Galen Fries

South Africa is hauling in suspects accused of recruiting locals for Russia’s war in Ukraine, while in Germany tens of thousands hit the streets to block and protest a far right party meeting that was launching a new club for younger supporters. On the front itself, Russia’s midrange, jam proof drones are shredding Ukrainian supply lines deep behind the lines, turning what used to be “safe” rear areas into the new kill zone.

In 2025, Canada’s special operations command balanced Arctic sovereignty patrols and cold-weather training with a major Indo-Pacific deployment, while sustaining elite readiness through specialized units like JTF 2, CSOR, CJIRU, and dedicated special operations aviation.

Congress is tightening bipartisan oversight on the Trump administration’s Caribbean counter-narco strikes even as the White House keeps pressure on cartel networks and Maduro’s inner circle. At the same time, Maduro is trying to project calm from behind blacked-out glass in Caracas, while New York’s anti-ICE protest at Federal Plaza crossed from lawful dissent into street-level disorder and drew a firm NYPD response.

From the Black Sea to Krasnodar and Kyiv, Ukraine and Russia are trading long‑range blows. Inside the U.S., an Afghan evacuee now charged over an alleged TikTok bomb plot in Texas.

November has repeatedly served as war’s decision month, delivering hinge battles from El Alamein and Guadalcanal to the Somme and Fallujah that either broke enemy momentum or forced conflicts into their endgame.

USCYBERCOM is the quiet joint warfighting machine that keeps America’s digital guns loaded, shields the Pentagon’s networks from hostile eyes, and hits back in cyberspace long before most people know a fight even started.

Germany braces against Russian gray-zone pressure, Washington greenlights action on Venezuela’s state-run cartel, and a filmed killing in Jenin sends another shock through an already volatile region, all signaling how fast today’s conflicts can widen when fragile lines snap. Welcome to Saturday, November 29, 2025. This is your SOFREP Morning Brief.

Nigeria is running out of runway, and every day Washington hesitates is another day armed groups tighten their grip on a country too strategically important to watch slide into chaos.

The U.S. military is using cheap Chinese-made drones as live targets in Florida to give troops realistic counter-drone training and speed up new technology development.

The British SAS and Australian SASR ended 2025 balancing heavy operational demand with ongoing scrutiny tied to past misconduct investigations. Both units are pushing ahead with modernization, tighter accountability, and updated training to stay effective in a security environment shaped by hybrid warfare and rising regional tensions.

Atlas Lion showed that AI can replace a crowd of observer controllers and still give commanders a sharper, doctrine-based read on how ready their Civil Affairs teams are for large-scale combat.

When gunmen can storm a girls’ school before dawn, kill an educator, and haul teenagers into the forest without immediate consequence, something fundamental has broken in Nigeria’s security contract with its citizens.