Elon Musk has predicted that Vice President J.D. Vance will succeed Donald Trump as US president, and that the country will enter a “great 12-year span” of leadership that will include Trump’s current tenure and successive terms for Vance, Politico has reported.

Musk made the remarks during a closed-door video appearance on November 22 to a reunion of his former federal cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team in Bastrop, Texas, the outlet wrote on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the private meeting.

Trump launched DOGE soon after taking office in January, touting it as a sweeping effort to slash federal waste and tapping Musk to be his government efficiency czar.

Australia’s response to Japan’s rhetoric has been framed as a test of loyalty, but the outrage is largely media-driven. Caution in foreign policy is not betrayal – it is a rational defence of national interest.

 

Fred Zhang

When foreign policy becomes domestic theatre

 

When Japan adjusts its strategic language and China responds, the region typically braces for a familiar diplomatic turbulence – sharp statements, historical weight, World War II war crimes, mostly predictable moves. Regional powers, including the United States, tend to sidestep these moments with ambiguity: a press secretary nod here, a communique there, nobody panics.

 

For political cartoonists, a federal election feels a little like Christmas — the fodder is endless.

And it really shows in this year's Behind the Lines exhibition, the annual celebration of the year's best political cartoons at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra.

The landslide win of Anthony Albanese is front and centre but so too is the fallout that followed polling day on May 3.

Peter Dutton joins John Howard in the 'Australian Party Leaders Who Lost Their Own Seats Club'.

Former Greens leader Adam Bandt becomes DJ Bandt with the slogan "Out of Power" looming above his head.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth Leo Tolstoy’s book, War and Peace, which has over 580,000 words. It is posted below… The video shows 86 villages and towns that Russia has captured since September 2025. This video illustrates why the retired US military officers who appear on mainstream media to analyze the war in Ukraine are a bunch of clowns.

 

Russia is Moving Much Faster than US Military Experts Claim… Who Could Have Predicted That?

        30 November 2025 by Larry C. Johnson

 

Dozens of oil tankers in Russia’s shadow fleet will be hit by a fresh round of Australian sanctions in a bid to starve Vladimir Putin of revenue to fund his war machine as the federal government announces its first military support package for Ukraine in more than a year.

The new measures, however, will not silence growing calls for the government to go further by pledging to join the European Union and United Kingdom by committing to ban the import of any Russian-origin oil through intermediary countries.

A leading sanctions law expert has blasted Australian efforts to target the trade of Russian-origin oil as “weak and slow”, arguing government policies need to be toughened to ensure Australians are not inadvertently helping funnel money to the Kremlin.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has sparked a backlash after posting an image showing a popular children’s cartoon character attacking what appear to be drug traffickers. This comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump faces renewed scrutiny over lethal strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.

The meme posted by Hegseth on X is designed as a book cover featuring Franklin the Turtle standing in a helicopter clad in military gear, holding a bazooka and firing rockets at boats with armed gunmen transporting cargo. The caption in the image reads “Franklin targets narco terrorists.” Hegseth suggested that people should add the mock book to their Christmas wish list.

While some commenters expressed support for the crackdown on drug cartels, others expressed outrage over Hegseth’s meme. 

Washington has decided to stop negotiating with the supporting cast and go straight to the main stage. For the first time since the US revived its push for a negotiated end to the Ukraine conflict, the center of gravity has shifted to Russia.

Donald Trump’s designated ‘dealmaker’ – envoy Steve Witkoff – is set to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been informally involved in back-channel discussions, has reportedly contributed to the US debate over how to approach Russia and will accompany Witkoff.

 

Witkoff in Moscow: Is Kiev still at the table or on the menu?
After days of shuttle diplomacy with Kiev, Washington moves straight to Moscow – sidelining the EU and testing how far Zelensky can resist US pressure amid a deteriorating front line...

 

The conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff was constructive, very useful, and substantive, according to Russian Presidential aide, Yuri Ushakov.

He made the comment after five hours of talks between the Russian president, his envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Wtikoff which fininshed after midnight local time.

”No compromises have been found as of yet,” Ushakov said after the meeting. A meeting between Putin and Trump is not currently planned, he added.

“We discussed the substance, not specific wording and solutions. The parties see enormous potential for cooperation,” Ushakov said.

Documents obtained by independent media outlet The Greyzone show Australia’s Attorney-General in discussion with secret British committee on controlling ‘submissive’ mainstream media.

The Government has been exploring ways to censor the media, taking advice from secretive UK body, Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee, which claims success in controlling the UK’s submissive press through its ‘D-Notice’ system where media orgs seek permission to run stories and defence types “back-brief” editors on what they should publish.

What we are witnessing today is the steady transformation of the federal government—especially the executive branch—into a criminalized system of power in which justice is weaponized, law is selectively enforced, and crime becomes a form of political currency.

While the American police state has long marched in lockstep with the old truism that power corrupts—and absolute power corrupts absolutely—the Trump administration has ceased even the pretense of being bound by the Constitution.

 

America’s Crime Syndicate Government: Profiteering, Protection Rackets & a Pay-to-Play Presidency

When Kaja Kallas steps in front of the cameras and warns that Europe must brace for war or that negotiations with Moscow are “naïve,” the media presents her as the principled voice of a small nation with a painful history. She is framed as a kind of moral compass pointing toward courage while the rest of Europe dithers. It is an attractive story. It is also incomplete in ways that matter.

 

The Old Europe Behind the New Flags

 

Phil Butler, December 02, 2025

 

Europe’s most vehemently anti-Russian leaders, such as Kaja Kallas and Ursula von der Leyen, are not moral beacons but heirs to long-standing ideological lineages that continue to shape Europe’s confrontational posture toward Russia.

On 27th November, ten of the UK’s leading experts briefed an invite-only audience of around 1,250 politicians and leaders from business, culture, faith, sport and the media with the latest implications for health, food, national security and the economy.

Sign the letter to Keir Starmer and broadcasters

New polling reveals a clear and sustained decline in public approval of Trump and his policies that is already reshaping US electoral prospects, with significant implications for Congress and beyond.

There has been a significant and measurable decline in Americans’ assessment of President Trump.

 

Bob McMullan

Charting Trump's decline

 

NATO members should find ways to be more aggressive towards Russia, the US-led bloc’s top military chief has said.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of the NATO Military Committee, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday that member states have been weighing options to respond to what he described as Russia’s “hybrid war.”

“We are studying everything … being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about,” Dragone said.

The commander added that a “pre-emptive strike” could be considered a “defensive action,” though it would be “further away from our normal way of thinking and behavior.”