President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that Ukraine and Washington are in talks about holding elections, after earlier this month he much belatedly said while under pressure from Trump that he's ready to allow national elections, so long as they can be done fairly and freely.

Zelensky indicated current discussions also hinge on the US and other partners helping set the conditions so Ukrainians can vote in safety. He previously stated the country could hold a vote within 60 days - but only if there are security guarantees.

Authored by Gerry Nolan via The Ron Paul Institute

A newly filed patent suggests Tesla may be preparing to embed Starlink dishes directly into vehicle roofs, bringing connectivity costs in-house under Starlink rather than continuing to pay third-party carriers like AT&T. Such a move would unlock space-based, high-speed internet for vehicles. Notably, some Tesla owners are already mounting Starlink Mini dishes onto their vehicles, offering an early glimpse of next-generation connectivity.

Update: 

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed that the U.S. Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, has seized another oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela.

"The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil used to fund narco-terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you," Noem wrote in a post on X.

Authored by Gerry Nolan via The Ron Paul Institute

Italy’s decision to stand with Belgium against the confiscation of Russian sovereign assets is not a diplomatic footnote. It is a moment of clarity breaking through the fog of performative morality that has engulfed Brussels. Strip away the slogans and the truth is unavoidable: the seizure of Russian sovereign reserves will not change the course of the war in Ukraine by a single inch.

Authored by Edward Ring via American Greatness,

The litany of reasons California is broken is well documented. The highest cost of living and the highest taxes. The highest percentages of homeless people and people living in poverty. Unaffordable homes and unaffordable rent. High crime and failing schools. A hostile business climate and record migration out of state as people and businesses flee.

Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, revealed that the Biden White House was actively “coordinating” with the Department of Justice regarding an FBI search for classified documents at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence - before the discussion later moved “offline.”

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

It was explained in this analysis about “How A Rapprochement With Russia Helps The US Advance Its Goals Vis-à-vis China” that joint strategic resource investments after the end of the Ukrainian Conflict, particularly in energy and critical minerals, can assist the US in economically competing with China.

Submitted By Thomas Kolbe

The EU summit held in Brussels on December 18–19 was supposed to deliver two fundamental decisions. First, it was meant to address the expropriation of frozen Russian assets held at Euroclear. Second, it was expected to ratify the Mercosur trade agreement. In both cases, the EU’s bureaucratic elite around Ursula von der Leyen failed—paralyzed by its own dysfunction and ultimately by a lack of real power.

Via Remix News,

As the EU moves to crush protesting farmers demonstrating in Brussels, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered full backing to the farmers and their efforts to stop the EU’s Mercosur free trade deal, which threatens to destroy food security in Europe.

“Farmers are 100 percent right,” said Orbán, who is currently in Brussels attending the EU Summit.

The chart below is a fascinating snapshot of the last 75 years in the demise of the American empire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear during his annual end of year question-and-answer session in Moscow that the matter of Ukraine ceding land which Russia now controls is the heart of the issue when it comes to peace talks. The issue of territory gained, lost, to be ceded or not, remains the prime topic that must be considered, but it's the very thing that Ukraine's Zelensky refuses to talk about or compromise on, Putin explained.

Ukraine is hailing a "new, unprecedented special operation" after a Russia-linked oil tanker was attacked off the coast of Libya. Needless to say these waters are very distant from anywhere Ukraine operates in the war with Moscow forces.

Officials within the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) are being quoted in international reports as saying the SBU deployed a drone in the Mediterranean which struck a so-called "shadow fleet" tanker used by Russia.

Authored by J/B/Shurk via American Thinker,

Via Remix News,

For years UK officials turned a blind eye to rape gangs because it might look racist to crack down on foreigners. Now, suddenly, the real problem is young boys who are 'radicalized' into becoming misogynists. The only solution is of course Orwellian; and includes an agenda to reeducate British boys showing "signs of misogyny" (anti-wokeness).

Foreign fighters continue to play a role on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war. In the latest example, on Thursday Russian prosecutors announced that a British national who fought alongside Ukrainian forces has been sentenced to 13 years in a high-security penal colony after being captured on the battlefield.

The Prosecutor General’s Office identified the man as 30-year-old Hayden Davies, and described he had been fighting on behalf of Ukrainian forces. He was tried in a court in Russian-controlled Donetsk.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Every nation is operating on models that are collapsing without those at the controls being aware that the implicit assumptions of their models no longer map reality.

Europe has folded rather quickly on EU leaders' controversial plan to confiscate Russian assets held in Belgium's depository Euroclear to use as a reparations loan for Ukraine.

On Friday it became clear in the two day Brussels summit the EU was unable to agree on the plan, but instead has opted to raise €90 billion ($105 billion) in joint borrowing, with Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia choosing not to take part.

President Trump ordered the suspension of the U.S. green card diversity lottery after federal investigators said the suspect in the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT nuclear scientist was a non-citizen who entered the country through the program.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in an X post late Thursday that, at Trump's direction, she had ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program.

Russia has deployed all eight of its nuclear icebreakers simultaneously in an unprecedented move. The fleet is being used to keep critical winter shipping lanes in the Gulf of Ob and the Yenisei Gulf open, ensuring continued access to key export terminals. The deployment sends a clear signal to the West that Russia can sustain year-round Arctic shipping and maintain its natural resource export revenues.

Ship tracking website MarineTraffic reported earlier this week:

Bloomberg Opinion columnist and chief energy correspondent Javier Blas posted a chart on X from the International Energy Agency's new global coal report showing that coal demand jumped to an all-time high this year, despite years of efforts by the green-industrial complex to end its very existence.

Via Remix News,

After a bizarre speech that mimicked much of the rhetorical style of Adolf Hitler at the founding congress of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) youth group, Alexander Eichwald has confessed that he joined the party as a form of provocation.

Authored by Tom Margenau via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),