Egyik 19

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Europe

Ireland
October 25, 2025  Ireland elected a lawmaker president, the left-wing, socialist  Connolly in anti-government landslide. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

European Commission
27 Oct (2025)  Europe’s Ukraine loan is a bad bet. France, hovering on the verge of a debt crisis, spends almost nothing on Ukraine. The UK and Germany are the biggest contributors, but even together they can’t begin to fill the gap left by Trump’s decision to cut America’s support for Ukraine to the minimum. Trump will supply weapons only for as long as the cash-strapped Europeans pay for it. But as the latest statistics from the Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker attest, there has been a sharp fall in Western military support for Ukraine from an average monthly spend of just under €4 billion in the first half of the year to a little over €2 billion in July and August. This is entirely due to lower spending by Europe. To keep the war going, the Europeans' €150 billion loan to Ukraine should keep the show on the road for another year. But the Europeans still have no strategy for ending the war, yet Putin has good reason to believe he can achieve his military goal of occupying the entirety of the Donbas region. He outspends the West, he has a lot more troops, and he has made some progress recently. The odds are in his favour. If, then, Putin prevails, the peace talks will not only be about the land and the post-war security arrangements. The Russians will want their confiscated assets back. Putin will get his money. And the European taxpayer, who never approved these loans in the first place, will have to pay out, with voters being forced to eat Brussels’ toxic seafood stew. (Source: UnHerd - United Kingdom)

25.10.202  Europe is striving for independence from Chinese critical raw materials, European Commission chief der Leyen says. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Norway
October 25, 2025  Russia is reinforcing its presence at a base in the Arctic Circle, including nuclear weapons pointed towards the United States, according to Norwegian Defense Minister Sandvik. He discussed Russia's military situation - referring to a region of Russia inside the Arctic Circle, near Finland - in an interview with British newspaper The Daily Telegraph that was published yesterday. Russia is building up on the Kola Peninsula…where one of the largest arsenals of nuclear warheads in the world is located. They [the nuclear weapons] are not only pointed towards Norway, but towards the UK and over the pole towards Canada and the US, Sandvik said. He continued: ’We are the eyes and ears of NATO in this area, and we see that they're testing new weapons, for example hypersonic missiles, and they are testing nuclear-driven torpedoes and nuclear warheads.’ Russia bases nuclear weapons on the Kola Peninsula along with its Northern Fleet which was established in 1733. Sandvik argued that ’in the event of war’ with NATO Russia would likely target the Bear Gap, which separates the island of Svalbard from mainland Norway, along with the GIUK Gap between the UK, Iceland and Greenland. Putin needs to control the Bear Gap to make sure that he can use his submarines and the Northern Fleet. And he wants to deny [NATO] allies access to the GIUK Gap, he said. ’They have a new frigate and a new multi-role submarine, developed just in the last two years. The most threatening thing about Russia right now is its submarines. Even though Russia is not able to win in Ukraine, the threat of nuclear warheads and second strike capacity from up here [Kola Peninsula] makes them a superpower still,’ during the interview Sandvik commented. (Source: Miami Herald = Newsweek = U.S.)

Asia

Japan
Oct 27, 2025  During his stay from Oct 27 to Oct 29 in Japan, US President Trump will meet Emperor Naruhito, hold talks with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and make a speech on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier. The US President will also sign deals on critical minerals and shipbuilding. Tokyo is Washington’s closest regional ally. A security treaty obliges the United States to defend Japan if it is attacked and allows US troops to be stationed there - around 60,000 US military personnel currently in Japan. Mr Trump has said he wants Tokyo to pay more to host. If the US were attacked, Japan “doesn’t have to help us at all” and is free to “watch it on a Sony television”, Mr Trump said in his first term. Multiple sexual assaults by American troops in Japan have angered many Japanese over the years. Long-pacifist Japan is adopting a more muscular military stance as relations with China worsen. Ms Takaichi – who only became Prime Minister last week – said on Oct 24 that Japan’s target of spending two per cent of its gross domestic product on defence would be achieved this fiscal year, two years earlier than planned. ’US officials want Japan to spend even more, potentially matching the five per cent of GDP’ pledged by Nato members – except Spain – in June. Japan has moved to acquire ’counter-strike’ capabilities including Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US. It plans to deploy domestically developed, longer-range Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles to military bases. Under the terms of their July trade deal, Japan is expected to invest US$550 billion in the US, according to the White House. Japan has said though that only one per cent to two per cent of what Mr Trump calls a signing bonus will be actual investment, with the rest covered by loans and loan guarantees. Most Japanese imports into the US are subject to tariffs of 15 per cent. Japan’s US-bound car exports slumped 24 per cent in September in value terms year-on-year, a blow for an automotive sector that accounts for around eight per cent of jobs in the Asian nation. Washington also wants Japan to stop buying Russian energy, to import US gas and to invest in a long-stalled pipeline project in Alaska. Mr Trump wants Japan to import more American products, including rice and cars, particularly “very beautiful’ Ford F-150 pickup trucks. Japan might buy 100 of them for road and dam inspections, and display some outside the state guesthouse when Mr Trump visits, local media said. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore / AFP – France)

Australia

October 25, 2025  President  Trump inks a deal with Australia on critical minerals. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)
Video

North America

Canada
26.10.25 US  President Trump said yesterday he was increasing tariffs on Canada by an additional 10 per cent "above what they're paying now," as he reacted again to an ad by Canada's Ontario province. Trump announced the higher tariffs in a Truth Social post, referencing the ad, which features a video of former President Reagan, a Republican icon, saying that tariffs cause trade wars and economic disaster, job losses and trade wars. The ad does not mention that Reagan was using the address to explain that tariffs imposed on Japan by his administration should be seen as a sadly unavoidable exception to his basic belief in free trade as the key to prosperity. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

United States
Sunday, October 26, 2025  A fighter jet and a helicopter based off the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz both crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other today afternoon, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said. Another aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, suffered a series of mishaps in recent months while deployed to the Middle East. In December, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 jet from the Truman. Then, in April, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the Truman’s hangar deck and fell into the Red Sea. And in May, an F/A fighter jet landing on the carrier in the Red Sea went overboard after apparently failing to catch the steel cables used to stop landing planes and forcing its two pilots to eject. No sailors were killed in any of those mishaps. (Source: The Washington Times / Associated Press = U.S.)

Oct 24, 2025  President Trump confirmed last week that he had authorized the CIA to engage in covert operations against the Venezuelan government. He said on Wednesday that his administration was moving to target drug cartels on land. The U.S. Navy’s supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford - currently on a scheduled deployment in the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea on a scheduled deployment - and at least a portion of the rest of its strike group have been ordered to Caribbean waters. American forces are now regularly striking small boats alleged to be involved in drug smuggling. Just earlier today, Secretary of War Hegseth announced the ninth such strike known to have occured since the start of September. To date, seven of the strikes have targeted boats in the Caribbean, while two more have occured in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The impending arrival of the Ford Carrier Strike Group signals U.S. operations in the Western Hemisphere are entering a new phase. Strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats have now become routine, and the possibility that the campaign could extend to targets on land, particularly in Venezuela, continues to grow. There are already multiple Arleigh Burke class destroyers, as well as a Ticonderoga class cruiser, in the region that could also join with Ford and its escorts, including to help provide protection for the carrier. Ford, the Navy’s newest carrier, currently has a full air wing embarked, which includes F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets, E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control planes, C-2A Greyhound Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) aircraft, and MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters. The rest of its strike group includes four Arleigh Burke class destroyers – USS Winston S. Churchill, USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan, and USS Forrest Sherman – and likely at least one attack submarine. It is likely to take Ford at least a week to get back across the Mediterranean and then the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: TWZ - U.S.)

South America

Argentina
(Monday), 27/10/2025  Libertarian president Milei scored sweeping victories in yesterday’s midterm elections, winning key districts - including parts of Buenos Aires for the first time - and securing a strong mandate to advance his free-market agenda, now bolstered by billions in support from the Trump administration. (Source: France 24)

Colombia
October 24, 2025  The U.S. last month added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. President Petro has pushed back against the strikes that have killed at least 37 people since they started last month, with the latest two targeting vessels in the eastern Pacific, where Colombia has a coastline. This week, the Trump administration expanded its crackdown to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world's largest producers, including Colombia, is smuggled. Trump was referring to Petro on social media in recent days as an illegal drug leader. After Trump accused him of having ties to drug trafficking, Petro on Wednesday said he would resort to the U.S. court system to defend himself. A day earlier, Petro's anti-drug policy was the subject of a meeting between him and the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Colombia, McNamara. McNamara also met with Foreign Minister Villavicencio Mapy yesterday. Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity, Treasury Secretary Bessent said in a statement. The Trump administration imposed sanctions today on Colombian President Petro, his family and a member of his government, Colombian Interior Minister Benedetti, over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. The leftist leader is one of the closest U.S. allies in South America. Petro has repeatedly defended his policy, which moves away from a repressive approach and prioritizes reaching agreements with growers of coca leaf to encourage them to switch to other crops, pursuing major drug lords and combating money laundering. He has said his government has achieved record cocaine seizures and questioned U.N. figures showing record coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production. The amount of land dedicated to cultivating coca, has almost tripled in the past decade to a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest report available from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced today. (Source: NPR / The Associated Press = U.S.)

Globalization

October 27, 2025, Monday  The World Justice Project is an international NGO focused on promoting the rule of law worldwide. In the 2025 report - Rule of Law Index - Denmark continues to lead the EU in rule of law performance. Ireland is showing notable progress. Poland 'have registered the largest improvements compared to previous years'. The report highlights that over two-thirds of EU member states have experienced a decline in rule of law standards, with Slovakia and Hungary recording 'the most significant setbacks'. "Bulgaria and Hungary rank lowest' among European Union countries in the index. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

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China
October 23, 2025 8:57 PM GMT+2 Updated October 24, 2025  Chinese state oil majors have suspended purchases of seaborne Russian oil after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow's two biggest oil companies. Chinese national oil companies PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Zhenhua Oil will refrain from dealing in seaborne Russian oil at least in the short-term. Unipec, the trading arm of Sinopec stopped Russian oil buying last week after Britain designated Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as shadow fleet ships and Chinese entities including a major Chinese refiner. China also imports approximately 900,000 bpd of Russian oil by pipeline, all of it going to PetroChina, which was likely to be little affected by sanctions. Rosneft and Lukoil sell most of their oil to China through intermediaries instead of directly dealing with buyers. The move comes as refiners in India, the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, are set to sharply cut their crude imports from Moscow, to comply with the U.S. sanctions. While China imports roughly 1.4 million barrels of Russian oil per day by sea, most of that is bought by independent refiners, including small operators known as teapots, although estimates of purchases by state refiners vary widely. A sharp drop in oil demand from Russia’s two largest customers will force the world’s top importers to seek alternative supplies and pushing up global prices for non-sanctioned oil from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Oct 23, 2025  China said today it opposes recent sanctions slapped by the United States on the two largest Russian oil companies over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, saying they had “no basis in international law”. At the same press conference, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Guo criticised sanctions on Russia agreed on Oct 22 by the European Union whose targets included Chinese companies, saying Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied'. “The European side is in no position to make irresponsible remarks about the normal exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Russian enterprises.” (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore)

Gaza
October 22, 2025  Egypt wants the Gaza stabilisation force envisaged in US President Trump's peace plan to be led by US forces and include Turkey, as part of its conditions for participating. Cairo seeks up to 10-year ceasefire to allow Hamas and other armed factions to transform into political groups. US Vice President Vance, US special envoy Witkoff and Mr Trump's son-in-law Kushner were in the Middle East this week to cement the ceasefire and discuss the next phases of the plan. Egypt's chief of intelligence, Rashad, visited Israel yesterday to discuss the plan with US and Israeli officials. He was due to hold talks with Sheikh, Vice President of the Palestinian Authority, and Farag, the Palestinian Authority's intelligence chief, in Cairo later today. After his talks with Mr Vance, the Israeli leader said decisions on the stabilisation force would be made in discussion with the US. However, he appeared to reject any role for Turkey in the force. (Source: The National - United Arab Emirates)

19.10.2025  1 German brigadier general, 2 military staff officers from the Operational Command of the Bundeswehr join US-led Civil Military Coordination Center next week to help monitor ceasefire, coordinate security measures, oversee aid delivery. They will serve uniformed but unarmed at the CMCC in southern Israel. The announcement follows German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's earlier commitment to provide strong political, financial, and technical support for the Gaza ceasefire plan while stopping short of committing troops to the planned International Stabilization Force. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

India
Friday 17 October 2025  US president Trump has claimed that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has agreed to halt the import of Russian oil during a conversation on Wednesday. That’s a big step. Now I’ve got to get China to do the same thing, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Mr Modi. New Delhi has clarified that the discussions on the topic are ongoing. The US has directed its anger towards India for taking advantage of the discounted prices offered by Moscow. The Trump administration imposed secondary sanctions on India with a 50 per cent tariff on goods from the country as a punishment for India’s reliance on Russian energy. “India is a significant importer of oil and gas. It has been our consistent priority to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario. Our import policies are guided entirely by this objective,” Jaiswal, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said in Thursday’s statement. “Ensuring stable energy prices and secured supplies have been the twin goals of our energy policy. This includes broad-basing our energy sourcing and diversifying as appropriate to meet market conditions,” the statement added. “Where the US is concerned, we have for many years sought to expand our energy procurement. This has steadily progressed in the last decade. The current Administration has shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India. Discussions are ongoing,” it said. India, which is the world’s largest importer of oil, has become a major importer of Russian crude since the start of the war in 2022, from buying almost nothing before the invasion. India imported 1.62 million barrels per day in September, roughly one-third of the country's oil imports. However, China remains the largest buyer of Russian energy through both seaborne and pipeline imports. India has accused Washington of singling out New Delhi as Mr Trump has largely avoided placing similar pressure on China. The US is now ramping up pressure on Japan to stop importing Russian energy. Japan continues to buy Sakhalin Blend crude – a byproduct of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production from the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East. The energy source remains crucial for Japan, providing about 9 per cent of its total LNG imports. “Japan will do what it can based on the basic principle of coordinating with G7 countries to achieve peace in Ukraine in a fair manner,” Japanese finance minister Kato told reporters when asked whether Japan was urged by the US treasury secretary Bessent to stop importing Russian energy. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

(October 16, 2025)  India and Brazil today agreed to significantly expand their existing trade agreement between India and the MERCOSUR bloc, deepening the existing Preferential Trade Agreement signed on 17 June 2003. (Source: DD News - India)

Iran
19/10/2025, Sunday  Iran, Russia and China have jointly notified the United Nations - through an official communication sent yesterday to the United Nations secretary-general and the Security Council - that the nuclear agreement with Tehran has been formally terminated, ending the Security Council's consideration of Iran's nuclear program. This development follows the E3's August 28 announcement activating the snapback mechanism, which itself came after the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement. The three powers criticized the collectively known as the E3 European powers – the United Kingdom, France and Germany - for their handling of the agreement's final stages, for what they described as a legally flawed attempt to reimpose UN sanctions against Iran through the snapback mechanism. The letter argued that these European parties lack the standing to invoke its provisions having themselves ceased to fulfill their commitments under both the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and UN Security Council Resolution 2231. According to the communication, all provisions of Resolution 2231 reached their predetermined conclusion on October 18, 2025, in accordance with the resolution's operative paragraph 8. The Iranian Foreign Ministry separately confirmed that the 10-year period defined by the resolution, originally adopted on July 20, 2015, had officially expired, terminating all restrictions and mechanisms related to Iran's nuclear program as of that date. The three countries called for refraining from unilateral sanctions, threats of force, or any actions that could escalate regional tensions. They urged all parties to maintain commitment to finding a political settlement through diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on mutual respect. (Source: Yeni Şafak - Turkey)

Israel
Thursday 23/10/2025  Israeli Knesset approves West Bank annexation bills in test to US and challenge to peace efforts. US Secretary of State Rubio said the steps taken by parliament and settler violence threatened the Gaza peace deal. (Source: The Arab Weekly - publication put out in London, United Kingdom)

Kazakhstan
October 20, 2025 4:08 PM GMT+2  A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Orenburg gas plant has forced neighbouring Kazakhstan to reduce production at its Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field by 25% to 30%. One of the world's largest gas processing plants, Orenburg was forced to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan after the attack, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said today. Karachaganak produced around 263,000 bpd of oil in 2024. It is exported by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium via a Russian Black Sea terminal, as well as through Russia's Druzhba pipeline to Germany. The field is operated by a consortium which includes U.S. major Chevron (18%) and European energy firms Shell (29.25%) and Eni (29.25%). Russia's Lukoil (13.5%) and local firm KazMunayGaz (10%) also hold stakes. Orenburg is controlled by gas producer Gazprom. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Palestine
16 Oct 2025 - 07:36 pm  Palestinian Prime Minister Mustafa said Gaza's recovery will cost an estimated USD 67 billion, covering infrastructure, governance, and public services. He urged global support for a Palestinian-led, Arab-backed Gaza reconstruction. Mustafa spoke at a Ramallah meeting with 100 international and diplomatic representatives, presenting a recovery plan for Gaza with 56 sub-programs across 18 sectors. Mustafa said Gaza's recovery will be led by Palestinian institutions with global support, unfolding in three phases: USD 3.5 billion for early recovery over six months, USD 30 billion for sectoral rebuilding over three years, and long-term comprehensive reconstruction. (Source: The Peninsula - Qatar)

South Korea
October 20, 2025  South Korean President Lee said today the country will devote a larger-than-expected budget in defence and aerospace research until 2030 as it seeks to build the world's fourth-largest defence industry. Arms have become one of South Korea's fastest-growing exports, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, inking multibillion-dollar deals selling everything from howitzers and ammunition to missiles and warships around the world. South Korea ranked 10th in arms sales as of 2023, according to data from 'Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI)' top 100 arms companies data. We will establish technological sovereignty by focusing investment on the development of technologies, parts, and materials that must be secured independently, such as special semiconductors in the defence sector, Lee said. He was speaking at South Korea's largest-ever arms fair, the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2025. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Syria
October 21 2025  "Syria's reconstruction costs are estimated at $216 billion after more than thirteen years of conflict," the World Bank said in its latest report, which it said assessed "infrastructure and building assets, covering the period from 2011 to 2024” "with a conservative best estimate". (Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey)

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Europe

European Commission
20/10/2025  Energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg approved a plan by the European Commission to phase out both pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Russia by the end of next year. Under the proposal approved today, ’which is expected to win the support of the European Parliament’, Russian gas imports under new contracts will be banned as of January 1, 2026. Several European countries have increased their purchases of Russian LNG transported by sea. Existing contracts will benefit from a transition period, with inflows under short-term contracts allowed until June 17 next year and those under long-term contracts until January 1, 2028. While sanctions need unanimous approval from the EU’s 27 member states, trade restrictions only require the backing of a weighted majority of 15 countries. Russia currently accounts for 12 percent of EU gas imports, down from 45 percent before its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Hungary, France and Belgium among the countries still receiving Russian gas. Hungary and Slovakia opposed the move. ’The real impact of this regulation is that our safe supply of energy in Hungary is going to be killed,’ Budapest’s top diplomat, Szijjártó, told. His government says the landlocked country needs to import gas from Russia due to geographical constraints. /Source: France 24 'and AFP (France); Reuters (United Kingdom)'/

European Council
23/10/2025  The European Union today agreed the 19th sanctions package targeting Russia’s ’shadow fleet’ of oil tankers and banning imports of Russian liquefied natural gas. It adds 117 vessels to the list of ships banned from European ports for helping Russia move oil outside price caps and other restrictions. The so-called “shadow fleet” now stands at 558 tankers. New contracts for Russian liquefied natural gas will be banned from 1 January 2026. Short-term contracts already in place may continue until 17 June 2026. Long-term supply deals can run until 1 January 2028 under a transition phase. The Danish EU presidency confirmed the measures. It said they are designed to cut Russian energy income. The announcement follows new sanctions announced yesterday by the United States. It targeted Russia’s two largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft. ’EU officials said the coordination between Brussels and Washington increases the impact of both countries’ measures’. The sanctions also include new limits on the movement of Russian diplomats inside the 27-nation bloc. ’EU leaders’ push forward plans to use billions of euro in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine’s ’defence and reconstruction’. Countries closest to Ukraine insist that continuing military and economic support is essential. The biggest tranche of frozen assets – some €194 billion worth – are held in Belgium but the government says it does not want to use the money without firm guarantees from its European partners. Earlier this week, members of a 33-nation support group known as the Coalition of the Willing said they opposed any suggestion that Kyiv should give up territory in exchange for peace. That idea has recently been floated by US President Trump. As Britain prepares to host a meeting of the coalition on Friday, ’EU leaders’ say Europe must be ready to deter any future threat from Russia. (Source: rfi - France)

Balkans
22.10.2025.  The Berlin Process was established in 2014 as a platform for high-level cooperation between the governments of the Western Balkans Six. The UK Government, led by Keir Starmer, hosted a summit of the Berlin Process today in London. (Source: European Western Balcans - Serbia)

Ukraine
13:02, 21 Oct 2025  Former defence intelligence expert Ingram details how Ukraine‘s military have managed to hold out in the gruelling conflict. He takes a look inside Ukraine’s wartime tactics. The front lines suggest Ukraine has found a way ’not just to hold the line, but to decisively counterattack’. Ingram identifies four of Ukraine’s winning tactics. ’The first is tactical retreat or trading space for time’, which allows them to actively avoid direct combat on the ground. They have been known to temporarily withdraw from a new tree line or desert sections of buildings that Russia has expended massive resources to occupy. The troops allow the Russians to overextend themselves and use up gear for little gain. The moment Russian troops consolidate their new position, they’re immediately hit by saturation of attack drones, specifically cheap, ubiquitous first person view drones acting as flying precision guided munitions or flying snipers. This constant, relentless process denies Russia any chance to dig in or to get any rest, or to establish solid logistics. ’Another key tactic is the regular rotation of their troops’. ’Ukraine is rotating its frontline soldiers more regularly than the Russians to keep the units fresh and prevent crucial errors’. This plays into the tactic which is military discipline. When Ukrainian troops are deployed on the front t’hey’re used carefully with pre-determined routes’, time checkpoints and reconnaissance drones overseeing their every move. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

