RUSSIA - Domestic propagandists and state TV pundits are promoting the idea of an inevitable confrontation with the West as Russia’s military posture grows increasingly hostile, causing major concern for its nearest neighbors and NATO. Ukraine remains the crown jewel for the Kremlin and the Russian public is being primed for the intended absorption of more territories under the umbrella of the Russian Federation, while NATO is being accused of fomenting the potential escalation. “World War III is knocking at our door,” warned one top propagandist. Whether or not the Kremlin is planning to speed up its creeping assault against Ukraine’s Donbas region in the near future is a mystery even to the most knowledgeable experts with close access to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nonetheless, they eagerly fulfill the Russian leader’s express intent to keep NATO — and the West in general — in a state of hypervigilance.

AUSTRIA - The closer we get to the scheduled renewal Monday in Vienna of the talks to restore Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers, the more the psychological warfare between the sides escalated. Oddly, perhaps, very few of these skirmishes are between Tehran and its negotiating partners. Most of them are between two countries that won’t have a foot in the door at the talks. The first is the United States, whose representatives will be in Vienna but won’t be participating in the direct talks on account of Iranian opposition. The other is Israel.

GERMANY - The incoming German government should intensify its efforts to gain influence at the Persian Gulf, thereby assuring that the EU can be "an actor" in the "global contest" for obtaining regional power. This demand is raised by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in its current position paper, due to the power vacuum that is developing from the US focus on its power struggle against China, and therefore withdrawing from the Middle East. The People's Republic of China, on the other hand, is strengthening its position, not only in Iran, with which it had concluded a 25-year "strategic partnership" last March and is seeking means for circumventing US sanctions, but in Arab Gulf countries as well. Beijing, for example, is also expanding its activities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and in Saudi Arabia - and is supplying them with 5G technology from the Huawei corporation, that Washington is so fiercely opposing. Appeals to Berlin and Brussels to strengthen the EU's position in the region, have so far been in vain. The DGAP warns that in light of the global "rebalancing of power, " raising the question of whose order will prevail.

IRAN - Iran has sparked concerns after signing a nuclear "consensus" with China and Russia, as the UN struggles to revive the 2015 nuclear pact. The UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that negotiations held in Tehran over Iran's nuclear programme had proved inconclusive. And while the UN struggles to resolve relations with Iran, Beijing and Moscow appear to be cosying up with Tehran. Tracey German, Professor in Conflict and Security for Kings College London told Express.co.uk that this signals a “united front” between those three states against the US and the EU. “This news suggests a united front between the three states versus the US and EU; interesting given that Iran has recently joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (established by Russia and China in 1996), moving from observer status".

CANADA - David Suzuki, the godfather of the Canadian environmental movement, warned over the weekend that if politicians don’t act to reverse climate change, there could be attacks against oil and gas infrastructure. Suzuki warned he feels that there are few remaining options for protesters who feel government isn’t moving rapidly enough to tackle climate change. What else is there but violence, he wondered. “I think it’s going to be threatened by groups that feel government isn’t doing anything,” Suzuki said. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called for Suzuki’s comments to be universally condemned. “This incitement to violence by David Suzuki is dangerous,” he wrote in a tweet on Monday. “In Canada we resolve our differences peacefully and democratically, not with threats of terrorism or acts of violence.”

USA - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked a federal judge on November 15 to give it until the year 2076 to fully release the documents in its possession tied to the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. “It took the FDA precisely 108 days from when Pfizer started producing the records for licensure to when the FDA licensed the Pfizer vaccine,” Siri continued. “Taking the FDA at its word, it conducted an intense, robust, thorough, and complete review and analysis of those documents in order to assure that the Pfizer vaccine was safe and effective for licensure. While it can conduct that intense review of Pfizer’s documents in 108 days, it now asks for over 20,000 days to make these documents available to the public.” As of November 14, more than 256 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States.

