“If a war can be stopped in one region, then surely other wars can be stopped as well, including the Russian war.” That was Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s assessment following news of the success of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza. The two leaders spoke by phone on Saturday, an indication of a “warming of relations” between them, said The Guardian. The conversation centered on the proposals for the U.S. to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a 1,500-mile range and could pose a significant threat to Moscow. 

What did the commentators say? 
Vladimir Putin could be an “unlikely casualty” of the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, said Bethany Elliott at UnHerd. Trump’s main takeaway from the Middle East negotiations has been that “pressure and arm-twisting succeed while friendly overtures do not garner results” — a conclusion that undermines his red-carpet approach with his Russian counterpart. With “next year’s Nobel Peace Prize to win,” the prospect of another conflict to resolve could see Trump adopt a strategy of “pushing” rather than “luring” Putin to the negotiating table. 

But there’s no guarantee that Trump’s attention will now turn to Eastern Europe, said Ray Furlong at RFE/RL. Achieving resolutions to each of the conflicts are two very different undertakings. Israel is “so diplomatically isolated that it depends on U.S. backing,” and since it’s the “largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world,” American leverage is substantial. Russia, on the other hand, benefits from economic backing from China and military endorsement from North Korea. 

Obtaining Tomahawk missiles could prove decisive, as Ukraine’s strategy involves an “increasing number of long-range strikes into Russian territory that have expanded and remade the battlefield,” said Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe. This war has become more of a “technology race than a battle for territory.” 

What next? 
The conflict in Ukraine may be the “most difficult international conflict in the world to resolve,” said Furlong at RFE/RL. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has also called for “massive secondary tariffs to cripple Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels” to further turn the screw on Russia. 

The introduction of Tomahawks into the conversation is a “step in the right direction,” said Elliott. But if “recent success has taught” Trump anything, it’s that he “will need to apply even more pressure” on Putin and Russia.

Japan is poised to select a new leader who will likely shatter the country’s longstanding glass ceiling. Sanae Takaichi is all but guaranteed to be the next prime minister, making her the first woman to hold the office. Takaichi, recently elected as head of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is a conservative nationalist. But while she might make history, she will also face challenges as she takes control of the Japanese government.

From heavy metal to politics
Takaichi, 64, was born in Japan’s Nara prefecture. As a child, she was an “avid heavy metal drummer” from a family in which politics was “far removed,” said the BBC. She graduated from Japan’s Kobe University, briefly becoming a television host before moving to the U.S. in the 1980s during the “height of U.S.-Japan trade friction.” 

During her time in the U.S., Takaichi worked “briefly in Washington for Patricia Schroeder, a feminist congresswoman,” said The Economist. She eventually won a seat in Japan’s legislature in 1993 and “found common cause with Shinzo Abe, the late prime minister, on the LDP’s right wing.” Takaichi has since become a fixture in Japanese politics.

Next prime minister
Takaichi is “likely to be Japan’s leader because the LDP, even without a majority in either house of parliament following consecutive election losses, is still by far the largest in the lower house,” which selects the prime minister, said The Associated Press. But while the LDP has long controlled most facets of the Japanese government, she “will need to address rising prices to restore support for the struggling party.” 

As someone known for her staunch conservatism, Takaichi has often been compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is known as Japan’s Iron Lady. But the LDP has been losing its grasp as younger voters leave its ranks, and the party is “essentially betting on a swing back to the right to attract the younger voters who have flocked to smaller populist outfits,” said Fortune. 

This may controversially include forming a coalition with Sanseito, a far-right populist party influenced by the MAGA movement, which recently won 14 new seats. But this could “backfire if the party is seen simply reverting to the easy money and hawkish diplomacy” of prior years, said Fortune.

A shepherd leads his flock down Poland’s Tatra Mountains during the autumn redyk, a centuries-old highlander festival marking the end of the sheep grazing season.
Dominika Zarzycka / SOPA Images / Shutterstock

Don’t expect many giggles from movies right now. It’s spooky season, after all. This month’s new releases include frights like inhumane prison conditions, a zombified man-monster and motherhood.

‘The Alabama Solution’
This six-year investigative documentary about the varied injustices of the state’s prison system uses interviews with inmates and video footage taken by prisoners on contraband phones. The public is “already conditioned not to believe a person who’s incarcerated,” says Robert Earl “Kinetik Justice” Council, one of the inmates featured in the doc. This movie aims to change that. (on HBO Max now)

‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’
Mothers rarely have it easy, and Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is about that brutal truth. Linda, played “magnificently and unflinchingly by Rose Byrne,” is a woman struggling to “juggle the mysterious illness of her daughter and the sudden collapse of her literal and metaphorical ceiling, leaving her with no pillars to support her,” said Cortlyn Kelly at Roger Ebert. Byrne is already generating Oscar buzz for this “performance of a lifetime,” said Richard Lawson at Vanity Fair. (in theaters now)

‘Frankenstein’
One of the world’s foremost horror filmmakers, three-time Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro, has been teasing his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s literary masterpiece “Frankenstein” for a long time. The Netflix film stars Oscar Isaac as the famed scientist Victor Frankenstein, whose penchant for playing God results in the creation of Frankenstein the monster, portrayed here by Jacob Elordi (pictured above). (in theaters Oct. 17, on Netflix Nov. 7)