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By Craig Mokhiber

The Security Council’s backing of the Trump plan for Gaza ignores international law, punishes the Palestinians, and rewards those responsible for genocide.

19 Nov 2025 – More than two years into the genocide in Palestine, the UN Security Council has finally acted. But rather than acting to enforce international law, protect the victims, and hold the perpetrators accountable, it adopted a resolution that openly flouts key provisions of international law, disempowers and further punishes the victims, and rewards and empowers the perpetrators.

Most disturbingly, it hands control of Gaza and the survivors of the genocide over to the United States, a co-perpetrator of the genocide, and provides for the participation of the Israeli regime in decision making. Under the plan, Palestinians themselves are to be granted no such participation in decisions on their own rights, governance, and lives.

In adopting this resolution, the Council, in effect, has become a mechanism of U.S. oppression, an instrument for the continued unlawful occupation of Palestine, and a complicit actor in Israel’s genocide.

Not since the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947 against the will of the indigenous people, setting the stage for 80 years of Nakba, has the UN acted in such a baldly colonial (and legally ultra vires) way, and trampled so recklessly on the rights of a people.

A resolution from Hell

On Monday, 17 November, the UN Security Council adopted a U.S. proposal to hand control of Gaza over to a U.S.-led colonial body called “The Board of Peace” while deploying a proxy occupation force, also U.S.-directed, called “The International Stabilization Force.” Both will answer, ultimately, to Donald trump himself. And both will function in consultation with the Israeli regime.

Not since the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947 against the will of the indigenous people, setting the stage for 80 years of Nakba, has the UN acted in such a baldly colonial way, and trampled so recklessly on the rights of a people. 

In what will long be remembered as a day of shame for the UN, while both Russia and China abstained, they did not use their vetoes, and not a single member of the Security Council had the courage, principle, or respect for international law to vote against what can only be seen as a U.S. colonial outrage, a ratification of genocide, and a flagrant abdication of UN Charter principles.

The resolution implicitly rejects a series of recent findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), openly denies the Palestinian right to self-determination, and reinforces Israeli regime impunity, even as the genocide continues.

Despite the ICJ’s finding that the Palestinian people have a right to self-determination on their land, the resolution strips that right away, empowering hostile foreign forces to govern them.

Despite the Court’s finding that Gaza (as well as the West Bank and East Jerusalem) is illegally occupied and that the occupation must end quickly and completely, the resolution extends the Israeli occupation, endorses the indefinite presence of Israeli regime troops, and superimposes a second, U.S. led occupation on top of it.

And despite the Court’s finding that the Palestinians need not negotiate for their rights with their oppressors, and that no agreement or political process can trump those rights, the resolution nullifies those rights and assigns them to the discretion of the U.S. and its Israeli and other partners.

Even in the midst of an ongoing genocide perpetrated by an apartheid regime, nowhere in the resolution is there a single mention of the crimes of genocide, apartheid, or colonization, of the thousands of Palestinians still held in Israeli torture and death camps, or of the principles of accountability for perpetrators or redress for victims.

Nor is Israel required to meet its legal obligations of compensation and reparations, with that responsibility handed instead to international donors and international financial institutions, in what amounts to a multibillion-dollar bailout of the Israeli regime. In sum, the resolution guarantees the full impunity of the Israeli regime, in addition to advancing its normalization.

A colonial administration

The resolution even welcomes, endorses, and annexes the widely discredited Trump plan (September 29 version), and, while not citing all of its problematic provisions, it calls on all parties to implement it in its entirety.

It empowers the Trump-headed Board of Peace to serve as the transitional administration governing all of Gaza, to control all services and aid, to control the movement of people in and out of Gaza, and to control the framework, funding, and reconstruction of Gaza, and it includes the dangerously broadly formulated authorization of “any other tasks that may be required.” And it grants up-front authority to the Trump board to establish undefined “operational entities” and “transactional authorities,” at its own discretion.

The resolution even envisages a quisling body of Palestinian technocrats taking orders from and reporting to Trump’s Board Of Peace- on their own land. In clear breach of international law, it rejects Palestinian control of their own territory in Gaza until Trump and his collaborators decide that the Palestinian Authority has satisfied the reform requirements set by Trump himself and by the similarly odious “French-Saudi Proposal.” And it contains no promise whatsoever of Palestinian independence or sovereignty.

Instead, in direct contradiction to the findings of the ICJ, it sets back the cause of Palestinian freedom and self-determination with a vague, hyperqualified, and non-committal line that says that AFTER the Trump-led bodies decide that the Palestinians have met UNDEFINED “reform and development” criteria, “the conditions MAY finally be in place for a credible PATHWAY to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

And any shred of hope for progress left within those conditions is finally dashed with the coup de grace provision stating that any such process toward those ends is to be controlled by the U.S. itself. In other words, the UN Security Council has granted a veto over Palestinian self-determination to the U.S., the Israeli regime’s chief sponsor and co-perpetrator of the genocide.

The resolution does not even offer hope that the systematic deprivation of the Palestinian people in Gaza will end. While the ICJ has declared that restrictions on aid must cease, the resolution only “underscores the importance of” humanitarian aid. It does not demand its unfettered flow and distribution.

A proxy occupation force

The resolution also mandates an armed proxy occupation force, labeled the “International Stabilization Force,”  to operate under the Trump-headed Board of Peace. This force is to have a command approved by the Trump Board, and will explicitly operate in collaboration with Israel, the perpetrator of the genocide (as well as with Egypt).

Its members are to be identified “in cooperation with” the Israeli regime, and it is to work with the regime to control the Palestinian survivors in Gaza.

It will be mandated to secure the borders (i.e., to cage the Palestinians), to stabilize the security environment of Gaza (i.e., to suppress any resistance to occupation, apartheid, or genocide), to demilitarize Gaza (but not the Israeli regime), to destroy Gaza’s military defense capacities (but not those of Israel), to decommission the weapons of the Palestinian resistance (but not those of the Israeli regime), to train the Palestinian police (in order to control the Palestinian people inside Gaza), and to work for the (nefarious) objectives of the “Comprehensive (Trump) Plan.”

The force is also mandated to “protect civilians” and assist humanitarian aid, to the extent that it is allowed by the U.S.  (or inclined) to do so. But that such a force, which is to collaborate with Israel, would do nothing to stand up to Israeli aggression and attacks on civilians should by now be self-evident.

The mission of this proxy occupation force is to control, contain, and disarm the population victimized by the genocide, not the regime perpetrating it, and to ensure security not for the victims of the genocide but for its perpetrators. 

And it is to “monitor the ceasefire,” a U.S.-guaranteed ceasefire that has allowed continuous Israeli attacks on Gaza every day since it was declared (killing hundreds and causing massive destruction to civilian infrastructure) but which tolerates no retaliation by the Palestinian resistance. It is safe to assume that any ceasefire monitoring by such a force will be focused principally on the Palestinian side- not on the Israeli regime as the occupying power.

In other words, the mission of this proxy occupation force is to control, contain, and disarm the population victimized by the genocide, not the regime perpetrating it, and to ensure security not for the victims of the genocide but for its perpetrators.

In still another stunning breach of international law, the resolution authorizes Israeli regime forces to continue to (unlawfully) occupy Gaza until the U.S.-led Board of Peace and the Israeli regime forces collectively decide otherwise. And, in any event, the resolution provides that the IOF can remain in Gaza to occupy a “security perimeter” indefinitely.

Finally, both the colonial Board of Peace and its proxy occupation “stabilization force”  are given a two-year mandate and the possibility of an extension in consultation with Israel (and Egypt) but not with Palestine.

The madness of colonizers

Needless to say, this resolution has been rejected by Palestinian civil society, almost all Palestinian political and resistance factions, and human rights defenders and international law experts from around the globe.

As a matter of international law, the occupation of Palestine is unlawful, the Palestinian people have a right to self-determination, and they have the right to resist foreign occupation, colonial domination, and racist regimes like Israel. Not only does this resolution seek to deny these rights, but it even goes so far as to buttress the illegal Israeli presence, and to authorize its own mechanisms of foreign occupation and colonial domination.

