WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine is now struggling to cling on, not to win “After 970 days of war,” said Lloyd Austin, America’s defence secretary, visiting Kyiv on October 21st, “Putin has not achieved one single strategic objective.” And Mr Austin offered confidence: “Moscow will never prevail in Ukraine.” In private, however, his colleagues in the Pentagon, Western officials and many Ukrainian commanders are increasingly worried about the direction of the war and Ukraine’s ability to hold back Russian advances over the next six months. Ukrainian forces have managed to hold on to Pokrovsk, an embattled town in the eastern Donbas region—an…

Israel presses airstrikes as Beirut awaits truce ideas Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, as Lebanon waited to hear Washington's latest ceasefire proposals after a U.S. official expressed hope a truce could be reached. More than seven weeks since Israel went on the offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah, mid-morning airstrikes levelled half a dozen buildings in the Beirut suburb known as Dahiyeh and killed eight people in Dawhit Aramoun, a village south of the capital. The dead included three women and three children, Lebanon's health ministry said. "They used to hit Dahiyeh at…