Chinese President Xi refuses to back Zelensky’s unilateral ‘peace conference’

 

Any talks should be recognized by both Russia and Ukraine, the Chinese leader has insisted 

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on May 6, 2024. © AFP / Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that he would support an international Ukraine peace conference only if it’s recognized both by Moscow and Kiev with equal participation of all parties.

The upcoming Swiss-proposed talks are scheduled to take place on June 15-16 at the Burgenstock resort near Lucerne. More than 160 delegations from around the world have been invited to take part, including members of the G7, G20, BRICS, EU, and others. Russian diplomats are not among them.

Xi, who met with with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, warned against smearing China over the Ukraine conflict, insisting that Beijing was playing a “positive role” in trying to find a peaceful solution.

Xi told reporters during a joint news conference: “We [China] are opposed to using this crisis to place the responsibilities on a third country and tarnish its image and incite a new Cold War.”

• China has also long urged peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, and issued a 12-point peace plan to end the hostilities one year into the conflict, in February 2023. 
• The initiative, which was hailed by Moscow, includes a call for a cessation of hostilities, a resumption of peace talks, abandoning the “Cold War mentality,” and respecting the sovereignty of all nations.

READ MORE: Swiss summit on Ukraine a ‘parody’ – Lavrov

“History has shown conflicts can only be resolved by negotiations,” the Chinese leader stressed on Monday, noting there should be equal participation of all parties and fair discussion of all peace plans.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry said recently Bern was “convinced” that a peace process without Russia is “unthinkable,” but Moscow had not been invited “at this stage.”

• Moscow has previously called the proposed conference “pointless” and said it would not participate, even if invited. 
• Ukraine has indicated that Russia would only be invited if it agreed to a litany of preconditions which Moscow has branded as “absurd.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called the upcoming event a “parody of negotiations” at which Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will be promoted. Lavrov also stated in an interview on Monday the ‘peace plan’ on which the summit will be centered contains “an openly illusory and Russophobic essence.”

In contrast to Beijing’s proposal to end the fighting, Kiev’s ten-point peace formula – first presented by Zelensky in the autumn of 2022 – demands the complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from all territories Ukraine considers its own, for Moscow to pay reparations, and for a war crimes tribunal.

Russia has rejected the proposals as “unrealistic” and a sign of Kiev’s unwillingness to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Moscow has repeatedly said it is willing to resolve the Ukraine conflict peacefully but will not accept a deal that ignores its national interests.

 __________________________________________________________________________

• China’s Xi visits EU to avert trade war – media
• Macron ‘breathes Russophobia’ – Lavrov
• France and EU pressuring China over Russia
• Moscow slams France’s ‘belligerent rhetoric’
• Western leaders are ‘infantile morons’ – Medvedev

 

The Wall Street Journal

21 hours ago

Russia-China Summit Showcases Challenge to the West - WSJ

RFE/RL

22 hours ago

Switzerland Agrees To Zelenskiy's Request To Host Peace Summit

BBC

976 × 549

Ukraine war: Zelensky wants Xi Jinping meeting following China's peace plan

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Much Ado About Something...but Let's not Speculate

 "I can't really say much about it right now. Certainly, it's a better question put to our DOD [Department of Defense] colleagues, but we're certainly aware of this case," Kirby responded on Monday to a question about the report during a press briefing.

CBS News

29 minutes ago

American soldier arrested in Russia

Uploaded: May 6, 2024

An American soldier has been arrested in Russia after being accused of stealing from a woman. The soldier was stationed in South Korea and traveled to Russia on his own as he was set to return to the ...

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U.S. soldier arrested in Russia over the weekend

U.S. officials said the soldier, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to Fort Cavazos in Texas. Instead, officials said he traveled to Russia.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel details.

Cynthia Smith, a U.S. Army spokeswoman, confirmed to Newsweek via email Monday that a soldier was detained on Thursday on charges of criminal misconduct. She added that Russia notified the U.S. and the soldier's family has been informed.

"The Russian Federation notified the U.S. Department of State of the criminal detention in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The Army notified his family and the U.S. Department of State is providing appropriate consular support to the Soldier in Russia. Given the sensitivity of this matter, we are unable to provide additional details at this time," Smith told Newsweek.

U.S. soldier arrested in Russia over the weekend

Jacob Knutson

A Russian military parade in Moscow on May 2. Photo: Contributor/Getty Images

A U.S. soldier who had been stationed in South Korea was arrested in Russia over the weekend, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed on Monday.

Why it matters: In recent years, multiple former U.S. service members have been arrested in Russia on charges denounced by the U.S. as baseless.

• The arrest was first reported by NBC News.
• Kirby did not name the soldier at the press briefing, or give charging details. He said only that the White House was aware of the situation.

What they're saying: The Department of Defense directed questions to the U.S. Army, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• The Department of State also did not immediately respond to a request.

Zoom in: The soldier traveled to Russia on his own and not on official business and was arrested on accusations that he stole from a woman, NBC News reported.

