World Briefing - Odesa Edition: As Washington pushes for wartime elections and Europe debates €210 billion in guarantees, Ukraine faces an impossible gamble with democracy under fire…..

Australia has just flipped the global switch on Big Tech. From today, anyone under the age of 16 is officially locked out of the world’s biggest social media platforms — from Facebook and Instagram to TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Threads, Twitch and X.

A U.S.-backed peace plan for #Ukraine is being rejected. A fragile ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia brokered by US President Donald Trump earlier in July is falling apart. The contortionist-in-chief’s peace appears as a mirage at the moment open.substack.com/pub/worldbri...

From Europe’s growing alarm over the Donbas and security guarantees, to collapsing ceasefires in Southeast Asia, to U.S. naval muscle-flexing off Venezuela’s coast, the global landscape is flashing the same warning: while Donald Trump sells peace as a brand, conflict is multiplying in the real world

The response of @ec.europa.eu top foreign affairs chief @kajakallas.bsky.social sounds dangerously naive, or worse, an attempt to butter up a White House thats signalled it may be game over for Europe as we have long understood it. Read my analysis and watch the video clip in my World Briefing

World Briefing - Odesa Edition: This week, Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy landed in Europe like a political thunderclap — warning of “civilisational erasure,” soft-pedalling Russia as a threat, and openly encouraging political resistance to Europe’s current trajectory from within...

Power outages again in Odesa today but also large parts of the port city without running water… #Ukraine

World Briefing: Europe Edition- From megacities drowning to megacities drying out, the pattern is unmistakable: over-population, aging infrastructure and climate extremes are forming a lethal triangle that governments are dangerously unprepared to confront.

Revelations that abducted Ukrainian children are being transferred thousands of kilometres away to North Korea mark a chilling escalation in Russia’s war — and a new threat vector for the Asia-Pacific. This is no longer just a European security crisis: Moscow is now exporting forced displacement

Putin sends abducted Ukrainian children to North Korea: Girls taught to ‘destroy Japanese militarists’ in communist camp, US Senate hears kyivindependent.com/several-russ...

Even as President Donald Trump threatens land strikes inside Venezuela - casting the country as a narco-state and hinting at regime-change ambitions - his administration is rolling out a policy warmly welcomed by another regime deeply entrenched in the global drug trade: Myanmar’s military junta.

World Briefing: Kyiv Edition- Instead of unity, Europe is distracted and divided, just as Trump’s envoys arrive in Moscow to pitch a peace plan that Kyiv fears would lock in Russian gains…

World Briefing: Germany Edition - From cyber strikes to covert recruitment and disappearing journalists, Moscow tests the limits daily - while NATO debates, Europe warns, and the U.S. chases a peace deal that could let Putin off the hook

Ukraine has earned the right to shape its own future. Washington and Moscow are denying it that right. My OpEd in the Globe and Mail

Trump has defended special envoy Steve Witkoff after a leaked recording appeared to show him advising a Russian official on how to appeal to the US president. Witkoff appeared to advise Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin's foreign policy adviser, on how to get on Trump's good side - BBC

Kyiv hit by Russian missiles &drones overnight, with 6 people now confirmed dead - Mayor. Two residential apartment blocks were hit. Meanwhile, UK PM Keir Starmer says virtual "coalition of the willing" meeting of Ukraine's European allies will take place today

#BREAKING Turkish President Erdogan says he will speak to Vladimir Putin tomorrow to discuss Russia’s war in #Ukraine and opening up sea and transport corridors. He hosted President Zelensky in Ankara recently #G20SouthAfrica #g20

#BREAKING President Zelensky says #Ukraine faces a choice of losing its major partner - USA - or the country's dignity. Says he won't betray his country's national interests to Trump 28-point peace plan for ending the war, which includes many red lines for Kyiv - BBC #G20

On the sidelines of #g20summit in South Africa, I asked EU chief @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu why it took the bloc so long to aid #ukraine and how Brussels could’ve allowed itself to get so sidelined by U.S. peace plan

Preview of the day before the start of the 2-day #G20SouthAfrica leaders summit. Will they or won’t they? Will the Americans lift their senseless boycott of the gathering and send a top level delegation to take over the rotating chairmanship of the informal bloc #G20 #Trump

What’s unfolding looks less like a peace initiative and more like the opening salvo of a Donald Trump-inspired geopolitical carve-up - with Ukraine expected to pay the price. open.substack.com/pub/worldbri...

Chinese Premier Li Qiang has just arrived in Johannesburg for #G20SouthAfrica summit. Here’s my update from South Africa 🇿🇦 with a focus on events in #Ukraine and beyond #G20

Perhaps - just perhaps - this moment will jolt #G20 leaders out of their geopolitical stupor. Yet don’t bet on it.

