🇷🇺🇻🇪 Russian Aviacon Zitotrans ✈️ Il-76TD Cargo Plane (reg RA-78765) landed in Caracas, Venezuela.

🔗 MenchOSINT

🇪🇺⚔️🇷🇺 Brussels feels like a city preparing for war

Though it is outlandish even to type the words, Brussels the international capital—the home of the European Union and seat of the nato alliance—feels like a city bracing for combat. “Europe is in a fight,” declared Ursula von der Leyen.

To be sure, the old flaws of pan-European governance—vapid oratory, bureaucratic turf wars and expensive something-for-everyone compromises—persist. For all that, in the headquarters of the eu and of nato, very different institutions at opposite ends of the city, recent months have seen a stark change of mood.

Europeans “only start organising ourselves when we are threatened”, says an official. The threats are clear now. The most urgent involve three strongmen who view Europe with either disdain or hostility: Presidents Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Brussels has come to a grim realisation. War is raging on the European continent, in Ukraine, and none of those strongmen is guided by anything resembling European values.

Few EU citizens must worry about the bottom tier, dealing with such basics as food and shelter for survival. Above that comes “safety and security”, whether that means an absence of war, a clean environment or freedom from acute want. As governments built welfare states and controlled pollution, progressives called for Europe to tackle problems that align with Maslow’s higher needs. Those include “love and belonging”, “esteem” and “self-actualisation”, or the pursuit of a life of purpose and joy.

European voters seem focused on more basic needs. They have elected a string of conservative national governments, who have sent correspondingly flinty politicians to run EU institutions. After years spent passing onerous environmental and social regulations, the bloc now spends much of its time repealing job-killing rules. New Euro-laws that can secure a majority, whether in the European Commission or European Parliament, often involve get-tough policies, like the removal of asylum-seekers.

There is painful clarity about Europe’s defence alliance with America. In the wake of Mr Trump’s latest about-turn on Ukraine, there is exasperation over the time and energy European leaders spend on Trump “damage control”. But grief and denial about America’s unreliability have given way to resignation. It is now a planning assumption that America will give no more aid to Ukraine, and that even its willingness to sell advanced weapons to Europeans for donation to Ukraine will not last.

As for the broader defence of Europe, Plan a is to work with America for as long as possible. Europe still relies on America for “critical enablers” including intelligence from satellites, long-range weapons, air defences, heavy transport planes and the digital systems that glue different weapons together.

There is much talk of building up Europe’s arms industry, but also agreement that it cannot entirely replace America as a supplier for ten years or more, which is too slow for a continent rearming to deter Russia from attacking it. Fear of Russia makes officials wary of even engaging with the most sensitive question of all, whether Europe needs a Plan b for its security, if America walks away one day. Some fear that to discuss American abandonment is to invite a Russian attack. Others seek to identify investments that work with both Plan a and Plan b: either making Europe a better partner for America, or helping it go alone.

🔗 https://archive.ph/2025.10.24-020046/https://www.economist.com/international/2025/10/21/brussels-feels-like-a-city-preparing-for-war

🇺🇸🌎 America's newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), departed Split, Croatia, en route to SOUTHCOM. After the carrier strike group crosses the Atlantic, ~19-23% of the deployed US Navy fleet will be in theater.

🔗 Ian Ellis

🦋 A scientist who discovered a new species of butterfly has named it after Iryna Zarutska to ensure "she is never forgotten."

The scientist said, "Her name will be forever immortalized as a butterfly..."

The butterfly is called "Iryna's Azure."

🔗 Matt van Swol

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💎 Archaeologists find 2000 year-old 'Gemstones' in drain beneath a Roman Bathhouse, Carlisle, England

Down a drain beneath the murky waters of an ancient Roman bathhouse in Carlisle, England, near Hadrian’s Wall, archaeologists have discovered a trove of gemstones lost by bathers 2000 years ago. More than 30 gems, including amethyst, jasper and  carnelian have been found so far during excavations at the site. Wealthy bathers likely dropped them back in opulent bathhouse’s heyday in 2nd-3rd Century CE.

