"From Elon Musk’s Russia appeasement to an ever-louder US left, eager to set limits on the US support of Ukraine ahead of the midterm elections, to China’s Xi Jinping tightening the screws on his already tight grip of power (possibly for life), — the configuration at the global chessboard is one of crossroads: between freedom and autocracy, between the rules-based global order and the law of the jungle, between humanity and cold-blooded profiteering."