October 20, 2025, Monday // 10:26  US President Trump has rejected reports that he pressured Zelensky to agree to the transfer of all of Donbas to Russia.     According to Reuters, the October 17 meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the White House took place in a strained atmosphere. Trump appeared to push for an arrangement to “freeze the war” along the current front lines. On Air Force One two days later, Trump told reporters that both sides “should stop at the lines where they are,” denying that he had suggested Ukraine hand over all of Donbas to Russia. “Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now. I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia,” he said, adding that future negotiations could settle unresolved issues. Zelensky had hoped to secure approval for long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, but Trump reportedly avoided committing to the request. According to US Vice President Vance, a decision on the missiles has not yet been made. People familiar with the discussion described it as heated, with one source saying it was pretty bad and that Trump warned Zelensky his country would freeze and be destroyed if he refused to reach a deal. Another source disputed the exact wording but confirmed that Trump used harsh language and profanity during the meeting.    Officials quoted by the Financial Times said Trump’s stance may have been shaped by his recent conversation with Putin. During that call, the Russian leader allegedly proposed a territorial exchange that would give Moscow full control over Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for small parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Trump reportedly relayed Putin’s warning that Ukraine risked being destroyed if it rejected the plan. Ukrainian officials told Reuters that surrendering these territories would leave the rest of the country dangerously exposed and amount to suicide. Among Trump’s team, Special Envoy to the Middle East Witkoff was said to have been the most insistent that Kyiv accept Moscow’s offer, arguing that much of the population in Donetsk and Luhansk is Russian-speaking.     American media outlets, including Axios and The Washington Post, have corroborated that Trump urged Zelensky to “stop where they are” and that Putin demanded full control of Donetsk Oblast to end the war, while hinting at limited concessions in other regions. Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out giving up any additional territory still under Ukrainian control.     In a Fox News interview aired on October 19,Trump said Russia “has a lot of property” after two years of war in Ukraine and implied that territorial losses were inevitable in any peace settlement. He did not reference Ukraine’s sovereignty or international law, instead comparing the situation to past US military operations. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war, and then leaves, Trump said, criticizing past American interventions. Following his meeting with Zelensky, Trump echoed similar sentiments on social media, urging both sides to make a peace deal “with property lines being defined by war and guts.” Reports suggest Putin’s current offer marks a slight shift from his earlier demand for full control of Crimea and four occupied regions, though it still requires Ukraine to forfeit land Moscow has failed to capture militarily.    Sources told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine had spent months preparing a diplomatic strategy to engage with Trump before Putin’s phone call upended those efforts. The US and Ukrainian presidents had spoken twice in the days leading up to their Washington meeting, raising Kyiv’s hopes for concrete progress. After the Putin call, Trump reportedly softened his stance toward Moscow.     Zelensky described his meeting with Trump as tense but constructive, saying Trump’s call for both sides to “stop where they are” could be viewed positively if everyone understands what that means, noting that if Moscow reaches the administrative borders of Donetsk Oblast, Putin would claim victory in the war. He told journalists that Trump “doesn’t want an escalation with the Russians until he meets with them.” A source in Zelensky’s circle summed up the situation bluntly: “Trump wants to end the war, but it seems cheaper for them to end it at the expense of Ukraine.’ Trump has since announced plans for another summit with Putin in Budapest, hosted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Zelensky said he would be open to attending if formally invited. /Source: Novinite - Bulgaria: „Sources: Reuters (United Kingdom); The Kyiv Independent; Ukrainska Pravda; RBC (Ukraine)/'

October 20, 2025 12:19 IST  Trump had a tense meeting with Zelenskyy in Washington, where the American president constantly swore and even threw the battle maps off the table. He warned Ukraine would be destroyed if Zelensky did not agree to surrender the Donbas region. Trump also repeated Putin’s claim that the conflict was a special operation, not even a war. Not just Trump, even his special envoy Witkoff is forcing Ukraine to hand over Donetsk Oblast to Russia because it is “mostly Russian-speaking.” US President Trump’s ’screaming match’ with his counterpart, Zelenskyy, last Friday, wherein he berated the latter and urged him to surrender the Donbas to Russia, suggests that Trump now echoes Russia’s talking points. Trump’s stance during the meeting has also triggered concern that the relations between Zelenskyy and him could once again take a turn for the worse. He had gone to the White House hoping to convince Trump to agree to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles for its fight against the Russian invasion. Not only did he fail to get Trump to release the weapons, but he also saw the US return to discussing Kyiv giving up territory to Russia. “Then [U.S. special envoy Witkoff entered the conversation, and said that the Russians aim to take the entire Donbas … And there was a feeling in the room that the Americans were testing the Ukrainians and what they [would] agree on", a person who attended the meeting told. The upcoming meeting between Trump and Russian President in Budapest could present an extremely unpleasant surprise to Kyiv's regime leader Zelenskyy. ’His stance may also cost Zelenskyy his post as the Ukrainian President, according to analysts’. Without a change of leadership in Kyiv, the prospect of a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in Ukraine does not seem feasible. (Source: The Week – India)

United Kingdom
October 21, 2025  Some 35 allies of Ukraine will meet on Friday in London for a summit among countries willing to provide long-term support to Kyiv. ’Europe’, Ukraine prepare new proposal to end Russia's war, diplomats say. ’European leaders’ called on Washington today to hold firm in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, with present battle lines to serve as the basis for any future talks. Bloomberg News first reported news of the work on a new proposal today. The Russian government has long demanded that Ukraine agree to cede more territory before any ceasefire. There is also a possibility that Trump will meet Russian President Putin in the coming weeks. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
October 23, 2025  Trump sanctions Russian oil majors, prompting oil price rise. India jitters. The sanctions, unveiled by the U.S. Treasury, target oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil. 'We cancelled the meeting with President Putin - it just didn’t feel right to me,' Trump told reporters at the White House. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it, but we’ll do it in the future.” Oil and gas revenue, which is currently down by 21% year-on-year, accounts for around one quarter of Russia's budget. However, Moscow's main revenue source comes from taxing output, not exports. Oil prices jumped more than 3% today amid worries that the sanctions would disrupt global supply. If global oil prices rise, they are supporting the state's finances and the rouble. Indian oil industry sources told Reuters that Indian refiners were poised to sharply curtail imports of Russian oil to ensure they were in compliance with U.S. sanctions. The U.S. Treasury has given companies until November 21 to wind down their transactions with the Russian oil producers. Moscow's forces are steadily edging forward on the battlefield. Russia has said it opposes a ceasefire because it believes it would only be a temporary pause before fighting resumes, giving Ukraine time and space to re-arm at a time when Moscow says it has the initiative on the battlefield. Russia argues that negotiating a full peace settlement that paves the way for what it calls a "long-lasting peace" is therefore a better option. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 22, 2025 11:06 PM GMT+2  Trump says US has not approved Ukraine's use of long-range missiles. Trump said on Truth Social that the Journal story on 'the U.S.A.'s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia' was false. "The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!," Trump added. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

10/22/2025, 03:10 PM  The Trump administration has lifted a key restriction on Ukraine’s use of certain long-range missiles supplied by Western allies, allowing Kyiv to conduct strikes deeper into Russian territory, U.S. officials said today, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The policy change was made without public announcement and follows a shift in authority for approving such strikes. The responsibility has moved from Defense Secretary Hegseth to Gen. Grynkewich, the top U.S. general in Europe who also serves as NATO commander. (Source: Investing.com - based in Israel, owned by a Hong Kong–based investment firm)

22.10.2025  US Senate Foreign Relations Committee passes bills targeting Russia, China for Ukraine war. The first bill 'would declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism because of their kidnapping of Ukrainian children'. The second 'would allow using repossessed assets from Russia to support Ukraine in this war'. The third bill targets China to stop their support for the war. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

(21 October 2025)  Electricity demand grows for the first time in decades. The growth of data centres used to train and run artificial intelligence models will cause power demand to more than double by 2035. Billions have been poured into the development of small modular reactors. SMRs, which could provide up to 300 megawatts of power, typically require high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, known as Haleu - the production of which is controlled by Russia. In 2024 Biden’s administration banned US imports of uranium products from Russia. The US produces less than a ton of uranium annually. Trump in May issued four executive orders aimed at boosting the nuclear industry, two of which directed the energy department to identify and make surplus fuel available to reactor developers. The Department of Energy today published an application that nuclear energy groups can use to seek up to 19 megatonnes of the government’s weapons-grade plutonium from cold war-era warheads, that they can convert into fuel for advanced reactors in an attempt to break Russia’s stranglehold over uranium supply chains. At least two companies, Oklo, which is backed by OpenAI’s Altman, and France’s Newcleo, are expected to apply to access the government’s plutonium stockpile. French company Newcleo last week agreed to invest as much as $2bn in the US as part of a joint agreement with Oklo, with the funds going towards developing advanced fuel fabrication and manufacturing infrastructure. Buono, Newcleo’s founder and chief executive, said they would be very happy to use the plutonium. “With the 92,000 tons of spent fuel that the US has, they could have 100 years of energy independence,” he said. It’s going to increase vulnerability to theft, said Lyman, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. (Source: Financial Times - United Kingdom)

October 21, 2025  During the Biden administration, Mexico accepted up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela the U.S. returned after they had crossed the southwest border. Although Cuba accepts deportation flights from the U.S., its longtime practice has been to reject deportees who have been convicted of certain crimes. The Trump administration is quietly sending hundreds of Cubans and other immigrants with significant criminal records in buses across the border to Mexico, in an expansion of third-country deportations. The U.S. has also sent Cubans and other immigrants to other countries, including South Sudan. “If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in CECOT, Eswatini, Ghana, South Sudan, or another third country,” Assistant Secretary McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem are not going to allow criminal illegal aliens to remain indefinitely in the U.S.” CECOT is a maximum security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration sent 238 Venezuelans they accused of being gang members earlier this year. (Source: Miami Herald - U.S.)

10/21/2025  Trump issued an executive order on his inauguration day in January instructing the attorney general to work with other federal agencies “to identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the federal government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community.” Trump and his allies use the term weaponization to refer to their unproven claims that officials from previous administrations abused federal power to target him during his two impeachments, his criminal prosecutions, and the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The Interagency Weaponization Working Group, which has been meeting since at least May, has drawn officials from the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Justice and Defense Departments, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Communications Commission, among other agencies. (Source: MSN - U.S. / Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 21, 2025  The House Judiciary Committee referred former CIA Director Brennan to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution today over allegations that he knowingly made false statements to Congress about his role in the Russia collusion hoax. The referral highlights numerous instances in which Brennan allegedly issued untrue remarks when testifying before the Judiciary Committee in May 2023. Among them are comments the former CIA director made when discussing his agency’s role in helping craft the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that advanced the false narrative that Russia developed a clear preference for Trump and aspired to help him win the 2016 election. (The Federalist - U.S.)

(21 October 2025)  A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House said the two had had a productive call and that a meeting was no longer necessary. Yesterday, Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the current front line. Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact. Kremlin spokesperson Peskov said the idea had been put to the Russians repeatedly but that the consistency of Russia's position doesn't change – referring to Moscow's insistence on the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the embattled eastern regions. Moscow was only interested in long-term, sustainable peace, Lavrov said today, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

(Tuesday), 21/10/2025  In Thursday’s phone call with Trump, Putin again demanded that Ukraine surrender all of the Donetsk region, including territory not occupied by Russia, according to senior U.S. officials. There are no plans for President Trump and Russian President Putin to meet in the immediate future, 'said a White House officia today, 'who was not authorized to speak to the media'. The statement came hours after Russia’s top diplomat Lavrov said Trump’s demand for “an immediate ceasefire, which has suddenly become a topic of discussion again,' was contrary to what was agreed at the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska in August, when Trump abandoned his pressure on Putin to end the fighting ahead of negotiations. Trump’s position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict has changed several times over the past year. At the Alaska summit, Trump accepted Putin’s rejection of a ceasefire, writing on Truth Social that it had been decided that the best way to end the war was to “go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere ceasefire agreement, which often times do not hold up.” “You see, if we just stop, it means forgetting the root causes of this conflict, which the American administration clearly understood,” Lavrov said. “I am referring to ensuring Ukraine’s nonaligned, nonnuclear status, which implies refraining from any attempts to draw it into NATO.” He added that freezing the fighting now 'would mean only one thing: a large part of Ukraine would remain under Nazi rule.' Lavrov insisted today that any peace deal be based on Moscow’s demands that Ukraine surrender more territory, permanently disavow joining NATO, accept tight restrictions on the size of its military and get no future Western military assistance. Russia has also demanded a veto over Ukrainian security guarantees. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

.5 10 26 23:55

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Europe

Hungary
20 October 2025  The euro is a ‘decaying currency’, Orbán is smart to stay out. Indeed, the euro has been a catastrophe for weaker, more exposed economies; in the case of Hungary, it would take away all the tools of independent, central bank-led economic recovery, increase asymmetries, and leave the nation at the mercy of policy decisions made in Frankfurt and Brussels with little to no regard for the specific context and needs of smaller member-states. Yet Germany’s fiscal needs are not and will never be Portugal’s, Spain’s or, indeed, Hungary’s. The euro is a one-size-fits-all left-over of the hegemonically globalist mindset of the 1990s. To the majority of its members, the single currency has served as an economic straitjacket, limiting growth and obliterating national competitiveness. When small economies join monetary unions dominated by powers of greater stature, they surrender control over managing shocks independently. For those unwise enough to join the euro, the currency has meant becoming a hostage to the bigger economies around them. Empirical evidence increasingly confirms that the euro has been good for Germany, gaining about €1.9 trillion between 1999 and 2017, but bad for almost everyone else. That’s about €23,000 per German citizen. For France, the euro has caused a €3.6 trillion fall in prosperity (or €56,000 per Frenchman); Italy losing €4.3 trillion, or as much as €74,000 per capita; Portugal, a country of a scale similar to Hungary (both nations have similarly sized economies and populations), has seen its wealth shrink at a rate of €40,604 per capita. Hungarians should understand that, in monetary policy as in everything else, no one will ever care as much about your interests as yourself. For the sake of liberty as well as prosperity, the forint should remain Hungary’s currency. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

(Friday), 17.10.25  The US President said on Thursday he may meet his Russian counterpart in Budapest within two weeks. It was there that, in 1994, the United States, Britain and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum, providing Ukraine with security assurances in exchange for Kyiv giving up its nuclear weapons. The signatories of that memorandum pledged to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity. Putin is wanted under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court 'on charges of illegally deporting children' from Ukraine, but few observers expect this to be a problem for him in Budapest. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced in April during a visit by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an ICC warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes in Gaza, that Hungary would withdraw from the court. Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó said today that Hungary will ensure Putin can enter the country for the summit and return home afterwards. Putin will be holding talks on the Ukraine war in an EU country without EU leaders attending. The meeting would exclude Zelenskiy for a second time after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Ukraine's relationship with Hungary has grown increasingly tense. Zelenskiy said Hungarian drones had crossed into Ukraine last month, prompting Orbán to retort that Ukraine was not a sovereign state. Orbán is one of the most high-profile international backers of Trump's MAGA movement, lauded by MAGA devotees for his uncompromising approach to immigration and LGBTQ+ rights, and focus on conservative Christian values. Trump said on Tuesday that Orbán was "fantastic" and "a great leader", despite his failure to heed U.S. calls to stop buying Russian oil. If there is an agreement, that will legitimise his narrative about peace retrospectively. (Source: The Telegraph - India / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Friday, October 17, 2025  Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke with Trump yesterday and talked to Putin today, saying preparations “are going full steam ahead”. Orbán, speaking earlier on state radio, said the meeting “will be about peace” and if there is a peace deal, that would lead to a new phase of economic development in Hungary and Europe. Europe should open its own diplomatic channels towards Russia. He again accused the EU of taking what he called a 'pro-war stance' over Ukraine. Hungary will ensure that Russian President Putin can enter the country for a summit with U.S. President Trump planned in Budapest and return home afterwards, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said today. “There is no need for any kind of consultation with anyone, we are a sovereign country here. We will receive (Putin) with respect, host him, and provide the conditions for him to negotiate with the American president.” (Source: DD News - India / Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 16, 2025  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán celebrated the announcement that Trump and Putin will meet in Budapest to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. “The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world,” Orbán said in a post on X on today. “We are ready!” “Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway,” Orbán wrote in a subsequent post. Putin is in favor of a meeting, Russian presidential aide Ushakov said, according to state-controlled news agency Interfax. “President Trump was the first to mention Budapest, and our president immediately supported the idea of holding a possible summit in this European capital,” Ushakov said. Trump’s post on TruthSocial conveyed warmth toward Putin, who, the president said, had congratulated him for achieving a preliminary ceasefire in Gaza and thanked First Lady Melania “for her involvement with children.” The post made no mention of any additional repercussions toward Russia. The call with Putin came ahead of Trump’s scheduled White House meeting tomorrow with Zelenskyy, who  has said he hopes to convince Washington to provide Tomahawk missiles and other weapons systems that would enable Ukraine to attack deeper into Russia’. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

France
(Monday) October 20, 2025 1:13 AM GMT+2  Earlier this year, officials at the Louvre requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate the museum's ageing exhibition halls and better protect its countless works of art. Thieves in balaclavas broke into Paris' Louvre museum on Sunday, using a crane, mounted on the back of a small truck, to smash an upstairs window, then stealing objects from an area that houses the French crown jewels before escaping on motorbikes. The thieves struck at about 9.30 a.m. (0730 GMT) when the museum had already opened its doors to the public, and entered the Galerie d'Apollon building. The robbery took between six to seven minutes and was carried out by four people who were unarmed. A total of nine objects were targeted by the criminals, and eight were actually stolen. The thieves lost the ninth one, the crown of Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugenie, during their escape. "It's worth several tens of millions of euros - just this crown. And it's not, in my opinion, the most important item," Drouot auction house President Giquello told. Paris Prosecutor Beccuau said on BFM TV it was a mystery why the thieves did not steal the Regent diamond, which is housed in the Galerie d'Apollon and is estimated to be worth more than $60 million by Sotheby's. She said foreign interference was not among the main hypotheses. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

17/10/2025  'Zalmayev, Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, calls the US decision to potentially provide Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine a welcome escalation'. (Source: France 24)

Germany
October 20, 2025  Germany plans to buy 15 more F-35 fighter jets estimated to cost €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) amid defence buildup. The move could strain relations with France as Berlin doubles down on US aircraft over the delayed joint European jet project, the Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project - Europe’s own next-generation fighter initiative. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

Poland
20.10.2025  Polish premier Donald Tusk says no one should pressure Ukraine to give up territory to Russia in pursuit of a peace agreement. Tusk wrote on the US social media company X late today. Trump and Putin are expected to meet soon in Budapest to discuss prospects for ending the war. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Oct 17, 2025  The Warsaw District Court blocks extradition to Germany and frees Ukrainian Zhuravlov, 46, suspected in Nord Stream pipeline blasts, arrested near Warsaw Sept. 30 on a German warrant. Judge Lubowski said as he announced his ruling that the attack on the pipelines should be understood as a military action in a 'just war,' and therefore not subject to criminal responsibility on the part of an individual. He also questioned German jurisdiction, including the fact that the explosions occurred in international waters. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said it would not be in Poland’s interest to hand over the suspect. Tusk said earlier this month that 'the problem of Europe, the problem of Ukraine, the problem of Lithuania and Poland is not that Nord Stream 2 was blown up, but that it was built.' He noted in a post on X today that 'the case is closed.' (Source: PBS - U.S.)

