French riot police surround a group of protesters near the commercial shopping center of Les Halles in the center of Paris. The capital and other French cities have seen protests since the government of President Emmanuel Macron pushed pension reform without a Parliament vote.
👋 Laphi!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where the U.S. pushes Xi Jinping to pressure Putin, as Japan’s Prime Minister lands in Kyiv, new clashes over pension reform erupt in France and a record streak by Rafael Nadal comes to an end. Meanwhile, Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reports on an exclusive new survey of Ukrainian refugees, and what would prompt them to return back home.
[*Aymara, Bolivia]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Xi & Putin meet again in Moscow, Japan Prime Minister heads to Kyiv: With Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meeting again on Tuesday, the White House's National Security Council spokesman called on Xi to urge his Russian counterpart to withdraw troops from Ukraine. Meanwhile, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Kyiv for a surprise meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “resolutely reject Russia's aggression against Ukraine.”
• Israelis to resettle illegal settlements: The Israeli government has passed an amendment that would allow Israelis to resettle four illegal settlements in the northern occupied West Bank that were evacuated in 2005. The evacuated settlements have been the focus of tensions between Palestinians and Israeli settlers, who have consistently attempted to reclaim the site permanently.
• Cities prepare for potential arrest of Donald Trump: Authorities in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles are ramping up their law enforcement presence in case former President Donald Trump is arrested this week as part of a hush-money inquiry. A Manhattan prosecutor may charge Trump over claims that he paid a porn star to keep quiet about their encounters. This would be the first criminal case ever brought against a former U.S. president.
• France’s government survives no-confidence vote: The French government has survived a vote of no-confidence, triggered when it forced through an increase in the pension age to 64. The country is bracing for more protests and more strikes.
• IMF approves Sri Lanka’s $2.9bn bailout: Sri Lanka’s president has said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved its request for a $2.9 billion bailout. The country’s presidency said the program will allow it to access up to $7 billion in overall funding designed to boost the country’s economy.
• Taiwan president to visit U.S.: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will make stopovers in the United States on her way to and from Central America. Taiwanese presidents routinely pass through the United States while visiting diplomatic allies, which, although not official visits, are often used by both sides for high-level meetings. The Biden administration has said that the expected visit should not be used as a pretext by China to step up aggressive activity in the Taiwan Strait.
• World’s happiest nation wins for 6th year running: For the sixth year in a row, Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to World Happiness Report rankings. The Nordic country along with its neighbors Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway all score very well on the measures the report uses to explain its findings: healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, low corruption, generosity in a community etc. The least happy country is Afghanistan at number 137, with Ukraine ranking 92nd.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“China and Russia should be the mainstay of world peace and stability,” writes Jiefang Daily, the official newspaper of the Shanghai committee of the Chinese Communist Party, as China’s President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are beginning a second day of talks in Moscow. On Monday the two leaders held more than four hours of informal talks, with China’s proposal for a peace plan in Ukraine on the agenda.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
912
Rafael Nadal’s record streak of consecutive weeks in men’s tennis’ top 10 has come to an end. That’s more than 17 years for the 22-time Grand-Slam winner who broke into the top 10 back in April 2005.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
A new survey of Ukrainian refugees: Here's what will bring them back home
With the right support, Ukrainians are ready to return, even to new parts of the country where they've never lived, writes Daria Mykhailishyna in Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.
🇺🇦🛂 After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, millions of Ukrainians fled their homes and went abroad. Many remain outside Ukraine. The Center for Economic Strategy and the Info Sapiens research agency surveyed these Ukrainian war refugees to learn more about who they are and how they feel about going home. According to the survey, half of Ukrainians who went abroad are children. Among adults, most (83%) are women, and most (42%) are aged 35-49.
🇵🇱 The majority of Ukrainian refugees reside in Poland (38%), Germany (20%), the Czech Republic (12%), and Italy (6%). In these countries, they can obtain temporary protection, giving them the right to stay, work, and access healthcare and education systems. However, each country independently decides what social benefits and privileges to provide to Ukrainians and how to adapt them to live in society.
⚠️ Half of Ukrainians "definitely plan" to return home, while 24% would prefer to return. But the longer the war lasts, the more people will adapt to life abroad and not return to Ukraine. The demographic situation in Ukraine was difficult even before the war, with an aging population and not enough births to keep up with the country's mortality rate. The non-return of many refugees with higher education and their children significantly threatens the economy.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
"We are walking when we should be sprinting."
— Following the release of a dramatic report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) yesterday, the chair of the climate panel, Hoesung Lee, expressed his concern that “the pace and scale of what has been done so far and current plans are insufficient to tackle climate change.”
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• How Much Does Xi Jinping Care About Putin's ICC Arrest Warrant? — FRANCE INTER
• Ukrainians In Occupied Territories Are Being Forced To Get Russian Passports — LIVY BEREG
• What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S. — EL ESPECTADOR
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright, Renate Mattar, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Bertrand Hauger
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