European leaders hold an emergency summit on Ukraine, as direct talks get under way between the US and Russia. The Russian foreign minister says Europe should mind its own business. Also in the programme: as the US Secretary of State tries to persuade the Saudis of Donald Trump's vision for a Gaza without Palestinians, we have a Gazan child's-eye view of the war; and we hear from the writer whose novel has been turned into the award-scooping movie about a papal election. (IMAGE:The presidential Elysée Palace in Paris, where European leaders are meeting to discuss the crisis over Ukraine / CREDIT: Daniel.Wittenberg / BBC)
Hello and welcome to NewsHour.
It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London.
I'm Tim Franks,
and we're beginning with European leaders as they gather in Paris at short notice and try to.
Well,
it almost seems as
if we're watching them try to regain their balance as the landscape shifts around them.
It's partly about the fact
that the US Is pushing towards a rapid peace agreement with Russia on Ukraine,
quite possibly without much input from Ukraine, and certainly not from Europe.
Russian and US Officials are having their first face to face meeting in Saudi Arabia today,
and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, couldn't resist poking fun at the absent Europeans.
I don't know what they would be.
Doing at the negotiating table.
If they are going to concoct some cunning ideas about freezing the conflict, while.
Really they mean continuing the war, then.
Why invite them there?
A lack of formal European involvement in peace negotiations is seen as a big enough deal.
But the leaders at this summit are also having to conjure, it seems,
with immense questions about how Europe manages its security in the future.