‼️ Russia Approves 2026 Budget: 40% of Spending Goes to Military — CCD 📉 The budget projects a 1.6% of GDP deficit. The Kremlin plans to cover the gap by cutting social spending and introducing new taxes, including raising VAT to 22%. Read more 👀⬇️ theukrainianreview.info/russia-appro...

The best way to welcome back Americans from a long holiday weekend with analysis from @salisbot.bsky.social :: Want of Frigates open.substack.com/pub/behindth...

Canada has officially joined the EU’s €150 billion SAFE defense procurement program, the first non-EU country to do so. The agreement allows Canadian firms to participate in EU-financed defense projects. Fifteen EU members have included Ukraine support in their spending plans under SAFE.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's government announces that Canada is realigning Canada's economy away from the United States.

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are not serious people. I won't let them stop me from holding this Administration accountable.

Senator Kelly is correct. Plus a Public Service Announcement: KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1. The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal: "orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."

China's fierce reaction to Japan dropping its previous policy of ambiguity regarding Taiwan is quite telling. Invading Taiwan is extremely complex and risky, and having to deal with Japan at the same time might make it simply impossible to carry out using conventional means.

2/2 link: Statement of the “Former JAGs Working Group” on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/u...

#France in turmoil: 'No one is willing to say the country needs to make sacrifices' www.rfi.fr/en/podcasts/... #politics

Smells a lot like "bombing to get better approval ratings". The biggest danger is that it will work, then he'll do more of it.

Why the Gripen vs F‑35 Debate Isn’t Really About Hardware or Software — It’s About Canada Refusing to Be a Vassal hushkit.substack.com/p/why-the-gr...

America’s climate catastrophe will thin out and impoverish entire regions of the country, making them economic “no-go zones.” Vann R. Newkirk II reports on what climate change could do to America by mid-century: theatln.tc/CD8bgA0X

So we get a no fly zone over Venezuela instead of Ukraine, cool

Dear Europe: If you read this and still think the United States is with you, you deserve everything you fear is coming your way. This is Russian-style corruption incorporated into the American system. www.wsj.com/world/russia...

🇬🇧🇪🇺 Negotiations for the UK to join the European Union's defense fund have failed due to disagreements on the financial contribution Britain would make, - Bloomberg The EC had sought payments of up to €6.75 billion from the UK, while the UK offered €82 million, which was rejected by Brussels.

Personally, I think it's a bad thing when people in the government post AI images without disclosing that they're AI. Image on the left is something RFK Jr. posted today. Image on the right is a photo from 2024.

Making fake stuff that looks real is (still) fairly hard and requires some tools and skill. Convincing people that real things are fake is much easier and can be done with no creativity at all.

Russia's Baikonur launch pad has suffered damage (possibly major) after a Soyuz launch today-- putting in doubt Russia's ability to do manned launches to the ISS. Roscosmos says there's some damage, inspections ongoing.

"I rädslans monarki träder en konditor fram och gör det rätta, det som politiker och polis ständigt uppmanar medborgarna: berätta! vittna! tig inte. Och åklagaren ser som sin uppgift att få in honom i fängelse."

‘Unelected power’ of ultra-rich is reshaping British politics, report claims

Denmark sets up ‘night watch’ to monitor Trump since Greenland row

Russians were asked what they think about the "peace plan": "We want it on Russia’s terms.That Russia wins.That everything goes as Putin says" "The understanding that peace will be long-term,that they will stop threatening us…Overall,stop treating us as second-class people."

As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine enters a fourth winter, Russians are having to come to grips with its growing impact on nearly every aspect of their daily lives.

Not the whole network—yet—despite what the article suggests. For the time being: "The first phase will involve constructing a 30 km railway with the European standard gauge of 1,435 mm between Kemi, Tornio, and Haparanda." yle.fi/a/74-20161606

1/ While Russia is making incremental advances in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian soldiers say that it's resulting in carnage among their units. Conditions at Stepnohirsk are said to be dire, with entire battalions virtually wiped out. ⬇️ bsky.app/profile/wart...

