Podcasts about Ukraine

Dive into Part 2 of Episode 271 of the Mike Drop Podcast, hosted by Mike Ritland, featuring guest Andy Stumpf—a former Navy SEAL, extreme sports enthusiast, author, and podcaster. In this gripping continuation, listeners will explore Andy's adrenaline-fueled adventures in skydiving, wingsuiting, base jumping, and helicopter piloting, including heart-pounding stories like breaking wingsuit records, a terrifying tandem jump mishap in Afghanistan, and his team's record-breaking skydiving expedition across seven continents. The conversation shifts to reflective insights on military service, the lessons from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and current global conflicts like Ukraine and Gaza. Andy also discusses writing his book Drown Proof, his experiences on the Joe Rogan Experience, and candid thoughts on U.S. foreign policy, term limits in politics, and balancing national influence with domestic issues. Packed with raw storytelling, life lessons, and unfiltered opinions, this episode is perfect for fans of military history, extreme sports, and thoughtful geopolitical analysis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wednesday on the News Hour, Ukraine proposes demilitarized zones in Russian-occupied areas, the latest plan for ending the nearly four-year invasion. Judy Woodruff reports from a small New Hampshire town on how the answer to nationwide political divisions may begin within our own communities. Plus, Palestinian Christians make the journey to Bethlehem, navigating Israeli checkpoints along the way. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Hi there, comrades! Here comes the promised episode by Evita (you asked for it yourself, kapish?) where she trauma-dumps, jokes and talks about her past in Russian-centered environment. And complains about Kristaps, a little bit. Also you can consider it a preview for future episodes about wild Russian pop culture lore.Please, donate for Christmas trucks for Ukraine: https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-the-eastern-border/Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theeasternborder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In it escalating campaign against Venezuela, the Trump administration has gone from shooting drug boats to trying to seize oil tankers in the Caribbean.Anatoly Kurmanaev, a foreign correspondent for The New York Times who has spent years covering Venezuela, explains why President Trump is shifting his strategy, and what that might tell us about his true endgame.Guest: Anatoly Kurmanaev, a reporter for The New York Times covering Russia and its transformation following the invasion of Ukraine.Background reading: Venezuela's oil exports have plummeted after the United States took action against three tankers carrying crude.Photo: Satellite image ©2025 Vantor, via Associated PressFor more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hey BillOReilly.com Premium and Concierge Members, welcome to the No Spin News for Tuesday, December 23, 2025. Stand Up for Your Country.  Today's show is a special Q & A edition of the No Spin News, where Bill answers your questions! But first, Bill runs through some important headlines, including the situation between Ukraine and Russia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack why the release of the Epstein files has backfired on Donald Trump, obscuring key facts while amplifying the one question that won't go away: what Trump knew, and when. Wolff explains how the chaotic document dump fits Trump's flood-the-zone instincts, while Coles probes how branding, spectacle, and confusion remain his core political defenses. They also examine the risks of sidelining institutions—from Ukraine diplomacy to ICE-as-content—and ask whether Trump's belief that chaos protects him is finally working against him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented a draft agreement to end the war in Ukraine, after negotiations with US. It is now being reviewed by the Kremlin. The document includes security guarantees for Ukraine from the US, NATO and Europe, but President Zelensky says the question of ceding territory is still unresolved. Also: France, Germany and the European Union condemn a decision by the US to impose visa bans on the former EU commissioner Thierry Breton and four others involved in regulating tech companies. The French President Emmanuel Macron says the measures amount to "intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty". More than 100 people have been killed in the past two weeks in drone attacks in Sudan's South Kordofan region. The United Nations says it is alarmed by the growing use of drones by both Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. And as people prepare to hand out their Christmas presents, we look at the impact of AI toys on child development. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.ukPicture credit: EPA/Shutterstock

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger Picture The UK temps for the green new scam are fake, the manipulated the data to push the scam, it has now been exposed. Fake news has no choice to tell the people that the economy has been improving. Trump is getting to move the economic system to the new system which will include sound money. The [DS] is now using everything they have to stop the Trump and his team. Judges are now dictating that the President doesn’t have the authority to remove someones security clearance. The Supreme Court just set the stage for Trump to use the insurrection act when the enemy pushes the insurgency. Never interfere with an enemy while they are in the process of destroying themselves. Economy https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/2003668549857055223?s=20 (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");   uncertainties of 2°C to 5°C. That’s not a typo – 5 degrees Celsius of potential error. Only 19 pristine Class 1 sites remain capable of measuring actual ambient air temperature accurately. The rest? Located on airport runways, walled gardens, next to main roads, and inside solar farms. Places where concrete, engines, and infrastructure create artificial heat islands that have nothing to do with atmospheric temperature changes. The Met Office database also contains data from over 100 stations that don’t exist. They’re using “estimated” temperatures from unidentified neighboring stations and presenting it as real data. When journalist Ray Sanders started asking questions through Freedom of Information requests, the Met Office dismissed them as “vexatious” and “not in the public interest.” After media inquiries, the Met Office quietly removed estimated data from 3 non-existent stations. Of 17 new sites opened since April 2024, nearly 65% were immediately placed in the worst quality categories. UK Science Minister Lord Patrick Vallance is calling scrutiny of this mess “misinformation” that weakens trust in science. Perhaps what actually weakens trust in science is using temperature readings from imaginary thermometers next to jet engines to justify trillion-pound Net Zero policies that reshape the entire economy. The data might be fine for tomorrow’s weather forecast. Using it to revolutionize Britain’s energy infrastructure? That requires stations that actually exist. https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/2003537920624677163?s=20 https://twitter.com/JeffPasquino/status/2003667251426197766?s=20   dollars” already – language and words are important – but this time the difference will be to the benefit of stablecoin holders. “But if it is pegged to the dollar, why will it matter?” you might wonder. That's a great question. The difference will be that today's bank accounts are in Federal Reserve “dollars”, which are debt-based, inflationary and losing value at a rapid pace. The new digital dollar stablecoins will be backed by gold or other assets (yet to be defined, but it's clearly how they're heading) and the purchasing power will go up. This is the first step out of the debt-based system enslaving most Americans – and by extension of the world reserve currency, most everyone in the Western world. People will eventually see that the asset-backed “digital dollar” is far superior to the Federal Reserve dollar. Once noticed, stablecoin dollars will be hoarded while Fed dollars will flood the market (Gresham's Law). No one will want the dying dollar -or any debt denominated in it – and much like the rise of gold and silver now against the Fed dollar, the digital dollar will also rise in value. Then everyone will transition, by choice, to an asset-backed currency without even knowing why they want those new dollars – they will just know that they hold value better. In other words, the “digital dollar” will actually be a store of value – evidence that it is actual money, not just a currency. Fix the money, fix the world. Political/Rights https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2003631214939218223?s=20   amounts to a green light for radical activists already attacking federal officers to escalate. The incident has triggered mounting calls for Frey to resign. https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2003595914582364475?s=20 https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2003559651586286006?s=20 https://twitter.com/TheSCIF/status/2003513211757134259?s=20   social media. No corroboration exists, no limo driver testimony, no Oklahoma death matching description. This story was a distorted version of another hoax that was debunked years ago. They are desperate and have nothing, and they know it and resort to literal A.I. pictures and confirmed hoaxes that have been debunked YEARS ago in an attempt to slander Trump because they are paid to and lie right TO YOUR FACE. You better wake up and stop listening to people who are paid to lie to you and telling you to stop asking questions. The truth ALWAYS prevails. https://twitter.com/TheSCIF/status/2003773196210692274?s=20  claimed he knew the 2nd Oklahoma City bomber. There was NO collaboration, NO limo driver testimony, and NO deaths in Oklahoma that even matched any real deaths. And they always pop up right before an election. Even the whole Trump on Epstein’s plane drama. YES, Trump never was on the Lolita Express. Epstein owned 5 aircraft. Trump took 7 trips between 1993 and 1997. Never with any underage girls or women, only family. Epstein didn’t even own the island until 1998. The flight logs have been out. They’re just recycling old information and acting like it’s new. How naive can you be? And how lame can you be for posting it? You’re not a journalist. You’re a fraud. The mainstream and every account pushing these lies didn’t verify their claims and authenticity before posting? Or did they know and were just hoping YOU wouldn’t check to push a false narrative? DOGE https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2003500113680085072?s=20 Geopolitical Disgraced Former Prince Andrew Stripped of His Gun License, Can Only Use Firearms Under Supervision Andrew had his gun license stripped by Met police. The hunter becomes the hunted. For his long association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is facing a long list of repercussions that seem to have no end. Now, the avid hunter has surrendered his firearms license to the Met Police – the same police force who dropped the investigation into his alleged crimes. The Telegraph reported: “The former Duke of York, 65, agreed to give up his firearms and shotgun certificates last month after he was visited by the Metropolitan Police at Royal Lodge in Windsor.   Andrew in Sandringham on the lap of five redacted women – presumably Epstein victims. Daily Mail reported:   Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/RobSchneider/status/2003720679892615609?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2003737409440350530?s=20   commissioner who crafted Europe’s Digital Services Act, basically a censorship framework disguised as content moderation. Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate is also on the list. He had a very specific mission. Want to know what his organization’s annual priorities were? Internal documents show “Kill Musk’s Twitter” at the top of the list. Not “reduce hate speech” or “improve online safety.” Kill Twitter. Destroy the platform entirely because Elon wouldn’t play ball with their censorship demands. These groups operated by labeling anything they disagreed with as “misinformation” or “hate speech,” then lobbying governments to force platforms to remove it. Clare Melford’s Global Disinformation Index used U.S. taxpayer money to create scoring systems that effectively blacklisted conservative American news outlets, steering advertisers away from them to financially strangle speech they opposed. Breton personally sent threatening letters to Elon warning of consequences under EU law right before his live interview with Trump during the campaign. Now the banned activists are claiming this is an “authoritarian attack on free speech” and calling it “immoral, unlawful, and un-American.” These are the same people who built entire careers pressuring tech platforms to silence voices they found problematic. Suddenly they care deeply about censorship when it affects them. Free speech isn’t negotiable. It’s not something governments should regulate away because certain viewpoints make them uncomfortable, whether in Europe or America. The U.S. just made clear that exporting censorship regimes to silence American speech won’t be tolerated  https://twitter.com/UnderSecPD/status/2003567940462084439?s=20 https://twitter.com/DNIGabbard/status/2003635821719466479?s=20 regulate or silence our free speech is a gross violation of our sovereignty that must be answered with accountability. Thank you, @UnderSecPD . https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2003641415465566593?s=20 to end their relationship with Denmark. https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2003571566131704124?s=20 War/Peace https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2003760225774444924?s=20  Russia has explicitly rejected the following point by insisting on stricter terms: Point 14 (Territorial issue): Russia rejects Ukraine’s proposal to “stay where we are” in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, demanding instead a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the Donetsk region.    No other specific rejections from Russia on the new 20-point plan have been confirmed yet, as Moscow is still formulating its official position.  The US has reached consensus with Ukraine on most points but has rejected or disagreed with Ukraine’s proposals on the following, offering alternatives instead: Point 12 (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant): The US rejects Ukraine’s option for joint US-Ukraine management on a parity basis, proposing trilateral management (involving the US, Ukraine, and likely Russia) with a key role for the American side.   Point 14 (Territorial issue): The US has not fully agreed to Ukraine’s “stay where we are” principle, proposing a compromise in the form of a free economic zone, potentially subject to a Ukrainian referendum if no other agreement is reached.  These disagreements were highlighted by Zelenskyy himself as areas where no consensus was reached with the US.  Medical/False Flags [DS] Agenda https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2003629130516955478?s=20  inside the department. She was promoted to lead the EMS in 2019 but by 2022 she was forced to retire. The FDNY is a complex organization of 17,000 employees who need a qualified leader, not a diversity hire. https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/2003615869008814124?s=20   realtor confirms Somalians have bought over 455 homes just in one neighborhood alone. The Somalians have nice cars like BMWs and Mercedes @Brookerteejones “Here in Minnesota, a local realtor reached out to me to tell me about another way that Somalians are scamming Minnesotans out of their taxpayer dollars. In her community alone, Somalians have bought up over 455 homes. They buy these homes claiming they’re turning these homes into home health care centers. She says the way we know Somalians have bought these homes is because all of a sudden extremely nice cars start showing up. Mercedes, BMWs, the nicest cars are parked in the driveway. She said, by law, the state will not come out and inspect these homes and make sure these homes even have clients living in these homes. — Somalians have bought that home and they’re using that as a home health care center. She said these homes can even take people in who’ve just been released from jail and the neighborhood does not need to know about this. But she says, many of these homes do not even have clients in them. But the state is writing them checks every month for the clients that the Somalians say are in these homes. These Somalians are making millions of dollars off of these homes every year.” “The Somalians have figured out exactly the perfect plan as to how to scam Minnesota taxpayers out of their money. They are banking on this making millions of dollars and the government here in Minnesota is too lazy to go and check it out and to see if there’s even clients living in these homes. The fraud in Minnesota is so deep” https://twitter.com/C_3C_3/status/2003104576766140813?s=20 Democrats from Minnesota, Ohio, Maine, and Boston Embrace Somalians Democrats across the country are praising and supporting Somali migrants, despite growing evidence of massive anti-social fraud by the foreign arrivals. As millions of dollars in more fraud and theft of state and federal welfare funding are uncovered in Ohio, Minnesota, and other places committed at the hands of Somali migrants, democrats are falling all over themselves to show their unmitigated support for the fraudsters. Source: thegatewaypundit.com President Trump's Plan  https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/2003550668796350710?s=20 JUST IN: Biden Judge Blocks President Trump's Attempt to Strip Security Clearance From Deep State Lawyer Mark Zaid https://twitter.com/C_3C_3/status/2003674593995944077?s=20 US District Judge, Amir Ali, said Trump's attempt to strip the security clearance from Mark Zaid may violate the US Constitution. Recall that Mark Zaid represented Eric Ciaramella, the Trump-Ukraine impeachment ‘whistleblower.' Zaid also represents intelligence officials and other Deep State actors. Earlier this year, President Trump stripped the security clearances of at least eight corrupt ‘antagonists' who worked for Biden or targeted him for ruin over the last several years: Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken Former NatSec Advisor Jake Sullivan New York Attorney General Letitia James Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Biden's Deputy AG Lisa Monaco Corrupt prosecutor Andrew Weissmann Deep State lawyer Mark Zaid Norm Eisen – the man behind all the lawfare against Trump Source: thegatewaypundit.com Jamie Raskin Reintroduces Radical “Ranked-Choice Voting” Scheme Ahead of Midterms in Latest Bid to Rig Future Elections Radical left-wing Jamie Raskin is once again pushing a sweeping overhaul of America's voting system, this time by reintroducing a federal mandate for so-called “ranked-choice voting” (RCV) just as the country barrels toward another high-stakes midterm election cycle. Raskin posted a video on X on Monday, pitching ranked-choice voting as a cure-all for American politics. The video was released after he reintroduced H.R. 6589, a bill that would mandate ranked-choice voting in elections for the U.S. House and Senate nationwide. Under the system, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated and ballots are “redistributed” to remaining candidates until someone crosses the 50 percent threshold. Raskin even praised races where candidates who finished second in the first round ultimately “catapulted ahead” after vote redistribution. In Alaska, where RCV flipped a Republican seat to Democrat Mary Peltola despite 60% of voters backing GOP candidates, the system exhausted ballots and ignored second choices for top vote-getters. In New York, socialist Zohran Mamdani led on election night with 43.5% of first-choice votes, but after several rounds of eliminations and redistributions, he was declared the winner with 56%, while Andrew Cuomo finished with 44%. A study of Maine elections found that, of 98 recent ranked choice elections, 60 percent of the victors did not win by a majority of the total votes cast. RCV opens doors to fraud and manipulation. The multi-round tabulation delays create gaps ripe for accusations of tampering, while exhausted ballots mean winners often lack true majority support. Sites like RCVScam.com expose how it lets initial also-rans steal victories, undermining “one person, one vote.” In 2025 alone, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and South Carolina prohibited ranked-choice voting, joining 11 other states for a total of 17 bans. It is a scam, and Americans should push back hard. Source: thegatewaypundit.com  Supreme Court Rejects Trump Bid To Deploy National Guard In Chicago The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Trump’s emergency request to allow National Guard troops to be deployed in Chicago, dealing a setback to the admin’s attempts to curtail high crime rates in major cities. The 6-3 decision left in force a judge's ruling that has blocked the deployment since Oct. 9. “At this preliminary stage, the government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the majority said. The government hadn't shown the president could legally “federalize the Guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois.”   Justice Samuel Alito dissented from the high court's ruling Tuesday, saying he had “serious doubts” about the majority's reasoning. “The Court fails to explain why the President's inherent constitutional authority to protect federal officers and property is not sufficient to justify the use of National Guard members in the relevant area for precisely that purpose,” Alito wrote, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a separate dissent, contending that the challengers to the National Guard deployment – the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago – had forfeited the argument about the meaning of “regular forces” by failing to present that issue in the lower courts. Trump contends military force is needed to protect federal immigration agents from what he claims are violent protests.   Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2003592327244447867?s=20   cause the President to use the US military more than the National Guard”. The Supreme Court just admitted that Trump has the authority to invoke the Insurrection Act to bypass Posse Comitatus and send the troops to Chicago, and any other city he wants. Trump tried to exhaust every legal avenue possible before resulting to the Insurrection Act, but the Dems resisted and refused to cooperate. Sounds to me like Trump just got the green light. INVOKE THE INSURRECTION ACT! https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2003681206148251711?s=20  THAT'S the hard part. Especially when the MSM are compromised and telling the public that Trump is literally Hitler and is going to unleash a military dictatorship. This had to be done delicately, as not to cause panic. The public must be psychologically prepared. That's why Trump has been giving us soft disclosure about the Insurrection Act for a long time. They have been mentally preparing us for what they knew had to be done, by showing us why it needed to be done. Here he is back in September addressing all his Generals, and reminded them how Washington and Lincoln used the military to keep the peace. This was always the plan. https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2003586519374717151?s=20 (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

