WALES - A former soldier who posted a series of anti-Islamic messages on Facebook has been jailed. Daffron Williams, 41, of Tonypandy, Rhondda Cynon Taf, wrote: "Civil war is here. The only thing missing is bullets, that's the next step." Cardiff Crown Court was told the Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, who has PTSD, sent the messages before and after three girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport in July, sparking riots. Williams, who pleaded guilty to stirring up racial hatred, was sentenced to two years, half of which will be spent in prison, with the other half on licence.

SWEDEN - Sweden is sending out some five million pamphlets to residents urging them to prepare for the possibility of war, with instructions on how to stockpile food and even seek shelter during a nuclear attack, as fears grow of a Russia-NATO conflict. Neighbouring Finland has also launched a new preparedness website while Norwegians recently received booklets instructing them on how to manage on their own for a week in the event of war and other threats. Both Sweden and Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment to join the US-led military alliance NATO in the wake of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the war, Stockholm has repeatedly urged Swedes to prepare both mentally and logistically for the possibility of war, citing the serious security situation in its vicinity.

RUSSIA - Senior Russian politicians have declared President Joe Biden has taken a 'big step towards World War Three' after his administration reportedly gave the green light for Ukraine to blast targets inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles. The decision, which comes on the eve of the 1000th day of war in Ukraine amid the dying days of the Biden administration, heralded a torrent of apocalyptic warnings from Russian lawmakers. 'This is a very big step towards the beginning of the Third World War,' said Putin-loyalist Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house and a retired security service general. He slammed the move from Biden - 'a departing old man who will no longer be responsible for anything in two months'.

USA - US President Joe Biden's decision to give Ukraine the green light to blast targets inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles may trigger a broader war and lead to yet more bloodshed, former American military chiefs and analysts warn. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis warned yesterday that allowing Kyiv to use America's ATACMS rockets even in a limited capacity would 'enrage Putin and likely broaden the war' just weeks before Donald Trump arrives in the White House. 'I feel it's going to enrage Putin, which is problematic... ATACMS are not going to make a major difference quite frankly, but what it will do is put Mr Trump as he assumes the presidency in a much worse situation. What we don't need at this late hour is the Biden administration exacerbating a pretty bad situation,' he told Fox News.

USA - The US-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) uses solid propellant to fire explosive projectiles at ranges of up to 300km/190 miles (roughly the same distance from London to the outer suburbs of Paris). There are four variants of the ATACMS, two of which - the M39 Block I and the M39A1 Block I - contain 950 and 300 M74 bomblets respectively. Each of these bomblets is roughly the size of a baseball, and in the case of the M39, 950 are dispersed over an area of 677 feet in diameter - covering 360,000 square feet - making them highly effective at destroying groups of parked aircraft, ammunition dumps, aid defence systems - as well as gatherings of troops.

GERMANY - Damage caused to two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea must be seen as sabotage, although it is still unclear who is responsible, Germany’s defence minister has said. “No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables,” Boris Pistorius said before a meeting with EU defence ministers in Brussels. The 745-mile (1,200km) cable connecting Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working at about 2am GMT on Monday, the Finnish state-controlled cybersecurity and telecoms company Cinia said. A 135-mile internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland island went out of service at about 8am GMT on Sunday, according to Lithuania’s Telia Lietuva, part of Sweden’s Telia Company group.

FRANCE - Last winter, French farmers blocked roads across the country in a protest over what they said were falling incomes and an escalation of red tape. The demonstrations enjoyed overwhelming public support and President Macron’s government capitulated, announcing 70 measures in support of farms, including short-term funding of more than €1 billion (£836 million) and a promise to reduce environmental inspections. There was also a pledge to raise the threshold at which farms are liable for inheritance tax from €500,000 to €700,000, while increasing the cut-off point for partial relief from €1 million to €1.2 million — taking French agricultural fiscal policy in the opposite direction to Britain’s under Sir Keir Starmer. Nevertheless, there are some lessons for Starmer from the French crisis. The first is that farmers cannot easily be bought off with words alone. The second is that if they have public support, they represent a redoubtable opponent for any government.

