Another war on the way to an end? Putin’s conciliatory message to Zelensky

Russia

Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky – only on one condition
The Kremlin announced this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky – but only on the condition of signing an agreement to end the war between the countries.

“The meeting can only be for the purpose of signing agreements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on state television. According to him, Putin has opened the door to talks with Ukraine, but only if the meeting is “productive”. In other words, Russia makes it clear that until there is an offer that suits it – there is nothing to talk about.

The meaning, according to experts, is that Russia is signaling that the war is not close to ending. Putin controls large parts of Ukraine and is unlikely to give them back. Zelensky, for his part, cannot return to Ukraine with such an offer.

At the beginning of the year, the war between the parties marked 4 years. The Russians did occupy about 20% of the sovereign territory of Ukraine, but the extent of their losses is enormous, and according to estimates it is more than 325 thousand dead. On the Ukrainian side, the estimated number ranges from 100 to 180 thousand dead, including civilians.

Japan

For the first time since World War II: Tokyo is on the way to exporting weapons
This week, Japan introduced the largest reform of its arms export laws in decades, and announced the abolition of restrictions on the sale of weapons abroad. Japan removed export restrictions that had blocked almost every arms deal after World War II, and now the government will approve each sale separately. The move opens the door to the export of advanced tools – battleships, missiles and complex military systems. As part of the reform, Japan undertook to carry out strict inspections when approving each deal.

The decision was made for several economic reasons: first, local companies developed military systems, but sold in relatively small volumes, only to the Japanese army. Second, such a scale of production does not allow cost reduction.

In addition, the global arms industry is booming because of geopolitical instability. “No country can protect its safety and security on its own anymore, and a partnership between countries that support each other is necessary,” Japanese Prime Minister Sana Takaichi wrote on the X social network.

Officials in Tokyo told Reuters that a number of countries, including Poland and the Philippines, are already in talks with Japan. Among other things, it was reported that the export of used warships to the Philippines is already on the agenda. Philippine Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro welcomed the change in Japan’s export laws, saying that it would give his country “access to high-quality security measures that will contribute to regional stability through deterrence.”

intercontinental

New report: The climate crisis is disrupting elections around the world
A new study by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), an intergovernmental organization that works to promote democratic values ​​around the world, found this week that heat waves, floods and forest fires have a greater influence than before on how people choose their leaders.

The researchers found that in the past twenty years, at least 94 elections in 52 countries were disrupted by climate-related disasters. And last year alone, this happened in 23 elections.

how does it happen According to the researchers, in several ways. When a natural disaster strikes a country, the infrastructure collapses and people are forced to leave their homes and cannot get to the polls. The result: the state has to postpone the elections. In 2019, for example, in Mozambique, a cyclone destroyed thousands of homes and led to many deaths. The disaster, according to the study, affected the results of the presidential election.

Sarah Birch, professor of political science at King’s College London and the author of the study, believes that countries should schedule election dates according to the seasons when natural disasters are more common. According to her, even the US still holds elections in November – a month when hurricanes are more common in certain areas of America.

U.S

“I’m being blackmailed”: The crypto billionaire who is suing Trump
The Trump family’s crypto venture World Liberty Financial is being sued by one of its billionaire backers over allegations of extortion. Justin Sun, a Hong Kong billionaire, accused the company of an “illegal scheme” to confiscate his WLFI tokens, a cryptocurrency issued by the company.

Sun claims that the company, founded by US President Donald Trump and his son Eric, has “frozen” use of all of his coins. World Liberty has denied the allegations and claimed that Sun is “playing the role of the victim while making baseless allegations to cover up his inappropriate behavior.”

Sun is still considered a staunch supporter of Trump and his position on cryptocurrency, but claims that “certain people” at World Liberty are working behind the president’s back. “They unjustly froze all my coins and threatened to destroy them – without any proper justification,” he wrote on social media.

Sun invested $45 million in World Liberty, and previously claimed that its WLFI tokens were valued at more than $1 billion. Since September, the price of a single WLFI token has dropped from 31 cents to less than 8 cents.