China and Russia “cannot be moved away” from one another, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told his counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday, in their first phone call since US President Donald Trump upended American foreign policy with a sweeping pivot toward Moscow as he pushes for peace in Ukraine.

The call, which took place as Kyiv marked the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion, stands as a clear message from Beijing that its relations with its key diplomatic partner will not be shaken by Washington’s warming relations with the Kremlin.

“History and reality show that China and Russia are good neighbors that cannot be moved away, and true friends who share weal and woe,” Xi told Putin, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua, evoking a phrase the Chinese leader had used to mark the symbolically significant 70th anniversary of their diplomatic ties in 2019.

“The development strategies and foreign policies of China and Russia are for the long-term,” he added, reiterating that their ties wouldn’t be influenced by “any third party.”

“Despite changes in the international situation, China-Russia relations will proceed with ease,” the Chinese leader said.

The Kremlin described the call as “warm and friendly” in its readout but did not elaborate on the strength of their ties to the same degree as Beijing’s.

“The leaders particularly emphasized that the Russian-Chinese foreign policy link is the most important stabilizing factor in world affairs. It is strategic in nature, is not subject to external influence, and is not directed against anyone,” the Kremlin said.

The closely anticipated call between the close partners comes as Moscow’s position on the international stage has undergone a significant transformation in recent weeks, as Trump has sought to bring Putin alongside in his push to end the fighting in Ukraine in a significant shift of American policy.

Top Trump administration officials met Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia last week after signaling they could cede to some of Moscow’s key demands – raising concerns that peace would be brokered over the heads of Kyiv and its European partners. Trump has also parroted Kremlin rhetoric about the war and launched a barrage of criticism against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Putin updated Xi on the latest contacts between Russia and the US during their call, according to readouts from both sides.

Xi said that “China is pleased to see Russia and other parties concerned making positive efforts to resolve the crisis,” according to Xinhua.

“The Chinese side expressed support for the dialogue that has begun between Russia and the United States, as well as readiness to assist in finding ways to peacefully resolve the Ukrainian conflict,” the Kremlin readout said.

Beijing’s readout noted that the call was initiated by Putin.

Xi and Putin navigate a new American foreign policy

Despite declaring neutrality in the conflict, China emerged as a key diplomatic and economic backer of Russia since its invasion, with NATO accusing Beijing of powering Russia’s defense industrial base with dual-use goods. China defends its “normal” trade.

Xi and Putin – who weeks before the invasion declared a “no limits” partnership – have long seen the other as a key partner in a shared power struggle with the West.

But recent US efforts have raised questions about whether Washington could drive a wedge between the two strongmen.

Following a meeting of top US and Russian official in Riyadh last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio named the possibility for future “geopolitical and economic cooperation” between Washington and Moscow as among four key points discussed.

Days earlier, the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg told a panel discussion in Munich that the US hoped “to force” Putin into actions he was “uncomfortable with,” which could include disrupting Russia’s alliances with Iran, North Korea and China.

Chinese officials gave initial signals that it shared concerns about the bilateral US-Russia diplomacy taking place over Beijing and European leaders’ heads.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich following the Trump-Putin call earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi voiced support for US-Russia efforts toward peace but added that “all parties and all stakeholders” should be involved in peace talks.

However, that language about participation was missing from the Chinese diplomat’s remarks to a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Johannesburg on Thursday, where Wang held a sideline meeting with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and the two hailed their countries’ growing cooperation.

China “supports all efforts dedicated to peace, including the recent consensus reached between the US and Russia,” Wang told G20 counterparts at the gathering. A “window for peace is opening” on the war, he added.

Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago in an onslaught that has killed tens of thousands and displaced about 10 million people. The invasion has also laid waste to Ukrainian cities and drawn allegations of war crimes by Moscow’s forces, which are entrenched in parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

The Israeli military this weekend deployed tanks to the occupied West Bank for the first time in two decades.

In the background of a Gaza ceasefire, Israel has steadily escalated an intense military operation in Palestinian cities in the West Bank, killing dozens and displacing tens of thousands of residents.

Since Hamas’ October 7 attack, Israel has regularly launched airstrikes on the West Bank, which was almost unheard of before. Its defense minister, Israel Katz, said on Sunday that he’d instructed the military to stay for a year and “to prevent the return of residents.”

US President Donald Trump has come under withering criticism for his proposal to expel 2.1 million Palestinians from Gaza. And yet, as the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz alleged in an editorial Monday, “Israel is already doing in the West Bank what it threatens to do in Gaza.”

Here’s what’s happening.

What is the West Bank?

