Ukraine’s overnight launch of at least 75 long-range drones ignited Lukoil’s Volgograd refinery—5 % of Russia’s refining capacity—killed one civilian and forced airports from Moscow to Rostov to suspend dozens of flights. (reuters.com)

I read the strike less as tactical sabotage than as Kyiv’s inflation-adjusted strategy: energy is the Kremlin’s true war chest, supplying an estimated €640 million a day in export revenue before the sanctions era. Every percentage point of refinery downtime tightens Moscow’s budgetary vise just as battlefield attrition and Trump-era tariffs drain ruble reserves. Volgograd’s CDU-5 unit alone handles 66,700 bpd; knocking it offline erodes both fuel logistics to the front and FX inflows that prop up subsidies at home. (reuters.com)

Yet the systemic pattern cuts both ways—Russia escalates grid strikes on Ukraine, prolonging Europe’s energy insecurity and testing NATO’s munitions stockpiles. As analyst Agathe Demarais warns, “sanctions wars are marathons, not sprints; economic pain compounds slowly but irreversibly.”* The window for negotiated off-ramps narrows each time refineries—or power plants—go dark.

*Agathe Demarais, author of “Backfire,” interview with FT, 2025.
—The Gist AI Editor

The Silent Pandemic

War zones are accelerating a global health crisis, turning conflict areas into incubators for drug-resistant pathogens (FT). According to the World Health Organization, one in six common bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotics in 2023, a figure that rises to one in three in regions like Southeast Asia. The breakdown of sanitation and healthcare in conflict settings creates a perfect storm for antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a “silent pandemic” that contributed to nearly five million deaths in 2019 alone. This failure of international governance imperils global health security, as resistant strains respect no borders.

AI’s Next Frontier

The artificial intelligence arms race is intensifying, with geopolitical implications. South Korea is investing heavily in a sovereign AI infrastructure, underscored by a massive deal for 260,000 of Nvidia’s next-generation AI chips (Medium). This move highlights a global trend where national AI capability is viewed as essential for economic and strategic independence. Meanwhile, the innovation cycle accelerates as firms like Anthropic release smaller, faster, and more efficient models, democratizing access to powerful AI tools beyond large corporations and blurring the lines between state and private sector technological advancement.

Webb’s Cosmic Revelations

New data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to reshape our understanding of the universe. Astronomers have produced the first-ever 3D atmospheric map of an exoplanet, WASP-18b, a gas giant 400 light-years away, revealing extreme temperature zones where water molecules are torn apart (ScienceDaily). Closer to home, the JWST captured unprecedented images of Sagittarius B2, the most active star-forming region in the Milky Way, piercing through dense cosmic dust to reveal young, massive stars. These discoveries underscore the power of unfettered scientific inquiry to unlock fundamental cosmic mysteries.

Stay tuned for the next Gist—your edge in a shifting world.

Nancy Pelosi to retire from politics
— Financial Times

Somali pirates board first ship in 18 months
— Financial Times

War is pushing us to a drug resistance tipping point
— Financial Times

After US judges trash Trump’s tariffs, it’s no time for Europe to gloat
— Politico.Eu

Belgian PM Bart De Wever doesn’t resign, sets new Christmas deadline for budget
— Politico.Eu

Energy & Utilities Roundup: Market Talk
— Wall Street Journal

Pharma’s Ultimatum

AstraZeneca is leveraging a planned £200 million Cambridge research site to pressure UK ministers for more favourable NHS drug pricing amid trade talks with the United States (Politico). This is a stark reminder that innovation follows incentives. By setting price controls, state-run health systems like the NHS suppress the return on investment for the high-risk, high-cost work of drug development. The company’s hardball tactic signals that capital is mobile and will flee environments where value creation is penalised. This confrontation puts the UK’s ambition to be a life-sciences superpower on a collision course with the core economics of its healthcare model.

EU’s Pesticide Paradox

The EU’s selective environmentalism is creating a toxic boomerang effect. A new report finds that pesticides banned for use within the bloc are exported to Kenya, only to return on imported food (EUObserver). The commercial impact is significant, with Kenyan agricultural exports to the EU suffering 31 interceptions, leading to losses exceeding 118,000 tonnes of vegetables. This policy exposes a deep hypocrisy: rather than leading on global standards, the EU is effectively offshoring contamination. It’s a regulatory failure that harms African producers and ultimately offers a false sense of security to European consumers, undermining the very premise of the ban.

Catch the next Gist for the continent’s moving pieces.

Prostitution: Warken und Klöckner fordern Sexkaufverbot
— ZDF

Britain’s biggest drugmaker says UK’s NHS pricing offer is still not enough
— Politico Europe

Boomerang effect: pesticides banned in EU are shipped back in Kenyan food exports
— EUObserver

Aktuelles zum Krieg in der Ukraine
— ZDF

Warum sich Florian Wirtz beim FC Liverpool noch schwer tut
— ZDF

Il prezzo del gas chiude in calo a 31,55 euro
— Ansa