SUSTAINABLE FASHION — GREEN WASHING OR GREEN PROGRESS? The Sustainable Apparel Coalition has created a standard for grading companies on their ecological impact, and draft New York legislation is seeking to codify those efforts. The proposed Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act would require that "all fashion companies that do business in New York and generate more than $100 million in revenue must map out at least 50 percent of their supply chains and disclose impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint, and chemical use." But critics accuse major garment producers of colluding with fossil fuel companies. More from Rachel Donald. RUSSIA FRONTS MORALE SUFFERS AS UKRAINE ARMY'S LOSSES GROW: Saturday marked 100 days of the latest stage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian air strikes hit Kyiv over the weekend, after over a month of relative calm in the capital. The Kremlin claimed it was targeting tanks donated by the West. But Kyiv said a counterattack in the east had seen Ukrainian forces retake half the contested city of Sievierodonetsk. "There is a direct connection between the will of the Ukrainian soldier to face immense Russian firepower and the will of western states to deliver the equipment needed to change the odds — and make the sacrifice worth it," writes Richard Barrons, commander of U.K.'s Joint Forces Command from 2013 to 2016. CHINA'S NEW VASSAL — VLADIMIR PUTIN: There may be backlash against China's imperial ambitions along the route of China's Belt and Road network, and it's one state forward, 10 states back in the Pacific for China's security ambitions. But there's one place where China's expansion strategy is roaring ahead in 2022: Moscow. "China is a country obsessed by correcting historical humiliations and retaining its position of global leadership. The time when the Soviet Union was ideologically — and economically — superior to Communist China is long gone," writes POLITICO's Stuart Lau, adding "the more isolated Moscow becomes, the more it may have to help China further its geopolitical ambition." LAVROV'S SERBIA TRIP CANCELED AFTER AIRSPACE CLOSED: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Serbia today has been canceled, per Russia's state-run Interfax press agency. Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro closed their airspace to Lavrov's plane. PUTIN SAYS UKRAINIAN GRAIN CAN BE EXPORTED THROUGH BELARUS: Of course, that would mean Belarus would have to be exempted from Western sanctions that currently binds governments from dealing with the autocracy. AFRICAN UNION CHAIR BUYS INTO PUTIN'S FOOD PROPAGANDA: Senegalese President Macky Sall , chair of the African Union, has called on the EU to remove sanctions on Russia wheat and fertilizers — even though neither the U.S. nor the EU have banned imports of Russian fertilizers or wheat — giving credence to Vladimir Putin's skewed logic. The comments came after Sall met the Russian president in Sochi on Friday. POLITICO's Eddy Wax has the write-up. West focused on energy, Africa focused on food: The West is working to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, but is doing too little to help Africa reduce dependence on Russian and Ukrainian food. "What they don't seem to appreciate is that to our ears they seem to be saying European lives are more important than African lives," an African envoy in Brussels told POLITICO. "Both [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz and [Italy's PM Mario] Draghi are coming to us to seek ways to diversify where they get their energy from — well, we need help with food." While those are reasonable criticisms of Western action, it's Russian blockades, rather than Western sanctions, which have caused wheat, corn and sunflower oil prices to skyrocket worldwide: markets anticipated less supply from Ukraine, because of Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports, bombing of its grain silos and the mining of its fields. ICYMI: — More on why African states are reluctant to pick sides on Ukraine. — Here's POLITICO's Joshua Posaner, Eddy Wax and Hanne Cokelaere on the blockade, and what it will take to free Ukraine's grain. SLOVAKIA CALLS FOR GRAIN ESCORT: Slovakia's Prime Minister Eduard Heger has proposed the United Nations or Turkey act as a security guarantor for ensuring the safe shipment of grain and other food products out of Ukraine's port of Odesa. It's the only practical way of exporting millions of tons of grain stuck in the country as road and rail options can't offer sufficient capacity. SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS PREVIEW Morning Consult's Matthew Kendrick takes a deep data dive into the risks the Biden administration is running if it neglects Latin American relationships in favor of Asia-Pacific relationships. The backstage drama has been going on for weeks: "The White House was caught on the back foot when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced he would not attend if the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were not invited because of their human rights records, which the leaders of Honduras and Bolivia quickly echoed." Former Sen. Christopher Dodd was brought in to help fix the tensions, but it's still unclear who will be showing up. GET TO KNOW CHILE'S RADICAL 36-YEAR-OLD PRESIDENT: One of the newcomers at this week's summit will be Chilean President Gabriel Boric, 36, who was inaugurated on March 11. As the head of a fractured coalition that lacks a parliamentary majority, Boric has an uphill struggle, reports Jon Lee Anderson. He's not afraid to make friends and enemies in unorthodox ways: During his campaign, Boric called Israel a "genocidal, murderous state," and as president he moved into a house in a run-down area known for drug dealers and crime. Then again, he also named an establishment economist as his finance chief. INDO-PACIFIC DATA POINTS: Morning Consult has also been running the numbers on how publics in Quad countries are reacting to the recent investment of political energy into that semi-formal alliance. More here, highlights include:
- Small majorities in Quad countries and South Korea remain unsure of how the Quad will effect the chances of military conflict in the region, but clear majorities do expect China to retaliate if military tensions increase.
- Americans from both parties prefer to keep China tariffs in place, even if that contributes to inflation. The takeaway: Scaling back the China tariffs would not help Biden in the midterm elections.
- On U.S.-China decoupling: 77 percent of those surveyed globally think the U.S. and China should do as much as possible to avoid military conflict between them. The countries surveyed were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea and the U.K.
- Globally, only 26 percent think the U.S. would win a cold war 2.0 with China; but only 11 percent of people think China would win.
COLOMBIA — ELECTION CHECK-IN: A 77-year-old construction magnate who campaigns by issuing insults and TikTok videos could become Colombia's next president on June 19. The country's run-off vote is between Rodolfo Hernández and Gustavo Petro, a former left-wing revolutionary fighter turned senator, and "mirrors the antiestablishment tide that has swept across Latin America in recent years. It has resulted in political iconoclasts winning office from Mexico to El Salvador, Peru to Chile, while ousting traditional parties. Growing poverty and unemployment triggered by the pandemic have deepened the disenchantment with the ruling elite," per the Wall Street Journal's Kejal Vyas and Juan Forero. KENYA — DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT DIVIDES BRITISH COUNCIL, SEAT OF BRITAIN'S SOFT POWER: A British Council official dismissed allegations of racial discrimination and harassment at the organization's Kenya branch as "pure evil" during a call with company staff, according to a recording obtained by POLITICO's Seb Whale, after workers approached the Kenyan government with claims of mistreatment.
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