2026 is the year of clarity. All the veils are going to fall. People are going to show you who they are.
That can be frightening. Sometimes it&#8217;s difficult to deal with the realities of life, the realities of people you once trusted, showing themselves to be something else. It can also be surprising and heartening because sometimes people show themselves to be a lot better than you thought they were.
But this year, events in the United States and the world more broadly are going to unmask nearly everyone.
Why?
Because we are on the precipice of something pretty big. And when big things happen, when the world becomes more chaotic, people reveal themselves. Adversity reveals character.
And we&#8217;re about to experience some adversity as Americans.
Where will that adversity come from? It could come from the international sphere. Adversity may spring from China&#8217;s authoritarian ambitions against Taiwan, or its global desire to expand power bases from Africa to Latin America. Already, we&#8217;ve seen some politicians and commentators shying away from revealing the realities about China, fearful that doing so could undercut their delusional vision of a world in which America in retreat is somehow good rather than harmful.
Adversity could arise from the continued conflict between Russia and Ukraine, or from Russia&#8217;s growing ambitions in the region as well as globally. Many figures are already revealing themselves in their views of Russia, often evidencing shocking blindness toward what Russia is, what Russia wants, up to and including full-scale propagandizing on behalf of a tyrannical regime steeped in hatred toward the values of the United States.
Adversity could come from Iran&#8217;s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and international terrorism, or its desperate desire to stave off internal regime change, or from its propaganda arms in Qatar and elsewhere, pushing anti-Western, anti-American bull****.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2339-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Many politicians and commentators are already showing themselves willing to do anything and everything on behalf of such regimes, up to and including flying cover for radical Islam.
Adversity might emanate from chaos in our southern hemisphere — where rogue states like Venezuela were pursuing deeper relations with our enemies until President Trump acted — or from Europe, where unchecked immigration combined with regulatory overreach threatens to doom an entire continent to stagnation and disarray.
It could come from any other variety of sources on the foreign front.
The world is a chaotic place. It&#8217;s a more chaotic place when America is weak, as many on the Left and the Right wish to make it.
Adversity could arise domestically, too. Adversity may come in the form of economic turmoil. While the economy right now appears to be in pretty good shape, no one knows how the current AI investment cycle will play out in the short term.
And economic turmoil brings with it political vultures. Already, we&#8217;ve seen some conservatives turning away from the defense of free markets in favor of statism. That seems more familiar from the Left, and we see leftists embracing the most extreme versions of wealth seizure and collectivist centralization.
Adversity will certainly originate in the size and scope of our massive and bureaucratic government, which provides extraordinary obstacles to American achievement and overwhelming support to people who are willing to steal from their fellow Americans.
Adversity will certainly come, too, in the form of reactionary posturing. Lies told by the Left will be mirrored in lies told by the Right and vice versa, resulting in a continued spiral of conspiratorial polarization, totally disconnected from the actual lives of most Americans. Already, we&#8217;ve seen cynical politicians and morally corrupt commentators spew untruths in pursuit of algorithmic momentum, and that is definitely going to accelerate this year.
Politicians and commentators reveal themselves in how they react to adversity. Do they react by telling you the truth, no matter how much their audience might dislike it? Or do they lie to you by telling you the things they think you want to hear? Do they react out of principle or out of convenience? Do they recommend coalition solidarity at the expense of basic decency, integrity, and truth?
In other words, do they treat you like a sucker or do they treat you like a citizen?
Of course, it&#8217;s an election year, and that means that we&#8217;re going to be swamped by lies and prevarication, by a lot of politicians who promise the moon and deliver nothing. We&#8217;ll be swamped, too, by commentators who suggest that political failure results from a general lack of Nietzschean will, rather than the complicated give and take of normal day-to-day politics. And they will argue that if you get more outraged, conspiratorial, and angry, somehow our politics will improve.
How will we Americans react to that adversity, that onslaught of cultivated resentment and Machiavellian manipulation?
The American republic is founded, on the one hand, in a fundamental supposition that human beings are capable of discernment, of acting morally when faced with adversity, of preferring truth to comforting falsehood, and of recognizing our own fallibility.
On the other hand, the American republic is also founded on the reality of the darker side of human nature — our tribalism, our venality, our selfishness.
All of which, when put together, is why our Founders preferred a republic of checks and balances rather than a Francoist dictatorship or a purer democracy.
It&#8217;s why James Madison wrote in Federalist 51:
<blockquote>Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? 
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.</blockquote>
In the end, it&#8217;s up to us. We have to become better at discernment. We have to act with humility.
We, the American people, must discern who is telling us the truth, even when we don&#8217;t want to hear it, and who is lying to us out of audience capture or political expediency or sycophancy. We have to work to preserve the checks and balances of our system, even checks and balances that might seem to deprive us of temporary power.
If we don&#8217;t, we risk an authoritarian centralization that turns against basic freedom. What&#8217;s more, we risk an arrogance about our own nature that surely turns to disaster, even if our side seems to have that temporary upper hand.
Most of all, we have to remember this: People who promise utopia, an end to adversity, an end to the chaos and turmoil of life, so long as you give them your trust and your power, are providing you a Faustian bargain in which you receive neither utopia nor freedom.
Those who tell you that your future is not in your hands, and who encourage you to surrender whatever is left of that future to a demoralizing conspiracism, are lying to you, and they are lying to you for their own gain.
You deserve better than that. We all deserve better than that.
So let 2026 be a year of clarity.
Let people reveal themselves for who they are and believe them when they show you.
And may we all approach the adversities of whatever comes our way with the courage, conviction, and decency that make America truly great.

