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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 133 · Saturday, 7 November 2026

Pete Hegseth picks wrong week to stop drinking

Pentagon staffing delays leave secretary sober for worst 48 hours of his career

Pentagon confident U.S. will be ready for 2027 war with China by 2035

Hegseth wears Eisenhower's globe as Halloween costume

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Vol. 15 · No. 133

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Vol. 15 · No. 133 · Deployed worldwide

Saturday

7 November 2026

1746 Zulu

Next edition Monday

← Front page
· Page 2

For lent, Russia gives up annexing neighbors, poisoning dissidents

Filed · 1551

MOSCOW — The Kremlin has decided to cease a variety of malign activities for Lent, reports say. The 40-day period includes all manner of hybrid warfare activities ranging from assassinating dissidents with nerve agents and shooting down civilian airliners to hacking US political parties and spreading propaganda on the Internet.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin made the announcement this morning in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. The former KGB thug has positioned himself as "a pretty Christian kind of a guy" in recent years.

"Lent is a time we give up some of those little vices we're often so fond of," said Putin. "But for the next forty days, we'll be swearing off everything from killer umbrellas to little green men."

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