Happy Thursday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 1,163 words…4.4 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: The Board of Peace Goes Live, Zelensky Torches Europe, Greenland Framework Deal, Mahmoud Khalil To Be Deported, Ms. Rachel Under Fire… & much more!
🍉 Are watermelons actually fruits or veggies? Scroll down to find out!
🚨 Watch For:
World Economic Forum at Davos: Jan 19th-23rd
🚨🚨Correction: Some of the images and videos shared in the ‘Kamchatka Snowpocalypse’ story yesterday, have today been verified and found to be AI-generated deepfakes. We sincerely apologize for that and we will be auditing our verification process. We’ve replaced the links and made updates on the Web post. The trust you place in us, is our most valuable asset.
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
President Trump surrounded by world leaders as he holds up the newly signed Board of Peace Charter at Davos
🕊 The Board of Peace Is Live — And It’s the UN’s Biggest Frenemy Yet
Trump just launched a brand-new, U.S.-led global power club at Davos, that looks like the UN—if the UN had a yacht and a Goldman Sachs rolodex.
We're going to have peace in the world.
And we're all stars.
📜 What happened:
At the World Economic Forum, Trump formally signed the 11-page Board of Peace Charter, turning what began as a Gaza reconstruction plan into a full-blown international organization.
🏗 What it does:
On paper, it’s about mediating conflicts and rebuilding war zones.
The charter mentions Gaza zero times, but gives the board authority to wade into conflicts everywhere.
In practice? It reads like a leaner, leader-driven alternative to the UN—minus the vetoes, plus cash.
💰 The catch: Want a permanent seat? That'll be $1 billion, please. Contribute that within a year, and you’re a permanent member. The US says it’s “voluntary.” Everyone else calls it pay-to-play diplomacy.
❓ Who’s in, who’s out:
Russia offered $1B and floated using frozen Russian assets for Gaza via this board. That's not peacebuilding—that's some genius sanctions-laundering.
The Middle East, Central Asia, and beyond are lining up.
Europe? Mostly sitting this one out. They’re worried about undermining the UN’s authority.
China, India and Japan are still silent.
💡Bottom line: This isn’t just a peace board. It’s a parallel world order experiment—Trump-style. Whether it stabilizes conflicts or just reshuffles global influence depends on who writes the checks…and who refuses to.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
Zelensky at Davos
🇬🇱 Trump’s Greenland “Framework”: Tariffs Off, Arctic On
Trump and NATO agreed to a vague "framework for a future agreement" on Greenland—heavy on Arctic security, light on actual details.
Sovereignty stays with Denmark (for now), but the U.S. gets negotiating room on bases, minerals, and access rights.
What's actually on the table: NATO's "Arctic Sentry" partnership, expanded U.S. presence under the 1951 defense pact, and the "Golden Dome."
💡Bottom line: Greenland says "no deal without us at the table." Denmark's betting bureaucratic red tape can limit U.S. ambitions to operational access, not ownership. Brussels is taking notes on coercive leverage inside NATO.
🗣 Zelensky Torches Europe At Davos
At Davos, Zelensky delivered one of his sharpest public rebukes of Europe, calling it a “beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope” that “loves to discuss the future” but avoids taking concrete steps today. Result: Ukraine—and Europe—stuck in a “Groundhog Day” of half-responses.
Security warning: NATO survives on faith in U.S. action, he said—but Europe must prepare for scenarios where Washington hesitates over a Russian strike on Poland or Lithuania.
The Receipts: Russian oil still flows to Europe. Belarus now hosts Russian missiles and Europe could do nothing about it. Greenland distractions scream reaction, not strategy.
💡Bottom line: Zelensky’s case-in-point—without real capability, Europe risks being just a continent, not a power.
🖌Activists Tried To Paint Merz’s Plane Pink
Three German climate activists were arrested for trying to splash pink paint on Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s private plane at Arnsberg-Menden airfield.
The stunt: The trio carried bicycles as a “climate-friendly alternative” and claimed the act was self-defense against polluting elites, via the Resistance Collective.
No damage was done. But authorities charged them with breaking and entering and attempted sabotage.
💡Context: This echoes Europe’s growing trend of targeting private jets and high-emission lifestyles, with activists like Anja Windl previously known for gluing roads and painting planes orange.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
Left: Ms. Rachel’s comment ‘like’ screenshot; Inset: Tearful apology video; Right: Pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil
🍾 Justice Served: Pro-Hamas Activist Mahmoud Khalil To Be Deported
Federal appeals court cleared ICE to rearrest and deport Mahmoud Khalil—ring leader of Columbia's violent 2024 pro-Hamas encampments—to Algeria. Jewish students reported harassment and threats from Khalil during the protests.
The charge: Omitting details on his green card application, including past UNRWA work.
UNRWA is almost completely operated by Hamas and was explicitly banned from federal funding by the Biden admin. after they found that ~1300 UNRWA employees belonged to Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Some were involved in the Oct 7th attack.
DHS invoked a rare clause allowing removal for "adverse foreign policy consequences."
The optics: Khalil's tight with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who's called the case political retaliation.
⚡Although antisemitism is on the rise in New York, this is a huge victory and a much-needed sigh of relief for the Jewish community.
📱 Ms. Rachel Under Fire
Children’s YouTube star Ms. Rachel sparked backlash after accidentally liking an antisemitic Instagram comment, then posting a tearful apology blaming a mis-tap while trying to delete it.
Rachel "accidentally" liked an Instagram comment on her post reading, "free America from the Jews." Screenshots went viral.
Damage Control: Tearful apology video claiming she meant to delete it but hit "like and hide" instead. Cited Jewish family ties, blamed being "old" with technology.
⚡Critics aren’t buying it. She has been previously called out for following antisemitic accounts, allegedly responding "Ooooooooooohhhhh" to claims Jews orchestrated a false flag attack (later deleted), and prior Gaza advocacy posts linked to "Free Palestine" rhetoric.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
Elon Musk at Davos
🤖 Musk at Davos: Robots, AI & “Abundance”
Elon Musk made his first-ever World Economic Forum appearance in Davos, ditching past jabs at the summit and instead pitching a robot-driven future.
He said Tesla’s Optimus humanoids could be sold to the public by late 2027 and might one day outnumber humans, fueling an “explosion” in productivity and economic growth.
⚡Musk also predicted AI would be smarter than people soon, and touted imminent regulatory approval for Tesla’s self-driving tech in Europe and China.
📍 Apple’s AI Pin
Apple is reportedly cooking up an AI-powered wearable pin—AirTag-sized, camera-loaded, mic-heavy, and built for hands-free, context-aware Siri.
Think environmental scanning without pulling out your phone.
⚡The catch: It’s early (earliest buzz: 2027), targets 20M units, and enters a graveyard where Humane’s AI Pin face-planted.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
Watermelon’s A Veggie Too?
Watermelons are secretly double agents! Botanically, they're a fruit (a juicy pepo berry with seeds), but culinarily and agriculturally, they're treated as a vegetable—like their cousins cucumbers and pumpkins. So yes, they're officially classified as both!