2026flag

2026: The Year Of Clarity

China

Donald Trump

Nicolas Maduro

Opinion

Russia

Venezuela

KYIV, Jan 2 (Reuters) &#8211; Russian missiles struck a multi-story apartment building in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Friday, leaving the building in ruins and killing at least two people and injuring about 25 more, officials said.
Russia denied the attack had taken place, suggesting that an explosion at the site was caused by Ukrainian ammunition.
Photographs and videos posted online showed smoke rising from an area of destruction, with emergency crews making their way through rubble and large chunks of building materials.
Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on Telegram, said that according to preliminary information the bodies of a woman and her son were found under rubble.
Speaking earlier on Ukrainian television, Syniehubov said two ballistic missiles had struck the area and &#8220;nearly destroyed a five-story dwelling.&#8221;
&#8220;Rescue teams are on site,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They are primarily clearing rubble and searching for people underneath.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1022717" style="width: 868px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1022717" class="wp-image-1022717 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T165850Z_1_LYNXMPEM010DA_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-858x576.jpg" alt="" width="858" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T165850Z_1_LYNXMPEM010DA_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-858x576.jpg 858w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T165850Z_1_LYNXMPEM010DA_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T165850Z_1_LYNXMPEM010DA_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-768x516.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T165850Z_1_LYNXMPEM010DA_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-1536x1031.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T165850Z_1_LYNXMPEM010DA_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-2048x1375.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px" />Firefighters work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian air strike, amid Russia&#8217;s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine January 2, 2026. REUTERS/Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy</div>
Ukraine&#8217;s state Emergency Services said it was deploying find people it believed were still trapped under the ruins of the building.
Syniehubov earlier said 25 people were injured, with 16 in hospital, including a woman in serious condition. He said customers may have been at shops and a cafe on the building&#8217;s first floor when the explosion occurred.
<div id="attachment_1022719" style="width: 871px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1022719" class="wp-image-1022719 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T171058Z_1_LYNXMPEM010IN_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-861x576.jpg" alt="" width="861" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T171058Z_1_LYNXMPEM010IN_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-861x576.jpg 861w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T171058Z_1_LYNXMPEM010IN_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T171058Z_1_LYNXMPEM010IN_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-768x514.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T171058Z_1_LYNXMPEM010IN_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/2026-01-02T171058Z_1_LYNXMPEM010IN_RTROPTP_4_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ATTACK-KHARKIV-2048x1370.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" />Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian air strike, amid Russia&#8217;s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine January 2, 2026. REUTERS/Vitalii Hnidyi</div>
Russia&#8217;s Defense Ministry, writing on Telegram, said reports of an attack were untrue and suggested the blast at the site had been caused by the detonation of Ukrainian ammunition.
&#8220;Published video footage seconds before the explosion shows thick smoke of unknown origin which, to a high probability, would indicate that a detonation of stored Ukrainian military ammunition occurred at the &#8216;Persona&#8217; shopping centre,&#8221; it said.
The ministry said the reports sought to distract world attention from a New Year&#8217;s Eve strike, which it blamed on Ukraine, on a hotel in a Russian-held part of Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Ukraine responded by saying its strikes were aimed at Russian military and energy targets.
The area&#8217;s Russia-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, told TASS news agency on Friday that the death toll in that incident had risen to 28.
Located 30 km (18 miles) from the border, Kharkiv withstood Russian advances in the early weeks of Russia&#8217;s February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbor.
With Russia&#8217;s forces focused since on capturing eastern regions of the country, the city has been a frequent target of aerial attacks.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Ron Popeski, Gareth Jones and Alistair Bell)

REUTERS/Vitalii Hnidyi

Russian Strike On Ukraine’s Kharkiv Kills Two, Injures 25; Moscow Denies Attack Took Place

Ukraine

Ukraine-Russia War

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of targeting civilians over the New Year, with Moscow reporting a deadly strike on a hotel in territory it occupies in southern Ukraine while Kyiv said there had been another broad attack on its power supplies.
The reports coincide with intensive talks overseen by U.S. President Donald Trump and aimed at bringing an end to the nearly four-year-old war. Each country has said the other is doing all it can to influence his views and shape the outcome.
&#8220;On New Year, Russia deliberately brings war. Over 200 attack drones were launched onto Ukraine in the night,&#8221; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, saying energy infrastructure in seven regions across Ukraine had been targeted.
Russia accused Ukraine of killing at least 24 people, including a child, in a drone strike on a hotel and cafe where civilians were seeing in the New Year in a Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine&#8217;s military, which has accused Russia of killing many civilians in its own attacks on Ukrainian cities, said it targeted strictly military and energy targets, but made no specific reference to accounts of the strike on the hotel.
Zelensky said that Russia&#8217;s holiday season attacks showed Ukraine could not afford delays in air defense supplies.
&#8220;(Our) allies have the names of equipment which we are lacking. We expect that everything agreed with the United States at the end of December for our defense will arrive on time,&#8221; he said, without clarifying further.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the region, said three Ukrainian drones had hit the celebrations in Khorly, a coastal village, in what he said was a &#8220;deliberate strike&#8221; against civilians. He said that many people had been burnt alive.
Russia&#8217;s Foreign Ministry said that as well as the 24 dead, 50 people had been injured.
It said the strike, as well as other drone attacks blamed on Ukraine, sought to &#8220;divert attention from the failures of the Ukrainian military at the front. The Kyiv regime is trying to prove its viability through terrorist acts.&#8221;
On Monday, Moscow accused Kyiv of trying to strike a residence of President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian and European officials have said the incident did not happen and U.S. security officials were also reported to have found that Ukraine did not target the residence.
A senior Russian military chief handed to a U.S. military attache what he said was part of a Ukrainian drone containing data he said proved that the Ukrainian military had targeted the residence.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the reported Kherson region attack or photographs of what Saldo&#8217;s press service said was the aftermath on Thursday. Saldo said he had briefed Putin on the details of the attack.
The images showed at least one dead body was visible beneath a white sheet. The building showed signs that a fire had raged and there were what looked like blood stains on the ground. Russia&#8217;s TASS news agency published video showing drone fragments, some with Ukrainian writing on them.
Ukrainian officials regularly report civilian deaths from Russian air attacks, including in the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson, which lies near the front line.
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The Ukrainian governor of Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said that one man had been killed and an 87-year-old woman injured in attacks on the city on Thursday.
Ukraine&#8217;s deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said rail facilities had been attacked in three regions.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday its strikes had hit military targets, as well as energy infrastructure which it claimed was being used to support Ukraine&#8217;s military.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia&#8217;s Security Council, told TASS that those who carried out the hotel attack and their commanders should be targeted.
Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine which Russia claimed as its own in 2022, a move Kyiv and most Western countries denounced as an illegal land grab.
Moscow&#8217;s Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said Russian air defence units had downed 35 Ukrainian drones over the past 24 hours. He reported no casualties or damage.
(Reporting by Max Hunder and Reuters bureaux; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Ros Russell and Ron Popeski)

