Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that there is no need to stir up fear around nuclear weapons, as Christians are not afraid of the end of the world.

Kirill added that this "does not mean that we should sit by idly".

"On the contrary, our earthly mission is to be the Lord's soldiers ... to resist evil and defend high moral ideals. This is the goal setting in Russia," he said.

Donald Trump’s plan to tap the retired US lieutenant general Keith Kellogg as US envoy to Ukraine and Russia has triggered renewed interest in a policy document he co-authored that proposes ending the war by withdrawing weapons from Ukraine if it doesn’t enter peace talks – and giving even more weapons to Ukraine if Russia doesn’t do the same.

Trump is said to have responded favorably to the plan – America First, Russia & Ukraine – which was presented to him in April and was written by Kellogg and the former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz, who both served as chiefs of staff in Trump’s national security council from 2017 to 2021.

The document proposes halting further US weapons deliveries to Kyiv if it does not enter peace talks with Moscow, while simultaneously warning Moscow that, should it refuse to negotiate, US support for Ukraine would increase.

MBFC Archive

There have been at least 18 violations, with 13 on Wednesday alone, according to a tally by Anadolu, compiled through Israeli army announcements and news sources, including Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Violations on Wednesday:

• Israeli drone strike hits a car in the town of Markaba, Marjayoun district of Nabatieh governorate, injuring two people. Israeli Army Radio says the car was targeted to “remove it from a prohibited area”;
• Israeli warplanes attack a site in southern Lebanon, which the army claimed belonged to Hezbollah and contained rockets;
• Israeli tank fire hits the towns of Kafr Shuba and Al-Wazzani in Hasbaiyya district of Nabatieh governorate;
• Israeli artillery shells the towns of Taybeh and Khiam, and the Marjayoun plain in Marjayoun district;
• Israeli artillery shells hills of the town of Haltah in Hasbaiyya district, and the Ras Al-Zaher area in the town of Mays Al-Jabal, Marjayoun district;
• Israeli drone flies over towns in the Tyre district of South governorate, and the town of Bint Jbeil in Nabatieh governorate;
• Israeli artillery shells the town of Aita Al-Shaab, and the city of Bint Jbeil in Bint Jbeil district.

Violations on Thursday:

• Israeli army fires at journalists in the town of Khiam, Marjayoun district while they were covering the return of residents and the Israeli withdrawal from the town, injuring two;
• Israeli artillery fires shells near the Fatima Gate in the town of Kafr Kila in Marjayoun district. The towns of Odaisseh and Khiam also targeted;
• Israeli army arrests four people in southern Lebanon, claiming they approached Israeli forces in the area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they belonged to Hezbollah and that one of them was a local leader.

Summary

Bolivia faces an economic collapse due to a fuel shortage, foreign currency reserves depletion, and rising inflation.

The crisis has led to protests, food shortages, and a decline in the government’s popularity.

The government’s denial of the problems and its handling of the situation have further exacerbated the situation.

Summary

Two Bulgarian men, Orlin Roussev and Biser Dzhambazov, have pleaded guilty to spying for Russia in the UK, admitting to conspiracy to gather intelligence for Russian benefit.

Their activities included surveillance of individuals and locations, using false identities, and advanced technology.

Three other alleged spies, currently on trial, deny similar charges.

Prosecutors described a coordinated operation directed by Roussev, who received orders from Jan Marsalek, an Austrian linked to Russian intelligence.

The espionage involved high-level deceit, including the use of “honey traps” to extract information from targets.

Summary

Former British soldier Daniel Khalife, 23, was convicted in London of espionage and terrorism for spying for Iran.

Prosecutors said Khalife gathered and shared classified military information, potentially endangering lives and national security, while claiming to be a “double agent” against the Iranian regime.

Khalife’s September 2023 escape from prison triggered a high-profile manhunt before his recapture.

Found guilty under the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act, Khalife denied wrongdoing, portraying himself as a patriot. He was acquitted of a separate bomb hoax charge.

Summary

Romania’s Constitutional Court has ordered a recount of the November 24 presidential election after far-right candidate Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round, despite polling below 5% beforehand.

Georgescu, critical of NATO and supportive of Russia’s Putin, will face centrist Elena Lasconi in a December 8 runoff.

The court rejected an application to annul the election, citing a missed deadline.

The decision comes amid reports of cyberattacks and allegations of TikTok of favoring the far-right candidate.

Roughly 36 hours after I first heard about the horrifying Maga taunt “your body, my choice”, I learned that I was pregnant, despite having a contraceptive coil. My relief that I lived in the UK, not the US – where abortion is rapidly becoming illegal or inaccessible at best – was profound. Yet I realised that I had no idea how to access abortion, having complacently assumed that it would always be available if I needed it. Some fraught Googling led me to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. A couple of days later, I had my first appointment and very quickly learned that it wasn’t purely “my choice”, even in Britain.

Of all the words you don’t want to hear by surprise, “transvaginal” is up there. I thought the scan to determine how pregnant I was would be the kind where a technician slathers goop on your stomach. I wasn’t told until I arrived that it would be internal, because of the assumed early gestation. A second surprise: the coil was gone, most likely sucked out by my period cup. Later that day, I had a phone consultation. The nurse told me two doctors would have to sign off on the termination and asked me to justify why my life would be negatively affected if I were forced to continue with the pregnancy. Horrified, I said I should just be able to say: I don’t want to. She was extremely kind and agreed, but said this was a legal requirement under the Abortion Act.