SHOW 12-23-25 THE SHOW BEGINS WITH DOUBTS F THE EU... 1831 BRUSSELS EU STRUGGLES WITH RUSSIAN ASSETS AND AID Colleague Judy Dempsey. Judy Dempsey discusses the EU's difficulty in utilizing frozen Russian assets and the "defeat" for Chancellor Merz regarding the funding mechanism for Ukraine. NUMBER 1 THE RISE OF THE AFD IN GERMANY Colleague Judy Dempsey. Judy Dempsey continues, focusing on the rise of the AfD party in Germany and its connections to elements of the US Republican party. NUMBER 2 STALEMATES IN GAZA AND LEBANON Colleague Jonathan Schanzer. Jonathan Schanzer discusses the stalemate regarding the last hostage in Gaza, the fragmented control of the territory, and threats in Lebanon and Syria. NUMBER 3 EU REGULATION VS. US GROWTH Colleague Michael Toth. Michael Toth critiques the European Union's "regulatory imperialism" and contrasts it with the economic growth of the US. NUMBER 4 STATE DEPARTMENT RECALLS AND STRATEGY Colleague Mary Kissel. Mary Kissel discusses the recall of career ambassadors by the Trump administration and challenges in Panama and Greenland. NUMBER 5 AUSTRALIA'S DEFENSE AND CHINA Colleague Grant Newsham. Grant Newsham warns about Australia's lack of defense capabilities and the erosion of its influence in the Pacific islands due to Chinese political warfare. NUMBER 6 THE BORING BENEFITS OF AI Colleague Kevin Frazier. Kevin Frazier advocates for the "boring use cases" of AI, such as in healthcare and traffic management, to save costs and improve efficiency. NUMBER 7 REGULATING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Colleague Kevin Frazier. Kevin Frazier continues, warning against a "waterfall of regulation" by states and advocating for "regulatory sandboxes" to allow experimentation. NUMBER 8 US EXPANSIONISM AND DIPLOMATIC RIFTS Colleague Gregory Copley. Gregory Copley analyzes US foreign policy moves regarding Greenland, Panama, and Venezuela, describing them as a return to "might is right" expansionism. NUMBER 9 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND NAVAL POWER Colleague Gregory Copley. Gregory Copley continues, debating whether the US is a naval or continental power in the context of enforcing the Monroe Doctrine and discussing a proposal for new battleships. NUMBER 10 THE DECLINE OF LITERACY AND CONTEXT Colleague Gregory Copley. Gregory Copley continues, discussing the decline of literacy and context since the mid-20th century, comparing modern society to the Eloi and Morlocks of H.G. Wells. NUMBER 11 KING CHARLES III AND UK POLITICAL TURMOIL Colleague Gregory Copley. Gregory Copley continues, analyzing the challenges King Charles III faces under the Keir Starmer government, which Copley compares to the era of Oliver Cromwell. NUMBER 12 THE LEGEND OF THE HESSIANS Colleague Professor Richard Bell. Professor Richard Bell discusses the American fear of Hessian soldiers and Washington's strategic victory at Trenton. NUMBER 13 FRANCE'S GLOBAL STRATEGY IN THE REVOLUTION Colleague Professor Richard Bell. Professor Richard Bell continues, highlighting the role of Foreign Minister Vergennes and how French involvement expanded the war globally. NUMBER 14 BENEDICT ARNOLD AND PEGGY SHIPPEN Colleague Professor Richard Bell. Professor Richard Bell continues, discussing Peggy Shippen's influence on Benedict Arnold's defection and their subsequent life in London. NUMBER 15 THE ACCIDENTAL COLONIZATION OF AUSTRALIA Colleague Professor Richard Bell. Professor Richard Bell concludes, recounting the story of convict William Murray and the accidental selection of Australia as a penal colony following the loss of the American colonies. NUMBER 16

EU STRUGGLES WITH RUSSIAN ASSETS AND AID Colleague Judy Dempsey. Judy Dempsey discusses the EU's difficulty in utilizing frozen Russian assets and the "defeat" for Chancellor Merz regarding the funding mechanism for Ukraine. NUMBER 1 1890 SAXONY

As America approaches a pivotal 2026, leadership matters now more than ever. With key issues like fair trade, strong borders, and economic independence all dominating the President's agenda, attention has shifted to America's national security as Trump looks to reshape U.S. relations with China, Ukraine, and the Middle East. In this all-encompassing conversation, Jillian Michaels and Sean Spicer dissect President Trump's America First strategy — from securing the border and strengthening the economy to tackling healthcare reform and restoring stability on the global stage. The discussion revisits the defining moments of 2025, highlighting the President's biggest wins, toughest challenges, and the lessons shaping the year ahead.

Tuesday on the News Hour, the latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein includes many mentions of President Trump. The White House recalls dozens of career diplomats in the latest effort to reshape U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. Plus, an inside look at Ukraine's rapidly developing drone capabilities. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Original Air Date: 2/28/25 There's no way to sugarcoat it — the Trump/Zelensky meeting was a disaster. The betrayal of Ukraine is confirmed, and the administration is past the point of no return. Doug Lute, Rosa Brooks, and Marc Polymeropoulos join David Rothkopf to break down this train wreck of a meeting and what it means for the future of US foreign policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Joe Oltmann Untamed today, Joe unleashes fury on the endless parade of corruption and distraction crumbs. He slams the Katie Hobbs scandal exploding to DEFCON-1 in Arizona, exposes Matt Gaetz's explosive revelations of the deep rot that drove him out of Congress, and demands to know why we are still just getting crumbs. From Minnesota's deadly Medicaid fraud killing citizens to Lindsey Graham allegedly laundering Ukraine war funds, Joe exposes the Uniparty's greed while Americans suffer and die.Powerhouse guest David Clements, former law professor, seasoned prosecutor, and fearless host of The Professor's Record, joins Joe to break down the urgent need to free Tina Peters. As a leading voice exposing election fraud and J6 injustices, David lays out how President Trump can use executive authority to override Colorado's defiance of the pardon, drawing on historical precedents of presidents liberating Americans from rogue state captivity. This is a high-stakes call for justice and a roadmap to dismantle the weaponized system silencing whistleblowers.The show closes with a brutal wake-up call: the Uniparty's real, the swamp is thriving, and distractions like Denver's giant see-saws mock our suffering. Joe declares enough is enough it's time to clean house, hold traitors accountable, and reclaim America before the rot consumes us all. This is Joe Oltmann Untamed: righteous anger, undeniable truth, and the battle cry to fight back. Tune in, wake up, and join the untamed resistance today!

Day 1,399. Today, President Zelensky has revealed details of the proposed peace plan worked out between US and Ukraine delegations last weekend in Miami, that is due to be put to Russia later today. Plus, since it's Christmas Eve, something a little different: a special look at the Ukrainian art scene, past and present.We begin with the generation of Ukrainian artists at the dawn of the 20th century who helped drive the Modernist movement, breaking with centuries of figurative tradition and pushing art decisively into modernity. We examine how artists are later reclaimed by national narratives – and why – as well as how the full-scale invasion has reshaped the global art market. We then turn to Ukraine's contemporary art scene, focusing on one young, emerging artist and exploring how their generation, and their creativity, is being transformed by the war.CONTENT REFERENCED:In the Eye of the Storm, Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s, Royal Academy of Arts: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/eye-of-the-stormJames Butterwick. Ukrainian and Russian Art Expert: https://www.jamesbutterwick.com/PinchukArtCentre Prize 2025: https://prize.pinchukartcentre.org/enSIGN UP TO THE ‘UKRAINE: THE LATEST' WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:http://telegraph.co.uk/ukrainenewsletter Each week, Dom Nicholls and Francis Dearnley answer your questions, provide recommended reading, and give exclusive analysis and behind-the-scenes insights – plus maps of the frontlines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It's free for everyone, including non-subscribers.Subscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott interviews USS Liberty survivor, author and spokesperson Phil Tourney. They talk about what really happened the day of the attack, the infuriating lengths the US government went to ensure nobody would find out about it and the continued effort by figures and groups in the conservative movement to shut down discussion about this heinous chapter of US-Israeli relations. Discussed on the show: What I Saw That Day by Phil Tourney and Mark Glenn BBC's USS Liberty: Dead in the Water (IMDb) The Day Israel Attacked America | Al Jazeera Sacrificing Liberty Operation Cyanide: How the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War Three by Peter Hounam Pre-Order Phil's New Book Phillip F. Tourney is a decorated U.S. Navy Veteran, survivor of the 1967 USS Liberty attack, and recipient of the Bronze Star V and Purple Heart. Prior to Liberty, he did two tours on the USS Mauna Kea in waters off Vietnam. For his actions during the Liberty attack, he received a Bronze Star with “V” device plus a Purple Heart. He's been President (or multiple-term President) of the USS Liberty Veterans Association. Audio cleaned up with the Podsworth app:  https://podsworth.com Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton Show! For more on Scott's work: Check out The Libertarian Institute:  https://www.libertarianinstitute.org Check out Scott's other show, Provoked, with Darryl Cooper https://youtube.com/@Provoked_Show Read Scott's books: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine https://amzn.to/47jMtg7 (The audiobook of Provoked is being published in sections at https://scotthortonshow.com) Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://amzn.to/3tgMCdw Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan https://amzn.to/3HRufs0 Follow Scott on X @scotthortonshow And check out Scott's full interview archives: https://scotthorton.org/all-interviews This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Incorporated https://rrbi.co Moon Does Artisan Coffee https://scotthorton.org/coffee; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom https://www.libertyclassroom.com/dap/a/?a=1616 and Dissident Media https://dissidentmedia.com You can also support Scott's work by making a one-time or recurring donation at https://scotthorton.org/donate/https://scotthortonshow.com or https://patreon.com/scotthortonshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thom Hartman unravels the mysteries of pagan Yule traditions with a hopeful view of optimism in dark times. Also an exploration of the DrawDAO project yields promising new efforts for fighting climate change via the open-sourcing of carbon dioxide removal & storage. Dr. Irwin Redlener of The Ukraine Children's Action Project reveals essential humanitarian support underway for Ukraine's displaced and refugee children.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Guardian's editor-in-chief Katharine Viner looks back on the biggest news stories of 2025. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

