They've been communicating regularly for the past year. The whole point of this exercise of meeting in person is to send a message to militarily and sexually impotent Putin that his "red lines" are no longer important.

>As Ukrainian forces sustained intensified Russian attacks in the east of the country, the top U.S. and Ukrainian military officers met for the first time at a secret location in southeastern Poland as Kyiv pressed the need for increased supplies of Western arms in its defense against Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

>A U.S. military spokesman said Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, met with General Valeriy Zaluzhniy, Ukraine's military chief, at a base near Poland's border with Ukraine on January 17.

...

>Zaluzhniy confirmed the meeting, writing on Twitter: "My first personal meeting with #GenMilley, Chairman of @thejointstaff happened in Poland."

>He said he "extended my gratitude for the unwavering support & assistance" provided by the United States and other allies. He added that he "outlined the urgent needs" of the Ukrainian military that "will accelerate our victory."

>Żaryn reported that some hostile actions this year could be directly linked to the activities of pro-Russian hacker groups. In particular, hackers were exposed over attacking the official page of the Sejm in December when the government cyber security watchdog, CSIRT GOV, discovered issues with the access to the parliament’s website of (Sejm.gov.pl).

>"Analysis of the data showed that the access denial to the site was the result of an attack by the pro-Russian group NoName057(16). One of the targets designated by the group on Telegram was the website of our parliament," said the spokesman.

>He added that this attack was a response to the adoption by the Sejm of Poland of a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

?Żaryn noted that such incidents in cyberspace are typical of Russia's response to steps by other countries that Russia deems unfavorable or inconvenient. He said Kremlin-linked hacker groups launch dDos, phishing and ransomware attacks to destabilize, intimidate, and wreak havoc.

>In addition, Russian hackers use fake websites to pursue aggressive action. For example, in early December, the CSIRT GOV Poland team received information about a phishing website impersonating the government platform Gov.pl. From the content of the fake website, it appeared that the President of Poland had allegedly signed a decree on the payment of compensation to Polish residents financed from European funds. Through the "I'd like to know" link, the hackers tried to obtain users' personal data before redirecting them to a phishing payment card page under the guise of charging a fee for confirming EU compensation. The Homeland Security Agency has blocked the malign effort.

>"This is a typical operation aimed at sowing chaos, devaluing the state, as well as collecting personal data and committing financial extortion," emphasized the Commissioner.

>Żaryn also said that cyberattacks are increasingly being used to spread Russian disinformation and obtain data and confidential information by Russian intelligence. He added that the operation performed simultaneously by these two methods is referred to as GhostWriter. It involves attacks on email addresses and accounts in social networks of public figures from Central and Eastern European countries, mainly from Poland. He emphasized that perpetrators are trying to seize control of information platforms for spreading Russian disinformation. In recent months, this operation has focused on Poland.

>Orlen quit purchases of Russian oil transported on tankers when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

>Olkowicz also said that currently Orlen's refineries in Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania obtained 70 percent of its crude from non-Russian sources, which compares to an almost 100 percent reliance on Russia in 2015.

>Under its contract with Rosneft, Orlen receives 300,000 tonnes of crude every month. Under the second contract with Russia's Tatneft, which expires in December 2024, the Polish company buys 200,000 tonnes of oil a month.

>China has been conducting reclamation activities in unoccupied regions of the Spratly Islands like Eldad Reef, Whitsun Reef, Lankiam Cay and Sandy Cay, reported The Hongkong Post.

>The Spratly Islands is an archipelago which lies off the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, and southern Vietnam in the South China Sea.

>Satellite images from US officials show new land formations around the Spratly Islands. A Chinese vessel with a hydraulic excavator has been seen operating near the islands.

>China occupies seven islands and rocks in the Spratlys. The country has been militarizing them with runways, ports and radar systems. The islands which are believed to have rich gas and mineral deposits are claimed in whole by China and in parts by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The best way to respond

>Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co [RIC:RIC:MILEAA.UL], Sompo Japan Insurance Inc [RIC:RIC:SJII.UL] and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co [RIC:RIC:MITSID.UL] started notifying shipowners about their decision on Friday, the business daily reported.

...

>The insurers' decision was prompted by reinsurance companies refusing to take on risks related to the war that Moscow launched 10 months ago, the newspaper said.

>The halt, applying even to waters in Russia's Far East, far from the fighting, could make shipping there too risky for some companies, it said.

Amnesty International has identified Gabyshev as a prisoner of conscience.

>The Russian authorities response to the shaman’s actions is grotesque. Aleksandr Gabyshev should be free to express his political views and exercise his religion and beliefs just like anyone else

• Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International's Russia Director

View the 3-minute video showing how Gabyshev had completed 2,000 km of his trek to fight Putin's witchcraft with witchcraft and was gathering hundreds of supporters against Putin all along the way.

And also this video about his detention on bogus psychiatric grounds.