What’s more, the Security Council derives all its powers from the UN Charter. That Charter, as a treaty, is a part of international law- not above it. As such, the Council is bound by the rules of international law, including and especially the highest, so-called jus cogens and erga omnes rules, like self-determination and the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force.  Its blatant disregard for the findings of the ICJ on these matters reveals the degree to which many of the terms of this resolution are in fact unlawful and ultra vires (beyond the authority of the Council).

As such, the ramifications of this rogue action by the UN Security Council will have implications far beyond Palestine. The UN Security Council, if unconstrained by international law, becomes a dangerous instrument of repression and injustice. This is precisely what we have witnessed in this case, as the Council ignored international law and effectively turned the survivors of Gaza over to the co-perpetrators of the genocide.

And followers of the Council will be well aware that the veto has repeatedly been used in the Council to deny Palestinian rights. In this case, when it could have been used to protect Palestinian rights, the veto was nowhere to be found. In one minute of voting, the Security Council has lost all legitimacy.

A path forward

The U.S. attempt to impose a 19^th Century form of colonialism on the long-suffering Palestinian people of Gaza, like the French-Saudi colonial scheme that came before it, is destined to failure. Such schemes are fundamentally flawed from the outset, as they seek to impose outcomes without legality (under international law,) without legitimacy (in their exclusion of Palestinian agency), and without any practical hope of success (given their near universal rejection both in Palestine and across the world).

The U.S. may be able to threaten and bribe enough states to support it in a UN vote, but securing sufficient troops and other personnel to implement the resolution on the ground, against the will of the indigenous people, may well be another matter. And sustaining support as the plan (inevitably) begins to unravel will be even more difficult.

For those committed to justice, human rights, and the rule of law, the task is clear. This plan must be opposed.

In the meantime, for those committed to justice, human rights, and the rule of law, the task is clear. This plan must be opposed in every capital, and at every juncture. Governments must be pressed to end their complicity in Israeli abuses, U.S. excesses, and in this atrocious colonial scheme. The Israeli regime must be isolated. Efforts toward

And when this colonial house of cards falls, another, more just solution is ready to take its place. If the global majority will rise from its knees before the emperor, and assert its collective power, acting under the UNGA Uniting For Peace mechanism to circumvent the U.S. veto, adopt accountability measures to isolate and punish the Israeli regime, and deploy real protection to Palestine, then the UN may live to fight another day. If not, it will almost certainly wither away and die, a victim of self-inflicted wounds, none deeper than the shameful resolution of November 17, 2025.

Craig Mokhiber is an international human rights lawyer and former senior United Nations Official.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By UN News

19 Nov 2025 – Living conditions for Gazans – particularly children – are still dire as temperatures drop and families return to bombed-out homes as the fragile ceasefire holds, UN aid workers said today.

Children’s Fund, UNICEF, highlighted the case of six-year-old twins Yahya and Nabeela who were critically injured by an unexploded remnant of war in the north of the wartorn enclave.

They are receiving mental health support from the agency and tarpaulins to protect them from the cold.

Even though it hasn’t rained for a few days, the many families who live in tents are still struggling to recover from the sudden and heavy downpours at the weekend.

Degraded and afraid
Tess Ingram with UNICEF in Gaza described the plight of one displaced family whose tent was flooded. Wafa is a mother of five who was in tears.

“She said there were times that she wished that she was in the house in her family home with the children when it was bombed,” said Ms. Ingram, who added that Wafa had referred to “the death of dignity that they have experienced in recent days.”

Ms. Ingram said that an estimated 18,000 households were affected across more than 100 sites by the recent rains, but that many more families were likely impacted.

Winter needs outpace aid amid sanitation crisis

[https://twitter.com/ochaopt/status/1991143958110491017]

With winter approaching, UN humanitarian partners warn that shelter supplies entering Gaza remain far below what is needed. Fewer than 60,000 tents and just over 300,000 tarpaulins and bedding items have entered since early September, after a six-month ban was lifted.

“The volume of items going in is simply not enough,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday at the daily briefing in New York.

Child-protection partners have distributed 48,000 winter clothing kits since the ceasefire, offering some relief to families trying to keep children warm.

Water and sanitation teams have reached around 400,000 people in the past two days with diapers, towels, jerry cans and other essential hygiene supplies.

Sanitation system in ruins
With Gaza’s wastewater treatment system effectively destroyed, partners describe sanitation across the Strip as “deplorable”.

In northern Gaza, the Sheikh Radwan ponds are again at risk of overflowing, forcing emergency measures to drain sewage into the sea. Public health risks are rising, including the spread of bacterial infections linked to contaminated water and waste.

Nutrition partners report a slight fall in malnutrition cases in October, though admissions remain nearly four times higher than during the previous ceasefire in January.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By The Wire

20 Nov 2025 – Israel’s genocide isn’t over. In the days and weeks after a ceasefire was declared, many Israeli soldiers were withdrawn from Gaza — and then deployed back to the West Bank.

Right now, Palestinians in the West Bank are experiencing the highest rates of settler and state violence in recent history, all while the mainstream media continues to push Palestine out of the news.

The Israeli government is rapidly expanding its project of ethnic cleansing, making it abundantly clear that its intention is not simply to erase Palestinians in Gaza, but to erase all Palestinians from their land.

In this Wire, we shine a spotlight on the unfolding crisis in the West Bank.

Settler violence is Israeli policy
As the Israeli state continues to accelerate its ethnic cleansing and mass displacement, it has again made use of extremist Israeli settlers. These mobs surge into a Palestinian village, carrying clubs and weapons, beating people and burning their homes, fields, and olive trees. Children are not spared. Attacks like this are happening multiple times a day in the West Bank right now, as settlers try to disrupt the olive harvest season.

Last week, a group of settlers attacked the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf, burning vehicles, wounding four Palestinians, and attacking Israeli soldiers who responded. Only a day later, settlers torched and defaced a mosque in Deir Istiya and burned a Quran.

In Turmus’ayya, Israeli settlers descended on the town, one clubbing a Palestinian woman known as Umm Saleh over the head, knocking her unconscious, then striking her repeatedly as she lay on the ground. A freelance journalist caught the attack on video, calling it “the single worst individual act of violence” he’d ever seen.

Settler violence has grown so fierce that Israel has begun to draw international condemnation, reaching such a level that Israeli politicians were recently compelled to make statements claiming these extremist settlers will be held accountable. On Sunday, PM Netanyahu stated that these attacks “do not represent” the majority of the “law-abiding” Israeli settlers in the West Bank. But in reality, extremist Israeli settlers and their ultraviolence against Palestinians is structurally backed by the Israeli government — because their goals are one and the same.

The objective of all Israeli settlements is to push Palestinians out of their land and claim the entire West Bank. These settlements, while baldly illegal under international law and condemned by every legitimate human rights organization in the world, are backed by Israeli military courts, protected by Israeli forces, and represented in the highest levels of the Israeli government. In this process, settlers have been effectively deputized by the Israeli military to terrorize Palestinians.

Settler attacks are only one strategy in this overall policy of forced displacement, attempting to make Palestinians’ lives unlivable and force them out of their homes. Since the genocide in Gaza began, cooperation between violent settlers and the Israeli state has grown even more blatant: The Israeli government is arming West Bank settlers on an even greater scale, transferring hundreds of thousands of guns and other weapons to Israeli settlers since October 2023.

Displacement at a scale not seen since 1967
Settler mob violence is far from the only form of regular violence that Palestinians in the West Bank face under Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing. In fact, the majority of documented attacks on West Bank Palestinians and their land in the last month were carried out by the Israeli military, in the form of direct physical attacks, destruction of homes, villages, and infrastructure, and the uprooting and poisoning of Palestinian olive trees and livestock.

These direct attacks, by both the Israeli state and their settler arm, serve to accelerate Palestinian displacement from the West Bank. After the total destruction of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps by the Israeli military, the UN reports that at least 31,919 Palestinian refugees have been displaced from those areas alone — creating the largest displacement crisis in the West Bank since 1967. Operating hand-in-hand with this mass displacement is the further acceleration of Israeli settlement construction, another process that has been turbocharged since the onset of the Gaza genocide — after already ramping up significantly since Trump’s first term in office.

