It took only a minute to change the world.
Within the first 60 seconds of Operation Epic Fury, Israeli officials claimed, Iran’s supreme leader and his principal henchmen were dead.
But the precision-guided missiles that struck central Tehran in the opening salvo of the war did not merely kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and upend half a century of Iranian history. They also underscored a more basic reality – where true power still lies in the world.
Recent attention has focused on Greenland as a focal point of Arctic strategy, a reminder that geography once treated as peripheral now sits squarely within the logic of continental defense. A similar shift is unfolding elsewhere in the Arctic, though with far less public notice. The Northwest Passage—the network of sea routes threading Canada’s Arctic Archipelago between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—has moved from a seasonal curiosity to a corridor of growing strategic consequence. As activity increases, questions long treated as theoretical, including the legal status of those waters, are being pushed toward practical resolution.
For years, officials in Brussels and across Europe operated on a shared assumption: that Russia would not be in a position to directly challenge NATO before 2029. That date became a strategic comfort zone—time to rearm, coordinate, and reassure domestic publics. That certainty is now eroding rapidly.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a growing number of European political and military leaders now believe Moscow could test NATO—and the European Union—much sooner than previously expected. Such a move would not necessarily take the form of a full-scale invasion, but a limited, rapid, and carefully calibrated incursion designed to exploit Europe’s hesitation and internal divisions.
MARIJAMPOLE, Lithuania—European governments are preparing for war with Russia. A newly released wargame suggests they aren’t ready.
A Russian incursion, or outright invasion, into countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union has become more likely because of Europe’s tensions with President Trump over Greenland, Ukraine, trade and other matters, many European security and political leaders say.
They point out that Russia has switched to a war economy, focusing national resources on a rearmament program and military recruitment that goes well beyond the needs of the campaign in Ukraine.
The Arctic’s growing importance has reached the point that acquiring Greenland has become a key demand for the second Trump administration amid concerns about Russian and Chinese ambitions in the region, drawing protestations from other allies who urge continued Danish sovereignty over the autonomous territory.
When it comes to Canada’s defence of the Arctic, its capabilities for the roughly 4-million-square-kilometre expanse of Arctic territory falls far short when compared to both adversarial countries and its ally the United States. However, some analysts warn that Canada may be falling behind even middle-power Arctic nations, if the sheer size of its Arctic territory is taken into account.
Russia launches a full-scale war of aggression against Nato and the German armed forces are in the thick of the action from the first hours.
A 4,800-strong mechanised infantry strikes from a forward base in Lithuania before another 15,000 rapid-response troops are rushed to the front in a matter of days.
Over the weeks that follow tens of thousands of allied soldiers arrive at German North Sea ports to be shuttled east along road and rail routes plagued by Russian sabotage, cyberattacks and possibly long-range missile strikes.
There’s been a subtle but significant shift in what NORAD has been seeing over the last year when it comes to mostly Russian — but also Chinese — activity in the Arctic, says the top commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).
U.S. Gen. Gregory Guillot tells CBC News that air and sea incursions into the zones just outside North America have not only become more frequent, but also more co-ordinated.
“I’d say the most consequential difference in 2025 has been the volume, the simultaneous volume,” Guillot said in an exclusive interview.
The US has seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean in a high-stakes operation that could risk confrontation with the Kremlin after Moscow reportedly dispatched a submarine to safeguard the vessel.
The Marinera, formerly known as the Bella 1, “was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a US federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro”, US European Command said in a post on X. US media reported that the country’s coastguard had successfully boarded the oil tanker, facing no resistance.
The Russian state broadcaster RT earlier published two grainy photographs showing a helicopter approaching the tanker, saying an operation was under way.
An increasingly aggressive Russia coupled with China’s growing influence have renewed Canada’s focus on Arctic defence and sovereignty — and how to assert control over its remote northern geography.
The focus is on both increased surveillance — knowing what and who is poking around up there — and having military assets in place to deter any aggressor before they consider operating in Canada’s North.
Venezuela North aka Canada can’t or won’t ensure arctic sovereignty leaving it wide open for incursion by our CCP shadow rulers and their Russian pals.
When the US intercedes to stop this massive threat they will be declared Imperialist Aggressors worse than Hitler etc.
Moscow is said to have begun evacuating the families of Russian diplomats from Venezuela as Washington increases military pressure on President Maduro.
An unnamed European intelligence official said Russia was viewing the situation in Caracas in “very grim terms”, the Associated Press reported.
The Russian foreign ministry denied the report, calling it “a lie” and “a western provocation”. Although it said the embassy was not being evacuated, it did not address the issue of whether the spouses and children of diplomats were being flown out.
Russia could launch a significant direct attack on the UK and more British citizens need to be ready to fight, the head of the armed forces has said.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton said that although the chance of such an attack was remote, that “does not mean the chances are zero”. Russia’s arsenal of weapons was “something to fear” and the threat posed by President Putin was growing.
In a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) on Monday, he said the UK faced the same threat as Germany, which was reintroducing a form of national service.
NATO chief Mark Rutte has warned that war with Russia ‘is at our door’ as he urged European allies to prepare for action now or risk facing a conflict on the scale ‘our grandparents and great-grandparents endured’.
Speaking in Berlin on Thursday, Rutte said too many NATO members remained ‘quietly complacent’ about the threat posed by Moscow and insisted Europe must urgently ramp up defence spending and weapons production to deter Vladimir Putin.
‘We are Russia’s next target,’ he said. I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don’t feel the urgency.
Some of Europe’s biggest Nato members are moving to strengthen their professional armies through voluntary national service schemes.
Large conscripted armies were a feature of Nato states during the Cold War but they dwindled in size after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
However, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the ongoing war there have kindled fears of a possible future Russian attack on Nato.
Russian spies who hacked Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have been linked to the Salisbury poisonings for the first time.
Boris Antonov, Nikolai Kozachek and Pavel Yershov were previously indicted by the United States for releasing tens of thousands of emails from Mrs Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
They were among 11 Russian military intelligence officers sanctioned by Britain on Thursday in the wake of a public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok in 2018.
“The Russians are coming!” Throughout the Cold War, that phrase expressed the anxiety felt by Western democracies about the possibility of a surprise nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. Half jest, the tongue-in-cheek quip evoked Russian chief Nikita Khrushchev’s notorious braggadocio in 1956 addressed to Western powers: “We will bury you!”
Later in an address at the United Nations, the Communist leader hinted that the promised burial could come by the year 2000.
By 1992, however, another phrase was making the rounds in Western capitals: “The Russians are going!”