2025 on The Interview A special episode from The Interview, featuring three of the most compelling conversations from 2025. US President Donald Trump spoke to the BBC's Chief North America correspondent Gary O'Donoghue in July, in a wide-ranging and frank telephone conversation from the Oval Office. President Trump reflects on the assassination attempt that took place a year previously, and also expresses his frustration at the slow pace of attempts to bring peace to Ukraine.British royal Prince Harry was born into one of the world's most famous families, and grew up in the public eye. In May, he lost a final court appeal to reverse the downgrading of security protection for him and his family since stepping down from royal duties. He gave his reaction to BBC correspondent Nada Tawfik in an emotional and deeply personal conversation.The Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai is known worldwide as the spirited girl who took on the Taliban and nearly lost her life, then went on to win the Nobel Prize and advocate for girls everywhere to go to school. But, as she explains to BBC presenter Madina Maishanu, although her public life defined her to the world, she did not know who she was. Thank you to the all the teams across the BBC who have helped us make The Interview throughout 2025. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Farhana Haider Producers: Ben Cooper, Clare Williamson, Farhana Haider, Lucy Sheppard Editors: Justine Lang and Nick Holland Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

 Download Audio. Scott interviews USS Liberty survivor, author and spokesperson Phil Tourney. They talk about what really happened the day of the attack, the infuriating lengths the US government went to ensure nobody would find out about it and the continued effort by figures and groups in the conservative movement to shut down discussion about this heinous chapter of US-Israeli relations. Discussed on the show: What I Saw That Day by Phil Tourney and Mark Glenn BBC's USS Liberty: Dead in the Water (IMDb) The Day Israel Attacked America | Al Jazeera Sacrificing Liberty Operation Cyanide: How the Bombing of the USS Liberty Nearly Caused World War Three by Peter Hounam Pre-Order Phil's New Book Phillip F. Tourney is a decorated U.S. Navy Veteran, survivor of the 1967 USS Liberty attack, and recipient of the Bronze Star V and Purple Heart. Prior to Liberty, he did two tours on the USS Mauna Kea in waters off Vietnam. For his actions during the Liberty attack, he received a Bronze Star with “V” device plus a Purple Heart. He's been President (or multiple-term President) of the USS Liberty Veterans Association. Audio cleaned up with the Podsworth app: https://podsworth.com Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton Show! For more on Scott's work: Check out The Libertarian Institute: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org Check out Scott's other show, Provoked, with Darryl Cooper https://youtube.com/@Provoked_Show Read Scott's books: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine https://amzn.to/47jMtg7 (The audiobook of Provoked is being published in sections at https://scotthortonshow.com) Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://amzn.to/3tgMCdw Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan https://amzn.to/3HRufs0 Follow Scott on X @scotthortonshow And check out Scott's full interview archives: https://scotthorton.org/all-interviews This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Incorporated https://rrbi.co Moon Does Artisan Coffee https://scotthorton.org/coffee; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom https://www.libertyclassroom.com/dap/a/?a=1616 and Dissident Media https://dissidentmedia.com You can also support Scott's work by making a one-time or recurring donation at https://scotthorton.org/donate/https://scotthortonshow.com or https://patreon.com/scotthortonshow

Silicon Bites Ep280 | 2025-12-23 | Is Putin losing his grip? His press event last week has generated reams of commentary – and from those not well disposed towards him, the verdict has been brutal. In this episode we cover his “Results of the Year” press spectacle, the glitches, the gaslighting, the challenging questions, or rather lack of them — and the regime's widening reality gap.----------Silicon Curtain is a part of the Christmas Tree Trucks 2025 campaign - an ambitious fundraiser led by a group of our wonderful team of information warriors raising 110,000 EUR for the Ukrainian army. https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-silicon-curtainThe Goal of the Campaign for the Silicon Curtain community:- 1 armoured battle-ready pickupWe are sourcing all vehicles around 2010-2017 or newer, mainly Toyota Hilux or Mitsubishi L200, with low mileage and fully serviced. These are some of the greatest and the most reliable pickups possible to be on the frontline in Ukraine. Who will receive the vehicles?https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-silicon-curtain- The 38th Marine Brigade, who alone held Krynki for 124 days, receiving the Military Cross of Honour.- The 1027th Anti-aircraft and artillery regiment. Honoured by NATO as Defender of the Year 2024 and recipient of the Military Cross of Honour.- 104th Separate Brigade, Infantry, who alone held Kherson for 100 days, establishing conditions for the liberation of the city.- 93rd Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar", Black Raven Unmanned Systems Battalion ----------SOURCES:Reuters (Dec 19, 2025): Rogue texts, aliens and a marriage proposal - welcome to Vladimir Putin's phone-in - https://www.reuters.com/world/sarcastic-messages-flash-up-big-screen-russias-putin-speaks-2025-12-19/Reuters (Dec 19, 2025): Russian central bank cuts key rate to 16% as Putin speaks - https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russian-central-bank-cuts-key-rate-16-putin-speaks-2025-12-19/Reuters (Dec 19, 2025): Russia's Putin says cooling of economy in 2025 is a 'conscious' decision - https://www.reuters.com/business/russias-putin-says-cooling-economy-2025-is-conscious-decision-2025-12-19/AP News (Dec 19, 2025): Putin tells his annual news conference that the Kremlin's military goals in Ukraine will be met - https://apnews.com/article/39fd3f2670227545a6f9e684038ed59dThe Washington Post (Dec 19, 2025): Putin says Europe out of step with an increasingly Moscow-friendly U.S. - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/19/russia-putin-callin-show-ukraine-peace/----------SILICON CURTAIN LIVE EVENTS - FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN Events in 2025 - Advocacy for a Ukrainian victory with Silicon Curtainhttps://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasOur events of the first half of the year in Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa were a huge success. Now we need to maintain this momentum, and change the tide towards a Ukrainian victory. The Silicon Curtain Roadshow is an ambitious campaign to run a minimum of 12 events in 2025, and potentially many more. Any support you can provide for the fundraising campaign would be gratefully appreciated. https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasWe need to scale up our support for Ukraine, and these events are designed to have a major impact. Your support in making it happen is greatly appreciated. All events will be recorded professionally and published for free on the Silicon Curtain channel. Where possible, we will also live-stream events.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------

Sometimes, timing is everything. If Julia Loktev's 5 hour and 24-minute documentary masterpiece “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow” can be boiled down to its essence, it may be that, often in life, there is a “before” and an “after,” and nothing can possibly prepare you for what comes after. In this case, the event that changes everything for the courageous generation of Russian journalists that came of age under Vladimir Putin's reign is the Russian leader's cataclysmic invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.   Julia and journalist / film participant Ksenia Mironova join Ken on “Top Docs” to discuss the vibrant world of independent journalism that existed in Russia in the period prior to the invasion, and the subsequent crackdown that ended it all. Filming Ksenia and a cohort of women journalists in the months leading up the invasion with her iPhone, Julia captures an intimate, inspiring world of hope, youthful ambition and a deep commitment to reporting the truth in a country where government propaganda is one of Putin's most powerful weapons of control. Bearing witness, first as the government brands news outlets, NGOs and individual journalists as foreign agents, and then through instances of arrest and imprisonment (including Ksenia's fiancé), Julia finds herself filming as the clock strikes midnight on any semblance of freedom of the press in Russia. By the end of Part 1, all the film's participants are forced to flee the country. Timing may be everything, but the story never ends. Part 2 on “The Exiles” is already underway.   Hidden Gems: Julia: “Four Daughters”, “July Rain” by Ksenia: “Holocaust: Is That Wallpaper Paste?”   Follow: @juliaofelbow and @my_undesirable_friends on Instagram @topdocspod on Instagram and X

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reveals details of 20-point peace plan, as Russia mulls response. Australia's New South Wales has now passed the toughest gun laws in the country. A strong winter storm is beginning to drench parts of Southern California that could see more than a month's worth of rain fall in just one week. A family's new start turns to tragedy after an 11-year-old boy killed by a carbon monoxide leak in Regina. The Rooms asks Newfoundlanders to help identify the 17th-century coastline depicted in Dutch master paintings. Ashley MacIsaac concert cancelled after AI wrongly accuses him of being convicted sex offender.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Philip Young in court charged with drugging and raping ex wife Donald Trump travelled on Epsteins plane more than previously thought, prosecutor says Kings Christmas speech to come from Westminster Abbey Libyas army chief killed in air crash Government waters down farm inheritance tax plan Greta Thunberg arrested over Palestine Action placard Ukraine loses embattled eastern town as Russian advance continues Boaters stranded at Christmas after Whitchurch collapse on Llangollen Canal Russell Brand charged with new rape and sexual assault offences Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Libyas army chief killed in air crash Russell Brand charged with new rape and sexual assault offences Government waters down farm inheritance tax plan Philip Young in court charged with drugging and raping ex wife Kings Christmas speech to come from Westminster Abbey Donald Trump travelled on Epsteins plane more than previously thought, prosecutor says Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach Boaters stranded at Christmas after Whitchurch collapse on Llangollen Canal Ukraine loses embattled eastern town as Russian advance continues Greta Thunberg arrested over Palestine Action placard

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Philip Young in court charged with drugging and raping ex wife Russell Brand charged with new rape and sexual assault offences Libyas army chief killed in air crash Boaters stranded at Christmas after Whitchurch collapse on Llangollen Canal Government waters down farm inheritance tax plan Greta Thunberg arrested over Palestine Action placard Donald Trump travelled on Epsteins plane more than previously thought, prosecutor says Ukraine loses embattled eastern town as Russian advance continues Kings Christmas speech to come from Westminster Abbey Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach

Two police officers and another person have been killed in a car blast in Moscow, Russia's investigative committee has said. It happened close to the scene where a Russian general was killed by a bomb on Wednesday. Meanwhile Russia has continued to launch strikes targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, while peace talks between the two nations have thus far yielded little progress. Emmanuelle Chaze, Ukraine correspondent for Radio France Internationale and France24 joined us on Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Government waters down farm inheritance tax plan Russell Brand charged with new rape and sexual assault offences Philip Young in court charged with drugging and raping ex wife Kings Christmas speech to come from Westminster Abbey Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach Boaters stranded at Christmas after Whitchurch collapse on Llangollen Canal Greta Thunberg arrested over Palestine Action placard Libyas army chief killed in air crash Donald Trump travelled on Epsteins plane more than previously thought, prosecutor says Ukraine loses embattled eastern town as Russian advance continues

We're approaching the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2026. There's been a few inflection points recently, including talks of a peace deal amidst the gruesome conflict. Tim Mak is a journalist and the founder of The Counteroffensive, which covers the war in Ukraine from a human interest perspective. He joins WITHpod to discuss what life has been like for him living in Kyiv, what he sees as a possible way forward politically and more.   Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

SHOW 12-22-25 THE SHOW BEGINS WITH DOUBTS ABOUT FUTURE NAVY. 1941 HICKAM FIELD 1. Restoring Naval Autonomy: Arguments for Separating the Navy from DoD. Tom Modly argues the Navy is an "underperforming asset" within the Defense Department's corporate structure, similar to how Fiat Chrysler successfully spun off Ferrari. He suggests the Navy needs independence to address critical shipbuilding deficits and better protect global commerce and vulnerable undersea cables from adversaries. 2. Future Fleets: Decentralizing Firepower to Counter Chinese Growth. Tom Modly warns that China's shipbuilding capacity vastly outpaces the US, requiring a shift toward distributed forces rather than expensive, concentrated platforms. He advocates for a reinvigorated, independent Department of the Navy to foster the creativity needed to address asymmetric threats like Houthi attacks on high-value assets. 3. British Weakness: The Failure to Challenge Beijing Over Jimmy Lai. Mark Simon predicts Prime Minister Starmer will fail to secure Jimmy Lai's release because the UK mistakenly views China as an economic savior. He notes the UK's diminished military and economic leverage leads to a submissive diplomatic stance, despite China'sdeclining ability to offer investment. 4. Enforcing Sanctions: Interdicting the Shadow Fleet to Squeeze China. Victoria Coates details the Trump administration's enforcement of a "Monroe Doctrine" corollary, using naval power to seize tankers carrying Venezuelan oil to China. This strategy exposes China's lack of maritime projection and energy vulnerability, as Beijingcannot legally contest the seizures of illicit shadow fleet vessels. 5. Symbolic Strikes: US and Jordan Target Resurgent ISIS in Syria. Following an attack on US personnel, the US and Jordan conducted airstrikes against ISIS strongholds, likely with Syrian regime consultation. Ahmed Sharawi questions the efficacy of striking desert warehouses when ISIS cells have moved into urban areas, suggesting the strikes were primarily symbolic domestic messaging. 6. Failure to Disarm: Hezbollah's Persistence and UNIFIL's Inefficacy. David Daoud reports that the Lebanesegovernment is failing to disarm Hezbollah south of the Litani River, merely evicting them from abandoned sites. He argues UNIFIL is an ineffective tripwire, as Hezbollah continues to rebuild infrastructure and receive funding right under international observers' noses. 7. Global Jihad: The Distinct Threats of the Brotherhood and ISIS. Edmund Fitton-Brown contrasts the Muslim Brotherhood's long-term infiltration of Western institutions with ISIS's violent, reckless approach. He warns that ISISremains viable, with recent facilitated attacks in Australia indicating a resurgence in capability beyond simple "inspired" violence. 8. The Forever War: Jihadist Patience vs. American Cycles. Bill Roggio argues the US has failed to defeat jihadist ideology or funding, allowing groups like Al-Qaeda to persist in Afghanistan and Africa. He warns that adversaries view American withdrawals as proof of untrustworthiness, exploiting the US tendency to fight short-term wars against enemies planning for decades. 9. The Professional: Von Steuben's Transformation of the Continental Army. Richard Bell introduces Baron von Steuben as a desperate, unemployed Prussian officer who professionalized the ragtag Continental Army at Valley Forge. Washington's hiring of foreign experts like Steuben demonstrated a strategic willingness to utilize global talent to ensure the revolution's survival. 10. Privateers and Prison Ships: The Unsung Cost of Maritime Independence. Richard Bell highlights the crucial role of privateers like William Russell, who raided British shipping when the Continental Navy was weak. Captured privateers faced horrific conditions in British "black hole" facilities like Mill Prison and the deadly prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor, where mortality rates reached 50%. 11. Caught in the Crossfire: Indigenous Struggles in the Revolutionary War. Molly Brant, a Mohawk leader, allied with the British to stop settler encroachment but became a refugee when the British failed to protect Indigenous lands. Post-war, white Americans constructed myths portraying themselves as blameless victims while ignoring their own Indigenous allies and British betrayals regarding land rights. 12. The Irish Dimension: Revolutionary Hopes and Brutal Repression. The Irish viewed the American Revolutionas a signal that the British Empire was vulnerable, sparking the failed 1798 Irish rebellion. While the British suppressed Irish independence brutally under Cornwallis, Irish immigrants and Scots-Irish settlers like Andrew Jackson fervently supported the Continental Army against the Crown. 13. Assessing Battlefield Realities: Russian Deceit and Ukrainian Counterattacks. John Hardie analyzes the "culture of deceit" within the Russian military, exemplified by false claims of capturing Kupyansk while Ukraine actually counterattacked. This systemic lying leads to overconfidence in Putin's strategy, though Ukraine also faces challenges with commanders hesitating to report lost positions to avoid forced counterattacks. 14. Shifts in Latin America: Brazilian Elections and Venezuelan Hope. Ernesto Araujo and Alejandro Peña Esclusapredict a 2026 battle between socialist accommodation and freedom-oriented transformation in Brazil, highlighted by Flavio Bolsonaro's candidacy against Lula. Meanwhile, Peña Esclusa anticipates Venezuela's liberation and a broader regional shift toward the right following leftist defeats in Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile. 15. Trump's Security Strategy: Homeland Defense Lacks Global Clarity. John Yoo praises the strategy's focus on homeland defense and the Western Hemisphere, reviving a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. However, he criticizes the failure to explicitly name China as an adversary or define clear goals for defending allies in Asia and Europe against great power rivals. 16. Alienating Allies: The Strategic Cost of Attacking European Partners. John Yoo argues that imposing tariffs and attacking democratic European allies undermines the coalition needed to counter China and Russia. He asserts that democracies are the most reliable partners for protecting American security and values, making cooperation essential despite resource constraints and political disagreements.

