What The Hell America!

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S.-Russia peace talks in Riyadh, a new round of Israel-Hamas negotiations, and Chinese threats against a Philippine plane.

A Meeting in Riyadh

Top U.S. and Russian officials convened in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Tuesday to discuss improving bilateral relations and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. The four-and-a-half-hour meeting marked the most extensive contact between the two adversaries since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, and it signified a stark departure from a U.S. foreign policy that has, until now, sought to isolate the Kremlin on the world stage.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S.-Russia peace talks in Riyadh, a new round of Israel-Hamas negotiations, and Chinese threats against a Philippine plane.

A Meeting in Riyadh

Top U.S. and Russian officials convened in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Tuesday to discuss improving bilateral relations and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. The four-and-a-half-hour meeting marked the most extensive contact between the two adversaries since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, and it signified a stark departure from a U.S. foreign policy that has, until now, sought to isolate the Kremlin on the world stage.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Associated Press on Tuesday after the meeting that both sides had agreed to pursue three key goals: restore staffing at their embassies in Moscow and Washington, explore opportunities for economic cooperation, and create teams for peace talks.

Notably, no Ukrainian representatives were present in Riyadh. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Kyiv would not accept any outcome from this week’s talks since Ukraine was not invited to attend. Zelensky also postponed his planned trip to Saudi Arabia tomorrow until next month to avoid giving the U.S.-Russia talks “legitimacy,” unnamed sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Kyiv’s allies have expressed concern that they, too, are being sidelined. “There will be no peace in Ukraine without Ukraine or Europe,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told Foreign Policy on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this weekend. On Monday, France called an emergency meeting of European countries to further discuss the war, and Paris announced that it will hold a second such meeting on Wednesday.

Rubio tried to assuage these fears on Tuesday, saying, “The European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point because they have sanctions as well that have been imposed,” referring to penalties on Russia. However, Rubio and U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz have indicated that Washington will consult with Kyiv and Brussels but negotiate directly with Moscow.

Russian officials, led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said they would not tolerate Kyiv joining NATO and demanded that the alliance disavow a promise made at the 2008 Bucharest summit that Ukraine could join the bloc at a future, unspecified date. Moscow’s delegation also said Russia would not accept the deployment of European or NATO troops to Ukraine, including as peacekeepers.

The Trump team appeared to consider these bargaining chips. “Just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory, and there’s going to be discussion of security guarantees,” Waltz said on Tuesday, adding that the possibility of Russia retaining control of any Ukrainian territory that it has annexed since 2022 is still “to be discussed.”

Tuesday’s meeting was meant to pave the way for a future summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, though no date has yet been set.

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What We’re Following

Phase two. Israel and Hamas will begin indirect negotiations this week on the second phase of the Gaza cease-fire deal, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday. Talks are expected to focus on the release of more hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the decision as to who will govern Gaza once the war concludes, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory.

Negotiations were supposed to begin on Feb. 4, but a series of diplomatic dilemmas surrounding the release of hostages nearly upended the fragile truce. In a rare moment of hope, though, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on Tuesday to release the remaining six living hostages on Saturday, concluding the first phase of the hostage release deal.

However, mixed signals over Israel’s engagement in phase two—exacerbated by far-right Israeli ministers pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume fighting in Gaza—and Israel announcing on Monday that it will remain in areas of southern Lebanon past Tuesday’s deadline for full withdrawal have regional experts worried about the conflict’s potential resurgence.

Close call. Manila condemned a Chinese navy helicopter’s “reckless” flight maneuver over the South China Sea on Tuesday after it flew within 10 feet of a Philippine patrol plane. Beijing said its helicopter was attempting to force the Philippine plane out of the Scarborough Shoal’s airspace, prompting the Filipino pilot to warn via radio: “You are flying too close. You are very dangerous and endangering the lives of our crew and passengers.”

Both China and the Philippines claim the disputed shoal as well as other areas within the South China Sea; in 2016, an arbitration tribunal based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruled that Beijing does not have sole sovereignty over the maritime area, though China maintains that such a decision is “null and void.” These competing assertions have resulted in several standoffs between Chinese and Philippine marine vessels—but rarely has the geopolitical flash point also taken to the skies.

Manila remains “committed to asserting our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, despite the aggressive and escalatory actions of China,” the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries said, using its own name for the South China Sea. In response, Col. Tian Junli, the spokesperson for China’s Southern Theater Command, accused Manila of spreading “false narratives.”

Civilian killings. Sudanese officials and rights activists accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Tuesday of killing hundreds of civilians in White Nile state. According to the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, the rebel group had targeted villages in the al-Gitaina area in recent days after becoming “certain of their crushing defeat” by the Sudanese military. With at least 433 people killed, including infants, “[t]his massacre is the worst atrocity committed by the terrorist militia since the genocide in Geneina and Ardamita,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Nearly two years after Sudan’s civil war ignited, the African country remains roiled in violence. Fighting has killed around 24,000 people—including more than 4,200 civilians in 2024, according to the U.N.’s human rights office on Tuesday—and displaced around 30 percent of the country’s population. The RSF controls much of western Sudan and parts of the capital, but it has recently lost ground to the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Famine is a primary concern for aid groups, as Sudan and its neighbors suffer from a lack of vital resources, including water, shelter, and medical supplies. To combat this, the United Nations launched an appeal for $6 billion in aid to Sudan on Monday to avert a greater humanitarian catastrophe in the region.

Odds and Ends

New Zealand kicked off its “Everyone Must Go” tourism campaign on Sunday in the hopes of restoring visitor numbers to pre-COVID-19 levels. “What this Tourism New Zealand campaign says to our Aussie mates is that we’re open for business, there are some great deals on, and we’d love to see you soon,” Tourism Minister Louise Upston said. But some have likened the slogan to a clearance sale, bodily functions, and even emigration rates at a time when Kiwis are leaving the country in record numbers. Maybe this latest campaign strategy should also go.