Our Friday News Analysis | What the World THINKS Now!

Living Words of Saint Pope John Paul II | “A Dialogue Rooted in God”

“Religion is not, and must not become, a pretext for conflict,
particularly when religious, cultural, and ethnic identity coincide.

Religion and peace go together:
to wage war in the name of religion is a blatant contradiction.”

Religious leaders, in particular,
must do everything possible to ensure that religion is what God intends it to be –
a source of goodness, respect, harmony, and peace!”

Saint Pope John Paul II
Meeting with Representatives of other Religions
and Other Christian Confessions
New Delhi – Vigyan Bawan
7 November 1999

This week’s reflection: “A Dialogue Rooted in God”

Building the Bridge Foundation

               Saint Pope John Paul II spoke to billions over six decades, to young people, to presidents and peacemakers, and to the forgotten and the powerful alike.

               John Paul II was a theologian, a world leader, a statesman, a poet, and a pastor, revered by billions.

               He addressed war and peace, human dignity, mercy, and the deepest longings of the human heart.

               Those words did not stay in the past. They are living words. And they speak now.

               Even more alive in our times, the Pope's Message invites readers to pause and reflect.

               evangelicalpope.org

               There is no cost. There never will be.

OUR WEDNESDAY NEWS ANALYSIS | IS EUROPE FINALLY GETTING TOUGH ON ISRAEL?

THIS YOM KIPPUR, THE WHOLE WORLD MUST APOLOGIZE TO ISRAEL

If penitential prayers are heard in Israel on this Day of Atonement, then we have learned nothing from the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The misconception that Israel is capable of sinning is still deeply rooted

Israeli soldiers in the midst of Gaza's ruins, 2024. Credit: Rami Shllush

By Gideon Levy
Haaretz Israel
20 September 2026

This year, Yom Kippur should probably be canceled permanently. Israel is beyond good and evil; Jews cannot sin because everything they do is just, moral, legal, and sublime. The fast should also end: We will eat like kings because we deserve it.

Let the Gentiles fast; they deserve it. Let God fast, too, after all he has done to us. Let the thousands of starving Palestinian detainees and two million war refugees in Gaza fast—not the Jews, who have never harmed anyone. We deserve only good and have nothing to apologize for. We remain a chosen people, a villa in the jungle. A nation of lions never needs to apologize.

If selihot (penitential prayers) are heard in Israel tonight, it will show that Israel has learned nothing since the 1973 Yom Kippur War: the mistaken belief that Israel can sin remains deeply rooted.

On this Yom Kippur eve, the world should apologize to Israel. Palestinians should ask forgiveness for opposing Zionism, resisting the establishment of a foreign state in their land, speaking about the Nakba, and challenging the project of permanent Jewish supremacy between the river and the sea.

Please continue reading ...

'PARTNERS RATHER THAN RIVALS': XI JINPING'S FIRST MESSAGE AFTER LANDING IN THE U.S. FOR TRUMP SUMMIT

After landing in the US for his summit with Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China and the US “should be partners rather than rivals.” He said their interests are deeply intertwined and that “Make America Great Again” can align with China's vision.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump Photograph: (AFP)

WION India
By Navashree Nandini
24 September 2026

Chinese President Xi Jinping has issued his first statement after landing in the United States on Thursday (Sep 24).

In a written statement released by state news agency Xinhua, Xi said that China and the United States “should be partners rather than rivals.” Highlighting the people-to-people ties between the two countries, Xi said that their interests are “deeply intertwined.”

In a direct message to US President Donald Trump, Xi said Trump’s vision of

               “Make America Great Again’ can align with the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and, in turn, benefit the world.”

Saying the differences between the two sides are “manageable,” the Chinese premier also added that he hopes for a stable relationship with the US and a path where two major powers can co-exist.

FROM THE BRIDGE | To Hell with Unipolar Autocracy and Multipolar Autonomy. Let’s Build a World Where Every Nation Shines Among All Nations

By Abraham A. van Kempen
Founder and Chairman
25 September 2026

CNN Illustration/Getty Images

From Start to Finish?