The West Bank, a territory that lies west of the Jordan River between Israel and Jordan, has been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967. It is home to more than 3.3 million Palestinians.

Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem – including the Old City, with its religious landmarks – from Jordan after a brief war in 1967. Many Israelis believe that Jews have a biblical right to the land, which they call Judea and Samaria.

Since Israel captured the West Bank, around half a million Jewish Israelis have built homes in towns known as “settlements.” Because the West Bank is considered to be occupied under international law, these settlements are illegal, but they are condoned – and even encouraged – by the Israeli government.

In the 1990s, Israel and Palestinian factions started a peace process, which came to be known as the Oslo Accords. The agreement set up a Palestinian government, known as the Palestinian Authority, which would have jurisdiction in parts of the West Bank and Gaza, ahead of the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Many communities in Palestinian cities are known as refugee camps. Though they now resemble urban neighborhoods, they were established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war for Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the creation of Israel.

In July, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ top court, issued an unprecedented advisory opinion that found Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be illegal, and called on Israel to end its decades-long occupation.

What has happened since October 7?

There has always been tension between Palestinians and the Israeli government in the West Bank. Israel has for many years carried out regular incursions into Palestinian communities – targeting, it says, Palestinian militants.

But Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel ushered in a new era.

The Israeli military ramped up its restrictions on Palestinians, setting up new checkpoints and restricting who could cross from the West Bank into Israel. There was a spike of attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians, killing dozens.

Armored Israeli bulldozers often rip up tarmacked roads during these incursions. Israel argues it’s a necessary tactic to unearth improvised explosive devices, but it often leaves whole neighborhoods entirely impassable.

Israel has also targeted other aspects of Palestinian life in the West Bank. The Knesset, the country’s parliament, passed a law last year that would make it extremely difficult for the United Nations’ agency for Palestinians to continue operations, alleging that UNRWA, as it’s known, hasn’t done enough to crack down on extremism in its ranks. UNRWA educates 45,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and provides nearly a million annual patient visits at 43 health care facilities.

What’s happening now?

Israel launched an even more aggressive military operation in the northern West Bank in January, focused on the Jenin refugee camp, dubbed “Operation Iron Wall.” Israel says the operation is necessary to root out Iranian-backed militants who threaten its security.

The defense minister has said that Israel is applying its Gaza playbook to the West Bank.

“A powerful operation to eliminate terrorists and terror infrastructure in the camp, ensuring that terrorism does not return to the camp after the operation is over – the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza,” Katz said last month.

Israel’s operation has forced more than 40,000 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, according to the United Nations. The military has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Among those are at least 184 children. Just this weekend, the Israeli military admitted its forces had killed two 13-year-old children, and that it was investigating the incidents.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, told reporters in Brussels on Monday that “it’s military operations taking place there against terrorists and (there are) no other objectives but this one.”

What role does Trump play?

It is impossible to ignore the role of Trump. His election has emboldened those in Israel who want the government to extend full Israeli sovereignty to West Bank settlements, a process known as annexation. Some want to go even further and annex all of the West Bank.

Trump said earlier this month that “people do like the idea” of annexation, “but we haven’t taken a position on it yet.”

“But we’ll be making an announcement probably on that very specific topic over the next four weeks,” he said.

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who is in charge of West Bank settlements, ordered preparations for annexation, saying that Trump’s election “brings an important opportunity for the state of Israel.” The only way to remove the “threat” of a Palestinian state, he said, “is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the entire settlements in Judea and Samaria.”

The finance minister seems to play a big role in Netanyahu’s more aggressive approach. Smotrich was against the Gaza ceasefire and is pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return to war there. He is a West Bank settler himself. In January, Smotrich said that the government now considers security in the West Bank to be an official “war goal.”

“After Gaza and Lebanon, today, with God’s help, we have begun to change the security concept in Judea and Samaria,” he said.

How did things change this weekend?

Israel’s invasion of Jenin refugee camp was already a significant escalation. But this weekend it became clear that it had no end in sight.

On Friday, Netanyahu visited Jenin and praised the “wonderful job” troops were doing. A photo circulated of him sitting with commanders inside a Palestinian home that the military requisitioned as a command center.

“We are eliminating terrorists, commanders,” he said. “We are doing very, very important work against the desire of Hamas and other terrorist elements to harm us.”

Then on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deployed a tank platoon to Jenin – the first time tanks have been sent into the West Bank since 2002, during the Second Intifada, or uprising. It’s a sign of just how militarized the operation there has become. The Israeli military no longer believes that ground troops – and even airstrikes – are enough.

