Germany's Chancellor MERZ said he will take time at the informal European Council meeting in Dublin to hold wide-ranging talks on Ukraine.

Axios reported John Thune was re-elected Tuesday as Senate Republican leader and will continue to lead the caucus after Republicans lost the Senate majority. A motion by some Republican senators to delay the leadership vote by at least one week failed, receiving 31 votes in favor and 15 against. The Senate GOP leadership team is largely unchanged; Senator Bernie Moreno will replace Tim Scott as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The Guangzhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a notice loosening withdrawal rules for renters. Account holders and their spouses renting for self-occupancy within Guangzhou may withdraw from their housing provident fund account as follows: for leases with registered rental-contract filings, during the lease term monthly withdrawals may equal actual monthly rent up to a cap of 8,000 yuan (households with two or more children: cap 10,000 yuan); for leases without registered filings and where the household has no owner-occupied residence in the city, monthly withdrawals are capped at 3,000 yuan per person (households with two or more children: 4,000 yuan per person). Unused withdrawal entitlement does not carry over to the following year. Tenants of municipal public rental housing may withdraw during the lease term up to the monthly rent.