I told her I lived hundreds of miles from my partner. We hadn’t been together very long and were united on this. I lived in a one-bedroom flat. I could barely afford my own life. My career would suffer. The presence – or so I thought – of a coil should show that I had been actively warding against pregnancy. What more did she want? I am bullish in the face of authority I disagree with, but felt furious for any less headstrong person seeking an abortion – already grappling with guilt and overwhelmed at dealing with the medical establishment – who might doubt their own needs when confronted in this way.

Summary

Israel and Hezbollah accused each other of ceasefire violations two days into a truce that ended 14 months of conflict.

Israel claims Hezbollah breached terms by approaching border zones, while Hezbollah accuses Israel of firing on civilians.

Brokered by the US and France, the ceasefire involves a gradual Israeli withdrawal and Hezbollah’s pullback north of the Litani River, with U.N. peacekeepers taking over.

The war killed over 3,700 in Lebanon and 70 in Israel, displacing 1.2 million in Lebanon and 50,000 in Israel.

The missile fired by Russia at Ukraine last week, hailed by Putin as a new kind of experimental hypersonic weapon, was actually an application of old technology used for many years in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), six military experts told Reuters.

An examination by two of these experts of the debris recovered from the new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), known in Russian as the Oreshnik, or hazel tree, showed how it dropped multiple payloads across the target area, a characteristic of ICBMs.

After the missile strike, Putin said the Oreshnik was hypersonic and could not be intercepted. But Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, noted that all ballistic missiles of that range are hypersonic, and that missile interceptors such as Israel's Arrow 3 and the U.S. SM-3 Block 2A were designed to destroy them.

A doctor who was arrested in Berlin in August is now suspected of killing eight patients and in some cases trying to cover up the evidence by setting fires, investigators said Thursday.

The unidentified doctor, who was part of a nursing service’s palliative care team, was suspected at the time of his arrest of killing four elderly patients in June and July and then attempting with mixed success to set fires at their apartments.

Police and prosecutors said Thursday that additional cases surfaced when they examined patients’ files and carried out forensic examinations of suspected victims, two of whom were exhumed.

Two of London’s most famous markets — one selling fish, the other meat — are set to close in the coming years, bringing an end to traditions stretching back to medieval times.

On Wednesday, the City of London Corporation, the governing body in the capital city’s historic hub, is set to present a bill to Parliament to bring an end to its responsibilities to operate the Billingsgate fish market and the Smithfield meat market, both of which have existed in some shape or form since the 11th century.

That comes a day after the corporation decided not to relocate the markets to a new development just east of London in Dagenham.

Syrian rebel forces have seized strategic villages in northwestern Syria after intense clashes with Russian-backed Syrian government forces.

Some rebel groups affiliated with the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) have joined the operation, though the majority of those forces have so far refrained from participating, according to reports.

Since Wednesday, footage circulating on social media has shown HTS and aligned forces making significant advances, capturing large swathes of territory and progressing rapidly towards the outskirts of Aleppo city.

Iran's SNN news agency reported on Thursday that Iranian Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi was killed in Aleppo by "terrorists" linked to Israel, without giving further details.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 142 fighters from both sides have been killed in the past 24 hours.

A senior Turkish security source told MEE that Turkey attempted to prevent the offensive to avoid further escalating tensions in the region, especially given Israel's wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

Summary

Dominique Pelicot, on trial in France for drugging his wife and enabling over 70 men to rape her while unconscious, has claimed a split personality caused by childhood trauma, according to his lawyer.

Béatrice Zavarro argued that Pelicot’s actions stem from a “perverse” side of his personality, shaped by witnessing abuse and experiencing sexual violence as a child.

The case, which includes 50 other defendants, has spotlighted domestic sexual violence and drug-facilitated assault.

Prosecutors seek a 20-year sentence for Pelicot, with verdicts expected by December 20.

>Israel's military said on Thursday it had detected "suspects" in several areas in southern Lebanon, calling this a violation of a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

>On Thursday morning, Israeli tank fire hit six areas within the border strip, state media said.

>The rounds struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, Khiyam, Taybe and the agricultural plains around Marjayoun — all of which lie within two kilometres of the Blue Line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel.

>The ceasefire was scheduled to take effect from 4am local time on Wednesday.

Summary

Air pollution from fires causes over 1.5 million deaths annually, with China, India, Nigeria, and Indonesia experiencing the highest death tolls.

Climate change is expected to exacerbate this issue, leading to more frequent and intense forest fires.

BEIRUT, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Israeli tank fire hit three towns along Lebanon's southeast border with Israel on Thursday, Lebanese security sources and state media said, a day after a ceasefire barring "offensive military operations" came into force.

Tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, all of which lie within two kilometres of the Blue Line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel. One of the security sources said two people were wounded in Markaba.

Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can take up to 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border.

Lebanon's speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, had said on Wednesday that residents could return home.

Read the article, it is much more nuanced than the title suggests.