Xi Jinping: US should approach the Taiwan issue with special caution

Taiwan issue is a red line that cannot be crossed, Chinese President warned Joe Biden during their meeting in Peru.

"Peace on both sides of Taiwan Strait and separatism are as incompatible as fire and water," he added.

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Zelensky: Trump cannot force Ukraine to "sit and listen" at the negotiating table

Head of the Ukrainian regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that this approach won't work because Ukraine is "an independent country".

"His sense of humor is amazing," Elon Musk commented on X.

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First case of new strain of monkeypox confirmed in US - NY Post

Health officials in California report the first US patient infected with the clade 1 strain of monkeypox after traveling in Africa.

Although this strain is known to be more severe, the threat of the new disease remains a "very low" risk to the public, experts say.

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Trudeau comments on Putin-Scholz call

It's important to see an end to the violence in Ukraine, and that requires a certain level of engagement between the sides, Canadian Prime Minister said at the APEC summit.

Earlier, Zelensky called Putin-Scholz conversation a "Pandora's box" because it will make more leaders to communicate with the Russian side.

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🇷🇺🪖Russia’s forces possess initiative and advantage while Ukraine faces a ‘buffet of bad options’
 
Russian troops have the advantage on all fronts, and the “bad news keeps coming” for the Kiev regime, CNN has cited an analyst as saying.

“The Russians have the initiative across [the frontlines] right now; they have successfully exploited tactical gains and are reinforcing those tactical gains,” George Barros from the Institute for the Study of War told the outlet.

While Russia’s Armed Forces make gains at “key spots” along the frontlines in Ukraine, they are also preparing to launch a counteroffensive to push the remainder of Kiev’s forces from Russia’s border region of Kursk, he noted.

“The Russians are the ones taking action,” he underscored, adding that Ukraine was getting “boxed into a corner” and having to “choose from a buffet of bad options.”

The publication noted that the situation was particularly dire for Ukraine around Kupyansk.

A key city for the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defense in the eastern part of the Kharkov region, Kupyansk straddles the Oskol River, which divides the city into two parts and serves as a natural defensive line and barrier.

Russia’s liberation of Kupyansk would create opportunities for crossing the Oskol River and advancing further west into the region.

Russian forces are solidifying their positions on the outskirts of Kupyansk in the Kharkov region, Vitaly Ganchev, head of the Russian administration in the area, told Sputnik on November 14, adding that assault groups are working to secure positions on the outskirts of Kupyansk.

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🪖Four unmanned boats heading for Russia's Crimean peninsula were destroyed overnight in the waters of the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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🔹 Russia’s forces possess initiative and advantage while Ukraine faces a ‘buffet of bad options’

🔹 Who is Boris Epshteyn, Russian-born Trump lawyer reportedly floated as Ukraine peace negotiator?

🔹 Trump nominates Chris Wright for Energy Secretary

🔹 Xi Jinping: China is ready to work with Trump

🔹 First case of new strain of monkeypox confirmed in US - NY Post

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💬 Biden wants to set Trump up with Ukraine - Mearsheimer

Biden administration is ramping up aid for the Kiev regime with the goal of keeping them fighting until Donald Trump is sworn into office, so that the Republicans and him would be blamed for the loss of Ukraine, believes international relations scholar John Mearsheimer.

“If Ukraine collapses after he [Trump] is president, he will be accused of having lost Ukraine, right? This is why the Democrats, the Biden administration, are doing everything possible to prop up the Ukrainians now.”

However, the Ukrainian army is already collapsing - not only physically but also psychologically.

“If you are a Ukrainian soldier, your morale is already down in the dumps. The news that Trump has been elected and is going to cut off aid in all meaningful ways in the future can only lead to even greater despair. And one would think this is at some point gonna lead to the cracking of the Ukrainian military. It is just hard to believe that they are going to continue fighting when their principal benefactor is bailing out on them.“

 
John Mearsheimer is a proponent of offensive realism in international relations and has been a vocal critic of NATO expansion for decades.

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⚔️ At edge of blowing ourselves up: Jeffrey Sachs warns of direct US-Russia clash
 
The world is poised on the edge of blowing itself up, and “it’s very shocking”, warned world-renowned American economist Jeffrey Sachs.

