Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with Pope Leo XIV at Castel Gandolfo, located outside Rome.

According to a Vatican statement, the Pope reiterated the need for the continuation of dialogue and "expressed his urgent desire that the current diplomatic initiatives bring about a just and lasting peace."

U.S. confidence in its operation to remove Maduro appears so high that plans are already in motion for privatizing Venezuela’s oil industry. The strategy mirrors the 1989 Panama intervention against Manuel Noriega, who was labeled a drug lord and saw Panamanian elites support U.S. action. Today, the United States has designated the fictional Venezuelan “Sun Cartel” as a foreign terrorist organization and accused Maduro of leading it, citing “terrorist violence” in the Western Hemisphere, effectively putting intervention on the agenda, potentially including a landing operation supported by naval fire.

LYUBA LULKO

USA's Psychological Operations Against Venezuela: Intervention Plans Mirror Panama 1989

European leaders have said "now is a critical moment" to ramp up support for Ukraine and put pressure on Russia to bring an end to the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in London on Monday to discuss the latest version of a peace plan, drafted between Ukrainian and US officials last week.

The European leaders said more work was needed to obtain security guarantees for Ukraine, as the US puts pressure on Kyiv to agree a swift deal with Russia.

Zelensky, who travelled on to Brussels to meet Nato officials, said that Ukraine would share a revised plan with the US on Tuesday.

After a dizzying year of global upheaval, this reflection looks back on writing as resistance – against war, media failure, imperial power and silence – and why truth-telling still matters heading into 2026.

Eugene Doyle

During the closing plenaries of the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Belém do Pará in the Brazilian Amazon, United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell gave a rousing speech. 

The Earth Is Unhappy with the Capitalist Climate Catastrophe: The Forty-Ninth Newsletter (2025)
As Global North countries fail to meet their climate finance obligations, the recent COP30 exposed the importance of class struggle in winning binding commitments for climate justice.

BY Vijay Prashad

The EU has once again strayed beyond acceptable boundaries, slapping Elon Musk’s social media platform X with harsh penalties for being in violation of new draconian EU digital laws that many say are code for censorship.

Elon Musk wants to abolish the EU. He has a point
The “bureaucratic monster” that has just fined X €120 million is wrapping its tentacles around free speech

BY Robert Bridge

Australia’s new Defence Delivery Agency may finally expose an uncomfortable truth – that Australia already has formidable deterrent capabilities through the Royal Australian Air Force and emerging drone systems, making the AUKUS submarine commitment both risky and unnecessary.

Robert Macklin

Merz hails Germany's friendship with Israel on first visit

Merz in Israel: Working toward goal of 'new Middle East'
Kieran Burke | Karl Sexton | Emmy Sasipornkarn | Timothy Jones dpa, AFP, Reuters, AP, epd, KNA

The German chancellor said "lasting peace is possible" in Gaza and that the possible establishment of a Palestinian state, alongside Israel, offered the best prospect for future peace. DW has more.

China now dominates in every technology that defines the modern world.

According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's 2025 Strategic Technology Tracker, released last week, China leads in seven out of eight AI categories, 13 out of 13 advanced materials and manufacturing technologies, in all seven categories of defence, space, robotics and transportation, nine out of 10 in energy and environment and five out of nine in biotechnology, genes and vaccines.

.... 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

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