As Ukraine faces military and political crisis, White House proposes negotiated settlement of war

Andre Damon

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, talks with U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. [AP Photo/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office ]

With the Ukrainian government of Volodymyr Zelensky facing a deepening corruption scandal and military crisis, the Trump administration submitted to Kiev on Thursday a 28-point plan for a negotiated settlement of the war with Russia.

The proposal was submitted by a US military delegation led by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll.

The plan, as published in full by Axios, marks a significant departure from earlier US positions and is a testament to the deepening crisis facing the US-NATO proxy war against Russia.

The document declares that “NATO will not expand further” and that “Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes a provision that Ukraine will not be admitted in the future.” It also declares that “NATO agrees not to station troops in Ukraine.”

The 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest declared that Ukraine and Georgia “will become members of NATO.” Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the moves by Ukraine to integrate itself into NATO as the main justification for the Russian invasion in 2022.

The document declares that “Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk will be recognized as de facto Russian, including by the United States.”

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and a major aim of the NATO powers in provoking the war with Russia in 2022 was to reconquer the territory. In 2023, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley declared that NATO would assist Ukraine to “go on the offensive to liberate Russian-occupied Ukraine.” Russia currently occupies much, but not all, of Luhansk and Donetsk.

The agreement also stipulates that “Ukraine will hold elections in 100 days,” all but guaranteeing the fall of the Zelensky regime, which currently rules by emergency decree.

The Trump administration’s plan also stipulates that “Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy” and that “Russia will be invited to rejoin the G8,” from which it was expelled in 2014.

European officials told US newspapers that they had not been consulted about the plan and made barely-veiled condemnations of the proposal in public. “Peace cannot be capitulation. We do not want the capitulation of Ukraine,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot Thursday.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski added, “Europe’s security is at stake, so we expect to be consulted.” Asked whether any European officials had been consulted in drafting the proposal, Sikorski added, “Not to my knowledge.”

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, stated, “Different peace plans cannot work if Ukrainians and Europeans do not agree to this,” adding that she did not see “any concession from the Russian side.”

A Ukrainian official told the New York Times that the Trump administration had “not sought Kyiv’s input” into the talks and that “the terms in the plan were unacceptable to Kyiv.” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Zelensky, called the proposal “unconditional capitulation,” adding that accepting the proposal would be “submission.”

Ukrainian politician Roman Kostenko declared that the deal “means capitulation, for Ukraine, for Europe and for America.”

While Zelensky’s advisers bluntly condemned the proposal, the Zelensky government officially accepted it as a starting point for discussions. Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram, “Our teams—Ukraine and the USA—will work on the points of the plan to end the war. We are ready for constructive, honest and prompt work.”

The Financial Times reported that US officials are seeking an extremely rapid timetable for the implementation of the agreement:

The Ukrainian officials said the Trump administration had told Zelensky and other people in his team that the White House was working to an “aggressive” timeline to finalize the proposal in order to bring the war to an end before the close of the year. They added that U.S. officials expect Zelensky to sign the agreement “before Thanksgiving” on Thursday next week, with the aim of presenting a peace deal in Moscow later this month and concluding the process by early December.

The Zelensky government is facing a spiraling corruption scandal over a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme headed by Zelensky’s closest associates. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau alleged last week that Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s business partner, had organized a scheme to steal over $100 million over 15 months from the state’s nuclear power company.

The scandal has forced the resignation of Ukraine’s justice minister, Herman Halushchenko, and the energy minister, Svitlana Hrynchuk.

The political party of Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s former president, called the conduct of Zelensky’s government “unprofessional and corrupt” in a statement this week.

The New York Times quoted Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, a former presidential foreign policy adviser, as saying, “Ukraine’s position right now is not strong, and this is seen not only inside the country but also by our partners, including the United States, and of course by the aggressor.”

Russia is making regular, steady advances on the battlefield, including in the city of Pokrovsk, which is expected to fall imminently.

On Thursday, Putin received a briefing from Chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who said that Russian troops had taken control of the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, as well as large portions of the city of Pokrovsk.

The US officially estimates that 1.2 million men have been killed or injured in the war, which is the deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. The real figure, however, is likely to be significantly higher.

Verizon begins cutting 13,000 workers as global jobs massacre accelerates

Jerry White

A man checks his cell phone during a break outside the Verizon headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York. [AP Photo]

Verizon’s announcement that it will eliminate more than 13,000 jobs—the largest mass layoff in the company’s history—has triggered shock, anger and anxiety among telecommunications workers and across wide layers of the working class. The cuts, first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week and confirmed in a company-wide memo from new CEO Dan Schulman Thursday, amount to roughly one-fifth of Verizon’s management workforce and come as the company claims it must “reorient” its business and “simplify operations” in the name of “improving customer experience.”