Russia And Ukraine Trade Allegations Of Civilian Attacks On New Year’s Day

Global Politics

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

World

Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. In this piece, originally published in April, Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro offered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the opportunity to respond to accusations that Christians are being persecuted in Ukraine.
Ben Shapiro confronted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over allegations of Christian persecution and forcibly conscripting men off the street in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-probes-zelensky-in-ukraine-as-clock-ticks-on-peace-deal?author=Kassy+Akiva&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ben+Shapiro+Probes+Zelensky+In+Ukraine+As+Clock+Ticks+On+Peace+Deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">face-to-face interview</a> in war-torn Kyiv this week.
Shapiro questioned Zelensky on the concerns that he has cracked down on the religious freedom of the Russian Orthodox Church — marking one of the first times the Ukrainian leader has been pressed on such issues by a member of the American media.
“There have been a lot of accusations that there&#8217;s been a crackdown on religious freedom in Ukraine, particularly with regard to the Russian Orthodox Church,” Shapiro said. “Maybe you can respond to the accusations that there&#8217;s a restriction on religious freedom with regard to Russian Orthodox in Ukraine.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cVRuLaEJij0?si=Zhu_-bwlGUIKhCYN" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe> 
Zelensky started off by observing that Shapiro witnessed him moments before the interview holding a meeting with the leaders of 15 different religious sects who make up the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.
“We have a meeting like that a couple of times per year, and I truly visit some of the churches’ sites,” he said. “I believe that what Ukraine has is the largest council of churches in Europe. All of our churches are united — different religions, different believers, and everyone is united.”
Zelensky said that there is no pressure on religious institutions generally, but admitted that the Ukrainian government has cracked down on some churches that he believes are working on behalf of Russia’s intelligence agency.
“The Moscow church is just another agency of the KGB,” Zelensky said. “Everyone knows that Russia’s special services are in control of the church.”
Zelensky said that the churches must be free of influence and that “Moscow cannot be in control.”
“The legislative changes in Ukraine are related to the fact that there could be no connection between Moscow and the church,” Zelensky said, referring to a 2024 law <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/10/30/ukraine-new-law-raises-religious-freedom-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banning religious organizations</a> with ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/10/30/ukraine-new-law-raises-religious-freedom-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Human Rights Watch</a> raised concerns about the law&#8217;s broad scope and its potential to target the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the country’s main religious body, founded in 1990 when it split from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Zelensky denied that any churches were closed but pointed out that he and Shapiro were outside the Saint Sophia Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site, whose foundations are believed to have been laid in 1011.
“Sophia is older than Russia&#8217;s capital city and any churches they have,” Zelensky said. “That&#8217;s the answer. We shouldn&#8217;t be having any disputes. We have scientific evidence. We are just saying that our church should be free from any authorities. It&#8217;s free for the people.”
“Nobody closed anything or anyone. But it can&#8217;t be the case that Russia&#8217;s KGB is in control of the church in Ukraine. Everyone is against these legal ties.”
Shapiro also pressed Zelensky on the reports that Ukrainian men have been kidnapped off the streets and forcibly recruited into the military — a claim that Vice President JD Vance brought up during Zelensky’s contentious <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-and-vance-clash-with-zelensky-in-fiery-white-house-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oval Office meeting</a> in March.
“There have been reports online that people are being picked up off the streets and in places in eastern Ukraine and recruited into services,” Shapiro asked. “How do you respond to accusations and videos like that?”
In response, Zelensky called the act “military mobilization” and said that it’s a policy created in accordance with martial law after the 2022 Russian invasion.
“The country is at war,” Zelensky said. “That is why we do have mobilization. We want the war to end…but as long as there is war, as long as we have the law, there is still mobilization.”
Zelensky downplayed the accusations, claiming that there are “different approaches&#8221; to military mobilization and that taking men off the streets is not “the main thing that describes Ukraine today.”
“No, Ukraine has 800,000 right now, or 600,000 people who volunteered to go to the army,” he said. “That was the law on mobilization, but the people were volunteering to go and defend Ukraine.”
Zelensky added that the issue is “not massive” and that he believes law enforcement should be “making sure that everything would be transparent” and that there is “no coercion.”
“We shouldn&#8217;t be hiding that like a corruption,” he went on. “If we are fighting with this on an everyday basis — well, of course, you can hide it, like everything, as in [the] case in Russia or in some European countries — but Ukraine clearly shows that it is fighting on a constant basis against aspects like that. But those are kind of singular cases. This is not massive. That&#8217;s more important, and that should be reducing on a daily basis. We&#8217;re doing that.”

