In the past seven days we also watched Jensen Huang\u2019s career crumble and saw how EU money finances the luxurious lives of the Ukrainian elite<\/p>\n
Peace progress in Abu Dhabi<\/p>\n
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Fantasy vs. reality: The confusion of the willing and Ukraine peace talks<\/p>\n
To follow the headlines this week, one needed simply to follow the movements of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The two American envoys arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for the fourth round of trilateral talks between Washington, Moscow, and Kiev, bringing with them a plan to \u201ccreate the conditions for a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Ukraine within a more stable European security environment,\u201d according to Kushner at least.
\nThe mere mention of a broader European security architecture represents progress, Russian analyst Fyodor Lukyanov wrote for RT, pointing out that Moscow\u2019s calls to rethink European security were previously dismissed by Washington. Although the idea is still in its infancy, the trilateral talks ended positively, with Russia and Ukraine agreeing to a large-scale prisoner swap
\nConspicuous in their absence were the Europeans themselves, who at this point had yet to decide whether they should even speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the first place. At a meeting with Putin in Moscow on Thursday, Witkoff and Kushner managed to secure the EU a seat at the table in the next round of discussions. However, as RT explained, \u2018Europe\u2019 is split into squabbling camps of realists, maximalists, and fantasists, all vying for control of the peace process.<\/p>\n
EU deadlock in Dublin
\nWitkoff and Kushner left Moscow for Dublin on Thursday, where Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and his European backers were meeting for the European Political Community (EPC) and EU leaders\u2019 summits. Their arrival at Baldonnel Aerodrome in the Irish capital was a more stripped-back affair than the welcome they received at the Kremlin, but Zelensky was likely unbothered: he had already bilked tens of millions of euros worth of energy-related aid from his patrons, who used the Dublin gathering to reaffirm their unconditional loyalty to Kiev.\u00a0
\nNone dared ask where the money would end up, but a corruption case unfolding back in Ukraine offered a potential answer: in the pockets of oligarchs happy to spend it on sports cars, marble apartments, and, bizarrely, live crocodiles.
\nSome locals weren\u2019t as happy to receive Zelensky, however, and his car was pelted with eggs after he left the meeting.<\/p>\n
Sky News correspondent Stephen Murphy shows one of Zelensky\u2019s convoy cars beign attacked by eggs in Dublin.<\/p>\n
What a warm welcome. https:\/\/t.co\/uOgjIjReNy\u2014 Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) November 13, 2026<\/p>\n
Witkoff, Kushner, and now Zelensky are losing their patience with the Europeans. \u201cWe need to choose who will represent Europe in the negotiations,\u201d he said on Wednesday, before issuing his ultimatum. This decision, he demanded, must be made \u201cno later than the end of November.\u201d<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Dublin summit: European leaders double down on the Zelensky disaster<\/p>\n
In true Brussels fashion, EU leaders decided on Friday that the continent will be represented at future talks by national security advisers from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the UK, and by the European Commission and Council at leader-level discussions. With all three European factions \u2013 realists, maximalists, and fantasists \u2013 represented, and seven voices in the mix, European Council President Antonio Costa dismissed questions about potential clashes among the group.
\n\u201cIt is essential to have a team,\u201d he said, yet \u201cto speak with one voice.\u201d
\nJensen Huang gets honeypotted<\/p>\n
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Who wanted Nvidia\u2019s Huang out? \u2018Honeypot\u2019 scandal raises questions over AI power struggle<\/p>\n
Jensen Huang\u2019s position at the helm of US chipmaking giant Nvidia made him one of the world\u2019s most powerful billionaires. His weakness for the opposite sex, however, apparently made him a target for foreign intelligence agencies. Huang admitted on Sunday to an extramarital affair with an unnamed woman, who was quickly named in the media as Alice Huang, a Chinese tech executive and no relation to Jensen. US spies reportedly believe that Ms. Huang was recruited by China\u2019s Ministry of State Security to gather information about Nvidia and influence over its CEO.
