While spending time with family and friends at Thanksgiving remains important for many Americans, the cost of that indulgence has never been higher, up a stunning 20% from last year to $64.05 for the classic feast.

The cost for the classic meal was the most affordable in the South - $58.42, followed by the Northeast - $64.02, Midwest - $64.26 and West - $71.37.

"General inflation slashing the purchasing power of consumers is a significant factor contributing to the increase in average cost of this year's Thanksgiving dinner," said AFBF Chief Economist Roger Cryan.

"Farmers are working hard to meet growing demands for food - both here in the U.S. and globally - while facing rising prices for fuel, fertilizer and other inputs," said Cryan.

Over the past two years, the grocery bill for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner has risen by 36.6%. All these changes are illustrated in the following chart from PoliticalCalculations blog:

The Kharkov city head has been accused of violating the law by addressing his fellow residents in a "non-state" language.

Kiev has slapped the mayor of Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkov, with a fine for using what the authorities called a "non-state" language in an official TV address. Mayor Igor Terekhov is known for addressing his fellow residents in Russian.

Terekhov will have to pay a fine of 3,400 hryvnas ($92) for violating Ukrainian law, Taras Kremin, the Ukrainian government's commissioner for the protection of the state language, said in a statement on Thursday.

The ex-president yelled at him and predicted that his 2024 White House bid would fail, the rapper claims.

Musician and fashion designer Kanye 'Ye' West has said that Donald Trump was astonished at being offered the role of vice president on his 2024 presidential ticket and angrily rejected the proposal.

Last week, West confirmed that he'll try running for the White House in two years' time, showing off newly designed apparel bearing a 'YE24' logo.

Why do Americans hate Putin?

Tucker Carlson thinks he knows. Here's what he said:

"... Democrats in Washington have told you it's your patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin. It's not a suggestion. It's a mandate. Anything less than hatred for Putin is treason.

Many Americans have obeyed this directive. They now dutifully hate Vladimir Putin. Maybe you're one of them. Hating Putin has become the central purpose of America's foreign policy. It's the main thing that we talk about. Entire cable channels are now devoted to it. Very soon, that hatred of Vladimir Putin could bring the United States into a conflict in Eastern Europe.

Before that happens, it might be worth asking yourself: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl?" (Tucker Carlson,"Americans have been trained to hate Putin, and will suffer because of it", Fox News)

Mali's junta announced on Monday, November 21, a ban on the activities of NGOs funded or supported by France, including humanitarian groups, amid a worsening row between Paris and Bamako.

The West African nation's interim Prime Minister Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga justified the move in a statement on social media, calling it a response to France's recent halt to development aid for Mali.

The French foreign ministry said last week it had made the decision, which came three months after finalizing its pull-out of anti-jihadist forces from the country, over Bamako's alleged use of paramilitaries from Russian group Wagner. Bamako denies this, acknowledging only the support of Russian military "instructors".

Ghana's government is working on a new policy to buy oil products with gold rather than U.S. dollar reserves, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia said on Facebook on Thursday.

The move is meant to tackle dwindling foreign currency reserves coupled with demand for dollars by oil importers, which is weakening the local cedi and increasing living costs.

Ghana's Gross International Reserves stood at around $6.6 billion at the end of September 2022, equating to less than three months of imports cover. That is down from around $9.7 billion at the end of last year, according to the government.

Presented as an independent voice for "unbiased" scientific advice, iSAGE provided a channel for media spinmeisters, spies and psy-op specialists to influence Britain's pandemic policy without accountability. Leaked internal emails show members fretting over its unethical methods.

Throughout Britain's response to the COVID-19 crisis, a lobbying group known as the Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (iSAGE) served as a key driving force behind the government's most draconian lockdown policies.

While it presented itself as a non-governmental organization composed of forward-thinking health experts, The Grayzone can reveal iSAGE not only maintains an array of ties to the British security state, while relying largely on political, rather than scientific, considerations when crafting policy recommendations.

With Winter ahead in Europe and calls for the reimposition of COVID-19 restrictions growing once again — not least from iSAGE itself — the outfit's endeavors provide a disturbing look at the role of the security state and mainstream media in corrupting British public health policy.

If you had to choose between living under an extremely oppressive world government or living through a nuclear war, which one would be your choice? Personally, I don't like either of those two options, but in recent days western leaders have been trying to convince us that we will either have one or the other. According to them, either we can submit to a "global order" that is dominated by the values and the agenda of the western elite or we can accept a multipolar world which will eventually lead to widespread chaos and nuclear war. Needless to say, western politicians are going to try very hard to get us to choose the former.

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Bangkok even though France is not actually a member.

During that speech, Macron lamented the fact that rapidly deteriorating relations between the U.S. and China are tearing the world apart, and he boldly declared that what we really need is "a single world order"...

French President Emmanuel Macron called for world government in a speech Friday, claiming it would avoid conflicts between competing superpowers.

"We need a single world order," Macron told the audience at the ongoing Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, Thailand.

"Are you on the U.S. side or the China side?" Macron asked rhetorically. "Because now, progressively, a lot of people would like to see that there are two orders in this world."

"This is a huge mistake — even for both the U.S. and China," he added after comparing the two superpowers to "big elephants" in the geopolitical "jungle."

Of course when he says that we need a "single world order" he is not suggesting one in which nations such as China and Russia are equal partners. What Macron and other western leaders envision is a global system that is governed by western rules and western values.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, Western commentators have spent a huge amount of time expressing moral outrage at Russia's actions, but comparatively little time thinking about how the war could have been prevented.

This is puzzling. Even if Ukraine manages to win, this victory will have come at an enormous price - tens of thousands of lives, millions of refugees (many of whom may never return), and untold damage to the country's infrastructure. No matter what the outcome, the war will have been disastrous for ordinary Ukrainians.

It therefore seems essential to ask whether it could have been prevented.

Scotland remains split on whether the country should be independent.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Scottish government cannot organise its own independence referendum.

In a blow for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, a panel of five judges said that as constitutional matters are "reserved" to Westminster, the Scottish Parliament cannot legislate for a second referendum. Announcing the unanimous ruling, Lord Reed said:

"The Scottish Parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence."

The case was brought to the court after Sturgeon set out plans to hold a second vote on independence on Oct. 19 next year. She said if that were not possible, the SNP would make the next general election a "de facto referendum" on whether Scotland should be independent.