The Lib Dem Defence Bonds Proposal has been on the table for several months and would solve the government defence spending crisis

Extraordinarily - and this seems to demonstrate a complete disregard of the seriousness of defence at the heart of government - John Healey was only told what the offer was for additional defence funding on Monday afternoon. I am told Number 10 then tried to rush and publish the Defence Investment Plan on Thursday. Then a handbrake was applied by Mr Healey and his military chiefs. The (now ex) defence secretary made clear that racing to release the blueprint without a settlement that had been accepted by him and his team would be a risk for defence and for its soldiers, sailors and aviators. You can only imagine the tone of the exchange that must have taken place - and I know that people were in the MOD until very late last night. But John Healey firmly believes the settlement was inadequate and, if left unchallenged, would not enable the UK to keep the country safe or meet its international commitments - such as help defend Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. A key detail is that Mr Healey believes defence spending must be increased to 3% of GDP by 2030, up from 2.3% now. This would guarantee tens of billions of additional pounds for defence. But - despite the stakes and the position of the defence secretary - the Prime Minister and Chancellor agreed just to inch it up to 2.68% of GDP within that time frame, after hitting a new target of 2.6% next year (which is already being inflated by lumping in the 0.1% that is spent on the intelligence agencies). Utterly incredible. What must our allies and our adversaries be thinking, let alone everyone in the UK armed forces and, frankly, everyone in our country? We all rely on a secure UK to live, work, go to school, enjoy holidays, access healthcare, spend time with friends and families. This is not a divine right. It happens because we have security - something that might not be apparent until or unless it is compromised...

As misleading headlines go, that has to be up there with some of the worst! As is the claim that "Immigration is fuelling mass unemployment among under-25s." The "shocking new study" does NOT show that at all 🙄 🧵 1/21

The argument the Remain campaign should have been brave enough to make, during the Brexit referendum.

US troops are not in Germany to protect Germany. They’re there because the US needs bases to conduct operations beyond the North American continent. If Trump withdraws them, he will harm the United States, not Germany. It’s absurd how many Americans fail to grasp this.

Viktor Orbán's government is intentionally trying to provoke a conflict with Ukraine, because they see this as their only chance of winning the April 12 election where they're trailing the opposition considerably. On this incident: what I'm hearing from Hungarian government-connected sources is that the trucks and the bank employees were detained as part of a political operation. A fabricated tax authority (NAV) investigation was created as the legal basis, and counter-terrorism forces were sent in. According to the information — said to have originally come from Russian sources — one of the guards carrying the money was a former high-ranking Ukrainian national security officer. He was specifically targeted on equally fabricated money laundering charges. The other six Ukrainian guards were very likely detained illegally, even without a trumped-up legal basis. This is the kind of escalation we expected from Orbán. It's starting. Hungary's EU and NATO partners have a huge responsibility now, and in the coming weeks.

We're doomed! Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week | New Scientist share.google/dw8c0CILewS4bw4…

A Bundestag aide who tried to slow Germany’s Leopard 2 tank shipments to Ukraine was working with an FSB officer, The Insider and Der Spiegel. Vladimir Sergienko, 52, aide to AfD MP Eugen Schmidt, corresponded with an officer of the FSB’s Fifth Service known as “Alexei.” 1/

I wonder if the usual suspects will be up arms about American ‘refugees’

🇵🇱 @donaldtusk says what British politicians won’t: Brexit isn’t a closed chapter. Public opinion has moved. And EU membership still carries real economic and security weight.

And why is Infantino on the 'Board of Peace'? Is FIFA a country now? Did national FAs agree to or support this? He is the only board member who does not hold political office. Corruption in plain sight. 'Keep politics out of football' indeed.

Yes, Rubio's speech kind of fun to pry apart. But analysts should spend less time on exegesis of US speeches (especially ones like Rubio extremely thin on material aspects that matter e.g. US posture vis-à-vis Russia or China) & more on European capabilities & posture planning.

⭐ The American 🇺🇸 far-right isn’t angry at Europe because of migration or free speech. They’re angry because Europe disproves their worldview. 🇪🇺 Europe is the proof that civilisation doesn’t need cruelty to survive. Europe became the living proof that right-wing culture panic is nonsense. Europe -especially EU - commits the cardinal sin in MAGA world: 👉 It shows you can have 🇪🇺welfare states 🇪🇺 public healthcare 🇪🇺workers’ rights 🇪🇺strong regulations 🇪🇺climate protections 🇪🇺secularism and still have higher life expectancy, lower crime, fewer guns, better schools, and more stable societies. This embarrasses the US Right. It exposes the lie at the heart of MAGA ideology: that social democracy = decline. So they must manufacture a myth of “civilisational collapse” to defend American exceptionalism. 🧵

US values no-longer align with Europe. Corruption, authoritarianism, racism, misogyny, media suppression, climate change denial are not the values of liberal Europe. US fears our values just as Putin fears Ukraine’s. They are windows to a different world, a brighter future.

*We* cannot experiment on the frog toxin used to kill Navalny. But how many people died before the *Russians* were confident this was a reliable and effective poison to use in asassinations? 3? 20? We'll likely never know.

🇭🇺🤝🇵🇱 Viktor Orbán’s challenger Péter Magyar met Polish PM @donaldtusk in Munich and introduced his colleague Anita Orbán as “future minister of foreign affairs of Hungary,” joking that her surname is just a coincidence. “My name is Donald,” Tusk quipped in reply.