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Europe
Russia
Sunday 17 November 2024 10:06 GMT According to a daily report released by Russia‘s Ministry of Defense, Russian troops took control of two settlements in Donetsk and inflicted damage on Ukraine’s energy facilities, a military airfield and production workshops for unmanned aerial vehicles. Blasts were heard across Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities early today morning, in what Ukrainian officials have described as the biggest missile attack since August. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
Vatican
November 17, 2024 3:28 pm CET “According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,' the pope says, according to excerpts of the book titled “Hope Never Disappoints. Pilgrims Towards a Better World” written by Alcaide based on interviews with Francis and published by Italian daily La Stampa today. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
Asia
Iran
November 17, 2024 10:24 IST On September 26, Tehran has elected Khamenei's second son Mojtaba as the next head of the country, Israeli media Ynet News quoted Iran International, a Persian media outlet with ties to Iranian regime opponents. The selection was held after the 60 members of Iran's Assembly of Experts convened on Khamenei's demand. This secretive meeting was called without prior notice, deliberated and finally decided to unanimously select Mojtaba as the successor. The members were told to keep the meeting very secret, fearing public protests. The report added that as Khamenei is battling a serious health condition, he may abdicate soon to ensure a smooth transition. Electing the successor became a priority after the assassination of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah and Hamas chief Haniyeh in Tehran which has prompted Khamenei to isolate himself for protection with only a handful of loyalists given access to him. His son Mojtaba is reportedly the only individual he can trust and influence as a future leader. Mojtaba was given the title of ayatollah two years back, thereby giving him the most important constitutional prerequisite for the Supreme Leader role. (Source: The Week – India)
North America
United States
(Sunday), November 17, 2024 5:45 PM After he won this year's presidential election, Trump wasted no time and called Zelensky and Putin within the first few days. Zelensky recently told Ukrainian outlet Suspilne that Trump's return to office makes it certain that the war will end sooner. ’Critics warn that a rushed settlement of the war could favor Putin’. The Biden administration has pledged to continue strengthening U.S. military support for Ukraine in the final months of his administration, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken confirmed Wednesday. ’We will continue to shore up everything we're doing for Ukraine to make sure that it can effectively defend itself against this Russian aggression,’ Blinken told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, prior to meetings with allied envoys and Ukrainian officials. Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, supporters of President-elect Trump took to social media today to react to President Biden’s reported authorization of Ukraine to use U.S. ATACMS rockets to launch strikes against Russian territory, to accuse Biden of escalating the conflict with just months left in office and highlighting Trump's campaign promise to end the conflict. ’"On his way out of office, Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorizing Ukraine the use of U.S. long range missiles into Russia. The American people gave a mandate on Nov 5th against these exact America last decisions and do NOT want to fund or fight foreign wars. We want to fix our own problems. Enough of this, it must stop," Representative Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and staunch Trump supporter, condemned Biden writing on X. Venture capitalist Sacks also posted on X. "President Trump won a clear mandate to end the war in Ukraine. So what does Biden do in his final two months in office? Massively escalate it. Is his goal to hand Trump the worst situation possible?’ he wrote. Responding to Senator Lee, a Utah Republican, who wrote on X that ’Libs love war’ and ’War facilitates bigger government,’ billionaire Musk retweeted Lee's post with the message, "True." Trump Jr. wrote on X: ’The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives. Gotta lock in those $Trillions. Life be damned!!! Imbeciles!" Turning Point USA founder Kirk wrote on X, ’Biden is trying to start World War 3. This is pathological and totally insane. US weaponry should NOT be used to fire into the interior of Russia! Imagine if Russia supplied missiles to fire into America!’ Russian media reported that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova told RBC TV that Russian President Putin has already spoken on what he thinks about potential strikes inside Russia with U.S. long-range weapons. Referring to remarks made on September 12, Putin said that the potential decision to use Western long-range missiles against Russia would be viewed as the United States' and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries' direct participation in the war, which he said would significantly change ’the very nature of the conflict.’ (Source: The Herald - Scotland / Newsweek - U.S.)
November 17, 2024 8:46 PM GMT+1. Biden allows Ukraine to use US arms to strike inside Russia. Kyiv's other allies have been supplying weapons but with restrictions on how and when they can be used inside Russia, out of concern such strikes could prompt retaliation that draws NATO countries into the war or provokes a nuclear conflict. Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, the sources said today. The move comes two months before President-elect Trump takes office on Jan. 20 and follows months of pleas by Zelenskiy to allow Ukraine's military to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border. One of Trump's closest foreign policy advisers, Grenell, criticized the decision. 'Escalating the wars before he leaves office,' Grenell said, in an X post responding to the news. Since Trump's Nov. 5 victory, senior Biden administration officials have repeatedly said they would use the remaining time to ensure Ukraine can fight effectively next year or negotiate peace with Russia from a 'position of strength'. Russia is advancing at its fastest rate since 2022 despite taking heavy losses, and Ukraine said 'it had clashed with some of North Korean troops deployed to Kursk'. Ukraine's first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using ATACMS rockets, which have a range of up to 306 km, according to the sources. Russia has warned that it would see a move to loosen the limits on Ukraine's use of U.S. weapons as a major escalation. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
By Stone and Pamuk. Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. During her 20 years with Reuters she covered the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.