The Building the Bridge Foundation started 12 years ago as a mere hobby and grew into an internationally recognized geopolitical research group, credentialed by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to nominate Presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin to share the 2026 or 2027 Nobel Peace Prize.

When we cross the finish line, will we stop to celebrate? Not a chance! We’re only getting started. So, where do we go from here? I’d like you to consider joining the Light Among Nations. In our editorial last Monday, titled ‘A word on faith, nationalism, human dignity, and the courage to choose compassion over domination,’ I invited the world, especially Presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin, to join us in the quest to peacefully coexist, each as a light among nations.

This global conflict is unavoidable. My heart goes out to the families, relatives, and friends of the 1.7 million Ukrainians, the 100,000 Russians, and the 200,000 Palestinians who lost their lives in a seemingly futile war. The truth is, conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia have paved the way for a new world order. We are now in the midst of a paradigm shift. Where are we going? We don’t want to wake up to nuclear craters in our backyards.

If you haven’t read the editorial ‘Build Bridges Before the River Rises,’ here it is again. If you’ve already read it, consider reading it once more. This is our story we want to share with the world.

Build Bridges Before the River Rises

Last Monday, [14 September 2026], in our editorial ‘Multipolar Peace or Unipolar Suicide,’ we established that:

               The case for Presidents Donald J. Trump, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir V. Putin sharing the Nobel Peace Prize is not a polite diplomatic flourish. It is a plea written under a darkening sky. We are standing on the rim of a nuclear century, watching old empires rattle their sabers like chains in a storm, while ordinary families still want the same simple things — bread on the table, children asleep without fear, borders that do not become graveyards, and leaders brave enough to speak before missiles speak for them.

The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, 2025. EFE

               Either the great powers learn to negotiate a multipolar peace, or the exhausted custodians of the unipolar age will keep gambling with humanity’s survival. The verified speech record is clear: Putin in Berlin and Munich, Trump in Riyadh, and Xi in Tianjin were not making stray remarks. They were lighting signal fires across twenty-five years of historical darkness.

In today’s edition, the From the Bridge Editorial is written in the spirit of a direct conversation: from us to you, with eyes open to power. It urges Presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin to adopt the Building the Bridge Foundation’s core principle: Bridging Differences to Get to Know the OTHER and One ANOTHER before rivalry hardens into trenches and the river of history rises beyond reach.

Citing John Paul II’s inspiring 1995 United Nations speech, we emphasize that building bridges goes beyond sentimental diplomacy; it is a deliberate geopolitical policy grounded in conscience, honest knowledge, restraint, and respect for human dignity, aimed at destroying one’s enemies by becoming friends.

Pope John Paul II is applauded as he enters the UN

Saint Pope John Paul II’s 1995 address to the United Nations does not belong in a museum of noble speeches. It belongs on the desks of Presidents Donald J. Trump, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir V. Putin, because it speaks directly to the spiritual crisis of power in our time. In the official Vatican text, also reflected in the United Nations official record of the twentieth plenary meeting, the Pope wrote that if humanity wanted “a century of violent coercion” to be succeeded by “a century of persuasion,” it needed the universal moral law as the “grammar” for discussing the human future (John Paul II, UN Address, 5 Oct. 1995, para. 3; UN GA Official Records, A/50/PV.20).

He warned that freedom detached from truth becomes “the caprice of the most powerful and the arrogance of power” (para. 12). He insisted that every nation has “the right to shape its life according to its own traditions,” while also stressing that nations must live “in a spirit of peace, respect and solidarity” (para. 8).

These words do not flatter any empire. They judge all of them.

In my reading, Trump may hear in them the call to freedom, heritage, and national self-authorship. Xi may hear the appeal to sovereign equality and a “family of nations” where, in John Paul II’s words, “the strong do not dominate” (para. 14). Putin may hear the moral claim that security and national existence cannot be denied, ignored, or humiliated; that is an interpretation drawn from the Pope’s teaching on the “rights of nations,” not a direct quotation (paras. 5–8).

