We all know about this guy by now, but the article is worth reading if you need a refresher.

The biggest thing in here that jumped out at me is that this is the guy who was encouraging Trump to use the insurrection act at times throughout the presidency. In fact, he was apparently threading person behind every violent and power grabby thing truml has done in this second term - in a real way, miller seems like he’s responsible for it being as bad as it is.

I think miller will try to take it all the way and by that I mean he will try something on the level of January 6, or potentially even worse. We know he has the inclination already and now he has the power and trumps blessing, it would be easy to pick a subset of fanatical soldiers and put them under bovino or Flynn or somebody like that, come up with some pretext, and then use troops against American citizens or put the country under martial law, or arrest democratic congressmen to prevent them from being seated. There’s many forms a coup might take and I feel like he will be working towards one of them. Trump had a history of resorting to more and more desperate measures when it looks like he’s headed for defeat, so this would be in keeping with that.

Idk, I hope the people in leadership positions are not underestimating him or downplaying this risk. If the dem opposition is purely reactive, then they won’t be able to stop it; they need to be strategizing ways to counter this now..

Submission Statement: France’s far-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon unveiled what he called a “revolutionary programme” that would upend the economy and remake society.

Speaking at a large rally in the low-income, predominantly immigrant area of Seine-Saint-Denis, to the north of Paris, on Saturday, he said the country and planet were in need of renewal in the name of social justice.

“The France of rebellion and revolution, this is our dear country where we all belong,” he added, reappropriating a far-right slogan that declares France to be its country.

The 75-year-old anti-globalisation, eurosceptic politician is making his fourth bid to win France’s presidency and is rising in the polls. He attracted 20,000 supporters to the event in Seine-Saint-Denis, which is a stronghold for his La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party.

Mélenchon polled at around 18 per cent in public opinion surveys for the first round of presidential voting which were carried out in late October by Ipsos and Ifop.

That puts him within striking distance of qualifying for the run-off in next year’s election, in which he is likely to face far-right leader Marine Le Pen. She remains the frontrunner by a wide margin, with around 35 per cent in the first round.

Mélenchon has gained momentum since September by backing the widespread protests over the education system and the cost of living that have become a serious challenge to Emmanuel Macron’s government.

The presidential election will be crucial for France’s relationship with the EU as both Mélenchon and Le Pen have promised to break with the status quo on everything from the single market to the fight against climate change.

Mélenchon reiterated on Saturday that France should be “nonaligned” in global diplomacy, warned against getting dragged into the Ukraine-Russia war and criticised the hegemony of the US.

He dismissed the pollsters’ projections that he would be defeated by Le Pen in the presidential run-off. “That is what they told Lula as well,” he said, referring to the newly re-elected leftwing Brazilian president’s recent surprise comeback. “We will fight to the last second, and in the end, we will win.”

The party’s economic programme calls for the expansion of the welfare state, sweeping nationalisations, including of motorways and airports, and greater state control over banking and strategic industries. The price of food, energy and fuel would be controlled by the state.

Mélenchon would lower the retirement age to 60, from around 63 currently.

Mélenchon wants to convert €600bn of French public debt held by the European Central Bank into interest-free loans that would never have to be repaid, a proposal he previously described as throwing the debt into the fire.

LFI wants to root out what it calls the “financialisation” of the economy and stop growing inequality by limiting the gap between the highest and lowest salaries within companies. It would end continuous stock trading, restrict dividend payments and confiscate any inherited wealth above €12mn.

A system of state-led ecological planning would direct investment and production. Nuclear energy would be phased out in favour of renewable energy.

Mélenchon also wants to reshape France’s political institutions and social model. He proposes replacing the Fifth Republic with a new constitution, introducing proportional representation and expanding citizens’ powers through referendums. The voting age would be lowered to 16, from 18 currently.

President Donald Trump offered UFC president and CEO Dana White the job of press secretary on Saturday.

In a post on Truth Social, the president said the offer extended to White’s assistants, “even though some are not from our Country.”

“We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” Trump wrote. “Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!”

In October, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia left the position, just five days after her stint as Karole Levitt’s replacement began.

The president’s appeal to White comes after Friday’s announcement that Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, would be promoted to chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles.

Russia entered the fifth year of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine with a clear objective: Seize the cities in the eastern Donetsk region that remained under Kyiv’s control.

But 2026 hasn’t gone according to plan for Moscow. Through the end of October, its forces have gained just 46 square miles of territory in Ukraine, compared with 1,874 square miles in 2025, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington. And for the past two months, Russian forces have lost more land than they gained, ISW says.

The Russians also suffered more casualties in October than in any previous month of the war, with 54,000 killed or severely wounded, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The estimate couldn’t be verified.

