.... beyond the optics lies a decisive and concrete agenda — one aimed at reshaping how Moscow and New Delhi conduct business together, strengthening not only historic ties in defence and energy, but also building new arteries of trade, industry, and infrastructure that could define the coming decade. The warmth and personal rapport between the two leaders, evident in their airport handshake, shared car ride, and private dinner, underscores the trust-based diplomacy that forms the foundation for these hard economic outcomes.

 

HRIDAY SARMA

Delivered as remarks to Brown University’s Watson School during its “China Chat” series, Chas Freeman reflects on China’s return to global prominence and the United States’ accelerating retreat from the international order it once led – and asks what coexistence looks like as power shifts in the 21st century.

 

Chas Freeman

Ceding the future to China

 

RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has been included in the Financial Times’ list of the world’s most influential people for 2025, after years of “propaganda” slurs and criticism by the British outlet.

The FT released its latest annual ‘Influence List’ on Friday, grouping figures into creators, heroes, and leaders – with Simonyan among the leaders. The decision appeared to come as a surprise to her, given the paper’s long-standing alignment with Western foreign-policy narratives and its persistent anti-Russia framing.

“You’ll laugh, but the Financial Times has included me in its 2025 list of leaders,” Simonyan wrote on Telegram on Saturday. “They even included some funny text. The passage about my plans to ‘starve’ the entire world is especially good.”

 

A “just peace” between Russia and Ukraine is only possible if the sides agree to halt the fighting along the current front lines and then move on to talks, Ukraine’s top military commander, Aleksandr Syrsky, has said. Moscow has argued that a pause would only benefit Kiev and allow it to regroup its battered army.

In an interview with Sky News published on Friday, the general argued that it would be unacceptable for Ukraine to “simply give up territory”in a settlement with Russia. “What does it even mean – to hand over our land? This is precisely why we are fighting; so we do not give up our territory.”

He added that a just peace is “peace without preconditions, without giving up territory. It means stopping along the current line of contact.”

It is one thing to produce a written national security strategy, but the real test is whether or not US President Donald Trump is serious about implementing it. The key takeaways are the rhetorical deescalation with China and putting the onus on Europe to keep Ukraine alive.

 

Trump files for divorce from NATO over Ukraine
The new US National Security Strategy signals a massive foreign policy shift; it remains to be seen if Washington is serious about it
By Larry Johnson

 

Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after it was decided Israel could compete. 

They were among a number of countries who had called for Israel to be excluded over the war in Gaza and accusations of unfair voting practices.

But at a meeting in Geneva where a vote was held on new safeguards, a "large majority" of members agreed there was no need for a further vote on participation and that Eurovision 2026 could proceed as planned, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said.

Spanish broadcaster RTVE, which had led calls for a secret ballot on the issue, said the decision had increased its "distrust of the festival's organisation".

The International Olympic Committee on Friday announced that athletes from Russia will once more be allowed to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics under a neutral banner if they meet strict conditions.

"The Executive Board will take the exact same approach that was done in Paris," said IOC president Kirsty Coventry, referring to last year's Olympics where Russian athletes could only take part under a neutral flag and in individual events.

Those athletes were also required to undergo checks to prove they did not actively support the war in Ukraine or have any links with the army.

They will not be allowed to take part in the opening ceremony for the Milan-Cortina Games, which will be held from Feb. 6-22, nor will their achievements be recognized in the medals table.

It's no secret that the current US administration doesn't have too high an opinion of journalists. President Donald Trump recently called a female reporter asking him about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal "piggy."

Finland, ranked the world's happiest nation for eight years and traditionally one of the European Union’s most fiscally disciplined countries, has just received a wake-up call from Brussels.

The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, last week ordered Helsinki to devise a credible plan to resolve the country's budget deficit, which has crossed the EU’s limit of 3% of gross domestic product (GDP).

The Commission said Finland's deficit was projected to reach 4.5% of GDP in 2025, while the country's debt burden was set to hit 90% of GDP next year, up by nearly half since 2019.

It’s that time again where Democrats throw their full weight behind a cause of absolutely no benefit to Americans for the sole purpose of placing themselves at odds with the Trump administration. This time they’re not only going to the mat on behalf of foreigners, but suspected drug traffickers too!

For almost a week Democrats and their content creator friends in the dying news media have been pressing the White House and the Department of War to lay out the second-by-second, word-for-word timeline of a military strike from months ago, in which a Venezuelan motorboat and crew suspected of transporting narcotics to the United States were targeted. 

My following point here is not to prevent anyone to believe in god, but to stop people from indoctrinating others with their falsehood.

 

God is as dumb as a plank of wood — but we can use it to keep us afloat.

           Alphonso Moronicus

 

Misunderstanding the monkeyi sapiens condition is the privilege of the believer. Yes the Universe is big and we can imagine it to be an infinite cloud of godly substances. But the psychology of dealing with our angst and our wonder about the world should not rely on the invention of a supremo. The mechanics of thinking are quite clear and it’s up to us to understand the tenets of living. 

Elon Musk has predicted that Vice President J.D. Vance will succeed Donald Trump as US president, and that the country will enter a “great 12-year span” of leadership that will include Trump’s current tenure and successive terms for Vance, Politico has reported.

Musk made the remarks during a closed-door video appearance on November 22 to a reunion of his former federal cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team in Bastrop, Texas, the outlet wrote on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the private meeting.

Trump launched DOGE soon after taking office in January, touting it as a sweeping effort to slash federal waste and tapping Musk to be his government efficiency czar.

Australia’s response to Japan’s rhetoric has been framed as a test of loyalty, but the outrage is largely media-driven. Caution in foreign policy is not betrayal – it is a rational defence of national interest.

 

Fred Zhang

When foreign policy becomes domestic theatre

 

When Japan adjusts its strategic language and China responds, the region typically braces for a familiar diplomatic turbulence – sharp statements, historical weight, World War II war crimes, mostly predictable moves. Regional powers, including the United States, tend to sidestep these moments with ambiguity: a press secretary nod here, a communique there, nobody panics.

 

For political cartoonists, a federal election feels a little like Christmas — the fodder is endless.

And it really shows in this year's Behind the Lines exhibition, the annual celebration of the year's best political cartoons at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra.

The landslide win of Anthony Albanese is front and centre but so too is the fallout that followed polling day on May 3.

Peter Dutton joins John Howard in the 'Australian Party Leaders Who Lost Their Own Seats Club'.

Former Greens leader Adam Bandt becomes DJ Bandt with the slogan "Out of Power" looming above his head.