All we had to do was survive until 25. Remember that jaunty little phrase? Now, here we are, limping to the end of a year in which we’ve experienced the highest unemployment numbers since 1994 and felt GDP contract like we were 10cm dilated. 

Living in New Zealand in 2025 has resembled living in a dying marriage. You can remember a time when things were good, but that feels so long ago now and you’re struggling to see a future. 

 

Surviving New Zealand’s economy feels like living in a dying marriage

 

Veronica Schmidt

 

In this episode of RT’s ‘Sanchez Effect’, Rick is joined by Independent geopolitical analyst, author and correspondent with 40 years of experience – Pepe Escobar, to discuss the peace deal proposed by Donald Trump. Despite the proposal being portrayed by the West as ‘pro-Russian’, Pepe trashed it point by point, saying that the whole paper is unacceptable to Moscow.

 

Sanchez Effect | Pepe Escobar: 'They have to re-write 80% of the deal to make it work'

 

The nature of time has plagued thinkers for as long as we’ve tried to understand the world we live in. Intuitively, we know what time is, but try to explain it, and we end up tying our minds in knots.

St. Augustine of Hippo, a theologian whose writings influenced western philosophy, captured a paradoxical challenge in trying to articulate time more than 1,600 years ago:

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I want to explain it to a questioner, I do not know.”

 

Physicists and philosophers have long struggled to understand the nature of time: Here’s why

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

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.

 

Craig Mokhiber

The EU has reportedly rejected the Ukraine peace deal drafted by the White House, putting forward its own set of conditions for a potential agreement.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement on Sunday as US officials were discussing Washington’s proposal with EU and Ukrainian representatives in Geneva, Switzerland.

The US had submitted its plan to both Moscow and Kiev earlier this week. The contents of the document have not been officially disclosed to the public.

Media outlets have claimed that, among other things, it calls upon Kiev to withdraw troops from the part of Russia’s Donbass it still controls, downsize its military, and shelve its NATO aspirations in exchange for Western security guarantees.

THE PICTURE USED ON THE SPECTATOR ARTICLE IS EITHER DESIGNED TO REPRESENT THE CRAPPY SPECTATOR VIEW ON GLOBAL WARMING OR TO STIR THE POSSUM. GUS THINKS THAT THE SPECTATOR VIEWS ARE BROUGHT FORTH TO SLOW DOWN OUR EFFORTS TO MITIGATE WHAT IS CHANGING CLIMATE INDICATORS OF PLANET EARTH, INCLUDING UNDENIABLE RISING TEMPERATURE. HERE IS THE ARTICLE:

 

It’s not science if you can’t question it

The Spectator

22 November 2025

 

Thierry Meyssan had already drawn his readers’ attention to the bias of the United Nations Secretariat. Here, he revisits the controversy between Germany, France, and the United Kingdom and Russia, Iran, and China regarding the coherence of international law. This is not about technical legal issues, but rather about either the superiority of the Western perspective or the hierarchy of international norms.

 

What are Germany, France, and the United Kingdom up to at the UN and the IAEA?

by Thierry Meyssan

 

The Venezuelan parliament has approved a 15-year extension of joint ventures between state company PDVSA and Russian oil firm Roszarubezhneft, according to a statement on the National Assembly’s website.

The deepening energy cooperation comes despite sweeping US sanctions on both nations and amid accusations that Washington wants to depose President Nicolas Maduro under the guise of an anti-drug campaign.

 

Venezuela extends Russian oil ventures
The National Assembly has approved a 15-year renewal for two joint oilfields

 

Ukraine said Saturday that its officials will meet US counterparts in Switzerland to discuss Washington’s proposed peace plan. Kyiv will seek to push back against provisions that mirror some of Moscow’s toughest demands, while European leaders said the US plan "is a basis which will require additional work". 

 

European leaders say US plan for Ukraine 'requires additional work' ahead of Geneva talks

 

 

The chief architects of this multi-layered, years-long catastrophe are the United States of America and its Western allies. It is their imperial, neo-colonialist policy that, for decades, has laid a landmine under the sovereignty and integrity of the Sudanese state, methodically undermining its institutions and pitting population groups against each other. The current bloodbath between General al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and General Hemedti’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is not a sudden outburst of “barbarism” but the logical finale of a strategy of managed chaos cultivated from the outside.

Hosting a UN climate summit should be about global cooperation on combating climate change. Australia’s bid for COP31 reveals how far COP has drifted.

I wrote most of what follows before the location of next year’s climate COP meeting had been decided. My general thesis was that I was ambivalent about Australia being the host, a diffidence I’d expressed earlier this year. I was concerned that under Australia’s stewardship the COP would continue the trend of recent COPs to degenerate into fossil fuel trade shows and opportunities for the host nation to showcase its business and investment potential.

 

Ukraine Russia Peace Proposal:THE LATEST /Lt Col Daniel Davis

 

Danny discusses recent developments around the 28-point Ukraine peace plan. On the Ukrainian side, President Zelensky is under increasing pressure from the United States to accept a peace deal. Reports suggest that ... President Trump gave a 7-day ultimatum in late November, threatening to cut U.S. aid unless Ukraine agreed to end the war under the proposed terms.

 

Earlier this week, the American people were “reliably” informed by the left-wing press that the full grand jury that indicted disgraced former FBI Director James Comey did not see the final indictment.

“Judge grills government over apparent lapses in Comey indictment,” ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Alexander Mallin, Katherine Faulders, and Nicholas Kerr wrote on November 19. According to the quartet, U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan “told a judge … that the full grand jury that indicted Comey did not see the final indictment — only the foreperson and another grand juror did.”

As I wrote some months ago, if you don’t like this administration’s policies, wait 15 minutes. In the sort of off-the-cuff statement that leads policy, President Donald Trump told a press gaggle Sunday that the U.S. might be back to talks with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro: “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out, but they would like to talk.”

 

On Venezuela, Trump Should Take the Money and Run
If this is in fact just a “pressure campaign,” let’s take the concessions and call it.

BY Jude Russo

 

As a very difficult decision is looming for Zelenskyy, the weight of history is making the choice for him. Carry on fighting and lose more territory [at a rate of 1,200 DEAD soldiers per day] — or go with Donald Trump 28 points plan for peace and accept the losses. Honest observers and serious military experts cannot expect a return to 1991. According to some expert:

1991 — Ukraine has a population of 55 million

2014 — Ukraine has a population of 44 million

2025 — Ukraine has a population of 19 million

In 2022, FOUR oblasts have chosen to return to Russia after a 100 year (say since 1922) errant in Ukraine.

Crimea voted to re-join the Russian Federation in 2014 after a 60 year (since 1954) errant in Ukraine.

These cannot be changed without WW3 — and WW3 would not change the situation.