Ben Shapiro

Best Of 2025: Ben Shapiro Confronts Zelensky On Christian Persecution And Conscription In Exclusive Interview

President Donald Trump talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, as the United States seeks to finally bring an end to the Ukraine-Russia war.
Trump&#8217;s discussion with Putin on Monday was &#8220;positive,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/2005668576771051870">according</a> to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who did not reveal any details of the phone call. Trump also <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115798213364038844">said</a> he spoke to Putin in a &#8220;productive telephone call&#8221; just prior to his meeting with Zelensky on Sunday.
During a press conference alongside Zelensky following their meeting, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-peace-deal-in-ukraine-is-closer-than-ever-save-a-few-thorny-issues">said</a> that he believes a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is &#8220;closer than ever,&#8221; adding, “In a few weeks, we will know one way or the other.” Zelensky added that Ukrainian negotiators have agreed to about 90% of Trump&#8217;s 20-point peace plan, while Trump said Ukraine agreed to 95% of it. Trump proposed a 28-point peace plan last month, but it was reduced to 20 points during negotiations.
“Our meeting was excellent, we covered — somebody would say 95 percent, I don’t know what percent — but we have made a lot of progress on ending that war,” Trump said on Sunday.
While Trump remains optimistic about the peace negotiations, Putin has shown no signs of slowing down his campaign to take over Ukraine.
Russia continued to pummel Ukraine with missiles and drones over the weekend, just ahead of Trump&#8217;s meeting with Zelensky. Kyiv, along with other parts of Ukraine, was targeted with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday. At least two people were killed, and 46 others were wounded in the attacks, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-drones-missiles-pound-ukraine-before-zelenskiy-trump-meeting-2025-12-27/">reported</a>. Zelensky argued that Russia’s aggression was a direct response by Putin to Ukraine’s negotiations with Trump.
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&#8220;Today, Russia demonstrated how it responds to peaceful negotiations between Ukraine and the United States to end Russia&#8217;s war against Ukraine,&#8221; Zelensky said on Saturday.
Russia also accused Ukraine of targeting a presidential residence in a drone attack that was thwarted by Russian defenses. Zelensky denied the accusation, calling it a &#8220;new lie&#8221; from Moscow.
Russia has signaled that it does not agree with some of Trump&#8217;s peace plan, including how large Ukraine&#8217;s military would remain under the conditions, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-29/trump-putin-held-positive-call-on-ukraine-white-house-says">reported</a>. Another major sticking point in the negotiations is Ukraine’s Donbas region, which is largely under Russian control despite continued fighting by Ukrainian troops.
Zelensky, meanwhile, said on Monday that he wants security guarantees from the United States to last up to 50 years if he agrees to the peace deal. Under the current proposal, the United States and Europe would provide security guarantees for 15 years, with the possibility for an extension.
“I would like the guarantee to be much longer,” Zelensky said. “We would like to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years and then it will be a historic decision by Trump.”

U.S. President Trump And Russian  President Putin Meet On War In Ukraine At U.S. Air Base In Alaska

Trump Holds ‘Positive’ Call With Putin After Zelensky Meeting

Executive

Politics

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are set to meet again on Sunday — this time at Mar-a-Lago — in hopes of moving closer to a finalized peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
Zelensky <a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2004443773309485550">confirmed</a> in an early morning post on Friday that he would be meeting with Trump &#8220;in the near future,&#8221; and Ukrainian officials said the meeting was scheduled for Sunday, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/12/26/zelensky-trump-meet-ukraine-peace-plan">reported</a>. A White House official confirmed to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/26/world-news/trump-zelensky-meeting-planned-for-near-future-signaling-ukraine-war-progress/">New York Post</a> on Friday morning that the meeting will take place at Trump&#8217;s massive Florida estate, where he is expected to remain until January 4.
&#8220;We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the New Year. Glory to Ukraine!&#8221; said Zelensky.
The meeting signals that the Trump administration remains optimistic that an agreement could be close. Zelensky spoke over the phone with Trump&#8217;s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president&#8217;s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Christmas Day, with a U.S. official saying that the administration has &#8220;made more progress in the last two weeks than the last year.&#8221;
After his call with Witkoff and Kushner, Zelensky said he was hopeful that the &#8220;Christmas understandings and the ideas we discussed will prove useful.&#8221;
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“We went into many details; there are good ideas, which we discussed. We have some new ideas in terms of formats, meetings, and, of course, timing on how to bring a real peace closer,&#8221; Zelensky <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/world/europe/zelensky-trump-ukraine-russia.html">said</a>.
&#8220;We are truly working 24/7 to bring closer the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable,&#8221; he added.
The Trump administration recently proposed a 28-point peace plan in another effort to bring an end to the war that is nearing the four-year mark. Zelensky has suggested that Ukraine agrees with some of the details of the plan, while adding that he wants to negotiate on other points. Under the plan, the Ukraine would agree to withdraw its troops from some of the disputed areas in Eastern Ukraine, which would become a demilitarized &#8220;free economic zone.&#8221; In return, the United States and Europe would give Ukraine security guarantees.
Russia, however, seems intent on taking control of all of the Donbas region. Another point of the peace proposal that has caused negotiations to stall is who will control of Ukraine&#8217;s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Trump/Zelensky

End Of Year Peace Push: Trump To Host Ukraine’s Zelensky At Mar-A-Lago

Trump To Meet Zelensky At Mar-A-Lago As U.S. Seeks To Push Peace Proposal Over The Finish Line

A Russian general and his assistant were killed by a car bomb in Moscow on Monday, with investigators saying it&#8217;s possible Ukrainian operatives orchestrated the attack.
Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, who was head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed in the blast, along with his assistant, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-explosion-general-killed-sarvarov-73413ae5936609832f706ab26f864b3c">reported</a>. Russian authorities said that investigators &#8220;are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services.”
Sarvarov is the third senior Russian military officer to be killed by a car bombing in the past year. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of the assassinations, including the killing of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who led Russia&#8217;s nuclear, biological, and chemical protection forces. Kirillov was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ukraine-kills-top-russian-general-in-moscow">killed</a> last December by a bomb placed on an electric scooter outside his apartment building.
“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical substances against the Ukrainian military,” a Ukrainian official said at the time. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”
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Russia arrested an Uzbek man who was charged with carrying out the attack last year on behalf of Ukraine. Putin called the assassination of Kirillov a &#8220;major blunder&#8221; by Russian security agencies.
Then in April, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskali was killed in Moscow by a bomb placed near his parked car, according to the AP. Ukraine did not directly take credit for Moskali&#8217;s killing, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the time that he received a briefing on the “liquidation” of top Russian military officials, adding that “justice inevitably comes.”
The killings of top Russian military leaders have come as Ukraine has held off Russian forces for nearly four years. The exact number of casualties Russia has suffered since launching its invasion in February 2022 is unclear, but President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-lot-of-unnecessary-death-trump-drops-new-figures-on-russian-battlefield-losses">said</a> in August that he had been told that over 112,000 Russians have been killed during the &#8220;ridiculous war.&#8221; Trump has been pushing Putin to agree to a peace deal with Ukraine to end the bloodshed, arguing that Russia is taking the brunt of the losses.

Russian General

Another Russian General Taken Out By Car Bomb On Moscow Street

Bombings

As President Donald Trump mediates discussions between Russia and Ukraine, experts are largely united in assessing the negotiation as a supremely difficult diplomatic balancing act, but opinions differ on just how to handle it.
“Consider the magnitude of this negotiation–a major nuclear power is at war with its southern neighbor. It is a war that Russia considers existential. And of course, it is likewise existential to the Ukrainians, who are enduring the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945,” Morgan Murphy, a former Trump White House official who is running for U.S. Senate in Alabama, told The Daily Wire.
“Looking at the players and scale involved, it’s fair to say that this is the toughest negotiation for any American president since the Cuban Missile Crisis,” he added.
As president, Trump is responsible for first seeing to the interests of the United States. Experts questioned by The Daily Wire agreed that the interests of the United States lie in an end to the war. But experts voiced varying opinions on the priorities that Trump should focus on in the negotiation.
The price for Russia’s aggression must be steep, according to Retired Air Force General Bruce Carlson. Likewise, the price for peace cannot unduly limit Ukraine’s ability to protect itself from the potential of future attacks.
“Putin is a tyrant who only understands one thing: power. Any peace deal must provide unmatched consequences for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Carlson told The Daily Wire.
One of the previous frameworks of a peace deal proposed by the Trump administration included a cap on Ukraine’s military, a clause that sparked backlash from Ukraine and European officials. Carlson is sympathetic to the Ukrainian outrage.
“The only acceptable caps on Ukraine’s military size would be those based on Ukraine’s own security analysis,” said Carlson.
“Following an acceptable solution to ending this senseless war and Russia’s demonstration that it will adhere to the conditions of a peace agreement, economic sanctions on Russia would be lifted, and relations with America, Ukraine, and our NATO allies reset,” he added.
Carrie Filipetti is the executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition and an alum of the first Trump administration. She said that Russia must be penalized enough to deter future aggression, or else Europe, Ukraine, and the United States may be thrown back into another conflict soon.
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“The tenets of an ‘America First’ peace deal are clear: As America, we want to end forever wars, and that means future wars, too. The costs have to be high enough for Putin that his calculus is permanently changed to stop threatening U.S. national security interests and the sovereignty of his neighbors,” Filipetti told The Daily Wire. She also said that the penalties need to be severe enough to make China hesitate over starting a conflict over Taiwan.
“Another critical issue for any deal is that Russia must no longer be able to threaten Ukrainian churches or Ukrainian children,” added Filipetti. “President Trump has been a huge fighter for hostages around the world, and Ukrainian children are being held hostage right now in Russia. And as First Lady Melania Trump has championed, we must ensure Putin returns the tens of thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children who are currently in so-called ‘re-education’ camps across Russia.”
Corruption in the Ukrainian government has been one of the chief hindrances to Ukraine’s war effort. Experts said the corruption should not in itself be the determining factor in the United States&#8217; decision to aid Ukraine.
“No one wants to see corruption. But war is the greatest evil in the world, and corruption is not to be unanticipated. I’m very impressed with how the Ukrainians are dealing with it,” said Carlson.
Murphy pointed out that corruption has been endemic to Ukraine for many years &#8212; long before the war began. He referenced a recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/world/europe/ukraine-corruption-zelensky.html">article</a> in The New York Times that alleged deep corruption within Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle.
“The New York Times should pause to consider why so many scandals in Washington, D.C., over the past decade have some tie to Ukraine — from Burisma paying Hunter Biden $83,000 a month to the Clinton Foundation and uranium sales to Russia to the DNC working with Ukrainian embassy staff to dig dirt on Trump’s campaign manager. It all touches Ukraine,” said Murphy.

Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky

What’s An ‘America First’ Peace Plan For Ukraine And Russia? We Asked The Experts.