\nBeijing has dismissed the allegations as \u201ca groundless accusation, slander, and a smear,\u201d and US President Donald Trump has stuck by the embattled executive, describing Huang as \u201can amazing guy\u201d and \u201ca high-quality person.\u201d
\nTrump\u2019s endorsement couldn\u2019t stop the scandal from snowballing. As memes about the \u201choneypot\u201d allegations flooded the internet, a second affair was revealed on Wednesday, and Huang resigned on Thursday, right after he was summoned to testify before Congress.
\nIran threatens \u2018hell\u2019
\nThe Republican Party\u2019s devastating midterm election loss and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s shrinking odds of staying in power have placed the two principal antagonists of the war on Iran in limbo. If White House leaks are to be believed, Netanyahu wants Trump to restart attacks, and a conversation between the two descended into a \u201cshouting match from hell\u201d over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Iran vows to \u2018rain down hell\u2019 if US escalates war<\/p>\n
Trump has acknowledged that the war cost his party the midterms, but the US president has rejected a deal with Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and instructed Vice President J.D. Vance \u2013 a moderate on Iran \u2013 to cease negotiations and focus on domestic issues. Whether these moves represent preparations for renewed conflict remains unclear, but Iran is taking no chances.
\nThis week, Tehran lifted its self-imposed 2,000km limit on the range of its ballistic missiles and threatened to unveil \u201csurprises\u2026 on the battlefield\u201d if a new round of military confrontation erupts. Should the US and Israel \u201cchoose war,\u201d they will \u201csee our alert and battle-hardened Warriors rain down hell,\u201d\u00a0Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned in a social media post.
\nIran and the US have traded tit-for-tat strikes, with Iranian forces claiming an attack on a US early-warning radar installation in Bahrain on Friday. Yemen\u2019s Houthis have struck Saudi oil infrastructure and the headquarters of Saudi Arabia\u2019s state-owned oil giant Aramco in Riyadh. For all parties involved, the cost of miscalculation could be huge.
\nBiden gets milked
\nTrump\u2019s war on Iran may have dealt a generational defeat to the Republican Party, but he is not the only American president paying a price for siding with Israel. Joe Biden\u2019s trip to Ireland was interrupted when pro-Palestinian protesters lobbed cartons of milk at the former president outside Dublin\u2019s Trinity College on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Biden, whose son Hunter had just received an honorary award from the university, was met with chants of \u201cblood on your hands\u201d and \u201cGenocide Joe\u201d as he left the campus. Irish police were seen wrestling activists to the ground, and two people were pepper-sprayed and arrested.
\nBiden was in office when Hamas militants attacked Israel in October 2023, prompting the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to launch a full-scale assault on Gaza. Biden vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire, expedited the sale of military equipment to the IDF, and transferred just under $18 billion in military aid to Israel, on top of the $3.8 billion sent annually since 2016.
\nBiden\u2019s \u201crole in the genocide of the Palestinian people is well-documented,\u201d Trinity College Dublin Students\u2019 Union said in a statement after Tuesday\u2019s protest. The union also called on Trinity to revoke the honorary doctorate awarded to Biden in 2016.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Saudi Aramco tower damaged in Houthi strike (VIDEOS)<\/p>\n
What we\u2019re watching
\nHeading into the weekend, we\u2019re preparing for further unrest across Europe, with protests planned in France, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, and strikes next week in France and Spain \u2013 all over the rising cost of living across a rapidly militarizing continent.
\nWe\u2019ll also be keeping an eye on the so-called Multinational Force-Ukraine (MNF-U) drills in Poland, which have been running since Monday and conclude next Friday. Held by 11 nations, including France, the UK, and Poland, in preparation for a potential deployment to post-conflict Ukraine, the drills look like an exercise in wishful thinking \u2013 Putin has already warned that the presence of foreign troops on Ukrainian soil would be \u201ca recipe for an endless war.\u201d Moreover, they could imperil the EU\u2019s newfound plans to take part in talks with the US, Russia, and Ukraine.
\nPutin will travel to the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Tuesday, where an historic trilateral meeting between him, Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to take place. Ukraine will be high on the agenda when the three heavyweights meet, and we\u2019ll be bringing you live updates and analysis as it happens.
\nFor more on these stories, and on everything else, stick with RT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the past seven days we also watched Jensen Huang\u2019s career crumble and saw how EU money finances the luxurious lives of the Ukrainian elite Peace progress in Abu Dhabi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t