Aurelia Butler

The African leaders were seeking agreement on a series of “confidence building measures”, even as Kyiv last week began a counteroffensive to push back Russian forces from the swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine that they occupy.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after meeting them in Kyiv on Friday that peace talks would require Moscow to withdraw its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory, something Russia has said is not negotiable.Putin opened Saturday’s talks with representatives of Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, Congo Republic, Comoros and South Africa in a palace near St Petersburg by stressing Russia’s commitment to the continent.But after presentations from the Comoran, Senegalese and South African presidents, he stepped in to challenge the assumptions of the plan – predicated on acceptance of internationally recognised borders – before the round of statements could go any further.Putin reiterated his position that Ukraine and its Western allies had started the conflict long before Russia sent its armed forces over the border in February last year, something they deny.He said the West, not Russia, was responsible for a sharp rise in global food prices early last year that has hit Africa especially hard.He told the delegation that Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports that Russia has permitted for the past year were doing nothing to alleviate Africa’s difficulties with high food prices because they had largely gone to wealthy countries.And he said Russia had never refused talks with the Ukrainian side, which had been blocked by Kyiv. Moscow has, however, repeatedly said any peace must allow for “new realities”, meaning its declared annexation of five Ukrainian provinces, four of which it only partially controls – a red line for Kyiv.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks that Moscow shared the “main approaches” of the African plan, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying it was “difficult to realise”.Peskov said Putin had shown interest in the plan, whose 10 points South African President Cyril Ramaphosa laid out in his presentation, and Russia would continue dialogue with the African countries.Lavrov said they had not brought the Russian leader any message from Zelenskiy.Putin said Moscow was “open to constructive dialogue with anyone who wants to establish peace on the principles of fairness and acknowledgement of the legitimate interests of the parties”.There was no immediate word on the bilateral talks that Ramaphosa, host of a summit in August featuring Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, had said he would have with Putin.Since the International Criminal Court indicted Putin in March on war crimes charges – which he rejects – South Africa, as a member of the court, finds itself in the awkward position of being obliged to arrest him if he sets foot there. More

US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrives in Beijing on Sunday on a highly anticipated mission to reboot US-China relations, which cratered in February after an alleged Chinese spy balloon flew over North America.Blinken will be the first secretary of state to visit China since 2018, a reflection of the strict Chinese lockdown during the pandemic, but also of how US-China ties have plummeted to their lowest level in decades.His trip is designed to follow on from a meeting President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping held in Bali in November when they agreed on the need to create a “floor” under the relationship. But the plan was derailed in February when Blinken cancelled a visit to China because of the balloon.Relations have been on a downward trajectory in recent years. The US is concerned about everything from China’s military activity around Taiwan, to its refusal to condemn Russia over the Ukraine invasion. Meanwhile, Beijing accuses the US of trying to contain China with export controls on advanced technology and security measures it has taken with allies.The relationship reached its nadir when the Chinese balloon appeared over North America in late January and travelled across the continent, including over sensitive military sites, before the US shot it down.Over the past month, there have been signs of improvement. The Financial Times reported that CIA director Bill Burns secretly visited China in May, and in the same month US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official, in Vienna. Biden later said at the G7 in Hiroshima, Japan, that he expected an imminent “thaw” in relations. One senior US official said that relations were now “in a place where we can move forward with the Bali agenda”.“That’s what this trip is about,” said the official, who cautioned that Blinken was “very clear-eyed” that progress would be “hard” to achieve.“This trip is a reconnection, not detente. It needs to stop the freefall in relations and find a basis for stability,” said Evan Medeiros, a Georgetown University China expert. “Both countries need and want the meeting to not go badly, but it’s too early to talk about success.”Daniel Kritenbrink, the top state department official for east Asia, said Blinken had three goals, including the need for communication channels to ensure competition “does not veer into conflict”. He said Blinken would also raise issues of concern while looking for possible areas of co-operation.Dennis Wilder, a former CIA top China expert, said the visit would end a period of “deep acrimony” but do little to tackle the “fundamental distrust”.“The Chinese remain miffed by Secretary Blinken’s postponement of his visit earlier this year and his public warnings to Beijing at the Munich Security Conference [in February] about potential Chinese lethal aid to Russia”.Blinken will hold two days of meetings with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang and other officials. It is unclear if he will meet Xi, who he was scheduled to see in February. Wilder said any decision by Xi not to meet Blinken would be a “strong signal” that China was concerned that the US would take more steps to restrain its advanced technology development and other “de-risking” efforts.One Chinese scholar said Blinken’s trip would only be judged successful if he met Xi. He said it would amount to a “snub” if he only met Qin or Wang since they are not as powerful in China as the secretary of state in the US. While US officials say enough time has passed since the balloon incident to restart high-level meetings, it still hangs over the relationship. The FT previously reported that China was reluctant to grant Blinken a visit over concerns the FBI would release the results of an investigation into the balloon. In a letter citing the FT story, 19 Republican senators this week urged Biden not to succumb to Chinese efforts to “coerce the US into silence” and to release the FBI findings “immediately”.Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House China committee, said he has reviewed some material related to the balloon provided by the FBI and that the information was “eye opening”.“For them [China] to call it a weather balloon . . . is not a great look for them,” he added.Asked on Saturday if the trip could help ease tensions, Biden said Xi did not know what the balloon, which China claims was a weather observation vessel, was doing. “It was more embarrassing than it was intentional,” he said, adding that he hoped to meet Xi “over the next several months”.Republican head of the House China committee Mike Gallagher told the FT that the president’s comments were “naive and misleading”.“We cannot afford to mistake the Chinese Communist party’s recent violations of our sovereignty and increasing aggression as mere accident”.Some analysts said China may want a “tactical pause” in tensions to enable it to address its ailing economy, which is struggling to recover from previous stringent Covid restrictions. US export controls and Chinese moves to tighten anti-espionage laws and crack down on foreign consultancies have also hurt investor sentiment in China.But in a warning to those hoping for a quick thaw, China’s foreign ministry on Friday gave the US a tongue-lashing, cautioning Washington against continually seeking “communications” while “damaging China’s interests”.Back in Washington, the Biden administration also faces criticism from Republicans, including Gallagher, who has described the efforts to deal with Beijing as “zombie engagement”. This week he told CNBC that efforts to provide China with olive branches to induce engagement was an “invitation to aggression”.But Krishnamoorthi, his Democratic counterpart, said high-level meetings could help stabilise relations and were needed to communicate clearly to China how its aggressive behaviour could “trigger escalation”.“Mike might like zombie movies . . . but it’s really important that we have these talks, that we do everything we can to be clear and listen carefully at the same time and then try to find ways to discourage aggression.”Follow Demetri Sevastopulo on Twitter More