United States

President Donald Trump on Friday honored members of the U.S. men&#8217;s ice hockey team who beat their Soviet rivals in what was called the &#8220;Miracle on Ice&#8221; during the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid.
Trump hosted the players in the Oval Office and signed a bill to award congressional medals in the team&#8217;s honor. All were wearing white cowboy hats, and Trump briefly donned one, too. The team wore the hats during the opening ceremony of the 1980 Winter Olympics.
&#8220;This was one of the biggest moments that I&#8217;ve ever seen in sports &#8230; These are the men that gave us one of the most storied athletic wins of all time,&#8221; Trump said.
The event, with 13 members of the gold medal-winning team, included captain Mike Eruzione, goaltender Jim Craig and forward Buzz Schneider. The son of deceased coach Herb Brooks was also in attendance.
One of the team&#8217;s members, Ken Morrow, told Trump that the &#8220;USA! USA!&#8221; chant, now common at Trump rallies, originated in Lake Placid. &#8220;That&#8217;s right! I tried to take credit for that,&#8221; Trump responded.
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Captain Eruzione praised his team for not just winning against the Soviets but also in the final game versus Finland. &#8220;A lot of us take great pride in knowing that we closed the deal,&#8221; he said.
The squad of U.S. college players ended the Soviets&#8217; reign as four-time Olympic champions with a 4-3 triumph that many consider the greatest upset in the history of sport.
The U.S. beat the Soviet team 4-3 in the semi-finals, winning the gold two days later against Finland.
The game captivated Americans during bitter Cold War tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The American players were inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Trump Honors ‘Miracle On Ice’ Hockey Players Who Defeated Soviets In 1980

Hockey

Sports

U.S.

White House

The United States is facing down an existential threat right now.
That existential threat comes from a lack of willpower. It comes from a doubt about what America is. But in terms of foreign policy, that existential threat comes from a team-up that has been growing.
That team-up is between China — which is really the sponsor state of the anti-American bloc — and its friends like Russia and Iran.
The existential threat doesn&#8217;t mean that China is going to attack the United States.
It does mean that as the United States recedes from the world, Russia will expand its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. China will expand its sphere of influence, not just in the Far East, but also in Africa, across the rest of Asia into South America. The United States is going to be in the unenviable position of having to withdraw from the world, and we will no longer be able to guarantee freedom of the seas.
A United States with no economic allies, a United States that is a secondary partner for all the rest of these countries while China is a primary partner, is a United States that has an economy that is shrinking, a United States that is forced within its own borders.
That is a problem.
There is this bizarre notion that has arisen on the Right that if the United States were to be essentially an autarky and withdraw from the rest of the world, suddenly things would get better. The belief that the amount that we expend in foreign aid, for example, or military expenditure, is a complete waste of money, and if we just spent that money at home, then magically everything would get better.
The problem, of course, is that the world is interconnected. The reason that you can obtain better, cheaper products that make your life easier every single day is because the interconnection of world trade makes that possible. And that, of course, is only possible because of the power of the United States economy and the power of the United States military.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2330-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Why do I bring that up? Because China seems to be posing a broader and broader threat, and yet there is a bizarre unwillingness on the Left to acknowledge the threat that is China.
And on the Right, there seems to be an unwillingness to deal with the actual realities of what it would mean to face down China in a responsible and coherent fashion.
In the West, there is the bizarre perception that what we ought to do is radically increase tariffs, not just on China — which would be retaliatory and worthwhile — but on everywhere else. 
That is a gigantic mistake. And it leads to questions about the overall policy of the United States vis-à-vis China.
What exactly are we trying to do vis-à-vis China? 
I&#8217;ve made the case that if you wish to face down China, you have to do a few things. One is that you need closer trade and security relationships, not more attenuated relationships, with other countries surrounding China, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and India.
Better relations with those countries will help box in and essentially isolate China. If China wants to cheat, if they don&#8217;t want to play by the rules, if China wishes to beggar its neighbor, let them pursue an autarkic economic policy.
Autarky tends to make the country pursuing it poorer over time. Initially, it looks like an explosion of economic activity, but over time, as countries start pouring resources into less efficient modes of manufacturing in order to do it at home, rather than to import those products from abroad, they tend to empty themselves out.
This is the common pattern in economics. Every mercantilist or fascist economic system that has worked like this shows very good early growth numbers. And then that growth curve eventually peters out, and the country ends up with economic stagnation.
This happened in Japan. It happened in South Korea. If you go back prior to World War II, this happened in Germany. One of the reasons that Germany, under the Nazis, had to become an expansionist power is because Germany tried to pursue economic autarky in the 1930s, and they saw, for a brief moment in time, a gigantic manufacturing boom, people getting off unemployment lines, moving out of the Weimar Republic era.
But as it turns out, they were doing that based on state expenditures that made them less economically viable over the long term. And so then they had to turn to actual physical territorial expansionism.
Autarky very often turns into a necessity for expanding your access to resources, which leads to invasions of other countries. It is not a coincidence that countries that tend to embrace a strong mercantilist policy, an economic policy that focuses on “Let&#8217;s build everything right here at home,” find that when they can’t, they have to expand their own territorial borders or the places under their immediate dominion.
Free trade generally means that you don&#8217;t have to invade other places because you can trade with those other places.
So, when you look at China, how would you stop China? We need to build up better security and economic relationships in the Far East, and also build up better security and economic relationships with Europe.
That means that we can use tariffs as a way to force the Europeans to get rid of their non-tariff barriers. One of the ways I would be forcing the Europeans to pay their fair share is by using things like tariffs, in order to push the Europeans to pay their fair share. When it comes to, for example, the price of pharmaceuticals, Europe pays far less than what the actual market rate should be for pharmaceuticals, and then the United States ends up paying for that via our taxpayers and via our consumers.
That’s just the way that it works. We should stop that.
There are things that we can do to fight the non-tariff barriers and also the unfairness of our systems with Europe. But in the end, we should be pursuing freer trade and better relationships. 
That’s because if you&#8217;re going to box in China, you need to offer both the carrot and the stick to China, but just carrots to our friends. 
When it comes to offering carrots for our friends, we can offer a little bit of the stick in order to achieve the carrot. That is why I&#8217;m not against using tariffs as a way to pressure other countries to lower their tariffs. This is a case that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has made.
You need to box China in. You need to treat them like the adversary they are.
You need to build out other lines of supply. You need supply chains that are diversified, so we&#8217;re not as reliant on China.
You need to cut off China&#8217;s allies at the knees. If we believe, as we should, that Russia is a geopolitical adversary of the United States, then obviously we should be pursuing an attempt to get Russia to stop invading Eastern Europe.
And that means supporting allies in the region to the extent necessary to stop the Russians, because it&#8217;s not as though Russia and China aren&#8217;t talking to each other. They&#8217;re talking very extensively to each other.
If we are attempting to form a better relationship with India, then we should be attempting to form a better relationship with them. We should be trying to make trade relations with India so beneficial to India that they don&#8217;t want to trade with the Chinese. There are natural differences in opinion between China and India, which have nearly come to blows several times over the course of the last several decades.
India and China are not working hand in glove. They have actual territorial conflicts. We could be attempting to pry India out of China&#8217;s sphere of influence. 
These are all things that a responsible foreign policy would do.
And then we certainly would not be shipping many of the most important components in the battle for the future to China.
China is already stealing our intellectual property. China is already cheating when it comes to trade relationships. China is already badgering its neighbors. Why should we be sending some of our most sophisticated microchips produced in the United States? Why should we be allowing those to flow into China? Even if we&#8217;re going to argue that it&#8217;s only a marginal increase in China&#8217;s capacity, why would we allow that increase in China&#8217;s capacity?
China is our geopolitical enemy. They are our opponent. Trying to pretend otherwise is foolish because if you allow China to continue pursuing its normal policies, China will blow itself out.
China has a serious demographic problem. It does not have enough people. China is in steep demographic decline. Even though they have a billion people, they do not have enough human beings to be able to generate the economic growth necessary to pay for their gigantic redistributionist schemes and mercantilist ideas.
They have an enormous debt problem. They&#8217;ve been burying that debt problem in local and regional debt issues, and then building gigantic empty cities rooted in debt that they&#8217;re taking out from their own citizens and against their own citizens.
We tend to look at the fact that China builds some nice things and say, “Wow, they must be doing it right.”
But the fact is that mercantilism looks systematic when you look at the areas where it succeeds, but looks like a trash heap when you look at the areas where it doesn&#8217;t succeed. The areas where you don&#8217;t succeed in a centralized economy are the areas that tend to be ignored, and there are a lot of them.
Capitalism looks really messy, but it has a much higher hit rate because capital follows the best ideas. You don&#8217;t just keep investing in bad ideas the way you do with a centralized economic system, like China.
There are ways to box in China.
The question is whether the United States will actually do it.