European Union
20/10/2025  As they gathered today for a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers continue to grapple with the idea of a potential summit between US President Trump and Russian President Putin in Budapest. Monday's gathering of foreign affairs ministers comes just a few days after Trump spoke with Putin by phone and hosted Zelenskyy at the White House. Washington's ever-shifting diplomacy has once again stoked fears that Europe's security architecture risks being decided 'without Europeans' in the room. However, unlike the Alaska meeting in August, this time there will be 'at least one' European leader present: Viktor Orbán. At the end of the day, nobody can decide over the head of Europe what is in the decision-making power of Europe, Finland's Valtonen said. Denmark's Rasmussen 'tried to assuage anxiety', saying Budapest will serve just as a venue for the meeting, without agenda-setting powers. 'Brussels is working on an initiative to use the cash balances of Russia's frozen assets to issue a €140 billion loan to Ukraine' to cover financial and military needs in the long term. In parallel, the 19th package of sanctions against the Kremlin is almost ready to go, with Slovakia as the last holdout over unrelated matters. 'We stand with Ukraine and we support the American president's proposal of a ceasefire at the contact line. Nothing more than that', Rasmussen told reporters. 'And if the (Budapest summit) is about that, it's absolutely okay.' It's not nice to see that a person with an arrest warrant (issued) by the ICC is coming to a European country, admitted High Representative Kallas. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Russia
20.10.2025  Capabilities refer to the territory, population, natural resources, and technology employed by states as “like-units” in their quest for survival. The states that concentrate the most capabilities are the “poles”, referred to here as polar states. The distribution of capabilities occurs in multipolar way, when three or more states concentrate capabilities. Realists assume that there would be a natural reaction to a single pole, giving rise to bipolarity or multipolarity. Therefore, unipolarity, if it exists, would be nothing more than a moment. Given the difference in capabilities between the polar state and its allies, its actions toward them are flexible, and the risk of an overreaction that would involve it in conflict with the other pole is low. In this structure, because there are only two main states, there is clarity about the adversary’s interests and the means at its disposal to achieve them, which reduces the risk of miscalculations. Therefore, bipolarity would be more stable. In multipolarity, because there are a greater number of polar states and a more balanced distribution of capabilities among them, the dominant strategy is external balancing. Given the number of poles, the possibility of diverse alliances is greater. Such flexibility, however, hides the rigidity of this strategy: as each state is more dependent on the others, the commitment to allies is greater. But the increase in the number of relevant units leads to the risk of miscalculation. That is why multipolar structures are more unstable. There are good reasons to fear that international politics has never gone through a phase with such great potential for disaster. How can we tame these emerging polarities? Previously misunderstood phenomena, such as the BRICS, begin to make sense and even become exemplary elements for understanding the new order. The BRICS are a grouping, among others, that emerged as a response to the duplicity of Western normative standards exposed over these 30 years of “rules-based order”. Perhaps such groups might play a relevant role in trying to tame the emerging polarities. (Source: Valdai Discussion Club - Russia)
by Mielniczuk

17.10.2025  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conveyed to Russian President Putin his readiness to provide proper conditions for a proposed Moscow-Washington summit in the capital Budapest, the Kremlin said today. A statement after a phone call between the two leaders said that Putin outlined the main content of his yesterday phone conversation with US President Trump. Putin said that during contacts with US officials, he conveyed plans to discuss an “algorithm for further actions” in the context of Ukraine peace talks, with a view to hold a summit between Russia and the US in the Hungarian capital. Yesterday, the Russian and US presidents held what Kremlin aide Ushakov described as a “very substantive, yet also extremely frank and confidential” phone conversation that lasted for nearly 2 1/2 hours. Ushakov said Putin and Trump discussed the possibility of holding another face-to-face meeting, and agreed that representatives from both sides will immediately begin preparing for a summit, with Budapest as a potential venue. The two leaders last met in the US state of Alaska on Aug. 15. Calling the phone conversation "very productive," Trump said that he and Putin could meet in Hungary within two weeks, after high-level delegations meet next week. “It could indeed take place within two weeks or a little later. There's a general understanding that there's no need to put anything off,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov told journalists in a briefing earlier today. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Friday, October 17, 2025  Trump and Putin agreed yesterday to hold a second summit on the war in Ukraine, provisionally in Budapest, following an August 15 meeting in Alaska. The surprise announcement came on the eve of a meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy. The Kremlin said today that a summit between presidents Putin and Trump could take place within two weeks, or a little later, there’s a general understanding that nothing should be put off, but that there was a great deal to be worked out before a date could be set. Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rubio would need to call each other and set up a meeting to sort out many pre-summit issues. Peskov said Russia remained open to a settlement to end the war in Ukraine peacefully. The Kremlin said separately that Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had spoken by phone today to discuss the upcoming summit and that Orbán had said Hungary was ready to host the event. (Source: DD News - India / Reuters - United Kingdom)

17.10.2025  Speaking at the plenary session of the 8th Russian Energy Week international forum in Moscow, Russian President Putin yesterday expressed Russia’s perspective on challenges facing the global and Russian fuel and energy sectors. Putin described it to be a natural and objective process in many ways amid the emergence of new centers of economic growth and an increase in energy consumption in those centers. At the same time, he accused the aggressive and assertive actions of ‘certain Western elites’ of artificially disrupting global energy system. Putin said many European countries have refused to purchase Russian energy supplies under political pressure, the repercussions of which, he argued, are evident within the EU, including through a decline in industrial output, rising prices due to more expensive imported oil and gas, and a reduction in the competitiveness of both European goods and the broader economy. The Russian president said energy supply chains are increasingly shifting toward the Global South, namely in the direction of countries in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America regions. Putin also said Moscow accounts for about 10% of global oil production, Russia maintains its position as a leading oil producer despite the mechanisms of unfair competition used against it. He said experts believe nuclear energy will become a key pillar of the future global energy balance, and that the world's nuclear power capacity will almost double by 2050. “Russia is the only country in the world with competencies across the entire chain of nuclear generation,” Putin said, noting that it is involved in the construction of nuclear power plants in Bangladesh, Egypt and Türkiye. „We intend to further develop our cooperation in the nuclear industry with Global South countries and within BRICS”, he said. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
Saturday 18 October 2025 13:44 BST  “I do remember one officer saying:’ Don’t worry. We’ll justify what we were doing’.’ ’Ukraine cannot win its war with Russia, and should negotiate peace terms with the Kremlin, Britain’s most senior army officer, Field Marshal Lord Richards tells. In his first long-form podcast interview, Lord Richards, the only British officer to have commanded massed US troops at war since 1945, said the outlook for Ukraine was not good. Lord Richards, who was promoted to the UK military’s most senior “five-star” rank earlier this year and led Nato forces during their troop surge in Afghanistan, said Ukraine’s allies have failed Kyiv. 'What we have done in the case of Ukraine is encourage Ukraine to fight, but not given them the means to win,” the former chief of the defence staff told. Reflecting on Ukraine’s chances of success against Russia, he said: “My view is that they would not win.” „They haven’t got the manpower,” the former commando said. “Unless we were to go in with them – which we won’t do because Ukraine is not an existential issue for us. It clearly is for the Russians, by the way,” he said. Ukraine has been given false hope by its Western allies and Kyiv will not be able to drive Putin’s soldiers out of Ukraine without the help of Nato forces – who won’t get involved on the ground. “We’ve decided because it’s not an existential issue, we will not go to war. We are, you can argue – and I absolutely accept it – in some sort of hybrid war with Russia. But that’s not the same as a shooting war in which our soldiers are dying in large numbers. Lord Richards, who led Britain’s interventions in Sierra Leone and East Timor as a brigadier and later argued against the UK’s part in the American-led invasion of Iraq, backed the former US General Milley, who suggested back in November 2022 that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia. 'Despite our attraction for all they’ve achieved and our genuine affections for so many Ukrainians, I’m just still in this school that says this is not in our vital national interests". “My instinct is that the best Ukraine can do, and you already see President Zelensky, who’s an inspirational leader … the best they can do is a sort of a score draw.” The field marshal’s intervention came after Zelensky flew to Washington DC to meet Trump to try to persuade him to give Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles. At a packed press conference, Trump appeared reluctant to give up American weapons. The US president stressed his own country’s needs to maintain stockpiles. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

October 16, 2025 6:09 PM GMT+2  Ukraine's state grid operator, Ukrenergo, has introduced emergency power cuts in every region of the country following Russian attacks on the energy system. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
Oct. 19 2025  At another explosive White House meeting between President Trump and Zelensky on Friday, Trump was pressuring his counterpart to accept Russia’s terms for a ceasefire, according to the Financial Times, reportedly telling Zelensky that Russia would destroy Ukraine if he didn’t agree. This time, Trump demanded that Zelensky surrender the entire Donbas region to Russian President Putin, sources said. Trump repeated many of Putin’s talking points verbatim during the meeting, telling Zelensky he was losing the war and that “If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you.” (Source: The Daily Beast - U.S.)

Space

October 20, 2025  European aerospace groups Leonardo, Airbus and Thales have reached a framework deal on a proposed merger of their satellite businesses. The deal will combine loss-making satellite activities of Airbus with those of Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio - two ventures currently controlled by France's Thales and Italian aerospace group Leonardo. Paris-based consultancy Novaspace says more than 43,000 satellites will launch over the next decade, representing a $665 billion market in manufacturing and launch services. The key remaining hurdle, analysts say, will be getting past a competition review by the European Commission. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

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Africa

Liberia
Saturday, October 18, 2025  The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Her Excellency Madam Beysolow Nyanti, met with the United States Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor, Mr. Rubio, on October 16, at the US White House, to reaffirm Liberia’s commitment to strengthening bilateral relations and advancing shared priorities in economic development, migration reform, and strategic investment. (Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Liberia)

Madagascar
17 October 2025  Capsat military unit commander Colonel Randrianirina seized power in a military coup and was sworn in as Madagascar’s new leader president. The takeover led to Madagascar being suspended from the African Union. Colonel Randrianirina has said Madagascar will be run by a military council with him as president for between 18 months and two years before any new elections. The country’s failing economy has left around 75 per cent in deep poverty. (Source: Morning Star - United Kingdom)

Australia

17 Oct 2025  China has used critical minerals (especially rare earths) as a foreign policy instrument for more than a decade, cutting off supplies to Japan in 2010. Now, China responds to American trade measures by threatening further limitations on rare earth exports. Trump wants our rare earths minerals, but we should keep selling to China too. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs gifts to give substance to his meeting with President Trump. Australia has almost “the entire periodic table”, so has something to offer. Australia has been digging up minerals for nearly two centuries and is home to the world’s two largest miners (BHP and Rio Tinto). These large miners have world-beating technology and sophistication in exploration, assessment, efficient extraction and transportation at huge scale. Australia not only has the minerals, it also has experience, expertise, technology, legal frameworks, and environmental safeguards. Foreign ownership dominates the minerals sector (estimated at more than 80%) - often Chinese, interested is shipping ore to be processed under lax Chinese environmental laws, often funded with risk-tolerant state capital. Lynas, Australia’s sole processor, currently does this in Malaysia, with its more lenient environmental requirements. A Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve is under discussion. What have we got to offer that would appeal to President Trump? The CSIS assesses that Australia is second only to the United States in potential for processing and equal to Canada in key investment criteria. We should avoid any sort of preferential deal just with America, with China excluded. Our longer-term interests are best served by remaining open to all investors, including China. Australia should avoid joining the arm-wrestle with embargoes and restraints to trade. We are a middle-sized economy heavily dependent on international trade in general, and trade with China in particular. Free trade is our lifeblood. The most useful thing we could do is to push as hard as we can for a return to unrestricted international trade, which means we should seek an effective modus vivendi with China. Our longer-term interests are best served by remaining open to all investors, including China. Australia might require firms using Australian-sourced ore to undertake to sell the final product on the open market, without embargo or discrimination between buyers. If Australia offers consistent conditions to all investors, it will be in their individual interests to play by the rules. (Source: The Interpreter - a blog launched by the Lowy Institute - Australia)
by Grenville

Caribbean

Trinidad and Tobago
Sunday, October 19, 2025  Americans should avoid visiting all U.S. government facilities through the holiday weekend referring to Diwali, a Hindu festival of lights in Trinidad and Tobago due to a heightened state of alert on the twin-island nation, amid rapidly rising tensions between U.S. and Venezuela, according to a warning from the U.S. Embassy there. The two islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago are off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. Over the past two months, American forces have carried out at least six strikes on boats allegedly carrying narcotics from Venezuela to the U.S. After the most recent operation last week, the U.S. took into custody two individuals who survived the strike. President Trump said over the weekend that they will be returned to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia. In addition to stopping the flow of drugs to U.S. shores, the strikes are designed to put pressure on Venezuelan President Maduro, who Mr. Trump has accused of facilitating drug trafficking throughout the hemisphere. Mr. Trump said he’s weighing possible ground missions inside the country. Such missions could target drug cartels operating in the country but also could extend to the Maduro government itself in what could become a U.S.-led regime change operation. Navy Adm. Holsey, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, announced his retirement last week. U.S. Southern Command oversees American military activity in the region. (Source: The Washington Times - U.S.)

North America

United States
Sunday 19 October 2025  Among the new rules laid out in Defense Secretary Hegseth’s 21-page policy, which he gave credentialed journalists until Tuesday evening to acknowledge, was a ban on reporters soliciting any information – classified or otherwise – from government employees without prior authorization from the Pentagon. Dozens of print and broadcast journalists walked out of the Pentagon Wednesday in the wake of nearly every American news organization – including Trump-friendly networks Fox News and Newsmax – refusing to follow Hegseth’s media restrictions. “Our members did nothing to create this disturbing situation. It arises from an entirely one-sided move by Pentagon officials apparently intent upon cutting the American public off from information they do not control and pre-approve,” the Pentagon Press Association, which represents members from 57 domestic and international news outlets, said this week. The group, which represents around 100 journalists, tore into the 'unprecedented message of intimidation' delivered by the policy, urging the department to reverse course over its assault on press freedom. Not all credentialed journalists at the Pentagon are represented by the association. The only journalists left with credentials to enter the Pentagon were a mix of freelancers, foreign media members and staffers from MAGA-boosting outlets. By Thursday only 15 reporters out of hundreds of credentialed reporters agreed, had signed the new press pledge. Two are from the pro-Trump cable channel, One America News; one is from right-wing website The Federalist; and another is from ultra-conservative newspaper The Epoch Times. The remaining 11 reporters include freelancers for foreign-based organizations and a couple of little-known independent sites that appear to publish their work solely on social media. A reporter for the Turkish newspaper Akşam, three individuals from the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency and two Turkish freelancers signed the agreement. Other signers included a reporter for The Australian; an Afghan freelancer; and three lesser-known operations, AWPS News, the India Globe and a blog called USA Journal Korea. Additionally, two members of the Jordanian TV network Al Taghier signed an older version of the policy. The “self-righteous media chose to self-deport from the Pentagon. They will not be missed,” Pentagon spokesperson Parnell tweeted. “The Department of War will make an announcement soon regarding the next generation of the Pentagon press corps,” he wrote. “Stay tuned. The best is yet to come!” (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

(Saturday), October 18, 2025  Protesting the direction of the country under President Trump, people gathered today in the nation’s capital and communities big and small across the U.S. for No Kings demonstrations that the president’s Republican Party disparaged as Hate America rallies. Let’s see who shows up for that, House Speaker .Johnson of Louisiana said, listing groups including antifa types, people who hate capitalism and Marxists in full display. Later Friday a Trump campaign social media account mocked the protests by posting a computer-generated video of the president clothed like a monarch, wearing a crown and waving from a balcony. With signs such as Nothing is more patriotic than protesting or Resist Fascism, in many places the No Kings’ protests against Trump looked more like a street party vibe to cities nationwide. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s We The People preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon. More than 2,600 rallies were ’planned’ on the day, organizers said. The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first No Kings day in June registered 2,100. Republicans sought to portray protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day. From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders called them communists and Marxists. They said Democratic leaders including Schumer are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces. (Source: AP - United States)

(18 October 2025)  Rise of ‘shadow banking’ brings new financial risks, experts say. 'Shadow banking,' is an example of larger, regulated banks offering loans to private companies that in many cases have a higher credit risk and little or no repayment history. A pair of regional banks this week disclosed lawsuits involving allegedly fraudulent business loans, while the failure of two companies in the automotive sector dinged some Wall Street titans, including JPMorgan. All four cases reflect the growth of major banks’ lending to so-called non-depository financial institutions. A spate of recent fraud cases and bankruptcies has raised new concerns about a growing class of largely unregulated loans, with a sell-off in U.S. banking stocks bleeding into global markets this week. (Source: The Washington Post - U.S.)

(18 October 2025)  It was as Zelensky's flight was in the air that news of the two-and-a-half-hour Trump-Putin phone call began to emerge and, before its wheels were even on the Washington tarmac, we had the announcement that another summit between the two was in the offing. The Ukrainians descended the steps, to be met with a low-key American greeting, and with their optimism, like a piece of waylaid luggage, lost somewhere en route. "I think he wants to make a deal," Trump said, and then proceeded to repeat some of his old talking points, framing the conflict as, in essence, a personal gripe between two leaders. "There's a lot of bad blood,' he said. Zelensky has learned from bitter experience that there are great risks in being seen to challenge Trump inside the walls of the White House. Trump ended the day insisting that the war should simply be frozen on the existing battle lines and both sides should simply "go home to their families". (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

(Friday), 17.10.2025  „President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this inglorious war, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end,'” US president Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform yesterday. Trump said that he and Putin agreed to send their respective teams. The US will be led by Secretary of State Rubio, who is also serving as the president's national security advisor. An exact location for next week's sit-down has yet to be decided. 'President Zelenskyy and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more. I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation," he added. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

17/10/2025  President Trump cast doubt yesterday on giving Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv a day before he meets with Zelensky, saying the United States could not deplete its own stock. (Source: France 24)

17.10.2025  Ex-Trump adviser Bolton surrenders to court after being indicted on 8 counts of transmitting national security information, 10 counts of retention of national defense information. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Oct. 16, 2025  Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command which oversees all operations in Central and South America, is stepping down. Adm. Holsey, overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea is leaving less than a year into his tenure into what is typically a three-year job in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. His abrupt end to leading one of the military’s highly coveted regional war-fighting commands comes after a Navy career that started with his commissioning through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, or NROTC, at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1988. The admiral worked his way up, from commanding helicopter squadrons to leading one of the Navy’s prestigious aircraft carrier strike groups. He served first as the Southern Command’s military deputy before taking command in November 2024. Admiral Holsey just this week visited the island countries Antigua and Barbuda, and Grenada. News of the admiral’s departure comes a day after a report that the Trump administration had secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela. Since early September, U.S. Special Operations forces have struck at least five boats off the Venezuelan coast that the White House says were transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have privately made it clear that the main goal is to drive Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, from power. The U.S. military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for Mr. Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela. While Admiral Holsey has been the highest-ranking military officer overseeing the air strikes, the decision to carry them out has been driven by the White House, and the strikes themselves have been conducted by Special Operations forces, with Admiral Holsey largely cut out of the decision-making. Admiral Holsey, who is Black, becomes the latest in a line of more than a dozen military leaders, many of them people of color and women, who have left their jobs this year. Most have been fired by Mr. Hegseth or pushed out. Mr. Hegseth fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Brown Jr., who is Black; the first woman to command the Navy, Adm. Franchetti; and the U.S. military’s representative to the NATO military committee, Vice Adm. Chatfield. He also pushed out Lt. Gen. Kruse, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. In August, the Air Force’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Allvin, announced that he would retire early - two years into a four-year term. About two weeks ago, Mr. Hegseth summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to a meeting at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Northern Virginia. It was a gathering without precedent in recent memory. The secretary told the senior officers that he was tightening standards for fitness and grooming, cracking down even more rigorously ’on woke garbage’ and rejecting the notion of toxic leadership. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

South America

Argentina
Saturday, October 18, 2025  Exactly 20 years ago next month, Argentina hosted the fourth Summit of the Americas in the seaside city of Mar del Plata. There, a troika of Kirchner,  Lula da Silva and Chávez resisted a push from then-US president Bush to introduce a free-trade area in the Americas, known as the FTAA or ALCA in its Spanish acronym. In defeat, Washington silently retreated from the region. Now it’s coming back, in full swing. This revived Monroe Doctrine of the 21st century has one main target: China. Since the FTAA failure two decades ago, Beijing has occupied much of the vacant space. Nuclear, military, maritime or space issues - those are exactly the sectors where the Chinese have been advancing their interests in Argentina in recent years. In 2018, China opened a space observation facility in Neuquén, the home of Vaca Muerta. In 2022, the two countries agreed to jointly build Argentina’s fourth nuclear energy facility. China was also eyeing major investments in ports near the strategic Strait of Magellan in southern Argentina. Trump said Tuesday he would be very upset if he hears such things are happening in Argentina – and Milei does not want to upset Trump. (Source: Buenos Aires Times - Argentina)

Colombia
Oct 19 (2025)  Aboard Air Force One, U.S. President Trump said on Sunday night he would raise tariffs on Colombia and stop all payments to the South American nation. Earlier in the day, Trump called Colombian President Petro an ’illegal drug leader,’ while Defense Secretary Hegseth said U.S. forces had attacked a vessel associated with a Colombian rebel group. He wrote on X that the Pentagon had destroyed a vessel and killed three people on Friday in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility, which includes the Caribbean. Hegseth said the ship was affiliated with the leftist rebel group National Liberation Army and was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling. Petro said the boat belonged to a humble family, not a rebel group. His government called Trump's remarks offensive. They don't have a fight against drugs - they make drugs, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. I'm stopping all payments to Colombia, he said. It was not clear what funding support Trump was referring to. Colombia was once among the largest recipients of U.S. aid in the Western Hemisphere, but the flow of money was suddenly curtailed this year by the shuttering of USAID. Colombia's foreign ministry vowed to seek international support in defense of Petro and the country's autonomy. Last month, the United States revoked Petro's visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey Trump's orders. Colombia is fighting its own longstanding drug problems. Last year, Petro pledged to tame coca-growing regions in the country with massive social and military intervention, but the strategy has brought little success. In September, Trump designated countries such as Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia and Venezuela among those the United States believes to have failed demonstrably in upholding counternarcotics agreements during the past year. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Peru
October 17, 2025  Demonstrations against corruption and rising crime against President Jeri, 38, a day after he presented his cabinet and assumed power just days ago. At least one person was killed and dozens of police officers injured in widespread protests overnight in Peru Jeri's nascent presidency ends next July due to scheduled elections. Everyone must go! protesters chanted in Lima when they reached Congress and tried to tear down metal barriers protecting the building, leading to clashes. The Congress - which was headed by Jeri before he became president - is unpopular with a single-digit approval rating. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

16 Oct 2025  Rioters clash with cops and demand overthrow of president. Yesterday’s protests were called by a youth-led collective, artists’ groups and labour unions. At least one protestor has been shot dead by police. Rioters are attempting to topple President Jeri’s government – just days after he was sworn in as interim leader. Authorities report at least 102 people have been injured – including 24 civilians and 78 cops. The latest escalation comes after lawmakers impeached the last president Boluarte under corruption accusations. Her impeachment last week followed protests by bus companies, merchants and students over shakedowns by criminal gangs and attacks on those who refuse to pay protection money. Extortion and contract killings have been a feature of daily life across Peru. ’The youth-led demonstrations’ brought thousands of Peruvians, also frustrated by the authorities’ failure to resolve a worsening crime crisis, onto the streets in the capital and several other cities. Gangs such as Los Pulpos and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, which operates across Latin America, hold people from all walks of life for ransom. Rioters are demanding Peru’s political class be torn down. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

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Afghanistan
(Monday), 10/13/2025  Pakistani troops were on high alert on the border with Afghanistan today, after fierce fighting between the two sides at the weekend left dozens dead. The Pakistan military said that 23 of its soldiers were killed in the weekend clashes. The Taliban said nine of its fighters were killed. Border crossings for vehicles and pedestrians along the 2,600-km frontier are closed since Saturday following unprovoked attacks by the Afghan Taliban forces, a senior Pakistani security official told. Pakistan is the main source of goods and food supplies for landlocked, impoverished Afghanistan. Fighting between the two sides, who were once allies, erupted after Islamabad demanded the Taliban take action against militants who have stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operate from havens in Afghanistan. Afghanistan did not wish to fight with anyone and all its other neighbours were happy with Kabul, Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Muttaqi told in the Indian capital New Delhi, which he is visiting for the first time since 2021. The Taliban denies that Pakistani militants are present in Afghanistan. Kabul said yesterday that it had halted attacks at the request of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The fighting has drawn the attention of Trump, as he flew from Washington to Israel on Sunday as part of his efforts to end the Gaza war. He said he would focus on it soon, because „I'm good at solving wars, I'm good at making peace," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. China, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan in its western region and has sought to play a mediating role in calming hostilities between the two sides, said today it was very concerned about the latest clashes. (Source: MSN - U.S. / Reuters - United Kingdom)

China
October 15, 2025  Chinese Foreign Minister Wang toured Austria, Poland, and Slovenia between September 12 and 16. He underscored in Poland the country’s dual role as both a key NATO frontline state and a critical link in China’s Belt and Road rail corridor, particularly through the Małaszewicze logistics hub on the Belarus border, which is critical for trade by rail between China and Europe. (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations - U.S.)