But all three must also hear the Pope’s harder command: “We must not be afraid of the future. We must not be afraid of man” (para. 18). The challenge is not to destroy enemies by fire, but to destroy enmity by friendship; not to burn bridges, but to build them before the river rises. 

The Building the Bridge Foundation urges President Trump to view national renewal as more than coercion, implores President Xi to demonstrate that multipolarity can be a positive force rather than a means of dominance, and concurs with President Putin in seeing security within a broader, inclusive European framework beyond NATO, echoing his ideas from Berlin in 2001 and earlier views shared by Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Reagan.

In a nuclear age, persuasion is not weakness. Crisis communication, humanitarian diplomacy, and honest dialogue are not ornaments on policy papers; they are mooring lines in rough water. They keep nations from drifting into collision when pride, panic, and miscalculation begin to pull.

There are moments when history stops whispering and knocks hard on the door. This is one of them. With the United States, China, and Russia holding nuclear power in their hands, the century ahead can become a common table or a field of ruin. Presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin know that slogans will not save us. The world needs leaders willing to reach across the table before it splits apart.

For President Trump, the Pope’s words on freedom and culture may carry special weight. John Paul II wrote that every nation has the right “to shape its life according to its own traditions,” while immediately qualifying that right by excluding “every abuse of basic human rights and in particular the oppression of minorities” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 8).

My interpretation is this: Trump’s critique of nation-building and interventionism finds a natural echo here. His instinct, at its best, is to tell the powerful planners of the world: stop pretending you can manufacture nations like machines. People are not clay. Civilizations are not construction projects. A nation grows like a tree, from soil, memory, language, faith, wounds, and hope. (Trump’s Speech in Riyadh)

But John Paul II’s freedom is not merely national pride wearing a Sunday coat. It is, in his exact phrase, freedom “ordered to the truth” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 12). “Freedom is not simply the absence of tyranny or oppression. Nor is freedom a license to do whatever we like” (para. 12). Detached from truth, he warned, freedom “becomes the caprice of the most powerful and the arrogance of power” (para. 12).

That is the warning Trump must hear. The America First impulse can become a call for healthy limits, democratic consent, and peace through realism. It can also curdle into resentment, transaction, or theatrical domination. The Pope’s message separates the gold from the glitter.

A free nation must not only refuse to be ruled by others; it must also refuse to rule others with contempt.

President Xi may find the most meaningful principle in Pope John Paul II’s idea of the United Nations as a “family of nations." The Pope emphasized that the UN should serve as “a moral center where all nations feel at home” and cultivate “a shared sense of being, as it were, a ‘family of nations’” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 14). He explained that in a true family, “the strong do not dominate; rather, the weaker members, precisely because they are weaker, are more welcomed and cared for" (para. 14). This analogy is more than just a metaphor.

As I understand it, it gently reminds us that no club of powerful nations should set rules behind closed doors and then claim peace through obedience. It emphasizes that smaller nations are not mere furniture in the grand house of great powers. Instead, they have a voice, their own stories, and deserve a seat at the table.

This language naturally reflects Xi’s focus on sovereign equality and diverse development routes. A genuinely multipolar world would do more than replace one hierarchy with another; it would allow Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and island nations to avoid being compelled to choose sides among dominant powers. It also emphasizes that development should be seen not as a privilege granted by the rich but as a celebration of human creativity and dignity (Xi’s Speech in Tianjin). John Paul II highlighted an “ethic of solidarity” in global economic relations and warned that economic utilitarianism could cause “more powerful countries to manipulate and exploit weaker ones” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 13). This crucial reminder should be heeded by every capital, including Beijing.

