🇩🇪 German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall’s proposed armored vehicle production on Ukrainian soil may be unrealistic, Andrey Koshkin, retired colonel and expert at the Association of Military Political Scientists, told Sputnik.

He suggested that Germany could have been instructed by the US to let Kiev know that it wouldn’t be abandoned by its Western allies, and that Rheinmetal’s statement is little more than a politically-motivated push.

Koshkin also warned that the construction of this plant would pose a threat to Russia’s security, which is why the enterprise would be destroyed if built.

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Ukraine is sliding into authoritarianism because of Zelensky, Kiev's mayor has said.

🗣 “At the moment there is only one independent institution left, but it is under enormous pressure: local government,” Vitali Klitschko told Spiegel.

Klitschko also emphasized that for more than a year and a half since the beginning of the conflict, he had not had a single meeting or telephone conversation with Zelensky.

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🗣 The war in Gaza will last ten years if Israel intends to completely destroy the Palestinian Hamas movement, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

He also called on Israeli authorities to formulate their goal in the conflict more accurately.

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🇰🇿 Kazakhstan picked Su-30SMs jets over the French-made Rafales due to the advanced characteristics of the Russian aircraft, a US military magazine reported.

The media outlet in particular mentioned the Su-30SM’s ability “to fly much further and with a much greater weapons load” compared to the Rafale jets. In addition, the Su-30SM’s “situational awareness is considerably greater with its radar being approximately twice the size of the Rafale’s RBE2.”

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❓Have you seen our fresh episode of the New Rules podcast?

👆Here is a quick peek on what our host Dimitri Simes Jr. discussed with veteran geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar.

Make sure to subscribe on our Rumble channel to follow our work!

🔥 Attack helicopters in action

📹 The crews of Ka-52 attack helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed the control center and armored vehicles of Ukiranian forces in the Donetsk region

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‘Ukraine - bottomless pit’: MP slams Kiev's soaring demands amid growing crisis in Germany

Amid growing concerns about waning international support for Ukraine's "struggle," Kiev's financial appetites are sending shockwaves through German society.

Sarah Wagenknecht, a member of the Bundestag, expressed her dissatisfaction with the staggering 24 billion euro "gift" to Ukraine.

"Ukraine increasingly resembles a bottomless pit. According to the German government's own figures, it has directly transferred 24 billion euros in tax revenues to Ukraine during the conflict. This includes funds for weapons and contributions to the Ukrainian state budget," she stated.

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The Israeli army is resuming hostilities against Hamas at full strength, the country's defense minister has said.

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📹 Russian military drone operators launch precise strikes to destroy Ukrainian firing points and troops in the Lugansk region near Belogorovka village.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Latest updates on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️The death toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Friday has risen to 193, with more than 650 injured, the local Health Ministry said;

▪️A Palestinian doctor with Russian citizenship died as a result of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Friday, his relative told Sputnik;

▪️Hamas has said it has released all women and children held hostage by the movement in the Gaza Strip;

▪️Israel has recalled its negotiators from Qatar due to a "deadlock" in talks, according to Netanyahu's office.

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🇭🇺 Hungary’s Orban helps Europe with his stance on aid to Ukraine

While many in Europe seem convinced that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to destroy the EU, that could not be farther from the truth, claims foreign policy analyst Gabor Stier.

“I believe that he is pro-European because he protects Europe’s interests by preventing it from spending lots of money on Ukraine, as we can see that this (spending) is pointless,” he says.

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🇬🇧 The UK is outpacing all other nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and leads the way in channeling substantial resources to perpetuate structural inequality in favor of the wealthy, according to a recent study by the Equality Trust, a prominent British charity.

The UK is spending a staggering £106.2 billion ($133.8 billion) a year to underwrite disparities in income, wealth and power, well above the OECD average, a recent study has concluded.

The study, noscriptd "Cost of Inequality," reveals that in contrast to the most egalitarian nations, the economic, communal, and individual toll of inequality in the UK is £128.4 billion ($161.8 billion) per year.

Priya Sahni-Nicholas, co-executive director of Equality Trust, emphasized that "inequality has made the UK a less healthy, less happy and less secure society than its more egalitarian peers".

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Moscow сonfirms its status as a ‘reliable partner’ by supplying Africa with grain

Russia’s wheat shipments to Africa’s most needy states after Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to do so a few months ago confirms that Moscow is a “reliable partner that will work to match words with action,” says Nigerian policy adviser Ovigwe Eguegu.

He also warns that the West may make a move against this grain initiative by Russia, noting that “political statements are often made to badmouth Moscow and sow discord in Russia's ties with African countries.”

