no draft... yet

Hi Global Recap readers,

We’ve got a longer one today, and we’re starting with what looks like a band-aid conscription fix.

It eases people into the idea of a draft without going all-in yet, but it sure feels like they’re quietly warming everyone up for the moment they might have no choice but to flip the switch.

Better to be prepared, I guess. 👇️ 

🇩🇪 GERMANY
Germany Tests
Voluntary Service

This is great news for German men—for now. Germany’s coalition just signed off on a revamped voluntary military service system built around a mandatory questionnaire and medical checks for 18-year-old men. The idea is to bulk up the Bundeswehr fast without immediately dragging the country back into full conscription.

• Politics: The Social Democrats blocked a straight return to conscription, conservatives pushed for it, and the compromise now says that if volunteer numbers fall short the Bundestag can later vote to trigger targeted compulsory service for a set number of young men.

• Shortfall: The Bundeswehr has roughly 182,000 soldiers right now, but meeting NATO commitments is expected to require about 260,000 troops by 2035.

• Incentives: Defense Minister Boris Pistorius wants 20,000 new volunteers by 2026, and he is dangling about €2,600 ($3,025) per month before tax, along with promises of better service conditions than the old conscription era.

• Screening: Starting in 2026, all 18-year-old men will receive a QR code that links to a detailed survey about health and willingness to serve, and from July 2027 they will also face compulsory medical exams to map who is actually fit for duty.

• Gender: Women can opt into the survey and signal interest in serving, but they are not required to participate because Germany’s Basic Law only allows conscription for men.

🇨🇳🇹🇼 CHINA & TAIWAN
China Targets
Taiwan Influencers

Chinese police have put a bounty on two Taiwanese influencers, accusing them of pushing "anti-China" content from the safety of a democratic country Beijing claims as its own.

• Who: The targets are Wen Tzu-yu (also known online as Pa Chiung) and Chen Po-yuan (who goes by Minnan Wolf), both Taiwanese creators with large followings who talk politics, media, and cross-strait issues to mostly young audiences.

• Accusation: Police in Quanzhou, in China’s Fujian province, say the pair acted as "enforcers and accomplices" of Taiwan independence, smeared mainland "preferential policies" toward Taiwan, and spread content that supposedly caused a "severely negative impact," without actually specifying any concrete criminal act.

• Trigger: Chinese authorities are almost certainly reacting to a two-part documentary Wen posted in December, featuring Chen, which detailed how Beijing has courted Taiwanese influencers with all-expenses-paid trips and perks to softly sell unification. The series was viewed millions of times and stirred anger among Taiwanese groups opposed to Beijing’s interference.

• Money: Quanzhou police are offering rewards of 50,000 to 250,000 yuan, roughly 7,030 to 35,148 USD, for tips that lead to the men’s capture or useful intelligence on their activities, even though Beijing has no effective jurisdiction over Taiwan. So how will they enforce this?

• Taipei: Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, through deputy minister Liang Wen-chieh, publicly dismissed the notice as "just for show."

🇺🇸 UNITED STATES
Antifa Ost
LabeledTerrorist

The U.S. State Department just announced a designation that will put Germany-based Antifa Ost and three other European far-left groups on Washington's foreign terrorist list. The move lands on November 20 and folds these groups directly into the Trump administration's broader war on "antifa" networks at home and abroad.

• Scope: The decision targets four organizations in total. Antifa Ost in Germany, the Informal Anarchist Federation / International Revolutionary Front (FAI/FRI) in Italy, plus two Greek groups translated as Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense.

• Penalty: Once the listing kicks in, U.S. citizens who try to join, fund, or materially support any of these groups risk criminal charges under federal terrorism laws, the same toolbox used against jihadist and far-right organizations.

• Justification: Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, ties the step to National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, arguing that self-described anti-fascist groups using political violence threaten "democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental liberties" through revolutionary anarchist or Marxist agendas that are also explicitly anti-American and anti-capitalist.