13. Assessing Battlefield Realities: Russian Deceit and Ukrainian Counterattacks. John Hardie analyzes the "culture of deceit" within the Russian military, exemplified by false claims of capturing Kupyansk while Ukraine actually counterattacked. This systemic lying leads to overconfidence in Putin's strategy, though Ukraine also faces challenges with commanders hesitating to report lost positions to avoid forced counterattacks. 1940

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Alarming new intelligence from the Pentagon suggests China is rapidly filling newly constructed missile silos with intercontinental ballistic missiles, signaling a nuclear buildup moving faster than analysts expected and raising fresh concerns about Beijing's long-term intentions. Ukraine takes the fight deep inside Russia, striking energy infrastructure, aircraft, and naval targets in a coordinated wave of attacks aimed at disrupting Moscow's war effort far from the front lines. Diplomacy delivers smiles but no substance, as White House officials describe talks with Russia in Miami as “productive,” even while the Kremlin openly admits no progress has been made toward ending the war. And in today's Back of the Brief: border fighting between Cambodia and Thailand drags into a third week, with new talks planned to revive a ceasefire once brokered by President Trump. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Stash Financial: Don't Let your money sit around. Go to https://get.stash.com/PDB to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: Rare cracks appear in the Kremlin's façade as frustration over poverty, inflation, and the war in Ukraine spills into Vladimir Putin's tightly controlled year-end “Direct Line” address—offering an unusual glimpse of domestic pressure inside Russia. Later in the show—Western intelligence agencies warn that Moscow may be developing a new anti-satellite weapon aimed at Starlink, the space-based communications system that has become critical to Ukraine's war effort. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Stash Financial: Don't Let your money sit around. Go to https://get.stash.com/PDB to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase. Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Day 1,398.Today, as reports come in of a renewed Russian cross-border incursion in the north east of the country, Ukraine is clearing up after another massive overnight aerial attack which has left thousands without power. We report the diplomatic fallout from the inconclusive talks in Miami and Later, we have an interview with Ukrainian artist and designer, Mariya Dykalo, the Creative Director of Aspinal of London.Pic credit: The Russian Ministry of Defense/Anadolu via Getty ImagesContributors:Dominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on X.Francis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.With thanks to Ukrainian artist and designer, Mariya Dykalo (Creative Director of Aspinal of London). @MariyaASPINAL on X.SIGN UP TO THE ‘UKRAINE: THE LATEST' WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:http://telegraph.co.uk/ukrainenewsletter Each week, Dom Nicholls and Francis Dearnley answer your questions, provide recommended reading, and give exclusive analysis and behind-the-scenes insights – plus maps of the frontlines and diagrams of weapons to complement our daily reporting. It's free for everyone, including non-subscribers.CONTENT REFERENCED:Learn more about Mariya Dykalo's work:https://mariyadykalo.com/ The scarf given to Melania Trump designed by Ukrainian children:https://www.aspinaloflondon.com/products/we-can-dream-again-silk-scarfUN report: Weekend attacks in Ukraine bring more casualties, damage infrastructurehttps://news.un.org/en/story/2025/12/1166652?_gl=1*l4bfr6*_ga*MTIwMjkxNTk1MC4xNzY1ODAyMzEw*_ga_TK9BQL5X7Z*czE3NjY0OTE4MjQkbzMkZzEkdDE3NjY0OTE4OTgkajYwJGwwJGgwMiyamoto article: Addressing Ukraine's Asbestos Crisishttps://miyamotointernational.com/addressing-ukraines-asbestos-crisis/Subscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Ukraine, the Christmas season is being observed even amid war. We hear one story from a Christian ministry leader and Kyiv resident. Also, the Trump Administration has recalled nearly 30 ambassadors and senior embassy officials, serving mostly in African and Asian countries, from their posts. And, a $500 million AI factory is set to open in Armenia. Plus, members of Parliament grant full clearance for Santa Claus to use Ireland's airspace to deliver toys to the country's children. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Ukraine suffers widespread power cuts after a night of Russian air attacks described by President Zelensky as “massive”. We hear from a resident of the city of Odesa on the Black Sea coast. Also in the programme: a Venezuelan former diplomat tells us what he makes of the current US pressure campaign, and a retired US admiral tells us what he makes of the president's plan for big new "Trump-class" warships; and we hear the story of Mary Ann Macham, an enslaved woman who escaped across the Atlantic from America in the 1830s and was welcomed in by a local community of Quakers in North East England.(IMAGE: Firefighters extinguish a burning cargo vessel damaged during Russian overnight drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a port in Odesa region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released December 23, 2025 / CREDIT: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa region/Handout via REUTERS).

We have an inside look into one of Ukraine's most rapidly evolving tools in its war with Russia. Small unmanned drones have come to dominate the frontlines, long-range strikes against power facilities and the waters of the Black Sea and Mediterranean. Special correspondent Volodymyr Solohub gained rare access to a military unit that's responsible for some of Ukraine's high-profile drone strikes. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

