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.
President Trump is meanwhile pressing European leaders to force Zelensky to accept the US peace plan which hinges on major territorial concessions and a cap on Ukraine's armed forces. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the US president held a tense call with his German, French and British counterparts, where he conveyed his frustrations with Zelensky for not seriously engaging with the US proposal.
Two fertilizer plants were also targeted in the western Novgorod and Smolensk regions. Fire resulted at one of these, the Acron mineral fertilizer plant, among Russia's largest chemical producers.
Local reports have identified the Comoros Islands-flagged Dashan as being struck while sailing en route to the Russian port terminal of Novorossiysk. The Ukrainians were quick to release drone-perspective video confirming the attack, and the vessel appeared to be unladen at the time.
Airspace over Western Pacific waters near Japan continues to heat up at a moment of the highest tensions in decades between Beijing and Tokyo. Tuesday saw Japan and South Korea dispatch fighter jets in response to a joint patrol by Russian and Chinese bombers over the Asia-Pacific region, the countries' militaries confirmed.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Ukrainian Energy Research Center, has in recent comments confirmed that resources for repairing damaged energy facilities have almost run out.
The Ukraine war has been a wakeup call to the world. Drones are going to be the focal point of future conflicts. When a $350 piece of equipment can take out a $4 million tank and 4 specialist soldiers, the game has changed. Soon, tanks and artillery units will also be unmanned.
The rising tally is part of the Trump administration’s push to enforce English proficiency rules and curb safety risks from unqualified commercial drivers.
A new CNN investigation has unveiled one of the most sweeping military infrastructure expansions in modern history. Since 2020, China has dramatically increased construction at more than 60% of its 136 known facilities tied to missile production and the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF). Satellite analysis shows over 21 million square feet of new buildings — an area roughly the size of 400 football fields — signaling an unprecedented surge in Beijing’s missile manufacturing capacity.
A new CNN investigation has unveiled one of the most sweeping military infrastructure expansions in modern history. Since 2020, China has dramatically increased construction at more than 60% of its 136 known facilities tied to missile production and the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF). Satellite analysis shows over 21 million square feet of new buildings — an area roughly the size of 400 football fields — signaling an unprecedented surge in Beijing’s missile manufacturing capacity.
President Trump has really ramped up the pressure, in a fresh Politico interview signaling that the Ukrainian leader must begin to accept reality and make compromises, starting with holding elections. According to a fresh audio statement being circulated, Zelensky has newly responded by stating "I am ready for elections. I will be in Ukraine tomorrow and expect proposals from our partners and lawmakers on legal changes to allow elections during martial law," according to a translation.
U.S. government-funded labs are actively breeding colonies of exotic Hyalomma ticks imported from Africa to study Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), a brutal tick-borne virus with a 30% mortality rate that’s never been detected in America.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is using his last months in office to release dozens of inmates convicted of homicide — and says many more are coming, according to NJ 101.5.
President issued a statement on X, confirming he will allow Nvidia to ship its chips to China and noting that "President Xi respondedly positively."
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Monday that Police Chief Pamela A. Smith will be stepping down, three months after we reported that the DOJ was investigating a "massive scandal" over manipulated crime data.
He then said "His people love it, but he hasn’t. Russia’s fine with it." The somewhat negative assessment of the Ukrainian leader comes after Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Friday again met with Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, and Ukrainian negotiator Andriy Hnatov in Florida.
the return of President Trump to office in early 2025 stalled U.S. support, the current administration having paused any new funding.
China has massive domestic thorium reserves, which, if fully exploited, are estimated to be enough to fuel the country for tens of thousands of years, providing a safe and reliable energy solution.
The fresh Kremlin statement said Moscow is standing shoulder to shoulder with Caracas, with a fresh appeal for the Trump administration to avoid exacerbating tensions which could lead to open and unnecessary conflict.
Russian forces made advances in Ukraine as U.S. and Ukrainian officials prepared for a third day of peace talks in Miami. Russia unleashed 51 missiles and 623 drone strikes on Dec. 6, which was observed as Armed Forces Day in Ukraine. Ukraine shot down 30 missiles and neutralized 585 drones in the attack, which targeted residential buildings, energy facilities, and railways in 29 locations.
The country's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has informed parliament that the government intends to allocate 9.4 billion kroner (around $1.5 billion) in aid to Ukraine in 2026. This marks a decrease from the 16.5 billion kroner (about $2.6 billion) provided this year and the nearly 19 billion kroner (roughly $3 billion) distributed the prior year.
Now the entities that took the money are unwilling to address the whereabouts of the minors. Nor are they forthcoming about how they spent – or misspent – the funding that was supposed to avoid the very problem the nation faces of missing migrant children. “They don’t want to talk about it,” said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. “Those groups are the very ones that were pressing to release the unaccompanied kids faster.”
Japan and Australia condemned the radar targeting as dangerous and destabilizing for the region, pointing to Beijing’s disregard for the rules-based order.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 8 to 3 to advise that mothers who test negative for hepatitis B should decide with their doctor "when or if" their newborns receive the vaccine. The guidance for infants born to infected or unknown-status mothers remains unchanged.
The law is seen as a victory for medical freedom advocates in the state.
On Friday, the Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology journal announced that it has retracted a review, safety evaluation, and risk assessment of the herbicide Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, after it emerged that Monsanto was heavily involved in its production.
SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler said there is mounting evidence that minority contracts had become “a pass-through vehicle for rampant abuse and fraud,” especially after the Biden administration raised the target for contracts that are “set aside” for minorities from 5% to 15% of all contracting dollars.
‘Today, we are putting pediatric medical professionals on notice: you cannot sideline parents,’ Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.
On Wednesday, Nature retracted the study titled "The economic commitment of climate change" after economists discovered that flawed data from Uzbekistan had heavily skewed the results.
The Transportation Security Administration is preparing to roll out a new method for travelers to confirm their identity if they do not have a REAL ID or a passport. For a $45 fee, domestic air travelers can prove their identity ahead of scheduled travel through the TSA Confirm ID process.
Alert cites reports of armed robberies and criminal gangs forcing travelers to withdraw ATM cash