First, links to reports from Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Tass, National Public Radio, and the Associated Press; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Then, from the Irish Times, opinion from a professor of government and international affairs at Virginia Tech, and from an Australian commentator who recommended his article. — MCM

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Putin says civilians in Ukraine’s Kherson should be evacuated, by Felix Light | Reuters LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that civilians in Ukraine’s Kherson region should be evacuated from the conflict zone, the Kremlin’s first acknowledgement of a deteriorating situation in the region he claims to have annexed. “Now, of course, . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russian strikes leave 4.5 million without power in Ukraine. From AFP. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of “energy terrorism” on Thursday night, after renewed strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure left some 4.5 million people without power. “The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism,” he said . . . READ MORE . …

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Russian Defense Ministry announces return of 107 troops from Ukrainian captivity. From Tass. MOSCOW — As many as 107 Russian service members returned from Kiev-controlled territory as a result of negotiations, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. It was the third prisoner swap in a little over two weeks, totaling as many as 267 Russian prisoners. READ MORE . . .

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Antony Blinken discusses Ukraine’s energy crisis ahead of talks with G7 countries. Reported by Michele Kelemen| NPR  Diplomats from the group of 7 are discussing winter aid for Ukraine. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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War fallout, aid demands overshadow climate talks in Egypt, by Frank Jordans and Seth Bornstein | AP  BERLIN — Shifting geopolitical tiles including adevastating war in Ukraine, skyrocketing energy and food prices, and growing enmity between the West on the one hand and Russia and China on the other are making for difficult conditions at a gathering next week in Egypt on climate change that requires cooperation and . . . READ MORE . . .

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What life is like for those living in the Russian-occupied city of Kherson. Reported by Franco Ordoñez | NPR  A potential battle for the Russian-occupied city of Kherson could change the trajectory of the Ukrainian war. For those stuck there, life is hard and dangerous. Click HERE to listen and read.

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Ukraine risks being locked into endless war in bid for perfect peace, by Gerard Toal | The Irish Times Talking peace is not popular in Ukraine right now. Given the context this is understandable. Russia is terrorising Ukrainians in their homes with missiles and drones. Its attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure – its electricity grid, water and heat systems – threaten millions with a cold, dark winter. This follows . . . READ MORE . . .

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The farther people are from the fighting in Ukraine, the more they oppose peace talks, by Caitlin Johnstone | caitlinjohnstone.com Remember this as you watch pundits and politicians calling for escalations in Ukraine from Washington DC, Los Angeles and London. Remember this as you watch armchair . . . READ MORE . . .

The word “Ukraine” does not appear in the commentary that begins below. The writer urges readers to consider whether they favor the RBIO or what he calls the LBIO, and to ponder whether they see what he sees as the consequences of one of the choices. — MCM

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A dangerous, bloody, & dirty game

By Scott Ritter | Consortium News

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s keynote address at the Valdai Club last Thursday appears to have put Russia on a collision course with the U.S.-led “Rules Based International Order” (RBIO).

The Biden administration two weeks earlier released its 2022 National Security Strategy (NSS), a full-throated defense of the RBIO which all-but declares war on “autocrats” who are “working overtime to undermine democracy.”

These two visions of the future of the world order define a global competition that has become existential in nature. In short, there can be only one victor.

Given the fact that the main players in this competition comprise the five declared nuclear powers, how the world manages the defeat of the losing side will, in large part, determine whether humanity will survive into the next generation.

“We are now in the early years of a decisive decade for America and the world,” U.S. President Joe Biden wrote in the introduction to the 2022 NSS. “The terms of geopolitical competition between the major powers will be set . . . the post-Cold War era is definitively over, and a competition is underway between the major powers to shape what comes next.”

The key to winning this competition, Biden declared, is American leadership: “The need for a strong and purposeful American role in the world has never been greater.”

The 2022 NSS laid out the nature of this competition in stark terms. Biden claimed: “Democracies and autocracies are engaged in a contest to show which system of governance can best deliver for their people and the world.”

