The indisputable star of the G-7 was Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who showed up in Hiroshima after hitching a ride on a French military plane with a stopover in Saudi Arabia. Zelensky then worked the room, charming attendees and securing what seemed unthinkable just weeks ago: a US promise to allow its allies to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which Kyiv has long been begging for (no word yet on US direct supplies).
Unfortunately for him, Zelensky didn't make much headway in swaying two fence-sitters: Brazil and India. Although he met with Indian PM Narendra Modi for the first time since the invasion, Modi, who has refused to condemn the invasion and is eager to keep buying Russian oil at a discount, did not give Zelensky his trademark bear hug. Worse, there was no tête-à-tête at all with Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who’s come under fire for saying that the US and Europe are not doing enough to end the conflict. On Monday, Lula claimed Zelensky was late to a scheduled bilat.
Ukraine's president has many friends in the West. But in the Global South, he's struggling to find sympathetic ears among mostly poor, non-aligned nations that simply can’t afford for the war to continue.
When Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called snap elections last month, it was a big gamble. Holding a winter election just four months into her tenure with no real policy record to run on?
Tune in on Saturday, February 14th at 12pm ET/6pm CET for the live premiere of our Global Stage from the 2026 Munich Security Conference, where our panel of experts takes aim at the latest global security challenges.
Microsoft unveiled a new set of commitments guiding its community‑first approach to AI infrastructure development. The strategy focuses on energy affordability, water efficiency, job creation, local investment, and AI‑driven skilling. As demand for digital infrastructure accelerates, the company is pushing a new model for responsible datacenter growth — one built on sustainability, economic mobility, and long‑term partnership with the communities that host it. The move signals how AI infrastructure is reshaping local economies and what people expect from the tech shaping their future. Read the full blog here.
The Israeli government unilaterally passed measures that allow Jewish settlers to purchase land in the West Bank, overriding past laws that effectively banned the sale of property there to anyone other than Palestinian residents.