Paul Moss

Talks to end the war in Ukraine were held in Abu Dhabi this past week, but with little sign of progress there due to reconvene in Miami.

And President Zelensky has now confirmed that he will be sending a delegation.

But what the president has repeatedly made clear is that the country needs more military equipment to fend off a Russian invasion, which for now remains ongoing.

And that was made all too clear by the latest attack on energy infrastructure, as Sarah Rainsford explained from Kyiv.

As we record this podcast, voting is taking place in Thailand, in an election called early after a series of coalition governments collapsed.

The ruling Conservative Party faces tough opposition from the People's Party.

The latter is ahead in the polls and has the support of young urban voters who are calling for political reforms.

But as Jonathan Head reports, winning the most votes doesn't necessarily mean you get to rule the country.

As in the last election three years ago, this one pits a youthful party advocating far-reaching reforms against conservative forces and the populist movement headed by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Three years ago, the young reformers won, only to be barred from forming a government by the military-appointed Senate and then dissolved by the notoriously interventionist Constitutional Court.

That led to a series of unstable coalitions in which two prime ministers were dismissed by the same court.

Thailand's once dynamic economy has ground to a halt, and opinion polls suggest the latest incarnation of the reformers, the People's Party, will win again.

Although the current Conservative Prime Minister, Anitin Chawirakun, is mounting a strong challenge by appealing to nationalist sentiment in the wake of the two short border wars with Cambodia last year.

But everyone here knows winning entire elections is never enough.

Powerful, unelected bodies like the courts will ultimately decide who actually runs this country.

Jonathan Head.

There were a few people scratching their heads when Elon Musk announced he was merging two of his companies.

XAI is the artificial intelligence wing of his corporate empire, while SpaceX, of course, focuses on space rockets.

So what's the connection?

Well, it seems Mr Musk wants to take the data centres used for AI and send them into orbit, where he believes they can be powered by the unfiltered energy of the sun.