American goals in this competition are clear:

“[W]e want a free, open, prosperous, and secure international order. We seek an order that is free in that it allows people to enjoy their basic, universal rights and freedoms. It is open in that it provides all nations that sign up to these principles an opportunity to participate in, and have a role in shaping, the rules.”

Standing in the way of the accomplishment of these goals, Biden says, are the forces of autocracy, led by Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). “Russia,” he declared . . .

“poses an immediate threat to the free and open international system, recklessly flouting the basic laws of the international order today, as its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has shown. The PRC, by contrast, is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective.”

Russia & China

Of course, Russia and China take umbrage at Biden’s world view, and in particular their role in it. This objection was voiced back on Feb. 4, when Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where the two leaders released a joint statement that served as a veritable declaration of war against the RBIO.

“The sides [i.e., Russia and China] intend to resist attempts to substitute universally recognized formats and mechanisms that are consistent with international law [i.e., the Law Based International Order (LBIO)],” the joint statement read, “for rules elaborated in private by certain nations or blocs of nations [i.e., the RBIO], and are against addressing international problems indirectly and without consensus, oppose power politics, bullying, unilateral sanctions, and extraterritorial application of jurisdiction.”

Far from seeking confrontation, Russia and China, in their joint statement, went out of their way to emphasize the need for cooperation among nations:

”The sides reiterate the need for consolidation, not division of the international community, the need for cooperation, not confrontation. The sides oppose the return of international relations to the state of confrontation between major powers when the weak fall prey to the strong.”

Russia and China believe . . . READ MORE . . .

First, links to reports from the Associated Press, the Moscow Times, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, and Tass; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. — MCM

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Russians try to subdue Ukrainian towns by seizing mayors, by Yuras Karmanau | AP  As Russians seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, civilian administrators and others, including nuclear power plant workers, say they have been abducted, threatened or beaten to force their cooperation — something that legal and human rights experts say may constitute a war crime. Ukrainian and Western historians say . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ex-President Medvedev backs death penalty for wartime saboteurs. From the Moscow Times. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday called on Russia to reinstate the death penalty for those suspected of wartime sabotage. “We can overcome the moratorium on the death penalty, if necessary, within . . . READ MORE . . .

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Kremlin says it has yet to decide on extension of grain deal. From AFP. The Kremlin said today Russia had yet to decide if it will extend its participation in the Ukraine grain deal that expires later this month.“Before making a decision . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine conflict, sanctions set to blow hole in Russia’s finances, by Darya Korsunskaya | Reuters The cost of Russia’s military mobilisation and the impact of Western sanctions are set to blow a hole in the government’s budget forecasts and drain Moscow’s reserves to their lowest level in years, according to analysts’ latest calculations. That will put an ever greater strain . . . READ MORE . . .

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Global crisis sparked by West’s desire to impose its dominance, says top Russian official. From Tass. MOSCOW — The US-led West’s lust to dominate the world triggered the currently unfolding global crisis, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said today. “A global crisis is unfolding before our eyes. Its cause is the desire . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

For now, links to reports from Reuters and Agence France-Presse; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. — MCM

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Brazil’s Lula may seek more than $39 bln in extra 2023 spending, says aide, by Bernardo Caram | Reuters BRASILIA — Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will negotiate in the coming weeks an increase in 2023 government spending that could exceed 200 billion reais ($39 billion), said his former Finance Minister and close aide Guido Mantega. In an . . . READ MORE . . .

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Germany says ready to resume Brazil deforestation aid after Lula victory. From AFP. Germany said today it was ready to resume sending financial aid to Brazil to combat deforestation, which it froze in 2019 under Jair Bolsonaro, following Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s election triumph. “We are in principle . . . READ MORE . . .

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MAY BE CONTINUED

First, links to reports from National Public Radio, the Associated Press, Reuters, Tass, and the Moscow Times; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Then, via Consortium News, commentary in which the writer sees a significant difference between a war as presented in the news media with domestic politics largely in mind, and a war being waged militarily.  — MCM

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A new school in Kyiv is training women to pilot drones. Reported by Ashley Westerman | NPR  A new school in Kyiv aims to get more women involved in the war effort by putting them in a driver’s seat where few have been before: piloting drones. Click HERE to listen and read when audio and text become available.

