USA - The rapid expansion of weapons by Moscow and Beijing in recent years means being left behind is a genuine concern for America. Within a decade, it is expected that China will have as many nuclear warheads deployed as the United States. Pentagon estimates suggest that Beijing will have 1,500 operable nuclear weapons by 2035. It will mean for the first time since the end of the Cold War, Washington will have to contend with more than just a single adversary considered a nuclear superpower.

UK - At Thursday’s session of the Commons Select Defence Committee, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (DCDS) Lieutenant General Sir Rob Macgowan asserted that the British army was ready to meet the threat of potential Russian aggression in Europe. Specifically, he said that “if the Russians invaded eastern Europe tonight then we would meet them in that fight”. This sort of hysterical optimism does Britain’s armed forces no favours whatsoever and is typical of the “can do” attitude that placates non-expert politicians, and to a certain extent explains why the services are in such dire straits today.

UK - Net zero targets will force Britons to change how they live their lives, the Labour chairman of Parliament’s energy committee has said. Bill Esterson, the most senior backbencher charged with scrutinising the Government’s energy policy, said ordinary people will “absolutely” have to adjust their habits to meet the UK’s ambitious emissions goals for 2030. His remarks directly contradict Sir Keir Starmer’s claim earlier in November that the Government can hit its climate targets without telling people “how to behave”.

YEMEN - While the world has been somewhat distracted by events in Lebanon and Gaza, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have been continuing their Iranian-backed attacks on world shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. By way of background, the Houthi movement is a Shia Islamist and military organisation that emerged in Yemen in the 1990s. They established themselves as an opposition movement to the recognised government of Yemen, which they accused of corruption and of being in the pocket of Saudi Arabia and the USA.

GERMANY - Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned that Russia takes three months to produce the amount of weapons the EU does in a year. Germany has issued a shocking warning over the scale of Russia's weapons production, as it reportedly produces four times the amount the EU does. Boris Pistorius, the country's defence minister, said Russia only takes three months to produce the amount of weapons the EU does in a whole year.

USA - The rest of the world tends to sit out the lame-duck weeks at the end of a presidential reign, holding its breath to see what the new commander-in-chief will do once in the Oval Office. Not this time. With eight weeks to inauguration day, there's a sense of growing instability which gives the countdown to the end of Joe Biden's term in the White House an almost uniquely dangerous character. In fact, we seem closer to a World War Three-style clash between superpower rivals than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

USA - Today, the US federal debt officially eclipsed $36 trillion, according to US Debt Clock (Treasury Department data, which hasn’t been updated today, still has the figure at $35.97 trillion). This is just mere months after it famously eclipsed $35 trillion at the end of July. The Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s source for “nonpartisan analysis,” has warned about the deleterious “effects of waiting to stabilize federal debt.” A perpetually rising debt-to-GDP ratio is unsustainable over the long term because financing deficits and servicing the debt would consume an ever-growing proportion of the nation’s income.

USA - Anti-Christian hate crimes, discrimination, and restrictions on the religious freedom of Christians are increasing in many European countries, according to a new report by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe). Using government statistics, police data, and information from international and local organizations, OIDAC found 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes documented by police and civil society in 35 European countries in 2023, including 232 personal attacks on Christians, such as harassment, threats, and physical violence.

RUSSIA - The discussions in the West about authorizing long-range missile strikes on Russia are profoundly dishonest and misleading. The political-media elites present deeply flawed arguments to support the conclusion that attacking Russia with these weapons doesn’t cross the line between proxy war and direct war. NATO may be successful in deluding itself, yet for Moscow there is no doubt that this is an act of war. The point of departure in an honest discussion should start with the right question: When is the line between proxy war and direct war crossed? These are US long-range missiles, their use is entirely dependent on American intelligence and targeting. They will be operated by US soldiers and guided by US satellites.

RUSSIA - Contrary to some claims, the Oreshnik is not an upgrade of Soviet-era missile systems, according to Putin. Instead, it is a completely new development built on modern Russian technology. The president emphasized that the missile represents the culmination of efforts within “New Russia,” referring to developments after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. “It was created on the basis of modern, latest developments,” he stated.

UKRAINE - Ukraine's former military chief has warned that World War Three is already underway - with Vladimir Putin's autocratic allies, North Korea, Iran and China, openly supporting his forces on the battlefield. Valery Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine's envoy to the United Kingdom, told the UP100 award ceremony in Kyiv: 'I believe that in 2024 we can absolutely believe that the Third World War has begun.' The General said that as of this year, 'Ukraine is no longer facing Russia. Soldiers from North Korea are standing in front of Ukraine.' He made the comments after reports emerged that around 10,000 soldiers had been sent by Pyongyang to fight alongside Russian troops in the Kursk region, as Moscow aims to replenish its forces and reclaim the territory taken from it three months ago.

RUSSIA - Russia this morning allegedly fired an intercontinental ballistic missile as part of a brutal barrage of targets in Ukraine just one day after Kyiv's forces battered a Russian command headquarters in the Kursk region with British Storm Shadow missiles. The strike comes after Ukraine used US and British missiles to demolish targets inside Russia this week, something Moscow had warned for months would be seen as a major escalation. Ukraine's air force reported that an ICBM had been fired from a base in Russia's southern Astrakhan region on the Caspian Sea early this morning - the first time Russia has used such a powerful, long-range missile during the war. The Frontier missile is a terrifying, nuclear-capable weapon weighing roughly 50 tonnes with a range of up to 3,600 miles. It has never before been used in combat, but analysts said it could be deployed with a conventional warhead in a strike that Ukraine's air defences would be powerless to intercept.

RUSSIA - Russia has threatened to attack a new US defense base in Poland with “advanced weapons” — just hours after reportedly launching an intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday. Moscow leveled the warning after saying the opening of the ballistic missile defense base, located in the town of Redzikowo near the Baltic coast, would lead to an increase in overall nuclear danger. “Given the nature and level of threats posed by such Western military facilities, the missile defense base in Poland has long been added to the list of priority targets for potential destruction, which, if necessary, can be executed with a wide range of advanced weapons,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

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."