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A group of former top U.S. diplomats has been conducting secret peace talks with officials at the highest level of the Russian government since at least April with the goal of negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. That according to NBC News, which published an exclusive report on the talks Thursday just ahead of the 500-day anniversary of Russia’s invasion of its neighbour and as the Biden administration announced a new $800 million weapons package for Ukraine.

Crisis appears to be the default setting for 21st-century capitalist states — but the manifestations of this systemic crisis vary.

President Joe Biden's approval rating has experienced a decline in recent weeks, approaching the lowest point of his presidency. The findings come from a poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which indicates modest fluctuations in support for Biden over the past few months. The latest poll shows a 38% approval rating for the president, compared to 45% in February and 41% in January. The lowest point of his presidency, at 36%, was recorded in July last year when the impact of rising costs on American households became apparent.

The claim that China’s power is peaking is not new. For decades, there have been articles and books predicting that China’s rise is about to end and that its decline—or even collapse—is imminent. However, these predictions have always been wrong. Could this time be different? Let us examine the strongest arguments on both sides of this issue and come to a conclusion.

Nothing on the horizon now threatens the end of the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba. Critical voices inside the United States and beyond fall flat; nothing is in the works, it seems. Recently, however, the United Nations put forth a denunciation that carries unusual force, mainly because of the UN’s legal authority and its practical experience in Cuba.

For the second time in a month, Saudi Arabia has discovered that money buys a lot but not everything. First, there was Argentinian soccer superstar Lionel Messi, who, contrary to Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and several others, turned down a mouthwatering Saudi offer to go to Inter Miami. Now, there is the apparent collapse of the kingdom’s potential joint 2030 World Cup bid with Greece and Egypt.

Still out of breath after the marche blanche in Nanterre — a solemn procession in tribute to Nahel, the seventeen-year-old shot dead by French police in this suburb west of Paris on Tuesday — La France Insoumise (LFI) MP for Seine-Saint-Denis Éric Coquerel is adamant: “This march was historic: at last, the left-wing activist community was there! Bit by bit, something has happened.” For this historic pillar of LFI, a tireless supporter of social struggles and working-class and marginalized neighbourhoods, the parties of the Left have responded to the current riots in a totally different key to their stance toward the riots that broke out in 2005.

While evidence has emerged pointing to disturbing nexus between numerous politicians from the United States, United Kingdom and European Union as well as US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and an undesignated terrorist organization in Bangladesh, there is report about embattled MP from UK’s Tory Party, Bob Stewart, of hiding his directorship of a foreign defence company controlled by a controversial Azerbaijani businessman while sitting on Parliament’s influential defence committee.

Fifty four years ago, on June 28, 1969, when a bar named the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village became ground zero for the modern gay rights movement, there were, of course, no corporate sponsors. No political allies in positions of power. And rather than keeping people safe, police officers were beating and harassing them.

In South Asia, East Pakistan used to receive international media attention only during its natural calamities. Major powers remained mostly fixated on the tensions and conflicts involving India and West Pakistan. Even after breaking away from Pakistan, Bangladesh had to wait patiently for nearly three decades before Western countries — almost reluctantly — began to take an interest in its affairs.