ermany lost the Second World War 81 years ago. Then, the Soviet Empire grew a bit. NATO was created. The Cold War soon began.

One could argue that the Cold War never truly ended, it just cooled down (further) for a few decades. By 2014 the Soviet Empire made its imperialial ambitions known again (Crimea) and 12 years later we still try to punish the Soviet Empire for it [1,2].

About 75 years after the Second World War the US elected a Putin-friendly (or Putin-admiring) loser as its national leader and we’re still paying the price for it in Europe [3,4].

I don’t view the US as our ally anymore. Worse yet, Americans keep attacking me personally, and also my family. It has gotten so ridiculous that for pointing out Americans’ aggression against American women I am asked to spend money on lawyers here in the UK.

To me, the US is not much more benign than Russia. Same playbook.

____

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Ukraine war briefing: Pressure stays on Russian economy until war is over, says Bessent

   US treasury secretary speaks with Russian counterpart who is controversially attending G20 talks; India’s Modi says war must end. What we know on day 1,651

2. UK leads way in disrupting shadowy Russian sanctions evasion network

   Chancellor calls on allies to step up their pressure on Russia and sets out new action to stop Putin evading sanctions to fund his illegal war.

3. Trump welcomes Russia back to the G20. Europe isn’t having it.

   The Trump administration’s decision to bring Russia back into the fold at a gathering of the world’s leading economic officials is stirring fresh tensions with European allies who want to continue isolating Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

4. US brings back Russia’s Siluanov to G20 finance talks, angering Europe

   Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has made a surprise appearance at United States-hosted G20 finance talks in North Carolina, sparking frustration and dismay among European ministers and officials.

   Siluanov’s appearance at the talks in Asheville on Monday marks the first time the minister, who was appointed in 2011, has attended a G20 meeting in person since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

It’s not just Gregorian calender

rateful for the long vacation (staycation this year), it has only a few hours left to it, then we wait until Xmas Eve. There will also be some football later tonight, tomorrow it’s back to normal, formally.

So we’ve managed to visit a lot of places, do a lot of exercise, prepare a lot of food, and tidy up everything, not just digital stuff.

2027 is looking like another year of conflict of Ukraine and maybe beyond it [1-3]. I keep watching the news about that war (every day since it began!) because I fear sooner or later it’ll expand to NATO territories.

Putin would rather destroy his country’s people and diminish the economy than admit that he was wrong and foolish.

____

1. China will stop Russia from going nuclear, Finland’s Stubb says

2. Don’t write off Russia’s defence industry yet

   Despite Ukraine’s recent battlefield successes, it is far too early to write off Russia, which is rebuilding its military in ways that many in the west have underestimated. Instead of simply replacing battlefield losses, it is creating a defence industry that combines Soviet-era industrial capacity with the demands of 21st-century warfare. The goal is not just to produce more tanks, but to reshape its military around the “asymmetric” advantages revealed by the war in Ukraine: drones, compact electronic warfare systems and other low-cost technologies that can be fielded at scale.

3. Kyiv suffers hours of daytime air raids as Russia deploys new jet-powered drones

   Kyiv is enduring hours of daytime air raids and air raid warnings as Russia has fired 800 jet-powered drones into Ukraine in four days, using the faster weapons to sustain prolonged waves of attacks

   The new-model Shahed drones have a cruising speed of 200mph to 250mph, about double the 115mph achieved by the piston-engine version and beyond the speed of Ukraine’s cheap interceptors, making them harder to stop.

N 2021 Garrett demanded that I remove, apologise etc.

I did not.

Did he sue like he said he would?

No.

Familiar?

Yes.

This was posted this morning:

ne need not be a “conspiracy buff” to claim there may be imminent threat from Russia because even national broadcasters and mainstream media talk about it [1, 2]. “Russia always attacks,” a friend tells me, “it’s only ever a matter of when…”

The average person here (whatever “average” means) is busy with his/her daily struggles and won’t pay too much attention to world affairs. It’s weekend here, so many people just watch football^*. They cheer for “their team”. Looking further ahead, however, we have various issues like climate collapse and conflict over resources.

