Can confirm 🤒

Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of 35th US president John F. Kennedy, died at the age of 35 following a leukemia diagnosis reut.rs/4qxCYjQ

In 2026, meetings will be held, ties will be tested and obstacles will remain.

It seems like Trump is falling again for questionable Putin promises, even though Putin still doesn’t want a ceasefire. Like why would a future free Ukraine want to turn to or rely on Russia for energy?

Where did the Solarians go?

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has blocked Trump's effort to deploy the National Guard in Illinois to protect officials carrying out his mass-deportation policy.

Flu A, huh? Just more grade inflation.

INBOX: Announcement of Actions to Combat the Global Censorship-Industrial Complex

Samizdat

Be wary of the list of ~ 50 ambassadors floating around. Many on it are *at risk* of being recalled by Trump because they are career diplomats. But some have already retired. Others have definitely not been pushed out yet, per my reporting. It's not a verified list of the people recalled.

There’s too much … just too much

CBS didn't air the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but @propublica.org talked earlier this year to those who Trump had sent to the maximum-security prison in El Salvador: www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8IN...

Politico - At least six career staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were suspended with pay this summer after organizing a polygraph test that the agency’s acting director, Madhu Gottumukkala, failed. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

It’s not as if a State Department readout would ever be honest and say, “The meetings were a complete waste of time. Why did we bother?”

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

I know there was a lot of news yesterday, but please do check this out:

This week on World Review — Venezuela, Ukraine, and Trump as Peacemaker. Watch or listen to the latest analysis by @nahaltoosi.bsky.social, Alex Ward, and Giles Whittell. open.substack.com/pub/ivodaald...

Trump ousts more Biden-era ambassadors

Got some bad news to drop? Now's the perfect moment.

Free version: www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

SCOOP: Trump is pushing out more Biden-era ambassadors — this time it's career Foreign Service officers, which is unusual. A State source say it's around two dozen people. (This is the subscriber version. A free version will be up soon & I'll link to it.) subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

The new way they teach math is really confusing

He doesn’t want his name on Dulles?

Whose idea was this

EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is asking U.S. oil companies if they’re interested in returning to Venezuela once Maduro is toppled, per sources familiar with the discussions. So far, the answer is a hard “no.”

Where is the sun

What about Chevron? (My life is so weird.)

SCOOP: Secretary of State Marco Rubio has set up a new "Policy Development Portal." My story, linked below, is behind a paywall (we have a new foreign affairs vertical!): subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

What does an A+++++ economy mean in an era of rampant grade inflation?

But we are always at war

One thing I find amusing re: the National Security Strategy stuff is that, objectively, the top policy shift the document offers is the switch to prioritizing the Western Hemisphere, a region largely ignored for decades. But most news coverage has ... ignored that change.

‘I heard 40, 50 shots’: Witnesses fled Bondi Beach as gunmen targeted Jewish event

A Chinese billionaire was seeking parental rights to at least four unborn children, and the court’s additional research showed that he had already fathered or was in the process of fathering at least eight more—all through surrogates. www.wsj.com/us-news/chin...

Gen X could have fixed all this.

If you reinstate a ceasefire that doesn’t count as another war you ended

I kinda admire the term narco-nephews x.com/secrubio/sta...

Everything is foreign policy now

Reuters: U.S. JUDGE ORDERS SALVADORAN MIGRANT KILMAR ABREGO RELEASED FROM IMMIGRATION CUSTODY

The U.S.: “I am the captain now.”

In fairness I have more than 3 pencils but I never use them so I get Trump’s point but if he comes after my pens boy…

I was wondering when he’d get to this …

WSJ: “David Ellison offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN, a common target of President Trump’s ire. Trump has told people close to him that he wants new ownership of CNN as well as changes to CNN programming”

This should be one of those factors people consider when deciding if someone is worth dating.

True evil: leaning your seat back on a plane.

Think tankers flying business or first class… really?

Fascinating piece by my colleague Ian Ward: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

NEW COLUMN: Foreign leaders are mulling the possibility that President Donald Trump will take more risks abroad as his domestic popularity falls. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

NEW COLUMN: Foreign leaders are mulling the possibility that President Donald Trump will take more risks abroad as his domestic popularity falls. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

1/Conservative media host TUCKER CARLSON says he’s buying a place in the Qatari capital, Doha. "I'm doing that because I like the city. I think it's beautiful, but also to make the statement that I'm an American and a free man, and I'll be wherever I want to be," Carlson said at the Doha Forum.

I always get excited when Suriname makes the news.