For years, gold was the asset nobody wanted to talk about. It sat there quietly while stocks and real estate continued to rip. Gold was for pessimists. For doomsayers and perma-bears.And then suddenly… gold didn't just wake up. It launched. As of mid-December 2025, spot gold is trading around $4,300–$4,400 an ounce, depending on the market, marking a gain of roughly 60% over the past year and pushing decisively into record territory. The obvious question is: why now? The short answer is that gold isn't reacting to one thing. It's responding to a stacking of pressures that have been quietly building for years and are now impossible to ignore.Start with central banks. For the better part of the last decade, central banks were net sellers or indifferent holders of gold. That changed dramatically after 2022. According to the World Gold Council, central banks have been buying gold at more than double the pace of the pre-COVID years, and 2025 continues that trend, with hundreds of tonnes added to reserves year-to-date. These aren't hedge funds chasing momentum. These are monetary authorities making deliberate, strategic decisions about what they trust to hold value. Why would central banks suddenly want more gold? Because geopolitics has re-entered the chat. We now live in a world where reserves can be frozen, payment systems can be weaponized, and “risk-free” assets depend heavily on political alignment. The World Bank has been explicit that rising geopolitical tensions and global uncertainty are key drivers of gold's surge this year. When trust in the global order erodes, gold benefits. At the same time, the U.S. dollar devaluation thesis is no longer fringe thinking. It is reality.Gold is priced in dollars, and when real yields fall and the dollar weakens, gold historically performs well. That dynamic is playing out again. Reuters has repeatedly pointed to a softer dollar and declining Treasury yields as near-term tailwinds for gold's rally . Bank of America's research echoes this relationship, emphasizing gold's inverse correlation to the dollar and the growing desire among nations to diversify away from dollar-centric reserves . In other words, gold isn't just going up because people are scared. It's going up because confidence in fiat discipline is eroding, slowly but persistently. So…Is gold still a buy or did we miss it? The truth is, both answers can be correct. Yes, gold is expensive relative to where it was a year ago. You don't go up 60% without pulling future returns forward. But what makes this cycle different is that many of the buyers driving demand are price-insensitive. Central banks don't care if gold is up 20% or down 10% in a quarter. They care about long-term reserve integrity. That's why major institutions aren't dismissing the move as a blow-off. Goldman Sachs has cited sustained central-bank demand and the potential for further ETF inflows as supportive of higher prices. J.P. Morgan continues to frame gold as a beneficiary of geopolitical instability and monetary uncertainty, and Bank of America is projecting prices as high as $5,000 an ounce into 2026. Of course, nothing goes up in a straight line. A shift toward tighter monetary policy or a sudden easing of global tensions could cool enthusiasm. Understand though, that gold's breakout isn't just about gold. There is a larger message that should be taken away from all of this. Hard money has come back into favor. Gold is the original hard asset. It's scarce, politically neutral, and has thousands of years of monetary credibility. But it's also heavy, difficult to move, and awkward in a digital world. Bitcoin exists on the same philosophical axis. Both gold and Bitcoin are reactions to the same problem: expanding debt, monetary dilution, and declining confidence in centralized control. Gold is the conservative expression of that view. Bitcoin is the aggressive one. Today, Bitcoin trades around $86,000, still volatile, still controversial, still misunderstood. But if gold's surge is signaling a regime shift toward hard assets, then Bitcoin may simply be earlier in that adoption curve. In other words, gold may be leading the parade. And if history is any guide, when institutions start moving into the oldest form of sound money, they eventually begin exploring the newest. That's the signal worth paying attention to. So this week, I interview Dana Samuelson, an old friend of the show and an expert in everything gold and hard money. Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you notice any errors or corrections, please email us at phil@wealthformula.com.  Gold isn’t reacting to one thing, it’s actually responding to a stacking, uh, pressures, uh, that have been quietly building for years and, and really right now are impossible to ignore. Welcome, everybody. This is Buck Joffrey with the Wealth Formula Podcast coming to you. From Montecito, California and today. Uh, before we begin, just a quick reminder. Uh, there is a, uh, website associated with this podcast called wealth formula.com. And, uh, that’s where you go to get deeply more deeply integrated into this community, including our accredited investor club, AKA investor club for you to join. And, uh, once you get onboarded, all you do is you, you have an opportunity to see private deal flow, uh, that, uh, is not available to the general public. If you are an accredited investor, meaning that you have, uh, make $200,000 per year or $300,000 per year, uh, for the last two years with the reasonable expectation of continuing to do so, or you have a million dollars outside of your personal residence, a net worth, then you are an accredited investor and. All you need to do is sign up and join the club. Just go to wealth formula.com and sign up and get onboarded. Now, let’s talk a little bit about something that has been extraordinary this year. It’s gold. You know, for years, gold was the asset that nobody wanted to talk about. I mean, it sat there quietly. Well, stocks and real estate continue to rip. Um. Gold really is really, you know, was for the pessimists. For the doomsayers and the perma bears. I mean, I, I gotta tell you, I kind of am was one of those people, right? And then suddenly gold didn’t just wake up. It, it totally launched, exploded in his mid-December 2025. Spot Gold is trading around, I know, 4300, 4400 an ounce, depending on the market, gaining roughly 60% over the past year. Pushing decisively into record territory. Now the obvious question is why now? Well, the short answer is that gold isn’t reacting to one thing. It’s actually responding to a stacking, uh, pressures, uh, that have been quietly building for years and, and really right now are impossible to ignore. And this is an interesting shift because. The thing is that in the old days, and I’m even talking about 15, 20 years ago, uh, you would look at gold as something that didn’t really go up when the stock market was doing well, right? It was kind of a reaction. It was a fear-based thing. It still is sort of a fear-based thing, but now it’s not just fear of, you know, whether the stock market’s gonna crash. It’s fear of geopolitical concerns. That’s where the central banks come in, right? So for the better part of the last decade, central banks were net sellers. Or really indifferent of holders of, of gold, and that changed dramatically after 2022. So according to World Gold Council, central banks have been buying gold at more than double the pace of the pre COVID years. And 2025 continued that trend with hundreds of tons, uh, added to reserves year to date Now. These are central banks. They’re not hedge funds chasing momentum, right? They’re monetary authorities and they’re making deliberate strategic decisions about what they trust to hold value. And why would central banks suddenly want more gold? Well, because again, geopolitics has reentered that chat. We live in a world now where reserves can be frozen, right? Payment systems can be weaponized. Risk-free assets depend heavily on political alignment. Now of course, I’m talking about the United States when I’m mentioning all those things, right? Uh, how we can kind of just freeze assets of Russia and that kind of thing. I’m not, uh, pro-Russia, I’m just pointing out the fact that. Countries don’t like it when you freeze their assets. Right? The World Bank, uh, has been explicit that rising geopolitical tensions and global uncertainty are the key drivers of gold surges this year. And when trust in the global Ory roads, of course that is now when gold benefits and at the same time, the US dollar devaluation thesis is no longer just kind of fringe thinking. It’s reality. No one, no one even bothers to pretend that that’s not happening. So gold is, uh, of course, priced in dollars and when real yields fall, uh, and the dollar weakens gold historically performs well so that that dynamic is playing out again as well. In fact, Reuters has repeatedly pointed to a softer dollar and declining treasury yields as near term tailwinds for Gold’s Rally Bank of America. Uh, their research shows, uh, this relationship emphasizing gold’s inverse correlation to the dollar and the growing desire among nations to diversify away from the dollar centric reserves. In other words, gold isn’t just going up because people are scared. It’s going up because confidence in the fiat discipline is eroding altogether slowly. Persistently. So the question is, is gold still a buyer? Did we miss it? I mean, I just mentioned that it just went up by like 60%, right? So that’s a tricky question. It really is. I could certainly see some volatility there. But here’s the thing. I mentioned that central banks were big buyer, right? Central banks don’t care if gold is up 20% or down 10% in a quarter. They care about long-term reserve integrity. So they’re a price insensitive buyer. Um, and that’s why major, major institutions aren’t dismissing the move, as you know, just a big blow off. Uh, Goldman Sachs cited sustain central bank demand, and the potential for further ETF inflows is supportive of higher prices. Banks, uh, like JP Morgan and um, and, and Bank of America. I mean, they’re continuously talking about how gold is a beneficiary of this geopolitical instability. Bank of America is projecting prices high as $5,000 a ounce in 2026. So that’s still a big move, right? Of course, nothing goes up in a straight line. So shift toward tighter monetary policy or sudden easing of global tensions. Well, I, I could, they could cool enthusiasm, right? The less fear in the world. Well, that isn’t. That’s not good for gold. I understand though that gold’s breakout isn’t just about gold. There’s a larger message that should be taken away from all of this, and that is that hard money, real assets have come back into favoring, and gold is the original hard asset. It’s scarce, it’s politically neutral, tens of thousands of years of monetary credibility, but it’s also heavy, difficult to move and awkward in a digital world. Now, of course you know where I’m going with that. I don’t wanna make every gold conversation conversation about Bitcoin, but just as a reminder, Bitcoin exists on that same philosophical access, right? Both gold and Bitcoin are reactions to the same problem. Expanding debt, monetary dilution, declining confidence and centralized control. Gold is the conservative, you know, version of that, the expression of that Bitcoin is the crazy youngster, the aggressive one. They’re, they’re following the same rails. And today Bitcoin trades around $86,000. It’s still volatile, still controversial, still misunderstood, and really, listen, the market cap is 2 trillion bucks. Um, you know, no asset that has ever reached $2 trillion. Market cap has ever gotten to zero. But on the other hand, there’s it, it’s pretty small, and you could still move those markets really quickly, and that’s why you’ve got volatility. But if gold surge is signaling a, a, a shift towards hard assets, it’s really hard to not see that. Uh, Bitcoin may simply be, uh, you know, early in that adoption curve. In other words, gold may be leading the parade. And if history is any guide, uh, when institutions start moving into that, you know, oldest form of sound money, they eventually begin exploring the newest. And that’s, that’s a signal. Worth paying attention to. Anyway, this week what we’re gonna really focus on though is gold and hard money. We’ll talk a little bit about Bitcoin as well. My guest is Dana Samuelson, who is. An old friend of the show, and we will have that conversation right after these messages. Wealth Formula banking is an ingenious concept powered by whole life insurance, but instead of acting just as a safety net, the strategy supercharges your investments. First, you create a personal financial reservoir that grows at a compounding interest rate much higher than any bank savings account. As your money accumulates, you borrow from your own. Bank to invest in other cash flowing investments. Here’s the key. Even though you’ve borrowed money at a simple interest rate, your insurance company keeps paying. You compound interest on that money even though you’ve borrowed it at result, you make money in two places at the same time. That’s why your investments get supercharged. This isn’t a new technique, it’s a refined strategy used by some of the wealthiest families in history, and it uses century old rock solid insurance companies as its back. Turbo charge your investments. Visit wealth formula banking.com. Again, that’s wealth formula banking.com. Welcome back to the show everyone. Today my guest on Wealth Formula podcast ad Samuelson. He is been on the show before. He’s friend of the show. He is a professional. How do we see this numismatist since, uh, 1980. Working with some of the most influential, precious metals trading companies in the country. Before founding his own American Gold Exchange Incorporated in 1998. Uh, for nearly a decade, he was a personal protege of James U. Blanchard ii, one of the true giants of the industry, and the individual most responsible for re legalizing the private ownership of gold in the us. American Gold Exchange Inc. Is a national mail order, precious metals and rare coin dealership that makes competitive buy and sell markets in mainstream, modern, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, bullion coins and bars and classic pre 1933 US Gold and silver coins and World War ii European Gold coins. I don’t know if I left anything out, but welcome Dana. How are you doing? I’m doing great, buck. Thanks for having me back. I really appreciate it. Well, it was funny, we had a little conversation, uh, just before we started and I said, well, gosh, you know, uh, we’ve had you on the show before, maybe once, maybe twice. And, you know, and, and you, um, I think Apley described the gold market as watching paint dry. And I, I think that’s, I think that’s pretty adequate. Um, I mean, for, I mean, the last decade or so before this all happened. So, so let’s start talking about it. So, gold gold’s moved into price territory that, you know, very few people would’ve predicted even a couple years ago. So what, from your perspective, having lived lived through multiple gold cycles, what feels fundamentally different about this move? Uh, this market is a globally driven market and it’s focused on physical. There’s been a move into gold this year, and silver now platinum two. To a degree palladium, uh, in a physical level that we haven’t seen since the late seventies when we had the last really, you know, red hot market driven by fears over debt inflation. Geopolitics. Uh, you’ve got the bricks, nations that are trying to divorce themselves of the dollar, but they really can’t do it easily because there’s not a good viable alternative except for gold. And that’s been one of the leading drivers of this gold price surge that has really, you know, almost doubled in price since, uh, two years ago. A lot of it is, you know, underpinned by Central Bank Gold buying, you know, between 1950 and 2010, after the dollar became the world’s reserve currency backed by gold. And even after we un pegged the dollar to gold in the 1970s, 1971, central bankers had had gold on their, physically in their vaults from pre-World War ii when gold was money, uh, they shed that. From the 1950 all the way to 2010, they became net buyers after the great financial crisis due to the global debt explosion and primarily quantitative easing printing money outta thin air. But they were buy, they were modest buyers, you know, 500 tons a year until Russia invaded the Ukraine in 2022. And we sanctioned Russia and weaponized the dollar. The last four years, they bought, you know, almost a thousand tons of gold year or double. That really became material last year in price as the cumulative effects of their continually buying about a fifth of what the mines make every year started to really impact supplies and price movement. And now we’ve got President Trump this year, you know, throwing a monkey wrench into the World Trade order with his tariffs. And I think that that’s created a lot of uncertainty, some fear. And of course the debt just continues to go higher and higher. And now interest payments on our debt are over a trillion dollars for the first time ever. So debt servicing is starting to become problematic. The cumulative effects of all this have caused the, the people around the world, including central governments to buy gold at record rates. Um, but it’s not the phenomenon that’s happening in the United States. ’cause we don’t have a gold culture in our country, like almost every other country does. It’s interesting. Um, so what, you know, you’ve been talking about really is central banks around the world have it really been accumulating gold at levels we haven’t really seen in modern times. Right. And, and, uh, why do you think the US Central Bank. It doesn’t do the same because is it an admission of the debasement of the dollar? Because really the gold, gold is the anti dollar. I’ve always viewed it as the anti dollar maybe. Maybe that’s not the, you know, you may not agree with that a hundred percent, but I’ve always viewed it that way, and so why wouldn’t the US hedge and accumulate more? Well, we’re the world’s reserve currency. That Right. That’s, that’s created a paper culture in our, in our world. It’s now three generations old, right? Since 1945, when the dollar became the world’s reserve currency and we, the world went to a paper money standard instead of a gold money standard, which was the world’s standard from ancient times all the way till the 1930s. You know, the, our monetary system when the country was founded in 1793 was based on gold and silver coins. A copper penny was the size of a half dollar because that’s what one penny’s worth of copper was worth in 1793. Right. Um, you know, after World War ii, we had a couple things that the rest of the world didn’t have. We had a manufacturing, uh, industries that were, uh, unaffected by the, physically by the war. And we had, you know, the ability for markets to work properly, which should allow the dollar to become the world’s reserve currency. Backed by, you know, 8,200 some odd tons of gold, the biggest pile of gold that any country had. Actually, at that time it was more like 20,000 tons of gold. Uh, but by the time we got to the seventies and we un pegged from gold, we were down to about 8,000 tons. That’s still more than anybody else is supposed to have. I do think China could have more gold than that. Now they’re just not telling us they do. You know, officially they’ve got about 2,400 tons of gold, uh, and the second and third are, you know, 3000 tons of gold. So we, we still have a lot of gold. And there’s talk about auditing Fort Knox and monetizing it, but it only gets us about a trillion dollars. It’s not enough to really, you affect the 38 trillion, maybe pay the debt off for a year, or, you know, for six months. Six months, yeah. Something like that. Our, our debt is starting to matter too. You know, it’s doubled twice in the last 20 years. It gonna double again in the next 10 to 70 trillion, 78 trillion. People hear about the, the whole, uh, the bricks phenomena, right? And part of, part of what you were just discussing in the, uh, accumulation of gold. Explain that, explain what’s going on over there for people who aren’t paying attention, and you know how that is, how that is playing into all of this. Well, when we sanctioned Russia after they invaded the Ukraine. And seized their assets and threw them off of the Swift International Bank Transfer Payment System. We forced countries that were concerned that if they ran politically afoul of us, we could do the same to them. They forced them into thinking, oh, how do we get some independence from that vulnerability? Potential vulnerability? It’s not easy to replace the dollar. What they’ve, what they’ve been doing is replacing the Swift Bank transfer payment system with a payment transfer system of their own right so they can move money amongst themselves outside of the SWIFT system, number one. And since there isn’t a good viable alternative to the dollar, really the only other asset that makes sense is gold. Gold is a neutral asset. It’s not like you need it for oil or grain or steel. Nobody really needs gold, right? But it’s universally trusted. It’s immediately liquid, and it’s got a couple other things going for it that are unique. Number one, it has no counterparty risk. It’s one of the only assets. It isn’t simultaneously someone else’s liability. And number two, uh, gold in a vault can’t be seized or sanctioned. Right, so they’ve been going to gold, like they’ve been going to gold for, for centuries. It’s just, it hasn’t been that way since after World War ii. It’s a, it’s kinda like a back to the past kind of a situation. It’s sort of back to the future. It’s back to the past. That’s the allure for gold and the reason why they’re accumulating. In fact, they just launched their own currency unit called the unit. 40% backed by gold. The bricks nations have now it’s in its infancy and it’ll take a while for it to really, you know, work. But they’ve been building the components and the infrastructure to get to this point, creating the transfer of payment systems and all the components to go along with that so that they could announce something that they could use as a, as a settlement vehicle for trade, which is really what this is all about. And they’re backing at 40% by gold. Which is material and it’ll become bigger as time passes. Let’s, let’s try talk a little bit about that price movement. Huge. Um, is 60% in the last couple years, is that about right? This year alone, gold’s up 67% on a 12 month rolling basis, 67%. I mean, those are like bitcoin num, you know, type movements in the past. Right. They’re kind of crazy. So a lot of people are looking at those prices today and they’re thinking, well, I’m late to the party. Uh, are they late to the party? How do you, uh, what, what do you think’s going on there? I think the party’s about halfway through. We haven’t got to the late innings yet. I, I really do think this, and this is why this is the fourth major bull run in gold we’ve seen since we went off the gold standard in 1971. We had a a 20 to one run for gold in the seventies that was built on two oil shocks. 