are known as Marvel’s First Family. Their whole deal is that they care for one another not as coworkers or a team but as siblings. With the arrival of a baby, the stakes of those familial responsibilities become much higher, especially considering Galactus may destroy the planet before Franklin reaches his first milestones. Still, we’re confident the baby will not only survive this movie but play a role in the future Marvel films.

Franklin’s powers and role in the MCU

Franklin is a very powerful little toddler in the comic books. Like Scarlett Witch and Jean Grey, Franklin has the powers of telekinesis and telepathy. Intriguingly, Agatha Harkness—who is portrayed by Kathryn Hahn in WandaVision—acts as Franklin’s nanny for awhile.

Marvel has announced two future Avengers films, Avengers: Doomsday starring traditional Fantastic Four nemesis Doctor Doom as the main villain, and Avengers: Secret Wars. (In a twist, Doom will be played by Robert Downey Jr. who famously kicked off the MCU as Iron Man before that character sacrificed his life to save the world in Avengers: Endgame. He will presumably play a Doom who hails from a parallel universe to the one where our Iron Man exists.)

The Fantastic Four cast is confirmed to appear in Doomsday—frankly it would be odd if Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Doom didn’t face off in the film given their long history as nemeses in the comics. Without spoiling the potential plots of Doomsday or Secret Wars, we’ll just tease that Franklin plays a significant role in the Secret Wars storyline in the comic books. So expect him to not only pop up but perhaps flex his powers in those upcoming films.

As for First Steps, it’s unlikely we’ll see infant Franklin battle Galactus—though who knows? After all, baby Jack-Jack took on the villain in The Incredibles all by himself and won.

source https://time.com/7278536/fantastic-four-franklin-richards-sue-storm-reed-richards-baby/

What to Know About Scientists Potentially Discovering Hints of Life On A Distant Planet

A team of astronomers have found what they claim are the most promising—but also tentative—signs of possible life on a distant planet.

The research, which was published in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters, was led by the University of Cambridge and was based on data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers detected chemical fingerprints of at least one, if not two, molecules—dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS)—in the atmosphere of K2-18b, a planet outside of our solar system, 124 light years away from Earth. Like Earth, this planet orbits its star in the habitable zone—an area around a star where planets with liquid water on their surfaces may exist.

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“On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton,” a Cambridge press release said. “While an unknown chemical process may be the source of these molecules in K2-18b’s atmosphere, the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.”

According to the press release, there’s a 0.3% probability that these findings were a statistical fluke. That’s not a small enough chance to reach the standard required to claim a scientific discovery—for that, there would have to be below a 0.00006% probability they occurred by chance.

K2-18b has a mass 8.6 times that of Earth’s, and the planet is 2.6 times as large as Earth. Scientists have had their eye on this planet for a few years now. In 2023, researchers said they found evidence of methane and carbon dioxide in K2-18b’s atmosphere—the first time that carbon-based molecules were detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system in the habitable zone.

While astronomers said the latest results are “exciting,” they stressed that additional research needs to be conducted before making the bold claim that life has been found on another planet.

“It’s important that we’re deeply sceptical of our own results, because it’s only by testing and testing again that we will be able to reach the point where we’re confident in them,” Nikku Madhusudhan, a professor at Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy who led the research, said in the university’s press release. “That’s how science has to work.”

source https://time.com/7278554/what-to-know-about-k2-18b-planet-signs-of-life/

How K-Drama Resident Playbook Reflects the Stark Reality of a Medical System in Crisis

When South Korean broadcaster tvN greenlit medical drama Resident Playbook, in 2023, it probably seemed like a sure fire hit. The K-drama, now on Netflix, is a spinoff of the mega-popular series Hospital Playlist, cast talented up-and-comer Go Youn-jung (Alchemy of Souls, Sweet Home) in the lead role, and has Kim Song-hee (assistant writer for the critically acclaimed Reply 1988 series) at its helm.

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Then, a medical crisis shook South Korea, fracturing the social contract between doctors, the government, and the public. The release date of the new drama, which filmed in late 2023 and was originally slated to debut on Netflix in March 2024, was pushed back. It was unclear how releasing a series focused on resident physicians would play in a tense political climate in which trainee doctors were resigning en masse in protest of the government’s proposed plan for bolstering the health care system.

A year later, Resident Playbook has finally debuted. Its first two episodes are now streaming on Netflix, with new episodes coming every Saturday and Sunday through May 18. Here’s what to know about the series and how it reflects the stark reality of South Korea’s medical system.