Israeli forces also continue to routinely kidnap Palestinians in the West Bank — arresting 442 West Bank Palestinians in October alone. Released Palestinian prisoners, including the thousands of Palestinian captives freed by the ceasefire deal, have described in detail the conditions of systematic torture and abuse, including extreme physical violence and assault, deprivation of food and sunlight, and sexual abuse. More than 9,200 Palestinians are still being held in Israeli military prisons, the vast majority of whom are held arbitrarily and have not faced any form of trial.

New records for violence in the West Bank
Even before Israel’s genocide began, violence against West Bank Palestinians was already at record levels. By September of 2023, UN officials had already declared it the deadliest year for Palestinian children in the West Bank on record. But once the genocide began and the world’s attention moved to Gaza, Israeli settler and state violence against West Bank Palestinians spiked further — and the last few months have become the worst in recent history.

In October 2025, Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks, the highest number in a single month since the UN began keeping records 19 years ago. Since January of this year, 45 Palestinian children in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces, and more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in total by the Israeli military and settlers since October 2023.

This most recent spike in settler attacks is due in part to the onset of olive harvest season in the West Bank, which Israeli settlers attempt to disrupt by burning trees, villages, and descending on olive groves by the dozens and physically attacking farmers. As a result, non-Palestinian activists and press will often accompany Palestinians to harvest in what is known as “protective presence” — but this is no guarantee of safety. Two Reuters journalists, part of a group of villagers, activists and press attempting to harvest olives, were recently clubbed and stoned in an attack by Israeli settlers, their helmets dented and their cameras smashed.

Ethnic cleansing and genocide: This is Zionism
Whether it’s Israeli settlers attacking villagers or an Israeli military court ordering Palestinians to destroy their own homes, the end goal remains the same: to gain the maximum amount of land for Jewish settlement, with the minimum amount of Palestinians on it. This is the fundamental political goal of Zionism — a politics of eradication and supremacy.

From the West Bank to Gaza, we know what this means in action. The privileging of the rights of one people, and the dehumanization of another, paves the way for genocide. Our work, as a movement, is to grow the fight for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli government’s politics of dehumanization.

Jewish Voice for Peace, with roughly 750,000 members, supporters, and participants, is the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world; a national, grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Lee Camp

Colonizers Will Take over 58% of Gaza [they call it Real State], the Rest Will Be Left in Ruins

18 Nov 2025 – In the increasingly noxious world in which we live, a country can make clear precisely how a campaign of ethnic cleansing will advance, and yet it gets barely a mention in the mainstream media. The U.S. military’s planning documents for Gaza’s bifurcation / starvation / degeneration / decimation are now available for all to see.

The Guardian reported:

“The US is planning for the long-term division of Gaza into a ‘green zone’ under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction would start, and a ‘red zone’ to be left in ruins.”

The key words are “left in ruins.” And the key fact is that almost all surviving Gazans are inside this “red zone.” So it’s not just the buildings that will be left in ruins. It’s the healthcare systems. It’s the food systems. It’s the water systems. It’s the beautiful bodies of Gazans of every age. It’s the families. It’s the hopes and dreams. It’s the future.

Left in ruins.

Yesterday, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to approve this ruinous plan with China and Russia abstaining.

As most people now know, Gaza has been completely razed to the ground by 70,000 tons of explosives, the equivalent of six Hiroshima atomic bombs. Roughly 83% of all structures have been destroyed or damaged. Here’s a map of the ruins justifiably imaged as red, gaping wounds:

If we (or rather the ruling elite) even remotely looked at our world through a humanity-first lens, then 100% of Gaza wouldn’t just be allowed to rebuild, it would be the site of one of the most aggressive humanitarian aid operations the world has ever seen. But we don’t live in that world. And our ruling elite are sociopathic parasites with hair plugs. (Is there such a thing as soul plugs™ to make it appear as if they have a soul?)

Instead, while millions are left to suffer and die just a few feet away, the US military and others will rebuild the 58% of Gaza already stolen by the colonizers. Not just rebuild it but transform it into a giant real estate bonanza for Trump, his family, and countless wealthy investors. This unbridled pillage following a successful genocide is not hidden but in fact was proudly presented a couple months ago.

The above AI-vomited utopian/dystopian image might be lovely if it involved Palestinians and Palestinian sovereignty in any way, shape, or form. But it does not. The 58% of Gaza that has already been stolen by the US & Israel will not be owned or governed by Palestinians. If Gazans are ever allowed into it, it will be under the most fascist surveillance system one could ever dream up. In fact, the plan calls for eight “AI-powered, smart cities” — Not because the vampiric colonizers want Gazans to have the best high-tech amenities, lounging in a life of luxury. No, it’s because “smart city” is euphemistic propaganda-tripe-speak for the highest level of surveillance ever imagined. (Conversely I assume actual freedom & privacy would be termed “life in a dumb city.”)

I must, however, admit it’s a nice bit of honesty that they included the oil derricks in that image just off the coast. Israel has long sought to get its hands on the billions of barrels of oil in Gaza’s waters.

Hamas understandably rejected the new UN proposal to relinquish most of Gaza to the genocidal colonizers. They responded:

“Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation.”

The many countries voting for and facilitating this are now parties to genocide. As I covered in a prior article, Israel’s genocide has required the willing participation of 63 countries over these two years.

But it’s possible Gazans won’t always be trapped in an open-air death camp. Trump’s plan says that they will be allowed to leave “through what it calls ‘voluntary’ departures to another country.” Ah yes, the “voluntary ethnic cleansing.” This was once also used to describe the “choice” of the Native Americans to leave their homelands and relocate to reservations where they were less likely to be outright murdered by the invaders. For those Gazans who “choose” to leave — and who could blame them — it will be done with a literal gun to their heads.

There are no new plans. There are no fresh ideas. The language of colonization, subjugation, oppression, genocide, rape and pillaging might not be identical over hundreds of years, but it rhymes.

Lee Camp is a US stand-up comedian, writer, actor and activist, currently host of Dangerous Ideas and former host of Redacted Tonight.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Benjamin Norton

An analysis of Donald Trump’s attacks on Venezuela, the economic impact of US sanctions, and the similarities and differences with the successful Western regime-change war on Syria.

16 Nov 2025 – A Chinese journalist interviewed Geopolitical Economy Report editor-in-chief Ben Norton about the situation in Venezuela, and his analysis was translated into Chinese. The following were his original remarks in English:

QUESTION: Ben, you have traveled around Latin America extensively, including in Venezuela. I would like to hear your comments on Maduro. Is his government well supported by the Venezuelan people, or may he face a similar fate like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad? As you know, Trump is planning attacks inside Venezuela. So do you think Maduro’s government will fall like Assad’s?

MY ANSWER: There are indeed some parallels between Venezuela and Syria, but there are more differences than similarities.

Venezuela is very divided politically, but in general, the Bolivarian Revolution initiated by previous President Hugo Chávez and continued by current President Nicolás Maduro still has a lot of support from poor and working-class Venezuelans. Most rich people and elites are pro-US and anti-government. Many of them have left the country, but there are still some in Venezuela (especially in wealthy areas like Chacao).

In Venezuela, most people are tired of political conflict and violence, and they simply want stability. The right-wing opposition does not have many active supporters inside the country. Whenever they try to hold a protest, only a few hundred people show up. However, while they are small in number, they still have a lot of power concentrated in private companies, media outlets, and Western government-funded “NGOs”.

Maduro will not be overthrown by people inside Venezuela. The only possible way I think the Venezuelan government will fall is if the US military invades Venezuela and/or wages a direct war inside Venezuelan territory, bombing Caracas — like what the US did to Iraq, Libya, Yugoslavia, Panama, Grenada, etc. (although the tactics used were different in each of those wars).

Trump has already ordered the US military to kill dozens of Venezuelans in illegal, extrajudicial executions in international waters. Thus far, he has not launched direct attacks inside Venezuela, although he confirmed that he authorized the CIA to carry out destabilization operations inside the country.

There are reports that Trump plans to bomb targets inside Venezuela. This would be an extreme act of aggression, and is quite possible, even likely. I don’t think he will send US troops into Venezuela — it is certainly possible, but it would be very unpopular at home, especially among his so-called “MAGA” base.

