There’s more to unpack from the U.S.-Ukraine negotiations Tuesday in Saudi Arabia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who led the U.S. delegation, said that Washington would immediately lift the pause on aid and intelligence-sharing to Ukraine after Kyiv backed the administration’s 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Those major developments come amid criticism that the administration was favoring Russia in its ceasefire push and had essentially frozen Ukraine out of the talks. They also came less than two weeks after the dramatic Oval Office blow-up between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Threat Status is closely tracking where the negotiations go from here. The Kremlin seemed to indicate that Mr. Putin is ready for more direct talks with Mr. Trump, while the U.S. is putting public pressure on Moscow by making clear that it has the power to stop the fighting right now.

“We’re going to tell them this is what’s on the table, Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking, and now it’ll be up to them to say yes or no. I hope they’re going to say yes,” Mr. Rubio said in Jeddah after the talks.

It’s early, but the initial signals aren’t encouraging. Russian ballistic missiles reportedly killed at least five civilians in Ukraine on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump’s vision to rebuild America’s domestic shipyard industrial base faces a number of challenges, but here’s one of the biggest: low wages for the welders, electricians and other skilled workers needed to do the job. Military Correspondent Mike Glenn examines the high-stakes issue, which was highlighted at a House Armed Services subcommittee on seapower and projection forces hearing on Tuesday.

Eric Labs, a naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, offered a blunt take on the problem.

“You could drive by a Subway [sandwich shop] advertising a position that pays $18 an hour plus benefits, and the shipyards are paying $20 or $21 an hour,” Mr. Labs said. “But shipyard work is hot, it’s cold, it’s dirty, and it’s unpleasant.”

Figuring out how to change that equation is crucial to Mr. Trump’s plan, which he laid out in his recent speech to Congress and which centers on the creation of a White House “office of shipbuilding.” The U.S. right now reportedly has 295 battle force ships, though that number is dropping fast amid retirements of older vessels. Congress wants the Navy to have 381 warships, but at the current trajectory that figure won’t be met until 2050.

Mr. Wolfgang and National Security Editor Guy Taylor also examined the proposed White House office of shipbuilding on the latest episode of the Threat Status weekly podcast. 

Federal officials investigating the fatal midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January say that some military helicopter flights in the area should be prohibited because they “pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety.” 

The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board can be found here. The Washington Times’ Sean Salai reports on the major takeaways from that study, the first official investigation into the crash between an Army helicopter and a commercial jet that killed 67 people. 

There’s a great deal of fascinating and troubling data inside the preliminary report, but here’s one piece worth highlighting: An NTSB review of 944,179 commercial arrivals and departures at the airport from October 2021 through December 2024 found 15,214 near-collisions between commercial airplanes and helicopters with less than 400 feet of vertical separation.

Asia Editor Andrew Salmon is tracking the International Criminal Court arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who now faces allegations of crimes against humanity committed during his deadly campaign against drug traffickers while in office. The political and legal drama unfolding in Manila has a geopolitical element, as the Philippines is a key U.S. Pacific ally and an increasingly important cog in the alliance of Asian allies Washington seeks to build as a counterweight to communist China.

Officials of the government of current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. confirmed that Mr. Duterte, the polarizing and populist former president, had been put on a plane late Tuesday and was en route to be turned over to ICC officials in The Hague, Mr. Salmon reports. The quick backstory is this: During his time as president, Mr. Duterte, 79, launched a ruthless “war on drugs.” More than 6,000 people were killed in the crackdown, according to police figures. 

The full ICC arrest warrant can be read here. For his part, Mr. Duterte and his supporters strongly objected to his extradition.

Behind its stiff tariffs on Canadian imports and deepening political tension with Ottawa, the Trump administration could be providing the spark Canada needs to revive its once-mighty military.

That’s the case made by Jamie Tronnes, executive director of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and Anthony De Luca-Baratta, a contributor to the center. They argue in a new op-ed for The Times that tensions between the U.S. and Canada could provide America’s northern neighbor with the motivation to ramp up military spending and return to its “proud tradition of punching above its weight.”

“The stage is set for a resurrection of Canada’s military. The Trump administration understands that the United States cannot shoulder the burden of defense alone,” they write. “The Europeans have also come to this reality. Twenty-three NATO countries now spend 2% of their GDP on defense, double the amount spent four years ago. Now, it’s Canada’s turn.”

• March 7-13 — SXSW Conference, SXSW

• March 12 — The Role of the Panama Canal in Global Commerce, Atlantic Council

• March 13 — Confirmation hearing for Peter Hoekstra to be ambassador to Canada, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

• March 13 — Collaborating for Resilience: Japanese and U.S. Industry Cooperation on MRO for USAF Systems, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• March 13 — Germany’s Election Aftermath: Implications for Foreign Policy, Wilson Center

• March 17-19 — 2025 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, ARPA-E

• March 20 — What’s Next for U.S. Defense Strategy and Spending? Brookings Institution