What is Resident Playbook about?

Resident Playbook is set at the fictional Jongno Yulje Medical Center, a different branch of the university hospital seen in Hospital Playlist. While Hospital Playlist is about a group of established doctors who first became friends (and bandmates) in medical school, Resident Playbook follows a group of Gen Z junior doctors who are just beginning their residencies in the underserved fields of obstetrics and gynecology.

Go stars as Oh I-yeong, an ex-rich kid whose family has gone bankrupt, leaving her 50 million won (roughly $35,000) in debt. With no other choice but to get a job, Oh returns to medicine, a field she previously flunked out of, helped by her doctor boyfriend Ku Do-won (Little Forest’s Jung Joon-won), who also works at Yulje. Oh is joined by former high school classmate Pyo Nam-gyeong (The Witch Part 2’s Shin Shi-ah), K-pop idol turned doctor Um Jae-il (When Life Gives You Tangerine’s Kang Yoo-seok), and socially awkward top student Kim Sa-bi (Han Ye-ji, in her debut role). 

How Resident Playbook portrays medical training

When not in crisis, South Korea has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, as judged by healthiness of population and access to healthcare. Doctors there are generally respected and well-paid. In a 2023 survey, more than 60% of Korean office workers between the ages of 19 and 59 said they hope their children will go to med school in the future. The number one reason stated was because of the “stability” of the job.

We meet Resident Playbook’s main characters just as they are beginning their residencies, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, or OB-GYN. By this point in their careers, the residents have made it almost all the way through an extremely competitive medical training process, completing a six-year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (or 의학사) program, a year-long internship where they try out different specialties, and passing major exams to land in a residency. 

Doctors will take a specialist exam during the fourth year of their residency. If they pass, they will be qualified in that field. Some doctors do additional fellowship training for more specialized fields and/or to become a professor, like the main characters in Hospital Playlist.

Read more: The Best Medical TV Shows to Watch After The Pitt

Why are South Korea’s resident doctors striking?

Due to a fast-aging population and a relatively low number of doctors per capita (2.6 per 1,000 people), the country faces a projected shortage of around 15,000 healthcare professionals by 2035. The doctor shortage has already begun to impact medical accessibility in rural regions, and in essential specialties, such as pediatrics, obstetrics, thoracic surgery, and emergency medicine.

After a decade or more of grueling studying and training, doctors tend to prioritize paths that are stable, high-paying, and offer better working conditions. Doctors working in essential medical care deal with more life-or-death related health care, which comes with higher risk of litigation in a country that has disproportionately high rates of criminal charges for medical errors. Pay and working conditions in these essential fields tend to be lower, especially compared to high-paying, lower-risk aesthetic medicines, such as dermatology.

In February 2024, President Yoon released a policy plan to address the doctor shortage. This plan included an increase to the annual number of medical school slots by 65%, from 3,000 to 5,058, beginning in 2025. In response, more than 10,000 of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors resigned. In a show of solidarity, more than 5,000 medical students requested leaves of absence. The mass resignations disrupted medical access, and had the government considering legal recourse. The Korean Medical Association (KMA), an organization that represents roughly two-thirds of the country’s doctors, backed up the collective action with threats of “an indefinite strike” if the government sought retaliation against the residents and interns. 

Doctors and medical students argue that the government’s proposed plan will not address the deeper systemic issues in care access and quality, and that the rapid increase in medical student population will degrade the quality of education and training. The disagreement between the government and the medical community represents a deeper fracturing of trust between the two entities, further complicated by President Yoon’s impeachment and the unexpected political transition that has come with it.

How Resident Playbook reflects an ongoing medical crisis

Resident Playbook was written and filmed before South Korea’s current medical crisis began. But its story is broadly informed by the systemic conditions that have led to the stalemate between the medical community and the government.

As we learn in the first episode, Oh I-yeong is embarking on a medical residency for a second time. While the details surrounding her previous departure from medicine have not yet been revealed, it is implied that she was able to secure a residency spot at Jongno Yulje Medical Center in part because she is working in the unpopular OB-GYN field.

The second episode of the series sees all four main characters strongly considering quitting their residencies, almost immediately worn down by the grueling labor conditions. The long, hectic hours represented on the show are accurate to real-life residents’ working conditions. 