If I were forced to make a prediction, I would say there is a 66% chance that the US military launches attacks inside Venezuelan territory, with missiles and/or airstrikes; and a 25% chance that US troops invade the country and try to take control of ports, airports, major roads, and/or oil fields.

Polls show that Trump’s war on Venezuela is very unpopular inside the US. A slight majority of Americans, 55%, would oppose a US invasion of Venezuela; whereas only 15% would support it. A clear plurality, 45%, oppose using the US military to overthrow President Maduro; while just 18% support this. However, public opposition has never stopped Washington before.

In fact, scientific studies show that public opinion has no impact on US government policy.

Economically, Venezuela has suffered extreme hardship under illegal US sanctions and an economic embargo, which has blocked Venezuela from accessing the US-dominated international financial system and prevented Venezuela from exporting its oil and fixing/updating its oil infrastructure, causing government revenue to shrink by a staggering 99% (according to the top UN expert on sanctions, the special rapporteur Alena Douhan).

However, Venezuela’s economy is in a better state today than it was during the previous US-led coup attempt in 2019-20, which caused hyperinflation. The inflation rate has fallen a lot. Real wages have risen. Food and everyday necessities are affordable. The economy has dollarized a lot, however, which erodes the monetary sovereignty of the Venezuelan government.

The latest US attacks will likely end up increasing support for the Venezuelan government, because it will make it clear that there are only two realistic options: either Maduro or a right-wing US puppet — like the US government-funded far-right coup leader María Corina Machado, whom Washington wants to put in power, and who has been open about the fact that she wants to privatize Venezuela’s massive oil reserves and sell off the country’s assets to US corporations.

One clear similarity between Venezuela and Syria was the economic warfare waged by the West.

The Syrian government fell in part because the US/EU “Caesar” sanctions had devastated the economy. Syria could not get access to hard currency, and thus had very high inflation. The Syrian military was unable to pay its officers and soldiers, so they were not willing to fight. There were also shortages of food and oil. Syria was blocked from accessing its oil and wheat fields, which were militarily occupied by the US.

One major difference is the Western-sponsored war on Syria, which started in 2011.

The Syrian state was significantly weakened by more than a decade of war. Moreover, Syria had been invaded by multiple foreign powers, including the US, Turkey, and Israel. Large parts of its territory were not under the control of the central government, but rather by extremist groups and mercenaries funded and armed by the US, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.

The situation is Venezuela is not like that. There were violent coup attempts by US-backed far-right extremists in 2014 and 2017, but nothing close to the levels of violence seen in the war in Syria.

QUESTION: In Maduro’s first and second term, the economy was in very bad shape. Why it is now getting better?

MY ANSWER: The US sanctions on Venezuela started in 2015, when Obama declared Venezuela to be a supposed “national security threat”. The global price of oil also crashed from 2014 to 2016. Both factors caused huge economic problems in Venezuela.

The illegal US sanctions then escalated significantly under Trump in 2017. And in 2019, Trump imposed an economic embargo on Venezuela (like the illegal US blockade of Cuba, which has gone on for more than six decades, in violation of international law).

This means that Venezuela was not able to export oil, which was the source of the vast majority of government revenue. The UN special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures, Alena Douhan, reported that Venezuela lost 99% of government revenue due to the US sanctions. The UN expert also emphasized that these unilateral US sanctions are illegal, violate the human rights of Venezuelans, and devastated the economy.

The US sanctions caused a significant shortage of dollars and other hard currency in Venezuela, which meant that the central bank was not able to stabilize the national currency, the bolivar. Moreover, there were enormous attacks by currency speculators based in the US, with the help of Florida-based black market groups like DolarToday. The central bank also tried to maintain a fixed exchange rate throughout these speculative attacks, which meant it bled the little hard currency it had to try to defend the bolivar. Together, these factors caused hyperinflation in Venezuela.

Another very important factor to consider is that the vast majority of the technology and oil infrastructure that had been used in Venezuela for the past century had been designed by Western companies. The oil industry had been nationalized by Chávez, but the technology it relied on was still the intellectual property of US and European corporations.

So the sanctions prevented Venezuela from repairing its oil equipment and buying the new machinery needed to maintain and modernize its oil infrastructure. This caused a huge fall in Venezuela’s petroleum output.

In fact, the US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) boasted in 2019 — during a US-sponsored coup attempt — that Venezuelan crude oil production had fallen to its lowest level since 2003 (following another US-backed coup attempt). The EIA even admitted that US sanctions were a factor that contributed to this significant decline.

The situation in the past few years has gotten better because Venezuela was able to replace some of its oil machinery with technology from Iran, Russia, and China. Technicians from Iran, Russia, and China also helped Venezuela to repair and update its oil infrastructure.

This meant that Venezuela was able to export more crude, primarily to China. Oil output today is still much lower than it had been before the US sanctions began in 2015, but it is slowly rising, and is now more than 1 million barrels per day, which is the highest level since the last US-led coup attempt, during Trump’s first term.

This means that Venezuela is now earning more hard currency, which it can use to stabilize its own currency and reduce inflation.

The economic situation has significantly improved in the past few years. In fact, inflation has been higher in Argentina, under its US-backed libertarian President Javier Milei, than it was in Venezuela.

QUESTION: Are there other Latin American countries that are helping or aiding Venezuela?

ANSWER: Cuba and Nicaragua have helped Venezuela. But they are very small and don’t have many resources, and are both suffering from illegal US sanctions as well. They are mostly providing political and diplomatic support.

The right-wing governments in Latin America are all extremely pro-US and anti-Venezuela. Many of the left-wing governments are more independent in their foreign policy, but they are afraid of getting too close to Venezuela, because of the threats by the US government, particularly the threat of secondary sanctions; and also because of right-wing backlash at home.

Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia has historically been the most loyal US ally in the region, and its government was dominated by wealthy right-wing oligarchs for decades. Today, for the first time, Colombia has a left-wing government, led by President Gustavo Petro.

Petro has publicly criticized the US and vocally opposed its attacks on Venezuela. In response, Trump imposed sanctions on President Petro and his family. This was a blatant act of aggression against Colombia’s sovereignty, and a clear example of US meddling in the country’s internal affairs. It was also obviously meant as a threat against other leaders in the region, so they don’t speak out and challenge the US war.

That said, Petro is still afraid of getting too close to Venezuela, because of the attacks by the right-wing media outlets inside Colombia, and because elections are coming up in 2026, and he doesn’t want his left-wing allies to be hurt.

US-backed right-wing forces are gaining influence in many parts of Latin America. The war against Venezuela is part of a larger strategy by the US empire to weaken left-wing anti-imperialist resistance, strengthen right-wing oligarchic groups that will serve US corporate interests, and impose US hegemony across the region.

Benjamin Norton is an investigative journalist, analyst, writer and filmmaker.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Sakai Tanaka:

15 Nov 2025 – In late October 2025, the Primakov Center, a Russian foreign policy research institute, held a conference in Moscow to discuss Russia’s relations with the Middle East, bringing together foreign policy experts from Middle Eastern countries (excluding Israel), including Arab countries, Iran, and Turkey, as well as Russian diplomatic experts. Putin’s foreign policy advisors attended from the Russian side and hinted at the key changes to the Putin administration’s future Middle East strategy. The participants from the Middle East were scholars and former diplomats affiliated with their respective foreign ministries. The conference served as an informal communication of Russia’s strategic shift to Middle Eastern governments. （“Russia – the Middle East”: Five Years of Dialogue and Ideas）[Russia Sidelined In New Middle East After Trump’s Israel-Gaza Deal]

At this conference, Russia conveyed to Middle Eastern countries that the era of relying on Russia to resolve Middle Eastern conflicts is over.

