Although August talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump were framed as an attempt to explore pathways toward ending the conflict in Ukraine, active combat operations have continued across the special military operation zone. In 2025, the fighting has entered a new technological stage, with drone warfare becoming one of the defining elements of the battlefield.

 

PAVEL MOROZOV
Russia’s Drone War Enters a New Phase in 2025 as Geran Strikes Reach Unprecedented Scale

From Mass Strikes to Laser Defense: How Russia Reshaped the Drone Battlefield in 2025

As a freelance writer, I know I have to produce copy that meets the expectations of editors and management. When I write opinion pieces, I know well that my arguments should closely align with the publication’s general outlook. But I’ve always believed that if my views on any particular topic diverged from an outlet I’m writing for, it was acceptable to express those viewpoints in other publications.

 

I was canceled by three newspapers for criticizing Israel
Editors at right-leaning publications stopped responding to my emails after I wrote columns critical of the war on Gaza in other media outlets...

BY DAVE SEMINARA

 

On 30 January 1933, when Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the German Reich by the President of the German Reich, Paul von Hindenburg, there was still a largely freely elected parliament, various parties and independent associations, a constitution with fundamental rights and separation of powers, and besides Hitler only two National Socialists in the new government of the Reich.

 

Germany is to be brought into line: towards “war readiness”

And who gets racked and ruined

by Karl-Jürgen Müller

 

 

As another bruising year ends, Christmas offers a reminder that peace is not found in power, wealth or spectacle, but in inner integrity, humility and care for others.

In an exchange between Jesus and the crowd he asked: “what did you go out into the desert to look at?”

 

George Browning

Looking for the wrong things: peace, power and the meaning of Christmas

 

2025 can hardly be measured as a great year for humanity, or indeed for the planet. Will next year be any better?  Probably not. Why not? Because overall we are accustomed to look for and treasure the wrong things, that is, they are the wrong things if we are genuinely interested in harmony and human wellbeing.

 

In Hayek’s Modern Family, the late Steven Horwitz (2015) asserted that sexual freedom is one of the blessings of economic liberty and prosperity. Feler Bose has dealt a serious blow to that thesis in Sexual Freedom and Its Impact on Economic Growth and Prosperity. In it, he provides a robust economic argument that sexual and economic freedom are inversely related, while providing numerous empirical illustrations of this relationship.

 

Review: Sexual Freedom and Its Impact on Economic Growth and Prosperity

[Sexual Freedom and Its Impact on Economic Growth and Prosperity, Feler Bose, Resource Publications, 2024; 196 pp.]

BY Jeffery L. Degner

 

The UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, has claimed that the chances of a direct confrontation with Russian forces on UK soil are not “zero” – a speculation dismissed by Moscow as “nonsense.”

Russia has consistently rejected claims that it plans to attack European NATO countries, describing them as warmongering tactics used by Western politicians to justify inflated military budgets. Moscow insists it is defending its citizens in the Ukraine conflict and accuses NATO of provoking hostilities and derailing the US-backed peace efforts.

The UK is reportedly trying to convince the European Union to take control of frozen Russian assets, aiming to undermine US President Donald Trump’s efforts to advance peace initiatives that could end the Ukraine conflict, according to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

After the launch of Russia’s Special Military Operation in February of 2022, Kiev’s Western backers froze approximately $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets, of which $246 billion has been immobilized by EU member states.

Discussions concerning the frozen Russian assets intensified within the bloc in recent weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed using the funds to back a “reparations loan” to Ukraine.

People who still wonder why Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks relating to Taiwan on Nov 7 enraged so many Chinese should just visit the Memorial for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Western Yunnan. I did that on Wednesday during a trip across the province.

The museum section of the memorial exhibits, among many other things, how the Chinese and Allied forces joined hands to fight the Imperial Japanese Army in China, Myanmar and India, highlighting the critical role of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the American Flying Tigers.

How did we reach a point where quoting Western sources gets you branded a foreign propagandist? Is the EU's executive branch now completely out of its mind, punishing dissenters without trial under the guise of fighting "propaganda"?

To discuss this Orwellian turn, I sat down with my friend and colleague Glenn Diesen. As a professor at the University of Southeast Norway and a sharp geopolitical analyst, Glenn brings the necessary depth to understand why Europe is seemingly criminalizing objective analysis.

Colonel Jacques Baud & Nathalie Yamb Sanctioned: EU Goes Soviet | Glenn Diesen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-feCMFSpRw

 

As climate breakdown, war and institutional failure converge, the comforts of forgetting no longer shield us from the consequences of our own history.

It feels like the end of an era, or perhaps the start of something new…and terrifying.

 

Robert Macklin

The long consequences of forgetting

 

Igor Kolomoysky built up Ukraine’s largest bank, then plundered it for billions in a scheme so elaborate it looks like a state intelligence operation. During the 2014 Maidan revolution, he ended up caught in a whirlwind of far-right militants, rising Western scrutiny, and a dramatic denouement with his bank – and fled abroad. Not one to give up, though, Kolomoysky had a plan for revenge and its name was Vladimir Zelensky.

Zelensky, however, soon ran amok. He “tricked Putin” in Paris, ruining hopes for peace in the Donbass, and setting the stage for the fateful events of 2022. Caught between Western pressure and his benefactor’s menacing presence, Zelensky tried to play both sides until events forced his hand. Yet Kolomoysky’s downfall merely left an open niche for a new shadowy figure to stride in.

I first encountered Sarah C.M. “Sally” Paine, a scholar of naval policy and military history, in a video interview she did with my friend Dwarkesh Patel. I was immediately struck by her ability to place both current events and 20th century history into a single cohesive framework, and to explain that framework in language that was both simple and useful.

"I don't think [US President] Donald Trump is really motivated by US national security interests, or NATO, or Ukrainian interests. I think he wants the Nobel Peace Prize – I think it's been on his mind since the first term," argues former US national security adviser John Bolton in an interview with FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee. "Putin thinks time is on his side. This is not the time for the US or Europe to give up and say 'let's get the best deal we can'," he adds. 

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20251212-it-s-a-mistake-for-ukraine-to-make-concessions-former-trump-security-adviser-john-bolton

US and Ukraine Reach Breakthrough on Security Guarantees During Berlin Talks
Berlin Talks Finalize 90 percent of Upcoming Russia-Ukraine Agreement

The United States and Ukraine have reached agreements on security guarantees following high-level negotiations in Berlin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced during a press conference. The talks are widely seen as a critical step toward a possible political settlement of the conflict.

 

US Proposals Described as 'Major Step Forward'

According to Merz, the US side demonstrated readiness to provide substantial legal and material guarantees to Ukraine. He described the proposals put forward in Berlin as both concrete and significant.