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You're doing It wrong: Ukraine's former top general lambasts failed counteroffensive

The Ukrainian counteroffensive, which started in June with much pomp and amid expectations that crack assault brigades equipped with Western military gear would easily smash through Russian defensive lines, ended without much fanfare as the dreams and aspirations of the strategists in Kiev did not survive the contact with harsh reality.

Former Ukrainian Armed Forces’ chief of staff Victor Muzhenko has told media that summer counteroffensive “disappointed many" in Kiev and beyond.

Having admitted that Kiev’s expectations to capture Russian territory did not translate into reality, Muzhenko argued for a shift to “strategically active defense” and for the creation of a “powerful reserve, not only quantitative but also qualitative.”

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🇬🇧 The British Navy has come up with a new scheme in a desperate attempt to attract potential sailors.

The Royal Navy is offering to pay the military £500 (58,000 rubles) for each recruit attracted, according to the Daily Mail.

The news comes amid fears that the world could soon be “plunged into a new world war," with British generals believing the country would be ill-prepared for such a conflict, one newspaper noted.

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🇺🇸 Biden's Ukraine and Israel funding package faces GOP border battle

President Joe Biden's proposed $106 billion package earmarked for defense causes languishes in limbo. The funds, caught in the crossfire of political wrangling, face Republicans insisting on an overhaul of US-Mexico border policies as a precondition for approval.

As signs emerge of a growing Republican reluctance towards aiding Ukraine, proponents are reframing the narrative. They claim that a significant portion of the allocated funds contributes to bolstering the domestic defense industry, redirecting investments and job opportunities back into the heart of America.

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Zaluzhny vs. Zelensky: Top Ukrainian general surpasses president in approval rating

Reports suggest there is a major spat between the chief of Ukraine's military and the head of state after the much-touted "counteroffensive" against Russia failed, leading only to dramatic casualties and growing fatigue in the West.

According to the data, Zaluzhny has a 82% approval rating, while Zelensky is at 72%. Likewise, 63% of citizens fully trust the commander and 19% tend to trust him more, while for the Ukrainian leader these numbers are 39% and 33%, respectively.

In the hypothetical scenario of elections featuring both Zelensky and Zaluzhny, neither would secure victory in the first round (47.4% of voters would hypothetically support the president, and 30.7% the commander). In the second round, the votes would be almost evenly distributed: 42% for Zelensky and 40% for Zaluzhny.

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🇺🇸The United States currently doesn't manufacture a single advanced semiconductor for AI systems on its territory, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

"Yes, we need manufacturing in America. Fundamentally, this is a national security initiative. The United States of America really makes no leading-edge chips on our shores today," Raimondo said at the Ronald Reagan National Defense Forum in California.

She added that even the chips marketed under the brand of US technology company Nvidia are all made in Taiwan.

In August 2022, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to implement the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which includes more than $52 billion in subsidies for US semiconductor manufacturers in an effort to counter China's growing technological clout.

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Muslim groups in swing states vow to end Biden’s reelection chances

Pro-Palestine protesters and Arab and Muslim groups around the nation have been demanding that Biden call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and do more to protect innocent Palestinians in Gaza. The group says that the movement is designed to leverage the power Muslim Americans have through their votes.

In 2020, roughly 59% of Arab Americans supported Biden, but that support has evaporated in the shadow of the war in Gaza. In a poll released on October 31, support for Biden among Arab Americans had dropped to just 17%.

“We are joining the national movement to abandon Biden and we will campaign against you along with our political allies,” activist Zade Al Ali said at a November 22 #AbandonBiden press conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Biden administration has not responded to media requests about the coalition.

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🇫🇷 If Israel intends to completely eliminate Palestinian movement Hamas, the war will last 10 years, so Israel should more clearly articulate its goal in the conflict, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

"I believe that now the Israeli authorities will have to define their goal in a more precise way ... The complete elimination of Hamas - what is it, and does anyone think that it is possible? If this is the goal, then the war will last ten years," Macron said at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai.

The French president also added that "the destruction of an entire territory or the bombing of all civilian potential" is not "a good response to the actions of a terrorist group."

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🇺🇸💰US spends 50% more on ammunition due to Ukraine's high artillery burn rate - Pentagon

"Ukraine's high burn rate for artillery has hammered home the need to invest even more in munitions. So compared to the defense budget from just five years ago, we're putting nearly 50 percent more money into munitions," Lloyd Austin, US Defense Secretary, said.

He also noted that the production of artillery shells in the US will quadruple during the Biden administration.

The Pentagon chief also stated that the US will continue to support Ukraine amid ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, adding that the outcome of the Ukrainian crisis will define global security for decades to come and the United States has no option to "sit it out."

At the same time, the Pentagon still refuses to provide data on the level of support for Israel.

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