China trade cargo container hanging against clouds background

What Do We Do About China?

Economy

Foreign Policy

India

Tariffs

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remained committed to retaining all Ukrainian territory on Monday, pushing back against a key demand in the Trump-initiated proposal to end the war.
After meeting with European leaders to discuss the peace proposal, Zelensky suggested that Ukrainian leaders lacked the authority to give up land and would continue to fight to defend all of its territory.
“Under our laws, under international law — and under moral law — we have no right to give anything away,” Zelensky said, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/08/europe-ukraine-leaders-trump-plan/">The Washington Post</a>. “That is what we are fighting for.”
President Donald Trump told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/09/donald-trump-full-interview-transcript-00681693">POLITICO</a> in a wide-ranging interview that was released on Tuesday that Ukraine needs to &#8220;play ball,&#8221; adding that &#8220;Russia has the upper hand.&#8221;
&#8220;They’re much bigger. They’re much stronger in that sense. I give the people of Ukraine and the military of Ukraine tremendous credit for the bravery and for the fighting and all of that. But you know, at some point, size will win, generally,&#8221; Trump added.
Trump&#8217;s 28-point peace plan, which is on the table before Zelensky and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/trump-zelenskyy-hasnt-read-russia-ukraine-peace-plan-war-europe-putin-rcna247956" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> requires Ukraine to hand over some of its territory to Russia in exchange for the United States giving Ukraine security guarantees. Trump told POLITICO that Zelensky needs to &#8220;get on the ball and start accepting things.&#8221;
The two biggest hurdles to a peace deal are territorial disputes over Ukraine&#8217;s Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg. Russian forces now control most of the Donbas, but Ukraine has not given up the region. Kellogg said over the weekend that Ukraine and Russia are &#8220;really, really close&#8221; to a deal, but Zelensky&#8217;s latest remark and comments from Russian officials suggest otherwise.
Putin’s top foreign policy aide said on Sunday that the United States needs to make “radical changes” to its proposal before Russia moves forward with a deal.
The president said that Russia&#8217;s continued missile strikes on Ukraine, which have killed dozens of civilians in recent weeks, are &#8220;a sad thing for humanity.&#8221;
On Sunday, Trump said that he was &#8220;disappointed&#8221; in Zelensky&#8217;s lack of movement on peace negotiations, accusing the Ukrainian leader of not reading the proposal to end the Ukraine-Russia war.
&#8220;His people love it, but he has it. Russia is fine with it … but I’m not sure Zelensky is fine with it,&#8221; Trump said.
Trump also called on Zelensky to hold an election, something Ukraine has not done since the beginning of the war in February 2022.
&#8220;I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election, but, I would think the Ukrainian people should have that choice,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;And maybe Zelensky would win. I don’t know who would win. But they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.&#8221;

Zelensky Vows Not To Cede Territory As Trump Says Russia Has ‘Upper Hand’

