RUSSIA - Russia did not fire an ICBM today, they fired something much worse - a message! Despite the diminutive Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy jumping around and shouting about Russians firing an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) today, they didn’t. Instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided his response to the US-led NATO group firing missiles into the Russian Federation would be to send a message with a multi-warhead intermediate range hypersonic missile. President Vladimir Putin said, “one of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems was tested in combat conditions, in this case with a ballistic missile in non-nuclear hypersonic edition.” The missile has a range of approximately 3,500 kilometers, below the threshold for the “Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), that’s a reach throughout western Europe and the hypersonic message is likely, ‘you have no iron dome system that can prevent this.'

RUSSIA - Britain 'directly involved' in Ukraine war, Russian ambassador tells Sky News. The ambassador says there has been "deliberate cheating of us" as he'd received multiple assurances the Storm Shadows would only be used inside Ukrainian territory. Speaking to Sky News, Andrei Kelin also warned the West to carefully consider the lower bar Russia has established for using nuclear weapons. British Storm Shadow missiles were fired into Russia just days after President Biden authorised the same policy shift. "We believe that we have the right to use our weapons against military facilities of the countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities," Mr Putin said. "And in case of escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond resolutely in a mirror way."

USA - There are three things Trump will need to achieve to bring Putin and Zelensky to the negotiation table. The first is to persuade Putin that he’s going to lose eventually in the face of US and NATO support for Ukraine. Russia cannot realistically sustain its level of effort beyond 2025, assistance from China, Iran, and North Korea notwithstanding. The second is to sweet-talk Zelensky and Putin into compromise. Ukraine has quite firmly stated that its end game is the restoration of all captured territory and a return to the status quo ante bellum as of 2014. The future of Crimea is crucial here. Neither side wants to give it up voluntarily, but if it was to be returned to Ukraine then the future constitutional arrangements for Donetsk and Luhansk might be up for discussion. The third is Ukraine’s accession into NATO. From the outside this appears to be inevitable, although it may be delayed for many years yet. For Russia it will signal that it is being threatened along its borders once again. Trump will need to resolve this.

GERMANY - The number of corporate bankruptcies in Germany has soared over the past year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Thursday. The trend has been attributed to weak economic performance and rising costs in the EU’s largest economy. According to preliminary data, the number of regular insolvencies filed in Germany rose by 22.9% in October 2024 compared to the same month of last year. “The current wave of bankruptcies is the result of a perfect storm of long-term economic weakness and drastically increased costs,” Der Spiegel quoted Steffen Müller from the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH) as saying. A total of 20,000 company bankruptcies are expected in Germany in 2024, up from 17,814 in 2023, the outlet wrote, citing analysts.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government intends to announce the formal annexation of the West Bank in the coming weeks, a source has told the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh. According to Hersh, Israel has been “fortified by bombs and funding” from Washington and is ramping up the expulsion of Palestinians from northern Gaza to the south of the enclave. Meanwhile, the religious parties that “dominate” Netanyahu’s cabinet are demanding full control over both occupied Palestinian territories. “I was told this week by a well-informed Washington official that the Israeli leadership will formally annex the West Bank in the very near future – perhaps in two weeks – in the hope that the decisive step will end, once and for all, any talk of a two-state solution and will convince some in the sceptical Arab world to reconsider financing the planned reconstruction of Gaza,” Hersh wrote in an article on his Substack on Wednesday.

UK - Labour has announced swingeing cuts to the UK's defence capabilities even as Britain is being dragged closer into direct conflict with Russia. In a shocking move which sent alarming signals to the Kremlin, 31 frontline helicopters and a pair of Commando assault ships were axed, while despite the domination of drones on the Ukrainian battlefield, the UK is to lose a staggering 46 Watchkeeper Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). A Royal Navy frigate and a pair of 'fast fleet tankers', which provide fuel for aircraft carriers, are also being chopped as part of the jaw-dropping plans.

USA - The Biden administration's push for Ukraine to strike Russia with US-made long-range missiles, expand conscription and fill their country with US-made land mines came right as a new Gallup poll found the majority of Ukrainians now want a quick, negotiated end to the war. After more than two years of grinding conflict, Ukrainians are increasingly weary of the war with Russia. In Gallup's latest surveys of Ukraine, conducted in August and October 2024, an average of 52% of Ukrainians would like to see their country negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible. Nearly four in 10 Ukrainians (38%) believe their country should keep fighting until victory. Ukrainians' current attitudes toward the war represent a decisive shift from where they stood after it began in late February 2022. Surveyed in the months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukrainians were defiant, with 73% preferring fighting until victory. The closer Ukrainians are to the front lines, the more they want the war to come to a negotiated end.

ISRAEL - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a reward of $5 million to anyone who brings one of the surviving hostages home from Gaza. He made the pledge during a visit to the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday. The Palestinian militant group Hamas captured over 250 people in its deadly raid on southern Israel in October 2023. Some have been returned through negotiations or military action, while others were killed, including by the Israeli military. As of early November, Israeli intelligence reportedly assessed that up to 51 people were still alive and being held by the militants.

USA - Retired US Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has urged Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment to prevent President Joe Biden from “sleepwalking” into a third world war after he permitted Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory. While Washington has not officially confirmed granting such permission, the Russian Defense Ministry has said Kiev has already used the US-supplied missiles to target Russia’s Bryansk Region. Additionally, Biden this week decided to supply Ukraine with anti-personnel landmines, breaking his 2022 promise to restrict their use. “The current House of Representatives must impeach Biden for endangering the United States,” Flynn wrote in a post on X, arguing that his former boss was impeached for much less. “Harris should immediately invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Biden – he’s sleepwalking us into WWIII. Let’s at least put constitutional pressure on Harris because Joe’s poor memory makes him unaccountable.”

USA - Retired Deputy Border Patrol Agent JJ Carrell testified before Congress that the Biden administration is responsible for “the largest mass invasion into America that the world has ever seen.” Carrell was testifying before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability. The former Border Patrol agent said that President Donald Trump was the “best” on border security, while Biden has been the “worst” in history. Carrell testified that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas aided the administration in allowing the massive invasion. By the action of DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, President Biden was able to create policy out of thin air, ignoring federal immigration law, and facilitating the largest mass invasion into America that the world has ever seen.

EUROPE - It appears that something really big is in the works. All of a sudden, a number of countries in Europe seem to be really freaking out about what is ahead, and that seems very strange. The war in Ukraine has been actively raging since February 2022. So why are so many European nations now telling their people to prepare for war? What has changed? Do they know something that we don’t? On Tuesday, Ukraine fired six long-range missiles that were provided by the United States into Russia. On Wednesday, Ukraine fired twelve long-range missiles that were provided by the United Kingdom into Russia. This is literally insane. What would we do if another superpower was using Canada or Mexico to launch long-range missiles at us?

USA - A storm packing inches of rain, feet of snow and damaging winds continue to affect areas from Oregon to Northern California and Washington as a combination atmospheric river and bomb cyclone take aim. A major storm will continue to pummel areas from Washington to Oregon and Northern California with torrential rain, heavy mountain snow and high winds this week, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. Due to low-elevation flooding, debris flows and blizzard conditions in the mountains, widespread travel impacts are expected while powerful gusts can knock down trees and power lines over a broad area. Where heavy rain eats into the freshly fallen heavy snow at intermediate elevations of the Siskyous and southern Cascades, a rapid meltdown can lead to life-threatening flash flooding, rapid debris flows and landslides.

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.