2025.10.13  Beijing’s top religion regulator issued new rules banning unauthorized online preaching, as well as a broader crackdown on online content that expresses views contrary to the Chinese Communist Party’s goals. China arrests Christian underground church founder, pastors. (Source: Radio Free Asia - U.S.)

Gaza
October 14, 2025 7:23am EDT  After Trump declares 'war is over," Hamas executes rivals in Gaza to reassert control. The war is over, but the question is whether peace will really begin. Gazans describe uncertainty as terrorist group reasserts control despite ceasefire agreement. While the guns have fallen silent, the next stage -  Hamas’ disarmament and the arrival of a stabilization force - will determine whether Gaza finally begins rebuilding or slips back into chaos. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

Indonesia
(October 14, 2025)  The First Wap, the surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you. It has continued to develop Altamides, adding new capabilities. Now it can not only track locations, it can intercept calls and messages and crack accounts that rely on passcodes sent via text messages - including the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp, as Rudolph told Albert and Abdou, the Lighthouse reporters posing as potential buyers, at the ISS conference in June. The company steers clear of the spyware, highly regarded in the industry, that provides access to everything on a target’s device. It continues to exploit phone networks, which offers more limited surveillance possibilities, but allows First Wap to operate more freely and flexibly than its competitors, Rudolph said. (Source: Mother Jones - U.S.)

Israel
(14 October 2025)  In the chamber of the Knesset, or Israeli parliament, the mood was altogether more raucous than that in the streets. Emblazoned on the red baseball caps handed out by staff, and worn by some of the audience, were the words: "The president of peace". Spectators shouted from the gallery behind me: "Thank you Trump." Lawmakers hammered their desks. Trump hailed a "historic dawn of a new Middle East". He also wanted to leave little doubt the war was over, and it seemed he expected it to stay that way: Israel, he said, with America's help, had won all that it could by force of arms. His speech meandered into extensive attacks on his political opponents in the US. He praised a major donor to his election campaign seated in the gallery. And he even appealed to Israel's president, Herzog, seating next to him, to pardon Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption – charges that the Israeli PM denies. Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that? Trump exclaimed, referencing the allegation that Netanyahu accepted pricy gifts. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
by Bateman, State department correspondent travelling on Air Force

Oct 13, 2025 11:30 AM EDT  Today, Hamas released these 20 living hostages into the custody of the Red Cross, which then brought them to Israel as part of a new ceasefire deal that many hope will signal an end to two years of war in the devastated Gaza Strip. Under the agreement, all living hostages were to be released, as well as the bodies of the deceased. A look at the 20 hostages released today. (Source: PBS - U.S.)
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11:17 PM EDT, Sun October 12, 2025  US President Trump is heading to Israel ahead of the expected release early Monday of the 20 Israeli hostages thought to be alive in Gaza. Nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israel will also be freed as part of the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire deal. Trump will address Israel’s parliament and meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the families of the hostages. Later on Monday, leaders from more than 20 countries will join Trump in Egypt for a summit on Gaza’s future. “The reason why we’re at this moment … is because the president of the United States. He gave unusual authorities to people who had never been in diplomacy before, he actually broke the mold,” VP Vance said. “Instead of doing diplomacy the same old way that it had failed for the past 30 or 40 years. He gave Witkoff and Kushner a remarkable amount of authority to go and get a peace deal done.” The UN said Israel had approved more aid shipments, now totalling 190,000 metric tons, in what it hopes is just the beginning in getting crucial supplies to the enclave. (Source: CNN - U.S.)
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Friday 10 October 2025 10:25 EDT  The United States is sending up to 200 troops to Israel to monitor the ceasefire transition process with Gaza and ensure the terms of phase one of the 20-point deal are implemented. They are from U.S. Central Command, the military organization responsible for defending and promoting U.S. interests across the globe. The American troops, led by Admiral Cooper, will join soldiers from neighboring countries in the region, including Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The goal of the Civil Military Coordination Center is to establish a hub for military and political officials, as well as aid experts, to coordinate while implementing the ceasefire deal. That means everything from security support to humanitarian aid. An official confirmed no U.S. troops would be sent to Gaza. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Pakistan
(Saturday), 11.10.25  Radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) today claimed that police shot dead 11 of its supporters as they attempted to march towards Islamabad to stage a demonstration outside the US embassy against Israel's military actions in Gaza. Authorities in Punjab, however, said that at least 40 policemen were injured in clashes with the TLP that began two days ago amid the group’s call for anti-Israel demonstrations. (The Telegraph - India)

Persian Gulf
October 11, 2025  Over the past three years, facilitated by the United States, Arab states quietly expanded security cooperation with the Israeli military, leaked U.S. documents reveal. Senior military officials from Israel and six key Arab countries came together for a series of planning meetings in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar. Even as security cooperation with Israel expanded behind closed doors, Arab leaders denounced its war in Gaza. The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia said the Israeli campaign amounted to a genocide. The documents state that the partnership does not form a new alliance. and that all meetings would be “held in confidence.” Five Centcom PowerPoint presentations detail the creation of what the U.S. military describes as the “Regional Security Construct.” In addition to Israel and Qatar, the construct includes Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Those military ties could now play a key role in overseeing the nascent ceasefire in Gaza. The documents refer to Kuwait and Oman as “potential partners” that were briefed on all meetings. They were written between 2022 and 2025, before and after the launch of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023. Israel and the Arab countries signed on to the plan at a 2022 security conference, agreeing to coordinate military exercises and procure the equipment to make it possible. By 2024, Centcom successfully linked many of the partner states to its systems, allowing them to provide radar and sensor data to the U.S. military and, in turn, to view the combined data of the partners. A briefing document stated that six of the seven partner nations were receiving a partial air picture of the region through Defense Department systems, and that two countries were sharing their own radar data through a U.S. Air Force squadron. Partner nations were also being onboarded to a U.S.-run secure chat system so that they could communicate with each other and the U.S. military. While Qatar and Saudi Arabia do not have formal diplomatic relationships with Israel, the Centcom documents show the important behind-the-scenes role that both powerful gulf states played in the nascent partnership. The May 2024 security conference at al-Udeid Air Base underscored the increased cooperation, with Israeli officials holding bilateral discussions with representatives from each of the attending Arab countries. Saudi Arabia played an active role in this collaboration, sharing intelligence with Israel and Arab partners on a broad range of security issues. In a 2025 meeting, a Saudi official and a U.S. intelligence official provided an intelligence overview to partners on political developments in Syria, including the role played by Russia, Turkey and Kurdish forces in the country. The briefing also covered the threats posed by the Iran-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen and the islamic state’s operations in Syria and Iraq. A 2024 briefing document envisioned the creation of a “Combined Middle East Cyber Center” by the end of 2026 to serve as a headquarters for education and exercises on defensive cyber operations. Another document advocated for the creation of an “Information Fusion Center” for partners to “rapidly plan, execute, and assess operations in the information environment.” These engagements reflected the Gulf Arab states’ pragmatic ties with Israel - and their respect for its military prowess. The centerpiece of the agreement establishing diplomatic ties between Israel and Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain - an air-defense plan to combat Iran’s missiles and drones - moved from theory to reality over the past three years. The air-defense system, however, did nothing to protect Qatar against Israel’s Sept. 9 strike on its capital. U.S. satellite and radar systems did not provide an early warning of the strike, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. France told. Those systems “are typically focused on Iran and other [areas] where we expect an attack to come from.” Tensions between the parties were now on full display after the Israeli strike in Qatar. A key member of the American effort has attacked another, with America seen as complacent, complicit or blind. 200 U.S. troops would be sent to Israel to provide support to the ceasefire agreement, and would be joined by soldiers from several of the Arab countries that participated in this long-standing security cooperation. Even before that announcement, the Arab countries involved in this security collaboration had all signaled their support for Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war. The plan calls for Arab states to participate in the deployment of an international force to Gaza that would train a new Palestinian police force in the region. Security analysts said gulf states could provide financial and diplomatic support for an international force in Gaza but would probably refrain from committing their own military forces to the complex and dangerous mission. In a joint statement, five of the six Arab countries said that they supported the establishment of a mechanism that “guarantees the security of all sides,” but they have stopped short of publicly committing to deploy military forces. There’s a lot of concern in gulf states about what an unshackled Israel is going to do. At the same time, they are reliant on the U.S. as the guarantor of their security. They are also very concerned about Iran. (Source: The Washington Post - U.S.)

South Korea
Oct 14, 2025  Major General “Hank” Taylor, commander of the 8th Field Army in South Korea, told reporters that he’s using ChatGPT to help make military and personal decisions affecting the soldiers under his command. This includes the joint United Nations Command in South Korea, which Taylor currently leads as chief of staff. As a commander, I want to make better decisions, Taylor reportedly said. 'I want to make sure that I make decisions at the right time to give me the advantage.' (Source: Futurism - U.S.)

West Bank
13 October 2025 14:47  Palestinian prisoniers are released in Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Source: Sky News - United Kingdom)
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Europe

Hungary
15/10/2025  Hungary still imports a significant portion of its fossil fuels from Russia. The EU's REpowerEU roadmap plans to phase out all imports from Russia by 2027. This would also cut Hungary's oil imports from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline. "Currently, there are two oil pipelines leading to Hungary, and Brussels wants us to eliminate one in the name of diversification,' Hungarian FM Szijjártó said in Moscow today. "But how can the elimination of one pipeline be called diversification? How can one pipeline be considered safer than two?' he asked, calling it madness, complete illogicality. The other oil pipeline enters Hungary from Croatia. However, according to the Hungarian government, the Adria pipeline is insufficient for the country's needs as a landlocked country. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

Austria
10 October 2025  In the latest survey by pollster Lazarsfeld for news site oe24, the right-wingers come in first with 38 per cent of the vote – a gain of 5 percentage points compared to just six months ago. The FPÖ’s rise coincides with a sharp drop in popularity of the three parties that rule Austria: The Conservative People’s Party (ÖVP), the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Liberal Neos party. FPÖ leader Kickl also comes in first when respondents were asked for their favourite choice for federal chancellor, with 30 per cent wanting to see him at the helm. That is almost as much as ÖVP leader and current Chancellor Christian Stocker on 14 per cent, SPÖ leader Babler at 11 per cent and Neos frontwoman Meinl-Reisinger with 7 per cent. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

France
October 10, 2025   President Macron reappointed Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister today, just four days after he had resigned from the role, searching for a way out of France's worst political crisis in decades. Reactions. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Germany
15 October 2025  The German Government is planning to spend €80 billion on defence projects in the coming 15 months – including €26 billion for new frigates, €3.4 billion for new wheeled tanks, and €2.4 billion for an updated version of the Taurus missile. Germany abolished compulsory military service in 2011. On October 7, defence minister Pistorius (SPD) announced that, starting in 2027, the German army would build more than 270 new barrack buildings throughout the country. The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government is planning to introduce a lottery system for compulsory military service. The plan is to be presented to the public soon. The German army is suffering from severe manpower shortages that hamper the ambitious expansion plans presented by Merz and Pistorius. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has come out in favour of a full reintroduction of compulsory military service. Negotiators of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the coalition partner CDU have agreed on a four-step system. A questionnaire would be sent to around 400,000 men per year. At first, all young men and women will be asked in an official letter whether they are ready to serve in the German army, and fill in a questionnaire on their physical abilities and qualifications. Only men are required to respond; women can reply if they want to. In a second phase, those men who are to be invited for military examination and an interview would be selected by lottery. In a third step, the “winners” of this lottery would be conscripted into the army unless enough volunteers sign up to fill all open positions. If this fails, in the final phase general compulsory military service would be reintroduced. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

Romania
October 13, 2025  Why Romania’s plan to buy 216 Abrams tanks is a bad idea? While the Romanians looked at other options for their much-needed MBT upgrade, such as the German Leopard 2A8 or South Korea’s K2 Black Panther, the Romanians apparently favor the costlier Abrams. In their view, it makes strategic sense, if only because it ties Romania closer to American supply chains. The US defense industrial supply chain cannot maintain its own systems, let alone be expected to provide for other countries in the event of a conflict! Romanian leaders seem to believe that being directly reliant on the United States would make them better off 'if a war with Russia ever erupted along their border'. This is the wrong decision. Like all European NATO nations, Romania must do better at maintaining its military capabilities. But it must do so within the confines of what is economically realistic and logistically viable. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Weichert

Russia
Wednesday 15 October 2025 07:06 BST  Ukraine’s rail network carries more than 63% of the country’s freight and 37% of passenger traffic. Russia is creating new technology to target trains. Russian forces have added a key upgrade to their drone fleet since the summer. Cameras and radio modems, which send and receive data wirelessly, have been fitted to various types of long-range strike drones, sharply increasing precision compared to preprogrammed models. The modified drones can fly up to 200 kilometers into territory. Now, as they have very precise Shahed drones, they are targeting individual diesel and electric locomotives. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom / The Associated Press - U.S.)

Oct 13, 2025 | 15:36 GMT  On Oct. 7, the World Bank released its ''Fall 2025 Economic Update,'' which projects that Russian real GDP growth will decline from 4.3% in 2024 to 0.9% this year. The Russian economy is entering a multi-year stagnation that, while enabling the Kremlin to sustain the war effort over the next 12 months, will steadily erode the fiscal, industrial and technological foundations required to keep fighting at current intensity beyond 2026. (Source: Stratfor - U.S.)

(Sunday), 12/10/2025 - 17:52  Russia attacked energy infrastructure in the regions of Donetsk, Odesa and Chernihiv overnight into Sunday. Russia’s defence ministry said yesterday it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, while Ukraine’s air force said that its air defences intercepted or jammed 103 of 118 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight. (Source: France 24 „with AP” - U.S.)

Saturday 11 October 2025 15:17 BST  Russia’s Defence Ministry stated yesterday that its strikes had targeted energy facilities supplying Ukraine’s military, without specifying locations. It confirmed the use of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and strike drones in the operation. More than 800,000 residents in Kyiv had their power restored today, following extensive Russian assaults on the nation's power grid that plunged vast swathes of the country into darkness. Ukraine’s air force said today that its air defences intercepted or jammed 54 of 78 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight, while Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

October 10, 2025 6:44 pm CET  Trump sincerely is aiming for peace in Ukraine, Putin said, adding the most striking example of his peacemaking credentials “is the situation in the Middle East.” “If Donald succeeds in accomplishing everything he’s aiming for, everything he’s talked about and trying to do, it will be a historic moment,” the Russian president gushed. Trump deserved the Nobel prize, says Putin. The Russian president says "the Nobel committee has lost credibility'. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Ukraine
October 15, 2025 5:05 PM GMT+2  Ukraine needs up to $20b in U.S. weapons through NATO programme, defence minister says. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

(Saturday), 11/10/2025 - 12:41  Russian attack on energy facilities. Large parts of Kyiv were plunged into darkness in the early hours yesterday, after Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities, cutting power and water to homes and halting a key metro link across the Dnipro river. (Source: France 24)
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Europe
October 14, 2025  From telecom protocols to a 1.5 million row dataset, the reach and tactics of a mercenary phone-tracking company uncovered. In the spring of 2024, Lighthouse found a vast archive of data on the deep web. It contained thousands of phone numbers and hundreds of thousands of locations from nearly every country in the world. The data came from a little-known surveillance company called First Wap. Headquartered in Jakarta but run by a group of European executives, First Wap has quietly built a phone tracking empire spanning the globe. Most countries have a legal mandate to carry out domestic phone network surveillance. The First Wap archive demonstrates, however, how phone network connections can be leveraged to allow tracking all over the world, without authorisation from the targeted networks. In recent years, a number of investigations have explored the ways in which surveillance companies gain access to phone networks to enable this type of tracking. Lighthouse and its partners have previously written about how SS7 abuses were linked to the murder of a reporter in Mexico and a crackdown on an activist in Congo, and how they were enabled via leasing of Global Titles. Although in recent years some phone operators have acted to improve security, global imbalances remain. Stopping unauthorised signalling is expensive and as such tends to be better implemented by wealthier operators. When operators in the global minority world allow surveillance companies to access their systems and send traffic, they are increasing risk to people in the global majority. Last year, the UK’s telecom regulator took the step of banning Global Title leasing on the grounds that phone operators had failed to manage risk and UK networks were carrying large amounts of malicious signalling traffic, including surveillance traffic, into networks worldwide. But for real change to occur, other regulators in the EU need to follow suit. (Source: Lighthouse Reports - The Netherlands)

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

October 15, 2025  In a Monday address to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), legal expert for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, Rieder, warned that Turkey is systematically targeting Christians purely for practicing their faith. Turkey’s labeling of peaceful Christian residents as ‘security threats’ is a clear misuse of law and an attack on freedom of religion or belief, Rieder said during the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Ankara calls claims unfounded and part of a deliberate disinformation campaign. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

Africa

Egypt
(14 October 2025)  "After fewer than seven hours in Israel, we took the short flight to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt; location of the mediated talks between Israel and Hamas that led to last week's breakthrough. On our descent, Egyptian F16s escorted us - the ultimate show for the president who loves displays of military might. Trump had wanted to celebrate every minute of the day. But the dangers in this region are many, and the risk seemed clear that he was declaring the ultimate deal before really landing it. That was reflected in the giant sign, written in capital letters, above the presidential podium in Sharm el-Sheikh: "PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST". There, I watched the extraordinary sight of world leaders filing into a room to stand behind Trump as he made his speech hailing peace. They lined up in front of their national flags and listened as he listed their countries one by one". Trump had been introduced to the stage by the host, Egyptian president Sisi, who said that the goal remained a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Trump has changed his position markedly since the start of this year. He became increasingly irritated by the Israeli leadership and was drawn closer to his friends in the Gulf. That came amid a diplomatic move by the Europeans to isolate Israel over its escalating campaign in Gaza and to get the Saudi leadership onboard with their vision. Trump then shifted, drawn by his Gulf allies – whose wealth and "power" he frequently referred to during the drip. Trump presided over the signing ceremony in Sharm saying it had taken 3,000 years to get here. But there are still many more years to go - and it will take more than one man to get there.
(Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

13 October 2025   U.S. President Trump arrives in Sharm el-Sheikh for the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal summit. (Source:YouTube - U.S. / The Telegraph - United Kingdom)
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Tunisia
(Saturday), October 11, 2025  Residents entered the state-run Tunisian Chemical Group's (CGT) phosphate complex in the southern city of Gabes today, demanding its closure to prevent environmental pollution and respiratory illnesses, to balance public health demands with the production of phosphate, Tunisia's most valuable natural resource. Army soldiers and military vehicles were seen stationed inside the complex. In 2017, authorities pledged to dismantle the Gabes complex and replace it with a facility that meets international standards, acknowledging that its emissions posed a danger to local residents. However, the plan has yet to be implemented. Tons of industrial waste are discharged into Gabes's Chatt Essalam sea daily. The government aims to revive the phosphate industry by increasing production fivefold to 14 million tonnes by 2030 to capitalize on rising global demand. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
October 12, 2025  U.S. intelligence has been helping Ukraine mount long-range strikes on important Russian energy facilities, including oil refineries, far beyond the front line for months in a joint effort to weaken the economy, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed Ukrainian and U.S. officials today. Moscow said this month that Washington and its NATO alliance were regularly supplying intelligence to Kyiv. ’The supply and use of the entire infrastructure of NATO and the United States to collect and transfer intelligence to Ukrainians is obvious,’ Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters then. Zelenskiy said yesterday he had discussed Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy system 'in a positive and productive call' with U.S. President Trump. The FT said U.S. intelligence helps Kyiv shape route planning, altitude, timing and mission decisions, enabling Ukraine's long-range, one-way attack drones to evade Russian air defences. A U.S. official was quoted as saying Ukraine selected the targets for long-range strikes and Washington then provided intelligence on the sites' vulnerabilities. The U.S. asked NATO allies to provide similar support, the U.S. officials said. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Nobel Peace Prize

October 10,  2025  After the Nobel Committee overlooked US President Trump and chose Venezuelan opposition leader Machado for the peace prize, White House slammed the committee, claiming that it placed politics over peace. (Source: The Week - India)

