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Europe
Germany
November 16, 2024 12:19 AM ET German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who faces a political crisis at home, spoke yesterday with Russian President Putin in a hour-long call. "The chancellor urged Russia to be willing to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace and stressed Germany's unwavering determination to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression for as long as necessary,’ Government spokesman Hebestreit said in a statement. Scholz condemned Russian air raids on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and warned that the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia to fight in the war would mark a serious escalation. The Kremlin said Germany initiated the call, during which the leaders had a detailed and frank exchange of opinions on the situation in Ukraine. Putin responded that any peace deal should acknowledge Russia's territorial gains and security demands, including that Kyiv renounce joining NATO. Putin blamed the current crisis on what he called NATO's "long-standing aggressive policy aimed at creating an anti-Russian stronghold on Ukrainian territory while ignoring our country's security interests and trampling on the rights of Russian-speaking residents," a Kremlin readout said. Putin also said Russia remains open to resuming peace talks, pointing to conditions he laid out in June that included Kyiv renouncing its bid to join NATO and withdrawing troops from the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow annexed in 2022. "Possible agreements should take into account the interests of the Russian Federation in the security sphere, proceed from new territorial realities, and most importantly, eliminate the root causes of the conflict," the readout said. Putin, who earlier this month said it's up to Western leaders to resume contact with Russia if they want, also noted the unprecedented degradation in bilateral relations between Germany and Russia, the Kremlin statement said, while noting that leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East. Kremlin spokesman Peskov said the leaders had a "detailed" and "frank" exchange of opinions but added that "there is no talk about convergence of opinions.’ It was Kremlin leader's first publicly announced conversation with the sitting head of a major Western power in nearly two years. The two sides agreed to remain in contact after the call. (Source: National Public Radio / The Associated Press – U.S.)
Asia
China
November 16, 2024 01:01 JST China plans to tighten export controls on key "dual-use’ technologies and items - used for both civilian and military purposes - including raw materials and metals such as tungsten, graphite, magnesium and aluminum alloys used commonly in tech supply chains. Materials such as graphite, aluminum alloys and titanium alloys that are widely used in making electronics products showed on the official dual-use list and will be under export controls if their specifications meet China's new rules. The new controls also include tungsten and magnesium alloys that meet certain specifications. For example, exporters of aluminum alloys with extreme elasticity and an outer diameter larger than 75 millimeters will have to apply for an export license from the Commerce Ministry. China controls more than 80% of the extraction and processing of global tungsten supply, along with around 90% of global magnesium production, according to a European Union estimate on global critical materials supplies. All of these critical metals not only are used widely in the electronics supply chain, but also are indispensable to build defense equipment, weapons, aviation and spacecraft. The export control list also covers certain testing and production equipment, such as analog-to-digital converters that can operate in temperatures ranging from 125 C down to minus 54 C, and lithium isotope separation facility and production equipment. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's biggest contract chipmaker, recently notified some Chinese AI and graphics processing units clients to put on hold production for their 7-nanometer chips. The Taiwanese chipmaker is strengthening scrutiny to avoid running afoul of Washington's stringent export controls against blacklisted Chinese companies, such as Huawei Technologies. China has been tightening export controls on critical materials such as gallium, germanium, rare earths and antimony as countermoves to battle sweeping U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductor and artificial intelligence technologies. Tighter Chinese export controls covering so-called dual-use items take effect on Dec. 1. The move comes right after former U.S. President Trump's victory in the presidential election. (Source: Nikkei – Japan)
Turkey
16.11.2024 Türkiye today declared the EU’s Maritime Spatial Planning maps of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas to be 'null and void' with no legal effect. It has repeatedly stressed that its issues with Greece, its Aegean neighbor, should be handled between the two countries, not through the EU or any third countries. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
North America
United States
11/16/2024 07:00 AM EST The gender divide has sundered Korean society - and now it’s coming for the U.S. 'No sex, No dating, No babies, No marriage; the 4B movement could change America'. If the movement takes hold, it could potentially lead to some of the same outcomes as have been seen in Korea, where women are reconsidering dates with men out of suspicion and lack or trust, young people are marrying and having children at lower rates, and both men and women are expressing deep loneliness. 'Politicians could take advantage of the divide for their own gains, leaning harder into gender-divide politics, and even outright sexist rhetoric'. And even women may turn against one another; American women are already arguing about the inclusivity of the movement. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
See also: 'give America a severely sharp birth rate decline' (Source: X - U.S.):
Since Nov. 6., 2024. 7:05 AM: 21,3 Million views
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