A growing number of voices in the US do not want to help Ukraine because of the huge losses of Western equipment and the outcome of the counteroffensive, Military Watch Magazine writes.

"The scale of losses suffered by Ukraine and the increasingly widely recognized failure of its offensive operations have played an important role in increasing resistance in the United States to supplying arms to the Ukrainian armed forces," the publication said.

The article points out that cutting off aid could completely undermine not only Kiev's ability to sustain military operations, but also the Ukrainian state's ability to perform even the most basic functions. Besides, Russia is seizing more and more trophy samples of Western equipment, while the Ukrainian Army is just leaving them on the battlefield.

In addition, there are fears in the US about the reputation of allegedly best American tank, the M1 Abrams, according to the article.

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😳 Come again? How much, Joe??

President Biden is again being mocked after his speech on investments in infrastructure in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The US president announced that the administration had spent “over a billion, three hundred million, trillion, three hundred million dollars” on investments in major rail projects across the country.

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🇯🇵 Japan advised to go nuclear as US 'umbrella' 'frayed irreparably'

Ex-editor for The New York Times Barry Gewen has described the American “nuclear umbrella” that previously offered Japan military protection as being “increasingly frayed, probably irreparably.”

The report rationalized the need for Japan to “go nuclear” by dredging up traditional US-fueled claims of alleged threats from neighboring states, like China, North Korea, and even Russia.

The author posed the simple question: “Would America be willing to risk the destruction of Los Angeles to protect Tokyo?”

Japan should not rely on “decisions of impulsive and unreliable leaders in Washington,” the author of the report said.

It is worth recalling that Russia’s nuclear doctrine forbids the preemptive use of nuclear weapons. The fearsome weapons are regarded “exclusively as a means of deterrence, their use being an extreme and compelled measure.”

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🇮🇱Israel plans to end operations in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis in 3-4 weeks – reports

The operation in Khan Yunis has just started, an official told media outlet, adding that the Israeli military believed that the leadership of Palestinian movement Hamas was located there.

According to the source, the high-intensity phase of the conflict between Israel and Hamas will last for three to four weeks.

According to the report, the US does not give Israel a clear deadline for the end of the operation, but points out that time is limited and it is necessary to end the fighting as quickly as possible and with fewer civilian casualties. Washington prefers Israel finished the high intensity phase of the operation in the Gaza Strip by the end of December, and Israel aims at the end of January 2024, the report added.

Earlier, Head of the Israeli General Staff Herzi Halevi said that the IDF had moved to the third phase of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip and was surrounding Khan Yunis.

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💥 Russian forces launched strikes with high-precision long-range air-based weapons on ammunition production sites for Olha, Grad, and Grom systems.

The targets of the strikes were achieved and all objects were hit, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

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🇷🇺 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov congratulates Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, on media group’s 10th anniversary

"The media group is a legitimate leader among domestic media. It is a worthy representative of our country in the international arena, publishing a wide range of news products in 30 languages and actively cooperating with more than 100 foreign partners," Lavrov said in his congratulatory letter.

The foreign minister stressed that at a time of unprecedented international pressure on Russian media, Rossiya Segodnya "continues to meet high professional standards of honest journalism."

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🇷🇺🪖 Key points of Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Krasny Liman region, Ukrainian losses amounted up to 155 soldiers;

▪️ In the Kupyansk area, Ukrainian losses amounted up to 105 servicemen;

▪️ In the Donetsk region, Russian forces repelled five attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 200 soldiers;

▪️In southern Donetsk, Ukrainian losses amounted to 80 soldiers;

▪️ In the Kharkov region, Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot;

▪️ Russian air defense systems destroyed 11 drones of the Ukrainian forces.

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🇪🇺 EU strikes sweeping AI regulation deal

The EU hammered out a deal on the comprehensive regulation of AI. Thierry Breton, commissioner for internal market of the European Union, took to the X social media platform to hail the AI Act as harnessing the potential benefits of the rapidly advancing technology, while mitigating possible risks.

The draft agreed by EU lawmakers would ban:

▪️Use of real-time surveillance and biometric technologies, with three exemptions;

▪️Untargeted extraction of facial images from the Internet or CCTV footage for setting up facial recognition databases;

▪️Emotion recognition in workplace and educational institutions;

▪️Social scoring - determining an individual's social behavior - based on social performance or personal characteristics;

▪️AI systems able to manipulate human behavior to bypass their free will;

▪️AI used to exploit the people’s vulnerabilities based on age, disability, etc.

