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‘We Want Europe to Remain European’
President Donald Trump’s newly released National Security Strategy framed US foreign policy “rooted in white Christian nationalism,” [ [link removed] ]according [ [link removed] ] to an analysis from The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson, marking a stark departure from traditional diplomatic language.
The document’s section on Europe warned of “the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure,” citing migration, declining birthrates, and EU regulations as threats to national identity. “We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation.”
The document says that “America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”
Trump has taken a harsh anti-immigrant stance since returning to the Oval Office. He recently dismissed Somali immigrants as “garbage,” according to the analysis. The strategy reflected a broader normalization of white Christian nationalism.
The administration has openly aligned with far-right parties such as Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, framing them as allies in resisting immigration from Asia and Africa, according to Meyerson. Vice President JD Vance has also pledged his support to AfD, whose leaders have flirted with Nazi rhetoric and whose youth organization has been certified as an extremist organization by a German intelligence service.
For Meyerson, this type of foreign policy “remains the foremost negation of our foundational creed.”
If You Read One More Thing: No Money for Hungary?
Seb Starcevic [ [link removed] ]reports [ [link removed] ] for Politico that Trump denied offering a financial rescue to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, contradicting Orbán’s claim that Washington had agreed to provide Budapest with a “financial shield.”
In an interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns, Trump said, “No, I didn’t promise him, but he certainly asked for it,” while praising Orbán for doing “a very good job” on immigration.
Orbán previously told Hungarian media, “I have agreed with the [US] president, and we shook hands on this,” sparking criticism from opposition leader Péter Magyar, who asked, “Why did Orbán secretly negotiate a huge bailout package?”
The dispute has unfolded as Orbán faces economic stagnation and an election challenge, while Trump’s administration bolstered far-right allies, namely Argentina’s President Javier Milei, and exempted Hungary from sanctions on Russian energy due to its landlocked geography.
Air Force Chief Says Nukes Need ‘Recapitalization’
At The Intercept, Austin Campbell has [ [link removed] ]covered [ [link removed] ] Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach’s first memo in his new role, which calls for the “recapitalization” of nuclear weapons, signaling a shift from decades of deterrence-focused doctrine.
In a Nov. 3 memo, Wilsbach wrote, “We will advocate relentlessly for programs like the F-47, Collaborative Combat Aircraft as well as nuclear force recapitalization through the Sentinel program and the B-21.”
Critics have warned the language reflects partisan priorities and ignores morale and retention crises. Retired Lt. Col. William Astore argued, “You don’t ‘recapitalize’ genocidal weaponry,” citing costs of up to $500 billion.
Other analysts say Wilsbach overlooked the Air Force’s deterrent role, while veterans have condemned his emphasis on “warrior culture” over addressing suicides and aging aircraft. His rhetoric echoes Trump-era calls for strength and lethality.
Deep Dive: ‘Enforced Disappearances’ and ‘Torture’ at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International’s new report, “Torture and Enforced Disappearances in the Sunshine State [ [link removed] ],” documents severe human rights violations at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” and Miami’s Krome detention centers. The report concludes that conditions “amount to torture” and describes enforced disappearances, unsanitary facilities, and punitive confinement practices.
Amnesty’s 61‑page report comes on the heels of the organization’s September 2025 research mission to Florida. The organization focuses on the Everglades Detention Facility, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami. According to the report, the findings show a “deliberate strategy that dehumanizes and punishes migrants and people seeking safety” on the part of federal and Florida authorities.
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Krome sits on the edge of the Everglades. “In 2025, the facility has faced heightened scrutiny after reports of severe overcrowding and several deaths.” Amnesty found delays in intake procedures, “overcrowding in temporary processing areas, inadequate and inaccessible medical care, alarming disciplinary practices including the use of prolonged solitary confinement, and challenges in access to legal representation and due process” at the detention center.
Alligator Alcatraz opened in 2025 and can detain roughly 3,000 people. Amnesty’s investigators describe conditions at Alligator Alcatraz as profoundly unsanitary. Detainees reported “overflowing toilets with fecal matter seeping into where people are sleeping,” constant lighting, and cameras installed above toilets. Amnesty has concluded that the facility operated without the basic tracking systems used in ICE facilities, which led to “incommunicado detention” and “constitutes enforced disappearances when the whereabouts of a person being detained there is denied to their family.”
The most disturbing revelations involved punitive confinement. AI documented use of “the box,” described as a “2x2 foot cage‑like structure people are put in as punishment — sometimes for hours at a time exposed to the elements with hardly any water — with their hands and feet attached to restraints on the ground.”
At Krome, Amnesty has corroborated accounts of overcrowding, medical neglect, and prolonged solitary confinement. One detainee held in isolation pushed a note through the metal flap, reading: “Help Me. I’m on Hunger Strike.” He showed investigators his “bruised and mangled hand” and said he had waited 37 days for medical care. According to the report, an ICE official “repeatedly and violently slammed the metal flap against the injured man’s hands and forced [Amnesty] out of the solitary confinement area.”
The organization says the “use of prolonged solitary confinement at Krome and the use of the ‘box’ at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ amount to torture or other ill‑treatment in violation of international law.”
Amnesty notes that of the 25 people who have died in ICE custody during the 2025 fiscal year, six died while detained in Florida, including four at Krome.
At Alligator Alcatraz, Amnesty alleges detainees were effectively “disappeared.” The report states: “The absence of registration or tracking mechanisms for those detained at Alligator Alcatraz facilitates incommunicado detention and constitutes enforced disappearances when the whereabouts of a person being detained there is denied to their family, and they are not allowed to contact their lawyer.”
The budget for Alligator Alcatraz has already topped $360 million and “is projected to require approximately $450 million USD annually to operate once it is fully functional,” according to the report.
Federal officials have rejected previous criticism about Alligator Alcatraz. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “Nearly every single day, my office responds to media questions on FALSE allegations about Alligator Alcatraz. The media is clearly desperate for these allegations of inhumane conditions at this facility to be true … Here are the facts: Alligator Alcatraz does meet federal detention standards,” according to the Miami Herald.
Amnesty compares the punitive practices at Alligator Alcatraz to torture methods used at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. One detainee told investigators, “It’s a copy of Guantánamo. The conditions are inhuman.” Another said, “Any time that anyone demanded that our rights be respected, they were punished.”
The report concludes that “the detention of asylum seekers and migrants is the norm, not the exception” under international humanitarian law. And the conditions which these detainees face at Alligator Alcatraz and Krome “fall far below international human rights standards.”
In Amnesty’s words, Florida’s detention centers violated international law. As the report states, “Immigration enforcement cannot operate outside the rule of law or exempt itself from human rights standards. What we are seeing in Florida should alarm the entire region.”
Show Us the Receipts
At Inkstick, Jon Letman [ [link removed] ]reports [ [link removed] ] on Hawai‘i communities’ opposition to the US Army’s bid to renew its lease of the Pōhakuloa Training Area, citing desecration of sacred lands and environmental damage. Healani Sonoda-Pale, a community organizer from the O‘ahu Water Protectors, said the Army has “done so much damage environmentally to Hawai‘i and also to our communities” through the site. Established during World War II, the site spanned 132,000 acres, much of it leased for just $1 in 1964. As the 2029 expiration date nears, residents and Native Hawaiians are challenging the Army’s final environmental impact statement, which the state’s Board of Land and Natural Resources rejected for inadequate cultural and ecological review.
A [ [link removed] ]joint investigation [ [link removed] ] by Inkstick, Solomon, Taz, and SWI Swiss Info has revealed how American defense firms deployed AI surveillance technologies along Europe’s borders. Shield AI tested autonomous drones in Bulgaria under a Frontex pilot, claiming reduced crossings without disclosing data. Meanwhile, Anduril Industries has supplied “Sentry Towers” to the UK, and other US companies have trialed facial age estimation tools on asylum seekers despite accuracy and bias issues. “When used for age estimation, facial scanning is often inaccurate. It’s in the name: age estimation,” Molly Buckley from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said. Critics warn that these systems endanger vulnerable migrants and erode accountability.
At The World, Manuel Rueda [ [link removed] ]covers [ [link removed] ] traditional fishermen along Colombia’s Caribbean coast who are curtailing their deep-sea voyages after US airstrikes targeting suspected drug traffickers raised fears of mistaken attacks. In Santa Marta, veteran fisherman Manuel Yepes and others have abandoned larger boats used for tuna and marlin, opting instead for smaller vessels near shore where catches were less profitable. “The US bombings are keeping us from fishing in the open seas,” Yepes said. The Trump administration has shot down more than 20 small boats in recent months, some resembling those used by local fishermen. As a result, livelihoods have suffered while anxiety grows over potential misidentification at sea.
NewsMatch Season: Support Independent Journalism
Between now and Dec. 31, you can help [ [link removed] ] Inkstick expand its reporting, better compensate its contributors, and continue digging into the stories you won’t find at corporate media outlets. By donating [ [link removed] ] through our annual NewsMatch campaign, your contribution will count double for us. If you send $50 today, Inkstick will get $100.
Nonprofit newsrooms are entirely dependent on donations and reader support to continue doing their work. At Inkstick, your money will go directly toward our reporting. Click here [ [link removed] ] to learn more about how you can help us keep exposing the war profiteers, would-be authoritarians, and defense companies who would rather see an independent press silenced.
Critical State is written by Inkstick Media in collaboration with The World.
The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news, and insights from PRX and GBH.
With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”
Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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