17.11.2024 US President-elect Trump announced yesterday that Wright will join his administration as energy secretary and become a member of the newly-formed Council of National Energy. Wright, a prominent figure in the energy sector, has experience in the nuclear, solar, geothermal and oil and gas industries. Trump highlighted Wright’s role in advancing American energy independence, ’global energy market transformation, particularly through contributions to the shale revolution’ and contribution to what Trump referred to as a “new golden age of American prosperity and global peace.’ The Council of National Energy will oversee all departments and agencies related to energy production, distribution and regulation. It aims to achieve US energy ’dominance’ by reducing regulatory obstacles and prioritizing innovation. Trump said Wright would work closely with Burgum, his choice for interior secretary, to enhance energy independence and foster international partnerships to address global energy needs. With a background in mechanical engineering from MIT, Wright, the founder and chairman of Liberty Energy, an energy service provider, has been recognized for his contributions to the energy sector. He has held leadership roles at companies and is an advocate for renewable and conventional energy solutions. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Nov. 17, 2024 The president-elect seeks to rewrite the balance of power and install lieutenants to blow up key parts of government, shocking the Washington establishment. In less than two weeks since being elected again, Trump has rolled a giant grenade into the middle of the nation’s capital and watched with mischievous glee to see who runs away and who throws themselves on it. So far there have been more of the former than the latter. Mr. Trump has said that “real power” is the ability to engender fear, and he seems to have achieved that. If Republicans bow to his demand to recess the Senate so that he can install appointees without confirmation, it would rewrite the balance of power established by the founders more than two centuries ago. "And if he gets his way on selections for some of the most important posts in government, he would put in place loyalists intent on blowing up the very departments they would lead. He has chosen a bomb-throwing backbench congressman who has spent his career attacking fellow Republicans and fending off sex-and-drugs allegations to run the same Justice Department that investigated him, though it did not charge him, on suspicion of trafficking underage girls. He has chosen a conspiracy theorist with no medical training who disparages the foundations of conventional health care to run the Department of Health and Human Services. He has chosen a weekend morning television host with a history of defending convicted war criminals while sporting a Christian Crusader tattoo that has been adopted as a symbol by the far right to run the most powerful armed forces in the history of the world. He has chosen a former congresswoman who has defended Middle East dictators and echoed positions favored by Russia to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies". Mr. Trump is opting for nominees who are so provocative that even fellow Republicans wondered whether he is trolling them. The message to Washington is simple: Things are going to be different. “It is a sense that there’s been a seismic shift in the political culture. And, hey, I think they know we’re not going back,” Bannon, the former Trump White House strategist said. Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters agree with his argument that the system is fundamentally broken and needs to be burned down. Business as usual, in this view, has benefited the privileged class at the expense of the broader American public. The government has been thoroughly corrupted and turned against conservatives and their way of life. Leavitt, his incoming press secretary, said Mr. Trump had won „a mandate” to change Washington and to appoint highly qualified men and women who have the talent, experience, and necessary skill sets to make America great again, reflect that. Mr. Trump’s camp has made clear, that it’s a serious strategy to blow out the government as an institution because of their belief that it’s become too big, too powerful and represents the deep state, Marchick, a co-author of The Peaceful Transfer of Power, a history of presidential transitions, and dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University said. ”Mr. Trump is amplifying the’populist’ resentment that has grown since the days of the financial crash of 2008 rather than trying to ameliorate it", Baer, a former White House communications director under President Clinton, said. He tries to tear down the system, not something to tamp down. “What he’s doing now with these appointments is, „These are the people I’m going to do it with and I like that it aggravates you,” Mr. Baer said. In tapping Musk to head a new Department of Government Efficiency along with Ramaswamy have attracted less attention, Mr. Trump has handed vast influence over the federal government to a billionaire who profits from billions of dollars in government contracts. Mr. Trump’s margin of victory in the national popular vote will be one of the smallest in history. Since 1888, only two other presidents who won both the Electoral College and the popular vote had smaller margins of victory: Kennedy in 1960 and Nixon in 1968. Mr. Trump can boast that he increased his margin in the Electoral College, winning 312 votes this year to the 306 he garnered eight years ago. According to nearly complete totals, he secured his most recent victory by a cumulative 237,000 votes in three states. Mr. Trump helped Republicans gain four seats in the Senate, enough to take control of the chamber, certainly a major victory. But he failed to bring with him Republican Senate candidates in four of five battleground states where he campaigned the most and won. Moreover, with races still to be called, Republicans held onto the House but did not build on their razor-thin majority. Despite his modest margins, Mr. Trump has exhibited more dominance of his own party than any president in modern times. And his Senate recess demand will test just how far that dominance will go. The recess appointment power in the Constitution was designed to let a president temporarily fill vacancies while Congress was out of town in an era when it took weeks or months to travel to Washington. Senate Republican leaders did not rule out the idea after Mr. Trump broached it. Even if senators do not agree, Mr. Trump may try to employ a little-used provision in the Constitution allowing him to force a recess. “Trump has promised to be a dictator on Day 1 but has already started before Day 1,” said Daschle, a former Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota. Under the rules, a recess appointee can stay in place until the end of the next congressional session, meaning until December 2026, or almost two years. Given Mr. Trump’s historically short patience with appointees, that means he could have people in key departments for as long as he typically might have them without ever being subjected to Senate confirmation. According to figures from Mr. Marchick, the average tenure for a cabinet secretary in Mr. Trump’s first term other than Treasury, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development was 1.8 years. For the key security agencies - Defense, Justice and Homeland Security - the average term was 10.5 months. (Source: The New York Times – U.S.)
by Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The Times.
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