In response to a tweet suggesting that a Twitter video app is needed, Musk replied “It’s coming”. New CEO Linda Yaccarino and Musk had in an investor presentation on Thursday laid out Twitter’s plans to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships to revitalize the social media company’s business beyond digital advertising. The investor presentation was reviewed by Reuters.One slide of the presentation said that vertical video accounted for more than 10% of time spent on Twitter.Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson launched a new show earlier this month on the platform called “Tucker on Twitter.” Twitter envisions that it could sell ads and sponsorships alongside videos from Carlson and other content creators, a source familiar with the matter had told Reuters. More

The new dates announced by Britain’s largest education union come on top of at least six days of walk-outs by teachers in England from February to May. Teachers rejected a government pay offer for an average rise of 4.5% plus a 1,000 pound one-off payment in April. The union is now holding another ballot on more strikes for this Autumn. While teachers in Wales and Scotland have settled their dispute, the NEU said Britain’s Education Minister Gillian Keegan was not doing enough to stop further industrial action in England. “Time and again the National Education Union, alongside its sister unions, have called for the Education Secretary to get around the negotiation table to settle this dispute for a fully-funded teacher pay increase. Time and again our calls have fallen on stony ground,” the NEU said. Britain’s education ministry said the strikes would hurt students and cause more disruption for parents.”Thousands of schools are receiving significant additional funding as part of the extra 2 billion pounds of investment we are providing for both 2023/24 and 2024/25 which will take school funding its highest level in history next year, as measured by the IFS,” it added.Workers in healthcare, transport, the civil service and other sectors have gone on strike over the past year across Britain in pay disputes as inflation reached 40-year-highs. More

“Although we expect further declines in inflation going forward, markets appear considerably more optimistic than we are about the pace of cooling,” the Goldman strategists wrote in the note dated on Friday, according to the Bloomberg report.Markets are ignoring the potential for “delayed-onset inflation” in sectors such as healthcare, the strategists wrote, Bloomberg reported.The strategists wrote that investors could be assuming that a sharp deceleration in U.S. economic growth will lead to a more rapid easing of price pressures. But the strategists, according to the Bloomberg report, saw limited chances for those factors to bring down inflation. The U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but signaled in new projections that borrowing costs may still need to rise due to a slower inflation decline.The Goldman strategists recommended that investors who share their viewpoint on inflation buy one-year swaps to bet on inflation realizing higher than current market pricing, according to the Bloomberg report. More