Just because it’s rainy again doesn’t mean climate change didn’t destroy crops (agriculture is food). Just because we don’t have direct conflict right now doesn’t mean we don’t spend billions arming Ukraine. This makes everybody poorer.

____

^* Top 4 at the moment (PL) is all northwest and northeast England:

Hours ago:

reenland was a warning sign. The US is not committed to the protection of Europe, it’s an ongoing threat to it.

In recent hours I was curating many links about the current confrontation with Russia and some reports about Germany and the UK, not just Baltic states, in relation to the war in Ukraine. It seems like growing risk of direct conflict (not just passing arms and other resources to Ukraine) means evolving mindsets are overdue. It’s not like Russia has a lot going for it, except nukes, but it can still impact daily lives for all Europeans. Suppose an undersea cable got cut every day or a Russian (sometimes Iranian-made) armed drone entered Poland and Germany every day. Suppose EU citizens were expected to spend hours in bomb shelters.

The world is not in a “good place” right now.

This is 2026

do not use social control media, so I cannot be “doomscrolling”, but looking at reputable sites today it looks like NATO-Russia rations are worst than ever, Ukraine says Russia might commence another ground invasion, and even the UK faces growing provocations by Russia, hence the higher perceived risk. That’s based on BBC, The Times, and other large publishers.

“The Cabinet Office campaign will encourage households to prepare for emergencies lasting several days,” a lesser known site says.

A friend has meanwhile explained to me that “1) Russia’s secondary export is petrochemicals, the primary export is propaganda; 2) its GDP is like Italy’s and has been near but not at a breaking point for years; 3) it has not yet drafted the provinces; 4) it is already spread exceedingly thin militarily, but is making progress into converting fully over to a wartime economy; 5) it’s never as strong as it looks but nor is it as weak as it looks (see #1)”

We’re quite well prepared for crisis, but if one’s neighbours are ill-prepared, then it can developed into trouble quite fast.

Further south of Russia there is “one *big* problem,” the friend explained, “especially for S Korea, is if N Korea is paid to establish
large scale manufacturing of munitions, then once there are no external buyers they can simply use it up themselves against S Korea…”

“Data centers are part of the CCP’s attack on the defense of Europe, e.g. “Norwegian company says TikTok data centre is limiting energy for manufacturing Ukraine ammunition”. The Grauniad wrongly spins the problem as one of “cat videos” but those are just the carrier signal for the real payload: destructive propaganda such as car-burning yobs who drive the wrong way down the highways…”

“Propaganda requires a carrier signal to trap people’s attention and provide a false sense of value so that they are paying attention when the real payload is transmitted. The payload can be 1 out of 20 or fewer, as long as the other 19 or so keep the targets engaged and receptive. [Because] psychological warfare = sociology + marketing (basically, at least when getting the targets hooked)…”

The “King Cheeto” (Trump) does photo ops with Putin, no photos like the one below.

inter is fast approaching. Soon it’ll be autumn and within weeks it’ll be cold enough to be deemed winter. Later in this coming winter the full invasion of Ukraine completes 5 years and enters its sixth year. The Second World War lasted 6 years. That’s how long these aggressive Russian ambitions are and it seems like the US (or CIA appointees of King Cheeto) is on the wrong side. From King Cheeto claiming he can end the war within 24 hours (of being elected) we’ve come to the point where Baltic states prepare for potential invasion by Russia into NATO member states, with Putin allegedly recruiting 300,000 more troops and taking more from North Korea.

5 days ago: How South Koreans view their relationship with the U.S.

For the first time in over 20 years, a majority of South Koreans have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S. In our survey this past spring – before Trump’s call to scale back joint military exercises – 55% of South Koreans expressed an unfavorable view of the U.S., up from 39% last year. That included 18% with a very unfavorable view, up from 9% in 2025.