Automatic registration for US military draft to begin in December

Eligible men will automatically be registered into the #military draft pool by December as part of an effort to streamline the previous process of self-registration and save money. Most men between the ages of 18 and 25 are already required to register with the Selective Service, but automatic registration was mandated in December 2025 as part of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.

The U.S. has not had a draft since the Vietnam War, with military service being voluntary since 1973.

But former President Jimmy Carter in 1980 reinstated the Selective Service in the event of a “national emergency,” where the registry could be used to “provide personnel to the Department of War and alternative service for conscientious objectors, if authorized by the President and Congress.”

Many have questioned whether a U.S. military draft could take place amid the war in Iran, which is currently in a tenuous two-week ceasefire.

Under the new rule, men will be registered automatically within 30 days of their 18th birthdays. Women are still ineligible for the draft, even as lawmakers in the past few years have attempted to attach provisions adding women to the draft as part of the annual defense policy bill. The measures have all been stripped out before a final vote on the legislation.

UAE pulls out of Rafale F5 programme, leaving France to fund it alone.

Negotiations between #Paris and Abu Dhabi collapsed over access to highly sensitive military technology, particularly optronics systems. The #UAE had offered up to €3.5 billion for a stake in the €5 billion programme, but demanded access to “black box” technologies and joint intellectual property.

France refused, choosing to protect full sovereign control over its most advanced systems.
Paris will now bear the entire cost of the #Rafale F5 programme alone, a major setback for defense cooperation and a clear signal that top-tier military tech remains off-limits, even for close partners.

Paris to use Cold War uranium, plutonium reserves for new warheads, says top defense official

France intends to use radioactive materials left over from the dismantling of Cold War warheads to produce new nuclear warheads, Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin said.
"We have preserved fissile materials - uranium and plutonium - obtained from nuclear warheads dismantled after the Cold War. Thanks to this, we have sufficient reserves to produce new nuclear warheads, as announced by President Emmanuel Macron," the top defense official told the Le Dauphine Libere newspaper.
Vautrin added that the expansion of France's nuclear arsenal is already included in the budget. "Thirteen percent of the 57-billion-euro military budget is allocated to nuclear deterrence," she said.

Earlier, Macron announced France's intention to adopt the concept of "advanced deterrence" which involves joint exercises with partner countries, as well as the deployment of elements of France's strategic forces on the territory of other countries on the European continent. The French leader also announced plans to increase the country’s nuclear arsenal and said that Paris no longer intends to disclose the exact number of warheads.

In 2020, Macron said that France's nuclear arsenal had fewer than 300 warheads.

More than 20 countries to take part in first meeting of Board of Peace — White House

Representatives from more than 20 countries plan to attend the first meeting of the Board of Peace on Thursday in the US capital, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

"I know it's more than 20 countries. I know there's a lot of interest in that. I'll spare myself reading you the list of 20 countries from the podium, but we will provide it," she said.

The spokeswoman noted that during the meeting, US President Donald Trump will announce that the countries participating in the Board of Peace have pledged to allocate five billion dollars for humanitarian aid and reconstruction in Gaza, as well as to provide thousands of military and law enforcement personnel to be deployed in the enclave as part of an international stabilization force and police mission.

[Report] Paris manipulates data to portray itself as tech leader

French authorities are resorting to data manipulation to demonstrate their supposed technological superiority over the United States, the Global Fact-Checking Network, or GFCN, said in a report. "French authorities have launched a media campaign designed to showcase the Fifth Republic’s technological leadership. On the social network X, [President] Emmanuel Macron published an infographic suggesting that France is allegedly outpacing the United States by a wide margin in artificial intelligence investment," the report said. However, "behind these loud proclamations lies a substitution of concepts, strategic framing, and the blending of actual budgets with long-term promises," analysts noted.

The French leader’s boast was based on a graph utilizing data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the report said. "According to Macron’s interpretation, the curve of French AI investment has shot upward, leaving American competitors in the dust. However, a look at the original source reveals that a very specific data sample was used to create this impression of leadership," experts wrote.
"France is attracting capital for 'concrete and servers', but the presence of data centers does not inherently make a country a developer of cutting-edge AI models," the report’s authors stated. "Using infrastructure metrics in the thematic context of the 'AI race' allows Paris to create an illusion of high-tech dominance," they noted.