Direct confrontation between the United States and Russia carries very serious and real threats, he said during a lecture in Armenia’s capital of Yerevan. The two sides possess thousands of nuclear warheads, reminded the president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

⚪️He referred to the ongoing Ukraine proxy conflict as an open confrontation waged by the US, where Ukraine has been doing “a good service by dying on behalf of the Americans.”

Emphasizing that the conflagration is between two nuclear superpowers, he queried, "Do you know how much we talk about the nuclear risk of this war? Zero.”

⚪️According to the economist, any talk in the US about the inherent dangers of a standoff between two nuclear superpowers is deemed “very bad taste” and dismissed as "[Russian President] Putin is just bluffing."

⚪️The popularity of such a viewpoint in the US may lead to a catastrophic situation, according to the pundit, when there will be no time to say, "Sorry, we got it wrong.” “We’ll have one minute before the missile lands... And that’s how the world ends," he said.

“This is really very serious and much closer than we think,” warned Sachs.

⚪️The reason for this dire situation, he explained, is because “we’re not well led", alluding to the trigger-happy hawks in Washington and the West.

“They weren’t the best students in class, but they have their hands on the missiles […] and they believe in war games,” summed up the economist.

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⚡️ Ukraine lost over 470 soldiers in the Russia's Battlegroup Zapad area of responsibility, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

🔸 The Russian Armed Forces hit military airfield, Ukrainian gas production and energy facilities.

🔸 Ukraine lost over 345 militants in the Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr area of responsibility.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 520 servicemen and a tank in the Russia's Battlegroup Yug area of responsibility.

🔸 Russian aviation shot down four Hammer guided bombs and 108 Ukrainian drones.

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🤔 Supply or no supply - Storm Shadow dispute in UK
 
The issue of supplying Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles is being actively discussed in the UK, according to Western media.
 
What arguments are put forth:
 
🗣"Defence sources have suggested that Labour’s reluctance to do so is likely to stem from the fact that UK stockpiles have reached a level below which military chiefs are not prepared to go because a certain number must be kept in reserve to protect the UK’s own interests," The Times report says.
 
🗣"Others believe that the MoD is concerned that handing Ukraine further Storm Shadow supplies now, before a decision has been reached on permission for their use in Russia, could mean they are not used as effectively as they could be in a few months’ time," according to the report.
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cautioned NATO members to be cognizant of the consequences of permitting Kiev to target locations deep inside Russia using missile systems supplied by the West. Additionally, Moscow has suggested it may consider supplying long-range missiles to nations classified as adversaries by the West.

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🇷🇺 🪖Key statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the situation in Russia’s Kursk region:

🔸 Russian Strikes of operational-tactical and army aviation, artillery fire targeted the enemy's manpower and equipment in the Sumy region.

🔸 Ukraine's losses amounted to 320 militants, a German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicle, four armored combat vehicles, three cars, a 152 mm D-20 gun and an electronic warfare station "Anklav-N". Five militants surrendered.

🔸 In total, during the fighting in the Kursk region, the enemy lost more than 33250 militants.

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💥 Russia’s massed strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure: what we know

The Russian military carried out large-scale strikes across Ukraine using long-range air and sea-launched weapons and drones Sunday morning, targeting critical infrastructure facilities providing for the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, the Russian Defense Ministry stated.

“All planned targets have been hit,” the MoD said in a post-strike after action report.

🔸 Russian tactical aviation, drones, missile forces and artillery also struck military airfields, gas production facilities, energy facilities feeding the Ukrainian MIC, a warehouse producing drones, and troop concentrations across 144 separate areas, the MoD said.

🔸 Air raid alerts were activated across Ukraine during the strikes, with explosions reported in Kharkov, Kiev, Nikolaev, Poltava, Vinnitsa, Volyn, Dnepropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankovsk, Lvov, Khmelnytsky, Rovne, Zakarpattia, Cherkassy, Odessa and areas of Zaporozhye which remain occupied by Ukraine.

🔸 Local authorities confirmed extensive damage to critical infrastructure, and Ukrainian energy holding DTEK announced “serious damage” to a number of its thermal power plants. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry announced emergency power cuts.