While Korean labor law dictates that workers can work a maximum of 52 hours per week, medical interns and residents can legally work up to 88 hours per week and up to 36-hour shifts. In reality, some trainee doctors work over 100 hours per week. Trainee doctors constitute 30% to 45% of the physician workforce in major teaching hospitals, part of a system that relies on resident and interns’ cheap labor to offset the low reimbursement rates set by the government’s single-payer National Health Insurance System.

While Resident Playbook sees its characters reassured once they receive their first paycheck, trainee doctors earn around $2,250 to $2,900 per month, including overtime pay. With the long hours, the hourly rate can dip below minimum wage. This reality plays a role in interns and residents’ strong opposition to Yoon’s healthcare reform proposal, as they want this long standing issue of trainee doctors’ labor conditions and government-set low reimbursement rates to be adequately addressed before medical school quotas are increased.

Resident Playbook’s global ratings

The timing of Resident Playbook’s release during the ongoing medical crisis has not deterred viewers—the series earned solid ratings on tvN. The first episode earned a 3.68% rating, according to Nielsen Korean. It was the highest rated show in its time slot. While Resident Playbook’s premiere rating is lower than Hospital Playlist’s 6.3% premiere rating in 2020, it is higher than the 1.7% premiere rating earned by The Potato Lab, which previously held the time slot.

Globally, Resident Playbook has found success on Netflix, where it is currently in the Global Top Ten, at the time of this writing. It rose to the Korea Top Ten on Netflix within two days of its launch. 

source https://time.com/7278386/resident-playbook-netflix-medical-k-drama/

What to Know About the U.K. Supreme Court Transgender Women Ruling

The U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Wednesday that transgender women do not fall under the legal category of “women” in their equality legislation, adding to the mounting rollback of protections for trans people across the globe.

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The court’s decision clarified that the term “sex” in Britain’s 2010 Equality Act only applies to “biological women” or “biological sex.” Such exclusion of transgender women from the Equality Act is set to impact transgender women’s access to women-only services and spaces, including charities, sports, hospitals, and more.

The Scottish government had argued last November that transgender people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC)—a document that allows a transgender person to have their gender legally recognized in the U.K.—are protected under the law. (A GRC, for instance, allows people to update their birth certificate or update their marriage or civil partnership certificate.)

Lord Patrick Hodge, Deputy President of the Supreme Court in the U.K., said that the ruling was not a victory for either side, as the law still protects transgender people against discrimination and harassment due to gender reassignment. Expanding the definition of “sex” in the Act to include transgender people, however, would give them “greater rights,” Hodge said while mentioning pregnancy and maternity leave.

The anti-trans J.K. Rowling-backed group For Women Scotland—which spearheaded the lengthy legal battle and believes there are only two sexes—called the decision a “victory for women’s rights.”

“There’s absolute clarity in law regarding what a woman is,” Trina Budge, director of For Women Scotland told Sky News following the ruling. “When we see a women-only space it means exactly that. Just women, no men, not even if they have a gender recognition certificate.”

Trans activists say the court’s decision emphasizes the broader scope of the anti-trans movement. “By ruling that the U.K.’s Equality Act’s definition of woman excludes trans women, the decision will likely boost American efforts to narrow legal concepts of gender—both legally and through regulations,” said Imara Jones, CEO of TransLash Media, a news organization whose coverage focuses on transgender people. “No doubt we will see the U.K. ruling cited in court cases and state legislatures in the United States and ultimately before the Supreme Court.”

The targeting of trans rights is already acutely felt across the Atlantic, where state legislators in the U.S. have introduced a record number of anti-trans bills over the past few years. President Donald Trump doubled down on such efforts on his first day in office this year, issuing an Executive Order saying that the federal government would only recognize two sexes, which must align with their sex assigned at birth. The move barred transgender people from updating their gender marker on federal documents such as a passport.

The Administration has also limited transgender women from playing on sports teams that align with their gender and attempted to bar gender-affirming-care for minors, the latter of which is at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling expected to come down this summer.

At least one British politician has called on the U.K. to similarly follow suit regarding some of those policies. “Now – let’s keep men out of women’s sports and spaces,” wrote Parliament Member Rupert Lowe on X Wednesday. “We must prioritise safety over inclusivity, dignity over wokery, reality over ideology.” In May 2024, the National Health Service (NHS) of England decided that puberty blocker medications will no longer be available for trans youth because they claimed there was a lack of evidence in support of such medication. By contrast, every major medical association in the U.S. has vouched for the benefits of gender-affirming-care.

Amnesty International U.K. called Wednesday’s decision “disappointing.”