> The Primorye regional court in Russia's Far East has rejected an appeal filed against the extension of forced psychiatric treatment filed by a Yakut shaman who became known across Russia for his attempts to march to Moscow to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin.

>Aleksandr Gabyshev's lawyer, Aleksei Pryanishnikov, said that Judge Marina Sazhneva pronounced the ruling on November 30. Pryanishnikov added that his client's right to confidentiality was violated during the hearing, as the psychiatric clinic's nurse was always present with a rope in his hands when the lawyer talked to Gabyshev.

>The decision to prolong Gabyshev's forced treatment in a psychiatric clinic was made by a lower court in October after the Primorye regional court had ruled in favor of Gabyshev's appeal against the extension of his forced treatment.

>Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed creating a "gas union" with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to establish a mechanism to ship natural gas between the three countries and to other nations, including China.

The mechanism:

What is mine is yours, what is yours is mine, and what is mine - don't touch.

• Russian proverb

Naughty, stupid bot. Learn to summarize the article that is posted. Spank, spank, spank!

Cancellation of Russia as the heir to the USSR - and hence, its seat on the UN Security Council - would not prevent Russia from separately applying for ordinary UN membership like any other state with global influence or nuclear weapons such as India.

Of course, Russia would have to agree to the goals of the UN Charter in order to acquire a seat in the UN General Assembly. If it really followed those goals, Russia might even get one of those temporary non-veto 2-year seats on the Security Council.

And if Russia doesn't support the goals of the UN Charter, its absence from the UN would merely prevent its continuing obstructionism.

>NATO forces took part in drills in northern Poland on Friday, an area of crucial significance to the security of the alliance’s eastern flank.

>The Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated area of Polish territory lying between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, is of strategic importance because its takeover by Russia would isolate the Baltic states from the rest of NATO.

>Poland has been beefing up its armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and plans to raise defence spending to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP).

>“As part of these drills there were exercises that… were formulated based on our experience and observation of the battlefield in Ukraine,” said Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. “We know what methods Russia uses and what methods (of defence) are effective.”

Nobody has taken the time or the trouble to challenge Russia's seat on the Security Council. Russia simply assumed the seat when the USSR dissolved and no one said "No, you can't do that". But Russia's possession of the seat remains unofficial and Russia can be removed at any time its credentials are challenged. Precedent for this is when Taiwan, then representing China for thirty years, was replaced by Beijing. It happened once, it could happen again. It merely takes the fortitude to get the job done.

The Credentials Committee of the UN has never officially recognized Russia as inheriting the Security Council seat of the USSR. It could be just as easily and fairly awarded to any former republic of the USSR - for example, Ukraine!

“The Kulaks are routed as a class but not finished off.”

• Stalin, January, 1933, addressing the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

There's your intent and there is the portion of your ethnic group, as the kulaks were Ukrainian.

>“We should not forget this war and its consequences until there is a change in the Russian regime. It is a criminal regime and it should take full responsibility for the war,” [Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda] said.

>The West must also seek to ensure that the Kremlin runs out of resources to continue its war in Ukraine, according to Nausėda.

>“Countries that have lived in Russia’s neighbourhood for centuries know better than anyone else that the aggressor cannot be stopped by concessions,” he said at a joint news conference with his Latvian, Polish, and Romanian counterparts in Kaunas.

>“We need to continue with sanctions – there must be no resources left for the Kremlin to continue this war,” the president added.

>Nausėda also called on Western countries to step up their support for Ukraine.

>“We must scale up our support to Ukraine: air defence systems, weapons, military equipment, winter uniforms – anything that Ukrainians ask for,” he said. “We need to find a way to deliver it because this is how they can win against the aggressor, and this is how we all can win.”

90 years is quick?

Article II

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

• Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

>German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday welcomed efforts in the country's parliament to declare the Holodomor, the death by starvation of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-33, a genocide.

>"She welcomes very much that there is a lot of support in the German parliament for this," a spokesperson for Baerbock told reporters.

>The Holodomor was a result of Soviet leader Josef Stalin's efforts to collectivise agriculture and root out Ukraine's fledgling nationalist movement.

>Last week the US' Westinghouse Electric beat out KHNP on a deal for a first nuclear plant, but the deal announced Monday is for a second plant out of a projected six.

The resolution is expected to be debated and put to a vote in the European Parliament during its session on 21-24 November.

Ultimately, taxation of any kind winds up being paid by the consumer. But the point is that with import duties, the manufacturer is paying the taxes directly to the government and it isn't internal taxation. Philip Morris is indeed paying that even though the ultimate consumer pays more for its cigarettes as a result.

Cigarette companies pay import duties for their cigarettes sent into Russia. I haven't been able to locate the figures for that, so I don't know how much of the £7bn in taxes comes from that. My guess is all of it, but the article could have been more precise about this.

Don't overrate Putin's individual importance to Russia. Eliminating Putin is vital, but unfortunately wouldn't break up the so-called "Russian Federation" into its 85 occupied parts. More than this would be required.