“Russia has previously led conflict resolution in the Middle East (West Asia) and engaged in shaping order through military intervention, but the future of the Middle East is now the sphere of influence of the United States (and Israel, which controls it). It is no longer acceptable for outside powers other than the United States to shape the order. Russia will not compete, but will accept the order established by the United States (Israel) and Middle Eastern countries (which Israel imposed on the United States and Middle Eastern countries). We will fight in Europe, but we will no longer fight in the Middle East.” （‘West Asia is no longer our battle’: Moscow withdraws from the arena）

Russia’s official statement is that “The Middle East is within the US sphere of influence, so Russia will reduce its involvement.” However, over the past 20 years since the Iraq War, the US hegemony in the Middle East has been declining. During the Arab Spring in 2011, when the US hegemony was stronger than it is now, when Syria’s Assad regime was on the verge of being overthrown by the US-Israeli puppet Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, Russia invaded Syria militarily and kept Assad alive. US hegemony is now in decline. Russia doesn’t even rely on dollar settlements for trade. So, is Russia now reducing its involvement in the Middle East out of consideration for the United States? （Russia-China trade almost 100% outside Western currencies）

This question arises because we assume that the past and present US hegemony types are the same. While Obama and Biden’s US hegemony is British, Trump’s is Likud (Israeli). Over the 25 years since 9/11, the intelligence community that controls US hegemony has irreversibly shifted control from British to Likud. Previously, it was “the United States (taken over by Britain),” but in recent years, it has become “the United States (taken over by Israel).” While the British viewed Russia as an enemy in order to maintain their hegemony, the Likud faction accepts a multipolar world (on the promise that they were led by the original multipolar faction in the US upper echelons to take over the Intelligence Community). As promised, the Likud faction started the Ukraine War, giving Russia the upper hand and causing the British faction (UK-EU) to self-destruct. In return for the Likud faction’s defeat of its arch enemy, the British faction, Russia has decided to hand over Middle Eastern hegemony to the United States (Israel). This is what it has announced today.

The “Arab Spring” and Syrian civil war that began in 2011 were started by the Likud faction as a counterattack against the British faction’s attempt to seize the initiative in US hegemony from the Likud faction. In his desperate situation, Obama asked Putin to send Russian air forces and Iran to send ground troops (Shiite militias) to Syria, thereby prolonging the Assad regime’s existence in order to maintain order in the Middle East. For the British faction, it was better to have Russia manage the Middle Eastern order than have Israel destroy it. Russia became the shaper of order in the Middle East at the request of the United States (UK-EU).

Nearly 15 years have passed since then, and the British are accelerating their self-destruction due to the machinations of the Likud faction. Obama’s US Democratic Party self-destructed through the awakening movement, liberal totalitarianism, and extreme leftism (the liberals supporting Mamdani in New York are idiots).

The UK and EU are facing economic and social collapse due to incredibly foolish policies such as the Ukraine war instigated by the Likud faction, climate change countermeasures, welcoming Middle Eastern immigrants, and COVID-19 countermeasures.

With Likud-affiliated Trump’s return to the US presidency this year, Israel is using US intelligence and military power to crush Hezbollah and Assad, a continuation of the Arab Spring, and is carrying out the Gaza massacre, erasing the Palestinian partition (creation of a Palestinian state) plan that the British had prepared to weaken Israel at the time of its founding. (The massacre is destroying the humanitarianism that was the foundation of British-affiliated US hegemony.) [Two-thirds of Israelis support Donald Trump in 2024 election: poll]

Israel and Trump are persuading and pressuring Muslim countries in the Middle East (and indeed the world) to abandon their hostility toward Israel, establish diplomatic relations, and join the Abraham Accords, which call for friendly relations with Israel. The focus going forward will be on the membership of Saudi Arabia, a leader in the Arab and Islamic world. The UAE, Saudi Arabia’s younger brother, was the first to join the Abraham Accords as a pioneer, and has been working for Israel in various areas, including diplomacy and the economy. Saudi Arabia has not joined the Accords not because it is anti-Israel, but because joining would be a loss of face for its leader. Western (British) liberals are reluctant to understand this, but international politics in the Middle East and non-American countries are driven by the logic of the survival of the fittest, not democracy or human rights. （Dugin: War Is Ahead Of Us）

Putin’s Russia supports Israeli-led initiatives. Officially, Russia supports the creation of a Palestinian state and formally opposes Israel’s massacre of Palestinians. At the same time, it also supports Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, which is largely rhetoric (with Israel violating it repeatedly without punishment). With the Likud faction taking over the US Intelligence Community, the system of American sole hegemony maintained by the British faction is collapsing. The former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are coming under the Russian hegemony, and the Middle East is coming under Israeli hegemony. For this reason, Russia has informally informed Middle Eastern countries that it will reduce its involvement in the Middle East in the hegemonic field (military security). （Kremlin ‘Supports & Welcomes’ Trump’s Gaza Plan, But Will Have No Involvement） [How Israel evolved from the Middle East’s David to its Goliath]

In today’s Middle East, Iran (the Islamic Republic regime) remains Israel’s enemy. Israel says it’s only a matter of time before war with Iran resumes. Obama sided with Iran, but Trump, in stark contrast, is part of Israel. Iran has traditionally relied on Russia and China to counter Israel. Now, Russia has unofficially announced a reduction in its involvement in the Middle East. Russia appears to have abandoned Iran. Will Israel overthrow the Iranian regime and turn it into a Syrian-style country (a puppet regime under Israel’s control) or a Libyan-style country (a fragmented, anarchic state)?

Both possibilities are possible. However, Putin also said, “Israel is sending a message to Iran through Russia.” This likely means that Israel is offering conditions that would reduce the Iranian threat, and if Iran implements those conditions, it will not attack and will coexist with Iran. Of course, Israel is known for its lies, so if Iran accepts and implements its stated conditions (such as disarmament) and weakens, it could attack and overthrow them (a “Saddam” or “Gaddafi” approach). (Both leaders were defeated after disarming at the behest of the US). （Israel signaling to Iran via Russia – Putin） [What Does the New Reality in the Middle East Mean for Russia?] [Opinion | America Can’t Do to North Korea What It Just Did to Iran] [Why North Korea Is Angered by ‘Libya Model’ in Nuclear Talks] [What North Korea learned from Libya’s decision to give up nuclear weapons]

However, if Israel uses a deceptive strategy to destroy Iran, the next country to be destroyed by a deceptive strategy could be Russia (or China or India). The governments of Putin, Xi Jinping, and Modi would be destroyed not militarily, but by the Likud faction as a color revolution-like espionage operation, subverted by domestic political opponents. Iran is a test of the future relationship between Israel, Russia, China, and India. Trust between major powers (poles, regional hegemons) is paramount to the stability of a multipolar world (and the global economy). BRICS exists for this purpose. The Jews who have been in charge of managing the hegemony (investors who want to stabilize and develop the world economy) are well aware of this (even in the British, the intelligence officers are not Anglo-Saxons but Jews such as the Rothschilds). I have a feeling that Iran’s government may not be overthrown as expected. （Central Asia doesn’t need another great game）

Trump recently gathered leaders of Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, at the White House for a meeting. Central Asia is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a joint regional hegemonic organization between China and Russia. The media has reported that Trump is pushing aside China and Russia to target Central Asia’s oil and gas. However, Trump, who is secretly a multipolar proponent, is not seriously targeting the region dominated by China and Russia. The oil and gas talk was merely a distraction; his main goal was to ask the Muslim Central Asian countries to be friendly with Israel. Kazakhstan has already decided to join the Abraham Accords. （Kazakhstan, which already recognises Israel, to join ‘Abraham Accords’）

At the meeting with Middle Eastern diplomatic experts mentioned at the beginning, Russia also stated that it would not intervene in international politics in the Middle East (Israel’s hegemonic rule) as long as its interests and those of its neighbors were not violated. The region near Russia refers to the former Soviet Union’s Central Asia and the Caucasus. If Israel simply wanted to turn Islamic countries pro-Israel, rather than exploiting Central Asian oil and gas interests through Trump, Russia would have no problem. However, if exploitation were a serious goal rather than a diversion, it would violate Russia’s interests in the region and undermine the multipolar world. It remains unclear whether Israel truly respects the multipolar world.