For President Putin, the Pope’s language about nations' rights may be the most direct. Russia’s existential right to peacefully coexist with the rest of humanity is inalienable. Russia is an integral part of Europe and the largest, most resourced country on earth with 11 time zones (Putin’s Speeches in Berlin and Munich). John Paul II declared that “no one — neither a State nor another nation, nor an international organization — is ever justified in asserting that an individual nation is not worthy of existence” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 8). He also wrote that every nation has the right to its own language and culture and “the right to shape its life according to its own traditions,” while balancing those rights with duties toward other nations and humanity as a whole (para. 8). The key phrase is not merely sovereignty; it is the duty to live “in a spirit of peace, respect and solidarity” with other nations (para. 8).

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Will Future Historians Honor Putin as the Statesman of the Twenty-First Century?

Kushner and Witkoff visiting the Kremlin

From the perspective of Russia and BRICS, Putin’s historical judgment does not begin with the shock of February 2022. It begins in the unsettled morning after 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved, the Warsaw Pact disappeared, and Moscow expected European security to be rebuilt as a shared structure rather than a gate kept by the victors.

Many Russians see NATO's eastward expansion and increased Western engagement in former Soviet regions as reducing Russia to a defeated actor needing oversight, sanctions, and strategic limits. Meanwhile, in the Global South, Euro-Atlantic powers promote universal principles but also use alliances, sanctions, democracy rhetoric, and financial influence to maintain existing hierarchies.

The BRICS summit emphasized core values like mutual respect and sovereignty, advocated for a fairer, more balanced international order, and acknowledged new power centers, stressing the need to adapt international relations. [1]

Within this framework, Ukraine represents not just a European tragedy but also serves as a test case for determining who sets legitimate security standards. The key point is not that BRICS language endorses every Russian decision, but that it provides Russia and other non-Western critics with a clear and consistent vocabulary to question Western dominance.

NATO summit 2008 in Bucharest, Romania on April 03, 2008. (Photo by Pool Interagences/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

The record's wording must be precise. NATO’s 2008 Bucharest Summit Declaration stated that Ukraine and Georgia “will become members of NATO,” despite not granting a Membership Action Plan at that time. [2] Moscow could interpret this as indicating NATO’s eastern expansion was still unrestricted, even though it did not promise immediate Ukrainian membership or Article 5 protection. The February 21, 2014, Agreement on the Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis, signed by President Viktor Yanukovych alongside opposition leaders and observed by France, Germany, Poland, and Russia, outlined the restoration of the 2004 Constitution, formation of a national unity government, constitutional reforms, investigations into violence, disarmament, and scheduled presidential elections by December 2014. [3]

The agreement unraveled, and the Verkhovna Rada adopted Resolution No. 757-VII, stating that Yanukovych had effected a “non-constitutional withdrawal” from performing his duties and setting early elections for May 25, 2014.[4] Ukraine’s Constitution sets out an impeachment process in Article 111, involving investigation, judicial review, and a supermajority vote.[5] These documents support a narrow but serious conclusion: Western governments recognized and worked with the post-Maidan authorities after a disputed constitutional rupture, strongly suggesting that NATO directly toppled a democratically elected government and installed a puppet government in Kyiv.

This distinction allows a forceful critique without overstating the record. Moscow did not experience NATO expansion as paperwork; it saw alliance infrastructure, military planning, and political commitments moving closer to Russia’s borders. Russian critics did not view EU integration as a neutral bouquet of reforms; they saw Ukraine drawn, institution by institution and market by market, into a Euro-Atlantic orbit. Moscow did not read American policy as purely democratic assistance; it read it as strategic pressure and selective respect for sovereignty. From this perspective, Ukrainians have paid an immense human price for a confrontation that should have been addressed much earlier through diplomacy, neutrality discussions, constitutional accommodation, minority protections, and reciprocal security guarantees.