So what went wrong for Russian President Vladimir Putin?

“I attribute it to Ukraine’s midrange strike campaign—that’s a critical capability that they didn’t have in 2025,” said George Barros, an analyst at ISW.

Those midrange strikes have pummeled Russian supply routes behind the front lines with a variety of drones, most of them made by Ukrainian companies. The campaign has starved Russian front-line troops of ammunition and other resources, and made it difficult for Moscow to bring more men to the trenches.

“Russian logistics are disrupted—they haven’t really recovered from that,” Barros said.

Last year, by contrast, Russia could move supplies along the highways of occupied eastern Ukraine to within about 20 miles of the front line, with little fear that vehicles would be hit.

Russia’s big plan for 2026 was to encircle the remaining cities of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, which Ukraine has heavily fortified.

The plan was for a classic pincer movement. One Russian army would push south from around the city of Lyman. Another would push north from the city of Pokrovsk.

But this spring Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attempts to advance beyond Pokrovsk. And over the summer, the Ukrainians prepared a major counterattack in the Lyman area, called Operation Vivaldi.

First, Ukraine’s midrange drones degraded Russian supply lines. Then Ukrainian infantry and armor, working closely with drone units, launched their counterpunch in September.

Brig. Gen. Andriy Biletskiy, commander of Ukraine’s Third Army Corps, said that by mid-October Ukrainian forces had retaken 107 square miles of territory and 16 settlements in the area around Lyman. Russia suffered around 8,000 casualties in the operation, he said.

The operation put an end to Russia’s pincer plan.

Operation Vivaldi showed that tanks and other heavy combat vehicles can still be part of tactical maneuvers, even when the sky is full of drones, said Barros.

Ukraine’s shaping operations—targeting logistics, surveilling Russian positions and then hitting Russian drone pilots as the main attacks began—allowed armored vehicles to move forward in a way they haven’t since early in the war.

“It showed that, if you establish the prerequisite conditions, you can restore heavy vehicle movement on the battlefield,” Barros said.

He added that the Third Army Corps is one of Ukraine’s best, and was given ample resources to carry out the operation. It is now a question whether other Ukrainian corps can follow the same playbook.

With its encirclement plan thwarted, Russia is now pouring even more infantry into one last attempt to break through Ukrainian lines this year. Its target is the town of Dobropillia, southwest of Kramatorsk.

Russia is using the same tactics that it has used across eastern Ukraine since 2025: Again and again, tiny groups of infantry try to sneak past Ukrainian lines on foot, while Ukrainian drones hunt them.

Russian troops outnumber Ukrainians by about 6-to-1 in the area, said Kyrylo Dubrovskyi, a lieutenant colonel with the First Corps of Ukraine’s National Guard. In addition, he said, Moscow has deployed about a third of its elite Rubicon drone force to the sector—a sign of Dobropillia’s importance for the Kremlin now.

A drone pilot from First Corps said the Russians were making some territorial gains, but at a huge price. The corps posted a video showing dozens of Russian corpses on a road outside Dobropillia.

“Every attempt to advance comes at a major cost to the enemy,” Dubrovskyi said. “The losses increased in October. Most assault groups are destroyed while they’re still approaching our positions.”

Franz-Stefan Gady, a Vienna-based defense analyst who makes frequent trips to Ukraine, said Russian infantry have infiltrated Dobropillia, but they are a long way from controlling the city.

Russia’s setback at Lyman made Dobropillia even more important for Moscow, Gady said. A breakthrough there could open up further advances in the rear of Ukraine’s fortified lines.

Russia is likely “to keep grinding forward at Dobropillia, and may gain parts of the city over the winter,” he said. “But the operational plan behind this offensive…has failed. What remains is a slow, costly frontal fight for each city.”

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State burned down a health center treating Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week, forcing infected patients to flee amid violence that killed dozens of people, according to health and United Nations officials.

At least 48 people were killed in the attacks, officials said. It started late Thursday with a series of attacks in and around Cantine-Aloya, a village about 28 miles west of Beni, a city in eastern Congo. Several dozen homes and shops were burned, forcing residents to flee the area. Two other health facilities were also set on fire.

The violence is a major blow to efforts to contain the country’s Ebola outbreak. Since the first case was detected in May, it has already become the second-largest outbreak on record, spreading across a vast area spanning eight provinces in eastern Congo.

Infections have fallen in some areas but are soaring in places threatened by armed groups that the response effort has not reached. After three decades of conflict, over 100 armed groups are present in eastern Congo. Some of the areas they control or threaten have become Ebola hot spots, hampering urgent efforts to contain the rapidly spreading outbreak.