Developments in the Caucasus, including Azerbaijan, raise concerns about whether Israel will uphold order in Russia’s vicinity. Under the pretext of strengthening its containment of Iran, Israel took over Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic north of Iran, and forced Armenia, which Israel had previously supported, to make concessions and return Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. In this process, both Armenia and Azerbaijan have significantly weakened their dependence on Russia and even displayed hostile attitudes toward Russia. Israel is encroaching on Russia’s regional hegemony, but the Putin regime, which received the upper hand from the Likud faction in the Ukraine war, is silently complying. (Israel abandoned Armenia and allied with Azerbaijan./アルメニアを捨てアゼルバイジャンと組んだイスラエル）

Will Israel be satisfied with regional hegemony in the Middle East, or will it continue to use the hegemonic power of the US intelligence community to further compel Russia and China to compromise and destroy the newly formed multipolar world? This will affect not only Putin and Xi Jinping, but the future of all humanity.

Even before considering how far Israel’s expansion of hegemony will go, most people are unaware that the world has shifted from a British-style hegemonic system to a multipolar one. The left-wing Maduro regime in Venezuela, which is on the verge of being invaded by Trump, is asking countries that were in conflict with the US under the previous hegemonic system, such as Russia, China, and Iran, to send weapons. In a multipolar world, one pole does not intervene in the conflicts of other poles as a general rule. Russia, China, and Iran will not send weapons to Venezuela. I wonder if Maduro is acting with full knowledge of this. The left is unaware of the current changes in the world (which is why they are acting on the left).（Maduro Urgently Seeks Military Aid From Russia & China With US Bulls-Eye On Venezuela） [Opinion: Nicolás Maduro is looking outward for a bailout. It isn’t coming] [Maduro’s last chance to negotiate a peaceful exit from power] [Maduro’s Dictatorship is About to End]

Notes:

1. The hyperlinks with the parentheses ( ) at the end of some paragraphs were added by the original author. Those hyperlinks in the paragraphs and those with brackets [ ], with the italic letters at the end of some paragraphs were added by the translator for the convenience of the reader.
2. The views and/or opinions in those hyperlinks added by the translator do not necessarily reflect those of his. In addition, it is either impossible or unavailable for the translator to verify the genuineness of the information in those links. He does not take any responsibility for the contents in those relevant links at all.
3. One or a few supplementary words, phrases or sentences in Italic letters without underlines in brackets [ ] or Gothic letters were added to show the original author’s message in some contexts or sentences clearer where deemed necessary, while the essential meaning in the original message of the author was retained, neither modified nor changed at all. 
4. The views and/or opinions expressed in the above-mentioned article are those of Sakai Tanaka, who is the original author. His views and/or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of those of the translator. Therefore, the reader is kindly requested to understand, interpret or judge those views and/or opinions at his or her own responsibility.
5. The original article in Japanese was published more than a few days or a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the situations and/or conditions referred to in the article might have been changed. This also means that the author’s argument expressed and/or the information provided in the article might have become inadequate or less or least adequate, obsolete, out of date or no longer valid by the time the reader reads this English translation article.

Sakai Tanaka:  After graduating from university, Sakai Tanaka started working at the Kyodo News Agency in 1986.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Prof. Jan Oberg

The fact that the outlandish and quackish Trump “peace” plan for the genocided Gaza was passed by the UN Security Council defines the end of every understanding of true peace.

18 Nov 2025 – The UN Security Council adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution on November 17, 2025, endorsing Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan. It authorised an International Stabilisation Force (ISF), backed a transitional governing body called the “Board of Peace”, and declared that conditions may now exist for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and eventual statehood. The vote passed 13–0, with Russia and China abstaining. This is UN SC Resolution 2803.

This goes against everything the UN stands for. Of course, China and Russia wisely abstained. They want no involvement and co-responsibility with this fake peace plan and are smart enough to see that it will never lead to true peace.

I ask myself – did the Trump Regime give the UN its death knell yesterday? It remains to be seen, but the consequences will be devastating and, tragically, associated with the name of its otherwise decent S-G, who has been completely outmanoeuvred.

On October 14, the China Academy and its editor, Mimi, of “China Roughly” conducted the interview below with me, which begins with my harsh criticism of this nonsensical, absurd, and unacceptable way of making peace.”Peace.” No wonder the video title: “Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Plan Was Hilarious from the Start – Best US Joke Ever.”

I call it a joke, and I will add that, if this has anything to do with peace, there is no need for political satire anymore. This is a satire on peace, intellectualism, international law and political ethics.

Quick and simple reasons for that:

• A party to a conflict can not be a mediator or peacemaker; it has to be a neutral third party. The US has been on the side of Israel all the time and is the leading enabler of its genocide.
• A war criminal and habitual international law-violator cannot be a mediator or lead a peace process; Trump and his suggested “peace” board member, Tony Blair, both have that status, albeit being non-convicted.
• The conflicts that lie under and cause the unspeakable violence in Gaza, characterised by words such as apartheid, historical injustices, asymmetry, nuclearism, occupation and Zionism, as well as Hamas militancy, are not analysed or addressed. The underlying conflict, not the surface violence, is the key to solving a conflict. This “peace” plan is pure symptom treatment.
• The larger conflicts in the Middle East region that this conflict is part of are not addressed.
• The whole project smacks of contemporary colonialism – we Westerners put ourselves up as those who shall run Gaza, and we have decided that it shall be demilitarised while we say nothing about Israeli militarism, occupation and nuclearism.
• There is no understanding of this particular type of a-symmetric conflict which requires different approaches from symmetric conflicts.
• All involved parties have not been addressed with three simple but fundamental questions: What do you think this conflict is about? What do you fear most and what future would you prefer or accept to live with – from which a mediator begins to look at possible arrangements and various possible futures.
• There is no idea about consultations leading to a negotiation table. It is all done from outside by an incompetent, impossible “mediator” who has snatched the conflict from the weaker party.
• Professional peace-making would build economic and other relations into a plan in such a way that the parties to a conflict would see it as more advantageous to cooperate than to fight each other in the future. There is no mention of anything like that, and of course, there will be more violence and no peace.
• Professional peace-making would have utilised the world’s most experienced peace-making machinery, namely the United Nations. Instead of experienced, principled, trained and neutral UN peacekeepers and other UN elements drawn from around the world, this plan will deploy personnel from countries with a special political and/or economic interest that have no training in peacekeeping – perhaps, God forbid, even NATO countries.
• A professional peace-making would have focused on post-violence processes and institutions such as forgiveness and reconciliation, a truth commission, security sector reform, de-militarising all sides, and discussing how schoolbooks, culture and cooperative projects could help the parties to live with what has happened and, slowly but surely, become partners in a process leading eventually to peace, stability and cooperation among all parties.

One could go on and on.

The fact that the UN Security Council has passed this cynical, miserable humbug “peace” resolution and virtually all parties and media call this a peace plan speaks volumes of the world’s peace illiteracy, of its peace and overwhelming endorsement of militarism.

That the UN Secretary-General goes along with this sidelining of his organisation and the defilement of everything the UN stands for only adds to the tragedy.

And why is true peace, as predictably as tragically, now dead?

Because people of low intelligence and/or being uneducated in conflict understanding prefer violence to non-violence.

Because we have no peace education, no peace academies, no university-level peace research and public education. Because media, politics and research have cancelled, tabooed and disappeared peace, by and large, since the fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of Yugoslavia – that is, the ravaging of the US-led unipolar world that is now coming to its end, also with this resolution.

Because not a single government leader has an adviser who knows the slightest about alternatives to militarist “solutions” – knows about mediation, peace-making and reconciliation – as a science and an art.

Because kakistocrats and the MIMAC – the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex – see all problems as something to use a hammer on because they only have a hammer in the toolbox.

Because peace requires creativity, knowledge and empathy – which are no longer characteristic of, or needed in, foreign policy- and security policy-making.

I am sure that with this Las VeGaza “peace” plan, Trump will be a high-ranking candidate for the 2026 NATO-aligned Nobel Peace Prize – that is, if it doesn’t finally decide to give it posthumously to Adolf Hitler…

PS The countries of the Security Council that made this fatal decision are: The US, Russia, China, France, the UK (all permanent members) + Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Somalia – in other words, mostly countries that will follow orders from Washington. As mentioned, China and Russia abstained.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGS-ddUgZiA]

Prof. Jan Oberg, Ph.D. is director of the independent Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research-TFF in Sweden and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By India Today

US President Trump’s 28-point peace plan, delivered to his Ukrainian counterpart President Zelenskyy, outlines major concessions for Ukraine and has drawn strong criticism from European governments.