Yet force must not become propaganda. Ukraine is not merely a square on a strategist’s map, and Ukrainians are not shadows cast by Washington, Brussels, London, or Moscow. They are citizens with families, professions, memories, fears, and political hopes of their own. Less than 20 percent of Ukrainians feared Russian domination, corruption, and the loss of national self-authorship; a minority of Ukrainians supported a European path from their own experience and aspiration. Their agency must not be erased, just as Russia’s security concerns must not be mocked. The fairest argument holds three truths together:

1. Western policy helped create conditions of confrontation.
2. Russia remains responsible for its own choices and methods, even when provoked by the West.
3. Ukraine’s people have suffered most from a conflict larger powers repeatedly failed to prevent.

PM Modi, Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Tianjin in 2025. (Image: Narendra Modi)

Future historians may therefore look at Putin through a window very different from the one today used in Brussels, Washington, or NATO headquarters. They may credit him with forcing the West to confront the limits of unipolar autocracy, the weaponization of finance, the unfinished work of the post-Cold War settlement, and the danger of building European security against Russia rather than with Russia. But consequence is not honor. History remembers many leaders who made thunder; it honors fewer who built shelter after the storm.

Putin’s claim to statesmanship will rest on whether he can help turn confrontation into a durable settlement:

• Guaranteed Ukrainian neutrality or non-alignment
• Constitutional and cultural protections for all regions
• Formal recognition of Russia’s security concerns
• Restraint in NATO’s forward posture
• Sanctions replaced by negotiated reciprocity
• Reconstruction tied to sovereignty rather than dependency
• Liberate Ukraine as it was before 2014, when the West turned it into a proxy to be rebuilt not as a Western garrison-state but as a sovereign bridge – an economic conduit – between East and West, Europe and Eurasia.
• Help free the West from its hegemonic obsessions and fixations

[1] XVI BRICS Summit Kazan Declaration, “Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security,” 23 October 2024, paras. 3 and 6.

[2] NATO, Bucharest Summit Declaration, 3 April 2008, para. 23.

[3] “Agreement on the Settlement of Crisis in Ukraine,” Kyiv, 21 February 2014, released by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and circulated as UN Security Council document S/2014/121.

[4] Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Resolution No. 757-VII, “On self-withdrawal of the President of Ukraine from performing his constitutional duties and setting early elections of the President of Ukraine,” 22 February 2014.

[5] Constitution of Ukraine, Article 111, official English translation.

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This is where the Pope thoughtfully considers and discusses how European nations view the world. Countries may recall past humiliations, feel overwhelmed by fears of being surrounded, and strongly advocate for their own security. Yet, he reminds us that it's wrong to justify hurting others because of our own suffering. John Paul II made a clear distinction between “an unhealthy form of nationalism"—which he saw as connected to Western dominance—and true “patriotism,” exemplified by the people of Russia, Iran, and Palestine. He described patriotism as “a proper love of one’s country” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 11), and emphasized that “true patriotism” “never seeks to promote its own country's interests at others' expense.

John Paul II’s message emphasizes that innocence is not just simple but involves understanding the complexities of human history, shaped by fears, pride, memories, and power. His speech touched on injustices like violations of national rights during WWII, Soviet annexations, and loss of sovereignty in Central and Eastern Europe, but also noted the independence of Soviet Satellite States declared in 1991 by a new, democratically elected Russian Federation under Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. He reminds us that rights come with responsibilities, and responding to oppression or fear with more of the same is misguided.

This is why addressing Trump, Xi, and Putin should focus on building bridges rather than expecting instant friendship. Friendship among rivals doesn't start with liking each other; it starts with acknowledgment. Recognizing that the person opposite you also fears, remembers, answers to their people, and is accountable to a higher moral or divine authority is essential. They also hold the power to harm the world. You don't need agreement on every detail upfront. What's crucial is agreeing that hostility, humiliation, and enmity are not solutions, especially given the threat of nuclear conflict.

Picture the three figures not as caricatures on screens but as men sitting at a long wooden table, while a storm presses against the windows. Outside, the winds of history are tearing down old assumptions. The era of unipolar dominance has ended, giving way to a multipolar world. The key question is whether this new world will be a peaceful garden or a battleground, a bridge connecting rivers or an iron wall. Trump embodies disruption and national consensus; Xi symbolizes architecture and sovereign equality; Putin speaks of security and historical grievances. John Paul II adds an essential element: conscience.

