A plan to draft more Ukrainian men into the army has been sitting on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s desk since June.

The wartime leader so far has defied pressure from the military to sign it.

Instead, Zelenskiy last week asked his government and top brass for a more comprehensive package, one better tailored to a nation exhausted by a war and preparing for another winter of fighting.

It again put off the blueprint, approved by Ukraine’s parliament, to lower the draft age during war for men with no military experience to 25 from 27.

Journalist reporting on ‘Twitter Files’, Michael Shellenberger:

US and UK military contractors deployed sophisticated psychological operations and disinformation tactics... against the American people.

Satellite data analysis suggests that almost 98,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip may have suffered damage, with most of it concentrated in the north, BBC reports.

Hungary says it will not support the decision to begin negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU and allocate 50 billion euros to Ukraine until 2027.

U.S Navy release footage of divers conducting an underwater survey of the US Navy reconnaissance aircraft Boeing P-8 Poseidon that overshot the runway in Hawaii on November 20.

IDF armored vehicles drive towards a group of Palestinians who are in the area along the beach in Gaza City.

Israeli fighter jets reportedly hit an ammunition depot of Yemen's Houthis today.

Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft hit by Russian Lancet kamikaze UAV strike.

The aircraft was heavily damaged at the Dolgintsevo Air Base in Dnipro region.

In undisclosed call Pope Francis warned Israel against committing ‘terror’, WaPo reports.

As bombs fell and tanks penetrated deep into Gaza in late October, Israeli President Isaac Herzog held a fraught phone call with Pope Francis.

The Israeli head of state was describing his nation’s horror over the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 when the pope issued a blunt rejoinder.

It is “forbidden to respond to terror with terror,” Francis said.

Herzog protested, repeating the position that the Israeli government was doing what was needed in Gaza to defend its own people.

The pope continued, saying those responsible should indeed be held accountable, but not civilians.

Taken with the diplomatic exchange — deemed so “bad” by the Israelis that they did not make it public — the implication seemed clear: The pope was calling their campaign in Gaza an act of terrorism.

“How else could it be interpreted?” said the senior official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Biden administration is facing growing internal dissent over its support for Israel’s military assault on Hamas in Gaza, reflecting a wider debate in American society and a generational divide among Democrats over the issue, NBC reports.

The extraordinary scope of the dissent inside the government, including statements in open letters from government employees, goes beyond anything seen in previous administrations dating back to the 1980s, including during the Iraq War and President Donald Trump’s restrictions on travel from mainly Muslim states, former officials said.

“It’s remarkable and it’s unprecedented,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank who worked at the State Department from 1978 to 2003.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The administration is now having to mediate its own internal version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Miller said.

There is a feeling that Israel should not be able to act with “impunity,” the official said, and many foreign service officers believe that with the high civilian death toll in Gaza, U.S. aid to Israel should not remain unconditional, the official said.

U.S. diplomats in the Middle East are sending emails back to Washington saying their most levelheaded counterparts in the region are warning them that America’s reputation is being seriously damaged by its approach to the war, according to two State Department officials.

Putin appears to be winning the war in Ukraine, for now, The Economist says.

Russia’s president has put his country on a war footing and strengthened his grip on power. He has procured military supplies abroad and is helping turn the global south against America. Crucially, he is undermining the conviction in the West that Ukraine can—and must—emerge from the war as a thriving European democracy.

The West could do a lot more to frustrate Mr Putin. If it chose, it could deploy industrial and financial resources that dwarf Russia’s. However, fatalism, complacency and a shocking lack of strategic vision are getting in the way, especially in Europe.

For its own sake as well as Ukraine’s, the West urgently needs to shake off its lethargy.

The reason a Putin victory is possible is that winning is about endurance rather than capturing territory. Neither army is in a position to drive out the other from the land they currently control.

A jewelry store employee in Japan chased away robbers using a sasumata, pole weapon used by the samurai class and their retainers in feudal Japan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi:

How to view Hamas? This should first be judged by the Palestinian people... China has always opposed all terrorism.

At the same time, we advocate that double standards cannot be used to oppose terrorism.

Hamas releases appeal of Israeli hostage Jordan Bibas, whose wife and his two children were killed by IDF strikes in Gaza to Netenyahu.

Hamas says it offered to hand over the three bodies, but the Israeli government refused to receive them and is still maneuvering and bargaining.

Bahraini MP Al-Balushi:

On the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the American, French and British ambassadors are present here, who supported the war and genocide against Gaza, just like the one who kills the dead person and walks in his funeral.

Let me withdraw from this ceremony in objection to the presence of these ambassadors.

Netanyahu’s office:

Hamas violated the agreement, did not fulfill its obligation to release all the women hostages today, and launched rockets at the citizens of Israel.

The Israeli government is committed to achieving the goals of the war.

Mia Shem, who was released by Hamas, talks about her experience in captivity:

People were very good.

Very kind, to me.

Food good and the kindness and everything good.

Gaza now. Ceasefire is over.

Strong clashes between Israeli and Hamas forces in northern Gaza.