And while Trump and Israel’s extremist ministers make plans to expel Gaza’s population, Israel’s defense minister Katz announced that the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have left their West Bank homes in recent weeks will not be allowed to return.

“Today, I instructed the IDF to prepare for an extended presence in the cleared camps for the next year, and not to allow the return of residents and the resurgence of terror,” he said.

Germany’s political system is set up to exclude extremists. Yet the country is waking up to a new political reality that has lurched to the right with the once outcast Alternative for Germany (AfD) party now firmly established in German politics.

The country’s mainstream conservatives, as polls predicted, won the largest share of votes in Sunday’s election according to official preliminary results and will be looking to form the next government, while the AfD came in second. But make no mistake – second place is a huge result for a party that although it likely won’t be in office once the dust settles, will enjoy expanded influence.

The party has doubled its support since the previous election in 2021, when it received 10.3% of the vote. It is now the first far-right party in Germany’s post-World War II history to have attained such broad levels of public popularity, and it has also significantly increased its share of seats in Germany’s parliament, or Bundestag.

The AfD reached a particularly large number of voters in eastern Germany, where it has long had a stronghold. But it also gained some significant support in constituencies in the country’s west, including the industrial city of Gelsenkirchen which has been suffering with stagnating economy and high unemployment, and Kaiserslautern, which is surrounded by a number of US military installation, including the Ramstein Air Base.

“We have never been stronger – we are the second-biggest force,” AfD co-leader Alice Weidel gloated, as she addressed crowds in Berlin after exit poll results were revealed on Sunday evening.

The mood at the far right’s election party in Berlin was ecstatic as the exit polls first flashed onto the screens, with people cheering and waving Germany flags.

For his part, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader and Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz claimed victory as he slammed US interference in the country’s election campaign – which saw high-profile figures from the Trump administration speak out in support of the AfD.

These interventions are “no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow,” Merz said.

Formed in reaction to Eurozone policies in 2013, the AfD had become accustomed to being on the fringe of German politics, in a country scarred by its Nazi past and where any far-right party has been treated with caution.

It only secured its first seats in the Bundestag in 2017 and struggled to find a platform on Germany’s traditional media due to its strident anti-migrant and anti-Islam rhetoric. This election marks the first time the party has ever fielded a candidate for chancellor.

The party has called for “remigration” – the mass expulsion of immigrants. The controversial policy has drawn comparisons to the Nazi era. The AfD is officially suspected of right-wing extremism by German authorities, and parts of it have been under government surveillance.

All that appears to have changed. The AfD is now Germany’s largest opposition party, making it a major political contender that cannot be ignored. It has driven the debate in Germany while forcing mainstream rivals to recognize that they need to do more on flashpoint issues if they want to retain votes.

Their rise reflects what has been happening across Europe where a host of hard-right parties have made gains. Whether in the Netherlands, France or Austria, such parties can no longer easily be dismissed as political outcasts when they have won over sizeable shares of the vote – or in the case of Italy, run the country.

Having a significant voice in parliament means that “they [the AfD] will be able to apply pressure on the major parties from a position of greater strength,” said Gemma Loomes, a Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Keele University.

“The surge in support will embolden the party to talk, perhaps even more aggressively, about the issues that matter most to them but that the major parties are reluctant to address,” Loomes added.

All this begs the question: can the so-called “firewall” – an unofficial agreement between Germany’s mainstream parties to band together to keep the AfD out of power – last?

Merz’s controversial decision to push through an immigration bill with help from the AfD in January could be an early indication of how he intends to proceed in his chancellery.

She believes there may already be a “crack” in the firewall.

“In five, or 10, or 15 years it may no longer be there,” she speculates, perhaps at the regional level initially, if not the national level.

“The real question for center parties is how do we address voters’ genuine grievances, and how do we do it in a way that doesn’t just amplify the far right.”

Meanwhile, AfD politicians already have their sights firmly set on the next election in 2029 – when they are determined the firewall” will no longer exist.

Similarly, Weidel told reporters in Berlin on Monday morning, “Friedrich Merz has decided to maintain his blockade stance towards the AfD. We consider this blockade to be undemocratic. You cannot exclude millions of voters per se.”

Merz’s right-wing pivot ‘fraught with danger’

Merz now faces a tightrope walk as he seeks to form a new government while carving out a new path for the CDU.

The CDU has been ever-present in Germany’s post-war era and oversaw the reunification of east and west.

Yet, at the same time, everything has changed since it was last in power.

No longer tied with the liberal, “open door” policies it became synonymous with under Angela Merkel, Merz has vowed to bring the party back to its more conservative roots as part of efforts to counter the far right.