Conscience is not softness; it’s the iron bell within the soul that rings when power deceives itself, when victory begins to reek of ashes, and when leaders label destruction and revenge as justice. Towards the end of his speech, the Pope’s message was straightforward: “We must not be afraid of the future. We must not be afraid of humankind” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 18). This isn’t sentimental talk. In the same closing remarks, he emphasizes that the remedy for fear isn’t “coercion or repression” nor forcing one social ‘model’ upon the entire world (para. 18). Fear drives arms races, proxy conflicts, censorship, purges, sanctions, and alliance panic. It causes nations to see every compromise as betrayal and every enemy as a demon. Overcoming fear collectively is thus one of the most effective strategies in statecraft.

The Pope envisioned a goal: “the civilization of love,” built on “peace, solidarity, justice, and liberty” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 18). This phrase may seem overly idealistic amid a world filled with missiles, sanctions, drones, trade conflicts, and broken agreements. However, perhaps such luminous language is exactly what a troubled century requires. A civilization of love doesn’t imply a world without armies, borders, or disagreements.

This reflects my understanding of the Pope’s message, not a verbatim quotation. It envisions a world where power upholds human dignity, nations compete peacefully without seeking to destroy one another, patriotism is free of scorn, and genuine strength is shown through restraint and influence.

Here is the challenge:

• President Trump, take the risk of freedom without reducing it to force!
• President Xi, take the risk of solidarity without reducing it to hierarchy!
• President Putin, take the risk of security by working with a new NATO, with neither NATO, the West, nor Russia reducing the new relationship to domination!

Each leader faces a door that only they can open from the inside. No Pope, committee, army, market, or summit can open it for them. However, the world can knock, insist, and suggest: build bridges instead of burning them. Destroy enemies by transforming them into allies for survival. Shift the rivalry into a shared table of bread.

If these steps are taken, lasting peace may be imminent, but it won’t be instant—and no honest person should expect otherwise. Ukraine's recovery from Western exploitation won't happen overnight, and calm in the South China Sea won't be guaranteed just because three leaders pose for photos. The Middle East won't forget its fallen soldiers quickly, nor will Africa suddenly escape resource exploitation. Yet positive change is still possible.

Negotiations on nuclear weapons may restart, military channels may reopen, proxy conflicts may decrease, and economic disputes may move toward genuine diplomatic resolutions. Imagine a future where global governance is transformed—not as a barrier for the elite, but as an inclusive environment where more individuals feel truly at ease.

My deepest hope is for a world where leaders speak up and trust each other. I worry the 21st century could turn into a furnace as leaders sometimes confuse suspicion with wisdom. I envision bridges, long tables, and interpreters staying late into the night as dawn approaches. I believe enemies can realize their survival depends on a shared homeland.

John Paul II beautifully concluded with the image of spring after tears, reminding us that “the tears of this century have prepared the ground for a new springtime of the human spirit” (John Paul II, UN Address, para. 18). This imagery offers warmth and hope during summits, showing that spring responds to winter with patience and grace—like a sprout through snow, a returning bird, or a flowing river beneath ice. Peace often begins quietly—by opening a channel, choosing kindness, exchanging a prisoner, reconsidering a treaty, or speaking to an enemy as a fellow human being.

The challenge is clear: Presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin don't have to become saints to lead effectively. Instead, they must be courageous enough to allow their conscience to guide their decisions over mere calculations. They should focus on making genuine, thoughtful choices—such as building bridges—rather than performing for show or creating conflicts. True strength isn't about destruction but about the ability to face history, set down the torch, and declare: "Let us build."