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Russia rejoins wartime deal on Ukrainian grain exports, by Andrew Meldrum and Suzan Fraser | AP  KYIV — Diplomatic efforts salvaged a wartime agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain and other commodities to reach world markets, with Russia saying today it would stick to the deal after Ukraine pledged not to use a designated Black Sea corridor to attack Russian forces. Russia suspended its participation in the grain deal over the weekend, citing . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine’s first lady: Tech must be used to save people, not to kill, by Catarina Demony and Sergio Goncalves | Reuters LISBON — In an emotional appeal, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska urged tech workers from around the world on Tuesday to create innovations to stop Russia and help save people in her war-torn country. “The dystopias we read about in science fiction novels … are much closer than you think,” Zelenska told . . . READ MORE . . .

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Joint forces advance across almost entire contact line, DPR head Pushilin says. From Tass. DONETSK — The joint forces advance across almost the entire contact line in DPR, Acting DPR Governor Denis Pushilin said today. “In general, our boys advance . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russian draft dodgers stay in hiding even as Putin announces mobilization’s end, by Anastasia Tenisheva and Yanina Sorokina | the Moscow Times Tens of thousands of Russians have sought to evade mobilization since the chaotic call-up of fighting-age men from across the country began in late September, with a mass exodus to neighboring countries dominating headlines for several weeks. Among . . . READ MORE . . .

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War as presentation, by Patrick Lawrence | Consortium News In his long interviews with Oliver Stone five years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin observed that it is impossible to work with the Americans because everything is held hostage by their election cycles. So true. Domestic politics . . . READ MORE . . .

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MAY BE CONTINUED

Presented are links to news reports from teleSUR, Reuters, and the Associated Press, a tiny selection of what is going on in this hemisphere. At least temporarily some are available only in Engish, some only in Spanish. Others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. — MCM

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Ecuador in chaos: Car bombs, dead policemen, hanging corpses. From teleSUR. Over the last 24 hours, Ecuador has gone through an unprecedented violent situation, which is likely prompted by criminal gangs linked to imprisoned drug traffickers. In the early hours of Tuesday, Nov. 1, four attacks with explosives occurred in the city of Guayaquil and two attacks in the city of Esmeraldas. One of the car bombs exploded at the Guayaquil’s Terrestrial Transport Terminal, where . . . READ MORE . . .

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Two Ecuadorean police killed in nine attacks during prisoner transfers, by Alexandra Valencia | Reuters QUITO — At least two police officers were killed today in explosive attacks in Ecuador mounted in response to transfers of prisoners from overcrowded and violent penitentiaries, the government and police said. Six explosions . . . READ MORE . . .

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Guards freed from being held captive by inmates of Ecuadorian prison. From AP. Police today freed a group of eight prison guards held for several hours by inmates of a prison in northern Ecuador, where in two cities gunshots and explosions accompanied demands that some gang leaders not be relocated in other prisons. Click HERE to read article in Spanish.

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Ecuador: Liberan a agentes retenidos al interior de cárcel. De AP. QUITO — La policía logró el martes la liberación de un grupo de ocho agentes retenidos por varias horas por reclusos en el interior de una cárcel del norte de Ecuador, en dos de cuyas ciudades se registraron durante la madrugada balaceras y explosiones para exigir que algunos cabecillas mafiosos no sean reubicados en otras prisiones. LEA MÁS . . .

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MAY BE CONTINUED

The latest from a Berkshire sage begins below. — MCM

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Self-destructive social habits, loneliness, and propaganda

By Edward Curtin | Behind the Curtain

We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men / Leaning together / Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

    — T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

When many people share thoughts, speech, or conduct that is frequently repeated and becomes automatic, it is fair to call it a social habit.  Such habits tend to become invisible and unspeakable. They become part of our taken-for-granted-world.