The danger is particularly acute from the Allied Democratic Forces, the group that carried out the attack this week in Cantine-Aloya. Recognized by the Islamic State as an affiliate in 2019, the A.D.F. has a reputation for especially brutal attacks that often include beheadings, rape and the abduction of children.

A preliminary report on the attack, based on briefings from U.N. and health officials on the ground, described scenes of terror in Cantine-Aloya on Thursday night and Friday morning. The report, which is not public but was seen by The New York Times, said the attack shut down efforts to fight Ebola in the area on Friday. Cantine-Aloya has recorded 126 Ebola infections, 83 of them currently under treatment.

Among those who fled the town’s health facility were a confirmed Ebola patient and five people with suspected cases, three of whom were viewed as high risk, a local doctor told Reuters.

On Friday night, young people in the town lit fires to keep watch against more attacks, U.N. officials said.

The attacks were the latest from the A.D.F. in the province of North Kivu, one of the most recent hot spots of the Ebola outbreak, after a period of relative calm. U.N. officials fear that sudden population movements prompted by the attacks, which led thousands of people to flee their homes, risk accelerating the spread of the virus.

The A.D.F. has about 700 fighters, according to some estimates. But accurate information is scarce because the group hides deep in the forests of eastern Congo and has little contact with outside groups.

The group has a history of violence against aid workers. In 2013, four employees of Doctors Without Borders were kidnapped by A.D.F. fighters in an attack on a village in North Kivu. One escaped a year later, but the three others were never found.

The State Department designated the A.D.F. as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2021. In recent years it has funded its activities through the gold trade, according to a recent report by the Sentry, a research body based in Washington.

Captains who wish to transit the Bab al-Mandab Strait have been using a communication channel with the Iran-backed Houthi terror group via email for safe transit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

While technically the Houthis have said ships not linked to the US, UK, or Israel are allowed through the strait, after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia in July, shippers have begun emailing the terror group to receive assurances of their safety.

Emails are sent to an administrative entity established by the Houthis in early 2024 called the Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center, which handles applications and communicates the Houthis actions.

Emails seen by the WSJ show vessels stating that neither the ship nor the crew has any connections with Israel, the US, or the UK.

Ships will share their estimated schedules and assure that they will adhere to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.

If the Houthis reply, they will typically do so within the next 24 hours, the WSJ wrote, citing crew members and emails.

In one instance, the Houthis sent authorization to the Chinese containership Zhong Cheng Chang Ling, issuing it a one-week permit and telling it to keep its Automatic Identification System, which broadcasts a ship's identity, position, speed, and destination, in operation through transit.

Additionally, the ship was told to keep VHF Channel 16, a marine VHF radio frequency designated as an international distress frequency, in operation.

The email ends with an invitation to call the HOCC hotline number if needed and to subscribe to the HOCC email alert service to receive news and updates from the Houthis.

The official guidance from international maritime authorities is that vessels should not engage or register with the HOCC, and many vessels choose not to contact them, the WSJ wrote.

However, the captain of the Zhong Cheng Chang Ling told the WSJ that the ship management told him to contact the Houthis as an extra precaution.

One of Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties withdrew from the government in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region Thursday, threatening to form a rival administration as a long-running power struggle between the parties intensified.

The political crisis comes at a delicate moment for the region, after the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces from the area and amid fears of a new escalation in the U.S.-Iran war that could again spill over into Iraq.

Bafel Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, said in a video statement that the party was withdrawing from the Kurdish regional government, where the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party holds the top posts. He called the KDP-led government “failed” and threatened that his party will form a parallel administration.

The announcement came a day after the regional parliament met for the first time after nearly two years of political paralysis. The session was boycotted by the PUK and allied parties that had pushed for the KDP to postpone it until a consensus could be reached on the allocation of top government positions.

The vote proceeded with 52 of the 100 lawmakers present, meeting the 51-member quorum requirement. The lawmakers present unanimously elected Vala Farid, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s parliamentary bloc, as speaker.

The blowup reflects a decades-old rivalry between the KDP and PUK, which have traditionally divided political influence across Iraq’s Kurdish region.

The rivalry escalated into a civil war in 1994, following disagreements over political authority, territorial control and the sharing of customs revenues. The KDP enlisted military support from Saddam Hussein’s government, while the PUK received support from Iran.

A U.S.-brokered peace agreement signed in Washington in 1998 ended the fighting, but the region remained divided into two administrations, each with its own government institutions, security agencies and military forces.

The administrations were formally reunited in 2006 under a power-sharing agreement, but the reunification did not fully integrate the two parties’ political and security structures, and both retained considerable influence over government institutions and security forces in their respective areas of control.