The Building the Bridge (BTB) Agenda: Build, Not Burn the Bridge

The key geopolitical point at issue for Presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin isn't about who can dominate through pressure, pride, propaganda, or fear. Instead, it's about whether any of them can adopt the BTB approach—truly understanding the OTHER and one ANOTHER before conflicts become unavoidable. John Paul II’s vision of “a century of persuasion” echoes the Building the Bridge Foundation’s actionable strategy that emphasizes understanding and dialogue.

                Do not reduce the other side to a slogan, enemy-image, or caricature. Study the other. Listen before judging. Propose, not impose. Seek accurate knowledge, because accurate knowledge promotes understanding, dispels prejudice, and awakens the desire to learn more.

In this context, bridge-building isn't mere sentimental diplomacy. It's a strategic move guided by conscience. Burning bridges isolates nations, leaving them on opposite sides, shouting across the widening divide of armies, sanctions, and media storms.

Conversely, building bridges establishes crucial channels—diplomatic, military deconfliction, cultural, economic, humanitarian, and most importantly, human connections. A leader who advocates for such bridge-building isn't displaying weakness; rather, they demonstrate strength by choosing persuasion over coercion, recognition over humiliation, and shared survival over theatrical victories.

How Trump, Xi, and Putin Could Personify BTB Principles

Risks and Contradictions in Applying BTB Principles

Building bridges isn't about pleasing others or justifying morals. Embracing BTB involves confronting contradictions honestly. Listening to opposing views doesn't mean accepting aggression, and understanding grievances doesn't endorse revenge. Proposing solutions shows respect for law, sovereignty, and human rights. A true bridge invites wounded souls to share pain, empowers the vulnerable, and preserves truth, fostering diplomacy.

The first is propaganda: leaders praise peace without implementation, promote dialogue without responsibility, claim sovereignty without concessions, and emphasize security without limits. The second risk is imbalance, where the stronger side can exploit a bridge between unequal powers to pressure the weaker side into concessions. The third risk is domestic turmoil; leaders may gain applause by destroying bridges rather than building them, as fear rallies crowds while reconciliation needs reflection and engagement.

The BTB answer highlights discernment over neutrality, emphasizing fact verification, protecting the vulnerable, condemning injustice, avoiding dehumanization, and maintaining dialogue to foster negotiation. A bridge-builder must show compassion but stand against falsehoods, reject hatred and illusions, and recognize the need for safeguards like laws and witnesses. They understand that a world without bridges becomes a world of trenches.

If Trump exemplifies BTB, he acts as a bridge-builder, showing that America can defend interests without inciting global hatred. If Xi demonstrates BTB, he promotes China's growth without oppression. For Putin, BTB means pursuing security through the strategic use of historical narratives. Each leader can shift from suspicion to understanding, accusations to dialogue, hostility to openness. This pragmatic approach is appropriate for the nuclear era, not a sign of naivety.

The main message is clear: think carefully before acting, listen before judging, learn before condemning, and heal before it's too late. Leaders benefit when they understand others’ fears, histories, wounds, and hopes—turning enemies into people, rivals into conversation partners, and conflicts into dialogue. This reflects the Building the Bridge Foundation's philosophy: instead of destroying connections, we should create new paths that unite us.

Call to Action

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Let’s fast-forward to a glorious future without wars.

Now, Presidents Trump, Xi, and Putin must step up to the plate to help heal our broken humanity, guided by the enduring axiom: “Destroy your enemies by becoming friends.” If they manage to do so, they each deserve to share the 2026 or 2027 Nobel Peace Prize.

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at Yalta brokering peace that turned out to be make-believe

To be continued on Monday, 28 September 2026.

With Every Good Wish to you, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Abraham A. van Kempen
Founder and Chairman

Building the Bridge Foundation, The Hague
A Way to Get to Know One Another and the Other

Remember! Diplomacy is catalytic—transformative —while military action is cataclysmic—destructive and catastrophic.

When faced with the options to be good, bad, or ugly, let’s build bridges, not burn them. After all, mutual deterrence reigns.

HOW RUSSIA DISAPPOINTED THE WEST ONCE AGAIN

Before Russia held its vote, Western pundits described the election as a crucial test. When their predictions failed, they dismissed the outcome as illegitimate.

