‘Who the f--k is this guy?’: Defense world reacts to Trump’s surprise Pentagon pick
“Hegseth is undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history,” one veterans’ advocate said.

President-elect Donald Trump’s Tuesday night surprise pick of a conservative commentator and television host as his Pentagon chief shocked Washington, which had expected the nominee to be a seasoned lawmaker or someone with defense policy experience.

National security officials and defense analysts had braced for surprises from Trump after experiencing his first four years in office. But even grading on that curve, they say the announcement of Fox News host and decorated Army veteran Pete Hegseth caught them totally off-guard.

Western countries should allow Kiev to issue an ultimatum to Moscow and allow long-range missile strikes deep into Russian territory if the Kremlin fails to comply with it, German MP Friedrich Merz told Stern magazine in an interview published over the weekend.

The politician leads Germany’s biggest opposition party – the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – and will be its chancellor candidate at the next parliamentary elections.

Germany is potentially heading into a snap vote early next year after the three-party government coalition collapsed last week. According to multiple news media outlets, the elections could take place as early as February 23, if Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s now-minority cabinet loses a confidence vote in mid-December.

Indonesia has officially become a new BRICS partner, joining countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Türkiye, Nigeria, Cuba and Kazakhstan. Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Sugiono announced this shift last week at the most recent BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. Last year, at talks in Johannesburg, South Africa, China advocated for the expansion of BRICS and Indonesia was identified as a potential member supported by all five existing BRICS nations.

Fyodor Lukyanov: This is why Trump’s approach to Ukraine is so different
The key is understanding how the US president-elect formulates policy, and his background in the business world

Donald Trump formulates his political course using memes. Strategies, programs and action plans are then drawn up by people around him. But the impetus comes from the main character’s pronouncements.

That’s why we hear the US president-elect promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. It sounds unrealistic, to say the least, but it reflects his desire. Which is obviously a conscious one. Which means it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXYeJLhpMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA5687kROLk

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

“It’s hard to do cartoons without garbage…”

         Gus Leonisky

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia presented the Security Council with a picture of the situation in Ukraine on 31st October.

According to him, the Ukrainian army has gained 250 km² in one year, during its
counteroffensive, but is losing 30 km² per day today and even 478 km² during the month of October alone. Yet the Zelensky regime continues to congratulate itself on its progress and to proclaim its victory. The United States intends to plunder the Ukrainian subsoil (uranium, titanium, lithium and graphite) which Senator Lindsey Graham has estimated at between $10 and $12 trillion.

The EU Council is talking about a possible loan to Ukraine, backed by frozen Russian assets, on the condition that control of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex is transferred to Brussels.

London: The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned after intense pressure over his role in the Church of England’s failure to halt years of sexual and physical attacks carried out by a volunteer at Christian summer camps decades ago.

Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, had faced calls to quit after a report last week found he had taken insufficient action to stop a person it described as arguably the church’s most prolific serial abuser.

The Albanese Government’s obsessive enthusiasm for matching Coalition and News Corp demands with policy responses was on show twice last week. On both occasions it was enshrined in legislation, the first on immigration detention and the other on laws to restrict social media access.

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BEFORE (OCTOBER 31, 2024) THE ELECTION RESULTS...

On the eve of what could be the most consequential election in US history—perhaps even global history—the elite class representing their favored stalking racehorse seem to have thrown in their towels and hung up their riding crops.

What we’re seeing is unprecedented. For a couple months leading up to now, it felt like the unusual calm was merely a portent for some grand scheme being formulated in the webby dungeons beneath the DNC citadel. When Trump’s popularity shot up and Kamala’s tanked, the uncharacteristic silence from the other side took on an even stranger tenor. 

BY SIMPLICIUS

“IDF will fuck the Arabs!”, “Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there!” Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans chanting on 8 November, as reported by The Times of Israel. Yet the BBC just compared them to Jewish victims of the Nazi pogroms. Why this story matters is because of the outsized influence of the BBC – its content is shared as gospel by countless other broadcasters.

Police in Italy have seized more than 2,100 forged artworks that were attributed to dozens of greats like Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and Banksy.

Investigators said on Monday that the artworks had a potential market value of €200 million ($215 million).

The chief prosecutor of Pisa, Teresa Angela Camelio, said experts from the Banksy archive assisted with the investigation and considered it to be "the biggest act of protection of Banksy's work."

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch ally of Israel and a foreign policy hawk, to serve as the next ambassador to the UN.

“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement to the media on Monday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Stefanik, a congresswoman from New York, would replace career diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who has been representing the US at the UN since 2021.

In a post on X on Sunday, Stefanik wrote that the US was “ready for a return to President Trump’s MAXIMUM PRESSURE campaign against Iran.” She argued that Tehran has been “emboldened by the weakness of the Biden-Harris Administration.” 

Forty (40) years ago, the ALP ran its national conference at what was then called Noah’s Lakeside Hotel, with uranium, Timor, taxation, David Combe and south-west Tasmania prominent in discussions. But, who is this meeting up on the dancefloor after the day’s debates and double-crossings?

Kiev has reportedly chosen to channel military resources to its incursion into Kursk Region in Russia rather than reinforcing its positions in Donetsk People’s Republic, newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday.

According to Ukrainian servicemen fighting in Kursk Region who spoke with the Spanish outlet last month, while they occasionally experience shortages of weapons and equipment, there are no such problems with personnel.

The soldiers reportedly told El Pais that Ukrainian troops fighting in Kursk Region rotate every ten days. In comparison, servicemen operating on the front line in Donetsk People’s Republic get replaced on average only every 25 days.

Australian territory has been used in supporting US B-2 bombers en route and in return from strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on October 17, and highlights the profound strategic significance of this event for the future role Australia may play in US strategic bomber operations against China, in the Asia Pacific and beyond.

NAPSNet Special Report: