The CCP is doubling down on decoupling. Western business leaders must abandon the illusion: meaningful access to China’s market is ephemeral. Any corporate strategy that depends on China for primary growth and profits is destined to fail.

It is a process of mainstreaming crazy conspiracy theories. Russia used covert means to boost it and normalize it as part of the discourse. Now they are free to openly endorse QAnon theories. You could imagine the Kremlin response if the US promoted similar conspiracies propping up Putin.

Retired intelligence analysts confirm what the political scientists are telling us — and what the world outside is telling us — the goal of these people is the end of law, the end of democracy, and the end of a recognizable republic. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump cancelling trade negotiations with Canada over ad quoting Reagan critical of the use of tariffs. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

These alleged terrorists are thought to traffic in narcotics. Narcotics wouldn't come to America if Americans weren't using them.

US-Australia meeting was a diplomatic success. President Trump recognises the importance of the relationship for the US and Australia got building that relationship with AUKUS support and the critical minerals deal. share.google/FlLwVnin8QXG...

When America turns inward, the world gets more dangerous. We’ve seen this before. Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America and the New Global Disorder — out 28 Oct. 👉 www.harpercollins.com/products/aut...

As my students learn in my Russian intelligence module, the KGB used to do this in Soviet times - it was called a prophylactic chat with the aim of nipping minor transgressions in the bud and discouraging further behaviour that was frowned upon by the state

It would be shocking if the leader of a country which was invaded and endures regular war crimes didn't "hate" the leader of the country doing the invasion and war crimes. Wars end not by leaders liking each other but by changing the calculus to continue fighting www.msn.com/en-us/politi...

Large Language Models (LLMs) can be poisoned with a steady stream of just 250 documents -- this makes LLMs vulnerable to manipulation via organized influence operations arxiv.org/abs/2510.07192

The new Pentagon press corps appears to be a who's who of pro-Trump propagandists. And a security nightmare. At least one of these—Tim Pool's Timcast—was tied to a network of influencers that received money as part of a Russian influence operation. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Herd mentality

First moments after the Russian attack on a daycare in Kharkiv. Kids crying for their moms, rescuers and civilians rushing to get them out of the building... Heartbreaking.

Twice we have gone for the idea that Putin is interested in a peace deal. Again he makes it clear the kind of peace he is seeking is Ukraine's surrender. Ending this sooner mean the US and Europe would need to become more assertive to change Putin's calculations.

Calling a conversation "productive" begs the question, what did it produce? So far, repeated claims of progress have run into the reality that Russia's aims of controlling Ukraine remain White House says no Putin-Trump summit anytime soon www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Putin's phone call appears to only have been a productive meeting for Putin. The Trump administration seems to just have figured that out and cancelled plans for another meeting in Budapest www.nbcnews.com/world/russia...

Congress could pass a law blocking this.

The president said he thought Ukraine could win back its territory. One call from Putin later and Trump is trying to help Putin conquer the Donbas through diplomatic pressure saying Ukraine cannot win the territory back. Who runs America's Ukraine policy? www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

“The FSB prefers to eliminate opposition figures in ways that look like natural death… Decisions on poisonings are one hundred percent coordinated with Putin... Navalny and Kara-Murza were under truly close operational surveillance...” 👇

This framing of the conflict should make it clear that Russia is the side pushing escalation as they seek to retain escalation dominance with such absurd threats.

We are back to where we were before the Alaska summit, Putin using diplomacy as a continuation of his war of aggression Putin demanded Ukraine surrender key territory in call with Trump www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

One sign that Putin is playing Trump and Putin is winning is that the demand that, "They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!" was the position Putin got Trump to back off from in Alaska. Putin uses "diplomacy" as a form of war. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Focusing on the personal relationship between Zelenskyy and Putin is probably a path to failure. Putin's aspiration to control thr countries on Russia's border is incompatible with their desire for self-governance. Peace will come with Russia's defeat. www.nbcnews.com/world/ukrain...

