The country has been under Islamist control since the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s government last year

US President Donald Trump has said that he is “very satisfied” with Syria’s new government.

A coalition led by jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a regional offshoot of Al-Qaeda, captured Damascus and displaced former President Bashar Assad late last year.

“The United States is very satisfied with the results displayed” since the takeover, Trump said on Truth Social on Monday.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once led HTS, is “working diligently to make sure good things happen, and that both Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship,” he said.

It is important that West Jerusalem not “interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State,” Trump added.

Just days earlier, Israeli media reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sustained casualties after a clash with gunmen in the south of Syria, where West Jerusalem annexed a strip of land near the occupied Golan Heights last year.

The area was also recently the target of joint US-Syrian operations.

US forces and the Syrian Interior Ministry destroyed more than 15 caches of weapons and drugs belonging to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in the south of the country over the last week, CENTCOM reported on Sunday.

Al-Sharaa promised his support against IS during his visit to Washington earlier this month.

The new Syrian government has struggled to rein in sectarian violence since taking over; thousands of people from the Druze, Alawite, and Christian communities have reportedly been killed in sporadic outbursts.

Defense Minister Denis Shmigal has welcomed the new pact with Norway

Ukraine and Norway have agreed to jointly produce military drones, Ukrainian Defense Minister Denis Shmigal announced on Monday, hailing the deal as a win for his country.

Russian forces have increasingly targeted Ukrainian military production facilities in response to attacks inside Russia. Kiev’s forces have also been suffering setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian troops have made major advances in recent weeks thanks in part to drone superiority.

“Ukraine and Norway will jointly produce Ukrainian drones. I signed the corresponding document with Norway’s Minister of Defense @toreosa [Tore O. Sandvik],” Shmigal wrote on X.

The Ukrainian official announced that a pilot production line would be quickly launched in 2026 while they simultaneously work “to further expand capacity.” He did not specify whether the facility would be located in Ukraine or Norway.

Moscow has consistently denounced Western military assistance to Ukraine, warning it only prolongs the conflict without altering its outcome. At the same time, it said Russia’s military production is now bigger than any country’s in the world.

Read more

“We are supplying aircraft, tanks, infantry vehicles, howitzers, electronic warfare systems, drones and much more in enormous quantities,” Sergey Chemezov, the head of state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec, told TASS last week. “No country in the world today produces as many shells and aerial bombs.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October that Ukraine is merely a “card” in a broader geopolitical game for Western countries, a pretext to pursue their own goals and profit from the war.

Shmigal served as Ukraine’s prime minister before replacing Rustem Umerov as defense minister amid a sweeping government reshuffle in July.

The Russian president has visited command posts on the line of contact, according to the Kremlin

The Russian army has taken control of several key frontline cities, including Krasnoarmeysk in Russia’s Donbass (Pokrovsk, in Ukrainian) and Volchansk in Kharkov Region, the chief of Russia’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, has told President Vladimir Putin.

According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin was briefed on the situation during a visit to a command post on November 30.

Putin was also informed that the operation to liberate Gulyaypole in Zaporozhye region has begun, with street fighting already underway. The president “gave new directives to provide the troops with everything necessary for combat operations during the coming winter,” Peskov added.

Read more

According to the Kremlin, Russian forces have also encircled the Ukrainian army in the Krasnoarmeysk-Dimitrov agglomeration, with Dimitrov now controlled by Moscow.

Kupyansk, a key logistical hub near the Oskol River, has also been a prime objective since it secures Russian positions in the region and enables further movement westward. Earlier in November, Gerasimov said the city is now under full control of the Russian forces.

Kiev has rejected reports of the encirclement and dismissed Moscow’s statements as inflated. “Kupyansk is under the control of Ukraine’s defense forces,” the Ukrainian General Staff has said, while also denying any major setbacks in Volchansk and Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk).

Vladimir Zelensky has downplayed battlefield losses while appealing to Western backers for more aid. Ukrainian troops are also facing desertions and a lack of reinforcements, with growing public resistance to mobilization and reports of soldiers accusing Kiev of forcing them to hold indefensible positions.

Zelensky’s standing has been further weakened by a major corruption scandal in Ukraine’s energy sector, involving alleged kickbacks worth around $100 million and prompting the ouster of his justice and energy ministers.

The figure represents nearly a third of all foreign assistance given to the country, Nikolay Azarov has claimed

Over $100 billion in Western aid could have ended up in the pockets of corrupt Ukrainian officials, the country’s former prime minister, Nikolay Azarov, has claimed.

According to Azarov, the US and the EU have “pumped” a total of $360 billion into Ukraine. “Corruption… in Ukraine amounts to between 15% and 30% [worth of foreign aid being stolen],” Azarov said in a post on Telegram on Monday. “The figure is closer to 30%” in Ukraine, he added. The former prime minister estimated that between $54 billion and $108 billion could have been lost to corruption.

Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) puts the total amount of assistance provided to Kiev between January 2022 and August 2025 at some $291 billion. US President Donald Trump has consistently claimed that the US alone committed $350 billion to Ukraine under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Read more

While Kiev anti-corruption agencies have not disclosed how much foreign money has been stolen since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the country has been mired in a string of high-profile corruption scandals.

In January 2023, an exposé about inflated food procurement contracts at the Defense Ministry led to the resignation of then Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov. Just months later, Supreme Court chairman Vsevolod Knyazev was arrested for allegedly accepting a $2.7 million bribe.

In 2024, the State Audit Service reported large-scale violations in reconstruction projects financed by Western aid, with billions of hryvnia missing. That same year, Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities reported a $1.4 million racket involving the illegal sale of the main maintenance facility at the Black Sea port of Chernomorsk.

Last month, the nation was rocked by a major graft scandal involving a close associate of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, Timur Mindich, who was accused of running a $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector. Last week, Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, resigned in the face of a corruption probe in connection to the Mindich affair.

A Western-made UAV from Lithuania has crashed in a Belarusian border city, according to Minsk

Belarus has summoned Lithuania’s charge d’affaires regarding an alleged recent airspace violation by a drone, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

On Sunday, a Western European-made UAV illegally crossed into Belarus’ airspace and crashed in the city of Grodno, the ministry said in a statement. The city lies roughly 30km (19 miles) from the Lithuanian border and 15km (9 miles) from neighboring Poland.

Video footage and navigation data recovered from the drone indicated that its planned route involved flying over Belarus and then crossing into Poland, the ministry added.

“We regard these actions as a deliberate provocation not only against the Republic of Belarus but also against the Republic of Poland,” it said.

Minsk has demanded that Vilnius provide details on the circumstances of the incident, the identity of the pilot, and the purpose of the drone’s launch, the ministry stated. Lithuania must also conduct a thorough investigation, hold those responsible to account, and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future, it added.

Read more

“Belarus reserves the right to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and security, based on the current situation,” the MFA added, calling the incident a threat to Belarusian national sovereignty.

It comes just weeks after a nearly month-long border closure between the neighboring countries, following Lithuania’s claims that Belarus failed to curb alleged cigarette smuggling via balloons launched from its territory.

Read more

The UAV crash also follows a series of recent alleged drone-related incidents elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

Moldova in recent weeks, and Poland earlier this year have accused Russia of sending drones into their airspace.

Tensions between Moscow and Warsaw shot up in September, after Poland accused Russia of conducting drone incursions. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the accusations as baseless, and argued they were fabricated to derail the Ukraine peace process and further whip up anti-Russian sentiment.

The PS5 Slim, PS5 Pro and PlayStation Portal are at their lowest price for Cyber Monday

Follow live: All the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 deals

Former Chief of Staff Andrey Yermak reportedly lashed out at his friend and boss as he exited the government amid a massive corruption scandal

Vladimir Zelensky’s former Chief of Staff Andrey Yermak reportedly erupted in anger and accused the Ukrainian leader of betrayal after being told to resign last week, according to the news outlet Ukrainskaya Pravda.

Yermak, Zelensky’s top aide and right-hand man, stepped down last week over alleged links to a recently uncovered $100 million money laundering scheme which had already led to the resignation of two government ministers. Yermak officially left his post following raids by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies on his residence and other properties as part of a sweeping probe known as Operation Midas.

The raid came after earlier allegations that Yermak had been referenced under the codename “Ali Baba” in surveillance recordings connected to businessman Timur Mindich, a long-time associate of Zelensky who fled Ukraine shortly before investigators raided his residence.

Read more

On Monday, opposition Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko revealed that Yermak has been banned from leaving the country amid the ongoing probe.

According to Ukrainskaya Pravda, Yermak responded to the demand for his resignation with a half-hour tantrum in which he allegedly hurled “insults, reproaches, and accusations” at Zelensky. Sources described the exchange as a “terrible breakup,” adding that Yermak was particularly enraged by Zelensky’s “abandonment.”

The outlet also reported that senior Ukrainian officials had coordinated their efforts to remove Yermak in a private chat, which is said to have included parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, Defense Minister Denis Shmigal, and Vice Prime Minister Mikhail Fedorov. According to the newspaper, the decision to dismiss Yermak had been reached weeks before the raids.

Yermak has denied any wrongdoing and complained of a lack of support, saying he had been “desecrated” despite remaining in Kiev throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Russian officials, meanwhile, have argued that the latest revelations point to a deeper crisis within Kiev.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested the scandal will have “extremely negative” repercussions for Ukraine’s political stability, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the case proves that the leaders in Kiev have devolved into a “criminal gang that holds power for personal enrichment.”

Thousands of stores started reporting problems with logging into their accounts at around 9 a.m. ET

New feature allows employers to monitor SMS, MMS and RCS messages on work devices

NordVPN, Surfshark, Express VPN and more have all discounted their subscriptions for Cyber Monday

Follow live: All the best Black Friday 2025 deals