 Hello, you're watching the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the top stories from around the world. Let's take a look at today's headlines. Russia and Ukraine talks as deadlocks as Putin, Thai opposition leader indicted for royal defamation and between community in Kuwait's stages protest. In our first story, amidst the ongoing online negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin claimed on Wednesday that the talks have been quote-unquote deadlocked. This is after Ukraine reportedly went back on some of its proposals made during the in-person talks held in Istanbul in late March. Speaking to the press during his visit to Voskonyi Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East, Putin claimed that until Ukraine recognizes Crimea as part of Russia, as well as the independence of the Donbass republics, no progress could be reached in the talks the Russia Today reported. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podolik, however, claimed that though it is difficult, the online talks are going on. He accused Russia of trying to create pressure by giving public statements about the talks. Speaking about the course of the Russian offensive, Putin claimed on Tuesday that its slow speed is a deliberate move to minimize casualties. Claiming that the Russian operation in Ukraine is quote-unquote going according to plan, Putin said that the intensity of hostilities is directly related to casualties and quote, our task is to achieve the set goals while minimizing these losses. Last week, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and head of the Russian delegation in the talks Vladimir Medinsky had expressed cautious hope that the Ukrainian delegation had agreed to provide considerable concessions on crucial issues during the talks in Istanbul. Meanwhile, in a surprise development, German President Frank Walter Steinmeier claimed on Tuesday that he had to cancel his trip to Kiev as part of a larger delegation of European presidents on Wednesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conveyed to him that he quote-unquote wasn't wanted. This development is expected to create a diplomatic row between Germany and Ukraine. Ukraine has alleged that Steinmeier is close to Russia. In 2016, Steinmeier as the foreign minister in Angela Merkel's government was involved in efforts to implement the Minsk Agreement signed between Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France as a solution to the war in Donbass region. In our next story, a prominent opposition figure in Thailand and leader of the progressive movement Thanaton Junrung Rangketh has been indicted of royal defamation for questioning the government vaccine management. On Monday, April 11, prosecutors announced that Thanaton is being indicted under the infamous Section 112 of the criminal code, the Lesson Magistrate Clause. Apart from the royal defamation charges, Thanaton is also facing charges of cybercrimes based on the statements he made more than a year ago. The charges were first filed against Thanaton in January 2021, with further charges added in August last year. In January 2021, Thanaton did a live stream presentation titled Royal Vaccine, Who Benefits and Who Doesn't? On Facebook, criticizing the government of Prime Minister Prayod Chanucha for the COVID-19 vaccine procurement plans, he specifically criticized the government's plan at the time to procure vaccines through a single pharmaceutical company, Siam Bioscience. Siam Bioscience, which was the only licensed manufacturer of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Thailand, then is a privately owned company by the Thai monarch Vajralongkorn. The king holds all but two of the 48 million shares in the company. Thanaton had earlier raised doubts about both the suitability of granting a privately owned company with a lucrative contract and government subsidy to the tune of Thai bad 600 million, which is close to around 18 million US dollars to produce these vaccines. He had also pointed out that the company had little experience in vaccine production and had already accumulated a debt of 581 million bet which is around 17 million US dollars at the time, arguing that the company lacked financial transparency. The mentions of the monarch in connection with Siam Bioscience have been cited as the reason by prosecutors to indict Thanaton. The indictment states that such mentions of the king were allegedly done with an intent to arouse public suspicions against the monarchy which prosecutors argued is illegal. We move on to Kuwait, where a group of activists from Kuwait's historically marginalized and persecuted Bidoon minority community have entered their third week of hunger strike. They are demanding fundamental human rights and full citizenship privileges for their community from the Kuwaiti government. The activists reportedly launched their hunger strike under starvation at the end of March with some social media posts indicating that the strike began on March 29 under the hashtag Bidoon strike in English and Arabic. According to the news reports, over the last 70 years since the founding of the state of Kuwait, the Bidoon community has been discriminated against. They have been denied access to many basic and essential services such as healthcare, education, employment and welfare services. Over the years, the Bidoon community has regularly staged protests and demonstrations demanding full citizenship and improvement in their human rights situation in the country. These protests have been met with repression. Authorities have also tried to disrupt or prevent such protests from taking place by threatening the protesters with forcefully and violently breaking up their protests, sit-ins and even destroying their makeshift tents at protest sites. Unofficial statistics estimate that there are about 100,000 to 200,000 Bidoon community members currently residing in Kuwait. Similar communities also live in many of the neighboring Gulf states, all of whom have a free education, free healthcare, etc. But none of these welfare measures are extended to non-citizens and people that the state considers as stateless. Kuwait's government has for long claimed that the Bidoon community inside the country are migrants from other places around the world who have deliberately not disclosed their nationalities, classifying them as unlawful residents. In recent years, the Kuwaiti authorities have also tried to unduly coerce and threaten members of the Bidoon community to reveal their country of origin or accept a science citizenship based on arbitrary and one-sided investigations by Kuwaiti state security services. And that's all for today's episode. For more such stories, visit our website at www.peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for watching.