Ukraine had a full-court press in DC this week expecting big announcements today—a US-Ukraine drone deal, energy support, maybe even Tomahawks. Putin appears to have successfully dashed those hopes by offering Trump yet more talks. We’ve been here before.

Trump confirms Russia got him to change his mind on giving Tomahawks to Ukraine convincing him it would hurt the US-Russian relationship and that relationship was a greater priority for him. #reflexiveControl www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Russia is afraid of Ukraine receiving Tomahawks. Without a serious ceasefire the US president will have been played yet again by Russia -- the only "warmonger" in this conflict. www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

"The U.S. military failed to master IW above the tactical level.... We have failed because we have focused on technology at the expense of expertise and creativity...." www.thecipherbrief.com/cognitive-wa...

This is not the China story they tell Pacific Island countries

Proposed strategy for Australian defence relies on unconventional deterrence as the use of irregular warfare means in order to deter an adversary from initiating hostile action or convincing an adversary to cease hostilities once they have begun www.aspi.org.au/report/uncon...

Reinventing our pedagogy doesn't help if the student doesn't have to know what the assignment is...

EU to be ‘ready’ for war with Russia by 2030 – POLITICO share.google/jApMbUJkrneQ...

Special Counsel Nerds: Jack Smith sits down with Andrew Weissman to discuss the rule of law and the investigations into Donald Trump youtu.be/DR79GW6SvxE?...

This isnt a good sign that Hamas is willing to disarm. Hamas fighters in plain clothes carry out public executions of alleged collaborators. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

He keeps saying this, even though Jack Smith didn't join the classified docs case until a few months after the raid. But since he keeps doing this on Fox News, where they are on the same team, he won't get called out on it.

Australia also has a more restricted free speech right which is an implied right in Australia rather than the broad and explicit protection in the US.

For a religion built around ideas that all people have equal dignity as children of God, its easier to see diversity and inclusion programs as consistent with Christianity than opposed to it.

Authoritarian regimes pretend they are strong when they are brittle. Propaganda becomes hollow and the system rests solely on its repressive apparatus. This is why today Russia has as many political prisoners as in Stalin's time. Now is the time for pressure. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

This kind of behavior used to be called censorship by administration officials and their Congressional allies.

Sending Afghans back who helped American and allied forces is a grave injustice which makesnl it less likely in the future American forces will receive cooperation and assistance from locals. America saved him from the Taliban. Trump wants to send him back. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Norway Suspects Espionage in Nobel Peace Prize Winner Breach - Bloomberg share.google/oJIY1vEjoGUx...

Russian threats about Tomahawks crossing a red line a continuation of their reflexive control operations targeting American presidents www.thecipherbrief.com/trump-putin-...

A civil war is brewing between the far right and the further right.

I know I tell this story all the time, BUT Pete Hoekstra, Trump's current ambassador to Canada (& to Netherlands in Trump 1) told me when he was first being considered that he had no proof of naturalization. (He came to US when he was 12.) He had been HPSCI chair for years before that. [corrected]

Do you want to live in a "papers, please" country?

Rush to resolve protracted conflicts without rebuilding the foundations of international and regional integration risks failure www.iiss.org/online-analy...

“With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing,” he said. “You can be a bulwark of civility against the quicksand of approximation and post-truth...” apnews.com/article/pope...

This sadly demented man doesn't realize *he* was president on Jan 6, 2021. Get him in an assisted living facility ASAP.

Trump rightly deserves credit for pressuring Netanyahu to avoid escalation and deescalate the situation in the Middle East. Both Republicans and Democrats gave him that freedom,setting aside partisan political objectives. Starting at 3 min www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Qo...

Part of what makes a protest movement successful and enduring is that the protest events are fun. J6 would have been quite different if it was just a group of dancing frogs outside the capital.

Engineered asymmetry: The combinational effects of disruptive technologies are transforming battlefields for both strong and relatively weak actors alike. www.thecipherbrief.com/asymmetric-war