But despite parallels between both the U.S. and the U.K., there are existing distinctions between each regarding legal protections for the trans community. As Amnesty International U.K. noted, trans people still have protections in the U.K. under the “gender reassignment” category of the Equality Act.

Meanwhile, “the United States Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County—and lower courts have repeatedly affirmed—that our federal sex discrimination laws extend to transgender people,” Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign told TIME in an emailed statement. “Today’s ruling does not change the fact that trans women are women, that trans men are men, and that they deserve to be recognized and protected for who they are. That was true yesterday, and it will be true tomorrow.”

source https://time.com/7278363/what-to-know-uk-supreme-court-transgender-women-ruling/

How Trump Could Boost Deep-Sea Mining

The Trump Administration is reportedly considering an executive order that would enable the stockpiling of metals mined from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The prospect comes as the administration looks to become less reliant on other countries for critical minerals like copper, cobalt, and lithium. 

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Nations are currently negotiating a “road map” that would govern any potential deep-sea mining in international waters. If the U.S. were to move forward with plans to support mining in the Pacific Ocean, it would do so without the approval of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the intergovernmental agency which has jurisdiction over mining in the high seas. The Metals Company, a Canadian mining firm, disclosed last month that it is working with the Trump Administration to potentially gain authorization from the U.S. to mine in international waters—bypassing international approval. The Trump Administration, however, has not publicly confirmed this.

What is deep-sea mining?

Deep-sea mining is the process of extracting metals and minerals—including nickel, cobalt, and copper—from the sea floor. The minerals are found in several places, including hydrothermal vents on the sea floor, as well as in different mineral deposits such as polymetallic nodules, which look like a sort of rock, and ferromanganese crusts which are found on seamounds. Once the minerals are extracted, they are processed on land.

Countries are able to pursue mining projects in their own exclusive economic zones, which extend 200 nautical miles outside their shorelines, but the most sought-after resources are in international waters. For decades, the ISA has been working to regulate the seabed ungoverned by national jurisdictions, known as “the Area.” The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982, laid out the jurisdiction of international waters, and regulated mineral activity. Currently, the ISA has not authorized mining, though the agency has issued more than 30 exploratory contracts meant to explore mineral content, test equipment, and examine potential environmental impacts.

Are countries pursuing deep-sea mining?

In recent years, as global demand for critical minerals continues to rise thanks to new electronic devices and a burgeoning clean energy industry, the ISA has faced mounting pressure to finalize regulation on commercial mining in international waters. In 2021, the Pacific Island nation of Nauru informed the ISA that it planned to begin mining in international waters, triggering a “two-year rule” that would require the ISA to “consider” and “provisionally approve” applications to mine within two years of the notification. The ISA did not finalize rules when the time elapsed in 2023, and extended the deadline to this year. No country has mined in the high seas, but several countries, including Brazil, China, and the Cook Islands are supportive of deep-sea mining in their own economic zones.

The U.S. has not signed on to UNCLOS—though it has typically followed it. In 1980, Congress enacted the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, which was meant to provide a framework for deep-seabed mining until the U.S. could formally adopt the U.N. treaty. But now, with the Trump Administration poised to potentially fast track mining contracts, it could circumvent international law. The Department of Commerce has the authority to give permits and licenses for companies to pursue deep-sea mining on the high seas.

“It does so ignoring the fact that the International Seabed Authority under the Law of the Sea Treaty also has a framework for giving nations permission and the ability to mine all the high seas,” says Jeff Watters, vice president of external affairs at Ocean Conservancy. “If [the U.S.] were to pursue things under this law, it does so unilaterally, as if the Law of the Sea Treaty wasn’t out there. So it’s a potential for setting up a crash between interests if you’ve got the U.S. pursuing mining.”

Why might the U.S. be interested in deep-sea mining?

The Financial Times reports that the Trump Administration’s stockpile plan is part of a larger push to fast-track deep-sea mining applications under U.S. law, as demand for critical minerals surges, largely to meet the global growth of clean energy. Minerals like copper, cobalt, and nickel are needed for many emerging technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines.

“The drive for critical minerals and the supply chain pinch points globally that we all experienced over the last several years kind of has highlighted for many people, the critical nature of a number of materials that many technologies are highly dependent upon, and the limited supply chains that currently exist,” says Watters. 

