UKRAINE - Get ready for World War Three: Zelensky said missiles speak louder than words... now they have roared. The war raging in Eastern Europe is now at its most critical stage. In the last few days it has risked turning from a conflict between Russia and Ukraine to a global conflagration. North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to boost Putin's forces and the US has permitted the use of its long-range missiles on targets on Russian soil. Can the war any longer be fought out solely between Kyiv and Moscow?

EUROPE - Europe prepares for WW3: Now Germany reveals plans to mobilise national defence and 800,000 NATO troops after Kremlin nuke threat - as US announces new weapon Kyiv can use to stop Russia after allowing long-range missile strikes. European nations are gearing up for an all-out war on the continent as Ukraine launched US-made missiles into Russia for the first time and Vladimir Putin officially lowered the threshold for Moscow to consider a nuclear strike. Germany's foreign minister yesterday vowed her country 'will not be intimidated' by Putin, just one day after German media revealed the nation will transform into a NATO staging ground if the conflict to the East should escalate.

RUSSIA - Western allies, also including Britain and France, have taken a “big jump” towards a nuclear conflict by giving Ukraine permission to fire Western long-range missiles into Kremlin territory, Markov claims. A regular Putin “mouthpiece”, Markov warned that the shock move by President Joe Biden could mean that Britons could be facing a Christmas in shelters. The threat, in an interview on the BBC Radio 4's The World At One, was also echoed by President-Elect Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jnr, who suggested that those behind the move to approve Ukraine’s use of the missiles wanted to “make sure they got World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives”. President Biden’s move, however, has been welcomed by Ukraine, by senior UK defence sources and by many European leaders. The move will allow Ukraine to fire US ATACM missiles, UK Storm Shadow missiles and French Scalp missiles into Kremlin territory.

USA - On Sunday, Joe Biden decided to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles provided by the United States to hit targets deep inside of Russia. This is a bombshell. I don’t know how else to put it. The Russians have already warned us how they will respond if long-range missiles provided by the United States and other NATO countries start raining down on their cities. Sadly, most Americans have no idea what a direct conflict with Russia would mean. This wasn’t his decision to make. We just had an election and his side lost. The American people elected a leader that wants to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, but now Joe Biden is trying to make sure that nobody is going to be able to end this war.

MIDDLE EAST - Lebanon and Hezbollah have agreed to a US ceasefire proposal that would end the year-long conflict between the terror group and Israel, a top Lebanese official said. Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker, said Lebanon had delivered its written response to the US, describing it as the most serious effort yet to secure a truce. Hezbollah has endorsed Mr Berri, known to be a long-time ally of the Iran-backed group, to negotiate a ceasefire. Iran’s supreme leader is said to be pushing Hezbollah towards a ceasefire after sharing his support for the plan on Friday, Iranian sources told The New York Times.

USA - President-elect Donald Trump on Monday confirmed he would declare a national emergency to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations of migrants living in the US without legal permission. Overnight, Trump responded to a social media post from Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, who said earlier this month there are reports the incoming administration is preparing such a declaration and to use “military assets” to deport the migrants. “TRUE!!!” Trump wrote. Trump pledged to get started on mass deportations as soon as he enters office.

USA - It seems that the idea of transhumanism as a major force in this current global debacle is often put on the back burner and is considered a bit too extreme to really be taken seriously. But if I was cornered and asked what I thought the three most significant, and horrifying, elements of this present human challenge were, I would say transhumanism (the destruction of humanity as a group of naturally-made humans), the attempt to kill God, and the waging of eternal war in the world. The primary method used to accomplish all of this is global collectivism.

WALES - A former soldier who posted a series of anti-Islamic messages on Facebook has been jailed. Daffron Williams, 41, of Tonypandy, Rhondda Cynon Taf, wrote: "Civil war is here. The only thing missing is bullets, that's the next step." Cardiff Crown Court was told the Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, who has PTSD, sent the messages before and after three girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport in July, sparking riots. Williams, who pleaded guilty to stirring up racial hatred, was sentenced to two years, half of which will be spent in prison, with the other half on licence.

