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Fast-track entry to bloc being discussed by US and Ukrainian officials backed by Brussels in drive to end Russia’s war

Ukraine would be earmarked to join the EU by 2027 under a fast-tracked proposal being discussed in US-brokered negotiations to end Russia’s war, in a move that would rewrite the bloc’s accession procedures.

EU accession by January 1 2027 is specified in the latest draft of a Ukraine peace proposal being negotiated by US and Ukrainian officials with the support of Brussels, people briefed on the document’s contents told the Financial Times.

That rapid timeline — Kyiv is yet to formally complete even one of the EU’s gruelling 36 stages of accession — would upend the bloc’s “merit-based” approach to admitting new members and would force Brussels to rethink the entire process, the people added.

They cited the current system of staggered access to EU funds, voting power and benefits such as the common agricultural policy.

Officials supportive of Ukraine’s EU membership said including it as part of a peace deal would make membership a fait accompli for Kyiv, as Brussels would feel it could not derail the peace process by opposing the rapid timeline.

US backing would also mean that President Donald Trump could order Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who has so far held up Ukraine’s accession process, to drop his veto and allow Kyiv to start progressing through the political approval process.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday that he and his team of negotiators had “shaped our approach to some points in line with the fact that Ukraine will in the future be a member of the European Union”.

“The issue of Ukraine’s future EU membership,” Zelenskyy said, “depends largely on the Europeans — and on the Americans too, in fact”.

“Because if we agree a deal specifying when Ukraine becomes a member of the EU, the Americans, as a party to this agreement, will do everything so that our European path cannot be blocked by others in Europe over whom they have influence,” he said.

“So Europeans are really needed in the talks, and it is good that they are taking part.”

Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and was granted the status of formal candidate four months later.

The EU’s enlargement commissioner Marta Kos told the FT last month that new EU member states could be put on “probation” for a few years and excluded from the bloc in case of democratic backsliding, under a proposal aimed at allaying concerns about the impact of new entrants.

The inclusion in a draft peace deal of Ukraine’s path to joining the EU by 2027 was first reported by Ukraine’s Mirror of the Week on Thursday.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he thought the US was “very close with Russia to having a deal. I thought we were very close with Ukraine to having a deal.”

He said US officials would attend a meeting over the weekend, hosted by Germany, at which European and Ukrainian officials would work out some of the thornier points of the peace proposals that have been passed between the sides.

Trump — who had vowed during his election campaign to bring peace to Ukraine and end Russia’s war in 24 hours — said on Thursday, almost a year into his second term, that the deal had become “a little bit complicated, because you’re cutting up land in a certain way, it’s​ not the easiest thing, it’s like a complex real estate deal times a thousand”.

Russia has not indicated it will accept any plan that deviates from its maximalist demands for ending the war.

Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that Russia had not yet seen the latest drafts of the US peace plan with input from Ukraine and its European allies.

“When we do see it, I sense that we’re not going to like a lot of it,” Ushakov told reporters.

Ushakov also rejected suggestions that the frontline Donbas region could become a “free economic zone”, an idea being pushed by the Trump administration, if Ukraine withdrew its troops from the territory it controls there.

World, the biometric ID verification project co-founded by Sam Altman, released the newest version of its app today, debuting several new features, including an encrypted chat integration and an expanded, Venmo-like capability for sending and requesting crypto.

World was created by the startup Tools for Humanity in 2019, and originally launched its app in 2023. The company says that, in a world roiled by AI-generated digital fakery, it hopes to create digital “proof of human” tools that can help separate the humans from the bots.

During a small gathering at World’s headquarters in San Francisco on Thursday, Altman and World’s co-founder and CEO, Alex Blania, briefly introduced the new version of the app (which developers have termed a “super app”) before the product team took over to explain the new features. During his remarks, Altman said that the concept for World grew out of conversations he and Blania had had about the need to create a new kind of economic model. That model, based around web3 principles, is what World has been trying to accomplish through its verification network. “It’s really hard to both identify unique people and do that in a privacy-preserving way,” said Altman.

World Chat, the app’s new messenger, seems designed to do just that. It uses end-to-end encryption to keep users’ conversations safe (this encryption is described as being equivalent to Signal, the privacy-focused messenger), and also leverages color-coded speech bubbles to alert users to whether the person they’re talking to has been verified by World’s system or not, the company said. The idea is to incentivize verification, giving people the power to know whether the person they’re talking to is who they say they are. Chat was originally launched in beta in March.

The other big feature reveal on Thursday was an expanded digital payment system that allows app users to send and receive cryptocurrency. World app has functioned as a digital wallet for some time, but the newest version of the app includes broader capabilities. Using virtual bank accounts, users can also receive paychecks directly into World App and make deposits from their bank accounts, both of which can then be converted into crypto. You don’t have be verified by World’s authentication system to use these features.

Tiago Sada, World’s chief product officer, told TechCrunch that part of the reason chat was added was to create a more interactive experience for users. “What we kept hearing from people is that they wanted a more social World app,” Sada said. World Chat is designed to fill that need, creating what Sada says is a secure way to communicate. “It took a lot of work to make this feature-rich messenger that is similar to a WhatsApp or a Telegram, but with encryption and security of something that is a lot closer to Signal,” Sada said.