When I recently wrote an essay about hoarding – “The Last Temptation of Things,” many people got angry with me.  A friend wrote to me to say: “I congratulate and curse you for writing this.”  He meant it as a compliment.  I took it as meaning I had touched a raw nerve and it touched off a series of further thoughts about social habits and people’s angry reactions when they are challenged.

Some people who criticized me absurdly complained that I was supporting Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum’s “You Will Own Nothing” campaign, something I have opposed from the start.  Others said that I was attacking people who kept mementos and photographs, etc. and that I was advocating living in a shack.  This was clearly false.  Some got it, of course, and knew that I was using an extreme example to make a point about excessive saving of all sorts of things and how debilitating it is to surround ourselves with far more than we could ever use, need, or even know we have.  My case study was a friend’s house that my wife and I had just cleaned out in an exhaustive case of what felt like an exorcism.

Now I see that there is a clear connection between hoarding – or whatever word you choose to give it when the saving of things is excessive – and propaganda. Both are forms of habitual clutter, one mental and the other physical, the former imposed from without and accepted passively and the latter self-created to try to protect from loss.  In both cases, the suggestion that your social habits need to be examined is often greeted as a threat to one’s “existence”  and elicits anger or dismissal.

Sociologists, of which I am one, have various terms for what I am calling social habits.  They don’t speak the language of ordinary people, and so their lingo rarely enters into common discourse to be heard by most people. Such verbiage often just mystifies.

But habit is a plain and clear word, and social habit simply extends the meaning I am referring to.  José Ortega Y Gasset, the Spanish philosopher, and Max Weber referred to it as “usage” before settling on habit.  While usage is accurate, it lacks the stickiness of habit, which is the simplest word and one everyone understands as behavior that has become automatic through frequent repetition.

For example, in the inconsequential realm of clothing fashions, men are now wearing tight leg-fitting pants, and it seems normal to most, just as loose pants did in the past.  It will change, of course, and a new or ”old” social fashion habit will replace it and most will go with it.  Either way you choose you lose – or win – depending on whether or not you follow the fashions of dress, which mean little or much depending on whether you interpret them symbolically as signifying  more than their appearances present.

It is true that all ideas, language usage, and behavior become second nature until they are not.  For example, “my bad” may no longer be good, as far as I know, a phrase I have avoided along with “a ton of fun,” “you guys,” and “overseas contingency operations.”

Some social habits persist for a very long time because they are continually reinforced with propaganda that created them in the first place.  As Jacques Ellul has emphasized, such propaganda is not the touch of a magic wand.  “It is based on slow, constant impregnation.  It creates convictions and compliance that are effective only by continuous repetition.”  Like a slowly dripping faucet, it drips and drips and drips to reinforce its point.

Take the hatred of Russia promulgated by the U.S. government.  It is more than a century old.  Few Americans know that the U.S. invaded Russia in 1918 to try to stop the Russian Revolution.  Today’s U.S. war against Russia is nothing new, yet many people buy the daily lies about the war in Ukraine because it is a habit of mind, part of their taken-for-granted-world.

Take the CIA assassinations of President Kennedy and his brother, Robert.  For decades the U.S. media has worked hand-in-glove with the CIA to reinforce the official lies by calling those who have exposed those lies “conspiracy theorists,” a term that the CIA itself promoted and the media continues to use daily to ridicule dissent.  The phrase “conspiracy theorist” . . . READ MORE . . .

First, links to reports from National Public Radio, the Associated Press, Reuters, and Tass; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. — MCM

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Updates on the latest strikes in Ukraine. Reported by Franco Ordoñez | NPR  Ukraine says it shot down many of the missiles sent by Russia on Monday, but the ones that got through have caused a lot of damage. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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U.S. military now doing onsite weapons inspections in Ukraine, by Lolita C. Baldor | AP  WASHINGTON — A small number of U.S. military forces inside Ukraine have recently begun doing onsite inspections to ensure that Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the Western-provided weapons they receive, a senior U.S. defense official told Pentagon reporters Monday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a military update, would not say where . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukrainians grapple with power outages as winter approaches, by Sam Mednick | AP  So far, Russia has destroyed about 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, affecting 16 regions, according to the Ukrainian government. The latest assault came Monday, when a . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia extends evacuation zone in Kherson region. From Reuters. Russian-installed officials in Ukraine’s Kherson region said on Monday they would start evacuating citizens from the eastern bank of the Dnipro river, repeating claims rejected by Kyiv that Ukraine could be preparing to attack the Kakhovka dam and flood the region. The new area will cover an additional 15-kilometer (six mile) zone around the Dnipro River, which . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia has suspended its participation in a U.N. and Turkish mediated grain deal. Reported by Michele Kelemen | NPR  Global grain prices are rising as a result. Click HERE to listen and read.