18% inflation and a crisis of confidence in the US then for the next 30 years. You know, 25 years a good part of my career. You know, watching gold was like watching paint dry. It traded routinely between three and $500 an ounce until we got into war, uh, following the nine 11 attacks, Iraq and I, Afghanistan, and we went into deficit spending. Then we had a second financial crisis when the great financial crisis hit another bull bull market in gold. Then we had COVID economic closures, another bull market in gold. Now we’ve got a fourth, but it’s lacking what the first three had, which was fear in the US over either economics or geopolitical events. So this gold price has essentially doubled since March or April of 2024. With no fear and a lot of complacency in the US markets. So my, my thinking is what happens if the economy slows down and, you know, the Fed’s gonna lower rates anyway. We know that’s coming with a new Fed chairman in the next five months, six months, number one, that’s good for gold. What happens if we go into a real economic slowdown and the Fed really has to drop rates, or God forbid, go to QE again, right? Or inflation rears its ugly head because the fed’s too accommodative in it. Situation where, you know, supplies are kind of tight still because of the monkey wrench, president Trump has thrown into the World Trade Order. You know, if we get fear in the US that’s when gold could go from 4,000 to, you know, 8,000. And I’m not saying that’s gonna happen, but I do think the trends have driven gold higher are not gonna change anytime soon. One of the things that you’re mentioning is those trends and like even. You know, in the last 15 years ago when I’ve been sort of involved in the investor world, the, the things that we talk about with trends with with gold have changed. I mean, usually you don’t see AI stocks going up with gold, right? Like, I mean, not that AI was around, but the point is tech stocks, that kind of thing. How is that thesis fundamentally changed? Um, I’m not quite sure I understand your question. Well, what I mean is like if gold was, gold used to be, I think it’s, you know, something again that people would buy when they were afraid of, of what’s going on in the equity markets. Right. Uh, that’s clearly not the case now. No, no, not at all. Right. Talk about that change. When did that change happen? How did it happen? This is a globally driven market. It’s not a US-centric market. This is fear around the world. You know, central banks started to underpin this market in 2022 when they stepped up their buying and doubled it. But this year, because of the uncertainty, uh, and some of the fear that President Trump’s tariffs and the way they’ve been deployed, kind of knee jerky, um, and inconsistently. Certainly not diplomatically, right? You know, it’s caused a lot of concern around the world. And for example, in April when President Trump announced the reciprocal tariffs on April 2nd, what happened? The bond market went into the complete dislocation, yields spiked from 4% to 4.5% in a week. The bond values tumble because investors started pulling money out of the, and taking it back home. Money that’d come in from Europe and Asia started to go back. So what did President Trump do? He pulled back the reciprocal tariffs on every country, but China and China said, well, we’re not gonna drop tariffs on you. And he said, well, we’ll ramp ’em up on you. So we went toe to toe with him. Until a week later, we were at 145% tariffs on China, and they were 125% on us. Well, if you’re a Chinese investor and you have real estate or stocks to invest in, and both of which have done badly since COVID or gold, what are you gonna do when your best customer suddenly says, Hey, we really don’t want your products, because that’s what 145% tariffs say to the Chinese. We don’t want your products. You can’t sell ’em here. You gotta go sell ’em somewhere else, but we’re their best customer. So they bought gold. They bought gold handover fist, and they drove the gold price up $500 by themselves during that month. That’s what I mean by fear outside of the us. Yeah. We don’t get it inside. Well, and and that’s fear outside of the markets too, right? I think that’s, that’s the fundamental shift I was trying to get at is true. It used to be that gold was, uh, gold would react on fear of the markets, but now there’s another level of fear, which is geopolitical. And it doesn’t seem like there’s any time soon that that’s gonna end. No, no. I, I, I’ve called it like a run on the bank only. It’s not a run on the bank of like George Bailey’s run on the bank and it’s a wonderful life. This is a run on the gold market, the physical gold and silver and platinum markets. That’s really what this is, and it’s a global rush to buy. And it’s not just central banks, it’s the public as well. Due to uncertainty, part of it’s fear of missing out now that we’ve had a big run in prices too. That’s FOMO in there too. That’s what I’m trying to, that’s part of what I was wondering too though, is like, you know, again, there’s people out there now who, um, are, are looking at this and they might even be listening to us going, gosh, yeah, it really makes sense and I happen to have no gold. What do I do? You know, what do I do now? Do I buy now? And, and I’ll, you know, and, and the next thing you know. I find out this was a frothy market and, and I’m down 20% for the next three years. I mean, that kind of thing. So I, I think it’s a, it is a tricky time, but, so that sort of, I guess, brings up when you think of gold, um, in a portfolio. I mean, you say, you’ve said in the past, it’s not about getting rich. Well, some people really did get rich this time. Uh, you said it’s about preserving wealth, right? So how should investors think about Gold’s role alongside stocks, real estate, and other assets right now? Well, even I think JP Morgan Chase has said this year, you know, instead of a 60 40 portfolio, you should have a 60 20 20 portfolio with 20% bonds and 20% precious metals. Gold in particular, because of what’s been happening. And now we don’t have a gold culture in our country, like most every other country does. So most Americans don’t get it. And that’s part of. We’ve ingrained because the dollar is the world’s reserve currency and it insulates us from currency shocks in commodity pricing primarily. Uh, without that insulation, you know, they might think things a little bit differently, but you know, any good financial planner will say you should have a little bit of precious metals as part of your portfolio, uh, as a hedge against financial uncertainty. And it certainly worked perfectly well during the great financial crisis. And when COVID hit because. Gold tends to counter cyclically, perform in price against stocks and bonds, and it’s always liquid. Now, you’re a real estate investor, you understand real estate. What couldn’t you get in 2009 alone? Right? Bankers wouldn’t give anybody money, right? But if you had gold, you could get liquidity, right? And gold, you know, almost doubled between 2008 and 2011 at the same time when most assets were dropping 50%. That’s an insurance policy for the rest of your money. That’s why I said, look, it’s a way to preserve wealth and have a hedge against financial uncertainty. But in the market that we’re in now, you know, having more than just the, the minimum, which is five to 10% of assets as a, you know, potentially an investment instead of just an insurance policy. That makes sense. But you’re right, you could buy and you could, you know, tie up money that won’t produce anything for a couple years, maybe longer. You also have an insurance policy in case the wheels do come off like they did during the great financial crisis or during COVID. Yeah. Yeah. I was listening to, uh, another podcast. I listened to the, these, uh, guys, the All In podcast, and, uh, Tucker Carlson was on there, and apparently he’s a, you know, huge, uh, physical gold guy. And, and he said, and I, I think he was serious. He said he buries it in his backyard and then he spreads a bunch of, um. Uh, a bunch of, you know, silver beads, uh, out there too, like, just in case no one can like, use a medical metal detector and find it is gold. Uh, let’s talk about that nuance of, of physical gold versus, you know, buying ETFs and all that stuff. What’s your take? I mean, what, what do you tell people when they say, well, gosh, you know, uh, it might be hard for me to store that gold and, and why shouldn’t I just get an ETF and, and talk a little bit about that? Well, I trade ETFs in my IRA account. When I think the, when I think I can harness price movement, that’s what I use ETFs for. You know, they’re a paper representation of gold, uh, that you can trade at the click of a button, physical gold. Is valuable. It’s, you have to find a place to store it. It’s pretty inert, so you can, you can bury it in your backyard, keep the elements out of it, but then there’s some risk there because it could be found, it could be stolen, so you do have to store it somewhere. You can put it in a bank safe deposit box, but I don’t really recommend that because what happens if there’s a banking holiday and you can’t get to it? So having a home safe or maybe, you know, maybe bearing it in the backyard. Is an option if that’s what you wanna do. Or there are independent professionally run storage facilities. There’s a few of ’em around the country that are run by precious metals dealers that are, you know, big entities. Uh uh. So I think they’re trustworthy and they certainly have the ability to service and aren’t properly insured. So that if something happens, you know your value is protected. And that’s primarily what you pay for as a storage fee is a percentage of value. Not so much number ounces that you have there, but the value percentage, because it is an insurance, uh, related value, right? The value goes up, they’ve gotta get more insurance so they get a higher storage fee for that same amount of metal if the value increases, which is unlike other assets. So I do have a couple of those I recommend that are run by professional. Companies that have been in business for years that we know would trust and have performed perfectly. If you wanna store, um, physical metal now gold is compact. You know, a hundred ounces is smaller than a paperback novel and it’s $450,000 worth of value today. You could, I could literally have one bar in each one of my coat pockets and be walking around with almost a million bucks in my pockets, and no one would know. Silver. You know, silver creates a bigger problem because it takes 70 ounces of silver to equal an ounce of gold. So there’s a lot more volume involved and a lot more weight, which is why sometimes these facilities make more sense if you wanna store something that’s more bulky like silver. But if you’re gonna store gold somewhere, that’s not easy to find. You wanna make sure somebody you trust behind you knows where it’s just in case something happens to you. Right? Yeah. Um. What, um, how difficult is it, uh, Dana, for someone to, I guess, say they wanna sell, say maybe they need to sell one of those bricks in your pocket there? Uh, and, and, um, is that a, um, a process that, I mean, it’s, you know, it’s not as easy as clicking a button at that point, right? But to make sure that you get the best possible price for your gold and all that, I mean, you’re not gonna go to a pawn shop and. Oh, that, so like, I, I’m just curious on the mechanics of that. ’cause I’ve, you know, I’ve, I’ve never sold, you know, physical gold for anything. So, so our, our company’s a physical dealer. We’re a hybrid between Amazon and a financial institution. And that, uh, we sell something online or over the telephone. The price is always changing on a minute by minute basis, but it’s like you’re buying shoes. It’s just, you know, you don’t quite know what the price is gonna be. So we physically, you know, figure out which product you should purchase, what’s best for you, and then we ship it to you if you want to sell it, it’s just the reverse of the transaction. You have to present it for delivery, which means you have to ship it back to, uh, your dealer, or, you know, physically deliver to them, and you get paid immediately upon delivery. So, um, you know, we, we do business like a financial institution. You can call us up, place a transaction over the phone. Uh, if it’s a smaller transaction, we’ll do that without deposit funds. If it’s a bigger transaction, we don’t know, you will want funds first, but once we lock in, that’s the price. Just like when you buy stock and then you pay the balance or, or we ship you the merchandise, whichever comes first. Um. You get it, inspect it, make sure you, you got what you’re supposed to get. In fact, it, you know, in the last two years with this gold price just climbing higher and higher, we’ve got a lot of clients that are complacent. They like the stock market that’s been hitting record highs, uh, and they’ve been shedding gold. We’ve actually bought more gold as an industry, not just our company, but as an industry in the last year than we’ve bought in a single year in 20 years. So it’s very easy to reverse the transaction. But what I would tell you. For your listeners is, and this is important, you should buy sovereign minted products, gold ounces, silver ounces, one ounce gold coins. They’re really just round bars made by the US Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint, the British Royal Mint. The Austrian Mint instead of refinery made. One ounce bars or 10 ounce bars or kilo bars of gold because we have a modest but growing problem with Chinese counterfeits. The Chinese can take tungsten and plate it with gold and pass it off as reel, and they can do that much better with refinery made bars that have plain design pictures stamped onto them. They can replicate those very well, but they cannot replicate the intricate pictures. The US Mint or the Canadian Mint, or the Austrian mint, British royal mint stamp onto that one ounce gold coin. We call it a coin. It’s just a round bar made by a mint that struck with dyes like a coin. And all of the mints around the world have introduced minute anti-counterfeiting design elements into the picture that they stamp on their coins to deter Chinese counterfeits. And it’s working. So the most important thing is, you know, do business with a reputable dealer that’s been around a long time, that has a good reputation, not a, not some new entity, right? You wanna find a, a trusted member of the community and develop a relationship that makes buying again or selling very easy. Once you have a relationship with a dealer, and we know the product you’ve purchased, we’ll take it back very easily. Uh, silver is, you know, people talk a lot about it in the context of, you know, the lump it with gold but has very different characteristics. Um, how do you think about silver today? I love silver today. Uh, it’s, it’s a metal at times as hard to love because every time it makes a big gain, it can give it up pretty easily. It’s more volatile than gold, but gold’s about 90% monetary metal in 10%. Commodity metal silver’s about 50 50, but what silver has going for it is, uh, a couple of unique characteristics that virtually no other metal comes, uh, as close to, which is conductivity of heat and electricity. Silver is amazing in that it’s the best at conducting both heat and electricity. I’ve got a one ounce silver coin on my desk here, and if you take this coin and hold it between your fingers and take an ice cube. You can literally cut that ice cube in half in about 6, 7, 8 seconds with a pure silver coin because the heat from your fingers gets transmitted to the coin and goes right through the ice cube. That’s just a simple example of how conductive silver is for temperature, and we have a structural supply deficit in the silver market that we’ve had for about five years now, where the industry. Is consuming more silver than comes out of the ground on an annual basis. So we’re eating into the above ground supply. Uh, so fundamentally that’s the supply and demand equation favor silver. Uh, plus because gold is moved up so much in price, silver is getting a rotation into it because it’s underperformed relative to gold until just recently where it’s played catch pretty sharply in just the last three or four months. If you measure. How many ounces of gold, uh, how many ounces of silver it takes to equal an ounce of gold, the gold to silver ratio back in April. That was a hundred to one, you know, which was an extreme. Today that ratio is a, is a little under 70 to one. It’s 67, 68 to one. So silver has played up in ketchup in price. Where is that historically? Uh, well. Normally it’s between about 40 to one and 80 to one with about 60 to one as the, as the pivot point where it’s in, they’re in equilibrium. But in the last four or five years with gold leading and silver lagging, we’ve routinely been in the 85 to 90 to one range. Uh, and we actually hit a hundred to one in April of this year, uh, which was the highest it’s been, um, except for when we had a kind of a knee jerk in the medals during COVID, which was an anomaly. Uh, didn’t last. So, but anyway. Silver is playing ketchup because it’s been undervalued relative to gold. Um, and we’ve seen, you know, people that wanna be in the metals, but think gold’s a little expensive. They’ve rotated out of gold, and we’ve seen some of that money move into silver and also into platinum. Now, platinum was under a thousand dollars this time of year ago, and it’s almost $1,900 announced today. So it’s almost platinum’s up, uh, almost a hundred percent now. This year where silver’s up 120% this year and a lot of this demand is driven globally. We’ve seen huge demand in silver in India this year because gold is so, has become so expensive, and that’s what I mean by a global run on the, on the bank. It’s not just China, Japan, it’s India too, and Europe as well. Physical buying and et f buying ETFs are available around the world in precious metals now that really haven’t been very impactful until this year. Um, but that’s what the world’s doing, you know? No discussion these days on gold is complete without at least mentioning Bitcoin. Uh, you know, and, and it’s, it’s interesting because, um, you know, even within the, uh, uh, gold world, I mean, there’s, there’s some prominent people who are really bought in to Bitcoin. Like I, Lawrence Lepert has been on the show multiple times now, and Larry’s all in. Um, just curious as a, you know, as a gold person, what do you see where, what do you see the role or do you not believe in this thing? Do you believe it is a, a parallel? Um, I, there’s so many things that you say about gold. That I’m like, yeah, you can say that about Bitcoin too and carry, you know, millions of dollars in your pocket. You can, you know, it’s, uh, there’s a very little amount of it. Um, obviously it’s new, right? Gold has been around for, since the beginning of time and, and now we’ve got 2009 for Bitcoin. What is your view? How are you seeing it? May, how are your colleagues seeing it in the gold space? Well, a couple different points to make here. Um, you know, when, when Bitcoin came out in 20 10, 20 11, you know, one of my friends in the, in the precious metals business told me I should buy it when it was 20 bucks and I didn’t get it. So I didn’t do it, and that was a big mistake on my part. But Bitcoin has one advantage that no other currency or gold has, which you can move serious money over borders easily. You’re right, you can carry it around in your pocket, in your wallet and, um, you know, you carry a lot of value around and transfer it at the, you know, click of a button. And no co counterparty risk, just like you said with gold, right? Yeah. Well, there’s some modest counterparty risk with, with bitcoin that you, you have counterparty risk with gold and theft as well. Um. Bitcoin is volatile. It’s, you know, it’s, it’s very volatile. It’s still the speculative investment. I mean, it was 124,000, you know, four months ago, and now it’s about 85,000, 90,000. So there’s volatility there that gold doesn’t have. But more importantly, what I’ve seen in my career is a generational divide. The older, older people, you know, 45 and older, like gold and silver. Younger people that grew up with phones in their hands like Bitcoin. The volatility in Bitcoin that we’ve seen in these two big selloff cycles in Bitcoin have not the first one, but the second one have helped to bring some of those younger people into the stability of gold, especially in the year when gold is doing pretty well. ’cause it then it kind of has a little bit of that Bitcoin allure, which is, you know, get rich quick. But, um. Bitcoin’s volatile, but it’s here to stay and it is now the most respected cryptocurrency. Like I almost bought Ethereum, you know, 10 years ago when one of my friends was explaining both to me and said that Ethereum basically had better fundamentals. But you know, it’s kind of inventing, it’s kinda like investing in a. What, uh, beta, beta max instead of VHS back in the day. Some of the older people remember that. You bet on the wrong horse, you know? Yeah, exactly. Well, you’ve, uh, you know, you built this, uh, firm on transparency, integrity, uh, in an industry that doesn’t always have the best reputation. Right? So for investors who decide that precious metals belong in their portfolio. Uh, how can they get a hold of you? Well, our website is, uh, A-M-E-R-G-O-L d.com. Uh, we don’t have, you know, 10,000 items on our website. We have a, we have a small listing of what available products are because we stick with mainstream items, products that are primarily easy to sell, uh, competitively priced, widely traded, and easily understood. Um, uh. Uh, email address is info I nfo@amggold.com. Uh, we have a toll, toll free number 806 1 3 9 3 2 3. Uh, we’re consultative in nature. We’ll, we’ll answer any questions. Happily, gladly, uh, no transactions too small or too large. What we really wanna do, uh, is help people because if we do that, we help ourselves. And when you treat people right, it, it comes back. And our industry does have a chair of bad actors. And, um, you, you wanna make sure that you do business with someone reputable that’s been in the industry a long time. And I understand some people may wanna do this locally where they can actually walk into a place of business. Do this instead of over the phone. So look for dealers that have, you know, longstanding, uh, businesses and good reputations. If you see a reputation that, uh, has some complaints, you know, there are other choices for you. But, um, we just try and help people buck. That’s really what we try and do. We certainly have the reputation for it. Dana. So thank you so much for being on Wellfor podcast. Well, thanks for having me. It’s great to see you again, and I wish you a great success in 2026 and a happy holiday season. You too. You make a lot of money, but are still worried about retirement. Maybe you didn’t start earning until your thirties. Now you’re trying to catch up. Meanwhile, you’ve got a mortgage, a private school to pay for, and you feel like you’re getting further and further behind. Now, good news, if you need to catch up on retirement, check out a program put out by some of the oldest and most prestigious life insurance companies in the world. It’s called Wealth Accelerator, and it can help you amplify your returns quickly, protect your money from creditors, and provide financial protection to your family if something happens to you. The concepts here are used by some of the wealthiest families in the world, and there’s no reason why they can’t be used by you. Check it out for yourself by going to wealth formula banking.com. Welcome back to Show England. Hope you enjoyed it and, uh, I will. Uh, I should admit though, that if you go back and you listen on my, uh, past shows, this is one that I was wrong on. I, I’ve never been a gold bug. My biggest issue with gold. Um, has always been, you know, from an investment thesis that it doesn’t really do anything, doesn’t yield anything, and what’s the point of owning it rather than owning, uh, real estate. And actually, if you just look at what I said, it’s, it’s still, it’s still, it’s still kind of true, right? I mean, you can argue, well, yeah, the real estate markets really did, uh, did struggle over the last couple years. But listen, at the end of the day. The real estate market struggled because of leverage, right? Gold. There’s no leverage, no one’s borrowing, buying gold on leverage, and so it can go up and down and it doesn’t really hurt anybody. If you take the last couple decades and you know how much people made from, uh, real estate versus Bitcoin, even though there’s this huge, uh, huge uptick in Bitcoin now it’s, it’s probably the case that they come out pretty close. If not, uh, you know, real estate still being the winner. But anyway, uh, I do want to say and admit that I was wrong. That, uh, that the gold wasn’t really worth, uh, owning. I think, uh, you know, I wish I had owned some, just like a lot of people wish they’d own Bitcoin at $6,000, right? Um, in fact, I will say that one of the things in hindsight that I think of is gold in many ways for the last several years was on sale. And I haven’t really been talking about this as much, but I’ve been reflecting on this a great deal about making sure that as an investor you wake yourself up once in a while and ask, okay, well, what’s on sale? Well, gold was on sale for a while. Silver was definitely on sale. Right? Um, doesn’t mean you have to go in, have, you know, 50% of your portfolio in something like that, but when something’s on sale, it’s not a bad idea to look around. And maybe get, you know, get a little bit of exposure. I do think that real estate is there right now. I think real estate, you know, if you’re in the credit investor group, you’re seeing on a routine basis 30%, uh, discounted offerings from just a couple years ago. And I do think that’s on sale right now. But there are other things as well, arguably. I mean, I, I actually think that Bitcoin is, uh, uh, sort of on sale right now. I mean, sitting at 86,000, anybody who thinks it’s not gonna go to a hundred thousand at some point in the next, you know, 12 months is, I mean, I think it’s highly unlikely that it doesn’t go to a hundred thousand, right? So think about that right now. That’s like a 14% gain right then and there. Anyway, sometimes it’s good to just look around and see what’s on sale. Uh, that’s my message for this week. Uh, this is Buck Joffrey with Wealth Formula Podcast signing off. If you wanna learn more, you can now get free access to our in-depth personal finance course featuring industry leaders like Tom Wheel Wright and Ken McElroy. Visit wealthformularoadmap.com.