🔸 The Ukrainian underground confirmed that the power supply was disrupted in Ivano-Frankovsk region after Sunday’s strikes, and that a number of factories were also hit. In Krivoy Rog, a warehouse with military equipment was targeted, and a train carrying fuel said to have caught fire. A coordinator for the underground counted some 63 objects being hit.

🔸 Ukraine’s foreign minister characterized Sunday’s strikes as “one of the largest air attacks.”

🔸 Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev said US investments in Ukraine would meet the same fate as the infrastructure subjected to massive Russian strikes Sunday morning.

Russian strikes on the Ukrainian infrastructure began on October 10, 2022 - two days after the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, which, according to the Russian authorities, was backed by Ukrainian special services. Strikes are being carried out on energy, defense industry, military administration and communications facilities throughout the country. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia doesn't strike residential buildings.

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin "important and detailed" during a press conference at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Scholz added that he intends to stay in contact with Putin and plans to speak to him again "soon".

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⚡️Hezbollah's media relations chief Mohammed Afif killed in an Israeli strike.

The strike targeted the headquarters of the Lebanese branch of the Baath Party in the Ras al-Nabaa district of central Beirut, Sputnik correspondent reported from the spot.

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Constructive cooperation with Russia essential for European countries - German analyst
 
Constructive cooperation with Russia is essential for European countries, Alexander von Bismarck, founder of Bismarck Dialog, a Russian-German public project, told Sputnik.

“We [Europe] need cooperation with Russia. We need to talk together. And when Brussels and the EU can't do this, the countries of the EU have to do this, such as France or Germany,” noted the businessman and public figure.

Bismarck was a guest speaker on "The role of public institutions in smoothing out geopolitical tensions in the modern world" at the symposium on cooperation between BRICS and the EU hosted by Russia’s Sirius Federal Territory.

“We [Germany] are in the best position to talk to the Russians because we have been friends for so many years,” he underscored. He added that “we had many conversations together, and we need this for the BRICS future.”

“When Germany and Russia come together, it will serve to help Europe,” stressed Bismarck.

Within the framework of the Russian presidency of BRICS, the city of Sochi played host to the symposium under the motto "The Role of the State, Science and Society in the Development of Socioeconomic Cooperation between BRICS+ and European Countries and Organizations".

Members of the European Parliament from Greece, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, as well as lawmakers from the national legislative bodies of Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia and other countries, were among the invited guests.

The organizers touted it as “an icebreaker event that opens the way to restoring a full-fledged inter-parliamentary and public dialogue between the East and West of Europe, and through it between the political West and the Global South."

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💶Trump not even in power yet, already wreaking havoc on European markets

European markets are trending downward and the euro has slid to its worst dip against the US dollar since the 2022 energy crisis in anticipation of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The cause? Fears that Trump will make good on his campaign promises to level cross-the-board 10-20% tariffs on all foreign imports, including those coming from Europe.

Barclays analysts cited by the Financial Times dubbed the Stoxx Europe 600’s poor performance compared to US markets – which soared on news of Trump’s reelection last week, a “Trump premium.”

ING global markets head Chris Turner explained the situation in no uncertain terms: “Investors fear that Europe will be in the front line of the coming trade war.”

“Trump’s not messing around,” Markus Hansen, portfolio manager at Vontobel, a Zurich-based investment management firm, said. “His administration wants to get going on tariffs from day one” and the Europeans “will find themselves in the crossfire.”

The president-elect appeared to confirm as much last week with his reported plans to rehire noted trade hawk Robert Lighthizer as his trade czar. During Trump’s first term, Lighthizer kicked off a trade war with China, strongarmed Canada and Mexico into renegotiating NAFTA, and slapped tariffs of up to 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum imports from much of the world, including Europe.

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Turkiye refused to let the Israeli president's plane enter its airspace. Yitzhak Herzog had to cancel his visit to the climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Turkish media reported, quoting diplomatic sources.

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❗️The Russian Sever battlegroup surrounded Ukrainian troops in the area of Olgovskaya grove in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian formations attempted to break out of the resulting cauldron in groups of 15-20 militants. More than 80 nationalists were killed by Russian fire and about 40 wounded, some of whom were abandoned by their own troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 24 Ukrainian soldiers were taken prisoner, adding that the area is currently being cleaned up and the remaining enemy troops are being eliminated.

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