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Europe

Denmark
09:11, 11/10/2025, Saturday  Focusing squarely on the Arctic region, Denmark has unveiled a massive new defense and security package. The government announced a comprehensive security agreement that includes the purchase of 16 additional F-35 fighter jets and a multi-billion dollar infusion of funds for Arctic and North Atlantic security infrastructure. A substantial 29 billion kroner (approximately $2.8 billion) is earmarked for the new F-35 aircraft. This acquisition will bring the Royal Danish Air Force's total F-35 fleet to 43 units. Beyond the jet purchase, an additional 27.4 billion kroner ($2.7 billion) is allocated to bolster Denmark's presence in the strategically vital Arctic. The plan, developed with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, includes a new Arctic Command headquarters in Nuuk, Greenland, laying a submarine communications cable between Greenland and Denmark, and acquiring two new Arctic patrol vessels, drones, and maritime surveillance aircraft. (Source: Yeni Şafak - Turkey)

United Kingdom
14 October 2025  ‘Lost or destroyed’: Army records about soldier Wallace, who exposed abuses in Northern Ireland, have gone missing. (Source: Declassified UK)
by Norton-Taylor

Africa

Madagascar
13 October 2025  France evacuated Madagascan president Rajoelina from the country by a French military plane, amid protests. The unrest began over widespread water and electricity cuts. Former prime minister Christian Ntsay and businessman Ravatomanga, a close ally of the president, reportedly flew to Mauritius on a private jet yesterday night. (Source: Morning Star - United Kingdom)

(Sunday), Oct. 12, 2025  Earlier on Saturday, some troops from the elite CAPSAT unit that helped President Rajoelina seize power in a 2009 coup, urged fellow soldiers to disobey orders and back the youth-led protests. Late on Saturday, the presidency released a statement in response to what it called the spread of false information on social media, following widespread speculation that Rajoelina, who also has French citizenship, had fled the country. Madagascar's prime minister Ruphin Fortunat Zafisambo called for calm and unity yesterday, hours after some soldiers joined youth protesters, escorting them as they entered Antananarivo’s May 13 Square, the scene of many political uprising, for the first time since demonstrations began over water and electricity shortages on Sept. 25. Rajoelina appointed Zafisambo and a new defense and security minister after dissolving the previous government in response to the protests. Zafisambo said the government was fully ready to listen and engage in dialogue with all factions - youth, unions, or the military. The demonstrators are demanding that Rajoelina step down, apologize to the country, and dissolve the Senate and electoral commission. At least 22 people have been killed and 100 injured in the unrest. (Source: The Korea Herald - South Korea / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Asia

Philippines
October 14, 2025  China deployed naval assets as part of efforts to 'obstruct' a Philippine government supply mission near contested features in the South China Sea, the Philippines' maritime zone: Sabina Shoal - situated about 90 miles west of the Philippines' westernmost province of Palawan-and Scarborough Shoal, traditionally a rich fishing ground for both Chinese and Filipino anglers. Chinese maritime forces once again sought to block a joint Philippine coast guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources convoy tasked with delivering fuel and groceries to local fishermen. The supply team encountered about 10 Chinese coast guard ships and another 10 vessels belonging to China's 'maritime militia' near both features. People's Liberation Army Navy helicopters and ships, including a high-speed response boat, were also spotted near Scarborough Shoal. China's coast guard accused Manila of violating the "environmental reserve" that Beijing unilaterally declared over a large section of Scarborough Shoal last month. The mission succeeded in handing supplies to almost 100 fishing vessels. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Caribbean

Cuba
10/13/25 7:00 AM ET  Venezuela’s collapse dominates the headlines, but Cuba’s slow-motion breakdown could have far more profound consequences. A failed state just 90 miles from Florida would unleash new migration waves, invite rival powers into the region, and test America’s resolve. (Source:The Hill - U.S.)

North America

United States
Oct. 15, 2025  The Trump administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, according to U.S. officials, stepping up a campaign against Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader. For weeks, the U.S. military has been targeting boats off the Venezuelan coast it says are transporting drugs, killing 27 people. In all, the Navy has eight surface warships and a submarine in the Caribbean. Today, Mr. Trump said he had made the authorization because Venezuela had 'emptied their prisons into the United States of America.' The president appeared to be referring to claims by his administration that members of the Tren de Aragua prison gang had been sent into the United States to commit crimes. In March, Mr. Trump proclaimed the gang a terrorist organization that was 'conducting irregular warfare' against the United States under the orders of the Maduro government. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

October 15, 2025  The United States informed Europe that it would withdraw from a joint initiative to counter foreign disinformation. The program especially targeted China, Iran, and Russia. In early September, a U.S. State Department notice informed European capitals that the 2014 memoranda of understanding to unify American and European approaches to disinformation had been nullified. The initiative was managed by the Global Engagement Center (GEC) within the State Department, although the GEC was formally dismantled in late 2024. 'Not only was GEC’s infamous censorship activity profoundly misaligned with this administration’s pro-free speech position, it was woefully and embarrassingly ineffective on its own terms,' the Trump administration’s acting undersecretary for public diplomacy commented. (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations - U.S.)

October 14, 2025  Problems with allies and partners show up in different ways in three key areas: intelligence sharing, coalition planning, and arms sales. The report offers detailed recommendations to help U.S. policymakers more effectively work with the allies and partners that will be central to U.S. strategy in Europe and especially in the Indo-Pacific in the coming decades. (Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies - U.S.)

NATO

15.10.2025  NATO introduced the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative in July after US President Trump briefly suspended military aid to Ukraine, accusing allies of failing to share the burden. Under the program, the US provides weapons to Ukraine while Western allies cover the costs. By August, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden had allocated a total of $2.2 billion for the program. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

South America

Argentina
15/10/2025, Wednesday  US President Trump has announced his full endorsement for Argentine President Milei during a joint appearance at the White House, praising Milei for doing the "right things" for Argentine, ahead of Argentina's legislative elections. Trump predicted Milei would win and praised his economic reforms. The endorsement comes as Milei's La Libertad Avanza party prepares for elections on October 26. The political backing from the White House aligns with economic support signals from US Treasury Secretary Bessent, who recently stated his department stands ready to assist Argentina, describing the South American nation as "a systemically important US ally in Latin America." (Source: Yeni Şafak - Turkey)

Venezuela
(October 14, 2025)  Six killed after US strikes another boat off coast of Venezuela. (Source: CNN - U.S.)

Space

Oct 13, 2025 9:00 PM  Roughly half of geostationary satellite signals, many carrying sensitive consumer, corporate, and government communications, have been left entirely vulnerable to eavesdropping, a team of researchers at UC San Diego and the University of Maryland revealed today in a study that will likely resonate across the cybersecurity industry, telecom firms, and inside military and intelligence agencies worldwide. For three years, the UCSD and UMD researchers developed and used an off-the-shelf, $800 satellite receiver system on the roof of a university building in the La Jolla seaside neighborhood of San Diego to pick up the communications of geosynchronous satellites in the small band of space visible from their Southern California vantage point. By simply pointing their dish at different satellites and spending months interpreting the obscure - but unprotected - signals they received from them, the researchers assembled an alarming collection of private data: They obtained samples of the contents of Americans’ calls and text messages on T-Mobile’s cellular network, data from airline passengers’ in-flight Wi-Fi browsing, communications to and from critical infrastructure such as electric utilities and offshore oil and gas platforms, and even US and Mexican military and law enforcement communications that revealed the locations of personnel, equipment, and facilities. The group’s paper, which they’re presenting this week at an Association for Computing Machinery conference in Taiwan, is titled “Don’t Look Up”. The researchers say that they’ve spent nearly the past year warning companies and agencies whose sensitive data they found exposed in satellite communications. Most of them moved quickly to encrypt those communications and protect the data. The researchers’ work looked at only a small fraction of geostationary satellites whose signals they could pick up from San Diego - roughly 15 percent of those in operation, by the researchers’ estimate. UCSD cryptography professor Heninger, who co-led the study, compares their study’s revelation - the sheer scale of the unprotected satellite data available for the taking - to some of the revelations of Snowden that showed how the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ were obtaining telecom and internet data on an enormous scale, often by secretly tapping directly into communications infrastructure. (Source: Wired - U.S.)

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Europe

United Kingdom
(11 October 2025)  United Kingdom sanctions have frozen more than £25bn of Russian assets since february 2022. But until now, funds sent to Ukraine using Russian assets had only been taken from profits and interest accrued on them. The UK is 'ready to progress to using the full value of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine's war' effort, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said. The announcement comes after European leaders met in Copenhagen last week to discuss using frozen Russian assets for a €140bn ($162bn; £121bn) loan to Ukraine. The value of frozen Russian assets in the EU is estimated to be almost €211bn (£181bn). In a statement, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany said the joint action 'would increase pressure' on Russian President Putin. It added the move would be taken in close cooperation with the US. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Africa

Morocco
11/10/2025  Morocco's King Mohammed VI urges speedy social reforms following youth-led protests. Yesterday he said improving public education and healthcare was a priority. The protesters have taken to the streets almost every night since September 27. (Source: France 24)
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Asia

Japan
October 11, 2025  China has been intensifying its activities across the entire region surrounding Japan, including in the East China Sea, particularly in the area around the Senkaku Islands, the Sea of Japan, and the western Pacific Ocean, extending beyond the so-called the first island chain to the second island chain. A Chinese naval flotilla, led by a pair of destroyers, was tracked sailing around nearly all of Japan’s territory, including its outlying southwestern islands, in less than a month, according to data released by Japan’s Defense Ministry. The Chinese ships began their voyage around Japan on September 16-17, when they transited the Tsushima Strait, located between Japan and South Korea, moving into the Sea of Japan - also known as the East Sea in South Korea - from the East China Sea. The Chinese flotilla later departed the Sea of Japan for the North Pacific as it transited the Soya Strait - also known as the La Pérouse Strait in Russia - on September 22-23. The strait lies between Russia’s Sakhalin Island and Japan’s main island of Hokkaido. (Source: The Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Philippines
Oct 12, 2025, 12:21 AM  6.0-magnitude quake hits off southern Philippines late yesterday. It was not yet clear if the 6.0-magnitude quake in Surigao del Sur was an aftershock of the 6.7- and the 7.4-magnitude tremors that struck off Manay town in Mindanao region a day ago, which killed at least eight people. The series of quakes came just days after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed 75 people and injured more than 1,200 in Cebu province in central Philippines, according to government data. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore / AFP - France)

Australia

October 10, 2025  Australia has officially received its first two AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. These helicopters are part of a 29-aircraft deal, with the final deliveries scheduled for 2029. Northern Australia is geographically closer to the Pacific’s contested maritime domains - namely the South China Sea, Arafura Sea, and Indo-Pacific littorals. By aligning aviation assets forward, Australia shortens the 'kill chain' - decreasing transit time, allowing for faster reaction, and giving Australian forces better integration with maritime/land/intelligence assets. The northern posture becomes more credible. Canberra hopes that the introduction of Apaches will raise the costs of hostile actions near Australian territory or in adjacent seas. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Weichert. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine.

North America

United States
October 11, 2025  „As the Trump administration restructures the American armed forces by instituting a 10-point plan announced at the recent meeting of the generals and flag officers at Quantico, by renaming the Department of Defense the War Department, by reinvigorating our industrial plant to build more ships, planes, and other war platforms, by modernizing our nuclear forces, by pursuing Golden Dome defenses, and by redirecting the focus of our armed forces to protecting the homeland and securing the Western Hemisphere, the long-delayed need to emancipate our European allies into global adulthood is upon us. It is time for the United States to cut NATO’s umbilical cord”. NATO is 76 years old, but continues to act as a young adult, and sometimes acts like a child, always looking to the United States for financial and military support. That has to end. „The Trump administration is ending it”. U.S. troops are still there (in Europe), and now they are committed to fighting on behalf of 31 other countries. NATO’s first Secretary General Lord Ismay famously remarked that the purpose of the alliance was “to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.’ The Soviet Union hasn’t existed since 1991. Germany threatens no one. But the Americans are still ’in’ despite the fact that the European Union’s gross domestic product is nearly 70 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Restructuring NATO appears to be one aspect of the forthcoming National Defense Strategy (NDS) as foreshadowed in War Secretary Hegseth’s statement of May 2, 2025. „Secretary Hegseth outlined three priorities for the NDS: defense of the homeland, deterring China in the Indo-Pacific, and burden-sharing with our allies and partners throughout the world. Burden-sharing includes most especially NATO”. Under Secretary for Policy Colby is heading-up the NDS, just as he did in Trump’s first term. „Colby’s 2018 NDS shifted the department’s focus from small peripheral wars to great power competition, especially with China. Colby also has expressed concern that wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have distracted American policymakers from the greater threat in the Indo-Pacific. Trump’s Middle East peace proposals, efforts to end the Ukraine War, and repeated calls for greater burden-sharing by our European allies fit neatly within the forthcoming NDS as projected by Hegseth. The forthcoming 2025 NDS, however, will refocus the War Department on protecting the homeland and securing the Western Hemisphere as part of Trump’s America First foreign policy. This approach has already manifested itself in sealing the nation’s southern border, mass deportations of illegal aliens, a renewed interest in controlling the Panama Canal, talk about acquiring Greenland, dispatching National Guard troops to combat crime in major cities, and using the armed forces to attack narco-terrorists in the Caribbean Sea. Trump has reinvigorated the Monroe Doctrine, which the Obama-Biden administrations treated as a historical relic of a distant past”. Trump’s approach to defense strategy is geographical. It begins with homeland and hemispheric defense and then prioritizes U.S. interests in Eurasia by seeking to shift resources from the Middle East and Europe to the Indo-Pacific. Finally, it recalls Reagan’s approach of peace through strength. The 2025 NDS will not be isolationist or limited to hemispheric defense. As Spykman pointed out in America’s Strategy in World Politics, “hemispheric defense is no defense at all.” But failing to protect the homeland and secure the Western Hemisphere would cripple our ability to project power abroad when it is in our interests to do so. The 2025 NDS will focus on geographical interests rather than “values.” The U.S. armed forces should fight for concrete security interests, not for “democracy.” The Trump administration’s approach to the NDS and NATO received (surprising) support in the pages of Foreign Affairs. Kavanagh of Georgetown’s Center for Security Studies and Slezkine of the Stimson Center applaud Trump for seeking to rebalance the transatlantic relationship. Kavanaugh and Slezkine agree with Trump’s refocus on the Western Hemisphere and counsel “pulling back from Europe and “avoiding the hard ‘pivot to Asia.’ ” NATO, they continue,” should “confine its activities to the Euro-Atlantic region” instead of ’going global’ in search of new missions after the fall of the Soviet Union. Like Kennan did, Kavanaugh and Slezkine criticize NATO enlargement as unnecessary and provocative. As in Ukraine, Trump should reduce the “risk of entanglement and the temptation U.S. policymakers might feel to support direct involvement.” Also, like Kennan, they are critical of the internationalists’ scheme to promote democracy throughout the world. Kavanaugh and Slezkine urge Trump to carry out a “retrenchment” of U.S. forces in Europe and to “narrow the scope of the U.S. military commitment to Europe in a crisis.” There is no longer a need for U.S. soldiers to be on the frontlines in Europe. Kavanaugh and Slezkine also urge Trump to avoid a strong pivot to Asia as recommended by so-called “China hawks’ within the administration. Instead, they argue, the U.S. should “pivot home” by focusing on the Western Hemisphere, border security, missile defense, and port security. Their proposed “pivot home” will surely be part of the 2025 NDS, but they may be too sanguine about the threat posed by China to our interests in the Indo-Pacific. „NATO was an important alliance, but as currently structured it has outlived its usefulness. Europe can stand on its own two feet without being tethered to the U.S. umbilical cord. Sevent-six years as a dependent is enough”. (Source: RealClearWorld)
by Sempa

South America

Venezuela
12.10.2025  President Maduro orders large-scale drills involving over 1,500 soldiers and civilians to defend national sovereignty amid tensions with US. The drill aims to strengthen the protection of public institutions, maintain internal order, and enhance the effectiveness of Venezuela’s air defense systems. President Maduro announced via social media that new defense zones have been established in the northeastern states of Anzoategui, Monagas, and Bolivar. He emphasized that these zones form a vital corridor extending from the Caribbean Sea to the Orinoco River and down to the Brazilian border. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

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Europe

Council of Europe
7 October 2025  Gender identity frameworks have been integrated into European Union and Council of Europe policies largely behind closed doors. New norms are being introduced through soft law instruments such as guidelines, strategies and recommendations, rather than through open legislative debate. A new policy report published by the Austrian-based think-tank Athena Forum titled Beneath the Surface: How Gender Identity is Reshaping Europe is a much-needed European initiative to fight for sex-based rights and democratic values. It argues that the shift from biological sex to self-defined gender identity has led to the erosion of long-standing sex-based rights across the continent. “We have watched the meaning of woman, the clarity of law and the basis for sex-based rights erode under the weight of ideological capture,' the authors write. The report highlights the role of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the European Institute for Gender Equality and the Council of Europe’s SOGIESC Unit in embedding these definitions into policy and professional training, shaping policy norms in Brussels and Strasbourg. Groups receive tens of millions of euros in funding from EU programmes, 'philanthropic foundations and international donors'. 'This shift is not just linguistic; it is structural, altering how institutions understand rights, allocate resources and distribute power.' The distinction between sex and gender have blurred. Terms such as gender identity are replacing sex as the basis for equality law and funding priorities. This redefinition threatens women’s rights, children’s safeguarding and the legal coherence of equality legislation. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

European Commission
09.10.2025  European Commission President survived a double no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday, overcoming challenges from 'far-right' and 'far-left' lawmakers that aimed to unseat her. This is der Leyen's second defense against a no-confidence motion this year. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

October 7, 2025  'In 2021, when Russia started amassing troops along its border with Ukraine, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed that the European Union invite Russian President Putin for a summit. Kallas - then the prime minister of Estonia, a country of 1.3 million - slammed the idea. Rather than hope that the Russian president’s behavior would change, she argued, Europe should recognize that he had been acting entirely consistently for years, since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The proposal was dropped, but Kallas rose in stature'. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)

European Parliament
7 October 2025  Members of European Parliament express reluctant support for European Commission chief ahead of censure vote. MEPs will vote on the two censorship motions at midday on October 9. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

Asia

Taiwan
10/8/2025  Taiwan is almost entirely dependent on imported fuel. The liquefied natural gas is used to generate nearly half of Taiwan’s electricity. Taiwan’s current reliance on Qatar for 30% of its LNG is seen as a pressure point. Some 97% of Taiwan’s energy is imported by sea. Taiwan’s government is looking anew at nuclear power, just months after it shut down its last reactor. Two U.S. senators introduced legislation in September that would support Taiwan’s ability to secure a reliable supply of American LNG from the current 10%, including providing U.S. insurance for shippers to keep deliveries flowing if the island is threatened. Taiwan oil group CPC signed a letter of intent this year to buy millions of tons of Alaskan LNG and potentially invest in a pipeline and liquefaction project. Japan has LNG storage capacity that could serve as a crucial backstop in a U.S.-led effort to resupply Taiwan in a blockade. Beijing could subject vessels serving Taiwan to inspection by declaring a law-enforcement or health action. Since a blockade is an act of war against an enemy state, China would call its action something else, such as a quarantine. A Chinese quarantine would force Taiwan and the U.S. to decide whether to take military action and potentially be accused of starting a war. In a blockade, Taiwan’s LNG supplies would last under two weeks, while coal would last seven. Under a blockade, or in a quasi-wartime state, your industry and pretty much everything else would have to slow down. Wartime would cut the island’s energy consumption by two-thirds. Solar and wind power don’t yet come close to making the island self-sufficient. (Source: The Wall Stret Journal = U.S.)
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North America

United States
October 10, 2025  At base, Trump appears to believe that the sheer volume of peacemaking initiatives will force the Nobel committee’s hand. There is no reason to believe this is correct, but it is worth thinking through the implications his belief will have for future U.S. diplomacy. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)

October 10, 2025  Today, Venezuela has the largest population of exiles, with more than 8 million people living abroad. For Venezuelans in South Florida who fled political repression and persectution in their home country, the dream of a democratic transition felt closer than ever today: Opposition leader Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Machado received the award 15 months after the Venezuelan opposition participated in a presidential election from which she was barred from running. Since the election, Machado has gone into hiding to avoid arrest. (Source: Miami Herald - U.S.)

Friday, 10 October 2025  Shakeup of military hierachy continues. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

10/8/2025  Bray, a Rutgers University history professor who teaches about antifascism, has written four books on anarchism and antifa. One of them, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, is a history of postwar antifascism. One online activist called Bray a domestic terrorist professor. Another shared the address of his home in New Jersey. The campus’s chapter of the conservative student group Turning Point USA then launched a petition yesterday to demand that the university fire him, referencing Trump’s executive order and claiming Bray is a risk to their safety. Bray has taught courses spanning terrorism, human rights, modern Germany and communism at Rutgers since 2019, joining the Rutgers history department. He told his students Sunday that his courses would move online immediately. He is moving out of the United States for the year to Europe, to Spain. Bray added that he knows some professors who are searching for jobs in Canada or England. (Source: MSN - U.S.)

Oct 08, 2025  Citing low munitions stockpiles, the Pentagon is urging weapons contractors to accelerate missile production, doubling or even quadrupling production rates. It hopes to boost production rates for 12 types of missiles it wants on-hand, including Patriot interceptor missiles, Standard Missile-6, THAAD interceptors, and joint air-surface standoff missiles. But experts tell that this ambitious missile production ramp-up is a time-intensive, costly, and logistically challenging endeavor that may ultimately fail without substantive financial commitment from the DoD. The Pentagon has burnt through many of its munitions in ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel - at a rate faster than it can replace them. Cancian (Colonel, USMCR, ret.), a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told that, if the necessary funding was available, the U.S. defense industrial base could double the production of many missiles over about two years, merely by having existing weapons factories double-up on production shifts and workers. The “Big Beautiful Bill” passed earlier this year allocated $25 billion over the next five years toward munitions funding; the Pentagon’s new missile production targets may well cost tens of billions more. The SM-6 (Standard Missile-6), which the Pentagon also wants to ramp up, costs about $4.3 million each. Washington needs to assess its current foreign commitments, primarily in Ukraine and Israel, before it depletes its current stores further, requiring more money, more industry, and more time to get back up to fighting shape. In other words, say experts, put the much needed focus back on the U.S. national interest even if that means turning off the spigot for other countries. Defense writer Fredenburg estimated in August that Israel’s wars on Gaza and Iran, together with the U.S. campaign on Yemen’s Houthis earlier this year, consumed 33% of the U.S. stock of Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), and 17% of the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), since 2023. The U.S. used a quarter of its THAAD missile interceptors during the Israel-Iran war alone. And the Guardian reported in July that the U.S. only had 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it would need for the Pentagon’s military plans - having sent many to Ukraine, which still often lacks them. (Source: Responsible Statecraft - U.S.)

