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Thomas Hughes

@thomashughes.bsky.social
488 followers 612 following 257 posts

Assistant Prof Mount Allison Uni and Dep Director Centre for Defence and Security Studies Uni of Manitoba. Arctic and N. Am Defence, NATO and European Security. And fly fishing with a dose of NUFC.

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Reposted by Thomas Hughes
Stephanie Carvin @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social · 20h
Congrats to @leahwest-nsl.bsky.social and Alex Wilner on launching the Canadian Centre for Cyber Excellence (3C3) this morning. This will build on @npsia.bsky.social’s leadership in cybersecurity policy and interdisciplinary leadership. carleton.ca/news/2026/ca...
A picture of Leah and Alex giving a speech to launch the centre.
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Angelica Shalagina Official🇺🇦 @angel-shalagina.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
As a Ukrainian I want the world to know Ukraine for more than its suffering We have so much beauty and history to discover #ukraine #ukrainian #ukrainians #ukrainiangirl #beauty
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Appropriate censure was then applied to their grade.
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Reposted by Thomas Hughes
The Kyiv Independent @kyivindependent.com · 08/10/2026
⚡️Update: Death toll from Russian glide bomb strike on Kramatorsk bus stop rises to 33. At least 18 others were injured in the Oct. 8 attack, prompting local authorities in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk to suspend all public transport.
kyivindependent.com
At least 30 dead after Russian glide bomb strikes Kramatorsk bus stop
"Russia comes to the Ukrainian land with death," Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Absolutely. Even with fuel trucks (assuming that’s what was happening) you’d surely have to get inside the fence and close to the target, which would have been tricky. But as you suggest, I think even a big bang on the perimeter would have caused a political outcome.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
So Trump and Rubio were right saying “we’ve been watching them for a while”, it’s just that the 5 first picked up weren’t the “them”. It was the buyers they were tracking. Again, all of this is complete speculation!! I don’t think US would have pulled the B-1s without genuine concern though.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
My theory (0 evidence) is that a bunch of fuel thieves were hired to fill 3 trucks and to meet the “buyer” next to Fairford. Buyer wanted to do damage and planned to bring detonators/explosives for the fuel. Thieves did their bit, thought something was off and got cold feet (thus called the police).
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
And all sorts of outlandish suggestions about what might have been going on! Great stuff. Also always delighted to be able to get on my soap box about the nonsense that is the nomenclature of “drone” (bzzzz) to cover an absolute multitude of v different systems.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is extraordinary! Is there also a map of the anticipated launch points?
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ooooh, does that include me?!
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Mark Walters @mark-walters.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The visit to Llaneilian Church, Anglesey was well worth a diversion off the coastal path 😍 5th c. CE foundation with visible remains from the 12th-17th c. Remarkable 1496 timber rood screen with image of Death inscribed ’Sin is the sting of death’. 14th c. side chapel of St. Eilian down steps.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Please do!! And I doubt you’ll come last, GB will still enter…
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
‘Tis but a small step to being Canada’s first Eurovision entrant…
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
this is "someone rephrased the existing 1951 agreement to grandpa and the danes agreed to put an extra dude with a M1917 up there"
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MAKS 26 👀🇺🇦 @maks23.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
🇳🇴 NATO troops disrupted Russian underwater "training" near Svalbard. Submarines of the "Russian Department of Deep-Sea Research" covertly practiced the technology of remotely damaging underwater cables near the Arctic archipelago.
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is a big deal. www.defenseone.com/defense-syst...
defenseone.com
US military has ‘on-orbit’ space weapons, Air Force Secretary reveals
Experts said the acknowledgment may lead to overt action by China, Russia.
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I can’t emphasise enough how UTTERLY WILD this is
wsj.com
Exclusive | Mark Carney’s Audacious Bid to Make Canada an ‘Associate Member’ of the EU
As trade talks with the U.S. collapse, prime minister pursues a major—and risky—pivot to Europe; an Ottawa book club plays its part.
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Black Cloud Six @blackcloudsix.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Reposting this. blackcloudsix.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...
blackcloudsix.substack.com
This Is What Betrayal Looks Like
A Canadian officer reflects on Afghanistan, the Allied burden, and Trump's deliberate rewriting of history.
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Annie Chave @anniechave.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A feel good story to share. More of this please 🙏 much more. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/s...
theguardian.com
State schools finally get their big day: ‘All of a sudden, playing at Lord’s becomes cool’
The inaugural Knight-Stokes Cup was a special occasion not just for the teenagers playing on Lord’s hallowed turf, but for the English game as a whole
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Spot on!
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Steve Saidemonster 🧌🧛🦇⚰️👻👹 @smsaideman.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Our latest #BattleRhythm cdsn.substack.com/p/episode-42... with an interview with Canada's Surgeon General!
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Margo Gontar @margogontar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Have your national media told you Russia has been bombing food warehouses and grocery stores in Ukraine on daily basis now to make Ukrainians starve ?
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
As Sweden tries to open up mining for rare minerals in the north, politicians are questioning the right of the Sami people to reindeer herd on their lands www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
theguardian.com
Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute
Gabna community fear their traditional herding routes will be sacrificed as far-right rhetoric ramps up against them
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Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · 07/09/2026
📡 Our new cooperation on satellite connectivity takes off today. With immediate results. North Greenland will see massive improvements in internet access in the coming days. And by October, remote communities in East Greenland will also have better, faster internet!
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Enjoyed this notice in New Brunswick. Can’t argue with fact! #nufc @podonthetyne.bsky.social
