👋 Saqarik!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where U.S. and Russia meet in Saudi Arabia for first talks on ending the Ukraine war, Turkish police detain 282 suspects in raids targeting suspected PKK militants, and our quiz question revolves around Argentine President Javier Milei’s recent foray into crypto. Meanwhile, Shaimaa el-Khouly in Egypt-based media Al-Manassa reports on how Egypt’s current economic crisis is discouraging its young couples to have kids.
[*Kʼicheʼ, Guatemala]
💡 SPOTLIGHT
Munich 1938-2025: Trump’s plan for Ukraine is a historic act of appeasement
It's easy to negotiate with Vladimir Putin: Just give him what he wants — and then present the deal as a success.
Donald Trump seems to be taking inspiration from the example set by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 on the Georgian question, when the French president “negotiated” with the master of the Kremlin on the future of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as Putin was beginning to “nibble” away at the territories of his former empire by force. Of course, some observers then thought (as they do today about Ukraine) that the words “treason” and “surrender” would have been more accurate than “negotiation.”
Historical references are always interesting to look at. What was being laid out last week at the Munich security conference, and then no doubt in direct diplomatic talks this week in Saudi Arabia (what an honor for Riyadh), is less likely to be a new division of the world, like Yalta in 1944, than a new Munich 1938. An attempt at appeasement that could bear catastrophic consequences.
What is interesting in 2025 is not so much the announced meeting between Trump and Putin, as the fact that one of the parties is giving the other — even before negotiations have begun– what it has wanted. Yes, you will keep all the territories you have conquered, Trump is telling Putin. No, you will not join Nato, he is saying to Zelensky, whom he called after calling Putin, and spoke to for much less time.
Strategic realism on the one hand: Ukraine does not have the means to reconquer its lost territories. Diplomatic realism on the other: Ukraine's entry into NATO is not acceptable to Russia.
It is of course worth noting that in calling Europe to account — the world is a dangerous place, and you need to spend much more on defense (up to 5% of your budget) — Donald Trump continues to speak the truth. Yet in just a few hours last week, the U.S. president has turned Putin's Russia, a pariah state since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, into a partner that is not only acceptable but sought after.
For anyone doubting Donald Trump's radicalism, this is a rude awakening. It should also be a rude awakening for all those Europeans who – perhaps motivated by a desire for a “happy vassalization,” to use the phrase from Italian President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella — are delighted by America's evolution. [...]
— Read the full article by Dominique Moïsi for Les Echos, translated from French by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
European leaders met in Paris yesterday in what German daily Frankfurter Rundschau called “Europe’s crisis summit,” ahead of meetings between Trump administration officials and Russian diplomats to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy, are not at the table during the meetings, which started this morning in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine said that it will not accept an agreement made without its participation.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• U.S. and Russia meet in Riyadh without Ukraine for first talks on ending war. The two countries were expected to discuss ways to end the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine in Saudi Arabia and restore American-Russian relations. Their talks could pave the way for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Ukraine, which is not attending, says no peace deal can be made on its behalf. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue of Ukraine's adhesion to the European Union was its sovereign right but Peskov added that Russia's position was different when it comes to Ukraine joining military alliances like NATO. For more: Munich 1938-2025: Trump's Plan For Ukraine Is A Historic Act Of Appeasement
• Israel’s ceasefires with Hezbollah and Hamas are both in doubt. Israel’s military says its forces will remain in five strategic locations in southern Lebanon after Tuesday’s deadline for their withdrawal under a ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group. A separate ceasefire in Gaza was also in doubt as the region marked 500 days of Israel’s war with Hamas, while Israel and the United States sent conflicting signals over whether they want the truce to continue. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Middle East here.
• Rebel-held ports in eastern Congo reopen as aid needs grow. Boat traffic returned Tuesday to Lake Kivu in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo as ports reopened in two cities which have fallen to M23 rebels. The United Nations said the ports could facilitate access to aid after weeks of fighting and looting as some warn of a humanitarian catastrophe that could include outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.
• Turkey detains 282 in raids on PKK suspects. Among the detained are journalists, politicians, and academics in the last five days of raids, with Turkish authorities continuing to remove elected pro-Kurdish mayors from their posts over suspected ties to the PKK militant group.
• More than 30 people killed in a bus crash on a mountain road in Bolivia. The vehicle plunged almost 800 meters (2625 ft) into a ravine in the southwestern district of Yocalla. Fourteen people were also injured, including four children, an official from a local hospital said. Bolivia has notoriously dangerous roads, particularly in mountainous areas.
• Vatican cancels pope's engagements. Pope Francis, who is spending his fifth day in the hospital for what doctors described as a "complex" respiratory infection, will not take part in this weekend's Holy Year events. The 88-year-old pontiff has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14.
• News Quiz! Argentine President Javier Milei is facing impeachment calls after tweeting about an apparently bogus cryptocurrency. What’s the name of the digital token involved?
A. MILEICoin
B. TangoToken
C. $LIBRA
D. MaraDOGEna
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
50,000 km
Meta, the umbrella company that includes Facebook and Instagram, announced it would be building a 50,000-km (31,000-mile) sub-sea cable that spans the globe. The underwater connection would connect the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, India, and Southeast Asia in what would be the largest such cable project. These projects used to be something that telecommunications companies worked on primarily, but large tech companies like Meta and Google have begun investing heavily in building out this kind of infrastructure.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇪🇺🇺🇸 There isn't much holding Europe and the U.S. together anymore: neither interests nor values. It's time to start envisioning what comes next.
— DIE ZEIT
👶 Economic crisis and higher inflation in Egypt have prompted many young married people to abandon the idea of having children. And if they decide to have children, they just want one or two at most to be able to provide them a decent life.
— AL-MANASSA
🏝️ In the new season of The White Lotus, Thailand is portrayed as a playground for white debauchery. Despite its obvious criticism of a certain kind of tourism, the show still reduces the country to a digestible set of iconic images for the audience.
— THE CONVERSATION
📣 VERBATIM
“We are not going to transact on democracy and values.”
— Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s competition chief, and the second most powerful EU official, said that the Trump administration had upended the relationship between the U.S. and Europe. She also said that while Europe needs to meet with the U.S. to settle any differences, it shouldn’t sacrifice values-based decisions made by lawmakers and elected officials. This came after U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said last week that European “commissars” were suppressing free speech by enforcing laws meant to prevent spread of disinformation and illegal activity.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
A flight from Minneapolis to Toronto crashed on landing yesterday, flipping over on the tarmac before coming to a rest. All the passengers and crew on board survived, but at least 18 people were injured. A video shot by a passenger shows people exiting the upside-down craft. This is the latest in a series of aviation accidents this year in North America; in January, a passenger jet crashed into an Army Blackhawk, a medical jet crashed in Philadelphia, and a small regional plane in Alaska disappeared before the wreckage was found the next day. — Photo: Teresa Barbieri/The Canadian Press/ZUMA
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jake Shropshire
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
Quiz Answer: C. Argentine President Javier Milei is facing impeachment calls along with legal action accusing him of fraud over his promotion of cryptocurrency on social media. Milei posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the $LIBRA coin on Friday, which he said would help fund small businesses and start-ups. He shared a link to buy it, causing its price to shoot up. But within a few hours, he deleted his post and the cryptocurrency nosedived in value, losing investors most of their money.