World (which was originally called Worldcoin) deploys a unique authentication process: interested humans get their eyes scanned at one of the company’s offices, where the Orb—a large verification device—converts the person’s iris into a unique and encrypted digital code. That code, the verified World ID, can then be used by the person to interact with World’s ecosystem of services, which are available through its app.

The addition of more social-friendly features is clearly meant to drive broader adoption of the app, which makes sense since scaling verification is the company’s main challenge. Altman has said that he would like the project to scan a billion people’s eyes, but Tools for Humanity claims to have scanned less than 20 million people.

Since standing in long lines at a corporate office to have your eyeballs scanned by a giant metallic ball may seem slightly less than enticing to some users, the company has already sought to make its verification process less cumbersome. In April, Tools for Humanity announced its Orb Minis—hand-held, phone-like devices—that allow users to scan their own eyes from the comfort of their homes. Blania previously told TechCrunch that, eventually, the company would like to turn the Orb Minis into a mobile point-of-sale device or sell its ID sensor tech to device manufacturers. If the company takes such steps, it would drop the barrier to verification significantly, potentially inspiring much more widespread adoption.

Two funds at quant-trading pioneer suffered worst months ever in October

Unprecedented turbulence at a pair of quantitative hedge funds managed by the industry pioneer Renaissance Technologies is causing the firm to consider adjusting its trading models, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Long Island-based firm, founded by the mathematician Jim Simons, uses machine learning and predetermined algorithms to bet on and against thousands of stocks at any given time.

Renaissance told clients it is weighing an adjustment in its trading models after the two funds, which together manage nearly $20 billion, suffered their worst months ever in October before surging in November. Renaissance’s investing algorithms weren’t prepared for recent, unusual moves in the shares of some small companies, including so-called meme stocks, people familiar with the matter said.

The famously secretive firm is now examining ways to reduce the volatility of these funds, the people said.

Renaissance’s deliberations show how even successful firms are grappling with a stock market that is at record levels, but has seen some shares endure roller-coaster rides.

Renaissance usually doesn’t react to short-term market moves and might elect not to make any changes. Even considering tweaks is a departure. After a losing streak about five years ago, Renaissance told clients that its models were time-tested and that it wouldn’t modify them in response to short periods of underperformance, a person familiar with the matter said.

One of the two funds, the Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund, lost about 14% in October, before gaining 12.7% in November to put it up 2.3% so far this year. The other, the Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha Fund, was up 1.3% so far this year through November. The returns were earlier reported by Institutional Investor.

By comparison, an index of stock-picking quant funds compiled by the research firm PivotalPath is up 6.3% this year through November and was down 1.6% in October.

The two Renaissance funds, known as RIEF and RIDA, are the only Renaissance investment vehicles available to outside investors. Its flagship Medallion fund, one of the industry’s top-performing funds for decades, pushed clients out years ago and primarily manages money of the firm’s own employees.

Medallion climbed around 20% this year through November, topping the overall market, much as it has for decades, people familiar with the matter said. The S&P 500 gained 17.8% in the same period, including dividends. Medallion’s results come after subtracting the fund’s notoriously high investor fees, which amount to 5% of assets and 36% of any gains.

Still, the gains are lower than what they had been for much of Medallion’s history. Between 1988 and 2018, the hedge fund produced average annual returns of 39% after fees, topping nearly every other hedge fund.

Medallion, which manages more than $10 billion, holds more cash than usual, a person familiar with the matter said. That reduces its risk but is weighing on returns.

Renaissance executives remain satisfied with Medallion’s results and aren’t contemplating any changes, even if the gains don’t quite measure up to past performance, people familiar with the matter said.

While Renaissance executives like to say that Medallion holds investments for “seconds to seasons”—often just days at a time—RIEF and RIDA make longer-term trades.

Quant funds including RIEF and RIDA were shorting a number of meme stocks that rallied in September and October, fueling short squeezes and inflicting pain, according to traders. The funds’ losses were concentrated in small information-technology, communications and industrial stocks, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Meme stocks widely held by quants include the digital marketing company QMMM Holdings and Beyond Meat, according to a banker who deals with hedge funds.

QMMM soared from $5 at the end of August to an intraday high of over $300 in September before trading was halted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential manipulation. Shares in Beyond Meat zigzagged from under $2 at the end of September to a low of 52 cents on Oct. 16 to over $3 on Oct. 21.

Despite the bumpy ride for these kinds of stocks, the overall market hasn’t been volatile. The Cboe Volatility Index, also known as the VIX, has averaged 19.19 this year compared with its long-term average going back to 1990 of 19.47.

That makes it harder for Medallion, which often does best in hectic markets; its trading models often reduce trading and build cash when stocks are placid.

Simons died last year. Renaissance since 2024 has been led by the longtime executive Peter Brown and David Lippe. Brown, 70 years old, previously ran the firm with Bob Mercer, after Simons became chairman. Brown is expected to hand the baton to Lippe eventually, according to people familiar with the matter.