Joe's Premium Subscription: www.standardgrain.comGrain Markets and Other Stuff Links —Apple PodcastsSpotifyTikTokYouTubeFutures and options trading involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.

There's lots of news from Moscow where a Russian general died on Monday morning after an explosive device planted under his car was detonated.He is the third military official to be killed in such an attack this year alone, with authorities pointing the finger at Ukraine's intelligence services.Also, Vladimir Putin said in his end-of-year press conference that there will be no more wars after Ukraine, provided Russia is treated with respect - he dismissed claims that the Kremlin is planning to attack European countries as "nonsense".The BBC's Russia editor Steve Rosenberg was in the room to ask a question. He joins Victoria and Vitaly to discuss the president's answer, and the surreal moment a Russian TV channel mistook another journalist for him.Plus, Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse is in the studio to chat about Europe's eleventh-hour deal to fund Kyiv, and all the latest on peace talks from Miami. Today's episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. The producers were Laurie Kalus and Julia Webster. The technical producer was James Piper. The series producer is Chris Flynn. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast's Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord

Russian investigators suggest Ukraine could be behind a car bomb that killed a top military official in Moscow. Our guest tells us whoever's behind it, the message is clear. Cyclone reconstruction is just the latest shock to Sri Lanka's bottom line. And an economist in Colombo says the way forward is mixed at best. We reach a National Cancer Institute scientist in Maryland who's raising eyebrows with his latest research: A vaccine he's making in his kitchen, and drinking in beer form. As Hanukkah draws to a close, we bring you our second reading of the holiday...involving the arrival of a surprise, winged visitor who portends the unexpected in more ways than one. Two Dalhousie University computer scientists pull off a Christmas miracle ... by getting an enormous, terrifying, yet locally-beloved mall attraction back into working order. Scientists discover that Hawaiian Monk Seals...who they'd frankly considered pretty inarticulate...actually have about 25 different vocalizations including a pronounced "Whine". As It Happens, the Monday Edition. Radio that wishes those whiny seals would just knock it arf.

We've got two major developments in Eurasia. We're talking about Ukraine disabling two ships in the Caspian Sea and Poland getting EU approval to build a nuclear power plant.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://bit.ly/45byYNo

Opinion journalism on Russia has become a high-stakes enterprise since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, shaped by audiences sharply divided by politics and geography. At the center of these pressures are editors tasked with deciding which arguments deserve a platform, how much context readers need, and what constitutes responsible discourse. Few desks confront these challenges more directly than the opinion section of The Moscow Times. Against that backdrop, The Naked Pravda spoke with Charlie Hancock, the outlet's opinion editor, about how the job has changed in recent years. In the interview, Hancock describes her path into Russia-focused journalism, the unexpected editorial challenges that emerged early in the war, and the debates that now shape opinion writing on Russia. She also discusses navigating legal and political constraints, handling reader criticism, and balancing sharply divergent viewpoints while maintaining editorial coherence — and her own sanity. Timestamps for this episode: (3:16) Unexpected editorial challenges(6:58) Handling criticism and reader engagement(8:36) Publishing under Russian state repression(18:35) Navigating legal and political constraints(20:39) Balancing diverse opinionsКак поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

durée : 00:03:24 - Géopolitique - par : Pierre  Haski  - Vladimir Poutine a eu une bonne année 2025, sur le terrain militaire comme diplomatique avec l'arrivée de Donald Trump à la Maison Blanche ; mais il n'y a pas eu de percée, ni sur le terrain, ni en diplomatie, frustrant pour le maître du Kremlin qui continue néanmoins sa guerre insensée en Ukraine. Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les autres épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France.

Liubov Velychko is a Ukrainian investigative journalist with over 15 years of experience uncovering corruption, crime, and human rights violations. She Specializes in exposing disinformation campaigns, and has conducted numerous investigations into Russian propaganda, revealing the networks behind its spread and dismantling the information operations orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies.----------LINKS:https://www.linkedin.com/in/v-press/ https://www.rusi.org/people/velychkohttps://x.com/VelychkoLiubovhttps://www.occrp.org/en/people/lyubov-velychkohttps://mind.ua/en/author/1158-liubov-velychko----------Silicon Curtain is a part of the Christmas Tree Trucks 2025 campaign - an ambitious fundraiser led by a group of our wonderful team of information warriors raising 110,000 EUR for the Ukrainian army. https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-silicon-curtainThe Goal of the Campaign for the Silicon Curtain community:- 1 armoured battle-ready pickupWe are sourcing all vehicles around 2010-2017 or newer, mainly Toyota Hilux or Mitsubishi L200, with low mileage and fully serviced. These are some of the greatest and the most reliable pickups possible to be on the frontline in Ukraine. Who will receive the vehicles?https://car4ukraine.com/campaigns/christmas-tree-trucks-2025-silicon-curtain- The 38th Marine Brigade, who alone held Krynki for 124 days, receiving the Military Cross of Honour.- The 1027th Anti-aircraft and artillery regiment. Honoured by NATO as Defender of the Year 2024 and recipient of the Military Cross of Honour.- 104th Separate Brigade, Infantry, who alone held Kherson for 100 days, establishing conditions for the liberation of the city.- 93rd Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar", Black Raven Unmanned Systems Battalion ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyślhttps://kharpp.com/NOR DOG Animal Rescuehttps://www.nor-dog.org/home/----------

-Newsmax's Rob Finnerty examines the critical choice the U.S. faces as the Russia–Ukraine war nears an end. -On National Report, Rep. Greg Steube answers Sen. Rand Paul's criticism of President Trump's push against Venezuela. -President Trump announces powerful line of new battleships. -Judge Andrew Napolitano: DOJ Epstein file release is 'kind of a mess' -“The Right Squad,” panel discusses DOJ records that show the FBI was warned about Jeffrey Epstein as early as 1996. -Newsmax's Greg Kelly slams Democrats for their outrage over renaming the Kennedy Center. Today's podcast is sponsored by : WEBROOT : Live a better digital life with Webroot Total Protection. Newsmax Daily listeners get 60% off at http://webroot.com/Newsmax  Listen to Newsmax LIVE and see our entire podcast lineup at ⁠http://Newsmax.com/Listen⁠ Make the switch to NEWSMAX today! Get your 15 day free trial of NEWSMAX+ at ⁠http://NewsmaxPlus.com⁠ Looking for NEWSMAX caps, tees, mugs & more? Check out the Newsmax merchandise shop at : ⁠http://nws.mx/shop⁠ Follow NEWSMAX on Social Media:  -Facebook: ⁠http://nws.mx/FB⁠  -X/Twitter: ⁠http://nws.mx/twitter⁠ -Instagram: ⁠http://nws.mx/IG⁠ -YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/NewsmaxTV⁠ -Rumble: ⁠https://rumble.com/c/NewsmaxTV⁠ -TRUTH Social: ⁠https://truthsocial.com/@NEWSMAX⁠ -GETTR: ⁠https://gettr.com/user/newsmax⁠ -Threads: ⁠http://threads.net/@NEWSMAX⁠  -Telegram: ⁠http://t.me/newsmax⁠  -BlueSky: ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/newsmax.com⁠ -Parler: ⁠http://app.parler.com/newsmax⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Chapter 40 of The Book of Trump, Ghost dives deep into the 2008 Russo-Georgian War and frames it as a defining point of no return for Vladimir Putin. This episode explores how the conflict in Georgia set the template for future confrontations between Russia and the Western unipolar order, long before Ukraine became the focal point. Ghost walks through the historical, political, and intelligence backdrop of the Caucasus region, unpacking color revolutions, NATO expansion, and the role of Western-backed NGOs and leadership pipelines. By tracing key figures, strategic decisions, and media narratives, this chapter argues that the Georgian conflict was not an isolated event but the precursor to the modern geopolitical battlefield. Putin's response is examined as a calculated stand against a post–Cold War security architecture that Russia would no longer accept. This episode connects dots across decades to explain why 2008 marked Putin's Rubicon—and why the consequences still echo today.