Deep-sea mining, however, may not be the only way the U.S. hopes to ramp up its mineral supply. The Trump Administration has also declared its intent to seize control of Greenland—rich in minerals like zinc and graphite—and push for a deal that would give the U.S. a major stake in Ukraine’s natural resources.

What are the environmental risks? 

Deep-sea mining comes with environmental risks—much of which is still unknown.

“​​It’s important to note that we have not currently assessed whether all of the potential environmental risks are indeed actual risks, as the research on the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining is still in its infancy,” Jessica Fitzsimmons, a chemical oceanographer at Texas A&M University, said in an email to Time. She adds that not enough research has been done on how deep-sea mining might impact the ocean’s role in absorbing a quarter of all current carbon dioxide emissions.

In light of the unknown impacts, more than 30 governments have called for a moratorium on the practice, saying that there is not enough information on the risks. 

Mining could cause harm to wildlife—including species we don’t currently know about. “Most of them are still undescribed, and so we don’t know much about what they do and how they work, and we don’t know their role in keeping the planet healthy,” says Lisa Levin, professor emerita of biological oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

Specific types of mining might have different impacts. Destroying hydrothermal vents, for example, could all but permanently destroy the ecosystem, given the slow time frame it takes for them to develop. 

“It’s like clear cutting the forest,” says Watters. “You’re talking about completely destroying a deep-seabed environment for all intents and purposes on the human scale permanently. Because these areas take hundreds or thousands of years potentially to recover and develop, [and] because deep-sea environments operate on a very slow time frame.”

source https://time.com/7278354/how-trump-could-boost-deep-sea-mining/

How Giorgia Meloni Became Europe’s ‘Trump Whisperer’

It’s no mystery that Donald Trump likes Giorgia Meloni.

After meeting the Italian far-right Prime Minister for the first time in Paris late last year, he described her as a “real live wire,” with whom he could “work to straighten out the world a little bit.”

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After a second meeting at Mar-a Lago in January, he called her a “fantastic woman” who has “really taken Europe by storm.” Later that month, she was the only E.U. head of government invited to Trump’s inauguration.

No wonder speculation started that she could become Europe’s Trump “whisperer.”

Since his election, she has carefully positioned herself as the closest mainstream European leader to Trump, boosting her credentials as a “bridge” between the new U.S. administration and Europe.

Her meeting with the U.S. President on Thursday in Washington will be a first test of this role, where Meloni will need to walk a diplomatic tightrope. The high-stakes meeting comes in the wake of Trump’s 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs for the E.U.

“It’s a difficult moment, let’s see how it goes over the coming hours,” she said at an event of Italian entrepreneurs on Tuesday morning. “I feel no pressure about the next two days, as you can imagine,” she added with a pinch of irony.

Meloni undoubtedly has ideological affinities with Trump and her views on matters such as immigration, LGTBQ rights, and abortion overlap with his.

If her fiery rhetoric against immigration and “gender ideology” makes her a kindred spirit, she leads a country whose interests are inextricably tied to those of the E.U.—the entity which was formed to “screw” the U.S., to borrow Trump’s words.

Over these past few months, she has steered clear of any direct criticism of Trump, trying to reconcile the growing gulf between her ideological instincts, which lie with Washington, and Italy’s strategic position within Europe. Part of this approach reflects the historical importance of Italy’s close ties with the U.S., which it has used as an insurance policy against French and German dominance of the E.U.

To this end, she opted to have a more conciliatory tone than her European partners on several occasions. She always showed her unwavering support to Ukraine and to its President but didn’t condemn the extraordinary dressing-down Volodymyr Zelensky faced at White House in front of the world’s media. Her reaction to that fiasco was to propose an immediate summit “between the U.S., European states, and allies in order to speak frankly about how we intend to address today’s major challenges, starting with Ukraine, which we have defended together in these years.”

But it is on the economic side of things where Meloni’s delicate balancing act will face its stiffest test.

Italy is the E.U.’s third largest exporter to the U.S. and maintains a nearly €40 billion trade surplus, behind only Germany and Ireland. Major businesses are nervous and her Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has called on Meloni to put her country’s interests first and above those of Europe. But that would divide the 27-member bloc as it scrambles to convince Trump to stand down on tariffs that would jeopardize Europe’s economy—and Italian exporters.

The E.U. has offered the U.S. a “zero-for-zero” tariff scheme for industrial goods, a similar agreement the pair came close to a decade ago in their discussions of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which was then scuppered by Trump in his first term. But a trade deal seems a distant prospect.