08.10.2025  The US Senate confirmed 107 of President Trump’s nominees Tuesday which included ambassadors, agency heads and US attorneys. Democrats blocked an earlier agreement to speed up the process before the August recess, leaving hundreds of nominations stalled for months. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

October 7, 2025  Following a deployment to the North Sea and the Arctic region, the United States Navy’s newest and largest nuclear-powered supercarrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), transited the Straits of Gibraltar and was spotted operating in the Mediterranean Sea. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

NATO

October 10, 2025  Northern Tarassis Exercise is taking place from the Arctic to the Baltic Sea, involving ground, maritime, and air forces from 10 nations. The exercise started in early September and will run until the end of October. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

Friday 10 October 2025  NATO is set to conduct its major annual nuclear exercise - the Steadfast Noon drill- beginning Monday. Running for around two weeks, the exercise will be led by the Netherlands and involve 71 aircraft from 14 NATO nations. It has been held annually for over a decade. Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads are taking part, but no nuclear weapons or live munitions will be used. The bulk of the exercise is being held in the North Sea, far from Russia. It will involve military bases in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands. The United States and Britain, with their nuclear forces, are key to NATO’s strategic deterrence. France also has nuclear weapons but is not a part of the organization’s nuclear planning group. The United States is providing F-35 jets capable of carrying conventional or nuclear weapons, refueling planes and other support aircraft. Finland and Poland are sending fighter jets. A big part of the exercise will focus on protecting nuclear weapons on the ground. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

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Europe

France
9 October 2025  France’s royal pretender, Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, has criticised the country’s deepening political and institutional crisis and urged the French to look to their monarchic heritage as a source of renewal and hope. Regarded by royalist traditionalist „legitimists” as Louis XX, the rightful heir to the long-abolished French throne, de Bourbon traces his lineage directly to King Louis XIV through Philip V of Spain. According to de Bourbon, France’s Republican system itself encourages division rather than unity or long-term vision. ’The Republic, true to its history, remains subject to partisan logic. Although the Constitution desired by General de Gaulle appeared to seek a remedy for this flaw, it must be acknowledged that fifty years later, the scourge that has so often brought suffering to France has reappeared with renewed force,’ he wrote in a column for the Journal du Dimanche. “I believe it is my duty, as head of the House of Bourbon and heir to the dynasty that built France, to speak out on this matter.” De Bourbon criticised those who put their career before their country. ’Once again, parties and politicians, far from acting in the higher interest of France and therefore of the French people, prefer to play their own games,’ he said. ’As has so often been the case in the past, the republican institutions and the political class are proving unequal to the challenges of our time,’ he wrote. The French political class to be corrupt, he said, while calling for the restoration of the moral and cultural monarchy as a source of inspiration for rebuilding the country. In his column, he presents himself as a legitimate moral voice as he is the descendant of France’s former kings, and claims historical responsibility for the nation’s well-being. The Fifth Republic, like its predecessors, could be on the verge of collapse, he predicted. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

(7 October 2025)  Time may be running out for Master of clocks Macron. He is more likely to dissolve parliament than step down. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Oct 6, 2025  At the end of the first quarter of 2025, France’s public debt stood at 3.346 trillion euros ($3.9 trillion), or 114% of GDP. France’s new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned less than a month in office and less than 24 hours after naming a new government that prompted a key coalition ally to withdraw support - the conservatives who hold 50 seats, objected to his choice for defense minister. As France is faced with a massive debt crisis, Lecornu’s main task would have been to pass a budget. National Rally is calling on President Macron to either call for new snap parliamentary elections or resign. France Unbowed also asks for Macron’s departure. (Source:PBS - U.S.)

Germany
6 October 2025  Former German chancellor Angela Merkel told Hungarian Youtube channel Partizan on October 3 that she had proposed that EU members agree a new format for negotiating with Russia in 2021, before the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. She has blamed Poland and the Baltic States for war in Ukraine, turning down a proposal for the European Union to negotiate directly with Russia on Ukraine. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

Russia
October 9, 2025  ’My own best estimate of Russia’s military losses, based on multiple sources’, is 350,000 killed—or close to a million if one includes those who cannot return to service because of severed limbs or other permanent injuries. Many are listed as missing in action, including tens of thousands of unrecovered corpses. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)
by Kovalev, an 'independent journalist and former investigations editor at Meduza who left Russia in 2022.

08/10/2025 - 17:55  Russia’s foreign intelligence service has accused Western countries of plotting false flag operations to discredit Moscow. Russia accused Polish intelligence on September 30 of working with Ukrainian agents to create a fake Russian-Belarusian special forces unit aimed at attacking Polish infrastructure. A week earlier, the SVR claimed that NATO and EU officials were planning provocations in Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria. The SVR alleged on October 6 that the UK was recruiting Ukrainian agents to stage a maritime attack that would appear to have been carried out by Russia. The supposed plan included the use of Chinese equipment, which the SVR said was intended to implicate Beijing as well. The agency claimed the operatives were instructed to get arrested by Western authorities and then claim they had acted on orders from Moscow. Phase 0 is Western terminology which corresponds in Russian military doctrine to a special period – a concept inherited from the Soviet era – ’describing a phase of heightened tensions immediately before war breaks out’. During this special period, Russian doctrine focuses on sowing confusion, justifying future military actions and solidifying domestic support. While these accusations are directed at Western governments, their primary audience appears to be domestic, through Russian media outlets to shape public opinion at home, portraying Russia as perpetually under siege. Russia always invariably claims to be on the defence. This helps maintain internal support and frame any future military action as a necessity. Part of the hybrid warfare playbook – meant to sow confusion and blur the line between peace and wartime - these false flag claims could be part of a strategy to pre-emptively discredit Western narratives – ’or to justify real acts of sabotage later on’. Moscow’s objective may be less about striking first and more about signalling the potential cost of any future confrontation. „Instead of planning an outright offensive, Russia appears to be shaping the narrative – offering the West a preview of what open conflict with Moscow might look like, while positioning itself to deny accountability if escalation occurs. (Source: France 24)

October 8, 2025 12:12 PM GMT+2  Russia will shoot down Tomahawk cruise missiles and bomb their launch sites if the United States decides to supply them to Ukraine, a senior Russian lawmaker said today. ’Our response will be tough, ambiguous, measured, and asymmetrical. We will find ways to hurt those who cause us trouble,’ Kartapolov, a former deputy defence minister, head of the Russian parliament's defence committee, told the state RIA news agency. He said Tomahawks could only be given in small numbers - in tens rather than hundreds. "We know these missiles very well, how they fly, how to shoot them down; we worked with them in Syria, so there is nothing new. The only problems will be for those who supply them and those who use them; that's where the problems will be,’ he said. Kartapolov was also cited as saying that Moscow had so far seen no signs that Ukraine was preparing launch sites for Tomahawks, something he said Kyiv would not be able to hide if it got such missiles. If and when that happened, he said Russia would use drones and missiles to destroy any launchers. U.S. President Trump said on Monday he would want to know what Ukraine planned to do with Tomahawks before agreeing to provide them because he did not want to escalate the war between Russia and Ukraine. He said, however, that he had sort of made a decision on the matter. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Oct.6.2025 1:40PM  The first flight of the KVN drone took place in June 2024, just in time for the Ukrainian invasion in Kursk. Tchadaiev deployed 230 models on the ground, and the drone, which costs $500, destroyed 42 of the 50 Western armored vehicles in a specific Ukrainian offensive. (Source: Folha de S. Paulo - Brazil)

6:31 pm, October 6, 2025  Over the last month, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) have succeeded in slowing the Russian army’s advance in central Donbas. In August, Ukraine redeployed significant forces from other fronts to reinforce defenses around Russia’s breakthrough between Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka, leaving other sectors more vulnerable. Russian troops have advanced toward Sloviansk along both banks of the Siverskyi Donets River, capturing the Kreminna Forests. Another Russian force is advancing almost unopposed westward along the Dnipropetrovsk–Zaporizhzhia regional border, in addition to smaller-scale crises in Ukrainian defenses near Orikhiv, south of Zaporizhzhia, and around Kupyansk in the eastern Kharkiv region. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)
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Ukraine
Wednesday 08 October 2025 19:52 BST  A Russian drone attack struck an oil depot in Ukraine's Chernihiv region today morning. The National Energy Company of Ukraine said that several regions of Ukraine have been left without power. In the Chernihiv region the local power company is forced to implement three simultaneous hourly power cuts. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

October 6, 2025  How and why Ukraine’s military is going digital? The analysis presented in this paper is based primarily on interviews conducted with representatives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the MOD, and the Defense Procurement Agency. These interviews provided first-hand insights into the evolving practices of defense acquisition and procurement under wartime conditions. (Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies - U.S.)
by Bondar, a fellow with the Wadhwani AI Center at the CSIS in Washington, D.C.

Europe
10/08/2025  For the European Union, political trouble rises in the east. Russia’s refusal to halt its grinding war in Ukraine is only part of the problem. The E.U. is in turmoil.   France is ’in a soap-operatic financial and political crisis’; its latest prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, resigned Monday after less than a month in office. French President Macron is seriously weakened at home.    Germany is mired in economic malaise. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz yet to achieve the stature and influence once commanded by Angela Merkel. The recent developments may further tip the E.U political balance to the right.    In the Czech Republic on Sunday, another ’populist’ Euroskeptic and Ukraine critic, the billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis, won national parliamentary elections, to replace the ’pro-Western’, pro-Ukraine coalition led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala. Babis and his right wing ANO (Yes) Party, ran under the banner of “Czechia first.” He promised to raise wages and pensions - and to shut down the Czech-led program that sends most of Europe’s artillery shells to Ukraine, denouncing the country’s outgoing government for giving ’Czech mothers nothing, and Ukrainians everything. Babis has said it’s not the arms, but how they are procured, that is the problem. He claims the program is corrupt and that Czech arms merchants are making a fortune. Babis wants the program shifted to NATO. After the election, Babis said the Czech Republic would remain a reliable partner in the E.U. and NATO. “We criticize the European Union, but we don’t want to destroy it,” ANO deputy leader Havlicek told the BBC. “We want to reform it.” Babis said talks have begun with the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, which has called for Ukraine immigrants to be deported, and the new Motorists for Themselves party, which opposes the E.U.’s green deal. Both are deeply skeptical about the European project. If Babis succeeds in forming a government coalition, officials in Brussels expect he will join Orbán and Fico to obstruct assistance for Ukraine and oppose new pressure on Russia. Babis, 71, boasted he has met President Trump multiple times. He is also good friends with Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán, who on Monday told the news site EconomX. that his country should not adopt the euro currency because the E.U. is disintegrating.    Since 2010, PM Orbán has fashioned himself as a champion of “illiberal Christian democracy”- 'which led the European Union to suspend $21 billion in funding'. Mr Orbán is pledging to veto any attempt to start formal E.U. membership talks with Ukraine. He accused E.U. leaders of developing war plans against Russia. On October 2, at a leaders’ summit in Denmark, he dismissed as a nonstarter a plan by European Council President Costa to fast-track membership talks with Ukraine. “I do not agree,” Viktor Orbán said. “So this plan is dead".   In neighboring Slovakia, SMER party’s leader, Prime Minister Robert Fico was attending Victory Day celebrations in Beijing and Moscow and meeting with Presidents Xi and Putin. Fico said during a televised debate on Sunday that the goal of his country is not the defeat of the Russian Federation. „Our goal is to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible. These are Slavs killing each other. War is not a solution.” He added: ’If the E.U. spent as much energy on peace as it does on supporting the war in Ukraine, the war could have been over long ago.” Orbán and Fico have resisted calls to stop purchasing Russian oil and natural gas, which Trump has demanded as a condition of imposing new sanctions on Moscow - raising questions about whether any new pressure on the Kremlin will be forthcoming from Washington.    The ’dependably dull, staunchly democratic ittle’ Lithuania saw mass protests over the weekend. Artists took to the streets to demand the ouster of the culture minister from the ’populist’ Nemunas Dawn Party, whose leader has been dogged by charges of antisemitism. Nemunas Dawn joined the government after Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas resigned this summer under a cloud of corruption allegations, forcing his Social Democratic Party to find new coalition partners.    E.U. heads of state and government are clashing openly with one another. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk faces challenges at home, with the June election of conservative historian Nawrocki as president of Poland. Supported by Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party and endorsed by Trump, Nawrocki ran a successful “Poland for Poles” campaign. Nawrocki wants Germany to pay steep reparations for Nazi crimes during World War II. The Polish president plans to fight illegal immigration, defend the Polish currency and limit the powers of the European Union. Nawrocki is highly critical of Russia - he recently called Putin a war criminal - but he is wary of Ukraine, which he insists should not be allowed to join NATO or the European Union. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

Africa

Burkina Faso
07/10/2025  Burkina Faso's military government said today it had arrested eight members of International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO), a Netherlands-based group specialising in humanitarian safety, including a Frenchman, a French-Senegalese woman, a Czech man, a Malian and four Burkinabe nationals, accusing them of spying and treason. Since seizing power in a September 2022 coup, Burkina Faso's military junta has turned away from the West and, in particular, its former colonial ruler France. Burkinabe authorities often repress dissent within civil society and the media, claiming it as part of the battle against jihadist violence that has plagued the country for a decade. (Source: France 24 "with AFP" = France)

Egypt
6 October 2025  Rising Nile waters inundated homes and fields in northern Egypt over the weekend. This year a late-season surge has pushed north from Ethiopia, through Sudan, and into Egypt. Egypt has accused Ethiopia of reckless unilateral operation of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat - headquartered in London, United Kingdom, owned by a member of the Saudi royal family)

Mali
Tuesday 07/10/2025  'The war in Ukraine and terrorism in the Sahel are connected,' Malian Prime Minister General Maiga said at the United Nations in late September. ''The Ukrainian regime has become one of the main suppliers of kamikaze drones to terrorist groups around the world,' he said. From explosive drones to inflatable decoy vehicles, Tuareg rebels in Mali have increasingly turned to tactics learnt from Ukrainian intelligence to strike the west African country’s army and its Russian allies. While the Tuaregs have ties to Kiev, Mali has increasingly relied on Russian mercenaries for help in fighting both the rebels and the jihadists affiliated with al-Qaeda and the isis extremist group roaming the wider Sahel region. Turkish drones gave the Malian army and its Russian partner an advantage over the Tuareg rebels when they captured the rebel stronghold of Kidal in 2023. In July 2024, Ukrainian military intelligence official, Yusov, implied that Kiev had provided information to the rebels so they could carry out an attack. The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), created in November 2024, consists mostly of Tuareg, a semi-nomadic people of Berber descent. The FLA separatists, considered terrorists in the Sahel capitals, have joined forces at times with the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM). Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, all ruled by military juntas that have turned their backs on the West to move closer to Russia, have severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine, accusing it of supplying weapons to the FLA. (Source: The Arab Weekly - put out by Al Arab Publishing House in London, United Kingdom)

Nobel Prize in Literature

Oct 9, 2025  Hungarian writer Krasznahorkai, whose philosophical, bleakly funny novels often unfold in single sentences, won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, 'in the midst of apocalyptic terror', reaffirms the power of art. Several works including his debut, Sátántangó, and The Melancholy of Resistance were turned into films by Hungarian director Tarr. Krasznahorkai is a great epic writer in the Central European tradition that extends through Kafka to Bernhard, and is characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess, the Nobel judges said. Krasznahorkai, 71, has received many awards including the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. He also won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in the U.S. in 2019 for Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming. He was friends with American poet and writer Ginsberg and would regularly stay in Ginsberg’s apartment while visiting New York City. He is the first winner from Hungary since Kertesz in 2002. Last year's prize was won by South Korean author Han for her body of work that the committee said confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life. Nobel Prize award ceremonies are held on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. Each prize carries an award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million), and the winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma. (Source: Korea Times - South Korea)

October 09, 2025  The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Hungarian author Krasznahorkai, at Borshuset in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct 9, 2025. The second Hungarian to win the prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, after Kertesz in 2002, Krasznahorkai was born in the small town of Gyula in southeast Hungary. His 1985 novel, Sátántangó, is set in a remote rural area. The novel portrays, in powerfully suggestive terms, a destitute group of residents on an abandoned collective farm in the Hungarian countryside just before the fall of communism, the Academy said. Several of his works have been adapted into films by Tarr. In 1993, he received the German Bestenliste Prize for the best literary work of the year for The Melancholy of Resistance. (Source: AsiaOne – Singapore)

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Czechia
05/10/2025  Czech billionaire Andrej Babiš outperformed pre-election polls to secure 35% of the vote - the second-best result of a winning party in the Czech Republic since the fall of communism. Babiš said talks were already underway with far-right and populist forces that have denounced European Union policies on migration and climate. Echoing Trump, the 71-year-old former premier canvassed the eastern European nation with pledges to put Czechs first, bring an end to fiscal austerity measures and curb military aid to Ukraine. Babiš made clear that he would spurn values advanced by the European Union bloc in favour of a more transactional approach. The two smaller groups with whom Babiš is pursuing an agreement - the populist Motorists, committed to a wholesale rejection of the EU’s climate agenda and the anti-migration Freedom and Direct Democracy, or SPD, which has advocate leaving the bloc - would give him a path to a parliamentary majority, with the three holding a projected 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house of parliament. Babiš said on yesterday he would seek to govern alone, with parliamentary support from the two factions. The billionaire has rejected holding a referendum on EU membership, having called the UK’s experience with Brexit a disaster. After the vote Babis lamented what he called the over-regulation and soaring prices in the bloc, saying that ’Europe is suffering - Europe is not competitive anymore.’ “We want to save Europe - we are clearly pro-European and pro-NATO,” he said at party headquarters. In contrast with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, Babiš has never aligned himself with Russian President Putin, but has vowed to buck the EU trend on defense spending and migration. Babiš has taken aim at the flagship Czech aid initiative for Ukraine, a program to source and deliver ammunition to Kyiv. He reiterated his position that the initiative serves only to enrich weapons producers - but said he would discuss the issue with Zelenskiy and handle it transparently. Orbán celebrated the candidate’s victory, saying that “Truth has prevailed!” in the region. Babiš said he wants to boost infrastructure and other investments to get the economy grow as much as 4% a year and pledged to bring CEZ AS, the country’s biggest power producer, fully into state hands. One of Babiš’s ambitions is to reassert the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary - a group known as the Visegrad Four - as a regional force, uniting the voices of 65 million citizens to have greater voice in the 27-member bloc. (Source: Luxembourg Times / Bloomberg - U.S.)

