Fukuyama: Trump is a bully who wants to dominate everyone around him. Trying to placate him with concessions is a fool’s errand. He despises weakness.
As an American, I say to my European friends: do not back down. Appeasing Trump with flattery has failed and must stop. 1/
Fukuyama: Europeans think conceding Greenland will mollify Trump. It won’t. He will come back for more later. Europe says it still depends on the U.S. to deal with Russia.
But Trump’s America has abandoned Ukraine and declared Europe secondary to the Western Hemisphere. 2/
Fukuyama: Countries that stood up to Trump’s threats — Brazil, India, China — have done well. They boosted domestic support, and China forced the U.S. to back down.
Trump is not the United States: most Americans are dismayed by his policies and likely to vote against him. 3X
Fukuyama: Corruption domestically has direct effects on foreign policy.
Trump imposes a heavy tariff on Switzerland, they give him a gold bar and a fancy Rolex clock, and he decides he's going to lower that tariff.
American foreign policy is being made on personal whims. 1/
Fukuyama: Predictions are that the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives.
Once that happens, Trump's power declines because they can hold hearings, call cabinet members to be answerable for corruption that starts in the White House. 2/
Fukuyama: Friends of the old United States shouldn't give up hope, should stand up for their principles, continue to support democracy and democratic allies around the world.
The United States has a good chance of regaining some of that position it upheld for 70 years. 3X
Syrskyi: In 2025, Ukraine struck 719 Russian targets, inflicting total losses exceeding $15B. We significantly reduced their oil production. DeepStrike is our strong suit.
We targeted military facilities, oil-refining infrastructure, and responded to strikes on energy system. 1/
Syrskyi: In March 2025, we conducted active operations with incursions into Belgorod region, and by summer — into Kursk region.
This forced Russia to pull back and redeploy about 70,000 troops — their best units — which had been concentrated on the Sumy direction. 2/
Syrskyi: The counteroffensive on the Dobropillia axis disrupted Russia’s plan for an offensive deeper into Dnipro region.
A Russian naval infantry grouping of 18,000 was redeployed from the Novopavlivka axis to the Dobropillia axis, where it is now fighting unsuccessfully. 3/
In The Guardian, historian Brendan Simms analyzes whether Trump is reviving a Nazi-era idea of dividing the world into imperial “great spaces.”
Simms: Trump disrupts the order, but he does not build a coherent one. 1/
Carl Schmitt, the Nazi regime’s chief legal theorist, argued in 1939 that the world should be divided into “great spaces,” each ruled by an empire that excludes outside powers.
Nazi Germany would dominate Europe and block Anglo-American influence. 2/
Schmitt’s ideas did not disappear.
Russian ideologues, especially Alexander Dugin, use them today to justify empire, territorial expansion, and the exclusion of Western influence from Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet space. 3/
Russia is building submarines, warships, and missiles to prepare for war in Europe. Procurement order books reveal the plan.
In Foreign Affairs, Jacob Parakilas and Pavlo Shkurenko from KSE Institute, explain why Europe should pay attention. 1/
Russian drones, aircraft, and warships keep entering European airspace and waters. They test responses and normalize intrusion.
Each probe is backed by an expanding military industry built for long-term pressure, not only war in Ukraine. 2/
Despite losses in the Black Sea, Russia did not cut naval production. It shifted toward diesel-electric submarines, ice-capable fleets, and nuclear service ships.
These platforms are optimized for the Baltic, Arctic, and North Sea — Europe’s weak points. 3/
$1 billion to buy a permanent seat at Trump’s Board of Peace.
Trump would chair it, pick members, control the agenda and funds, and veto decisions.
The board would act as a UN alternative, created outside UN rules, once three countries sign on. — Bloomberg. 1/
Trump asks countries to pay $1 billion in cash to secure permanent membership. Those who don’t pay serve three-year terms, renewable only if Trump approves. 2/
Trump would chair the board himself.
He would control invitations, approve agendas, oversee the funds, and sign off on every decision. No decision takes effect without his approval. 3/