Special obligations, such as “fundamental rights impact assessments,” are set out for AI “high-risk systems,” which could potentially cause harm to health, safety, fundamental rights, environment, and rule of law.

General-purpose AI systems will adhere to “transparency requirements,” with obligations including disclosure of data used to teach the machines.

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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 Russian foreign policy strategist Dmitry Suslov.

Make sure to subscribe on our X official page to follow our work and watch exclusive content!

🇩🇪 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz blames Russia for cutting off pipeline gas supplies to Europe

"Russia - yes, Russia has cut off Europe's energy supply... It was the Russian president who cut off the supply of gas through an operational pipeline!" Scholz claimed at the congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

The German chancellor's statement sounds bizarre after the EU itself has imposed anti-Russian sanctions, including sanctions on gas from Russia. The EU has spent 304 billion euros on gas imports since February 2022, having overpaid 185 billion euros due to anti-Russian sanctions, according to Eurostat data.

Vladimir Putin said earlier that sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire world economy. According to him, the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people. Russia has repeatedly stated that the country will solve all the problems the West creates for it.

After last year's terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, gas supplies to Germany were severely disrupted. In November, the head of the Russian Energy Ministry said that Russia itself had not "closed" the Western direction of energy supplies and remained a reliable gas supplier even in the current difficult conditions.

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🇺🇸🇵🇸 US-Arab post-war Gaza scenario talks doomed while Israel bombs enclave — expert

Negotiations between the US and its regional allies on Gaza’s post-war governance are not likely to achieve USA’s aims, Shahram Akbarzadeh told Sputnik.

‘No Arab state will agree to be part of post-war future while Israel is bombing Gaza,’ the expert in the Middle Eastern politics at Deakin University said.
The US is ‘delusional’ if it thinks Israeli actions have ‘killed’ the two-state solution, Akbarzadeh stressed, but admitted that there were ‘no immediate or near future prospects’ for that to materialize.

Negotiations between the US authorities and the Palestinian administration on Gaza’s future must rule out Israel occupying the enclave, installing a temporary military administration there, or creating a buffer zone, said Dr Vladimir Morozov, Professor and vice-Rector at MGIMO University. He agreed that the two-state solution was more of a guideline, but not a matter of the next 10 years.

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🇵🇱 Polish media debunks Zelensky narrative that Ukraine is fighting for West's freedom

Kiev’s “cunning propaganda” suggesting that a Russian victory in Ukraine will inevitably be followed up with attacks on NATO countries are little more than a form of “demagoguery” and “blackmail” completely detached from reality. That’s according to an editorial published in Polish politics journal Mysl Polska.

“An Estonian military officer has formulated the following thesis: that ‘there are only two options: either Ukraine will win, or there will be World War III’. This ridiculous proposition is probably shared by a large part of Ukraine’s supporters in our country,” the alternative conservative media outlet wrote, pointing to efforts by some actors to convince the public “that a Ukrainian defeat will mean we will definitely be attacked by Russia.”

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🗣 New Era of Confrontation between Russia and NATO

“I think that Ukraine war is the first big war between Russia and the West. Historically, it could be compared with the Korean War of 1950-1953, because the Korean War was the first major military conflict of the Cold War. I think that the effect and the role of the Ukraine conflict will be pretty similar,” Dmitry Suslov, Russian foreign policy strategist, told Sputnik.

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble and on our X page

🎧 If you prefer to listen to our podcast, make sure to check the New Rules page on our website!

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

▪️The US made itself complicit in alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip by vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the region, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said.

▪️The US state department has approved a possible $106.5-million sale of tank shells and related equipment to Israel, according to the Pentagon.

▪️Israeli soldiers are apprehending "military-aged" men in the northern Gaza Strip to identify fighters of the Palestinian group Hamas among them, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said.

▪️Military operations by the Israeli army in the southern Gaza Strip's largest city of Khan Yunis might end in three to four weeks, American media reported, citing a senior Israeli defense official.

▪️Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi for his assistance in evacuating Russian citizens and their families from the Gaza Strip, as well as delivering humanitarian supplies to the besieged Palestinian enclave, the Kremlin said.

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🇷🇸🇷🇺 Serbia won't impose sanctions on Russia despite pressure, says the defense minister

In an interview with Sputnik, the head of the Serbian Defense Ministry said that Belgrade intends to maintain its policy of military neutrality and refrain from joining anti-Russian sanctions.

