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  THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Issues an Ultimatum to Ukraine His proposal to end Russia's war is actually an ultimatum to Ukraine. Trump suggests he might end American support if Ukraine won't agree, but what might be the costs to the U.S. of a bad deal? The 28-point plan that was mooted in the press but became public on Thursday includes a reduction in Ukraine’s military and a cap on its manpower at 600,000, from about 900,000 now. It isn’t clear if foreign peace-keeping troops would be allowed on Ukraine’s soil or if it could maintain long-range weapons. The deal hands Mr. Putin all of the Donbas in the east. He’d pocket the territory he’s already seized there—and get the rest that Ukraine still holds despite nearly four years of Russian assaults. Ukraine would forfeit its right to join a defensive Western alliance in NATO. Oh—and the U.S. and Ukraine would recognize Russian control of Crimea, which Mr. Putin took by force in 2014. Mr. Putin has made these demands since 2022 af...
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  Saturday 22 November 2025 News Trump issues deadline for Zelensky to sign peace deal Donald Trump welcomes Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House in October  (Getty) James C. Reynolds Donald Trump has warned Ukraine to agree to his widely criticised peace proposal by Thursday or lose access to US intelligence and weapons. Volodymyr Zelensky said his nation faces “one of the most difficult moments in our history” as he considers a 28-point US-brokered plan that appears to heavily favour Russia. Kyiv would have to cede land, agree not to join Nato, and accept limits on the size of its military – while Russia would be welcomed back into the international community. “Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner,” Mr Zelensky said in a bleak address to the nation, vowing that he would not betray his country. The US has threatened to cut intelligence-sharing and the supply of weapons to Ukraine in an effort to pressure ...
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  Why the Time Has Finally Come for Geothermal Energy It used to be that drawing heat from deep in the Earth was practical only in geyser-filled places such as Iceland. But new approaches may have us on the cusp of an energy revolution. November 17, 2025 Near the Krafla geothermal-energy plant, scientists drilled down to magma, creating the most powerful geothermal well in the world. Photograph by Claire-Lise Havet / Hans Lucas / Redux When I arrived in Reykjavík, Iceland, last March, a gravel barrier, almost thirty feet at its highest point, had been constructed to keep lava from the Reykjanes volcano from inundating a major geothermal power station not far from downtown. So far, it had worked, but daily volcano forecasts were being broadcast on a small television at the domestic airport where I was waiting to take a short flight to Akureyri, a town on the north coast about an hour’s drive from one of the country’s oldest geothermal plants, the Krafla Geothermal Station. Until the...
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  Tense calm in far north as Israel prepares to ‘finish the job’ against Hezbollah Tensions remain high on the Israel-Lebanon border. Photograph: Jason Burke/The Guardian On the border with Lebanon, communities have started to return and rebuild – even though some are in no hurry to return N oam Erlich looks out over what was his beer garden. Beyond the disordered chairs and tables and the sign instructing neighbours and friends to “pay whatever you like”, the ridge falls away to fields, then a fence, then hills littered with the skeletal ruins of shattered Lebanese villages. The 44-year-old brewer is standing in front of the house his grandfather built when the Manara kibbutz was founded in the 1940s in the very far north of Israel. The building was hit repeatedly by missiles fired by  Hezbollah  during the conflict, which ended a year ago, and will now almost certainly be demolished, along with most of the neighbouring houses. “Wars destroy things, but bring opportuniti...
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