A sign saying “NB Burn Updates” and “Legend” underneath, with the actual legend for the accompanying map cropped out
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The Ukrainian Review @theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
‼️ POLITICO: For the first time in decades, NATO allies held submarine-hunting drills off Iceland without U.S. ships or aircraft, as European and Canadian forces took lead in defending North Atlantic. The exercise focused on GIUK Gap, a key route for Russian nuclear submarines entering the Atlantic.
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The Barents Observer @thebarentsobserver.com · 02/09/2026
A Russian passenger vessel operating between Murmansk and the Russian settlement of Barentsburg on Norway's Svalbard archipelago has been seized by Norwegian authorities
thebarentsobserver.com
Norway seizes Russia's Svalbard liner
The Governor of Svalbard confirms that the Professor Molchanov, the Russian passenger vessel operating a second season of voyages between Murmansk and the Russian settlement on the Norwegian Arctic ar...
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Angelica Shalagina Official🇺🇦 @angel-shalagina.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
🔥🔥Ukraine reportedly struck the Plesetsk Cosmodrome - russia’s main northern military spaceport. It’s used to launch Soyuz-2 and Angara rockets carrying military satellites and communications systems.
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WarTranslated (Dmitri) @wartranslated.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
1/ Russia's first confirmed strike on Ukrainian civilian logistics dates back to February 28, 2022, hitting Epicentr in Chernihiv. Over the following four and a half years, 25 separate strikes hit Ukrainian retail chains, postal terminals, and distribution centers.
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Chris Waugh @chrisdhwaugh.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
🏴🏳️ @worflags.org.uk with a wonderful & poignant stadium-wide tribute to the late Kevin Keegan. ♥️ 👏 #NUFC #LFC #NEWLIV
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This is fascinating. Absolutely gigantic implications for determining the line between civilian and military, though. And that doesn’t fill me with joy.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Nice (not actually nice) to see exercises and threat perception in the news again. That “perception” point is critical - for both the exercising party and those watching.
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This is a really significant development, especially given that it’s the UK that wants to get rid of US components - one of the hitherto closest US allies, with a deeply US-intertwined defence industry. ”We don’t want to depend on how some negotiations are going”, a UK govt official said
ft.com
UK unveils prototype missiles for Ukraine with no US components
Low-cost, long-range weapons could be deployed as soon as this year in war against Russia
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Contrast with my previous
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Book market
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
There’s a tendency in northeastern Europe to complain about southern Europe, and especially about Italy and Spain - that they ”don’t get it” re: the Russian threat etc. But in Latvia it was Italians and in Romania Spaniards who shot down drones.
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Bryan Based International Order 🇨🇦 @bryanpeeler.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Looks nervously at NORAD. *ducks*
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Should have read my book on signalling and exercises…
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Nerdic Defence @nerdicdefence.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Clear message from Greenland authorities to US oil drilling firm: -We will not put up with this. www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...
dr.dk
Klar grønlandsk besked til oliefirma: Vi vil ikke finde os i det
De grønlandske myndigheder har slået bremsen i over for planer om amerikansk olieeventyr.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Really excellent piece
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
La Barberie - excellent micro-brewery with good food!
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I feel like Gemini got this one wrong. Google street view from the Jesmond Starbucks towards the church looks immensely similar. AI is far too confident for its own good.
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I was in Nice on holiday while this was all going on, desperately trying to use my awful French to translate the headlines on the newspapers to get updates! Phenomenally exciting.
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Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This is an extraordinary story, centred on a group of remarkable women, but it just makes me mourn for the millions of women and girls trapped in Afghanistan, denied not only the freedom to play sports, but to speak, learn and live as they choose. We must not forget them.
bbc.co.uk
Banned from football at home, Afghan women's team reunite 8,000 miles away
Women in the team, which is recognised by Fifa, say football has given them freedom and independence.
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Margo Gontar @margogontar.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I want to repeat this : Russian drone hunted , taking its time , and then attacked a man selling vegetables in Kherson . A farmer. Knowingly . On purpose . There’re no two sides here .
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Margo Gontar @margogontar.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
⚠️ this is difficult video . this is Russian FPV drone hunting a farmer selling vegetables in Kherson. It’s piloted so there’s some Russian watching through camera how this man is running from it and still circling, taking his time, and then, knowing it’s just a farmer, still choosing to attack
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Maybe if you point a sub at the beach and go fast enough with a decent run-up…?
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Thomas Hughes @thomashughes.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Still looking for a summer read? I have just the thing! Thrilled that "Military Exercises and Threat Perception in Europe" is now out! What was the (un)intended role of ex in signalling, and why did the right message rarely get through? Unfortunately prescient... www.routledge.com/Military-Exe...
routledge.com
Military Exercises and Threat Perception in Europe: NATO, Russia, and the Politics of War Games, 1975–2018
This book explores the politics of military exercises in Europe between 1975 and 2018, revealing how NATO, the Soviet Union, and Russia have used exercises as political tools and how these activities ...
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Thanks to @kevinmilligan.bsky.social et al for this study on the impact of universal childcare on women's income - Long run impact on women's earnings far beyond the childcare years - Increased tax remittances, reduced social insurance - Recoups 75-117% of program costs www.nber.org/papers/w35514
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