The real motive is not customer satisfaction but Wall Street’s satisfaction. Verizon posted nearly $5 billion in profit in the third quarter alone and is aggressively restructuring to boost its stock price, slash labor costs and prepare for intensified competition in wireless, home internet and enterprise services. Schulman, who took over only last month, declared that Verizon had reached a “critical inflection point” and announced an “aggressive transformation” of the business—corporate language that workers immediately understand as synonymous with firings, outsourcing and speedup.

The Verizon cuts come as new, long-delayed jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expose the underlying weakness of the US labor market and contradict claims by the Trump administration and the media of a strong economy. The September employment report, held back for seven weeks by the government shutdown, shows anemic job growth, rising jobless rates, slowing wage gains and significant job losses in key productive sectors, such as manufacturing, warehousing and logistics.

On Reddit and thelayoff.com, Verizon employees have flooded forums with reports of entire departments being eliminated and hundreds of retail stores divested or closed. Many describe scenes of stunned silence during mass conference calls where entire teams were informed they no longer had jobs. One worker wrote, “Emotionally draining day … my friends were cut and it just feels like a death. NO ONE deserves to be without a job right before Christmas.” Another technician commented: “They’re ditching field techs in favor of contracting out to companies so they don’t have to pay salaries, benefits, taxes, etc. Going to start seeing cell towers being fixed with duct tape.”

Workers reported that roughly 180 stores were hit in a single day, with about 179 slated for divestment. Retail districts are being consolidated nationwide. “Territories and districts will be redrawn and that will cause impacts to local retail ops,” one poster explained. “I called my mortgage company already. I don’t know what else to do.”

Some workers noted that the layoffs will not be confined to the US. One Reddit commenter reported: “India is going to be impacted too. Thirteen thousand across US and India.” Workers expressed outrage that a company reporting strong profits would simultaneously slash thousands of jobs on multiple continents.

Across the forums, employees denounced the company’s claim that the cuts are meant to “simplify operations” or “improve customer experience.” One wrote: “Verizon layoffs have nothing to do with AI. It’s only about increasing the stock price.” Another pointed to the insulting severance packages: “The severance pay is honestly so insulting,” the worker noted, adding that it amounted to only two weeks of pay per year of service. Another summed up the broader mood: “Every Fortune 500 company is this greedy. No one cares about the working class.”

The long-delayed BLS report provides only a glimpse of the economic insecurity that tens of millions are facing as the economy slides towards a potential recession. The US officially added 119,000 jobs in September, a number the media described as “stronger than expected,” but the underlying details make clear that the labor market was already faltering before the shutdown. Gains were concentrated in low-paid, overstretched sectors—healthcare, restaurants and social assistance—while critical productive industries continued to shrink. Manufacturing lost 6,000 jobs in September, extending a months-long decline. Transportation and warehousing lost 25,300 jobs, reflecting a contraction in logistics following massive cuts at UPS, Amazon and warehouses throughout the country.

The official unemployment rate rose from 4.3 to 4.4 percent as 450,000 people entered or re-entered the labor force and could not find work. Wage growth slowed, leaving workers increasingly unable to keep up with housing costs, food prices and basic expenses.

The six-week blackout of official labor data only obscures the worsening reality. According to the Cleveland Federal Reserve, 39,000 workers received formal layoff notices in October—a level seen earlier this year only in May and, before that, only during acute periods of crisis. In the past several weeks, Amazon, General Motors, IBM, Microsoft, Paramount, Target, UPS and other major corporations have all announced plans to eliminate tens of thousands of jobs. Verizon’s 13,000-job assault is merely the latest and most visible expression of a rapidly widening corporate job-cutting campaign.

These events intersect with the broader wave of layoffs reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In October alone, US-based employers announced 153,074 cuts, up 175 percent from last October. Through the first 10 months of 2025, companies have announced 1,099,500 layoffs—a 65 percent increase from last year and the highest figure for this point in the year since the mass pandemic layoffs of 2020.

Technology companies lead the way, driven by restructuring around automation and AI, with more than 141,000 job cuts announced this year. Warehousing recorded nearly 48,000 cuts in October alone, as companies unwind pandemic-era expansion and automate operations. Retailers have slashed more than 88,000 jobs so far in 2025—an increase of 145 percent over last year—as chains shut stores and funnel resources into online operations built on low-wage, precarious labor.

