Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 888 words…3.3 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: Ms. Rachel Joins City Hall, Zelensky’s Christmas Message That Broke The Internet, Russia’s Moon Nukes, U.S. Bans 5 Europeans Over Censorship, Silver Eats Apple’s Lunch, NYC Snowstorm … & much more!
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
🪖 Zelensky’s Donbas Gamble: Freeze the War, Not the Fight
Ukraine’s latest peace play is less surrender and more strategic pause. President Volodymyr Zelensky signaled openness to a demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Donbas—part of a trimmed 20-point peace framework quietly shaped with U.S. and European backing.
🗺️The pitch:
Current front lines in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson become de facto contact lines—not legal borders.
A DMZ or free economic zone would require mutual troop pullbacks: Ukraine from roughly 20–30% of Donetsk it controls, Russia from comparable areas plus pullbacks near Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk.
International monitoring (satellites + boots) under Geneva Convention rules.
❌ What Ukraine won’t budge on:
No formal territorial concessions.
No renouncing NATO aspirations.
No Russian role at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant—Kyiv wants joint U.S.–Ukraine oversight.
🛡️ The sweeteners:
Article 5–style security guarantees (not NATO, but NATO-adjacent).
EU accession path by 2027–2028.
$800B reconstruction fund.
⌛ Reality check: Russia hasn’t responded. Boundaries, enforcement, and Donbas’ final status remain unresolved—and ratification would require parliamentary approval or a referendum within 60 days.
💡 Bottom line: This is a freeze-the-map, keep-the-future-open strategy. Kyiv is betting that time, guarantees, and Western alignment beat endless trench warfare. Whether Moscow bites—or stalls—is the next chess move.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
Still from Zelensky’s Christmas Address
🎄Zelensky’s Christmas Eve Line That Broke the Internet
In a Christmas Eve address, Zelensky invoked a Ukrainian tradition—making a wish under the first evening star—then dropped the line heard round the world: “‘May he perish,’ each of us may think,” widely read as a reference to Putin.
Context matters: Zelensky immediately pivoted to a higher prayer—peace for Ukraine—honoring soldiers, captives, the fallen, and civilians; after a mass Russian drone-and-missile barrage on energy sites.
💡 Bottom Line: Supporters called it raw honesty after three years of war. Critics called it un-Christian.
❌ U.S. Bans 5 Europeans For “Thought Policing”
The U.S. slapped visa bans on five Europeans accused of pressuring American platforms to censor U.S.-protected speech—explicitly targeting Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) ecosystem.
Who’s hit:
Thierry Breton, ex-EU digital chief and DSA architect
Imran Ahmed (Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO)
HateAid’s leaders: Josephine Ballon & Anna-Lena von Hodenberg
Clare Melford (Head of the Global Disinformation Index)
The Core Charge: The State Department says they pressured U.S. platforms (like X) to censor protected American viewpoints, violating a May 2025 visa policy. Secretary Marco Rubio calls it “extraterritorial censorship”.
Europe’s take: “Intimidation,” says Macron. Brussels fumes.
💡Bottom line: This escalates a regulatory clash into a direct diplomatic feud, pitting U.S. free speech policy against the EU’s landmark digital rulebook.
🥮 Russia’s Moon Nukes
Moscow's dropping a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2036—partnering with China to fuel a joint lunar base 384,000 km from Earth.
Why nukes? Solar panels can't hack the moon's 14-day nights and -173°C temps. Nuclear = 24/7 power for rovers, labs, and whatever spy satellites they're definitely not building.
NASA's aiming for its own lunar reactor by 2030.
China's bankrolling Russia's ambitions.
EU? Still debating whether Zoom calls count as "space collaboration."
💡Bottom line: Cold War 2.0, but on the moon. With reactors….and China. What could go wrong?
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
🌨 NYC’s Post-Christmas Reality Check: Snow, Then Chaos
New York’s getting a post-holiday slap from the sky. A fast-moving Alberta Clipper hits Dec. 26, dumping 2–5 inches in the city, with 6–8 inches possible north and west. Long Island escapes lighter (1–3 inches), but slick roads and low visibility are locked in.
Watch outs:
✈️ JFK, LGA, Newark delays likely
🚗 Post-holiday travel = mess
⚡ Wet snow → power outage risk
⚡Finish the leftovers, skip the drive, blame Canada.
🌋 Ms. Rachel Joins City Hall: NYC Politics, Toddler Edition
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash after naming Ms. Rachel (Rachel Griffin Accurso) to his inauguration committee.
Jewish civil rights group StopAntisemitism accused her of "Hamas-aligned propaganda" in April, urging AG Pam Bondi to investigate her pro-Palestine posts.
Her defense: "I care for all children"—but she never mentioned Israeli kids in her Gaza posts.
The 50+ member roster also includes Cynthia Nixon, John Turturro, Kal Penn, Luis Guzmán, Min Jin Lee and The Kid Mero.
⚡If you wanted boring, you picked the wrong city.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
📈 Silver Eats Apple’s Lunch
Silver just leapfrogged Apple in market cap—$4.04T vs. $4.02T—after futures ripped past $71/oz, up 140% YTD.
The fuel: solar panels, EVs, electronics, supply crunches (Shanghai stocks at 2015 lows), and rate-cut bets.
⚡It’s now behind only gold and Nvidia.
🚗 Waymo’s Robotaxis Are Getting a Chatty Upgrade
Waymo is quietly testing Google’s Gemini as an in-car AI assistant, per leaked app code found by Jane Manchun Wong.
The bot can answer questions, adjust climate, lights, and music, and calm nervous riders—while carefully separating itself from the Waymo Driver.
⚡This isn’t a chatbot—it’s AI as UX glue for autonomy. Tesla has Grok; Waymo’s betting on quiet competence over vibes.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
Sicily
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean at a whopping 25,711,000,000 m² in land area