Xi-Putin; Ukraine; Reshaping the world order; Cloud loophole for US chip controls; Lula to China

Summary of the Essential Eight:

1. Xi’s Russia trip -Xi Jinping has left Moscow and returned to Beijing, not stopping anywhere in Europe as some earlier reports had speculated.

2. On Ukraine - If Xi is going to hold a call with Ukraine President Zelensky the next few days would be the time to do it, but so far there has been no confirmation of any possible discussion.

3. On reshaping the world order - I had forgotten that Xi first put forward the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind in March 2013 in a speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. That does not seem coincidental; in fact it almost seems like Xi has had a plan that long predated Trump and the trade war. In an interview to discuss this week’s visit to Russia, Foreign Minister Qin Qang could not have been clearer about the vision to reshape the global order: “The principal contradiction in today's world is not at all a so-called "democracy vs autocracy" played up by a handful of count…