The US-Russia summit is scheduled to take place just before noon today in Alaska, with representatives of only those two countries at the table—underscoring the limited role Europe will play in these negotiations. Bloomberg News Europe correspondent Alberto Nardelli tells us why that matters. Plus: Communal living isn’t just for college students, an immigration success story in Germany, and a new episode of Everybody’s Business.

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When Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin emerge from their meeting in Anchorage, much of Europe will be asleep. That’s a pretty good metaphor for the region’s likely role in the talks. Although the two presidents are set to discuss an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, neither Ukraine nor the NATO allies most closely affected by the conflict will participate in the proceedings. Instead, Trump says he’ll call them when he and Putin are done.

Russia has made no secret about what it wants: territory it already occupies in Ukraine—about a fifth of the country. Putin also covets the bits of the Donbas, a steelmaking and coal-mining area in the east, his troops haven’t managed to seize.

Kyiv’s reaction? No way. Its European allies feel the same. The prospect of land taken by force and borders redrawn by great powers on some faraway table brings back dark memories. Since the summit was announced last week, the Europeans have been trying to forge a common strategy, hoping Trump will listen.

The bottom line: Although they welcome Trump’s efforts, they insist that Ukraine’s future must be decided by Ukraine. There can be no concessions before a ceasefire is agreed to and implemented. The allies will continue supporting Kyiv and applying economic pressure on Moscow until there’s a diplomatic solution to the war. “Questions about Ukrainian territory can only be negotiated and will only be negotiated by the Ukrainian president,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday after a call Trump had convened with European leaders.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Photographer: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images

Europe has provided Ukraine with some €165 billion ($196 billion) in financial and military aid since 2022. It’s agreed to shoulder much of the burden moving forward by purchasing American weapons for Ukraine. And the Europeans have imposed 18 rounds of sanctions on Russia. Under Trump, that doesn’t buy you a seat at the table.

Granted, the actions of some European leaders haven’t always lived up to their rhetoric. Most have been unwilling to send Kyiv the weaponry needed to better defend its skies or strike the military facilities inside Russia where Putin’s army builds and launches missiles and drones that can reach almost all of Ukraine. Many capitals have resisted seizing the €300 billion in Russian central bank assets European governments have frozen. And they haven’t adopted many of the draconian measures they say they want Trump to impose, which are needed to truly end the billions of dollars Moscow reaps every month from selling oil and gas.

During Wednesday’s call, Trump assured the Europeans he wouldn’t make any deal with Putin regarding territory. Instead, he said he planned to press the Russian president for a ceasefire and a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to people briefed on the discussion. After the call, Trump warned he would impose “very severe consequences” if Putin doesn’t agree to halt the fighting. “There’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a second meeting which will be more productive than the first,” Trump told reporters in Washington.

Still, the Europeans won’t be in the room today, and they’ve heard similar threats all too often. Furthermore, there’s no evident plan if Trump doesn’t keep his word, so they risk finding themselves at his mercy. The US president is nothing if not impulsive, and he’s eager to be seen as a peacemaker. (Remember his pledge to end the war on his first day in office?) There’s no doubt Putin will try to exploit that eagerness—Trump has already said openly that he thinks some kind of land swap may be necessary—while seeking to drive a wedge between the US and its NATO allies. The former spy will deploy every trick in the KGB handbook to buy more time and keep Trump from slapping more sanctions on Russia. That’s sure to mean many more restless nights across Europe.

Related: Citi Pitches First-of-Its-Kind Debt for Ukraine Reconstruction

Explainer: The Territory at the Heart of Russia’s War in Ukraine

In Brief

• Washington, DC, has sued the Trump administration, saying an effort to take over the city’s police force is illegal.
• The Trump administration is considering using funds from the US Chips Act to take a stake in the beleaguered American chipmaker Intel Corp.
• Lindt may shift production of its gold-wrapped Easter bunnies to the US to sidestep import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
• Trump’s mark on the US economy in his second term has been profound. If Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was a symbol of the unfettered free market, the president’s approach should perhaps be described as very hands on. This week on the Everybody’s Business podcast, hosts Max Chafkin and Stacey Vanek Smith explore some of the industries being, well, handled by Trump. Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, iHeart and the Bloomberg Terminal.

One Way to Share Housing Costs

Hansjörg Temperli and his girlfriend on the balcony of their cluster flat in Zurich. Photographer: Lena Amuat for Bloomberg Businessweek

With its lakefront setting, medieval center and proximity to the Alps—not to mention tens of thousands of bankers—Zurich can be astronomically expensive, ranking as the world’s third-priciest city last year.

Yet Hansjörg Temperli pays about 870 Swiss francs ($1,100) a month to live in a 440-square-meter (4,736-square-foot) apartment. The place features two balconies, a vast living room with three couches and a video projector, an even bigger kitchen and dining area, and a nook with hundreds of board games. The catch? He and his girlfriend have a bedroom, bathroom and small sitting room that’s theirs alone, but they share the rest of the space with eight other people. “It might be cheap in terms of rent,” Temperli says, “but you need to invest a lot of time and effort with the people living there.”

The 40-year-old energy consultant is one of a growing number of people around the world in cohousing arrangements—sharing a home with people they’re not related to in so-called cluster flats such as Temperli’s or other apartments designed for large groups. These aren’t your typical communal dwellings filled with a few students or young people embarking on their careers. Instead, they’re spaces for 8, 10, 12 or even more residents that are increasingly popular with single professionals, families and seniors.

Real estate professionals tell David Rocks and Levin Stamm that the trend is growing as people seek to cut costs and yearn for a greater sense of community: Living With 12 Strangers to Ease a Housing Crunch

Syrians at Home in Germany

Syrian refugee Diar Khal runs a startup that makes an app that helps immigrants navigate the German bureaucracy. Photographer: Maria Sturm for Bloomberg Businessweek

Diar Khal clearly recalls the moment he arrived in Germany: Dec. 6, 2014, a few minutes past 6 p.m. It marked the end of an extended period in limbo after fleeing civil war in Syria at the age of 12, followed by three years of long hours at grueling jobs in Turkey. At the time he knew Germany was the home of Mercedes-Benz, but not much more. A little more than a decade later, Khal speaks German fluently, lives in the industrial city of Mannheim and employs 15 people full time at his startup, which makes an app aimed at helping immigrants navigate the German bureaucracy. It’s the kind of success story that’s frequently overlooked in Germany’s heated debate about migration.

More than 83,000 Syrians became German citizens last year, the largest group by far. And about two-thirds of refugees who arrived from 2013 to 2019 now have jobs, with their employment level just 9 percentage points below the national average, according to the Institute for Employment Research. When the crisis started, it would have been considered a success if even half of refugees were working at this stage, given the significant barriers to assimilation, says Herbert Brücker, head of migration studies at the state-funded group. “There are substantial costs at the beginning,” he says, but as refugees start working, they’re no longer a drain on public finances. “The glass is more half-full than half-empty.”

In fact, immigrants can even keep refilling the glass, according to Martin Werding, a member of the German Council of Economic Experts, which evaluates government policies. He estimates that at the current level of migration, each newcomer will contribute €7,100 (about $8,300) to the state budget annually in the coming decades—totaling about €3 billion a year. That’s mainly because migration adds young taxpayers to the workforce, which spreads pension expenses across more people. “The debate is too polarized,” Werding says. “From a demographic perspective, we are dependent on immigration.”

Chris Reiter and Marilen Martin write about what’s worked, and what hasn’t, for integrating refugees: How Syrian Immigrants Are Boosting Germany’s Economy

Deportation Inc.

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