(Sunday) 05.10.2025  'Populist' billionaire Babis' ANO Party wins Czech elections with 35.5% of vote. Around 8 million voters cast their ballots on Friday and Saturday, with 26 parties and groupings competing for seats in the 200-member lower house, four more than in the last elections in 2021. Polling stations closed at 2 pm (1200GMT) local time on Saturday. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

05/10/2025  The ANO party, lead by billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis won this weekend's parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic. With nearly all ballots counted by Saturday night, Babis and his ANO ("Yes") party had around 35 percent of the vote. His victory was based partly on campaign promises to halt aid to Ukraine. The centre-right, ’pro-western’ coalition led by the outgoing prime minister, Petr Fiala, had 23 percent. A total of six parties will make up the new parliament. Babis said he would seek backing from both the anti-immigration, eurosceptic Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party which got just short of 8 percent and a right-wing group calling itself the Motorists which won around 7 percent for an ANO government. An admirer of US President Trump and ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the European Parliament, on good terms with Slovakia's Robert Fico, Babis nonetheless stressed that his party was pro-European and pro-NATO. Describing himself as a "peacemonger" calling for a truce in the war with Russia, Babis has vowed a "Czechs first" approach. The Czech Republic has donated arms to the Ukrainian military and has also taken in some 500,000 Ukrainian refugees, 300,000 of whom are still living there. Babis is on good terms with Hungary's Orbán. In 2024 they co-founded the ’far-right’ Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, which includes France's National Rally among other parties. (Source: rfi - France)

Finland
October 3, 2025  Finland, the European Union, and the United States have recently raised concerns about Beijing's links to data cables, citing worries about national security, data integrity, and geopolitical stability over this vital infrastructure for NATO countries. Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat has reported growing security concerns in the country over the Chinese state-owned firm Citic Telecom CPC, through its subsidiaries, owning and operating the three underwater telecommunications cables linking Finland, Estonia, and Sweden. The head of Finland's National Cyber Security Centre told the paper that Beijing’s link was of concern because whoever controlled the cable had access to its data traffic. The network comprises three separate routes: one between Finland and Estonia, a second between Finland and Sweden, and a third between Estonia and Sweden. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Germany
3 October 2025  The rape of Europe - both metaphorical and literal - continues because we lack the civilisational confidence to defend what previous generations built. The majority’s misguided legislation is driven by fashionable ideology, our legal institutions stand helpless before a phenomenon they were never designed to address. The acquittal of ten suspects in a Vienna sexual abuse case involving a twelve-year-old girl represents far more than a judicial failure. Similarly, the Hamburg park case, where nine men gang-raped a fifteen-year-old girl over several hours, resulted in suspended sentences for all but one perpetrator. In Germany alone, we now witness between 600 and 800 gang rapes annually. This represents a crime category that scarcely existed in European consciousness until recently, but now should be dealt with on a daily basis. It is the descent back into barbarism. Judges bend over backwards to excuse the inexcusable: 'She appeared older than twelve'; 'The sexual acts were completely consensual'. The Christian moral assumptions that permeate even our secular society, created a social contract where women could walk safely at night, trusting in men’s self-imposed restraint. This social contract requires reciprocal recognition. When mass migration introduces populations operating under fundamentally different moral systems - where women are categorised as either 'good girls' (veiled, sequestered, controlled) or 'ungodly girls' (available for exploitation) - the entire framework collapses. Our legal system, built on assumptions of shared moral understanding, finds itself 'paralyzed'. In Hamburg, a twenty-year-old woman received a harsher sentence for calling a gang rapist a disgraceful rapist pig than the rapist himself received for his crime. This inversion of justice - where defending the innocent becomes more punishable than destroying them - reveals a system that has lost all moral bearings. The judicial activism transforms perpetrators into victims through sociological alchemy: Poverty, marginalisation, and 'structural exclusion' become excuses for the most heinous crimes. We face a choice that cannot be postponed much longer. Either we restore the domain of obedience to the unenforceable by ensuring that only those who accept our civilisational premises remain among us, or we surrender that domain entirely and accept the authoritarian consequences. The first option requires acknowledging uncomfortable truths about cultural compatibility and implementing deportation policies for those unwilling to internalise European moral standards. The second leads to a surveillance state that would make Orwell blanc. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

Sweden
Oct 03, 2025  In late September, Sweden held its annual Preparedness Week, where authorities seek to raise awareness as part of the country's total defence strategy. The country revived the strategy in 2015 following Russia's annexation of Crimea, and more measures were introduced - including the appointment of a Minister for Civil Defence - after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Everyone is encouraged to stockpile enough food to live independently for at least seven days without external aid in the event of a crisis. Food transportation would be a real challenge 'in the event of an armed conflict': A large part of food production is concentrated in the south and the majority of imports also primarily arrive in these regions. The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has published a list of recommended foods that are high in fat and protein, and easy to store. It includes pesto, dried meat or fish, jam, chocolate, mashed potatoes, powdered milk and biscuits. In a war scenario, Qvarfort, emergency planning officer at the Swedish Food Agency told, that on average the increased need for people 'will be' about 100 calories. The agency has twice sent out a brochure to all Swedish households informing them of how to act in a crisis, once in 2018 and then in 2024. According to an MSB survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending 'in the event of a military attack', and 76 percent would be willing to defend it as part of Swedish civil defence. Its survey, published in March, showed that 39 percent of people felt worried when receiving the 2024 edition, compared to 24 percent in 2018. (Source: Barron's - U.S. / Agence France-Presse)

Georgia
Sunday, 05/10/2025  The governing Georgian Dream party said yesterday it won local elections in every municipality. The two largest ’pro-Western’ opposition blocs boycotted election in the country of 3.7 million people. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that up to 7,000 people attended a rally today, in a failed ’attempt to overthrow the constitutional order.’ He vowed opposition arrests, first and foremost the organisers of the attempted overthrow, adding that they, the country's main opposition force, will no longer be allowed to be active in Georgian politics. Georgian riot police used pepper spray and water cannons to drive demonstrators away from the presidential palace. Kobakhidze alleged that protesters who sought to force entry to the presidential palace had been trying to topple the government and were supported by the European Union. He accused EU Ambassador Herczynski of meddling in Georgian politics and urged him to condemn the protests. (Source: France 24 with Reuters - United Kingdom, and AFP - France)

Russia
Sun, October 5, 2025 at 12:00 PM GMT+2  In 2024, Russian President Putin decreed foreign nationals fighting in the army’s ranks would receive passports for themselves and their families. Since then, travel agencies and brokers have drawn people from all over the world to join what they call Russia’s elite international battalion, dangling a raft of benefits to attract would-be recruits. Estimates are ’putting the number of foreign fighters in Russian army ranks in the tens of thousands’. Many come from disadvantaged countries in the Middle East, Africa and South and East Asia. Some 2,000 Iraqis are thought to have enlisted, but press reports indicate thousands joining from Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Jordan. Fighters from Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cuba and Syria, who in the past came in significant numbers, are no longer allowed to join, according to the Russian defense ministry. Foreigners have also served on the opposing side, ’with Ukrainian officials stating in the past that roughly 20,000 fighters from 50 countries joined Ukraine’s International Legion, including around 3,000 Iraqis’. In the Russian military, many of the enlisted foreigners came to Russia first as students, but their visas lapsed and they do not want to return home. A significant number also travel to Moscow on tourist visas after they are approved by the military and are met by a broker and a Russian officer at the airport. Once in Russia, they sign a contract with the Russian ministry of defense. Offers vary, but recruits can receive a signing bonus of 1.5 million rubles (around $17,000), and depending on where they fight, get a monthly salary ranging between $2,500 to $3,500 - a life-changing amount in countries like Egypt, where the average salary barely exceeds $300. Training lasts four to six weeks and includes language instruction so foreigners can follow basic commands in Russian. They receive citizenship soon after they join, and are given a two-week paid vacation six months into their one-year deployment. If they are killed or wounded, their families can claim the money and citizenship. Among the recruitment ads, which appear in Arabic and other languages, some keep up a steady rhythm of posts extolling the Russian army’s victories in Ukraine. Several photos depict foreign soldiers after they receive their citizenship, smiling to the camera and proudly showing off their passports. In one post is saying that they add to the victory against the neo-Nazis from Ukraine. Members of a thousands-strong Telegram community group run by an Iraqi with the nickname Abbass the Supporter - who served in the Russian military for three years but now works as a broker and answers questions about deployments on his TikTok channel - participate in chats asking how quickly they can get their visa and travel. The E-visa form inquires about military experience. A channel, run by an Iraqi man who calls himself Bahjat, has almost 30,000 subscribers. Bahjat said those coming to the Russian army from abroad should expect to go into combat, and that breaking the contract risks imprisonment. What, you think a country is going to give you money and citizenship so you come and cook? he said in a WhatsApp chat. “I’ll give it to you straight. Everyone coming here is going to the frontline and to the war. Anyone saying otherwise is speaking nonsense.” (Source: Yahoo / Los Angeles Times = U.S.)

(Saturday), 04/10/2025 - 22:33  Ukraine's railway network is essential for military transport. Today, a Russian drone attack hit two passenger trains in quick succession at a Ukrainian railway station in northern Sumy region, first targeting a local service and then one bound for Kyiv. About 30 people were injured. No fatalities were reported in the immediate aftermath. (Source: France 24 with Reuters - United Kingdom, AP - U.S.)

4 October 2025 - 14:07  In August this year, Ukraine revealed ’its’ new FP-5 Flamingo, a cruise missile that allegedly has a range of up to 3,000 kilometres. Google Earth has recently updated satellite images for the archipelago Novaya Zemlya, making it possible to study details on the ground. The images from Severny, taken on August 14 this year show how the three rows of fuel tanks supplying the settlement now are covered with blueish metal nets. The nets - known as cope cages - are aimed at stopping drones from exploding on the tanks, and by that means preventing the fuel itself from igniting. The fuel tanks close to the port store gasoline for the vehicles used at the nuclear test site. Severny is one of Russia's most secret military towns. The main activity today is taking place in a shaft complex 3 km south of the settlement. There is also one tunnel in the valley ready and one more under construction, if Moscow one day should decide to resume nuclear testing. All activities at Severny are supervised by the Defence Ministry's 12th Main Directorate, responsible for safe-keeping, technical maintenance, transportation and delivery of nuclear warheads. The directorate is one of Russia’s most secretive military structures. On Novaya Zemlya, the 12th directorate cooperates with the nuclear weapon designers of Rosatom, the state corporation that produces Russia's plutonium and highly enriched weapons-grade uranium. Russia knows that there are people in Ukraine with first-hand knowledge about the nuclear test site on the shores of the Matochkin Strait. The blue-coloured metal nets are similar to what is seen covering fuel tanks at other military facilities in Russia, like at the Olenya air base south of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula. (Source: The Barents Observer - Norway)

10/04/2025, 08.59  On 1 October, Russia began its new military conscription drive. By 31 December, another 135,000 young Russians between the ages of 18 and 30 will be called up for military service. Starting in Moscow and spreading to other regions, only electronic notices will be sent, instead of the traditional postcard. In addition to compulsory conscription, many young people have been sent directly to the front in Ukraine, drawing on the Junarmija movement, the youth army, from which 11,000 young people have been taken for the war. In the nine years since its foundation, almost two million young people have joined the Junarmija. It is increasingly praised in propaganda for its contribution to the war. The commander-in-chief of the youth military organisation, Golovin reports that five young representatives of the movement have already been awarded the title of Heroes of Russia, and over 700 have been awarded medals for bravery. The Duma has passed a law abolishing seasonal restrictions on conscription from next year and introducing perpetual call-up every day of the year. Exemptions from service are still possible on health grounds for category B illnesses, which about a third of potential conscripts claim. The search for those evading service is equated with that of bandits and criminals of all kinds, using telephone surveillance, CCTV cameras in the underground and on the streets, and in cities it is almost impossible to avoid being caught. Accessing alternative civilian service, still permitted by law, is becoming increasingly problematic. Today's call to arms serves to project Russian society towards a multipolar and tradition-defending future. “Military service” is the true identity of citizenship in Putin's Russia, experiencing war as the main content of one's personal, social and religious identity. It is a form of education and inner training. The figure of the president is increasingly sacred and superior to all political, economic and military perspectives. Putin does not need to win battles on the field, but only the great battle of the spirit, and, by extension, on the whole world, a feeling of willingness to renounce oneself in order to found a new world. This is the path to the definitive affirmation of the cult of personality, on the anonymity of common identification in the masses of those who are ready to die for their country. /Source: Asia News - an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME)/

October 3, 2025 10:31 AM GMT+2  Russia launched a massive overnight drone and missile assault. The attack included 381 drones and 35 missiles that targeted energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, and in Poltava region, where the country's main gas production facilities are located. Top private energy provider DTEK said it had suspended operations at several gas facilities in the Poltava region. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Ukraine
(4 October 2025)  At least 30 people have been injured following a Russian drone strike on a railway station in the city of Shostka, in the Sumy region, some 50km from the Russian border. There were two strikes which hit two passenger trains. The second strike hit at a time when evacuations from the area were already under way, a statement from the railways body said. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Europe
October 5, 2025  Patriots for Europe group rejoices over the big win by Babiš and his ANO party in Czech elections. Babiš, the hot candidate to become prime minister after ANO’s strong showing co-founded the Patriots group, along with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Austria’s Kickl, in the summer of 2024. Soon joined by Le Pen’s National Rally, the Patriots surged to become the third-largest group in the European Parliament. Hungarian prime minister Orbán was one of the first European leaders to congratulate Babiš. “A big step for the Czech Republic, good news for Europe.” he said in a post on social platform X. Italy’s League leader Salvini said that Babiš, „an ally of the League in the EU”, had “crushed the left in the Czech vote. He „is preparing to lead a government that will focus on fighting illegal immigration, saying no to war, and stopping Brussels’ crazy policies,” Salvini said on X.  “The Patriots are advancing all across Europe!” Salvini also congratulated the right-wing Motorists party, also a member of the Patriots, which entered Czechia’s parliament for the first time and is likely to become part of the government. „Together we win!” he added. French National Rally also hailed ANO’s victory. „All across Europe, patriotic parties are being called to power by the people, who long to reclaim their freedom and prosperity!” Le Pen said in a post on X. Bardella was describing the result as “a landslide in favor of free enterprise, ending punitive environmental policies, and opposing uncontrolled immigration.” Others from the European Parliament’s Patriots, like Denmark’s Vistisen, the Netherlands’ Wilders, Austria’s Vilimsky and Hungary’s Gál, also expressed joy over the result. Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader did offer congratulations. “The Czech Republic has always been among the most loyal allies of Belarusian civil society and democratic forces. I am grateful for the concrete support that a free Belarus has received. I trust that the new Czech government, emerging from this election, will maintain a strong course of solidarity and continue to support our fight for freedom and the rule of law, she said in a post on X. “Congrats to Andrej Babiš, the Czech people & Patriots for Europe!”, Dmitriev, a close adviser to Russian President Putin and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said. “Europe is waking up”- enough of uncontrolled immigration, war fever, censorship and economic decline. The Right choice is winning across Europe,” Dmitriev wrote in a post on X. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

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Azerbaijan
07.10.2025  Turkish President Erdogan arrived today in the Azerbaijani city of Gabala to attend the 12th Summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS). Accompanying Erdogan on his trip are Energy and Natural Resources Minister Bayraktar, Trade Minister Bolat, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Uraloglu, leaders of AK and MHP parties, others. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Bangladesh
08.10.25  Bangladesh plans to purchase 20 Chinese-made J-10CE fighter jets at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion. According to warpowerbangladesh.com, the Bangladesh Air Force operates 212 aircraft, including 44 fighter jets, of which 36 are Chinese-made F-7s. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

China
Wednesday, October 8, 2025  Hide and bide was the CCP’s low-key military and economic strategy for decades after the disaster of the Cultural Revolution in China that ended in 1976. It was based on an ideological retrenchment put in place by then-CCP leader Deng who argued that China had to avoid drawing attention to its modernization. His successor, Jiang then coined the policy as “hide your strength; bide your time” while gaining power. China ends hide-and-bide military strategy. The Chinese Communist Party and its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Army, last month began a major shift away from the 40-year-old strategy known as “hide and bide” -  keeping a low profile while advancing military and economic power. Instead, Chinese supreme leader Xi announced during a massive military parade showing off new weapons and firepower that the communist regime is now the leader of a forthcoming world order designed to replace the United States. The parade signaled the PLA’s emergence as a new global military force armed with weapons capable of attacking in all domains - sea, air, ground, space and cyber - using both manned and unmanned systems. Mr. Xi also declared during remarks at the parade that a new order is needed to eliminate war at a time ’when humanity is again faced with a choice of peace or war’. Flanked on the dais by Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s the Chinese leader declared that the West is in decline and Asia, led by a communist China that will not be bullied by the United States, is rising. Brandishing all elements of China’s nuclear triad of land- and sea-based missiles and strategic bombers, a major section of the parade showcased new unmanned weapons and counter-drone warfare systems. The PLA is well on its way to becoming a military that can fight informationized and eventually intelligentized wars. (Source: The Washington Times - U.S.)

Gaza
October 7, 2025, 11:09 AM  Analysis of dozens of satellite images from the last two years shows extent of destruction of war in Gaza. As many as 197,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed during the war, according to estimates in a damage analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data by Scher and Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University's Conflict Ecology lab. Entire towns and neighborhoods have been ravaged in Gaza, alongside key infrastructure like schools, hospitals and religious buildings. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)
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Oct 7, 2025 14:39 IST  Two years ago, Hamas' brutal attack killed 1,200 Israelis, sparking Israel's devastating retaliation, with 92% of its buildings destroyed, reducing Gaza to over 50 million tonnes of rubble, according to a UN report and leaving 67,000 Palestinians dead. Two years on, deaths, famine, displacement, and the promise of an elusive peace persist. (Source: India Today)

October 4, 2025  In late on Friday, Hamas just accepted Trump’s “peace” plan. The Palestinian movement gave its answer in a statement announcing its readiness to “release all hostages - living and dead - according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal.” Hamas added that it was ready to enter talks to discuss the details. President Trump shared Hamas’s statement on his account on Truth Social: “Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting peace,” Trump said, adding that “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly!” The U.S. President thanked Arab and Muslim states for “helping me put this together,” promising that “everybody will be treated fairly.” Hamas’s response to Trump’s plan came a day after the Israeli army sealed off Gaza City. Israeli Defense Minister Katz issued a ’final warning’ to the estimated 500,000 Palestinians still in the city, announcing that those who decide to remain will be considered terrorists or supporters of terror. Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey also accepted Hamas’s response. Trump’s near-immediate positive response to the Hamas statement was reportedly met with surprise by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to an Israeli official who spoke to Israel’s Channel 12 - the Israeli Prime Minister considered the Hamas response a rejection of Trump’s framework. Hamas accepted in its official statement the Arab, Islamic, and international efforts, as well as the efforts of U.S. President Trump, aimed at halting the war on the Gaza Strip, achieving a prisoner exchange, allowing immediate entry of humanitarian aid, rejecting the occupation of the Strip, and opposing the displacement of our Palestinian people from it. It announced the movement’s acceptance of Trump’s prisoner exchange formula, which would see the release of 250 Palestinians from Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of all Israeli captives. The statement added that Hamas was ready to immediately enter into negotiations through Qatari and Egyptian mediators to discuss the details. It also affirmed Hamas’s readiness to hand over the administration of the Strip to a Palestinian commission of independent ’technocrats,’ which would be formed ’based on Palestinian national consensus and supported by Arab and Islamic backing. The Hamas statement was affirming that the future of Gaza and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people must be subject to a comprehensive national position based on international law and UN Resolutions. This position would have to be discussed as part of a ’unified Palestinian national framework,’ which Hamas said it would participate in ’with full responsibility.’ Hamas didn’t accept a number of key parts of Trump’s plan that have been widely regarded as a non-starter for Palestinians. These included the clause in Trump’s plan about forming a board of peace headed by the U.S. President, the widely-reported potential participation of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the deployment of international and Arab forces to demilitarize Gaza. The statement made no mention of the demand for Hamas and other resistance factions in Gaza to disarm. Following the statement, Hamas’s head of international and legal relations, Marzouq, told Al Jazeera that Hamas was concerned with the first nine points of Trump’s 20-point plan, which related to ending the war, ending the occupation of Gaza, humanitarian aid, and who would rule the Strip. He added that these issues required further negotiations, asserting that some of Trump’s points were unrealistic, including the release of all captives within 72 hours and noted that the plan did not include any clear framework for how the Israeli withdrawal would take place. Marzouq affirmed that Gaza must be ruled by an independent commission of technocrats, referencing the inter-Palestinian agreement back in August based on an Egyptian proposal. As for the clauses of Trump’s plan concerning the future of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the future of the Gaza Strip, and the future of a Palestinian state, Marzouq said that these issues could not be decided upon by Hamas alone - Hamas is part of the Palestinian people, and all of them are partners in drawing the future of the Palestinian people. The Hamas official called on Egypt to initiate dialogue with all Palestinian parties to reach a common position on these issues. Marzouq added that it is absolutely impossible that this national consensus would accept a mandate on any part of the Palestinian people, referencing the post-World War I British Mandate over Palestine over a century ago. Regarding disarmament, Marzouq said that Hamas would hand over its weapons to a Palestinian state ’on the first day it is established,’ asserting that Hamas could not continue to be an armed organization under a Palestinian state. (Source: Mondoweiss - based in the United States)

India
(7 October 2025)  India and the UK have been holding maritime drills for three days, ahead of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to India starting on Wednesday. The bilateral Exercise Konkan-25 by the Indian Navy and the UK Royal Navy commenced on Sunday, off the western coast of India. The exercise is being conducted in two phases until October 12. The sea phase will encompass complex maritime operational drills focusing on anti-air, anti-surface, and anti-submarine exercises, flying operations and other seamanship evolutions, the Indian Defence Ministry said. Both participating nations will deploy frontline assets, including aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, submarines, and integral and shore-based air assets, it also said. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

Myanmar
Oct 07, 2025  Myanmar civil society groups said today they are suing the Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor, alleging it shared customer data with the South-east Asian nation’s ruling military that allowed the junta to track, imprison and kill civilians. Telenor said the company found itself in a 'terrible and tragic situation' in Myanmar with no good options as disobeying orders from the junta would have been perceived as terrorism and sabotage, and would have put employees in direct danger. 'Like all operators in any country', Telenor Myanmar was legally required to provide traffic data to the authorities, the company said. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Pakistan
07 October 2025  Pakistan's untapped mineral wealth is estimated to be worth around $6 trillion, making it one of the most resource-rich countries in the world. The US company, US Strategic Metals (USSM), signed an agreement with Pakistan in September, to explore and develop the debt-ridden country's mineral resources. The company plans to invest about $500 million to build facilities in Pakistan for processing and developing minerals. Pakistan has delivered its first-ever shipment of rare earth and critical minerals to the United States. The sample shipment that was shipped to the US includes antimony, copper concentrate, and rare earth elements such as neodymium and praseodymium. Pakistan has offered the US access to the Pasni port on the Arabian Sea, 100 miles from the Pakistan-Iran border, to make it easier to ship rare earth minerals. This offer comes after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief General Munir met President Trump at the White House, which was Munir's third visit to Washington this year. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

Oct 5, 2025  Pakistan ’has dangled’ an offer before US President Trump to build and run a port on the Arabian Sea. Advisers to Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Munir have approached top US officials with the offer, valued at up to $1.2 billion. As per Pakistan's blueprint, to access Pakistan's critical minerals, the civilian port will be located in Pasni, a town in Balochistan's Gwadar district, placing it strategically close to the Chabahar port being developed by India in Iran. The town Pasni, in the restive Balochistan province borders Afghanistan and Iran. Pakistan also has the Gwadar port, which has been funded by China and is managed by it. Pasni is situated just 100 km from Gwadar, where China operates the port facility. Munir's charm offensive came as a US metals company signed a $500 million investment deal with Pakistan to explore strategic minerals jointly in Pakistan for use in defence and technology. The blueprint rules out the use of the port for US military purposes or setting up of a military base. What Pakistan wants is the US to finance a rail network connecting the Pasni port to mineral-rich western provinces. Pakistan has offered the US its vast untapped oil, gas, and mineral ores, mostly in the troubled Balochistan region. Pakistan has tried to court the US by pointing out that Pasni's proximity to Iran and Central Asia would enhance America's options for trade. It would also expand US influence in the Arabian Sea and Central Asia. (Source: India Today)

Qatar
05 Oct 2025  In a joint statement, the Foreign Ministers of the State of Qatar, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Republic of Turkey, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, today welcomed the steps taken by Hamas regarding US President Trump's proposal to end the war on Gaza, release all hostages, alive or deceased, and the immediate launch of negotiations on implementation mechanisms. (Source: The Peninsula - Qatar)

