On today's podcast:

1) The European Union launched countermeasures on Wednesday against new US metals tariffs, with plans to impose its own duties on €26 billion ($28.3 billion) worth of American goods.

2) Less than two weeks after Donald Trump lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in an Oval Office confrontation, the US president put the pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire agreement hammered out with Zelenskiy’s advisers.

3) House Republicans passed legislation to keep the US government open past a Saturday shutdown deadline, daring moderate Democrats in the Senate to block the measure over objections it fails to constrain Elon Musk’s cost-cutting crusade.