"What stands out most to her is not the danger, but the demand. Hundreds of people – many of them civilians – join the waiting lists for training each month. “So many men my age are already gone,” she says. “Someone has to take their place.”" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Russia’s tiny advances in 2025 sold Putin on inevitable victory in Ukraine wapo.st/4ijY5Dl

A plan to station surface-to-air missiles on an island within sight of Taiwan is “steadily progressing,” Japan’s defense minister said this week amid heightened tensions with China. (from @brianmcelhiney.bsky.social & @hanakusumoto.bsky.social)

Hard to know what’s going on with respect to these discussions but the sentence that rings most true in this piece is “It’s embarrassing.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Japan’s new prime minister infuriated Beijing when she said her country would likely get sucked into a war if China made a move on Taiwan. But it hasn't hurt her popularity.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard spoke bluntly about the disproportionate burden Nordic countries bear in funding Ukraine — exposing a reality: despite leaders’ rhetoric, support remains deeply uneven across the bloc. 🔗 politi.co/4a3GuNH

Friday: "Sign this by Thanksgiving or it's all over for you." Saturday: "This is nothing to do with us, some other boys wrote it." www.huffpost.com/entry/senato...

1/ The Kyiv Independent is reporting that Trump envoy Steve Witkoff is "running a shadow operation inside the White House in an effort to sideline pro-Ukraine officials", cutting out Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an effort supported by Vice President J.D. Vance. ⬇️

Latest from sources in Kyiv: US officials tell NATO nations that Zelenskyy will be pushed to sign the “peace plan” this week or face an even worse deal in future

‘They decided to kill us with cold’: Ukrainians struggle against Russian assault on power network

on.ft.com/3XceXC8 Trump’s grab for Russian frozen assets puts EU Ukraine loan in doubt: ‘“It’s like a 1990s style mafia deal,” said Orysia Lutsevich, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House.’

I'm not a big fan of the Munich analogy, but this is real Munich stuff -- probably worse. www.ft.com/content/f411...

This is key. Europe's courting of Trump has bought only short-term benefits at the cost of any belief that EUR will stand up for Ukraine's and its own interests when the chips are down. Now here we are.

President Zelenskyy addressed the nation. Key points from his address: 1/ Ukraine may face a very difficult choice: either loss of dignity or risk of losing a key partner, either difficult 28 points or an extremely hard winter, the hardest one, and further risks, Zelenskyy said.

Brexit has caused almost twice as much damage to the UK economy than estimated by official forecasts, according to new paper from a group of experts including a senior Bank of England economist

Breaking news: The White House is pressuring Ukraine to sign on to its new peace proposal by Thanksgiving or lose U.S. support to the country, according to officials familiar with the talks.

⚡️ US threatening to cut intelligence, weapons to pressure Ukraine into new peace deal, Reuters reports. Washington is pushing Kyiv to approve the framework of the deal by Nov. 27, coinciding with the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

Here is Trump's full 28 point plan for Ukraine. It would destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state and leave it helpless to face a Russian attack in the future. It would also give Putin full vindication and immunity from prosecution. www.axios.com/2025/11/20/t...

Earlier this morning, President Trump threatened me and a group of service and veteran Members of Congress with arrest, trial, and death by hanging. Here’s my response:

Trump promoting a death threat should not be dismissed as just one more of his excesses. When a wannabe autocrat aligns himself with a call to execute political foes, it’s not just another Trump social media post. It’s another warning.

US and Russia draft new plan to end Ukraine war www.semafor.com/article/11/1...

Mike Johnson serves up word salad when asked about Trump’s call for Congress members to face death penalty

So Elon Musk's AI engages in Holocaust denial now, and there are still democratic governments with active X accounts.

🇺🇸🇩🇪 The US would like Germany to take over the command of Nato forces in Europe, Whitaker said, - The Times In remarks that elicited shock from a German Nato general seated next to him, Whitaker said it was US long-term “aspirational goal” that Berlin should appoint supreme allied commander Europe.

Due to Maduro's criminal regime, millions of Venezuelans have already been forced to flee terror. But if Trump attacks Venezuela, it could trigger an even deeper migration crisis across neighboring countries. We traveled to a Colombian border town, living in the shadow of war.