Cost-cutting was the reason cited for more than 50,000 of October’s layoffs. AI-driven restructuring accounted for another 30,000. At the same time, planned hiring has collapsed to its lowest level since 2011.

Michigan’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings show the devastation in a single state. In recent weeks alone: Dana Thermal Products is closing its Auburn Hills facility, destroying 200 jobs; XALT Energy is shutting down operations in Midland and Auburn Hills, eliminating 134 jobs; Freudenberg Battery Power Systems is closing plants in both Auburn Hills and Midland, cutting 190 jobs; the Taubman Company is closing its Bloomfield Hills headquarters, wiping out 105 positions; Avancez is laying off 143 workers in Hazel Park; IAC is cutting 68 jobs in Alma and 178 in Mendon; Oakland Stamping is closing its Detroit plant, cutting 133 jobs; Cole’s Quality Foods is closing its Muskegon plant, eliminating 175 jobs; Spirit Airlines is temporarily laying off 103 workers; Vista Maria is laying off 154 workers in Dearborn Heights; and Anderton Machining is closing its Jackson facility, cutting 41 jobs.

Similar closures and layoffs are occurring across every major industrial region of the United States. The Philadelphia Housing Authority is firing more than 300 union trades workers and will now contract out repairs “as needed.” Providence Swedish and Providence Oregon are cutting hundreds of hospital workers—including cleaners, technicians and essential non-clinical staff—while demanding more exhausting workloads from those who remain.

Corporations, politicians and the media describe these layoffs as a “market correction,” an adjustment to “consumer trends” or “efficiency gains” from AI. In reality, they reflect the deepening crisis of American capitalism. Corporate profits remain at historic highs, yet employers insist they cannot afford workers while funneling billions into share buybacks, dividends and automation designed to eliminate jobs entirely. The Trump administration’s escalating tariffs, combined with austerity at every level of government, have only intensified these pressures.

This is an international crisis with mass layoffs spreading in Germany and Europe and throughout the world.

Verizon workers, autoworkers, logistics employees, healthcare workers, educators, retail workers and public sector employees in the US and around the world face a common enemy: a corporate-financial oligarchy determined to protect profits by destroying jobs and driving down wages.

The unions—including the Communications Workers of America, Service Employees International Union, the United Steelworkers, the United Auto Workers and others—offer no strategy to oppose this onslaught. Instead, they seek to divide American workers from their international brothers through the promotion of economic nationalism and demand concessions in the name of “saving jobs,” even as plants and departments are wiped out one after another.

Nationwide strikes called in Italy, Belgium and Portugal as social anger erupts across Europe

Alex Lantier

Nationwide strikes and other mass workers protests are spreading across Europe against austerity and the bourgeoisie’s remilitarization of the continent. As governments slash basic social services and impose regressive labor reforms to fund a rearmament drive and funnel wealth to the capitalist oligarchy, working class anger is erupting internationally across Europe.

In Belgium, a nationwide rail and mass transit strike is called for November 24, a nationwide strike of the public sector the day after, and finally a general strike on the 26th. They are called against moves by the right-wing government led by Bart De Wever’s New Flemish Alliance (NVA) to slash pensions, end indexing of wages on inflation and slash benefits including unemployment insurance. Belgium spent over €1 billion ($1.154 billion US) on arming Ukraine against Russia this year and is raising military spending €4 billion ($4.615 billion US) this year to reach 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.

In Italy, a general strike is called on November 28 by the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB, Union of Rank-and-file Unions) and the Confederazione Unitaria di Base (CUB, United Confederation of the Rank-and-file). Other Italian unions have not joined this action but are calling a separate general strike on December 12. These strikes oppose far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s austerity budget and her pledge, alongside all NATO governments, to raise military spending to 5 percent of GDP.

In Portugal, a nationwide strike is called on December 11 against the draconian labor reform of right-wing Prime Minister Luís Montenegro. The reform would effectively eliminate legal barriers to mass sackings in Portugal, and is the signature policy of the Montenegro government alongside mass deportations of migrants backed by the far-right Chega party. Portugal is also increasing military spending by €1 billion to reach spending of 5 percent of GDP on the military by 2035.

What is emerging is an objectively revolutionary situation across Europe, as the irreconcilable conflict between the working class and the capitalist oligarchy grows.

European imperialism has taken the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine as a chance not only to seek to extend its geopolitical influence eastwards and prepare broader wars but also to accelerate social counterrevolution at home. European governments face massive budget crises, as their debts hit 106 percent of GDP in Belgium, 101 percent in Britain, 102 percent in Spain, 115 percent in France, and 138 percent in Italy. Yet they are rejecting any substantial taxation of the rich, surging military spending and placing the burden on the backs of the workers.