• The soldier, a staff sergeant, was arrested in Vladivostok, according to CNN.

Zoom out: Several Americans are currently being held in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan.

• Both have been declared wrongfully detained by the State Department.
• The U.S. State Department has repeatedly urged Americans to leave Russia and has warned that it appears the Russian government is targeting Americans for detention.

Between the lines: Prisoner swaps between the U.S. and Russia in recent years — such as the swap to secure WNBA star Brittney Griner's freedom — have seen Moscow request, and later receive, people who organized international criminal rings so the U.S. could secure the release of Americans.

Go deeper: Russia announces tactical nuclear weapon drills as tensions with West spike

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details.

Forbes

5 hours ago

American Soldier Detained In Russia On Theft Charges

Frosted/Not Funny

 In the midst of the much more important stuff happening in the world, you may have missed a recent interview with Jerry Seinfeld. While doing the press rounds to promote his upcoming movie, the billionaire comedian offered a few thoughts about "why TV isn't funny anymore

Jerry Seinfeld and the fraught history of comedians and 'political correctness'

May 4, 20246:21 AM ET

Leah Donnella

In an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee called "Larry Eats A Pancake," Jerry Seinfeld has coffee with Larry David.

YouTube

His explanation? Political correctness and the extreme left. (His new movie, by the way, is about the race to invent the Pop-Tart – a topic so edgy and iconoclastic that I'm surprised that the woke-mob that runs Hollywood let it happen at all.)

 

Movies

'Unfrosted': Jerry Seinfeld's movie about the fictional history of Pop-Tarts

• 
  

I won't waste anyone's time arguing about how funny today's TV is compared to the TV of yesteryear. But I think it's worth dwelling for a moment on the nature of Seinfeld's critique (which, by the way, is one that he, and other comedians, have been making for nigh on a decade now).

It falls in line with the rich tradition of blaming political correctness for all the ills of the modern world.

Donald Trump has done it many times over the years, including after calling for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Author Anne Rice did it, while defending Paula Deen after the chef admitted to using the N-word ("Aren't we becoming something of a lynch mob culture?" Rice added on Facebook.) Jackson Miller, a former Virginia legislator and member of the "Redskins Pride Caucus," said that pushback against the Washington Football Team's name was "political correctness on overdrive."

[Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Code Switch's Up All Night newsletter. You can sign up here.]

What these statements seem to do, remarkably consistently, is avoid engaging with why someone might find a particular type of joke, or comment, or act of mass discrimination perpetrated by the most powerful person in the world, distasteful. Instead, they caricature the *type* of person who takes issue with these things: a snowflake, a buzzkill, a crybaby.

And one of the convenient things about the term "politically correct" – like "woke," or "cancel culture" or dare I say "DEI," – is that its meaning can change to include just about anything. Does being politically correct mean capitalizing the term Indigenous? Not laughing at a transphobic joke? Trying to push back against racist research policies at an elite university? It's all in the eye of the person trying to dismiss someone else's concerns as whiny.

Code Switch

'Politically Correct': The Phrase Has Gone From Wisdom To Weapon

But as one of my favorite comedians, Gary Gulman, has put it, "I notice that the people who are saying you 'can't say anything,' are saying everything on Netflix for $20 million a whack."

Which has me wondering: If the ones who complain loudest about "PC culture" are wealthy, beloved, highly respected power players who have the resources to – again, make a movie about Pop-Tarts – who is the real crybaby after all?

This newsletter was written by Leah Donnella and edited by Courtney Stein.

Milken Institute Global Conference 2024: Shaping A Shared Future

 

Private Credit to Face Shakeup If Economy Slows, Blue Owl Says

• NY Fed President Williams says eventually there will be rate cuts
• Ken Griffin still sees Fed cuts this year, even if it’s December
• Apollo CEO Rowan says university trustees “asleep at the wheel”
• Citi CEO Fraser expects the equity rally to continue
• Goldman CEO sees room for 10-15 market private-credit “leaders”

    

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

25m ago15:27

Scooping up consumer loans. Fortress Investment Group is buying consumer loans and other types of asset-based debt from financial technology firms and others, said Fortress co-CEO Drew McKnight. He said his firm wasn’t active in the space before but had purchased almost $2 billion of loans since September. Now it has a pipeline of $3 billion of deals.

“It’s the most interesting thing in private credit right now,” McKnight said. Those firms used to sell their loans to regional banks until the string of failures last year made the institutions pull back, he said. Financial technology and other online origination platforms have since flooded hedge funds and private credit lenders looking for buyers for their debt.

Carmen ArroyoReporter

44m ago15:08

Apollo’s predictions for major changes. Stephanie Drescher, the firm’s chief client and product development officer, said more alternative asset managers will target high net-worth individuals and other retail investors in the next two to five years. “We’ve had a massive acceleration, really exceeding expectations for the relationships that we have in wealth,” Drescher told Bloomberg TV at the Milken conference.