© Sputnik / Taisija Voroncova

HomeRussia & FSU
By Vladimir Kornilov
Political Scientist
22 September 2026

Russia’s legislative elections have become a major topic in the global media. The Times even published an editorial bearing the striking headline ‘Potemkin election’.

Apparently, the author does not realize that his supposed witticism is misplaced or understand the origins of the term ‘Potemkin village’. Research would have shown that Field Marshal Potemkin did not present Catherine the Great and her foreign ‘observers’—as they would be called today—with fake villages. He showed them cities he had founded—Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), Kherson, and Sevastopol—and the powerful Black Sea Fleet, which had seemingly appeared from nowhere and astonished Austrian Emperor Joseph II, a member of the Empress’s entourage. If The Times’ authors believe these ‘Potemkin villages’ never existed, they should consult a modern map of Novorossiya and Crimea.

The current State Duma elections are as significant as Catherine the Great’s journey to southern Russia. That trip showed the world that Europe’s map had changed and the once-wild steppes were now part of the Russian Empire. Hence, purveyors of fake news invented stories about ‘Potemkin villages’—just as they now seek to discredit elections in Russia’s historic territories, including cities Potemkin founded nearly 250 years ago.

I’d like to note how sharply Western media’s view of the elections has shifted. Just a week and a half ago, The Sunday Times published an extensive ‘analytical’ piece arguing that the elections could reveal “discontent” with the government, show that “Russians’ patience is wearing thin,” and indicate that, in frontline regions, “the Kremlin will … begin to lose the provinces.” Similar articles were common before the vote.

Read more
Here’s what Russia’s election results really mean

However, after yesterday’s elections, The Spectator published a frustrated article arguing that the results of these “rigged” elections should be disregarded. The author is clearly disappointed by turnout and the results in the so-called “Potemkin villages”—the regions of Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya, which have again become part of Russia. “Most Russians want the war over, but they seem to be blaming the new inconveniences – from internet blockages to lines for gas – on Kyiv, not the Kremlin,” the article states.

Some might ask, ‘So what if two authors disagree? That only shows the pluralism of the free European press.’ But both articles were written by Mark Galeotti, Britain’s top ‘expert on Russia.’ Their sharply different assessments of the same event reflect Western elites’ disappointment after misjudging Russia’s election results once again.

They failed to understand Russians 250 years ago and still do today. They believed Zelensky’s “influence operations,” strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and warehouses, and civilian killings would spark unrest across Russia—or at least in areas most affected by Ukrainian air raids. They failed to see these actions would have the opposite effect. The elections showed that residents of these territories do not consider themselves separate from the rest of the country.

This explains why European politicians are gritting their teeth, why Kaja Kallas warned before the vote that elections in “occupied” territories would not be recognized, and why they revived the ‘Potemkin villages’ tale, understanding Russians today no better than they did centuries ago.

BUILDING THE BRIDGE! | A WAY TO GET TO KNOW THE OTHER AND ONE ANOTHER

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanisms for Many to Move Mountains

Photo Credit: Abraham A. van Kempen, our home away from home on the Dead Sea

By Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
Updated 19 January 2024

Those who commit to 'healing our broken humanity' build intercultural bridges to learn to know and understand one another and others. Readers who thumb through the Building the Bridge (BTB) pages are not mindless sheep following other mindless sheep. They THINK. They want to be at the forefront of making a difference. They're seeking the bigger picture to expand their horizons. They don't need BTB or anyone else to confirm their biases.

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanisms for Many to Move Mountains

Accurate knowledge fosters understanding, dispels prejudice, and sparks a desire to learn more about the subject. Words have an extraordinary power to bring people together, divide them, forge bonds of friendship, or provoke hostility. Modern technology offers unprecedented possibilities for good, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Yet, its misuse can cause untold harm, leading to misunderstandings, prejudices, and conflicts.

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The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of the Building the Bridge Foundation