SWEDEN - Sweden is sending out some five million pamphlets to residents urging them to prepare for the possibility of war, with instructions on how to stockpile food and even seek shelter during a nuclear attack, as fears grow of a Russia-NATO conflict. Neighbouring Finland has also launched a new preparedness website while Norwegians recently received booklets instructing them on how to manage on their own for a week in the event of war and other threats. Both Sweden and Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment to join the US-led military alliance NATO in the wake of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the war, Stockholm has repeatedly urged Swedes to prepare both mentally and logistically for the possibility of war, citing the serious security situation in its vicinity.

RUSSIA - Senior Russian politicians have declared President Joe Biden has taken a 'big step towards World War Three' after his administration reportedly gave the green light for Ukraine to blast targets inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles. The decision, which comes on the eve of the 1000th day of war in Ukraine amid the dying days of the Biden administration, heralded a torrent of apocalyptic warnings from Russian lawmakers. 'This is a very big step towards the beginning of the Third World War,' said Putin-loyalist Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house and a retired security service general. He slammed the move from Biden - 'a departing old man who will no longer be responsible for anything in two months'.

USA - US President Joe Biden's decision to give Ukraine the green light to blast targets inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles may trigger a broader war and lead to yet more bloodshed, former American military chiefs and analysts warn. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis warned yesterday that allowing Kyiv to use America's ATACMS rockets even in a limited capacity would 'enrage Putin and likely broaden the war' just weeks before Donald Trump arrives in the White House. 'I feel it's going to enrage Putin, which is problematic... ATACMS are not going to make a major difference quite frankly, but what it will do is put Mr Trump as he assumes the presidency in a much worse situation. What we don't need at this late hour is the Biden administration exacerbating a pretty bad situation,' he told Fox News.

USA - The US-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) uses solid propellant to fire explosive projectiles at ranges of up to 300km/190 miles (roughly the same distance from London to the outer suburbs of Paris). There are four variants of the ATACMS, two of which - the M39 Block I and the M39A1 Block I - contain 950 and 300 M74 bomblets respectively. Each of these bomblets is roughly the size of a baseball, and in the case of the M39, 950 are dispersed over an area of 677 feet in diameter - covering 360,000 square feet - making them highly effective at destroying groups of parked aircraft, ammunition dumps, aid defence systems - as well as gatherings of troops.

GERMANY - Damage caused to two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea must be seen as sabotage, although it is still unclear who is responsible, Germany’s defence minister has said. “No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables,” Boris Pistorius said before a meeting with EU defence ministers in Brussels. The 745-mile (1,200km) cable connecting Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working at about 2am GMT on Monday, the Finnish state-controlled cybersecurity and telecoms company Cinia said. A 135-mile internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland island went out of service at about 8am GMT on Sunday, according to Lithuania’s Telia Lietuva, part of Sweden’s Telia Company group.

FRANCE - Last winter, French farmers blocked roads across the country in a protest over what they said were falling incomes and an escalation of red tape. The demonstrations enjoyed overwhelming public support and President Macron’s government capitulated, announcing 70 measures in support of farms, including short-term funding of more than €1 billion (£836 million) and a promise to reduce environmental inspections. There was also a pledge to raise the threshold at which farms are liable for inheritance tax from €500,000 to €700,000, while increasing the cut-off point for partial relief from €1 million to €1.2 million — taking French agricultural fiscal policy in the opposite direction to Britain’s under Sir Keir Starmer. Nevertheless, there are some lessons for Starmer from the French crisis. The first is that farmers cannot easily be bought off with words alone. The second is that if they have public support, they represent a redoubtable opponent for any government.

USA - New Yorkers have been asked to tolerate a worsening of notoriously filthy surroundings — and cut back on their showers — as the city grapples with its most severe drought in more than two decades. Eric Adams, the city’s mayor, issued a drought warning on Monday after one of the longest stretches without rain in the city’s history across 30 days in October. Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, extended the warning to 13 other counties in the state due to declining water supply levels. “Our city vehicles may look a bit dirtier, and our subways may look a bit dustier, but it’s what we have to do to delay or stave off a more serious drought emergency,” Adams said on Monday. “We need New Yorkers to continue to save water, too, so we can water our parks and fill our pools this coming summer.”