The next parliamentary elections in Serbia are scheduled for December 17. If the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the ruling party of President Aleksandar Vucic, wins, the country plans to maintain its stance of not imposing sanctions on Russia, Defense Minister Milos Vucevic has pledged.

Explaining Belgrade's position, he underlined the commitment to the pursuit of a unified and cohesive Serbian foreign policy. While acknowledging the country's aspiration to join the European Union (EU) he made it clear that cooperation with China, Russia, India and African and South American nations would continue.

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🇬🇧 It was impossible to integrate migrants into society at the current rate of new arrivals, while blaming the government for paying too little attention to legal migration as compared to irregular migration, ex-UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said in his first remarks after resigning.

On Wednesday, Jenrick quit his job citing "strong disagreements" with the government's immigration policy. The resignation came after the United Kingdom and Rwanda signed a new deal to tackle irregular migration, which is expected to see new legislation introduced in the UK parliament to allow asylum seekers to be sent to the African country. Jenrick criticized the bill for failing to address legal challenges to deportations.

"GP [general practitioner] services and hospitals do not grow on trees. Integration is impossible if you let in over 1.2 million new people as we have done over the last two years," Jenrick wrote in a comment for The Telegraph newspaper.

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🇾🇪 Yemen's Houthis say ready to let all vessels pass via red sea except Israel-Related ships

Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, is ready to allow vessels of all countries pass through the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea except those ships that are related to Israel, a spokesman for the rebel movement said on Saturday.

"Yemen's armed forces reaffirm their commitment to continue global trade traffic through the Red and Arabian seas for all vessels and all countries except the ships related to Israel or those that will ship cargo to Israel's ports," Yahya Saria said in an announcement aired by Arab broadcasters.

The Houthis would prohibit all vessels going to Israel if the Gaza Strip did not receive food and medical supplies, the spokesman added.

Since October, the Houthis have conducted multiple missile and drone attacks threatening civilian infrastructure in Israel and commercial shipping operating in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

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🇺🇸 Innovation or Incompetence? Democrats concerned over Biden’s 2024 strategy

Democratic Party operatives are sounding the alarm over the Biden reelection campaign’s sluggish efforts to hire state-level staff.

The candidate’s political operation has yet to hire any paid campaign members in key states like Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona.

“They’ve got to build a serious infrastructure in the battleground states, and they don’t have it right now,” said Democratic Party strategist Pete Giangreco.

The controversy represents the latest concern among Democrats about Joe Biden, who has frequently been criticized over his age and policy regarding Israel.

With both Trump and Biden viewed negatively by most voters and majorities supporting the emergence of a third major party, is America’s out-of-touch political class leading the country towards a deeper crisis?

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🇷🇺 Russia won't agree to 'Minsk-3.0' deal on Ukraine: here's why

Recent weeks have seen a flurry of media reports and remarks by officials on possible peace talks aimed at ending the NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine. But the trust deficit between Moscow and Washington appears to be simply be too great after the West’s thirty-year “continuum of deception,” says Russian foreign policy strategist Dmitry Suslov.

Ukrainian Armed Forces commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny’s admission to British media at the start of November that Ukraine’s counteroffensive has faltered and that there would be no “deep and beautiful breakthrough” has been followed up with a series of reports in US and European media about Western officials broaching the subject of peace talks, and even “pressuring” President Zelensky to make a deal.

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🇮🇷 Iranian Foreign Minister says US companies buying Iranian heavy water

The United States is putting pressure on Tehran not to produce heavy water (also known as deuterium oxide), but American companies are buying it from Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Saturday.

"The United States is so eager to put pressure on us not to produce heavy water, but in the end, we see that American companies are buying Iran’s heavy water," Amirabdollahian said at Tehran University, as quoted by the IRNA news agency.

The foreign minister also stated, citing an unnamed Western official, that testing carried out in laboratories showed that "Iran produces the highest quality heavy water in the world."

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🇱🇰 Sri Lankan gov’t makes efforts to prevent recruitment of mercenaries into Ukrainian army, according to reports

Sri Lanka has made every effort to prevent the recruitment of its citizens into foreign armed forces, including in Ukraine, Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror reported on Saturday, citing Foreign Minister Ali Sabry.

The minister stated Sri Lankan security agencies had previously learned that a local agent was recruiting mercenaries to fight on the side of Ukraine against Russia, the media said.

The newspaper reported that three former Sri Lankan soldiers, including a former special forces officer, were killed on Monday near the city of Artemovsk (Bakhmut).

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