However, Merz’s promise to pivot the CDU back to the right does not come without risks. The move threatens to further embolden the AfD while isolating the CDU’s more centrist supporter base.

For Loomes, it is a decision that is “fraught with danger.”

“The AfD currently has positioned itself as the only party willing to talk about immigration and to propose radical action to tackle the perceived problem,” she said.

“If the CDU positions itself in this space, it risks being perceived as a less authentic version of the AfD. Voters are convinced the AfD cares passionately about limiting immigration; they may be less convinced it is a genuine priority for the CDU.”

Merz’s new government will likely involve the other major centrist party, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), which led Germany’s previous coalition and came out third in Sunday’s vote.

However, coalition building could prove difficult, with the two parties potentially clashing on key issues, particularly foreign policy. There are no guarantees that the new government will not be as incohesive and unable to govern as the previous coalition.

Transatlantic winds

While Germany has long held far-right parties with a disdain not seen in its European neighbours, some Germans believe the time has come to break old taboos.

And the AfD’s powerful transatlantic ally is only serving to bolster this view.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk addressed crowds during a surprise appearance at the AfD campaign launch in January. “There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that,” he said, in a speech that echoes AfD talking points and was met with rapturous applause.

Meanwhile, in a scathing speech at the Munich Security Council, US Vice President JD Vance told Europe’s leaders that there is “no room for firewalls” in a democracy, a clear nod to the AfD.

Merz will have to contend with a Trump administration that has praised a key rival and appears set on dismantling long-term security ties between Europe and the US.

A strong Berlin government and a united Europe now seems more important than ever. The continent is searching for leadership as Trump moves ahead on Ukraine peace talks without its involvement.

For Merz, Europe’s independence from the US is a prime concern. “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” he said at a televised roundtable with other party leaders Sunday evening.

While Germany’s mainstream has held off a radical far-right government, Merz’s challenges are only just beginning.

Russia says it is open for economic cooperation with the United States, including on energy and mining rare earth minerals.

Moscow’s comments came after US President Donald Trump said Monday he was in “serious discussions” with Russia about ending its war with Ukraine and was “trying to do some economic development deals” with Moscow, noting its “massive rare earth” deposits.

The comments also follow discussions between the US and Ukraine, in which Trump has demanded access to nearly half of Ukraine’s mineral resources in exchange for military aid.

“I want to stress that we certainly have much more of such resources than Ukraine,” Putin said of Russia’s rare earth deposits in an interview with state media correspondent Pavel Zarubin.

“Russia is one of the leading countries when it comes to rare metal reserves. By the way, as for new territories, we are also ready to attract foreign partners – there are certain reserves there too,” Putin said, in an apparent reference to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

He added that Russia would be willing to sell “about 2 million tons” of aluminum to the US market if the US lifted sanctions restricting the import of Russian metals.

Putin also said Trump’s approach to Russia and Ukraine has been “based not so much on emotions as on cold calculation, on a rational approach to the current situation.”

The statements by Putin and his special envoy came the same day as Trump boasted about his ability to make a deal that could end the war between Russia and Ukraine during a joint press conference with the visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I’ve spoken to President Putin, and my people are dealing with him constantly, and his people in particular, and they want to do something,” Trump said during the conference at the White House.

“I mean, that’s what I do. I do deals. My whole life is deals. That’s all I know, is deals. And I know when somebody wants to make it and when somebody doesn’t,” Trump added.

Ukraine has said previously that it wants security guarantees from the US as part of any deal – something the US president has so far refused to be drawn on.

Later, when asked what makes him think he can trust Putin, Trump responded: “I think it’s to the very much benefit of Russia to make a deal and to go on with – go on with leading Russia in a very positive way. That’s what you have to do.

“I really believe that he wants to make a deal,” Trump said of Putin. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe he wants to make a deal.

Editor’s Note: This article contains distressing details from the outset.

The numbers involved in France’s largest child abuse trial are staggering: 299 alleged victims, sexually abused in 10 hospitals and clinics over 25 years – all by one doctor, prosecutors say.

As the court case began Monday in Morbihan, Brittany, with retired gastrointestinal surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec accused of decades of abuse, many hoped that the trial would mark a turning point in France’s reckoning with child abuse.

From 1986 to 2014, the former surgeon, now 74 and serving a 15-year prison sentence for a prior conviction for the rape and abuse of children, subjected hospital patients as young as two to early adulthood to sexual abuse including rape across the Brittany region of France, court documents allege. Le Scouarnec was employed in private and public institutions despite being convicted of possession of child abuse imagery in 2005.