Apollo is partnering with private banks and others to educate clients on the benefits and considerations of private investments, she said. And while historically people have thought of private markets as riskier, public markets are “safe and risky at the same time that the private markets are as well and it’s really construction of the portfolio that matters.”

Caleb MutuaCredit Reporter

50m ago15:02

Bloomberg TV

55m ago14:57

Border Deal Post-Mortem. Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma lamented the failure of the bipartisan border deal he struck with Sinema, blaming it on election-year politics. “We lost our season,” he said, saying the bill could have passed if it was finished last year. “It’s not going away.”

Sinema said the White House and Democrats weren’t ready to make the compromises last year that were ultimately needed, and the process -- which she likened to going through the stages of grief -- couldn’t be rushed.

Steven DennisCongress Reporter

Updated 51m ago

56m ago14:57

Senators Sinema, Manchin want a party for moderates. Arizona independent Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin said they’d like to see a new third party that would appeal to moderates. “I obviously think a third party would be great,” Sinema, who quit the Democratic Party to become an independent, told Guggenheim Partners Executive Chairman Alan Schwartz.

Sinema and Manchin warned against calls for the Senate to throw out the filibuster. The body would turn into today’s dysfunctional House “on steroids,” Manchin said. When Schwartz noted Sinema faced a lot of pressure for opposing efforts to end the filibuster rule, she quipped, “That’s where diamonds come from, Alan.”

Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy added that the threat of a third party might do more to force the two parties to work together than actually starting one.

Steven DennisCongress Reporter

Updated 51m ago

1h 54m ago13:58

Brookfield on Renewables Deals and AI. Connor Teskey, CEO of renewable power and transition at Brookfield, said dealmaking is booming in renewables because the sector is poised for enormous growth, as AI drives demand affordable power.

“We’re still going to see a tremendous amount of growth for years and decades in this space,” Teskey said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “The market environment today is going to lead to a ton of transaction of activity.”

Matthew MonksDeals Editor

1h 60m ago13:53

Exxon on energy transition. White House climate adviser John Podesta and ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods didn’t leave the stage without a little friendly sparring about the speed of the energy transition. “My beef with him is I don’t think he’s going fast enough,” Podesta said, adding that every month the world is setting new records for heat as deadly floods and droughts cause havoc.

Woods retorted that rebuilding the world’s energy system is a titanic effort, unprecedented in scale. It will take time. Plus, as a public company, Exxon has a duty to balance the need to generate returns for shareholders with cutting carbon. “The realty is there is no market for carbon reduction yet,” Woods said.

Matthew MonksDeals Editor

Updated 1h 54m ago

2h 8m ago13:44

Crescent Capital on Defaults. There have been fewer defaults in credit than some in the industry were expecting, including JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, according to Crescent Capital co-founder Mark Attanasio.

“We have seen very few defaults in any market and high yields,” said Attanasio, who is also chairman of the Milwaukee Brewers. Stability in capital markets and interest rates have left “plenty of opportunity” in private credit, he said.

Samantha StewartReporter

2h 16m ago13:36

Joe RyanEditor

2h 28m ago13:24

JPMorgan on Deals. Anu Aiyengar, global head of M&A at JPMorgan, said dealmaking is up sharply this year because of stable-to-declining interest rates.

Things are “much better than last year,” Aiyengar said in an interview Monday with Bloomberg TV. “The biggest difference I’d say is certainty. More realistic valuation expectation from sellers and a bit more, what do you say, courage in dealing with the regulatory environment.”

Health care, commodities, infrastructure are among the most active areas, while tech has slowed down a bit, Aiyengar said.

Matthew MonksDeals Reporter

2h 50m ago13:02

As for AI itself, OpenAI’s Lightcap compared it to technological developments in agriculture. “We’ll wonder why we ever staffed people to do those jobs,” he said. Someday, he added, “It will be foreign to anyone born today that you can’t talk to a computer the way you talk to a friend.”

Katie RoofReporter

2h 51m ago13:01

OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap “pleasantly surprised” by regulators. He said that regulatory conversations are necessary and have been “pretty balanced.” He added, “We have to be careful not to stifle innovation.”

Katie RoofReporter

2h 56m ago12:56

Centerbridge on Private Credit. Centerbridge Co-Founder and Managing Principal Jeff Aronson says it’s an excellent time to be in private credit because of the attractive base rate and willingness of companies to engage. He is focused not just on financing buyouts, but also companies that have “nothing to do with the buyout world.”

Regarding Centerbridge’s partnership with Wells Fargo on a private credit fund targeting middle-market, non-sponsor companies, Aronson says he aims to serve customers looking for “something a little different than banks historically have been willing to do.” He expects others to adopt a similar model.

On commercial real estate, Aronson said sentiment is so negative that he’s “so attracted to it.”

Nataly PakCredit Reporter

Updated 2h 55m ago

“Zelensky Can’t Mobilise God” | Russia Warns It May Hit British Targets ...