The morning roundup

A new premium feature for our subscribers

From Claire—Thank you to everyone who sent us emails about the premium features you’d like to see! It definitely helped us get a sense of what you’d like.

Oddly, no one wrote to clamor for the Cosmopolitan Globalist bikini. But there was strong support for the idea of a regular premium news roundup. So let’s start right away.

Here’s what caught the editors’ eyes today.

Europe

Russia planning massive military offensive against Ukraine involving 175,000 troops. “US intelligence has found the Kremlin is planning a multi-front offensive as soon as early next year involving up to 175,000 troops, according to US officials and an intelligence document obtained by The Washington Post.”

Russia dismissed these reports and accused Washington of trying to aggravate the situation.

Europe’s future will be decided in Ukraine. “A major war in Ukraine would plunge the whole of Europe into crisis. The sudden appearance of between three and five million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion would be just one of many major concerns facing European society. … ”

Pécresse wins French conservative ticket for presidential election. Valérie Pécresse has won the Les Republicains ticket for the 2022 presidential election. This is the first time the French center-right (the political family of de Gaulle, Chirac & Sarkozy) has selected a woman as its presidential candidate. If she makes the runoff, she’ll be a formidable challenge to Macron.