European workers reject this policy and are trying to fight back and halt the accelerating plunge into war and social crisis. The current wave of strikes follows several nationwide general strikes, most recently in Belgium on October 14 and in Italy on October 3, which was then followed by a million-strong protest against the Gaza genocide.

The same issues face workers across Europe, and the same explosive social anger is growing there. A one-day national rail strike in Greece took place three days ago, after a series of nationwide one-day general strikes in the country earlier this year. These also follow recent strikes by junior doctors in Britain and mass “Block Everything” protests in September in France.

The movement in the European working class sharply poses fundamental questions of political strategy and historical perspective. The Italian and Belgian governments maintaining their policies despite mass nationwide strikes in recent months underscores an essential point: Protest strikes will not shift the basic trajectory of European capitalist governments. To stop imperialist war, genocide and attacks on social and democratic rights, governments must be brought down across Europe and power must go to the workers.

The main obstacle to such a struggle is the national perspective of the union bureaucracies and allied middle-class political parties, who negotiate with the capitalist governments and seek to limit the movement in the working class to the borders of one or other capitalist nation-state.

Indeed, a common thread runs through the general strike calls of the General Federation of Belgian Labor (FGTB), the General Confederation of Italian Labor (CGIL), and the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP). They do not mention any events outside their own countries, they do not call to end imperialist wars, they do not call to bring down the government, and they do not call to establish any connection with workers’ struggles outside their country. They leave workers only the invariably disappointed hope that the ruling class will somehow change its mind.

The Italian USB’s strike call indubitably gives itself a different political coloration. Opposing the Gaza genocide and Italian militarization and calling for Meloni to resign, it seeks to align itself more with growing anger among rank-and-file workers at genocide, fascism and war. However, this only more sharply raises the political issues facing the working class.

The second signatory of the USB strike call is Potere al Popolo (Power to the People), a coalition of parties including the Stalinist Rifondazione Comunista and the Pabloite Anticapitalist Left to which the USB has close ties. These are practiced defenders of capitalist rule in Italy, having never fully recovered after they supplied key votes in the parliament for pension cuts and funding war in Afghanistan in 2007. Were Meloni to resign and be replaced by such forces, militarism and austerity would continue—as they have with the Stalinist-Pabloite Sumar party in government in Spain.

UK COVID Inquiry finds Westminster and devolved governments responsible for tens of thousands of deaths

Robert Stevens

The second stage of the three-part official UK COVID Inquiry—dealing with the response of the four governments of the UK (covering England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) to the pandemic—has issued damning findings, including that they were responsible for tens of thousands of avoidable deaths.

Chaired by a former High Court judge, Baroness Heather Hallett, the findings are contained in 750 pages across two volumes. The hearings covering “Core UK decision-making and political governance” lasted seven months between October 2023 and May 2024.

Bereaved families gather outside the UK COVID Inquiry on the day that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave evidence, December 6, 2023

In findings published Thursday, the inquiry found that the response of the UK governments to the pandemic was “too little, too late”. The first lockdown imposed by Boris Johnson’s government was not authorised until March 23, 2020, and began March 26. This was despite 116 confirmed cases of COVID across the UK having already being recorded—and the first death on March 5.

The Inquiry accepted evidence “that the mandatory lockdown should have been imposed one week earlier. Had a mandatory lockdown been imposed on or immediately after 16 March 2020, modelling has established that the number of deaths in England in the first wave up until 1 July 2020 would have been reduced by 48% – equating to approximately 23,000 fewer deaths.”

Hallett’s introduction notes, “The number of deaths across the UK for which the virus was responsible—calculated by whether Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate—is now over 230,000. This appalling loss of life resulted from the virus spreading across the UK in three successive waves. The devastating socio-economic consequences resulted both from the virus and from the decisions taken to respond to it.”

Statistics compiled and displayed Friday at the National COVID Memorial Wall in London show that the more accurate fatality figure is 251,227. Accepting Hallett’s figure, at least 10 percent of deaths suffered in the pandemic were caused by government refusal to impose a timely lockdown.

Loading Tweet ...

Tweet not loading? See it directly on Twitter

The report explains, “The spread of the virus globally and, in particular, the escalating crisis in Italy were clear warning signs, which should have prompted urgent planning across the four nations. Instead, the governments did not take the pandemic seriously enough until it was too late.”

It continues, “On 8 March 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care reported that there had been more than 80,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths in China and almost 6,000 cases and more than 200 deaths in Italy. That same day, a number of northern provinces in Italy were placed into an effective lockdown – this was extended to the whole of the country on 9 March. In the UK, the total number of Covid-19 cases had increased to 273, including 244 cases in England, 18 in Scotland, 4 in Wales and 7 in Northern Ireland. There had been two deaths.”