BREAKING: Death toll in western #Ukraine city of Ternopil surges to 25, including 3 children, as a result of Russian shelling - State Emergency Service. Another 73 people were injured, 15 of them children. The worst-ever casualty number in western regions since start of war

The world can move on, with or without the United States, says G20 host South Africa #g20

World Briefing - G20 South Africa 🇿🇦 Edition: G20 host says all remains on track towards a joint declaration, despite US boycott. “We will mark them absent and continue the business,” Minister for International Relations said #g20

Just landed in Johannesburg for #G20SouthAfrica - where there’s more questions than answers when it comes to the mysterious arrival of two plane loads of undocumented Gazans… #G20

Hybrid warfare in pure form. Not large enough to trigger Article 5. Just large enough to show Russia can intrude, disrupt, intimidate inside NATO w/near-impunity. Takeaway should be: the frontline is not “moving toward” NATO, it has already reached it #G20

Russia didn’t “accidentally” brush up against NATO this week — it engineered a stress test of the alliance. In roughly a 24-hour period, Moscow’s actions touched 3 of the alliance’s states: Poland, Romania & Turkey

Tymur Mindich, a prominent businessman with links to President Zelensky & alleged ringleader of massive corruption scandal in Ukraine’s energy sector, used a luxury taxi service to leave the country for Poland hours before authorities launched raids in connection with their investigation

A covert scheme to move Palestinians out of Gaza — with Israel allegedly facilitating flights to South Africa via the remote Ramon Airport — is drawing sharp scrutiny and prompting an official investigation in Pretoria

Ukrainian Businessman Embroiled In Massive Corruption Scandal Fled To Poland In Luxury Taxi: the former close associate of President Zelensky crossed UA-PL border in a Mercedes Benz hours before cops raided his home - @cxemu www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-mi... #Ukraine

At night, Russia launched an "Iskander-M" missile and 176 drones at Ukraine. In the Odesa region, critical energy infrastructure was hit - including a solar power plant. This is the first known major Russian hit on a renewable energy plant

Sadly this may be a little, too late. Immense reputational damage has been done - to the Zelensky brand and to brand #Ukraine. Will Kyiv demand that ringleader of the latest scam, Timur Mindich, be extradited back to Ukraine to face justice?

Before we head to S Africa for our on-the-ground #G20 coverage, I’m unpacking a turbulent week in #Ukraine — from intensifying Russian strikes to a corruption scandal that threatens to harden the donor climate at the worst possible time open.substack.com/pub/worldbri... #G20SouthAfrica

World Briefing: Asia Edition - As rolling blackouts deepen in #Ukraine and missiles pound the grid, allegations now suggest that more than $100 million meant to protect power plants — including nuclear facilities — was siphoned away open.substack.com/pub/worldbri...

Latest update from #Ukraine: fierce Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv has claimed lives of at least 4 people and injured 25. Seven buildings on fire & Embassy of Azerbaijan damaged. In all: 430 drones + 18 missiles - officials

At least one dead and 24 injured in a massive Russian attack on Kyiv overnight, according to officials. Several multi-floor apartment buildings hit. The heating network has been further compromised as nighttime temperatures hover just above freezing. Odesa also targeted #Ukraine

In Kyiv, there are already 12 injured from an overnight massive Russian attack, say officials. Mayor @Vitaliy_Klychko says some heating networks damaged. Some districts without heating as overnight temps drop to 4C #ukraine

A dark period for Ukraine - in more ways than one. Even as Russian attacks cripple Ukraine’s energy grid, a sweeping corruption scandal is sending political shockwaves through Kyiv. Prosecutors allege multimillion-dollar kickbacks were arranged to protect energy facilities under fire….

Ukraine's energy and justice ministers have resigned in the wake of a major investigation into corruption in the country's energy sector.

World Briefing: Thailand Edition - “Together, these flashpoints expose how the ‘peace’ Trump once boasted of brokering — from South Asia to the Middle East — is teetering under the weight of reality.”

Power outages triggered by Russia targeting of critical infrastructure in #Ukraine pummeling the economy. In some regions of Odesa there will be more hours of the day without power than with - 13 1/2 hours.

The Americas has lost its prized measles elimination status, @who.int confirmed, after more than a year of sustained outbreaks in Canada. In means the entire region — from the Canadian Arctic to Argentina — can no longer claim to be measles-free

From Gulfstreams over Lisbon to data farms in New Jersey, our digital revolution is deepening the climate divide - between those who can fly above the storm and those who must weather it #websummit #cop #cop30

A top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that media reports about Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov falling out of favor “are completely untrue.”

World Briefing Plus: I also examine the growing Russian presence in Thailand, the new exodus of Ukrainian men aged 18–22 following loosened wartime rules, and the PR crisis now facing Kyiv as President Zelensky’s democratic credentials come under scrutiny….

Angelina Jolie’s Driver in Ukraine Is Taken Away for the Draft: not the PR Kyiv would’ve wished from this high-profile visit but reflects the reality of life on the ground in #Ukraine

Trump Bully Diplomacy Meets a Burning Planet: As US envoys strong-arm smaller nations to block UN pollution pact, world leaders in Brazil denounce his climate denialism - exposing a superpower willing to scorch alliances as easily as the atmosphere #COP30

The embattled Thai host of #MissUniverse had quite the rap sheet well before the ongoing pageant here in Bangkok. His insulting treatment of Miss Mexico and other contestants shouldn’t have come as a surprise youtu.be/i8kOAxV-JtE?...