Turkey
8 October 2025  Washington has publicly pressured allies, including NATO member Türkiye, to cut energy ties with Moscow and Tehran. At their White House meeting on September 25, US President Trump pressed Turkish President Erdogan to cut Russian energy purchases. Türkiye could meet more than half of its gas needs by the end of 2028 by ramping up production and increasing US imports. Ankara aims to re-export imported liquefied natural gas and its own gas production to Europe while burning Russian and Iranian gas domestically. Russia remains Türkiye’s largest gas supplier. Its share of the market has fallen from more than 60% two decades ago to 37% in the first half of 2025. Russia's long-term pipeline contracts with Türkiye to supply 22 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually via the Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines are close to expiry. Iran's 10 bcm contract expires in the middle of next year. Azerbaijan’s contracts, totaling 9.5 bcm, run until 2030 and 2033. Türkiye is likely to extend some of these contracts. It is likely to seek more flexible terms and smaller volumes to increase the diversity of its supply. State-owned TPAO is boosting output from local gas fields, state and private companies have expanded LNG import terminals to bring gas in from the US and Algeria. Domestic production and contracted LNG imports are set to exceed 26 bcm annually from 2028 from 15 bcm this year, according to Reuters calculations. That would cover more than half of Türkiye’s gas demand of around 53 bcm, reducing the gap for pipeline imports to around 26 bcm - well below the 41 bcm of current contracted supplies from Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan combined. Türkiye has signed a series of LNG deals with US suppliers worth $43 billion, including a 20-year agreement with Mercuria in September. The country has built 58 bcm annual LNG import capacity, enough to cover its entire demand. Russian gas continues to flow at full capacity, and the Kremlin has said cooperation with Ankara remains strong, because Russian gas is price-competitive and creates a surplus that BOTAS can use to pressure other suppliers. Türkiye’s energy minister Bayraktar noted that US LNG offers cheaper alternatives. Türkiye’s BOTAS has already signed deals to supply Hungary and Romania with small volumes of gas in its bid to become a regional gas trading hub. Beyond gas, Ankara has deep ties with Moscow. Russia's Rosatom is building Türkiye’s first nuclear plant. Moscow is also the country's top crude and diesel supplier. (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat - headquartered in London, United Kingdom, owned by a member of Saudi royal family)

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Europe

European Commission
October 6, 2025  The European Commission president urges lawmakers to keep her in post. MEPs will vote on the two no-confidence motions, brought by the 'far right' and 'far left', on Thursday. This is a vote against the Europe of Macron, said 'far-right' French MEP Bardella, who proposed one of the no-confidence motions. Bardella spoke of der Leyen’s trade surrender and said the bloc’s migration and enlargement policies were eroding European sovereignty. You have been accompanying the genocide in Gaza, said Aubry, co-chair of The Left, which proposed the other motion. She also said: You capitulated to Trump. Der Leyen is almost certain to survive because her centrist opponents say they’ll back her. But the wolves are circling. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Asia

Japan
October 4, 2025  A former economic security and interior minister, the newly-elected leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Sanae Takaichi, 64, will now seek approval from parliament to replace PM Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister. She is a regular visitor to the Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japan's war dead and is viewed by some Asian neighbours as a symbol of its past militarism. Takaichi favours revising Japan's pacifist postwar constitution to recognise the role of its expanding military. She suggested this year that Japan could form a quasi-security alliance with Taiwan. Takaichi graduated from Kobe University with a degree in business management before working as a congressional fellow in the U.S. Congress, according to her website. A protege of the late Shinzo Abe and long-time advocate of the former prime minister's "Abenomics" stimulus policies, she has called for higher spending and tax cuts to cushion rising cost of living and has criticised the Bank of Japan's decision to raise interest rates. In a key speech last month, Takaichi was pledging a crackdown on badly behaved foreigners - an issue that has become a lightning rod for some voters amid record rises in migrants and tourists. Hosting Trump in Japan later this month is expected to be one of her first acts as leader. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Taiwan
October 6, 2025  Taiwan signed an agreement with the U.S. in 2021 to acquire PAC-3 MSE systems, with two batches scheduled for delivery in 2025 and 2026. Facing the growing need for missile defense, Lockheed Martin was recently awarded a $9.8 billion contract by the U.S. Army to produce 1,970 PAC-3 MSE missile interceptors, marking the largest contract in the company’s Missiles and Fire Control history. The Taipei Times reported yesterday that Taiwan is planning to acquire an additional four PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) systems and up to 500 missile interceptors, after the U.S. recommended increasing its stock of air defense missiles. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Caribbean

Cuba
October 5, 2025  In a October 2-dated unclassified cable sent to dozens of U.S. missions, President Trump's administration is mobilizing U.S. diplomats to lobby against a U.N. resolution calling on Washington to lift its decades-long embargo on Cuba. The non-binding resolution has passed in the U.N. General Assembly by wide margins year after year since 1992. Last year, the General Assembly adopted the resolution with 187 countries voting in favor. The United States and Israel were the only countries that voted against it, while Moldova abstained. Since returning to office in January, Trump has doubled down on sanctions, returning Cuba to a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, tightening financial and travel restrictions and sanctioning third-country nationals who host Cuban doctors. The cable said Cuba's problems were caused by Cuba's own corruption and incompetence. As part of the administration's campaign, U.S. diplomats will tell countries that the Cuban government is actively supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine with up to 5,000 Cubans fighting alongside Moscow's forces. Trump has also recently toughened his stance towards Moscow, threatening financial penalties against buyers of Russian oil and allowing U.S. intelligence agencies to share information with Ukraine to help its attacks on energy assets inside Russia. The U.N. vote can carry political weight, but only the U.S. Congress can lift the Cold War-era embargo. The Cuban government blames U.S. sanctions for shortages of basic goods, collapsing infrastructure and runaway inflation. The State Department said Cuba was using the annual U.N. resolution as a mechanism to victimize itself. The Trump Administration will not remain on the sidelines or support an illegitimate regime that undermines our national security interests in our region, a State Department spokesperson said in emailed comments on Saturday. The cable accused the Cuban government of undermining democracies in the Western Hemisphere, as tensions have been mounting between Washington and Venezuela, Cuba’s most important political and economic ally. On Wednesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Rodriguez called for the United Nations to stop the United States from starting a war in the region. He said fighting drug trafficking in the name of U.S. national security was a pretext for aggression. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
October 5, 2025  The recent announcements between the United States and the UK on expanding bilateral civil nuclear cooperation featured a suite of commercial agreements, representing the practical first steps towards exporting and deploying American advanced reactors abroad. The 'Atlantic Partnership for Advanced Nuclear Energy' signals a historic milestone for civil nuclear cooperation between the United States and the UK. The UK was not interested in simply becoming a passive consumer of energy generated by US advanced reactors. For this bilateral partnership to be durable, the UK would need to be a stakeholder in the industrial, supply chain, and commercial future of these reactors. This logic of integrated partnership extends beyond the US-UK context. Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe (such as Romania) have not only turned interest in US advanced nuclear into active partnerships with the United States and American industry, but they have also expressed clear aspirations to become industrial and supply chain hubs for these technologies for the greater region and beyond. The ’Atomlink: Unlocking Civil Nuclear Expansion at the Western Frontier’ report articulates a vision for US-UK cooperation to accelerate Poland’s nuclear deployment ambitions - ultimately leveraging Poland’s rapid industrial development to serve as both a driver for nuclear demand and a foundation upon which to establish a supply chain hub to support broader regional and global expansion. ’The United States, the UK, and Poland have stood at the vanguard of countering Russian influence and aggression in Europe, including by taking measures to mitigate European reliance on Russian energy. We cannot let either China or Russia win the market for advanced nuclear’. Considering the state-owned technology and finance packages offered by Russia and China, forging allied partnerships is essential for the United States to effectively compete on the global stage. Failure to do so ’is an imminent threat to our mutual security and peace, period’. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Ahn, Deputy Director for Nuclear for Third Way’s Climate and Energy Program.

10/4/2025  Wikipedia adheres to core policies: Each article must have a neutral point of view, information comes summarized from known media sources. Volunteers, through consensus control the editorial processes. Wikipedia is serving as a base layer of knowledge for AI chatbots. Some call it Wokepedia. They talk as if its more than 64 million worldwide entries are fueled by mainstream media lies, pumping out propaganda that feeds online search results. The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee more recently announced an investigation into ’organized efforts’ to influence public opinion and sensitive subjects by manipulating Wikipedia articles. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX earlier this year called for Wikipedia to be defunded. Since legacy media propaganda is considered a ‘valid’ source by Wikipedia, it naturally simply becomes an extension of legacy media propaganda, he posted in January. Certain right-leaning websites, such as Breitbart, are prohibited as source materials, while CNN, the New York Times and Mother Jones are allowed. Over the years, conservatives, libertarians, were pushed out, Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedi said. “There is a whole…army of administrators, hundreds of them, who are constantly blocking people…that they have ideological disagreements with.' This past week, as the Wikipedia controversy reignited, the Wikipedia page for Musk’s Grok was updated. Musk announced xAI would, in fact, offer up Grokipedia. (Source: The Wall Street Journal - U.S.)

Friday, October 3, 2025  Criminal cartels in Mexico and gangs in Venezuela posing a major narcotics trafficking and security threat to the United States are being attacked as narco-terrorists under the Trump administration’s new military-backed war on drugs, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment. It lists details on six Latin drug cartels with the two criminal gangs, Tren de Aragua and MS-13, as foreign terrorists. The largest drug-runners were identified as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The groups threaten Americans’ safety, U.S. national interests, and the safety and stability of the Western Hemisphere, the report says. The The Sinaloa Cartel, or Cártel de Sinaloa, buys precursor chemicals from China and India in synthesize deadly synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, in Mexico-based clandestine laboratories. Tens of thousands of members and associates of the Sinaloa Cartel have smuggled multi-kilogram shipments of illicit fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana into the U.S. and around the world. The organization operates covertly using decentralized networks in 40 countries and is expanding into Europe, Asia and Australia. The Sinaloa Cartel also conducts a range of violent criminal activities that seek to protect drug operations, spread their illicit influence, and increase revenue. Murder, torture and kidnapping are used by the cartel to intimidate citizens, government officials, and journalists, the report said. Other crimes include money laundering, extortion, theft of petroleum and natural resources, weapons trafficking, human smuggling and prostitution. ’Mexican cartels’ production, trafficking, and distribution of powerful illicit synthetic drugs, chiefly fentanyl and methamphetamine, represent a dire threat to public health, the rule of law, and national security in the United States,' the report, published in May, concluded. Some cartels also have been making fentanyl in what the report said were ’super labs’ in Canada. A total of 112,910 people died from overdoses in the 12-month period ending October 2023 and 84,076 died between that month and October 2024, the report said. Tren de Aragua, which was targeted in a U.S. strike on a drug boat Sept. 2, was described in the report as a violent criminal organization founded between 2012 and 2013 in north central Venezuela. Originally a prison gang, the group facilitates the smuggling of thousands of Venezuelan migrants into the United States and then extorts the migrants, forcing them into prostitution or other crimes to pay off their smuggling debts, the DEA said. TdA members have been linked to crimes including drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, extortion, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution, organized retail crime, robberies, and document fraud. The group MS-13, known formally as Mara Salvatrucha is called an extremely violent international criminal gang founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by El Salvadoran immigrants. The gang is well-established in the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and its numbers have grown to include thousands of members in almost all 50 U.S. states, the report said. President Trump this week declared the United States is now at war with drug cartels, designating them enemy combatants and setting the stage for additional military strikes. In targeting cartels, Mr. Trump said in a memo sent to several congressional committees that the U.S. “is in non-international armed conflict with designated terrorist organizations.” The declaration is similar to that issued against terrorist groups such as al Qaeda since 2001 that allows killing drug traffickers as enemy combatants, detaining them without trial and prosecuting them in military tribunals. U.S. military units conducted a fourth missile strike Friday on a boat carrying drugs from Venezuela to the United States with enough narcotics to kill up to 50,000 people, Mr. Trump said in posting a video of the attack on Truth Social. (Source: The Washington Times - U.S.)

Oct 3, 2025  The administration of U.S. President Trump has determined that the U.S. is engaged in a "non-international armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels, according to a notification to the U.S. Congress sent by the Pentagon this week. The notice says the U.S. "has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks” by the groups, which Trump has also designated terrorist organizations. "The President acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans,” the White House spokesperson Kelly said. The language in the notification expands on one submitted to congressional leaders on Sept. 4, following an earlier U.S. military strike against a purported drug trafficking vessel. At the time, Trump wrote: "It is not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that will be necessary. United States forces remain postured to carry out further military operations.” The latest notice says law enforcement efforts to stem the flow of illicit drugs over several decades have proven insufficient, with the substances becoming more potent, while the cartels involved have grown more armed, well-organized and violent. Some of the critics have warned that the administration may be preparing to attack Venezuela directly. Trump didn’t rule out that possibility on Sept. 30, saying "we’ll see what happens with Venezuela.” (Source: The Japan Times)

South America

Venezuela
7 Oct 2025  Late yesterday, Venezuelan President Maduro said his security forces prevented a false flag operation to plant explosives at the United States Embassy in the capital Caracas in order to heighten tensions with Washington, amid a US military build-up off the coast of the Latin American country. Following the rupture of diplomatic relations between Caracas and Washington in 2019, the US Embassy is closed and only maintains staff responsible for security and upkeep of the premises. According to CNN, a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers has been produced by the Office of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice, alongside a legal opinion that the president is allowed to authorise deadly force against a broad range of suspects due to an imminent threat to US citizens from drug gangs. The Trump administration’s ramped-up campaign against Latin American drug cartels includes expanded authority for the CIA to conduct lethal targeting and covert action in the region. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

Globalization

6 Oct 2025  ’Nepal has now joined Sri Lanka and Bangladesh’ in becoming the latest South Asian country ’where a young, digital-savvy generation’ has brought down its government. Gen Z’ riots: Younger generations being rallied by fast-spreading messages on social media oust leaders and set cities on fire. Experts warn this is not a wave of so-called Gen Z protesters that will fade.     In Nepal, protests turned violent when government banned 26 social media and messaging platforms – from Facebook and X to TikTok and WhatsApp. Almost half of Nepal’s population use social media – and many of those are under 30. Officials said it was to tackle fake news, but Nepal’s youth argued it was a bid to silence them. With anger over a ban on social media and over alleged corruption, viral clips of politicians’ children – flaunting Gucci handbags, Louis Vuitton boxes, sports cars and luxury holidays – became a bone of contention. There’s a perception that this is ill-gotten wealth. Youth unemployment in Nepal is over 20 per cent, while thousands of young men and women leave the country every day to find work abroad. Instagram allows people to see how the other half live and interact with them in real time. ’Gen Z’ protesters took to the streets in Kathmandu, burning the Singha Durbar palace, the prime minister’s residence and government offices. ’Politicians and their families were dragged from their homes, beaten in the street, and even set alight in a bloody wave of revenge’. More than 70 were killed in clashes with Police. By the end of it, Prime Minister Sharma Oli was gone.     In Morocco, anger grew as the government funnelled billions into preparations for the 2030 World Cup while hospitals and schools crumbled. Gen Z movements exploded after several women died in an underfunded hospital in Agadir. Protest videos went viral, demonstrations demanding reforms in healthcare and education sectors spread, and authorities imposed curfews.     In Madagascar, power cuts and water shortages sparked chaos. The capital, Antananarivo, plunged into darkness. Furious youths led protests demanding President Rajoelina’s resignation. Security forces opened fire, leaving more than 20 dead and hundreds injured. The government dissolved.     In Peru, a pension law forcing every citizen over 18 into a scheme triggered mass protests. Behind it lay deeper fury at corruption, police violence and political instability. Tear gas and rubber bullets rained down on Lima, as President Boluarte dug her heels in despite calls to back down.    While the UK has an older average age than Nepal, with fewer young people making up the bulk of the population, experts fear discontent is brewing. The worry is whether it can be channelled in a positive way because it can be easily hijacked by people with nefarious agendas. “The real question is not whether these uprisings could spread, but whether institutions and leaders are ready to listen before they do”, Torres, a US-based college counselor who works with teenagers, told.     TikTok timelines can turn into burning streets almost overnight. (Source: The U.S. Sun) 

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Europe

Finland
October 2, 2025  Over the past few weeks, more than 1,600 troops from across nine NATO member countries came together to hone their warfighting skills in the Arctic north and just miles from the approximately 1,600 miles long border with Russia. The US military participated in the exercise, with the 352d Special Operations Wing. Based in the United Kingdom, it operates MC-130J Commando II transport aircraft and CV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. It can also deploy special tactics airmen. According to the Finnish military, the objective of Southern Griffin 25 was to reinforce combined joint operations and interoperability between the country’s special operations forces and those of the United States and the rest of NATO. The Finnish military is a small but highly trained and well-equipped force. It numbers around 30,000 troops during peacetime but can swell to nearly 300,000 troops during wartime. Where the Finnish military truly excels is in winter warfare, fighting in the snow and in frigid temperatures. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

France
01.10.2025  They will rule out nothing if a Russian fighter jet enters European airspace, French President Macron said during an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper today. Macron also reaffirmed that he will deliver a speech in early 2026 on France’s nuclear doctrine, following a question about the strengthening of air-based nuclear deterrence. 'The French nuclear umbrella exists. I am currently working on updating our doctrine, and I want to continue deepening our strategic dialogue with the Europeans who wish to engage,' he said. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Romania
October 1, 2025  The Romanian Armed Forces continue to operate the TR-85M1 and the TR-77-580, both modernized versions of the Cold War-era T-55. In 2023, Bucharest signed a deal with Washington that would see Romania acquire 54 modernized American-made M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams, valued at $1.07 billion, along with 12 support vehicles, including four recovery platforms, four mobile assault bridges, and four mine plows. The Abrams were to come from US stock with deliveries to be completed by the end of 2028. In the second phase has called for Washington to supply Bucharest with the necessary hardware and ordnance to complete the capabilities of an Abrams-equipped battalion. The order included 54 M240 7.62 mm machine guns, explosive charges for breaching minefields, over 12,000 rounds of 120 mm ammunition, smoke grenades, training simulators, spare parts, testing equipment, technical support, and training services. The cost of the Phase Two items was estimated at $458.2 million, excluding value-added tax. A separate program would see the acquisition of 215 additional MBTs, along with 75 support vehicles that could be produced in Romania. The latter deal, which also includes ordnance, spare parts for the tanks, support, and training, was reported to be worth more than $7 billion. It is to be initiated starting in 2025, it was not indicated that all of the more than 200 MBTs would need to be the M1A2 Abrams. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

European Council
01.10.2025  'European' leaders meet in Copenhagen to address pressing issues around defense, Ukraine's security, and sanctions on Russia. Talks focus on boosting Europe’s military strength, using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, and advancing Kyiv’s EU membership bid. Proposals include a drone wall along the EU’s eastern frontier. The European Commission has proposed unlocking sanctioned Russian assets for a €140 billion ($164 billion) ’reparations loan’ to Kyiv. The plan would give Ukraine an interest-free loan, to be repaid once reparations are settled after the conflict. Hungary and Slovakia are expected to oppose, while Belgium has raised concerns as much of the frozen Russian capital is held in its financial institutions. Leaders must decide whether the projects should be led by the European Commission or left up to individual member states. Leaders will also debate Ukraine’s application to join the EU. Accession talks require unanimous agreement from all 27 member states – but Hungary’s objections have repeatedly stalled progress. The EU’s latest sanctions package against Russia is also under discussion. It targets financial institutions and energy companies. Hungary’s reluctance could prove to be an obstacle. Denmark is also hosting a broader European Political Community summit on Thursday. Launched in 2022, the EPC brings together European countries to coordinate on issues such as security, energy, infrastructure, and migration. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
Oct 2, 2025 23:16 IST  Russian President Putin accused European leaders of fuelling war hysteria, dismissing claims that Moscow plans to attack Nato as baseless. He warned that Russia would respond forcefully to any provocation. ’Russia has proved more than once that we respond fast, and our response will be convincing.’ Putin said Russia was closely watching Europe’s militarisation. ’We hear, in Germany for example, that the German army should once again be the most powerful in Europe’. ’The response to these threats will be, to put it mildly, very convincing.’ ’Our history has proven that weakness is unacceptable, because it creates temptation, the illusion that some issue with us can be resolved by force’. Russia will never show weakness or indecision, Putin said, warning that there has never been a case where this did not end badly for the provocateur. Turning to Ukraine, the Russian leader described the conflict as ’a tragedy for Ukrainians and for all of us’ and argued it could have been avoided. ’The conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided if Trump had been president,” Putin claimed, while also noting that some of the US president’s initiatives on the Middle East offered “a light at the end of the tunnel.” The Russian leader accused Western elites of deliberately casting Russia as a perennial enemy to distract their citizens from domestic problems. ’They repeat this nonsense, that war with Russia is near, over and over. Honestly, I just want to say: calm down, rest easy, and focus on your own issues”. He said the West doesn’t care about Ukrainians, treating them instead as cannon fodder. Putin ridiculed advocates of the liberal world order, calling them weirdos who believed they had acquired the world but gained nothing. He also claimed Western democracies were manipulating the will of their people, warning that elections risk becoming a farce and that banning political opposition will not work, just as it didn’t in the USSR. Putin expressed gratitude to Brics nations and allies that have supported Moscow’s calls for peace, insisting that no single power can dictate terms to the world. “There is no and will be no power in the world that will dictate to everyone what to do. Every power has its limit.” Meanwhile, the Kremlin confirmed that Putin will travel to India in December for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his first visit since 2021. (Source: India Today)

02.10.2025  Putin took part in the 22nd Annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club. The name of this year’s event is “The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use.” Transcript. (Source: Valdai Club - Russia)