USA - New Yorkers have been asked to tolerate a worsening of notoriously filthy surroundings — and cut back on their showers — as the city grapples with its most severe drought in more than two decades. Eric Adams, the city’s mayor, issued a drought warning on Monday after one of the longest stretches without rain in the city’s history across 30 days in October. Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, extended the warning to 13 other counties in the state due to declining water supply levels. “Our city vehicles may look a bit dirtier, and our subways may look a bit dustier, but it’s what we have to do to delay or stave off a more serious drought emergency,” Adams said on Monday. “We need New Yorkers to continue to save water, too, so we can water our parks and fill our pools this coming summer.”

USA - US president signs off on deploying ATACMS rockets, raising expectations that Britain may authorise similar use of Storm Shadows. Joe Biden has given approval for Ukraine to strike targets within Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles for the first time. In a major policy shift just weeks before he stands down, the US president signed off on the use of ATACMS rockets within the Kursk region. Mr Biden’s decision will raise expectations that he is also set to drop his opposition to the use of British-made Storm Shadow missiles within Russia.

USA - SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close confidant of US President-elect Donald Trump, has weighed in on President Joe Biden’s apparent decision to officially sanction the use of American missiles on targets deep within Russian territory, agreeing with a post stating “libs love war.” With just two months left in office, Biden reportedly gave in to one of Ukraine’s long-standing demands on Sunday afternoon, authorizing Kiev to use its American-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) in strikes on Russia’s Kursk Region. The decision was simultaneously reported by multiple US media outlets. While SpaceX has provided the Ukrainian military with Starlink internet terminals, Musk has long argued that Kiev cannot hope to defeat Russian forces on the battlefield, and that the conflict must end in a negotiated settlement. The tech tycoon endorsed Donald Trump – who has vowed to bring a swift end to the fighting – earlier this summer...

RUSSIA - Washington’s sole interest in the Ukraine conflict is making a profit, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday. He added that the “results of US investments” in Ukraine would be destroyed. According to Medvedev, who serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, military aid to Kiev has allowed the US to make billions for its military-industrial complex. Moreover, the sanctions against Moscow pitched by Washington and introduced by the majority of its Western partners have raised US profits from exports, as they effectively eliminated Russia as a rival supplier. Medvedev noted that from July 2023 to June 2024, oil supplies from the US to Europe had doubled, LNG shipments nearly tripled, and exports of fertilizers “went from near zero to 666,000 tons.” “The same goes for many other exports. The profit is potent. After all, Europe has nowhere to go given the shortage of raw materials, which was provoked by anti-Russian sanctions,” he stated.

USA - The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, is looking for what they described as “small-government revolutionaries” ready to work on what they described as “unglamorous cost-cutting.” "We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” DOGE continued, calling on those individuals to DM them their CV and promising that “Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants”.

USA - The US Department of Defense (DoD) has failed its seventh consecutive financial audit. Despite commanding an $824 billion 2024 budget — funded entirely by hardworking American taxpayers — the Pentagon remains unable to account for vast sums of money. The Pentagon began its first-ever agency-wide financial audit in 2017. This marked the beginning of a process that had been sought, promised, and delayed for years. ​Since undertaking this initial audit, the Pentagon has consistently failed to pass its subsequent audits, the first of which failed in 2018​.

USA - Vivek Ramaswamy promises a “sweeping change” as he and Elon Musk will lead the Department of Government Efficiency. During an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, Ramaswamy explained what the vision of the new department will be. Ramaswamy promised aggressive cost-cutting measures would begin with executive action to allow Congress to do its part, as reported by Fox News. “The failures of the executive branch need to be addressed because the dirty little secret right now is the people we elect to run the government, they're not the ones who actually run the government,” he said. “It's the unelected bureaucrats in the administrative state that was created through executive action. It's going to be fixed through executive action.”

USA - A graduate student at a Michigan university experienced a chilling interaction with Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini. What began as a seemingly routine academic inquiry turned into a nightmarish scenario when the chatbot delivered a disturbing and threatening message, CBS News reported. The 29-year-old student, who was working on a project about “Challenges and Solutions for Ageing Adults,” sought the AI’s assistance.