Flagship

Diplomatic push for Ukraine peace deal

An intense week of negotiations over Russia’s war in Ukraine opens today, as US President Donald Trump’s envoy heads to Moscow and France hosts Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The shuttle diplomacy suggests some measure of progress in negotiations to pause the nearly four-year war — US and Ukrainian officials hailed “productive” meetings in Florida over the weekend — but risks mistaking activity for achievement. Huge challenges remain, ranging from disputes over key issues in a purported truce deal, what experts describe as the Kremlin’s maximalist demands for territorial concessions from Kyiv, European demands that Russian President Vladimir Putin be prosecuted for war crimes, and a growing push within NATO to take a more “aggressive” stance towards Russian hybrid warfare.

S. Africans lured to fight for Moscow

South Africa arrested five men suspected of planning to join Russia’s armed forces, while authorities also said they were investigating a former lawmaker for involvement in their recruitment. More than a dozen South Africans are believed to have already been lured with the promise of lucrative contracts, with many of them now on the battlefield fighting Ukrainian troops with little prospect of returning. The cases have sparked an investigation against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla — who is the daughter of former President Jacob Zuma and who resigned from Parliament on Friday — over allegations that she tricked 17 men to fight for Russia. South African officials have previously faced accusations of aiding Moscow’s war, including by supplying arms.

Floods ravage South, Southeast Asia

Major floods in South and Southeast Asia have killed more than 1,000 people. Climate change is expected to make extreme weather more frequent and more severe, and two tropical storms brought some of the worst flooding in years in the region; 502 people are confirmed dead in Indonesia, and hundreds more in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Hat Yai in southern Thailand saw 335 mm (13 inches) of rain in a single day, the highest figure in 300 years, according to the BBC, brought by a rare cyclone in the Malacca Strait. The UN said that one million people across Sri Lanka have been affected, either displaced or cut off from food and water, by a separate storm in the Bay of Bengal.

Trump ally leads Honduras exit polls

An ally of US President Donald Trump looked set to win elections in Honduras, polls marked by extensive interference by both Washington and Beijing. Nasry Asfura, a conservative former mayor of the Honduran capital, led exit polls. Trump has threatened to withdraw funding to Honduras if Asfura doesn’t win, and has vowed to pardon former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a member of Asfura’s party who is serving a 45-year drug trafficking sentence in the US. China, too, sought to influence the outcome: Asfura has pledged to diplomatically recognize Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province. “I’ve never seen China as involved in a Latin American election as they are in Honduras,” a leading Latin America analyst said.

Trump, Maduro speak amid tensions

US President Donald Trump said over the weekend that he had spoken to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, their first conversation since the start of Washington’s military buildup in South America. The Trump administration has for weeks struck vessels off the coast of Venezuela that it alleges are ferrying drugs to the US, part of what analysts say appears to be an effort to unseat Maduro. However, American lawmakers from both parties have questioned the legality of the Pentagon’s campaign, which reportedly included an order to kill all the survivors of a recent strike. The political fallout underscores the domestic consequences for Washington’s offensive: Trump’s own supporters appear divided over how far they want the president to go.

Netanyahu seeks pardon for graft

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested a pardon from the country’s president over corruption charges. Netanyahu denied wrongdoing, but said the three cases, which have been ongoing for five years, interfere with his ability to govern. Critics said that any pardon would damage Israel’s democracy, which they argue is already under threat after government efforts to take further control of the judicial branch in 2023 that led to widespread protests. Netanyahu separately faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza; the death toll there is now 70,100, the Hamas-run health ministry said, largely because officials were able to reach bodies in the wreckage thanks to a period of relative calm.

China’s worrying manufacturing data

A gauge of Chinese manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted last month, a worrying sign for the world’s second-biggest economy as it looks to combat a litany of challenges. The private survey focused on export-oriented companies, suggesting potential vulnerability as Beijing looks to ward off the consequences of Washington’s trade restrictions. It also confirmed the persistent struggles facing the country, including moribund growth, a mountain of debt, high levels of youth unemployment, and a still-unfolding real estate crisis. Two official surveys released over the weekend also showed contraction across various sectors of the economy. “The sharp slowdown in momentum is worrying,” a Commerzbank economist warned in a note to clients.

As the AI boom intensifies pressure on America’s energy systems and infrastructure, lawmakers across the aisle are pursuing permitting reform to unlock new opportunities and cut through the political and regulatory barriers standing in the way of viable solutions.

On Tuesday, Dec. 9, join Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt for on-stage conversations examining what’s at stake and potential bipartisan solutions to the challenges emerging from this technological revolution.

Dec. 9 | Washington, DC | Request Invitation

US makes vaccine approval harder

The US Food and Drug Administration will make it harder to approve vaccines, after it said COVID-19 shots were linked to at least 10 children’s deaths. The alleged connection, reportedly made in an internal FDA memo, said that the deaths were caused by heart muscle inflammation, but no evidence has been released. The FDA’s vaccine regulatory chief said the new rules would make it much harder to authorize vaccines for pregnant women, and that trials would have to show a reduction in disease rather than biological responses such as generating antibodies. The US administration is highly vaccine-skeptical. Perhaps not unrelatedly, measles, previously considered eradicated, has returned to the country, although it is also on the rise elsewhere in the Americas.

DNA tests muddy inheritance claims

The rise of DNA testing has led to a series of inheritance claims by “surprise heirs.” Test results from companies such as 23andMe are wreaking havoc on families handling loved ones’ estates, triggering claims from apparent descendants of the deceased. Some US states are considering rewriting inheritance laws, and lawyers are encouraging people to word their wills more carefully: Phrases like “to my descendants” can permit unexpected claims. “The affairs have always been going on, but now they’re getting discovered,” a lawyer told The Wall Street Journal. 23andMe went bankrupt this year, but its influence has been profound: More Americans are identifying as ethnically English, possibly because the tests mean they can no longer easily claim more interesting backgrounds.