• Allegations: U.S. officials point to a string of Antifa Ost attacks between 2018 and 2023 on people labeled as "fascists" or part of the right-wing scene in Germany, along with alleged assaults in Budapest in February 2023. Hungary already classifies the group as a terrorist entity.

• German Cases: Antifa Ost has been in German courts for years. Student Lina E. received a prison sentence in 2023, deemed as the ringleader of a cell that hunted far-right targets, while another alleged member, Johann G. of the so-called "Hammer Gang," was arrested in late 2024 and faces attempted murder charges with several co-defendants.

🇮🇱 ISRAEL
Settlers Torch Mosque

Extremist Israeli settlers reportedly torched a mosque in the West Bank village of Deir Istiya on Thursday, deepening a sharp rise in violence across the occupied territory since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Israeli military officials are now openly worrying that settler attacks are spinning beyond what they are allowed or politically empowered to contain.

• Attack: Before dawn, assailants set fire to the village mosque in Deir Istiya in the northern West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and the local imam, Ahmad Salem, who said Qurans were destroyed, walls were blackened, and prayer rugs were burned, though no casualties were reported because the building was empty at the time.

• Graffiti: The attackers reportedly sprayed insults against the Prophet Muhammad on the exterior walls and left a message taunting the Israeli commander in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, with graffiti reading "We are not afraid of Avi Bluth."

• Pattern: The U.N. humanitarian office in Jerusalem has documented what it calls a sharp rise in settler violence, noting 264 incidents in October alone that caused casualties, property damage, or both, which it describes as the highest monthly total in nearly two decades.

• Military: The Israeli military confirmed an arson attack on a mosque in the area and condemned violence in general, but did not attribute blame, while officers privately complain that the government has curtailed tools like administrative detention against Israeli settlers even as it continues using those powers on Palestinians.

🇺🇦 UKRAINE
Almost All
Kyiv Districts Hit

Russia launched a massive pre-dawn barrage against Kyiv on Friday, striking almost every district, injuring civilians, and lighting up the skyline with air-defense fire.

• Impact: City officials report at least 11 people injured, with five hospitalized, including one man in critical condition and a pregnant woman, after a series of powerful explosions rippled across the capital.

• Coverage: Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says debris and damage showed up in practically every district, which is a polite way of saying no neighborhood could pretend this was happening somewhere else.

• Damage: Darnytskyi, Dniprovskyi, and Podilskyi districts saw debris hit apartment blocks, a private household, an educational facility, and parked cars, with multiple fires breaking out in courtyards and open areas.

• Infrastructure: The city’s heating network took a hit and officials warned of possible power and water outages, while drones and missiles forced residents into shelters until the air raid alert is lifted.

• Region: In the wider Kyiv region, strikes damaged critical infrastructure and private homes, with a 55-year-old man in Bila Tserkva hospitalized with thermal burns as fires spread in suburban houses.

🇺🇸 UNITED STATES
Operation
Southern Spear

The Pentagon has just announced an operation called "Southern Spear" to go after narcotics networks in Latin American waters. It is being rolled out right as a growing US naval presence around Venezuela is freaking out governments across the region.

• Mission: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced "Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR" as a push to "remove narco-terrorists" from the Western Hemisphere and to stop drugs from reaching the United States, but he offered no concrete details about what is actually new here.

• Opacity: When reporters asked what Southern Spear changes in practice, Pentagon spokespeople simply pointed back to Hegseth's post on X, which leaves analysts guessing whether this is a rebrand or prelude to escalation.

• Forces: The United States already has a sizable naval and air deployment in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that it describes as an anti-drug campaign, including a carrier strike group and F-35 fighter jets based in Puerto Rico.

• Strikes: Since early September, U.S. forces say they have hit about 20 vessels in international waters, mostly small boats plus one semi-submersible, with those attacks killing at least 76 people.

• Venezuelan View: Caracas recently ordered a nationwide military deployment and is publicly framing the U.S. buildup as a possible "regime change" operation, not just drug interdiction.