Worldcrunch
With tens of thousands North Korean troops confirmed to be moving toward the Russia-Ukraine front line, to fight on Moscow’s side in Ukraine, the two big questions are: What is Kim Jong-un trying to achieve? And more importantly, how does China fit into this picture?
The BRICS Summit, which opens on Tuesday in Kazan, Russia, is an opportunity for Vladimir Putin to show that he is not isolated. But it is above all the power of attraction of this club of emerging countries that needs to be seen, in a world dominated by the West since 1945 and struggling to evolve.
The offspring of Russia’s elite were used to luxury loft apartments, expensive cars and carefree living. So how did Putin’s successive drafts of new troops impact them? As independent Russian news platform Vazhnyye Istorii found out, life essentially continues as normal.
Calls for negotiation between Russia and Ukraine are growing louder. But peace would require strong security guarantees for the invaded country.
What should we make of Vladimir Putin’s “new rules” regarding what constitutes a nuclear aggressor and how Moscow might retaliate? A closer look, especially after another recent failed launch test of the Sarmat missile system, shows the Soviet legacy increasingly appears to be a rusting shell of its former self.
The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was an important reminder that the American election will help determine the fate of Ukraine. It did not take long to see which option was better. So much so the moderators had to ask Trump “Do you want Ukraine to win?”
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutality and the escalation of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities should prompt Ukraine’s allies to demonstrate total unity and solidarity against Moscow.
U.S. authorities have seized documents that expose a Russian-led fake news offensive in Europe. The devastating effects of this large-scale propaganda campaign are for all to see in the recent elections in Thuringia and Saxony.
Even Russians are unlikely to have noticed that since Vladimir Putin came to power some 25 years ago, the biography the Kremlin presents of him has been repeatedly altered. A new investigation revealing details about his two sons is but an exception in a long history of authorities carefully hiding facts and evidence about Putin’s life and his relationship with his family and friends — and the Russian people.
Mongolia is a signatory to the International Criminal Court treaty and should have arrested Vladimir Putin on his arrival in the capital yesterday. Of course, it didn’t — nobody believed it would. But for international affairs specialist Pierre Haski, this is only a setback for international justice.
Russia’s pro-war influencers, or so-called ‘Z’-bloggers, have sought to blame those responsible for Ukraine’s breakthrough into the Kursk region. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name never comes up. Fear of reprisals is only one reason; another is belief in Putin’s infallibility.
Once crypto-cautious Russia has started experimenting with the digital financial market, prompting new regulations, formal exchange markets, and, as President Vladimir Putin hopes, new means of skirting Western sanctions.
The Ukrainian attack on the strategically important Kursk region has taken Russia’s military and residents by surprise. But experts doubt whether the operation makes sense for Ukraine’s depleted military forces.
The West will be weakened should the United States turn its back on its alliances, but does the isolationist Donald Trump understand what that could mean for U.S. strength and security?
In its final communiqué of the Washington summit, NATO severely criticized Chinese support for Russia in Ukraine, drawing a strong reaction from Beijing. China fears that the Transatlantic military alliance is now a tool for the U.S. in its global showdown with China.
After more than two years of war, Russia’s bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday was among the most violent. What does Vladimir Putin aim to achieve with this escalation of horror — which came just 48 hours before the NATO Summit in Washington in the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky?
In the second round of elections, France’s far-right National Rally failed to secure a victory. But in a largely unnoticed revelation, the party announced that they are teaming up with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the European level. Thus the French far-right joins a plan to weaken the European Union from within.
Ahead of the second round of French parliamentary elections, a possible far-right takeover forces the youth around the world to face a future that might be different from the one they were hoping for.
China appears well positioned to continue its rise amid the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the rise of the far right, and the emergence of the Global South. The world order of 1945 has run its course, and it is through crises and tensions that the next one — still uncertain — is taking shape.
At just 18-years-old, Daria Kozyreva sits in a pre-trial detention center. She is facing five years for “repeatedly discrediting the Russian army.” Here is her letter to all Russians, trying to convince people of good will to denounce the Kremlin regime.
France’s European partners fear the outcome of the upcoming snap legislative elections and its consequences for the EU. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for the victory of a party “other than Marine Le Pen’s,” a sign of this growing concern.
Vladimir Putin threatened major escalation if Ukraine was allowed to strike into Russian territory with Western weapons. Once the West crossed that red line, the escalation did not happen. The West knows that bluffing is Putin’s favorite way of conducting foreign policy, so why does it keep playing this game?
Jordan Bardella may become the first far-right prime minister in France since World War II. Is this good news for Vladimir Putin?
Vladimir Putin presents himself as the leading advocate for multipolarism, but continues to reveal his true world view, where we are divided among those that respect nothing but personal power — and fools.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s declaration labeling Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as “extreme right-wing” is a politically charged move. But is this assessment fair, given Meloni’s strong support for Ukraine and responsible economic decisions — or is there some demonizing and distracting at play?
Under pressure from Arab states and Russia, which calls the shots in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad is tiptoeing away from the Iranian regime, a troublesome ally that has nevertheless spent billions of dollars to help keep him in power.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve Parliament and call special elections caught his international partners by surprise. The stakes are high, especially for Ukraine.
Comparisons between the wars in Europe and the Middle East tell us a lot about the standpoint of those who compare. They also signal to a new world order that has yet to be shaped.
Over the past two weeks, Vladimir Putin has stated four times that Russia is ready for peace talks with Ukraine, but that those negotiations would be based on “current realities at the front,” by which he means maintaining occupied territories under his control.
The French president wants to convince Vladimir Putin to halt military deployment around Ukraine. But some in Moscow believe the Russian president is only interested in negotiating with the U.S. about the wider global balance of power.
The announcement of the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor that he would seek arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, as well as three Hamas leaders, provoked indignant reactions in Israel and the U.S. and revealed the rifts between the West and the global South.
Ahead of the June’s EU elections, Europeans are deeply divided between fears of migration and of the Ukraine war, between emotion and reason. How can the EU respond in the most united and credible manner to the Russian threat?
The Russian president is in Beijing on Thursday and Friday, his first foreign trip since his re-election. Beijing and Moscow have their differences, but share the same long-term objective of changing the international order.
By visiting Serbia and Hungary, two countries that will soon be linked by a railroad built and financed by China, Xi Jinping is showing that he has not given up on cultivating special friendships on the continent, even if it undermines relations with Europe’s more influential leaders.
In an ominous speech in Paris, the French president warned that Europe is in mortal danger. Macron also suggested he may be just the man to save it.
It has taken months for Ukraine to be able to celebrate the U.S. approval of a much-needed aid package. Now that the House of Representatives has voted in favour, what is crucial is the timing of the arms delivery. Because the aid package comes late, but hopefully not too late for Ukraine to reverse its losses on the battlefield, writes Pierre Haski for France Inter.
How the women’s partisan movement rose up from the southeastern city of Melitopol to carry out undercover operations in the occupied territories of Ukraine that undermine every step of the Russian troops.
Geopolitical analysts who view Russia as an unpredictable force tend to understand Moscow’s actions in purely worldly, political terms. German Professor of Theology Hubertus Lutterbach has uncovered a different message hidden in Putin’s religiosity — an implicit threat to his neighbors and the world.
Russia is planning a large-scale offensive in Ukraine for the coming months. Putin wants to gain as much territory as possible, while Kyiv is waiting in vain for the West to provide more weapons. But the Ukrainian army is by no means as vulnerable as it seems.
Just because war appears more likely to spread to Europe or the Middle East than Asia, we should not forget China’s enormous weight. But does Beijing want to do with it?