The two Western powers are reportedly trying to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into entering into talks with Russia, per German newspaper Bild. What's behind the report and its timing?

Washington and Berlin have reportedly kicked off a plot to push Ukraine for negotiations with Russia by slashing military supplies to Kiev and leaving Volodymyr Zelensky with little if any options, according to the German publication.

According to Bild, there is also a plan B envisaging a frozen conflict that would solidify a new quasi-border between Ukraine and Russia along the contact line.

Dmitry Evstafiev, a political scientist and High School of Economics (HSE) University professor, told Sputnik:

"First, [this report] should be seen in a specific temporal context. This is not a statement, of course, this is a publicity stunt. It appeared in the media almost immediately after the end of the meeting of the notorious Ramstein group that has made an essential decision to create the [Ground Based] Air Defense coalition to strengthen air defense. Moreover, it is quite obvious that they will strengthen not so much the air defense of Ukraine, but the air defense of the countries bordering Ukraine. Therefore, this is a kind of first proposal that it is necessary to take certain political steps that would indicate that Ukraine is ready for negotiations."

The second aspect is an interview given by the leader of the Servant of the People faction, Davyd Arakhamia, which, according to Evstafiev:

"Is clearly synchronized with the West even more indicative against the backdrop of problems at the front."

The United States and Chinese military have engaged in a verbal dispute regarding a U.S. naval vessel that sailed through the South China Sea over the weekend.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command said the Chinese military deployed its naval and air forces to "track, monitor and warn away" a U.S. Navy destroyer, while the U.S.'s 7th Fleet said the USS Hopper "asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law."

China said the incident "proves that the United States is an out-and-out 'security risk creator' in the South China Sea," while the U.S. military routinely argues it conducts these operations in order to challenge excessive maritime claims across the globe.

China, Vietnam, and Taiwan each claim sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, which are in the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy conducted the freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) to challenge each country's requirement that outsiders seek permission or provide advance notification prior to a military vessel or warship passing through the sea, which the U.S. argues is a violation of international law.

Commander Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs, said in a statement:

"The unilateral imposition of any authorization or advance-notification requirement for innocent passage [is] unlawful. By engaging in innocent passage without giving prior notification to or asking permission from any of the claimants, the United States challenged these unlawful restrictions imposed by the PRC, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The United States demonstrated that innocent passage [is] not subject to such restrictions."

China frequently criticizes the U.S. Navy's freedom of navigation operations in the Pacific as Beijing seeks to dominate the region and push the U.S. out of the Pacific.

American observers are finally snapping out of "magical thinking" about Moscow's defeat

On November 16, the Wall Street Journal, one of the most prestigious and influential American media outlets, published an essay under the title "It's Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia's Defeat."

The authors, Eugene Rumer and Andrew S. Weiss, are influential representatives of America's national security and international relations establishment. After a career in government service, Rumer now directs the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Weiss is Carnegie's vice president for studies. This is an important text, and both its message and the timing of its publication matter.

The message is simple: "Putin" (by which they mean Russia) has "withstood the West's best efforts" to roll back the military operation against Ukraine; Moscow's political system has proven resilient and even become stronger; and "America and its allies" must now switch to a strategy of "containment."

According to the Israeli media, the July Israeli governmental crisis can be explained by IDF admonitions that Hamas was preparing to launch, from Gaza, "a perfect storm" against Israel.

General Amit Saar, head of the IDF Military Intelligence Research Department, wrote to the Prime Minister on 19 March and 16 July, warning him of an impending Hamas attack. He explained that Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran interpreted the domestic debate taking place over fundamental legislative reforms as a sign of Israel's internal weakness.

Israeli prime minister had stopped any attempt to remove the Palestinian militant group from Gaza, a historian told the newspaper

Benjamin Netanyahu has had an "odd symbiosis" with the Palestinian militant group Hamas that has ruled Gaza for the decades he has been Israel's prime minister, the Washington Post (WaPo) reported on Sunday, citing a host of experts on Israel.

The politician reportedly has found Hamas useful for stalling the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and for disrupting the establishment of the Palestinian state, the paper claimed.

Netanyahu, who headed the Israeli government uninterrupted between 2009 and 2020 and then returned to power in December 2022, has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas throughout his tenures but instead pursued policies that helped the group keep its grip over the enclave, the US media outlet reported.

Ministers were accused of a cover-up last night after it was revealed that soldiers did secretly spy on British critics of the Government's response to Covid.

The release of new documents contradict official assertions that a shadowy Army unit had only been monitoring foreign powers.