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Grain deal cannot be revived on previous terms, affirms Russian lawmaker. From Tass. MOSCOW — Reviving the grain deal is impossible as long as the security corridor is used for terrorist attacks, and the agreement cannot be resurrected under the previous conditions, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said today. The politician recalled that previously . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO. BE CONTINUED

First, links to reports from the Associated Press and National Public Radio; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Next, two videos, one 13 minutes long and one 23 minutes long, from pro-Ukrainian commentators, with a brief introduction by an American observer who supplied them to me. Then, via Popular Resistance, commentary by a longtime participant in and observer of U.S. foreign policy.  — MCM

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Russian strikes hit Ukraine, most of Kyiv without water, by Andrew Meldrum, Sam Mednick and Hanna Arhirova | AP  KYIV — A massive barrage of Russian strikes this morning hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities, knocking out water and power supplies . . . . Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out “strikes with long-range high-precision air and sea-based weapons against the military command and energy systems of . . . READ MORE . . .

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Understanding the Biden administration’s approach to diplomacy with Russia. Ayesha Rascoe of NPR talks with Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, about the Biden administration’s approach to diplomacy with Russia. Click HERE to listen and read.

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Two presentations from the weekend. “You might find interesting as I do a couple of pro-Ukrainian, pro-West daily YouTube battlefield reports. I just watched these two. I check out also two pro-Russia sites, including SouthFront. There’s spin everywhere but we have to work our way through it in such ways, I think.” Smotri Media, Catastrophic Losses after failed Russian attack — Ukraine War Map Update, Day 249: Ukrainian Battle Map, Oct 30, 2022. 30/Oct/2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF_-fXThVLE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7m8DsmOTok

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Ukraine: Will U.S. back off as Russia did on Cuba? by Ray McGovern | Antiwar.com / Popular Resistance Sixty years ago last Friday, on Oct. 28, 1962,. the U.S. and Russia stepped back from the brink of nuclear war by making a deal. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would yield to President John F. Kennedy’s demand that Soviet missiles be removed from Cuba; Kennedy pledged not to invade. . . . In One Hell of a Gamble: The Secret History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, authors Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali call particular attention to one exceedingly important fact; namely . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

For now, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Tass; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. — MCM

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Global concern on Russia’s suspension of Ukraine grain deal, by Sam Mednick | AP  KYIV — U.S. President Joe Biden warned that global hunger could increase because of Russia’s suspension of a U.N.-brokered deal to allow safe passage for ships carrying Ukrainian grain. “It’s really outrageous,” said Biden speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The U.N. negotiated . . .  READ MORE . . .

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EU urges Russia to revoke Ukraine Black Sea grain deal suspension, by Pavel Polityuk | Reuters * Russia says move a response to Ukraine attack on ships * July agreement allowed grain exports from Ukraine * Biden says ‘outrageous’ move will increase starvation * Moscow scolds U.S. reaction * Kyiv accuses Russia of planning the move well ahead | KYIV — The European Union on Sunday called on Russia to reverse its decision to pull out of a U.N.-brokered grain deal, a move that undermined efforts to ease a global food crisis, and that Ukraine said Moscow had planned well in advance. “Russia’s decision . . . READ MORE . . .

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Platform for Putin-Biden talks could be U.S. desire to hear Russia out – Kremlin. From Tass. MOSCOW — Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Joe Biden could take place if the US was willing to listen to Russian concerns and return to discussing security guarantees, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview to the Rossiya-1 TV channel’s ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.’ program, according to . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED