This Week in the World Affairs Brief

PUTIN REFUSES TO COMPROMISE ON TRUMP PEACE DEAL

President Trump put his negotiating team in a very bad position by first accepting almost everything Putin was demanding on Ukraine. Now, after the mostly one-sided, pro-Russian elements of the proposal have been rejected by Ukraine and Europe, the Trump team was forced to travel to Moscow to ask Putin for concessions in order to make a deal. He refused to compromise, and unleashed more aerial attacks on Ukraine to boot. Trump even tried to discourage Zelensky from holding onto the hope of recovering lost territory by leaking that Trump was considering official recognition of occupied Crimea as Russian territory. Putin continues to insist that Ukraine must withdraw from all four regions Russia invaded from 2014 through 2025 including some territory that Moscow still doesn’t fully control - and says that those aims will be achieved by force if necessary. For Ukraine, any territorial concessions, especially the valuable defensive fortress cities that are not yet conquered, remains non-negotiable. Ukraine also rightly maintains that NATO membership is essential to Ukraine's long-term security, because only NATO membership guarantees that the West will come to Ukraine’s aid if and when Putin violates any future peace deal—which European realists feel is a certainty. To receive a free one-time sample of the brief, along with options on how to subscribe, click on Request a Sample on the left.

Also:
  • Venezuela and the Drug Threat
  • The Key Vulnerability of US Air Power
  • China Ramping Up Missile Production

Daily News

The lawfare attempts to derail the populist National Rally in France may backfire, with a survey this week finding that Le Pen deputy Jordan Bardella would win the next presidential election against any other major opponent.

The Epoch Times

All he needs is discarded electronics—of which the United States has mountains. And from these scraps, the Rice University chemist and nanotechnologist has pioneered a way to quickly extract rare earth metals. “We can pull out one metal and then the next,” he told The Epoch Times. “It’s really that simple.”

Boasberg reverses course on Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump

Fox News

Boasberg used a memo order Wednesday to outline the fairly complex case history for Cynthia Ballenger and her husband, Christopher Price, both of whom had been tried and convicted on misdemeanor charges in connection with events of Jan. 6, 2021, and ordered to pay hundreds of dollars in assessment fees and restitution. Boasberg's order effectively clears the way for the government to refund them both in full.

Thanks to a Gun, She Saved Her Life. 7-Eleven Fired Her.

The Daily Signal

Yet last week, 7-Eleven fired the 25-year-old after she used her gun to save her own life. Private companies have every right to set rules for employee behavior, but many corporate policies that require workers to remain passive and comply with criminals’ demands rest on a deeply mistaken view of crime data.

China Blocks BlackRock’s $23 Billion Panama Canal Ports Deal

Defense News

In a stunning turn of events, China has effectively blocked a $23 billion deal led by U.S. investment giant BlackRock to acquire a global network of port assets, including two key terminals located at either end of the Panama Canal. What began as a massive infrastructure transaction quickly escalated into a high-stakes geopolitical confrontation—one that reveals how global trade routes are now just as contested as battlefields.

Clandestine Campaign To Defund ZeroHedge, The Federalist & Breitbart Traced To Kier Starmer Operation

ZeroHedge

thanks to a new book by investigative journalist Paul Holden that builds on reporting by Matt Taibbi, Paul Thacker and others, we learn that the origin of these campaigns, launched years before the pandemic, was none other than UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer's political machine, which began targeting left-wing outlets speaking critically of Starmer such as The Canary, and then went after conservative outlets in America - just in time for the 2020 US election.

Man Arrested In Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Case Identified As Brian Cole

ZeroHedge

Video footage and photos of the suspect showed a figure walking around in a hoodie and a face mask. The bombs were quickly disarmed shortly after they were discovered. "There is a massive cover-up, because the person who planted those pipe bombs -- they don't want you to know who it was, because it's either a connected anti-Trump insider, or this was an inside job," Dan Bongino, now the deputy FBI Director, said in November 2024 on his show. "Those bombs were planted there. This was a setup. I have zero doubt."

80% of Milan’s predatory crimes are committed by foreigners, police chief tells parliament as Olympics looms

ReMix News

Speaking before the commission on suburban issues, Megale said 830 arrests for predatory crimes, such as robbery, were made in the first nine months of 2025, with one in five involving minors. He described residents having “a widespread sense of insecurity,” but suggested that overall crime was down and arrests had increased so far this year. Megale was speaking ahead of Milan’s hosting of the Winter Olympics, which begins in February.

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