France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – a new record. The milestone was reached on February 12 at the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) WEST Tokamak reactor.

Achieving the dream of commercial fusion power is the Holy Grail of engineering and has been for 80 years. With a single gram of hydrogen isotopes yielding the energy equivalent of 11 tonnes of coal, a practical fusion reactor would hold the promise of unlimited, clean energy for humanity until the end of time.

Small wonder that billions have been invested by both government and industry in the quest to make fusion power a reality. However, while fusion is relatively easy to achieve in the heart of the sun or in a hydrogen bomb, creating a practical reactor that produces more energy than is put into it is another matter entirely.

The tricky bit isn’t to get atoms to fuse. That’s a fairly simple lab bench experiment. The problem is creating the right conditions where the fusion reaction is self-sustaining, with a net energy output. That means reaching temperatures of between 100 – 150 million °C (180 – 270 million °F, or 3-5 times hotter than the Sun’s core), a pressure of five to 10 atmospheres at the point of reaction, and keeping a high-energy plasma stable for at least 10 seconds.

The CEA seems to have done considerably better than 10 seconds and gone 25% beyond what China achieved in January 2025 with 1,066 seconds. In the latest test, the WEST Tokamak held its reaction for 1,337 seconds.

The purpose of the test wasn’t just to keep the plasma reaction going like a stage performer spinning plates. It was also to keep the reaction stable without the components in the reactor facing the plasma becoming eroded or polluted, or malfunctioning.

According to CEA, the next step will be to create even longer reactions that could amount to a combined time of several hours, with the temperature growing increasingly hotter. Though WEST will never become a true commercial reactor, the information gathered there will be used to improve more ambitious machines, like the giant International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) being built in the south of France.

“WEST has achieved a new key technological milestone by maintaining hydrogen plasma for more than twenty minutes through the injection of 2 MW of heating power,” said Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, Director of Fundamental Research at the CEA. “Experiments will continue with increased power. This excellent result allows both WEST and the French community to lead the way for the future use of ITER.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would agree to meet Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Turkey on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump told him immediately to accept Putin’s proposal of direct talks.

The Ukrainian leader had responded guardedly earlier on Sunday after the Russian president, in a night-time televised statement that coincided with prime time in the U.S., proposed that Ukraine and Russia hold direct talks in Istanbul next Thursday, May 15.

It was not clear that Putin had proposed to attend in person, however.

“I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.

Putin’s proposal came hours after major European powers demanded on Saturday in Kyiv that Putin agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face “massive” new sanctions, a position that Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg endorsed on Sunday.

Zelenskiy too had said Ukraine would be ready for talks with Russia, but only after Moscow agreed to the 30-day ceasefire.

But Trump, who has the power to continue or sever Washington’s crucial supply of arms to Ukraine, took a different line.

“President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!”

Putin sent Russia’s armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

With Russian forces grinding forward, the Kremlin chief has offered few, if any, concessions so far.

In his overnight address, he proposed what he said would be “direct negotiations without any preconditions”.

But almost immediately, senior Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the talks must take into account both an abandoned 2022 draft peace deal and the current situation on the ground.

This language is shorthand for Kyiv agreeing to permanent neutrality in return for a security guarantee and accepting that Russia controls swathes of Ukraine.

Putin also dismissed what he said was an attempt to lay down “ultimatums” in the form of Western European and Ukrainian demands for a ceasefire starting on Monday. His foreign ministry spelled out that talks about the root causes of the conflict must precede discussions of a ceasefire.

Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and has repeatedly promised to end the war, earlier responded to Putin’s address by saying that this could be “A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!”.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after a fourth day of strikes and counter-strikes against each other’s military installations.

Pakistan’s foreign minister also said both countries had agreed to a ceasefire “with immediate effect”.

“After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

The announcement came on a day when fears that the countries’ nuclear arsenals might come into play spiked as the Pakistan military said a top military and civil body overseeing its nuclear weapons would meet.

But the Pakistani defence minister later said no such meeting was scheduled.