Absolute chaos in Crimea as fuel has totally run out. Drivers line up for days with no hope of enough to leave the penninsula.

🚨 BREAKING: Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns has slammed the Labour party's witch-hunts against British veterans who fought in Northern Ireland. "Who is this playing to? It is playing to Republican Sinn Fein. They lost the war through physical means and now they're trying to achieve it through political means. I don't want to see anybody rewrite history to see Britain as in the wrong. We were in the right." x.com/GBNEWS/status/20653521…

Wonderful series to work on. Not sure about the head tilt! That seems to be my default pose for interviews

13 months since I first tapped out the opening sentence, and 214k words later, my most ambitious book yet is finished. TWILIGHT OF THE GODS: The Battle for Europe 1944-1945' covers the last 11 months of fighting on the continent, from the Fall of Rome on 4 June 1944 to V-E Day, 8/9 May 1945. It includes all three fronts - Western, Eastern and Italian (never been done before) - and provides an answer to the big questions: Why did the Germans keep fighting long after the war was clearly lost? How were the Red Army able to absorb such huge casualties and keep fighting? Were there opportunities missed to end the war earlier? And what, ultimately, played a bigger role in Germany's defeat: Soviet mass of Western (chiefly American) economic and military power? Publication slated for autumn 2027. Can't wait @WmCollinsBooks @ArabellaPike

RT @PhillipsPOBrien: Notable that Fedorov is saying openly now that Ukraine is “seizing the battlefield initiative.”

Historian Antony Beevor: Westerners are horrified by Russia’s attitude to casualties. The old phrase “meat for the cannon” reflects the belief that sheer numbers can crush any enemy. But Russia has often treated its own people as badly as the enemy. 1/

The best we have. Huge loss to all British media and esp @SkyNews Huge coup @cbs @bariweiss @TrevorPTweets

Madyar, Ukraine’s top drone commander: We will isolate Crimea. Striking vehicles on that highway is as easy as shooting partridges in an open field. Military personnel and defense workers will find it impossible to remain there or use access routes to it. 1/

Someone talking a lot of sense

Our latest pod. How the Soviet Union Died and “The August Coup”, by Robert Service. Grab a beer and give it a listen. youtu.be/tWMiZeO9aSM?is=6d0J… via @YouTube

The next war won't be won by armies, navies or air forces alone. It'll be won by the country whose 19 year olds can code, whose factories can build drones in weeks not years, and whose grid stays on when someone tries to switch it off. Industry. Society. Economy. That's the fight now. We're not ready. And we're not being honest about what getting ready will cost.

Somebody stop me @ChalkeFestival

🔥Al Carns tells @thetimes that the current defence investment plan has too much focus on sophisticated systems that deliver in ten years and not enough on uncrewed weaponry, such as kamikaze drones. "Everything arrived too late," he says thetimes.com/article/c497583…

So Dad books not dead then? Big congrats Damien

Last year it was SAS Great Escapes 4 and Daggers Drawn riding high in the Sunday Times bestseller list. This week it's SAS Great Escapes 5 and The Great Train Raid - both have steamed into the top ten this week! Huge thanks to all my readers for helping make this happen: geni.us/DamienLewisBooks

Cracking book

Perhaps the grimmest part of John Healey’s brutal resignation letter is that defence spending, projected to be 2.6% GDP by 2027, will only reach 2.68% in 2030. A pathetic 0.08% increase over three years after all that Starmer rhetoric about the dangerous times we live in and how UK would lead the way stepping up to the crease. A real leader would have told Reeves to cough up the dosh and ordered Miliband to hand over a big chunk of his net zero budget. But he’s probably too weak to do either.

I’ve never quit anything in my life. Until now.

3 Commando Brigade has officially become the UK Commando Force. The UKCF is now a hybrid naval warfighting force: • High-tech, dispersed strike teams • Heavy integration of uncrewed & autonomous systems • Deeply integrated into Royal Navy fleet operations

It’s ironic to think that the one thing that Starmer and the whole PLP don’t believe is important - defence - might just be the one thing that brings this flailing, failing government down.