E.U. officials are struggling to negotiate with their U.S. counterparts. The Trump Administration seems not to be engaging in the initial discussions on the tariffs, as the E.U. Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič put it after meeting top U.S. trade officials in Washington on Monday.

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission that oversees trade negotiations, has been unable to speak with Trump since he took office, a spokesperson told TIME. She has been in regular contact with Meloni and the two have been coordinating her White House visit, they added.

Meloni previously said in a speech to Italian lawmakers that she wasn’t sure “it is necessarily wise to respond to tariffs with tariffs.” But she has also often fallen in line with the E.U. on trade. Her country, for example, voted to impose reciprocal tariffs in response to Trump’s steel and aluminum levies.

Meloni could offer to buy more liquified natural gas—something Trump has demanded from Europe—or American arms. With a domestic defense budget of only 1.5% of GDP, Italy is one of the main laggards within NATO.

Perhaps such offers would be enough to convince Trump to sit at the negotiating table with the E.U.

In any case, she will have a second opportunity to plead her case this week. Meloni will be back in Rome on Friday to meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance, whose attack on European values at the Munich Security Conference in February was condemned by the E.U. but defended by Meloni.

If her pragmatism prevails over her ideological instincts, and she defends European interests rather than just Italy’s short-term ones, Meloni will have some chances to obtain results from these meetings.

This will be good news for Europe. And for Italy.

source https://time.com/7278270/meloni-white-house-visit-trump-whisperer/

Exclusive Clip: In War-Torn Kyiv, Vitalik Buterin Makes the Case for Crypto’s Future

31-year-old Vitalik Buterin is one of crypto’s most important figures. As the founder of Ethereum, he pioneered the idea that crypto and blockchains could serve larger purposes beyond money. But Buterin also sought to diminish his own role within the ecosystem, and encouraged his community to think much bigger than their own short-term gains.

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A new documentary, Vitalik: An Ethereum Story, tells his story, following him around the world as he confronts difficult technical problems and evangelizes a strange new technology that attempts to reorient the world around its decentralized value system. ”In our minds, tech is never neutral: it’s a reflection of the values and blind spots of its creators,” says co-director Chris Temple. “As we head into conversations around AI and crypto, Vitalik models a new kind of leadership compared to the tech leaders that we’re used to—the Elon Musks, Mark Zuckerbergs and Jeff Bezos’s of the world—that are that are structured within these centralized organizations and decisionmaking apparatuses.” 

Temple and co-director Zach Ingrasci filmed Buterin across two years, and much of their footage didn’t make it into the 86-minute film. That includes one scene in Kyiv, Ukraine, in which Buterin plays chess with Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation. The scene, published exclusively by TIME, shows a fascinating peek into Buterin’s ideological leanings, and his acute desire for crypto to have real-world use cases beyond speculation. 

Read More: The Man Behind Ethereum Is Worried About Crypto’s Future

Buterin traveled to Ukraine in September 2022, six months after Russia’s invasion. While Buterin was born in Russia, he staunchly opposed the invasion and personally donated millions to Ukrainian relief efforts. Thanks in part to his vocal support, almost $100 million in crypto poured into Ukraine in the first couple weeks of the invasion, offering fast relief and easy, direct transactions.

The deleted scene shows Fedorov and Buterin talking over a game of chess. In the early days of the invasion, Fedorov tells him, the country’s national bank had banned international transactions, so the Ukrainian government instead used crypto to receive funding and buy weapons and military supplies. “All of the first drones, lots of ammunition, arrived thanks to crypto,” Fedorov tells him. “We saved the lives of hundreds—maybe thousands of our military. So it was highly important.”

Buterin responds: “We love Ukraine… For the blockchain community itself, this was the first opportunity to make a real difference with blockchain and cryptocurrency.” 

Later, when Fedorov points out that Ukrainians continue to live in the war-torn country, Buterin adds: “I think continuing real life means, even if I’m a good person, to show Putin a middle finger.” 

Ingrasci says the clip didn’t make it into the final cut because the moment it depicts is referenced in other ways. “But I think it’s the most important moment for Vitalik in our journey with him, because it’s this real world use case of how crypto can really make the world a better place,” he says. 

Vitalik: An Ethereum Story is available on VOD on April 15. TIME Studios served as one of the film’s production companies. 

Andrew R. Chow’s book about crypto and Sam Bankman-Fried, Cryptomania, was published in August.

source https://time.com/7277971/crypto-ukraine-vitalik-buterin-documentary/