21 Nov 2025 – US President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan for Ukraine has been formally delivered to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, setting off a wave of political reaction across Europe and inside Kyiv.

The plan, developed with input from both Washington and Moscow, leans heavily in Russia’s favour by calling on Ukraine to give up territory, halt its NATO ambitions and accept several other concessions.

HERE IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE PEACE PLAN:

1. Ukraine’s sovereignty will be confirmed.

2. A comprehensive non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine and Europe. All ambiguities of the last 30 years will be considered settled.

3. It is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries and NATO will not expand further.

4. A dialogue will be held between Russia and NATO, mediated by the United States, to resolve all security issues and create conditions for de-escalation in order to ensure global security and increase opportunities for cooperation and future economic development.

5. Ukraine will receive reliable security guarantees.

A US official told Axios this would be an explicit security guarantee for Ukraine from the US, the first time that has officially been on the table during these talks, though the proposal does not offer further details on what it entails.

6. The size of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be limited to 600,000 personnel. Note: Ukraine’s army currently includes 800,000-850,000 personnel, and included around 250,000 prior to the war, according to a Ukrainian official.

7. Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes a provision that Ukraine will not be admitted in the future.

8. NATO agrees not to station troops in Ukraine. Note: NATO countries including France and the U.K. have been working on separate proposals that would include small numbers of European troops on Ukrainian soil after the war. This plan appears to disregard that possibility.

9. European fighter jets will be stationed in Poland.

10. The US guarantee: The US will receive compensation for the guarantee; If Ukraine invades Russia, it will lose the guarantee;

If Russia invades Ukraine, in addition to a decisive coordinated military response, all global sanctions will be reinstated, recognition of the new territory and all other benefits of this deal will be revoked; If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or St. Petersburg without cause, the security guarantee will be deemed invalid.

11. Ukraine is eligible for EU membership and will receive short-term preferential access to the European market while this issue is being considered.

12. A powerful global package of measures to rebuild Ukraine, including but not limited to:

• The creation of a Ukraine Development Fund to invest in fast-growing industries, including technology, data centers, and artificial intelligence.
• The United States will cooperate with Ukraine to jointly rebuild, develop, modernize, and operate Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, including pipelines and storage facilities.
• Joint efforts to rehabilitate war-affected areas for the restoration, reconstruction and modernization of cities and residential areas.
• Infrastructure development.
• Extraction of minerals and natural resources.
• The World Bank will develop a special financing package to accelerate these efforts.

13. Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy:

• The lifting of sanctions will be discussed and agreed upon in stages and on a case-by-case basis.
• The United States will enter into a long-term economic cooperation agreement for mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities.
• Russia will be invited to rejoin the G8.

14. Frozen funds will be used as follows:

$100 billion in frozen Russian assets will be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine;

The US will receive 50% of the profits from this venture. Europe will add $100 billion to increase the amount of investment available for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Frozen European funds will be unfrozen. The remainder of the frozen Russian funds will be invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle that will implement joint projects in specific areas. This fund will be aimed at strengthening relations and increasing common interests to create a strong incentive not to return to conflict.

15. A joint American-Russian working group on security issues will be established to promote and ensure compliance with all provisions of this agreement.

16. Russia will enshrine in law its policy of non-aggression towards Europe and Ukraine.

17. The United States and Russia will agree to extend the validity of treaties on the non-proliferation and control of nuclear weapons, including the START I Treaty.

Note: New START, the last major U.S.-Russia arms control treaty, is due to expire in February.

18. Ukraine agrees to be a non-nuclear state in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

19. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will be launched under the supervision of the IAEA, and the electricity produced will be distributed equally between Russia and Ukraine 50:50.

20. Both countries undertake to implement educational programs in schools and society aimed at promoting understanding and tolerance of different cultures and eliminating racism and prejudice:

Ukraine will adopt EU rules on religious tolerance and the protection of linguistic minorities.

Both countries will agree to abolish all discriminatory measures and guarantee the rights of Ukrainian and Russian media and education.

(Note: Similar ideas were incorporated into Trump’s 2020 Israel-Palestine peace plan).

All Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited.

21. Territories:

• Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk will be recognized as de facto Russian, including by the United States.
• Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will be frozen along the line of contact, which will mean de facto recognition along the line of contact.
• Russia will relinquish other agreed territories it controls outside the five regions.
• Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk Oblast that they currently control, and this withdrawal zone will be considered a neutral demilitarized buffer zone, internationally recognized as territory belonging to the Russian Federation. Russian forces will not enter this demilitarized zone.

22. After agreeing on future territorial arrangements, both the Russian Federation and Ukraine undertake not to change these arrangements by force. Any security guarantees will not apply in the event of a breach of this commitment.

23. Russia will not prevent Ukraine from using the Dnieper River for commercial activities, and agreements will be reached on the free transport of grain across the Black Sea.

24. A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve outstanding issues:

• All remaining prisoners and bodies will be exchanged on an ‘all for all’ basis.
• All civilian detainees and hostages will be returned, including children.
• A family reunification program will be implemented.
• Measures will be taken to alleviate the suffering of the victims of the conflict.

25. Ukraine will hold elections in 100 days.

26. All parties involved in this conflict will receive full amnesty for their actions during the war and agree not to make any claims or consider any complaints in the future.

27. This agreement will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored and guaranteed by the Peace Council, headed by President Donald J. Trump. Sanctions will be imposed for violations.

Note: This is the same general structure Trump proposed to govern the Gaza peace agreement.

28. Once all parties agree to this memorandum, the ceasefire will take effect immediately after both sides retreat to agreed points to begin implementation of the agreement.

24 November 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Ranjan Solomon

When police raided the Kashmir Times office in Srinagar this week, they did more than search the premises. They attempted to rewrite a story the state has long struggled to control: the story of Kashmir’s last surviving independent newspaper. The “recovery” of AK-47 cartridges and bullets from a decades-old newsroom was presented with official flourish, but the real intention behind the operation was unmistakable. The raid was a spectacle meant to delegitimise, criminalise, and ultimately silence an institution that has refused to surrender its independence.

For observers who understand Kashmir’s political landscape, the idea that a small, financially strained newspaper—surviving on legacy archives and outdated equipment—has suddenly become an ammunition hub is as implausible as it is convenient. This incident fits neatly into a familiar pattern: a press outlet that refuses to toe the line is made to appear suspicious; its credibility is attacked; and a narrative of “security threats” is deployed to justify coercive action. The raid on Kashmir Times is not an isolated police operation. It is the continuation of a larger, systematic attempt to erase the last functional spaces of independent journalism in Jammu & Kashmir.

A Newspaper That Refused to Die

Founded in 1954, Kashmir Times is one of the oldest English newspapers in the region. Over the decades, it has reported on human rights abuses, disappearances, custodial violence, crackdowns, and political repression—issues many larger outlets hesitated to touch. It has done so with limited resources but with unwavering editorial integrity. That commitment to uncomfortable truths made the paper a lifeline for Kashmiris and a thorn for those who wanted the Valley’s narrative sanitised.

After the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the newspaper faced a new form of suffocation. Government advertisements—the primary oxygen source for local media—were abruptly cut. The Jammu office was sealed without explanation. Its editor, Anuradha Bhasin, was harassed for challenging the communications blackout in court. Reporters faced police summons, surveillance, and travel restrictions. Despite this, Kashmir Times continued to publish—shrinking in size but not in courage.

To raid such an institution under the guise of finding bullets is not only improbable—it is an act of political theatre.

The Manufactured Suspicion

The police claim that “incriminating material” was found. But this phrase—repeated across FIRs in Kashmir—has become so elastic it can include documents, books, pendrives, or ordinary objects interpreted in extraordinary ways. The recovery of ammunition, asserted without independent verification, serves one purpose: to shift the narrative from press freedom to policing. It allows the state to imply that the newspaper is not a newspaper but a front for something darker.

