Russia has confirmed that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff will sit down with Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, even as the Kremlin insists it will offer “no major concessions” on Ukraine(reuters.com). A leaked 28-point draft circulating in Western capitals demands that Kyiv surrender the entire Donbas, recognise Crimea as Russian and accept a shrunken 600,000-strong army while Russia is readmitted to the G8 and Ukraine barred from NATO membership(theguardian.com).

The numbers behind the fine print are stark. The war has already lopped 20 % off Ukraine’s GDP, pushed reconstruction costs above $600 bn and frozen some $210 bn in Russian reserves that Europe now hopes to securitise for loans(reuters.com). Any “quick peace” that leaves borders unsettled risks an investors’ strike, a NATO deployment that never quite ends and a sanctions unwind that could re-arm Moscow faster than Kyiv can rebuild. In short, the draft looks less like a roadmap to stability than an invitation to a frozen conflict with a bill attached.

The haste to trade territory for “closure” repeats a perennial illusion: that security can be bought on the cheap when authoritarian revanchism meets democratic fatigue. As historian Timothy Snyder reminds us, “History offers no final solutions, only continuous responsibilities.” The question now is whether Washington and its allies are prepared to shoulder those responsibilities—or mortgage them for short-term calm that history rarely honours.

The Gist AI Editor

Global Aviation Scrambles

A critical software flaw in Airbus’s A320neo family of aircraft, the world’s most popular jetliner, has triggered cascading flight cancellations globally just as the holiday travel season begins (Bloomberg, WSJ). The European aerospace giant disclosed that solar radiation could corrupt flight-control data, necessitating an urgent software patch. The recall has grounded a “significant number” of planes, disrupting schedules for airlines and travelers worldwide, and highlighting the fragility of just-in-time global networks reliant on complex, single-point-of-failure technologies.

FDA Links Child Deaths to Covid Vaccine

In a significant reversal, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has publicly attributed the deaths of 10 children to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine (NYT). The agency’s top vaccine regulator stated the children likely died “because of” the shots, a conclusion that is certain to intensify debates over vaccine mandates for minors and regulatory transparency. While public health officials are demanding access to the underlying data, the announcement challenges the previously prevailing narrative on youth vaccine safety and may empower calls for greater individual medical choice.

Trump Pivots on Foreign Policy

President Trump is reshaping U.S. foreign policy with two controversial moves. He is preparing to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is currently serving a 45-year sentence for large-scale cocaine trafficking (WSJ). Simultaneously, the White House is reportedly engaging with a Kremlin-backed proposal for peace in Ukraine centered on business ties rather than military resolution, a pragmatic but unsettling development for European allies (WSJ). Both actions signal a transactional, anti-establishment approach to diplomacy, prioritizing negotiated outcomes over traditional norms.

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

Trump to Pardon Honduran Ex-President Serving 45-Year Drug Sentence
— Wall Street Journal

Make Money Not War: Trump’s Real Plan for Peace in Ukraine
— Wall Street Journal

F.D.A. Attributes 10 Children’s Deaths to Covid Vaccines
— New York Times Global

‘Significant Number’ of Airbus Planes Require Critical Software Fix Before They Can Fly
— Wall Street Journal

Lenders gear up for loosening of capital rules by Bank of England
— Financial Times

New Fortress Gets Tentative OK for $3 Billion Puerto Rico Deal
— Bloomberg

Hungary’s Russian Overture

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s self-styled “peace mission” to Moscow is a thin veil for stark national interest. With Hungary remaining one of the last EU states heavily reliant on Russian oil and gas, Orbán’s trip is less about diplomacy and more about securing energy flows ahead of winter (ZDF). This move underscores the persistent friction between Brussels’ collective security posture and the sovereign imperatives of member states. It’s a pragmatic, if isolating, strategy that leverages Hungary’s geographic and energy dependencies to carve out a foreign policy distinct from the EU mainstream, demonstrating the limits of bloc cohesion when fundamental economic realities press in.

Kyiv’s Night of Fire

Russia launched another significant aerial assault on Ukraine’s capital overnight, with missile and drone strikes hitting residential areas across multiple districts of Kyiv (ZDF). The attack resulted in at least one fatality and eleven injuries, including a child, reminding us that the war’s primary victims remain civilians (ANSA). These strikes, far from any military front, are designed to terrorize and degrade quality of life—a grim strategy that solidifies the case for continuous and advanced air defense support. The persistence of such attacks highlights a brutal war of attrition aimed at breaking societal resilience, a direct assault on the liberty of a sovereign nation.

Paris Scrambles Over a Micro-Threat

In Paris, a resurgent bedbug scare has forced the venerable French Film Institute to shut its cinema halls for a full month (ZDF). After audience members reported bites, the institution will now undertake a costly and disruptive deep-cleaning process. While not a systemic crisis, the incident reveals a vulnerability in urban public-service management. For a global city reliant on its cultural magnetism, such events risk disproportionate damage to its reputation and economy. It’s a microcosm of how seemingly small-scale problems can erode public confidence and test a city’s capacity to maintain basic standards of living and hygiene.

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

Orban bei Putin: “Friedensmission” als PR-Strategie
— ZDF

Milei and his ‘financial freedom’: This is how the logic of economic cruelty works
— El Pais

Aktuelles zum Krieg in der Ukraine
— ZDF

Bettwanzen-Alarm: Pariser Filminstitut schließt Kinosäle
— ZDF

Gastronomy in the times of Gaza
— El Pais

Alluvioni in Sri Lanka e Indonesia, oltre 320 vittime
— Ansa