Trump leans on both Ukraine and Russia as peace negotiations grind on, Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak heads to Capitol Hill, and a new memo reveals Biden knew his immigration policies would have chaotic consequences—and chose to proceed anyway.
It’s Tuesday, December 9, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251209-member-exclusive">video version can be seen on The Daily Wir</a>e:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-presses-zelensky-bidens-immigration-ignorance/id1576594336?i=1000740381305" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Zelensky Rallies European Support Amid U.S. Peace Talks</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011783" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Zelensky met with European leaders on Monday to rally support for the war.
State of play: Peace talks have made some progress over the past few weeks, but that progress has stalled. After President Trump <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1997812364931195249">appeared</a> frustrated on Sunday and suggested that Zelensky was ignoring the peace plan, the Ukrainian president addressed the current framework on Monday.
According to Zelensky, the disagreement is over the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east. The Trump administration reportedly wants Ukraine to hand over control of the rest of the Donbas to Russia, which controls most of it already. In return, Ukraine would get security guarantees and financing to help rebuild. But Zelensky says he can’t because the Ukrainian constitution forbids ceding territory that way.
Zelensky’s corner: Zelensky wants a freeze along the current lines of the conflict. And he doesn’t appear to be alone. European leaders seem frustrated, too.
Zelensky appeared in London on Monday and met with the E3, or the top leaders in Europe: U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“The principles remain the principles that we&#8217;ve operated on for a very, very long time, which is that we stand with Ukraine. If there&#8217;s to be a ceasefire, it needs to be a just and lasting ceasefire,” <a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1998077179251261884">said</a> Starmer.
Merz was the most vocal about disagreements with the United States:
“We are still and remain strongly behind Ukraine and giving support to your country because we all know that the destiny of [Ukraine] is the destiny of Europe,” <a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1998077179251261884">said</a> Merz. “I&#8217;m skeptical about some of the details which we are seeing in the documents coming from the U.S. side, but we have to talk about that.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">The Daily Wire To Testify Before Congress </h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011785" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak will testify to the Senate on Wednesday as an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wires-luke-rosiak-will-testify-before-the-senate-on-massive-federal-dei-scheme">expert</a> on what he calls the government’s longest-running, largest, and most corrupt DEI program. Morning Wire spoke to Rosiak ahead of his appearance in the Senate. (The following interview has been lightly edited.)
Morning Wire: The Senate Small Business Committee oversees the Small Business Administration and its government-wide minority contracting program called 8(a) or “set-aside contracting.&#8221; Luke, you’re getting prepared to testify–that’s very exciting. First, how did this come about–it’s actually years in the making, right?
Rosiak: About 15 years ago, I was sitting in a cafe doing some computer programming when I got offered a job. A well-dressed black man was sitting next to me and said he noticed that I was programming in C++, and that he needed to hire some people quickly for the computer programming company he owned.
The problem is I was coding in a different language that looks nothing like C++. I tried to figure out how he owned a computer company and didn’t know that. He said it was an 8(a) contract from the government, and that he just gets contracts and then finds people to do the work.
It struck me that this is a pretty poor way to run the government. I’m not even a professional computer programmer; I just dabble in it. But for all I know, he was ready to hire me to build some sensitive government system.
Anyway, instead of taking the job, I dug into this 8(a) program, and what I found was that that’s more or less exactly how it works.
Morning Wire: Explain to us–what exactly is going on here?
Rosiak: If you’re a racial minority, the government can give you a contract without trying to find the best price or the best person.
More than five percent of all federal contracts are reserved for minorities and women, who are often really just men who put their company in their wife’s name. The program was created in 1978 to help black people, but now it’s gone really off the rails. Indians get preference for contracts even though they have a higher median income than whites, and they’re overrepresented in fields like IT, which didn’t even exist prior to the civil rights era. 
Morning Wire: So some of the people receiving these preferential U.S. government contracts are actually foreigners, people who are minorities because they’re immigrants.
Rosiak: Yes. But what I’m going to tell the Senate is that the scandal here is a little different than you might think. It’s really a loophole exploited by the government and big corporations, you heard Accenture mentioned in that video, to circumvent competitive bidding.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Early Warnings About Border Chaos</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011787" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A new report reveals that former President Biden was told he could’ve stopped illegal immigration, but chose not to during his tenure in the White House. 
A shocking <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/us/politics/biden-immigration-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The New York Times said that President Biden was warned while on the campaign trail, before he even assumed office, that some of his immigration policies would lead to political chaos. That&#8217;s exactly what happened as the consequences of Biden’s policies began to unfold at the border.
The record amounts of illegal immigration that swamped the border, then towns, then major cities, drove the immigration issue to become a priority for voters in the next election. The issue also likely played a major role in President Trump&#8217;s victory.
According to The New York Times, there were a number of memos and meetings where aides and experts brought up immigration and warned the Biden team that his policies needed to be stricter or the border would descend into what it became, which was millions of illegal immigrants coming across in a free-for-all.
In a 2020 memo from aides cautioned Biden’s “inner circle” “that his promises—coupled with pent-up demand from the Trump years and economic hardship from Covid—could provoke a spike in border crossings,” according to the Times.
The memo offered potential solutions to tighten permissions for illegal border crossers, “including making it easier to quickly reject asylum claims; holding people in ‘reception centers’ until their cases could be heard; transferring some migrants to other countries; and continuing to make some asylum seekers wait in Mexico, while ensuring they had access to shelter,” the Times reported.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda: After the fact, many former officials are saying there were many mistakes made on the Biden team and by Biden himself, who knowingly went against this advice. They scrapped rules such as asylum restrictions and remain in Mexico, which kept people in Mexico rather than releasing them into the United States after they crossed illegally.
After the changes, the number of illegal crossings ticked up–8 million illegal immigrants crossed into the country and many were released. Border authorities conducted poor vetting because Biden wanted a very quick, expeditious process. That let in terrorists, traffickers, and cartel members that led to chaos across the country, such as in Aurora, Colorado, where Tren de Aragua took over apartment complexes.

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