This technique is not new. For years, journalists in Kashmir have been framed through vague allegations ranging from “anti-national activity” to “glorification of terrorism.” Many cases began with raids exactly like this one—doors forced open, equipment seized, decades of archives thrown into chaos, and a manufactured fog of suspicion hanging over the newsroom.

In this case, the ammunition appears at a moment when the government faces heightened scrutiny over its treatment of independent media. The timing and symbolism are too striking to ignore.

The Landscape of Fear

Journalism in Kashmir today operates under an ecosystem of fear. Reporters face UAPA charges. Others have had passports seized. Many have been repeatedly questioned about their stories, sources, and even social media posts. The chilling effect is visible: self-censorship has become a survival skill.

In this environment, publishing truth is no longer simply professional—it is an act of political bravery. A headline can invite interrogation; an investigative story can result in a police visit; a critical editorial can become evidence of sedition.

Kashmir Times is one of the few outlets that still insists on reporting without fear or favour. That is its primary fault line with the establishment.

Why the Raid Matters for India

It may be tempting for the rest of the country to dismiss this as a “Kashmir issue.” But what happens in Kashmir rarely stays in Kashmir. Techniques perfected in the Valley migrate to the national stage. Raids on newsrooms, police enquiries into reportage, digital surveillance of journalists, and the criminalisation of editorial independence are no longer distant possibilities—they are already visible across states.

Kashmir is the testing ground. India is the laboratory. When bullets are “found” in a Kashmiri newsroom today, a reporter in Delhi, Bengaluru, or Lucknow should understand what that signifies for their own future.

Press freedom is not lost in one dramatic moment; it erodes through a series of calibrated assaults—advertising pressure, raids, legal intimidation, and the reframing of journalists as suspects. By the time the attacks appear normal, the institution they target has already been hollowed out.

A War on Witnesses

The Indian state is not afraid of weapons in Kashmir—it has more than enough of its own. What it fears is witnesses. Kashmir Times has been a witness for 70 years. It has documented stories the state hoped would disappear and has given voice to the voiceless.

The raid is not about bullets. It is about erasing witnesses.

When a newspaper that has chronicled half a century of conflict is treated like a criminal enterprise, it signals not the strength of the state but its insecurity. A confident government does not fear reporting. A functional democracy does not weaponise searches. And a secure nation does not plant suspicion in a newsroom to avoid the burden of answering questions.

The Larger Meaning

The raid on Kashmir Times is an attack on journalism. It is an attack on truth. And it is an attack on the Indian public’s right to know.

Every Indian who believes in constitutional democracy—regardless of political preference—should be alarmed. Independent journalism is not a favour granted by the state; it is a democratic guarantee. When it is crushed in Kashmir, it is weakened everywhere.

Kashmir Times has refused to die. That is why it is under attack. And that is why it must be defended.

Ranjan Solomon is a political commentator

22 November 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Roger D. Harris

Washington is targeting the Venezuelan people in an escalating regime-change offensive, combining open military violence with an economic siege that has quietly claimed far more lives.

Most of the world looks on in disbelief at the now-routine murders on the high seas off Venezuela’s coast – serial killings that the newly minted War Department calls Operation Southern Spear.

On October 31, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned the attacks, saying that the “mounting human costs are unacceptable.” The People’s Social Summit in Colombia (November 8-9) excoriated Washington. Four days later in Caracas, a meeting of jurists from 35 countries denounced the “homicidal rampage.” The Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild charged “egregious war crimes and violations of international human rights, maritime, and military law.”

Even The New York Times, an outlet that is not squeamish about US atrocities, described Washington’s flimsy drug-interdiction rationale as being “at odds with reality.”

The notion that the US – the world’s leading consumer of illegal narcotics, the major launderer of trafficking profits, and the cartels’ favored gun runner – is concerned about the drug plague is ludicrous.

In reality, Venezuela is essentially free of drug production and processing – no coca, no marijuana, and certainly no fentanyl – according to the authoritative United Nations World Drug Report 2025. The European Union’s assessment of global drug sources does not even mention Venezuela.

Most inconveniently for Mr. Trump, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment does not list Venezuela as a cocaine producer and only as a very minor transit country. Nor is Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro cited as a drug trafficker.

The State Department is designating the so called Cartel de los Soles, allegedly headed by Maduro, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), However, the entity is nowhere to be found in the DEA assessment for the simple reason that it does not exist.

Meanwhile, the body count from the killing spree is nearing one hundred, yet not an ounce of narcotics has been found. In contrast, the Venezuelan government has seized 64 tons. Clearly Washington’s intent is not drug interdiction but regime change.

Sanctions kill

As horrific as the slaughter by direct US military violence against Venezuela may be, a far greater contributor to excess deaths has received scant media attention. The toll from sanctions is well over a hundred-fold larger.

Sanctions are not an alternative to war but a way of waging war with a less overt means of violence – but deadly, nonetheless.

Sanctions, more properly called illegal unilateral coercive measures, are as lethal as the missiles Washington rains down on small boats in the southern Caribbean and the Pacific from Ecuador to Mexico.

Economists Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs demonstrated that US sanctions imposed 2017-2018 drastically worsened Venezuela’s economic crisis and directly contributed to an estimated 40,000 excess deaths.

By 2020, former UN Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas estimated a death toll of over 100,000. An expert in international law, de Zayas argues that sanctions function as collective punishment, harming civilians rather than government officials.

Washington is now escalating its regime-change offensive – while maintaining the sanctions – precisely because Venezuelans have successfully resisted the punitive measures.

Sanctions disproportionately kill children

A peer-reviewed scientific report in The Lancet reveals that a disproportionate number of the sanction’s victims globally are children under the age of five. In fact, the study finds that more human life is extinguished by sanctions than by open warfare.

The SanctionsKill! Campaign describes itself as an activist project to expose the human cost of sanctions and what can be done to end them. They are inviting health workers to sign a letter to the US Congress and the executive branch to end these child-killing sanctions.

Drawing from The Lancet study, the health workers’ letter details how sanctions are particularly deadly for small children by:

•   Provoking increases in water-borne illnesses and diarrheal diseases

•   Causing low birth weight

•   Exacerbating hunger and malnutrition

•   Denying lifesaving cancer care and organ transplants

•   Obstructing access to and import of antibiotics and other common medicines

•   Hindering sanctioned countries from receiving assistance during natural disasters

Among the signatories are Margaret Flowers, MD, a pediatrician and long-time health reform advocate; professor emeritus Amy Hagopian, PhD, at the University of Washington and former chair, International Health Section, American Public Health Association; internist Nidal Jboor, co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide; and pediatrician Ana Malinow, National Single Payer leader.

Others include health policy professor Claudia Chaufan, MD and PhD, York University; child and adolescent psychiatrist Claire M. Cohen, MD, National Single Payer, PNHP; and Kate Sugarman, MD, Georgetown Law School and George Washington School of Medicine.

Their letter concludes that there is a clear consensus in the literature that broad unilateral economic sanctions have devastating health and humanitarian consequences for civilian populations: “This is a global public health crisis caused by US government policy. We implore you to fulfill your inescapable obligation to end it…Imposing such collective punishment on the innocent is morally reprehensible.”

Sanctions and slaughter

Blogger Caitlin Johnstone quips: “civilized nations kill with sanctions.” That the US kills by both sanctions and open military force does not prove her wrong. Rather, it demonstrates that today’s US empire is not civilized.

Because open warfare is more dramatic than unilateral coercive measures, there is a danger that child-killing sanctions are becoming normalized.

Indeed, this form of hybrid warfare by the US impacts roughly one-quarter of humanity. History shows – as in the case of the 1961 John F. Kennedy sanctions against Cuba – that once imposed, sanction regimes are politically difficult to end.

The campaign against unilateral coercive measures is as central to the struggle for peace as opposition to overt military aggression. Sanctions are not a benign substitute for war; they are an additional mechanism of lethal collective punishment.

PS: The health-workers’ letter will not be submitted until early 2026, so health professionals of all disciplines still have time to sign on.

Roger D. Harris is a founding member of the Venezuela Solidarity Network and is with the Task Force on the Americas and the SanctionsKill! Campaign.

22 November 2025

Source: countercurrents.org