Kyle Parker 🏴‍☠️

My boys playing around in the #Kharkiv metro. Two years later, these stations gave shelter from Russian bombs to the Ukrainian children they knew as classmates, and friends. Like this photo, their memories are now blurry, but they know this war is real—and must be won. 🇺🇦

The math of the air war in Ukraine is simple. Yes, air defenses are needed but there will never be enough expensive Patriots etc. The only way to stop Putin from bombarding Ukrainian cities is by helping Ukraine strike deep inside Russia, against the Russian defense-industrial…

New study unveils the true origin of Uralic languages — including Finnish, Estonian & Hungarian! 🔍 Ancient DNA from 180 individuals (17–3 kya) reveals a genetic ancestral pulse from northeastern Siberia (~4,500 ya), not near the Urals as we’d thought. ⚒️ This ancestral group…

Zelensky ignored the protests and signed the law. Fateful decision.

UPCOMING BRIEFING—Intercepting Terror: Strengthening Ukrainian Air Defense 📅July 24 🕑2pm 🏛️Cannon 210 Join our expert panel to discuss challenges Ukraine faces in defending against Russia's aerial attacks on cities and what allies can do to help stop the nightly assaults. (1/2)

This $300 setup of a power bank and Starlink mini, which you can get in a local electronics store, takes 1 minute to set up. It lets you immediately stream drone reconnaissance footage from a trench in the warzone to literally anywhere in the world. I love technology.

⁦@KnoxThames⁩ is a former colleague, a mentor, & a friend. He’s done more than anyone I know to keep religious freedom on the foreign affairs agenda of the United States. Hearing him today is an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to defending this fundamental human right.

Natalya Estemirova was murdered 16 years ago today for her crucial work as a #humanrights defender documenting grave human rights abuses in #Chechnya. Today, the situation for HRDs in Chechnya and all of Russia continues to be dire, and impunity for Estemirova's murder continues.

"Ukraine’s response hasn’t relied solely on passive air defenses, prohibitively expensive and unsustainable over the long term." Yes. The US could send PrSMs (500 m) or Tomahawks (1,000 m) to help Ukraine hit military targets deeper in Russia. wsj.com/world/europe/u… via @WSJ

Applications are now open for our fall 2025 Max Kampelman fellowship program. Kampelman Fellows represent the next generation of American leaders in security policy, human rights, and strategic communications. Apply today: csce.gov/join-our-team/…

My wife was born in this hospital.

Grateful to @HelsinkiComm for hosting me to discuss ways to end persecution and advance religious freedom globally — a special return for me as a former Commission analyst.

Happy 249 🇺🇸

Today in 1863, a 34-year-old college professor from Maine named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain helps fend off repeated Confederate attacks against the left flank of the Union line at Gettysburg. The fight for Little Round Top will become one of the battle's most celebrated moments.…

If ever there is a Somme equivalent of Robert Capa's D-Day images it is these showing men of the Tyneside Irish Brigade marching into machine-gun oblivion and getting fewer and fewer in number, until just a handful remain. The undying tragedy of 1st July 1916: 109 years ago today

Chairman Wicker: “All Ukrainians will be worse off if Russia is emboldened to pursue its imperial agenda. Belarus presents a striking example of Russia’s goals in the region—the annexation of a state in all but name.” (1/2)

I express my closeness to martyred Ukraine—to the children, the young people, the elderly, and especially to families who mourn their loved ones. I share your sorrow for the prisoners and victims of this senseless war.

Pope Leo XIV holding back the tears, as he hears the Our Father chanted beautifully in Ukrainian, by the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church on pilgrimage in St. Peter’s Basilica for this Jubilee Holy Year.

It is important to know some names, some faces. Otherwise, the dead -- the murdered -- are mere statistics, simple abstractions.

I’ve longed said we need to revert back. The War Department’s 160-year history shaped U.S. military policy through wars, reforms, and modernization. Its oversaw our growth from a frontier republic to a global superpower. Time to rename.

Happening now