“It’s incredible,” says archaeologist Frank Giecco, who led the excavation, to Observer’s Dalya Alberge. “It’s caught everyone’s imagination. They were just falling out of people’s rings who were using the baths. They were set with a vegetable glue and, in the hot and sweaty bathhouse, they fell out of the ring settings.”

The pieces feature deities dedicated to war, sun, commerce,  luck and fertility. The largest were around 0.6 inches and smallest were just under 0.2 inches. Their small size would have made the carvings particularly difficult, requiring the expertise of an advanced craftsman. 

“You don’t find such gems on low-status Roman sites,” Giecco tells Observer. “So they’re not something that would have been worn by the poor.” Still, Carlisle site isn’t entirely unique: In the past, similar gemstones have been found in the drains of other bathhouses during archaeological excavations. 

The small, semiprecious engraved gems are known as intaglios, which were first produced some 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Owners would press their intaglios into clay or wax to create a seal, which they used to authenticate documents (similar to a modern-day signature). “Their material, size and color would reflect the wealth and taste of the patron,” writes G. Max Bernheimer, Christie’s international head of antiquities, on auction house’s website. At one point, he adds, it was in fashion for Romans to wear intaglios featuring the likenesses of their favorite philosophers.

“The intaglios can be seen on many levels,” Giecco tells Artnet’s Min Chen, “from pieces of art to connections to the individuals who owned them.”

In addition to the gemstones, the team at the Carlisle bathhouse found over 40 women’s hairpins and 35 glass beads in drain. Hundreds of other artifacts, including pottery, weapons and coins have also been uncovered at the site. Eventually, discoveries will most likely go on view at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery.

“Carlisle was very much at the center of the Roman frontier,” Giecco tells BBC News, “and we are very excited to go back … for more amazing finds, as it is the site that just keeps giving.”

🔗 archeohistories

🇷🇺 Putin says Russia successfully tested the 9M730 Burevestnik (SSC-X-9 Skyfall) — a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable intercontinental cruise missile with theoretical unlimited range and the ability to evade missile defenses.

The missile flew for 15 hours, 14,000 km.

Putin claims it has “no analogues in the world.”

🔗 Clash Report

🇺🇸❌🇻🇪 — 2x B-1B Strategic Bombers of USAF sent a "Hello" for the Chavista Elites and their Iranian guests by passing near the La Margarita Island

🇺🇸⚔️🇻🇪 The 2 B-1B Strategic Bombers of the USAF just turned off their responders as they finished their flyover near the La Margarita Islands.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸🇻🇪 The U.S. sent another pair of B-1B Lancer bombers to the Caribbean today - the 3rd bomber mission in less than 2 weeks. The Bones reappeared on radar ~20 miles off the coast of Venezuela, the closest bombers have flown to the mainland, and were tracked ~50 miles north of Caracas.

🔗 Ian Ellis

🇺🇸🌪 Guantanamo Bay evacuees arrive at NAS Pensacola ahead of Hurricane Melissa

Hundreds of families from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay arrived at Pensacola’s Naval Air Station as a powerful hurricane churns through the Caribbean.

Nearly 864 non-mission essential personnel, including family members, civilian employees, contractors, and even pets, arrived on Saturday.

https://www.wkrg.com/northwest-florida/escambia-county/guantanamo-bay-evacuees-arrive-at-nas-pensacola-ahead-of-hurricane-melissa/

🇻🇪🇺🇸 Reports suggest Venezuela’s opposition, led by María Corina Machado, has a 100-hour plan with the Trump administration for a peaceful transition of power.

“There’s a possibility perhaps the armed forces might split,” says Venezuela-based analyst Phil Gunson. “There’s a possibility they might oppose a new government coming in.”

🔗 60 Minutes

🇸🇩 Sudan: RSF militants dominating the streets of El Fasher, riding around on camels and motorcycles like they have been doing since their Janjaweed days.

🔗 Thomas van Linge