Moscow has taken to flexing its muscles in the Indo-Pacific and the Arctic as its relationship with China deepens thanks in part to the war in Ukraine. Largely without allies in Europe to partner with, Russian ships and aircraft have run a series of large-scale exercises in the Pacific as Beijing and Moscow draw closer due to each nation's isolation from the international community, building on economic ties brought about by international sanctions.

Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is warning that it is "fully ready" for a conflict with NATO in the Arctic:

"We see NATO stepping up drills related to possible crises in the Arctic. Our country is fully ready to defend its interests militarily, politically and from the standpoint of defense technologies. The Arctic is not the territory of the North Atlantic alliance."

The Arctic includes territory belonging to eight nations: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Canada, the U.S., Iceland and Russia. All except Russia are NATO members.

In July, North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted Russian and Chinese bombers flying just 200 miles from Alaska's coast. It marked the first time that assets from both countries had been intercepted while operating together, with aircraft taking off from the same Russian air base. U.S. fighter jets had to launch from an airbase approximately 1,000 miles away.

The new U.S. military deployments and alerts come amid the start of a massive Chinese/Russian exercise in the Sea of Japan dubbed Ocean 2024 that includes dozens of warships and over 120 naval aircraft.

The Russian vessels remained on the Russian side of the Maritime Boundary Line while transiting approximately 30 miles inside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone under international law.

U.S. Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday said Thursday during a Senate hearing in response to questions from Sullivan:

"This is a sustained operation that we have in place to make sure that we meet presence with presence and demonstrate the importance of U.S. sovereignty."

U.S. officials said they are continuing to work closely with NATO allies on intelligence sharing and coordinated responses to Russian activities in the region.

France's new government is even a bigger denial of democracy that people feared, it's literally packed with Macron allies - many of which were already in the government prior - even though the voters main message in the elections was "no more Macron!" Just look at that: -

Foreign Minister: Jean-Noël Barrot, long-time Macron ally and Minister for Europe in the previous government -

Minister for Europe: Benjamin Haddad, former spokesperson for Macron's party -

Minister of education: Anne Genetet, former Senator of Macron's party (she spent her entire political career on Macron's side) -

Minister of defense: Sébastien Lecornu. No change: he was already minister of defense in the previous government... -

Minister of energy and climate transition: Agnès Pannier-Runacher. She too was already in the previous government as minister for agriculture. -

Minister of culture: Rachida Dati. Again, no change: she was already minister of culture in the previous government. -

Finance and economy minister: Antoine Armand. Another long-time Macron ally, he headed the committee for the candidacy of Macron during the 2022 presidential campaign. -

Minister of industry: Marc Ferracci. This is perhaps the most egregious: he was literally Macron's best man at his wedding. -

Minister of Civil Service: Guillaume Kasbarian. He too was already in the previous government as minister for housing. -

Minister of the budget: Laurent Saint-Martin, another long-time Macron ally who in the previous government headed the "Business France" agency. -

Minister for tourism: Marina Ferrari. She was secretary of state for digital affairs in the previous government. -

Spokesperson for the government: Maud Bregeon, she was a MP from Macron's party prior to her appointment.

And I haven't gone through all of them. This is absolutely insane: Macron called a snap election after his loss at the EU elections to ask "are you really sure, like 100% sure, that you don't want my party in power anymore?". The French emphatically replied "yes, we're really really sure!" and what they get is: his party remaining in power...

To be fair, the government does have a few non-Macron figures (like Bruno Retailleau, the Minister of Interior) but most of them stem from PM Barnier's party Les Républicains which only got 5% of the votes at the elections.

So they're even less legitimate. Like a former French France's new government is even a bigger denial of democracy that people official was recently saying, "this is the first time in the history of our Republic that we have a government with zero democratic legitimacy."

• 300,000 protest in France over Macron's pick of Barnier as PM, poll reports 55% think election was 'stolen'
• French election winners accuse Macron of 'non-democratic coup'
• 'Anti-democratic coup': Macron blocks left-wing choice for French PM throwing political system into chaos