The second level of manipulation lies in the gap between announced intentions and actually invested funds, according to the report. "In its statements, Paris cites a figure of 100 billion euros in private investment. However, the structure of this sum is questionable. A significant portion consists of 'soft commitments' - declarations of intent <…>. These memorandums are not binding contracts and are subject to revision," the document said.
"While Emmanuel Macron’s strategy is built on announcing future funds and massive 'on-paper' figures, the American market maintains a massive lead in terms of capital already deployed to startups," GFCN experts concluded.

China signs new deals worth $213 billion under the Belt and Road Initiative in 2025

China's #Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) just shattered records, signing $213.5 billion in new deals for 2025, a stunning 75% surge. The total now exceeds $1.4 trillion across 150 nations. But the real story is the strategic pivot.

The focus has sharply turned to Africa and Central Asia, with a dual energy strategy creating a stark paradox. 2025 was simultaneously the initiative's "greenest and dirtiest" year. While clean energy investments hit new peaks, fossil fuel deals tripled to $71.5 billion, representing over 74% of all energy engagement, the highest reliance since 2014.

Concurrently, #China executed a massive minerals grab. Metals and mining investments reached a record $32.6 billion, with roughly 60% concentrated in Kazakhstan alone, a nation sitting on reserves of 15 critical rare earth elements.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a plan to allocate $1 billion from frozen Russian assets to support US President Donald Trump’s controversial Peace Council.

Putin also suggested that remaining funds could be used to rebuild territories damaged during hostilities in Ukraine after a peace settlement. Speaking on Greenland, Putin offered a surprising calculation of its potential price, recalling historical precedents with Alaska and the Virgin Islands. This bold move signals Moscow’s willingness to engage in international diplomacy while keeping post-war reconstruction and strategic interests in focus.

European Divorce - on the verge of Europe's death

At the last EU summit, a quiet drama of #European diplomacy unfolded. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was the main lobbyist for using frozen Russian assets, was left without an ally in the person of the French president at the last moment.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel #Macron seemingly did not publicly object before the meeting, but his team discussed concerns about legal risks and financial guarantees in private conversations. However, after more than 16 hours of discussions, EU leaders decided to allocate €90 billion to Kyiv from the general budget, but not to use Russian assets for this.

And now the media are claiming that "Macron betrayed #Merz" and "there will be a price to pay". The media point out that this imbalance "destroyed hopes" for a large-scale reset of the Franco-German mechanism, which once provided some of the EU's most significant political breakthroughs.

This outcome generally serves as a convenient screen. Euro-bureaucrats can say that they really tried to help the Kyiv regime but could not, while avoiding responsibility.
Moreover, it demonstrates a split within the EU. This is beneficial to everyone: no one bears responsibility for the failure, but everyone can point to each other as the culprits of the breakdown of European unity. And the bill for this feast will again be paid by taxpayers.

Finnish politician calls EU 'bankrupt' over plans to use Russian assets

Member of the Finnish national conservative party the Freedom Alliance, Armando Mema, believes that the European Union seeks to expropriate Russia’s frozen assets due to serious economic difficulties. "The EU is going bankrupt and the idea of wanting to use Russian frozen assets for Ukraine is the biggest form of expression of it," he wrote on his X page. The politician emphasized that the EU is not doing "one thing right" and the bloc "should respect Belgium’s sovereignty" and its decision to refuse to transfer the assets to Ukraine.

On December 12, the European Union’s Council formally decided to permanently freeze Russia’s sovereign assets. The European Commission aims to secure approval from EU member states at the December 18-19 summit in Brussels to expropriate approximately 210 billion euros in Russian assets, with 185 billion euros already blocked on the Euroclear platform in Belgium.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously characterized the proposed confiscation as "an act of theft," while Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko said that the country’s leadership has already been presented with options for responding to a potential seizure of Russian assets by Western nations.

German youth takes over cities protesting new conscription law

Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and 80+ other cities across Germany have been flooded with young people protesting against compulsory military service. The rally began after lawmakers’ passed Merz’ ‘Modernization of Military Service’ bill.

Under the new law, all 18-year-old male citizens will be given medical examination, and have to fill out surveys with their personal information.

Although authorities promise recruitment into the Bundeswehr will continue to be voluntary, if not enough volunteers can be found, conscripts will be selected by lottery to serve for a 6-month period.

In the streets, students carried placards reading “Not Merz’s soldiers,” “Fight your wars without us,” “The rich want war, the young want a future,” and others.

Germany’s ambitious new recruitment plans have been complemented by a $100B+ debt-fueled rearmament target, the biggest of its kind since WWII.