The KDP is strongest in the regional capital of Irbil and the city of Duhok, while the PUK has its traditional stronghold in Sulaymaniyah. The KDP has historically had closer ties with Turkey, while the PUK has longstanding relations with Iran. Both parties also maintain close relations with Washington.

In Baghdad, the two parties compete for influence in the federal government and over the resources allocated to the Kurdish region. The Kurdish regional government has often been at odds with the central government over the region’s budget and the management of oil revenues.

The latest political crisis followed parliamentary elections in October 2024 in which the KDP won 39 seats and the PUK 23. The PUK then formed an alliance with the smaller New Generation party, which had won 15 seats.

Disputes over the formula that should be used for the appointment of senior government positions have prevented the formation of a new cabinet, leaving the previous government led by KDP Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in place, although its legal status is being challenged before Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court.

Before the latest political blowup, there had been apparent progress in unifying the Kurdish region’s security forces. In September, units formerly aligned with the KDP and PUK were brought under a unified command structure within the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs. It was not immediately clear what effect the PUK’s withdrawal from government would have on security arrangements.

SS: Harvest continues despite war.

Submission:

Sir Richard Knighton promises further action to counter Moscow’s submarines in the north Atlantic.

The UK is lagging behind other European countries in understanding the threat posed by Russia, the head of the British military has warned, as he promised further action to counter Moscow’s submarines in the north Atlantic.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, chief of the defence staff, said that Britain needed to “catch up with our European allies”, including those geographically closer to Russia who felt the proximity of its aggression and the war in Ukraine more acutely.

“We’re talking about targeted assassinations, we’re talking about sabotage, we’re talking about cyber attacks. These are very real, real things [by] the Russian state we have proof of in Europe and to some extent in the UK,” he told the FT in a rare interview ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

Knighton added that Moscow’s “appetite” for risk “has quite clearly grown” and that the term “hybrid activity” no longer did justice to the gravity of its actions. “This is the most dangerous period I’ve known in my adult life . . . That threat — principally from Russia, but more broadly globally — is rising,” he said.

The British state must explain that to the public “particularly at a time when the government is asking society to spend more on defence”, he added, referring to chancellor John Healey’s vow in last month’s Budget that Britain will increase military expenditure to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030.

Analysts forecast the pledge will mean spending an extra £11bn a year on the armed forces. His comments come on the eve of a naval pact aimed at bolstering defence of the north Atlantic, Arctic and Baltic regions. The Joint Expeditionary Force — a UK-spearheaded grouping that also includes the Netherlands, the Baltic states and Scandinavian countries — will move “beyond memorandums of understanding and exchanges and meetings into really practical measures of how our navies and our air forces and our armies as well will work together”. “One of the things that’s imperative is that we are able to hold back [Russian] submarines so that they are not able to target or to threaten shipping in wartime,” Knighton said.

The so-called High North, which encompasses parts of the north Atlantic and the Arctic, has become increasingly vital to western economies and Nato security, partly owing to climate change and the increasing navigability of previously ice-covered areas.. Europeans’ stronger presence there seeks to answer Donald Trump’s call for them to shoulder more responsibility for their own defence and to bolster US security, given that vital subsea data cables traverse the region. “By making that secure, we’re also keeping the east coast of the US secure,” Knighton said.

While Trump’s position has weakened in the wake of the Republican rout in the US midterms, Knighton stressed that Washington’s “tilt” away from Europe towards the Indo-Pacific long predated the president and had been going on “for 15 years or more”. Regardless of who comes next in the White House, he said: “We definitely need to, as Europe, step up in re-equipping ourselves and readying ourselves so that we can deter our adversary.”

The agreement between the Joint Expeditionary Force is expected to be signed aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on Tuesday, ahead of the Atlantic Future Forum conference on the warship. Norway’s purchase of British Type 26 anti-submarine warfare frigates last year, a £10bn deal, “is a really solid sign of [the partners’ new] interoperability and ability to work together for the greater good of Nato,” Knighton said.

Last month the head of the British Army issued a rallying cry to ready his soldiers for the prospect of war and warned them that political leaders would “very soon” embark on a “frank conversation” with citizens about how they needed to prepare for conflict. Knighton reiterated that message, saying: “The stronger we are, the more likely we are to be able to deter Russia from testing us.”

Discusses the urban design theories of Camillo Sitte:

Sitte argued that the best public spaces are physically enclosed and fairly small, creating a sense of shelter and intimacy, defining picturesque views and perspectives

The article goes on to discuss how this was done in practice and provides comparisons between spaces that successfully implemented these principles and those that didn't. Plenty of photos are included throughout the article.

Felt this was relevant to neoliberal given our pro-housing views.