Axios has confirmed the Financial Times’ reporting on a rushed ceasefire proposal brokered by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian Envoy Kirill Dmitriev — a plan that would grant Russia additional territory in eastern Ukraine and restrict Ukraine’s military capabilities, in exchange for U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe against future Russian aggression. The 28-point proposal would give Russia full de facto control over the entire Donbas region — Luhansk and Donetsk — and would see the U.S. and other countries formally recognize both areas, along with Crimea, as part of the Russian Federation. Ukraine itself would not be required to recognize the annexations. According to a Ukrainian official, the proposal also included caps on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces and limits on long-range weapons in return for American security assurances. Witkoff was scheduled to travel to Ankara on Wednesday for a trilateral meeting with President Zelensky and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. But officials say the meeting was called off after it became clear that Zelensky was retreating from understandings reportedly reached by his National Security Adviser, Rustem Umerov, during a private meeting with Witkoff in Miami last weekend. Zelensky, they say, is no longer willing to discuss the Trump plan and instead headed to Turkey with an alternative proposal developed with European partners — one U.S. officials insist Russia will never accept.

Speaking at the U.S.–Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, President Donald J. Trump voiced strong support for H-1B visas, saying: “You can’t come in, build a multibillion-dollar chip plant like the one in Arizona, and expect to hire people straight off the unemployment line to run it. They’re going to need to bring in thousands of workers, and I’m going to welcome them. I love my conservative friends, I love MAGA — but this is MAGA.”

The IDF says it has completed a round of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah rocket storage facilities in Deir Kifa, Shehour, Tayr Felsay, and Aynata in southern Lebanon. The depots were located within civilian areas, and evacuation warnings were issued in advance. According to the IDF, these sites were positioned “in the heart of a civilian population,” calling it “yet another example of Hezbollah’s cynical use of Lebanese civilians as human shields.” The military added that the presence of such weapons caches “violates the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

Elon Musk says that if current trends in AI and robotics continue, “money will eventually become irrelevant.”

Israel has launched airstrikes in Khan Younis and in the Zeitoun and Shejaiya neighborhoods of Gaza City, following incidents earlier today in which terrorists opened fire on IDF troops. Local media report nine fatalities. According to Israel Hayom, the commander of Hamas’s Zeitoun Brigade was killed in one of the strikes, though there has been no official confirmation yet.

France, the UK, and Germany have recorded the highest number of anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe, according to the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians (OIDAC) Europe Report 2025. The report identified 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes across the continent last year. Personal attacks rose to 274, up from 232 in the previous report. The study also highlighted a significant spike in arson targeting churches and Christian sites, documenting 94 arson attacks — nearly double the previous year’s total — with one-third (33) taking place in Germany. Overall, the report recorded 516 hate-motivated crimes, a figure that climbs to 1,503 when including theft and break-ins at religious sites. According to OIDAC, the countries with the highest levels of anti-Christian offenses were France, the UK, Germany, Spain, and Austria. Some of the most serious incidents included: • The killing of a 76-year-old monk during an attack on the Monastery of Santo Espíritu del Monte in Gilet, Spain; • A man shot dead by ISIS militants during Sunday Mass in Istanbul in January 2024; • The near-destruction of a Catholic church in Saint-Omer, France, following an arson attack.

The Shin Bet says it has uncovered a major weapons-smuggling network operating between Syria and northern Israel, leading to the arrest of 12 suspects — five IDF soldiers, four Israeli civilians, and three Syrian nationals. According to the investigation, the soldiers repeatedly crossed the border near the Syrian Druze town of Hader, bringing back weapons that were later handed over to criminal groups in northern Israel. One of the soldiers was identified as Master Sgt. Iyad Halabi, 45, from Yarka; the others are Suheil Maadi, Salah Hanfis, Amal Aslim, and Yazen Salah. The network allegedly attempted to move a large cache of weapons — including explosives, RPGs, assault rifles, and substantial quantities of ammunition — shortly before the arrests. During an overnight raid in the Hader area last month, IDF troops seized dozens of weapons and detained three Syrian smugglers. The Shin Bet says the cache was intended for Rami Abu Shaah, 49, from Shefa-Amr, who was in direct contact with one of the Syrian detainees.

Ukraine has now received all four German Skynex systems, a highly advanced point-defense platform that is extremely effective against drones and cruise missiles. Its firing system is automatic and radar-guided, launching 35mm rounds in very precise bursts. According to Ukrainian sources, a single burst is usually enough to destroy a drone or subsonic Russian missile.

Two German Eurofighter Typhoons and two Romanian F-16s were scrambled this morning from Mihail Kogălniceanu and Câmpia Turzii Air Bases after a Russian one-way attack drone violated Romanian airspace during today’s strike on Ukraine. The drone first entered Romania and traveled roughly eight kilometers between Periprava and Chilia Veche in Tulcea County before crossing back into Ukraine, then into Moldova, and finally reentering Romania, heading toward Foltești in Galați County, where its radar signal was ultimately lost by the Romanian Air Force.

The moment a Russian cruise missile crashed in the Ukrainian city of Ternopil this morning.

A Russian occupier makes a failed attempt to shoot down a Ukrainian FPV drone using PKM machine-gun fire.

A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the UN in New York denounced the Security Council’s decision, shouting “Shame!” and vowing to continue their struggle. The protesters forcefully rejected the U.S.-backed resolution — adopted 13–0 with two abstentions — that authorizes a temporary international stabilization force for Gaza under Trump’s 20-point peace plan.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on President Trump: "I gave him my loyalty for free, I've never owed him anything, he called me a traitor. Let me tell you what a traitor is, an American that serves foreign countries and themselves."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced this morning that authorities have identified the two suspects behind Sunday’s sabotage of several critical railway sections in Poland — including an attempted detonation of a rail segment using C4 — as Ukrainian nationals long linked to Russian intelligence. One suspect had previously been convicted of sabotage in Lviv, while the other is from the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Both had been living in Belarus and entered Poland earlier this fall, fleeing back to Belarus after carrying out the attacks.

Former Harvard President and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers announced that he is stepping back from all public commitments in an effort “to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.” His decision follows last week’s release of 20,000 emails by the House Oversight Committee, which revealed years of correspondence between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and several of his associates — including Summers, who exchanged messages with Epstein for more than seven years, up to the day before Epstein’s arrest on July 5, 2019.

A Michigan man named JD Vance has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for posting online threats to kill President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, *FOX 2 Detroit* reports. James Donald Vance Jr., 67, pleaded guilty to two felony charges and was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for posting messages on the social media platform Bluesky earlier this year threatening four individuals, including Vice President JD Vance and President Trump.

Trump: "I actually told Rubio... 'Go to Congress and let them know we're not letting drugs come through Mexico, we're not letting them come through Venezuela...' The only thing I don't want them to do is leak information."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced this morning that the suspected explosion yesterday along the Warsaw–Lublin rail line near the village of Mika — a critical route used by Poland and NATO to deliver aid to Ukraine — was indeed an **“act of sabotage”** aimed at undermining the security of the Polish state. Tusk also said that Polish security services have identified additional damage to the same rail line near Lublin.

Moderate Muslims in Europe are speaking out against the Muslim Brotherhood. In Geneva, Muslims gathered to defend European values and promote peace, urging Europe to take decisive action and officially designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Romanian authorities are evacuating the village of Plauru after a drone strike on Ukraine’s Izmail port overnight damaged multiple ships, including a Turkish vessel carrying 4,000 tons of liquefied gas. A fire onboard sparked fears of an explosion, triggering the evacuation near the border.