Russia's Investigative Committee said Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov died on Monday morning in Moscow after an explosive device planted under a car detonated. He is the third military official to have been killed in bomb attacks in the Russian capital over the last 12 months. Investigators say they're considering whether Ukraine was involved. Kyiv hasn't commented. Also: A huge operation to tackle cybercrime in several African countries leads to nearly 600 arrests. Why four residents of an Indonesian island are taking a Swiss cement company to court. And gold prices are rocketing, but bourbon sales are struggling. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger PictureThe [CB][WEF] is struggling, Trump and team has designated the offshore wind projects as a national security risk. They have been paused. The people are still struggling with the [CB] system, soon the people will get their buying power back. The [CB] will try to stop Trump’s new economic system, it will fail. The [DS] is feeling the pain every step of the way. The criminal syndicate money laundering system is being exposed is the blue states. The people are waking up to the real system that has been hidden from them. The [DS] continues to tax the people for the money laundering system. Trump is continually countering the [DS], he is using Emissaries to negotiate the peace deals. The [DS] is blind to the conversation. Economy Trump Administration Announces Change to Offshore Wind Construction  President Donald Trump's Department of the Interior is pausing offshore wind project construction due to “national security risks.” “Due to national security concerns identified by the Department of War, Interior is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X. “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED,” Burgum added. “POTUS is bringing common sense back to energy policy & putting security FIRST!” Leases with Vineyard Wind1, Revolution Wind, CVOW, Sunrise Wind, and Empire Wind will be paused. Source: dailysignal.com https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2002605302932517339?s=20 Gas is About to Get Expensive . . . A gallon of gas costs about twice as much in California as it does pretty much anywhere else in the United States. The reason why, of course, is that California makes it cost about twice as much – by reducing supply and by adding costs, chiefly for “environmental” reasons. This includes a new requirement – going into effect very soon (Dec. 31) that all gas stations must either replace single-walled underground storage tanks or permanently close them – no matter whether the tanks are actually leaking and no matter how much it costs to replace them. It is estimated that about 473 gas stations in California are going to close – because the owners cannot afford the mandatory underground storage tank upgrade costs or the $5,000 per day fines for non-compliance. At the same time, the state's regulatory bureaucracy has essentially shut down supply by denying 97 percent of permits for new refineries to supply the extra-special (and extra-expensive) gasoline formulations that all gas stations in California are required to sell. If this hypothetical scenario ends up becoming the actual scenario it could result in the collapse of California as a state. Source:  ericpetersautos.com  https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2003104230945464505?s=20  As a % of total employment, multiple jobholders rose to 5.8%, nearly matching the 2 previous highs seen over the last 25 years. At the same time, Americans working primary full-time and secondary part-time jobs jumped to 5.3 million, the 2nd-highest in history. As a % of employment, this metric now stands at 3.4%, the 2nd-highest since 2000. The cost of living crisis is real.   (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2003109247232655382?s=20 Political/Rights Teary-Eyed Bus Driver Speaks Out After Getting FIRED for Posting a ‘Racially Insensitive' Sign on School Bus Window In Response to Unruly Spanish-Speaking Kid – DOJ to Launch Investigation (VIDEO) An elderly bus driver terminated earlier this year for posting a so-called ‘racially insensitive' sign toward a Spanish-speaking kid has broken her silence and the DOJ is launching an investigation. The note on the window read, “Out of respect to English-only students, there will be no speaking Spanish on this bus.” Crawford, who had served the school district as a bus driver for more than 30 years, was promptly suspended and later lost her job posting the note.  https://twitter.com/_johnnymaga/status/2002937980013650119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002937980013650119%7Ctwgr%5E9387ff3c86f279c9837393510bf08034917fc6bd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fteary-eyed-bus-driver-speaks-after-getting-fired%2F https://twitter.com/AAGDhillon/status/2002952621032677759?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002952621032677759%7Ctwgr%5E9387ff3c86f279c9837393510bf08034917fc6bd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fteary-eyed-bus-driver-speaks-after-getting-fired%2F Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2002782448191693130?s=20 https://twitter.com/C_3C_3/status/2002906389560414648?s=20 SEATTLE https://twitter.com/KeenanPeachy/status/2002902633439445012?s=20 https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/2003099681778499980?s=20 https://twitter.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/2002822669507379549?s=20   This is part of a year long effort FBI has undertaken with state and local law enforcement all across the country to crack down on child abusers and take them off the street. That work has seen historic results. -6,000 children located or reduced – up 22% from 2024 -Nearly 2,000 child predators arrested – up 10% -300+ human traffickers arrested – up 15% Lives being saved. We're not letting up. DOGE Geopolitical https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2002602838149697684?s=20 https://twitter.com/AlboMP/status/2002974532475490578?s=20 https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2003101218076545039?s=20 Cyberattack disrupts France’s postal service, banking during Christmas rush A suspected cyberattack has knocked France's national postal service and its banking arm offline during the busy Christmas season The postal service, called La Poste, said in a statement that a distributed denial of service incident, or DDoS, “rendered its online services inaccessible.” It said the incident had no impact on customer data, but disrupted package and mail delivery. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.   France and other European allies of Ukraine allege that Russia is waging “hybrid warfare” against them, using sabotage, assassinations, cyberattacks, disinformation and other hostile acts that are often hard to quickly trace back to Moscow. Source:  tribdem.com  War/Peace Kushner and Witkoff Reportedly Draft $112B Plan to Turn Gaza Into ‘Smart City' With Beach Resorts, High-Speed Rail, and AI Grids — U.S. Pushes Back on Claims It Would Foot $60B    Project Sunrise,” envisions a decade-long, $112.1 billion redevelopment effort featuring beachside luxury resorts, high-speed rail, and AI-optimized infrastructure. The draft proposal was developed by a team led by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, along with senior White House aide Josh Gruenbaum and other administration officials. The plan is being presented to prospective donor governments via a 32-slide PowerPoint labeled “sensitive but unclassified,” U.S. officials told the Journal. According to the presentation, Project Sunrise would convert Gaza's devastated landscape into a modern coastal metropolis. New Rafah (Credit: Wall Street Journal) Smart City (Credit: Wall Street Journal) However, the proposal does not specify which governments or private entities would ultimately finance the project, nor does it detail where Gaza's roughly two million displaced residents would live during reconstruction, according to WSJ. The draft estimates total costs at $112.1 billion over 10 years, including humanitarian relief, infrastructure rebuilding, and public-sector payrolls. https://twitter.com/StateDept_NEA/status/2002545412729942278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002545412729942278%7Ctwgr%5Ef3310cb42b34b4ad502fd5957962a1d8fbe38397%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fkushner-witkoff-reportedly-draft-112b-plan-turn-gaza%2F The proposal also assumes that Gaza could begin to self-fund portions of the development in later years, eventually paying down debt as economic activity expands. Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2003088356876677484?s=20 Macron Seeks New Talks With Putin, Forcing ‘Alternative’ Path To Stalled US Negotiations Suddenly French President Emmanuel Macron is deciding to revive his diplomacy with Moscow and is     Macron wants to step in to force France’s say in any future outcome or settlement, rather than wait on the diplomatic sidelines. Arming Kiev to the teeth has done nothing but prolong the needless killing, and perhaps at least some European capitals are beginning to realize this. Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/BRICSinfo/status/2003114957060137421?s=20   to be killed in a bombing this year.” Russian General Killed By Car Bomb In Moscow, Marks 3rd Top Officer Assassinated In A Year This adds to a growing list of high profile assassinations related to the Ukraine war. To review: —Darya Dugina was killed in a car bombing in 2022 which was likely meant for her father, prominent political thinker and often dubbed “Putin ally” Aleksandr Dugin. —Gen Igor Kirillov died in December 2024 outside of his residence when a bomb planted in a nearby scooter detonated. —Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, who served as deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed in a car bomb attack last April. A “homemade” explosive device detonated under his Volkswagen Golf in a residential neighborhood. Throughout the course of the war there’s been a string of these high profile assassinations on Russian soil involving car and even cafe bombs. America’s CIA or Britain’s MI6 has long been suspected of being involved in these targeted killings, or at least assisting in such brazen Ukrainian-linked operations, but ultimately little has been uncovered or proven in terms of a potential Western hidden hand in this ongoing ‘dirty war’. Source: zerohedge.com https://twitter.com/LeadingReport/status/2002809124674035943?s=20  Medical/False Flags [DS] Agenda DOJ Charges California Food Stamp Official for Sending Benefits to Dead People – Then Spending Them Federal prosecutors have charged a longtime California welfare worker with carrying out a multi-year fraud scheme involving food assistance benefits and dead people. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of former Madera County benefits eligibility worker Leticia Mariscal, 55, of Madera. Prosecutors alleged that Mariscal stole tens of thousands of dollars in CalFresh benefits by exploiting her access to county databases. CalFresh is California's version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. According to the Justice Department, the alleged scheme took place between December 2020 and April 2025. https://twitter.com/FBISacramento/status/1999625371268886611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1999625371268886611%7Ctwgr%5Ee26f93739a10984d47aeb35b0088270daeb01aef%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fdoj-charges-california-food-stamp-official-sending-benefits%2F Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/KevinKileyCA/status/2002791344566411594?s=20   “high-risk.” This means they exhibit serious “waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement,” costing taxpayers billions. The number has doubled during Newsom’s tenure. I bet you California fraud is 10 times worse than Minnesota. https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2002457150904238280?s=20   taxpayer dollars, per NYP. A HUD audit found that at least 221 deceased people received grants. MORE FRAUD! Expose it all! (VIDEO) Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna Announce Plans to Bring Inherent Contempt Charges Against Attorney General Pam Bondi Over Epstein Files – “We're Building a Bipartisan Coalition”  Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), the authors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Trump last month, announced their intention to bring charges for inherent contempt against Attorney General Pam Bondi.  Under the rarely used congressional power, “the House or Senate has its Sergeant-At-Arms, or deputy, take a person into custody for proceedings to be held in Congress,” according to the National Constitution Center. However, it is unclear how effective this would be in the face of legal challenges and the executive branch's power. This is the latest in an escalating saga of threats, with Massie and Khanna claiming the DOJ has not complied fully with the law due to redactions in the files and not releasing every document available. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared on NBC's Meet the Press this morning, where he dared Massie and Khanna to “bring it on,” maintaining that the DOJ is simply following the law and taking the necessary time to make redactions before releasing all of the files. Blanche told NBC's Kristen Welker that ensuring victim information is redacted “very much Trumps some deadline in the statute,” and he dared Khanna and Massie to file Articles of Impeachment. “We are complying with the statute, we will continue to comply with the statute, and if by complying with the statute, we don't produce everything on Friday, we produce things next week, and the week after, that's still compliance with the statute,” Blanche added. Source: thegatewaypundit.com Trump is ‘bored, tired and running on fumes’ — and he’s given up the fight: analyst A year into his second term, Donald Trump has undergone a major change in “tactics” as he deflects questions about his policies — and it’s an indication that he is now “just running on fumes,” an analyst wrote Monday. Salon's Amanda Marcotte pointed out that the president has developed an over-reliance on deflecting questions while claiming he is not up to speed on the topic or person he is being asked about, and that often begins with, “I don't know…” That is a change from his previous deflections, where he promised everything would sort itself out in “two weeks.”  Source: rawstory.com President Trump's Plan https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2002836773236306381?s=20   polygraph which they claim he failed to justify keeping their activities secret from Trump’s team. Scott isn’t blocking Plankey because he’s unqualified, he’s blocking him until Trump restores a Coast Guard shipbuilding contract for one of his major political donors Brian D'Isernia – he’s the CEO of Eastern Shipbuilding Group. Scott's hold has blocked Plankey from being included in the bipartisan nominations package the Senate GOP leadership is advancing before year-end. Because the Senate is winding down for the session, that procedural blockage likely means Plankey's nomination will expire unless resubmitted in the next Congress. Career staff at CISA repeatedly denied Acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala access to intelligence programs and urged him not to ask questions. After arranging an illegal polygraph, they used a claimed failure to freeze him out and leak to reporters. DHS acting security chief Michael Boyajian suspended at least six officials for misleading leadership and blocking classified access needed to run the agency. Trump to replace nearly 30 career diplomats in ambassadorial positions with ‘America First' allies The U.S. chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January 2026; all of them had taken up their posts in the Biden administration The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the U.S. diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of President Donald Trump's “America First” priorities. All of them had taken up their posts in the Joe Biden administration but had survived an initial purge in the early months of Mr. Trump's second term that targeted mainly political appointees. That changed on Wednesday (December 17, 2025) when they began to receive notices from officials in Washington about their imminent departures.  How Trump shifted America's policy in a week Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the President, although they typically remain at their posts for three to four years. Those affected by the shake-up are not losing their foreign service jobs but will be returning to Washington for other assignments should they wish to take them, the officials said. Africa is the continent most affected by the removals, with ambassadors from 13 countries being removed: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda. Second is Asia, with ambassadorial changes coming to six countries: Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam affected. Four countries in Europe (Armenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia) are affected; as are two each in the Middle East (Algeria and Egypt); South and Central Asia (Nepal and Sri Lanka); and the Western Hemisphere (Guatemala and Suriname). Source: thehindu.com  Denmark Furious After Trump Names Special Envoy To Greenland Following Landry’s appointment, Rasmussen told Reuters in an emailed statement, “The appointment confirms the continued American interest in Greenland. However, we insist that everyone—including the U.S.—must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.” This prompted Denmark to summon the U.S. ambassador. Danish officials also summoned the U.S. ambassador in August after a report that at least three people with connections to Trump carried out covert influence operations in Greenland. Source: zerohedge.com Deep State Apoplectic with Trump's Use of Emissaries to Deliver Results President Trump is ducking and weaving through some of the deepest Machiavellian constructs, while maintaining forward progress. To put context to it, these creeps have had four years to strategize how to control Trump and manipulate policy with their retention of all sorts of government agencies in alignment with the status quo.  Yet, remarkably President Trump is dancing through their deep state minefield while keeping dozens of plates spinning on sticks.  The use of non-traditional emissaries is really making them angry.  , the use of emissaries outside the govt framework of traditional policy was going to be a key facet in any America-First agenda. The Deep State does not like President Trump's use of emissaries to conduct foreign policy.  In fact, they oppose it strongly; they hate it. The “emissary” is the person who carries the word of President Trump to any person identified by President Trump.  The emissary is very much like a tape recording of President Trump in human form.  The emissary travels to a location, meets a particular person or group, and then recites the opinion of the President.  The words spoken by the emissary, are the words of President Trump. The IC cannot inject themselves into this dynamic; that is why it is so valuable. The emissary then hears the response from the intended person or group, repeats it back to them to ensure he/she will return with clarity of intent as expressed, and then returns to the office of the presidency and repeats the reply for the President.  The emissary recites back exactly what he was /is told. This process is critical when you understand how thoroughly compromised the full Executive Branch is.  More importantly, this process becomes even more critical when you accept the Intelligence Community will lie to the office of the President to retain their power and position. (read more) Source: theconservativetreehouse.com https://twitter.com/TheStormRedux/status/2002736237996646560?s=20   signature on the absentee ballot he didn't even ask for. It was clearly forged. @GaSecofState please explain how this is a “clerical error.” https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2002795573490143432?s=20   3. The Congress of the United States shall determine the type and nature of documents that qualify as valid proof of citizenship for purposes of voting in federal elections. 4. Any federal, state or local official who knowingly allows any person to vote in federal elections without such proof of citizenship being validly presented shall be subject to such criminal penalties as the Congress of the United States may prescribe. 5. In the event of any conflict between this Amendment and Article 1, Section 4, the terms of this Amendment shall control. (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");