Hi all, Just sent out my free weekend update. It ended up being focussed on the strategic air war. Russia, once again, is trying to make Ukrainian cities unliveable in winter. They have benefited by the US slow walking air defense--though Europeans are helping more. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Almost worst, we tried to pretend what she said didn’t matter and got right down to business with Putin

Good morning. Let's begin with this astute & sobering analysis from OBrien on how Rusamerica has aided Russia's air war on Ukraine's energy resilience and Europe's challenge to step up at speed to defending 🇺🇦 skies 👇 "With the Trump administration slow-walking support—this will be Europe’s fight."

Nigel Farage fait son retour. En tête dans les sondages, il fait du Trump dans le texte. Il est même allé jusqu'à dire... que les migrants mangeaient les oies dans les parcs. La désinformation, les excès, ça semble marcher de mieux en mieux.

@chrisgrey.bsky.social 's latest post is about Reform and immigration, Labour's (perhaps) getting off the sofa to deal with that, and the ECHR. I would like to talk about the overlap point. Farage's statement that removing permament leave to remain won't apply to European citizens is empty. 🧵

OOOPS! UPDATE: Two HHS officials tell me that disease detectives, measles response officers, global health officials and the MMWR staff were laid off by mistake and will be reinstated. But Washington office is still RIFed

A 15 year old boy with autism went missing earlier this week He was selling fruit with his family in Springbranch when he disappeared They filed a missing person’s report & begged the public to help find him Turns out he was in a Houston ICE detention facility They kidnapped a disabled child!

Pritzker: "If the Constitution means anything -- and I guess we all are questioning that right now -- the Insurrection Act cannot be invoked ... they just want troops on the ground because they want to militarize especially blue cities in blue states."

Special relationship going from strength to strength I see.

My friend Sascha is a professional musician and he's lost a viola bow on the way to Heathrow. Please signal boost to help him get it back.

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist." www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Funny how I only ever hear stories about the EU entry scheme, not the UK equivalent...

Oh yes, a smaller country tried to "take back control". Great slogan, impossible reality.

With regard to the latest instalment of the US-China trade war, the simple truth is that every country is struggling to understand how modern global markets affect them, and the largest are the most frustrated (same applies to the EU) in wanting "sovereignty" www.ft.com/content/caf2...

Not aware of any country in Europe that has a completely coherent China policy. And for good reason tbqh, a complex challenge made up of various challenges.

The great actress Diane Keaton has left us at the age of 79. Too soon to say good-bye to the woman who made us smile at the quirky Annie Hall, and who broke our hearts in Reds. Your charm and talent will be sorely missed.

These layoffs are illegal and will be challenged in court. Keep resisting, Democrats.

Guess that Qatari jet wasn’t a “gift” to Trump after all.

New plot wrinkle!

Last I checked the GOP controls all branches of our government.

She certainly didn't hold back!

The editors of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) were apparently fired today. The precursor to MMWR began in 1878 to address emerging public health threats rapidly. We are not “great” without it. We are vulnerable to threats from sporadic foodborne illness to bioterrorism.

Trump govt further gutted the CDC last night, while continuing the govt shutdown instead of protecting healthcare for Americans. Areas affected last night include policy, comms, intelligence, infrastructure, global health & more. This is an attack on national security www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

RFK fired the CDC official (w/decades of experience) leading the measles outbreak response. It's been decades since we've had such a large outbreak. And just to ensure they they can spread the measles outbreak even farther, they also fired the leadership for the center focused on immunization.

You would not fire these people—including the staff of the hugely, HUGELY important 'Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report'—if you cared at all about public health, if you wanted people to live. And you would not let your thuggish henchmen fire people like this if you were a responsible president.

This Is Fascism

Protestors believe that action has meaning. Protestors are exercising the rights enshrined in the Constitution. For me, protest is about love of country. I will be there on October 18th, and I hope you will be too. #NoKings snyder.substack.com/p/no-kings-f...

Please join me in a new campaign to help protect Ukrainians in a very special way. My Ukrainian friends chose to call this campaign Freedom is Action. They are making an important point. One way to find our own courage is to act in support those who are showing it snyder.substack.com/p/freedom-is...

Trump govt did not reverse these firings out of goodness or self-owning a "mistake." They would have been happy to get away with it. This reversal is the result of strong opposition. We undercut our own power when we give them the credit. Resistance matters. And remaining cuts are still devastating.

History gives us plenty of examples of disease used as a weapon. There are fewer cases of governments deliberately using disease against their own citizens. We are living (or dying) through one right now. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

I thought this sentence was a joke about hypocrisy at first but he actually said it!

Freaks me out somewhat as a Dad of teenage boys that they might encounter morons like this guy on the internet.

Is the Supreme Court obstructing justice? [NYT Gift Article] Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency “In interviews, federal judges called the Supreme Court’s emergency orders “mystical,” “overly blunt,” “incredibly demoralizing and troubling”"

RIFs at CDC. Destroying the Epidemic Intelligence Service, NCIRD, NCIPC & a dozen other areas/divisions/branches will cause enormous harm and suffering to America, and indeed to the whole world. Call your Reps about it. Then call them again.

1/ The question of why Russians aren't flocking to fight in the war in Ukraine is continuing to exercise Russian warbloggers. 'LIVE Z' highlights the devastating effect that indefinite military service is having on family life, which he says is a "defining issue". ⬇️

If this is happening at the Centre for Disease Control and military troops are going to foodbanks, imagine the condition US government agencies are in that are tasked with managing financial market risks

A man born in Pretoria, 1971, left for Canada in 1989, might want to wind his neck in (though apartheid South Africa was not necessarily too traumatic place for those who could benefit from apartheid if could manage to resist being too troubled by the racist principles of the state and society)

If this was happening in any other country you'd have journalists and analysts discussing risks of state failure

What. No. Seriously? Noooooo

Well said.

Meanwhile the White House just illegally laid off dozens of CDC researchers and scientists during the shutdown.

This week’s Just for Skeets and Giggles is out! Have a great weekend. statuskuo.substack.com/p/just-for-s...

He’s sounding as unhinged as his boss lately.

The only people nuttier than those who claim to support Trump and Ukraine are those who are adamant that Trump and Maduro are great opposites. Trump is simply trying to be an American Maduro, power with no belief and, of course, a commitment to personal enrichment.

"Trump was not pivoting to Ukraine, as many were saying, he was actually feeling heartbroken at the one person from whom he covets love and respect—Vladimir Putin."

To summarize. If Trump wanted to send Ukraine Tomahawks, he could right now. If Trump wanted to sanction Russia, he could right now. If Trump wanted to seriously bolster Ukrainian air defense against Russia drones/missiles, he could right now. But he’s not, so he doesn’t want to.

MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling reut.rs/471tkNZ

Academics and university staff being put on leave because of coordinated campaigns by right wing groups accusing them of criticising Charlie Kirk. I must admit I find the hypocrisy under the current US administration re free speech utterly outrageous.

France’s new prime minister is…the very one who resigned on Monday, Sébastien Lecornu. It rounds off the most chaotic and absurdist week in French politics in modern times

This strikes me as a pretty major Brexit shift from Starmer. Perhaps the beginning of 'Brexit is sh1t and has caused real economic damage'.