What Xi Jinping’s travel plans say about China’s strategy

Predicting the overseas travel plans of Chinese President Xi Jinping has become something of a parlor game for journalists and foreign-policy observers. Xi has not left China since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and the destination of his first post-pandemic trip – and whom he meets – will speak volumes about China’s strategic priorities.   In the Middle […]

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Russia-Israel relations: It’s complicated

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 9, 2018. Photo: AFP/Sergei Ilnitsky

Being the president of Russia means never having to say you’re sorry, except – remarkably – after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed casually that Adolf Hitler was of partly Jewish descent. Vladimir Putin offered a personal apology to then-Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett. Reflexive Russian anti-Semitism is a dog-bites-man story; a Russian leader’s apology […]

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