The News And Times

Michael Novakhov's favorite articles on  Inoreader U.S. close to deal with Israel and Hamas to pause conflict, free some hostages posted at 13:40:38 UTC   via   washingtonpost.com Save Israel and  Hamas  are close to agreement on a U.S.-brokered deal that would free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, say people familiar with the emerging terms. The release, which could begin within the next several days — barring last-minute hitches — could lead to the first sustained pause in conflict in Gaza. A detailed, six-page set of written terms would require all parties to the conflict to freeze combat operations for at least five days while an initial 50 or more hostages are released in smaller batches every 24 hours. It was not immediately clear how many of the 239 people believed to be in captivity in Gaza would be released under the deal. Overhead surveillance   would monitor movement on the ground to police the pause. The sto

  Michael Novakhov's favorite articles on   Inoreader Russia’s Disintegration Unlikely, But Descent Into Chaos And Civil War Isn’t – OpEd posted at 12:56:06 UTC   via   eurasiareview.com The Russian Federation is unlikely to disintegrate the way the USSR did, Andrey Yakovlev says. The non-Russian autonomies simply don’t occupy the position now that the union republics did in 1991, and the Russian regions are certain that they would lose more than gain if they sought to go their own way. But, the economist formerly at HSE but now at Harvard says, the possibility that Russia could descend into chaos and civil war as parts of the elite struggle over yet another redivision of property are all too real ( reforum.io/blog/2023/11/12/perehod-k-novoj-modeli-neizbezhno-budet-sopryazhyon-s-kompromissami/ ). Unfortunately, Yakovlev says, the US and the EU have not figured out what to do with Russia even if it loses in Ukraine and have not recognized that if things are left where they are today