The documents alleged that Le Scouarnec told investigators that “he did not remember (the alleged assaults) individually,” but “he had been able to commit sexual touching as well as penetrations on some of his patients, and in particular children.”

Beyond the trial, he was convicted in 2020 of abusing his nieces and a neighbor outside a hospital. More than a dozen of his patients sought to join the current case against him, but were barred by French law as their claims exceeded the 30-year statute of limitations.

The trial, expected to last four months, has already captured national attention, just weeks after a horrifying, monthslong mass rape and drugging trial rocked France. Victim Gisele Pelicot became a potent symbol in the struggle to shift the shame around sexual abuse back onto the perpetrators.

Many hope that this child abuse trial will serve a similar purpose, helping to bring about a painful reckoning with the issue in France and the institutions and culture that may have helped such crimes go unchecked for so long.

The oldest alleged victims are now nearly 50 while the youngest is 17.

Child-sized dolls

Such is the scale of the trial, a university lecture hall near the courthouse has been requisitioned to accommodate 400 people, including alleged victims, their families, lawyers and media.

It’s not the first time Le Scouarnec has been before a court on child abuse-related charges.

In 2005, he was convicted of possession of child abuse imagery, following a tip off from the FBI when he signed up to a pedophilia-sharing website. His four-month prison sentence was suspended.

Le Scouarnec was convicted in 2020 in west France of rape of a minor and possession of child abuse imagery, receiving a 15-year sentence, after sexually abusing his neighbors’ daughter through their backyard fence. He has been imprisoned since that trial.

Searches of his property and hospital office turned up his diaries and some 70 child-sized dolls, with which investigators believe he “shared his daily life” before his arrest, naming, dressing and using them for his sexual pleasure.

Delphine Driguez, a lawyer who represented survivors of his abuse at his 2020 trial, agreed with this assessment of Le Scouarnec. “He’s an extremely cold man, without any empathy, very deliberate,” she said.

Satta said that Le Scouarnec’s status as a middle-class surgeon had likely helped him to evade suspicion for so long, adding that in court, the true nature of the accused would be on show for all.

During the 2020 trial, she watched him as the courtroom was shown images taken from his computer.

“That’s when you discover the real Joël Le Scouarnec. Because the gaze changes,” she said.

Following Le Scouarnec’s 2005 conviction, Thierry Bonvalot, a psychiatrist also working at Quimperlé hospital in Brittany with Le Scouarnec, said he confronted him.

After a long silence, his head in his hands, Le Scouarnec responded, “You can’t make me.”

A diary of horrors

The evidence at the center of the latest case will be Le Scouarnec’s own diaries, prosecutors say depict actual events in which children were abused. His attorney says they detail fantasies that he did not act on.

So comprehensive are they, that a journal discovered during the 2020 trial – often noting the time and place of the rapes, the victim’s identity and even their address – helped investigators to identify the dizzying number of his alleged rapes.

Court documents submitted by the prosecution note that he admitted he started the journal in 1990, writing regularly right up until 2016, a year before his retirement, with 40 to more than 100 pages of entries per year.

The entries describe abuse, typically during a supposed medical exam, playing on false medical pretexts to not alarm his patients, the documents show.

The intimate tone of his writings is especially chilling, addressing entries to the children by name, “Little Marie, you were once again alone in your room” begins one account, speaking directly to them and ending many entries – descriptions of sexual acts on a child – with, “I love you.”

In multiple diary entries included in the court documents, Le Scouarnec admits to being a pedophile.

Hidden crimes, real trauma

For the survivors of Le Scouarnec’s alleged abuse, the years since have been traumatic.

Although many of the children were under sedation during the alleged abuse, the effect on their lives has been all too tangible, per court documents. The documents describe psychological analyses of the alleged victims often showing persistent troubles, notably in their later sexual relations and on their self-confidence, following their hospitalizations under Le Scouarnec.

“We have victims in real, genuine suffering. We have people who are anorexic, who are depressed, who can’t have children, who can’t have sex with their partner. It’s all these anomalies in quotation marks, unexplained by their doctors, who say to themselves, “How is this possible?” lawyer Satta said. Among those she represents are two families of men who had allegedly been abused by Le Scouarnec and died by suicide years later.

Given the lifetime of abusing that Le Scouarnec stands accused of, some of the survivors’ testimony is no longer admissible in court. France’s statute of limitations restricts rape prosecutions to 30 years after the victim reaches adulthood, meaning about 80 people were not included in the case, Satta said.

As justice runs its course, one question swirls around the case: How was this man allegedly able to prey on so many young people for so long?