Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are getting ready for a one-on-one talk in Lima Peru next week (their third meet-up during Bidens presidency). The get-together happens during the Asia-Pacific Economic meet-up: both sides dont expect big announcements but want to keep things stable
Our countries can and must manage differences and prevent competition from becoming conflict
With Donald Trump likely coming back to office his team (including china-focused Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz) might push for bigger trade limits. Xi seems more ready this time - his recent speech warned against blocking trade deals
In New-Zealand about 10k people marched to parliament protesting the Treaty Principles Bill which changes old british-maori agreements. The bill affects special rights of maori people (who make up 17% of population). Some maori law-makers did a traditional haka dance in protest - one got kicked-out for 24hrs
After almost 2 years of no contact Vladimir Putin and Olaf Scholz had a phone chat. The german leader pushed for peace talks and ending ukraine war which started about 3 years ago. Volodymyr Zelensky wasnt happy saying this opens “pandoras box“
Israel plans to add 7k ultra-orthodox jews (known as haredim who are 12% of population) to its army. Benny Gantz wrote on social media: “we are at war - anyone required must get an order“