Attention to the Unseen

The Hill reports: Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that Russia’s strikes on civilian homes — including on Christmas — are a reminder to Americans that the war against Ukraine is at odds with America’s values. In an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” the former House Intelligence Committee chair pointed to images of the destruction in Ukrainian cities and neighborhoods and said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “continuing to remind us that this is a war of aggression.”…

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The Intercept reports: President Donald Trump said the U.S. launched airstrikes in northwest Nigeria on Christmas night targeting ISIS militants and warning future attacks may follow. “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social. Africa Command conducted the…

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The Guardian reports: China and Russia have expressed support for Venezuela as it confronts a US blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, while Donald Trump continues to ramp up his pressure campaign on the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Amid reports of slowing activity at Venezuelan ports, the US president again called for Maduro to leave power, and reiterated that the US would keep or sell the oil it had seized off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks. Asked…

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The Wall Street Journal reports: Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real-estate developer and longtime golfing partner of Donald Trump, was just days into his job as the new president’s special envoy to the Middle East when he received a tantalizing message from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Vladimir Putin was interested in meeting Witkoff—so interested that he might consider releasing an American prisoner to him. The invitation came from a Kremlin moneyman named Kirill Dmitriev, using the de facto Saudi…

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Axios reports: President Trump designated Venezuela a “foreign terrorist organization” Tuesday and formally ordered a blockade of all U.S. sanctioned oil tankers servicing the country. Why it matters: Trump’s newest escalation, backed by a giant U.S. armada, exerts unprecedented pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s regime, threatening to bankrupt the country’s already struggling economy. “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like…

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Politico reports: Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler in a speech Saturday evening, warning that the Kremlin leader’s ambitions won’t stop with Ukraine. “Just as the Sudetenland was not enough in 1938, Putin will not stop,” Merz said, referring to a part of Czechoslovakia that the Allies ceded to the Nazi leader with an agreement. Hitler continued his expansion into Europe after that. “If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop there,” Merz said, referring to…

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The New York Times reports: A pre-dawn phone call jolted President Trump awake. His national security adviser had urgent news about Venezuela. Protests were erupting, soldiers had defected, and the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, had been hustled to a military compound. It looked like he could be forced from power. “Wow,” Mr. Trump said, according to a memoir by John R. Bolton, the national security adviser at the time. That hopeful moment for Mr. Trump, in his first term,…

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Kyiv Independent reports: The new U.S. National Security Strategy stunned Washington’s allies, casting doubt on the entire post-Cold War security order in Europe. The document takes a direct shot at the EU and questions some of the main principles of NATO, two pillars of Europe’s political and security architecture. It also signals a retreat from the U.S.-led unipolar world while refocusing on the Western Hemisphere. Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, the document notably avoids criticism of Russia, which has…

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The Guardian reports: The Kremlin has heaped praise on Donald Trump’s latest national security strategy, calling it an encouraging change of policy that largely aligns with Russian thinking. The remarks follow the publication of a White House document on Friday that criticises the EU and says Europe is at risk of “civilisational erasure”, while making clear the US is keen to establish better relations with Russia. “The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision,” the Kremlin…

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The Journal reports: Four unidentified military-style drones breached a no-fly zone and flew towards the flight path of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plane at sea near Dublin Airport late on Monday night, The Journal has learned. The plane landed, slightly ahead of schedule, just moments before the incident happened at about 11pm. The drones reached the location where Zelenskyy’s plane was expected to be at the exact moment it had been due to pass. The drones then orbited above an…

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