The Mail on Sunday revealed earlier this year that military operatives in the UK's 'information warfare' brigade were part of a sinister scheme to keep a close eye on politicians and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the pandemic response.

For most people, it's difficult to imagine much of what's happening today. And this is why so many seem in the dark about what we should do to alleviate our problems. Looking at the situation in which a proxy is being waged on Russia from Ukraine, nothing seems to add up. The same is true for the genocide now going on in Gaza. And when we superimpose problems like curing cancer and other diseases, environmental problems, and failing economies, the only thing we can see is that our leaders have failed miserably at prioritising. It's also obvious that we, the people, are the farthest thing from their minds.

Regarding visualisation, there's no bigger confusion than grasping just how much money the Western powers are shovelling into the war against Russia. So far, something like $233 billion has been donated to Ukraine. The top donors are the EU($90B) and the United States ($73B). Interestingly, most of the EU funding has been aimed at financial aid, while the US donates are mostly military aid. Neither the EU nor the US spent much on humanitarian aid, at least not by comparison. But then, humanitarian money does not go into the pockets of the elites, now does it? The arms companies and financial institutions seem to be leveraging this Ukraine mess for a return on assets. But that's another story. Now, I'd like to compare spending on Ukrainian and Israeli wars against efforts that do help human beings.

Let's look at one of humanity's most dreaded killers: cancer. In total, global oncology spending in 2022 was $193 billion. The numbers are far more telling in key research, where funding often comes from philanthropy. The Lancet reported recently that some 66,388 awards with a total investment of about $24.5 funded research for 2016-20. And now these figures have nosedived. In 2020, there were 19.3 million cases and 10 million deaths from the dreaded disease.

If we look at how many people are starving on our planet, it's appalling to think of billions thrown away on unwinnable wars for the sake of selling weapons. In 2021, U.N. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley said it would take an estimated $40 billion annually to end world hunger by 2030. Let's think about that for a moment. Each day, 25,000 people, including more than 10,000 children, die from hunger and related causes. Envision the lost potential of all those children perishing, if you can. Beasley went on to etch the situation in stone with this statement:

"There is 400 trillion dollars' worth of wealth on the earth today, and the fact that 9 million people die from hunger every year... Shame on us. In the height of COVID, billionaires' net worth increase was $5.2 billion per day. At the same time, 24,000 people die per day from hunger. Shame on us. Every hour, the net worth of billionaires during the height of COVID was a substantial $216 million per hour. Yet 1000 people per hour were dying from hunger... Shame on us."

Syria's ally Russia on Monday (Nov 27) condemned Israeli air strikes on Damascus International Airport, describing them as provocative and dangerous.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Sunday's strikes could aggravate tensions in the region, already inflamed by the Gaza war.

"We strongly condemn Israel's latest provocative attack on an important Syrian civilian infrastructure facility," Zakharova said in a statement.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government is "completely helpless," head of Bavaria Markus Soeder says

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his cabinet have led Germany into a "serious national crisis," Markus Soeder, the prime minister of the nation's most populous state, Bavaria, told journalists on Saturday. Berlin can now hardly find a way out of this predicament, the politician warned, adding that the government's "budget emergency" would likely turn into another burden for ordinary Germans.

Israel has been unable to achieve any meaningful victories against the Palestinian militants...

After repeatedly rejecting a truce with Hamas and labeling the idea "ridiculous", Israel agreed to a four-day cessation of hostilities in Gaza and a prisoner exchange. Six weeks of death and destruction, which Israeli and Western leaders declared should have led to the destruction of Hamas, have now bolstered the Palestinian movement's image throughout the Arab world and beyond.

The four-day truce that was implemented this Friday provided a sigh of relief for those most affected by the war in the Gaza Strip, but has in many ways spelled disaster for the Israeli government. As women and children, held captive by both Hamas and Israel, are being reunited with their families, the threat of further warfare looms. Although the loved ones of those released are now celebrating, the next steps will be crucial in determining the final outcomes of the 46-day battle that has now been placed on pause. At this time, it appears that the idea that "Hamas must go" is no more than a pipe dream.

On October 27, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to the sound of overwhelming applause, calling for a truce to stop the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Although the non-binding resolution passed with a majority of 120 votes in favour, Israel and the United States outright rejected it. Tabled by Arab nations, the call for a truce was labeled as a "defense of Nazi terrorists" by Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the UN. This came after Hamas released four Israeli civilian hostages without conditions, for what the group said were humanitarian reasons.