LA PALMA - La Palma's erupting Cumbre Vieja volcano is pumping streams of scorching lava into the ocean at record-high speeds, officials have warned on Wednesday. The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute (INVOLCAN) clocked the flows of molten rock at speeds of up to 10 metres per second. According to the agency, these are some of the fastest lava flows volcanologists have ever seen on the island. The update arrives on the 66th day of the eruption, which has displaced thousands of people, destroyed homes and wiped out entire fields and crops. The Cumbre Vieja volcano has been erupting since September 19, casting the Canary Island into a state of chaos. As of Tuesday, satellite data compiled by the European Copernicus Emergency Management Service indicate more than 2,670 buildings have been destroyed by the natural disaster. The lava is also estimated to have covered a total of 1,074 hectares of land.

BELARUS - Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko cautions against attempts to start a war in Belarus’ territory. He made the relevant statement in an interview with the BBC on 19 November, BelTA has learned. “You have to understand that if we start a war here in Belarus, NATO and Russia will get involved. It will be a nuclear war,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

EUROPE - Bruxelles, EU capital is burning. Riots and fires started. Protests against forced vaccination and mandates are taking place in Bruxelles today. They turned into riots as fires were started and police had to call the army in support. Germany is set to follow Austria’s example in making vaccinations compulsory with ministers admitting that the move is ‘unavoidable’ amid a fourth wave of the pandemic which is crippling the country’s hospitals. This is pure madness, no one will stop them.

ISRAEL - Israel has reached the final stage of severing the West Bank from Jerusalem, the European Union Representative to the Palestinian Authority Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff warned on Sunday. He voiced concern over two Israeli projects which they fear would destroy any prospects for a future Palestinian state. This first is the construction of close to 3,500 settlement homes in an unbuilt area of the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, known as E1. The second project of concern to the EU is the pending construction of 9,000 homes in the Atarot area of eastern Jerusalem on the site of what was once the Kalandiya airport, which opened in 1924 and closed in 2000. It is presumed to be designated mostly for Jewish Israelis.

MIDDLE EAST - A busy week lies ahead for the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed. On Wednesday he’s scheduled to land in Turkey for his first meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This new alliance came about after many years of deep hostility. This month Turkey, Iran and the UAE signed an important economic cooperation agreement under which goods will be sent from the UAE to Iran and then on to Turkey overland.

GERMANY - What with Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko weaponizing migrants against Poland, Russia massing troops at Ukraine’s border, and China engaged in a massive nuclear arms build-up, it is small wonder that Germany’s allies are looking anxiously for news of the next government coalition in Berlin. [This post originally appeared in the Financial Times.]

AFRICA - When the coronavirus first emerged last year, health officials feared the pandemic would sweep across Africa, killing millions and destroying the continent’s fragile health systems. But there is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn’t have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the US, but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said. Fewer than 6% of people in Africa are vaccinated. For months, the WHO has described Africa as “one of the least affected regions in the world” in its weekly pandemic reports. African authorities, while acknowledging that there could be gaps, are not reporting huge numbers of unexpected fatalities that might be COVID-related. WHO data show that deaths in Africa make up just 3% of the global total. In comparison, deaths in the Americas and Europe account for 46% and 29%. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the government has recorded nearly 3,000 deaths so far among its 200 million population. The US records that many deaths every two or three days.

CANADA - A once in 500 years storm in British Columbia leaves behind collapsed bridges, 2,000 dead cows and record flooding as government grapples with food shortages and supermarket shelves picked clean by panic buying. Record rainfall and flooding has left a trail of destruction behind including collapsed bridges, submerged roads, and thousands of dead cattle - as officials grapple with emergency evacuations and food shortages. The Canadian Pacific coast province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency Wednesday following floods and mudslides caused by extremely heavy rainfall, and officials said they expected to find more dead. After the massive rainfall between Saturday and Monday brought a month's worth of rain in two days, farmers desperately tried to save their dairy cows using boats and jet skis, while authorities pledged with residents not to panic-buy groceries. A trade expert said the loss of major transportation routes will hurt the movement of goods both in and out Canada's largest port in Vancouver.