By the time the Johnson government finally authorised the first lockdown, “SAGE [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] estimated that the number of cases was doubling every three to four days and intensive care units in London were on track to reach capacity within ten days. Almost 300 people had died, with more than 100 of those deaths occurring in the previous two days.”

The onset of mass deaths in Italy “should have prompted urgent planning across the four nations”, the report concludes, adding, “Instead, the governments did not take the pandemic seriously enough until it was too late. February 2020 was a lost month.”

For Johnson et al it was business as usual. The Inquiry states, “The UK Cabinet was not convened between 14 and 25 February 2020. There was also no COBR [Downing Street emergency meeting] between 19 and 26 February 2020. It was during the school half-term holidays and parliamentary recess.. Johnson was at this point staying at Chevening House (a country residence used by Foreign Secretaries)… It does not appear that he was briefed, at all or to any significant extent, on Covid-19 and he received no daily updates.”

This was despite, as noted by the Inquiry, the fact that the World Health Organization published guidance on February 14 , 2020, declaring, “There is ample evidence that mass gatherings can amplify the spread of infectious diseases … Such infections can be transmitted during a mass gathering, during transit to and from the event, and in participants’ home communities upon their return.”

In the first stage of the Inquiry—which published its findings in July last year—Hallett largely accepted evidence from key government figures and advisers that everyone was hamstrung because they were all victims of “groupthink”.

This week’s findings argue the pandemic response was conditioned by a “toxic and chaotic culture” The report states, “By failing to tackle this chaotic culture—and, at times, actively encouraging it—Mr Johnson reinforced a culture in which the loudest voices prevailed and the views of other colleagues, particularly women, often went ignored, to the detriment of good decision-making.”

Baroness Heather Hallett [Photo: UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry/Crown Copyright 2025]

Such explanations say nothing of the ferocity with which the Johnson government pursued its policy of reopening or keeping open the economy, and circulation of the virus with it. While it notes the interventions made by Rishi Sunak (the then chancellor, and later prime minister) to open the economy from the summer of 2020, there is not even a reference to the infamous statement Johnson made in Downing Street in October that year, as attested by several witnesses: “No more fucking lockdowns—let the bodies pile high in their thousands”.

Despite acknowledging that senior government figures, including Johnson, and key advisers advocated—to varying degrees—a policy of mass infection and “herd immunity”, there is no explanation anywhere in the report that this politically criminal response was governed by the same economic objectives pursued by capitalist governments internationally. The bottom lines of the corporations and the super-rich were prioritised above the safety and lives of the population.

While the remit of the Inquiry was to deal with the response of the four governments of the UK, it would not have been possible for such a murderous policy to be implemented except with the backing of the opposition Labour Party in Westminster. Yet Labour is mentioned nowhere in 750 pages.

Labour’s nominally left leader Jeremy Corbyn never called for a lockdown prior to Johnson finally authorising the first, instead offering to be “constructively critical” of his government. This was the same policy pursued by Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

While opposing the stance of right-wing forces—who maintain that the initial lockdown itself was a mistake—the Inquiry gives ground to such reactionary positions in stating that had a timely lockdown and other mitigations been put in place earlier, there would have been no necessity for later lockdowns. There is no scientific validity for this, given that the first COVID vaccine was not available in the UK for deployment until December 2020—almost a full year after COVID was first detected in the UK.

The Executive Summary states, “While the nationwide lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 undoubtedly saved lives, they also left lasting scars on society and the economy, brought ordinary childhood to a halt, delayed the diagnosis and treatment of other health issues and exacerbated societal inequalities.”

It concludes, “The Covid-19 lockdowns only became inevitable because of the acts and omissions of the four governments. They must now learn the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic if they are to avoid lockdowns in future pandemics.”

And with that the Inquiry report—despite its damning conclusions, which point the finger at politicians responsible for social murder on a vast scale—will be placed in the House of Commons Library to collect dust.

There are further reports to come from the Inquiry before it finally concludes in the summer of 2027, but for the ruling elite it has achieved what it set out to do—make a few critical remarks, issue the necessary tut-tuts, but essentially put it down to experience and move on.

Most importantly, everyone in ruling circles knows that no-one responsible for mass death will face the slightest sanction, let alone prosecution. This is due to Hallett’s Inquiry being held under the Inquiries Act 2005, meaning it is specifically prohibited from ruling on or determining anyone’s civil or criminal liability.