
December 9, 2022 – We ask if Russia is opening up to diplomatic negotiation. Plus, the Finnish defence minister’s visit to Turkey, a case for Iowa remaining first in the US primaries and the world reacts to Britain’s new coalmine.

December 9, 2022 – We ask if Russia is opening up to diplomatic negotiation. Plus, the Finnish defence minister’s visit to Turkey, a case for Iowa remaining first in the US primaries and the world reacts to Britain’s new coalmine.
The House gave final approval to the measure, with lawmakers from both parties voting in favor. It now heads to President Biden to be signed into law.
By seizing the basketball star, the Russian president made things so painful for the U.S. that it capitulated and turned over a convicted arms dealer. Can the same tactic work in the war in Ukraine?
Ms. Griner has been at the center of a fraught geopolitical showdown between Washington and Moscow. The Biden administration traded her for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.”
As China casts aside many Covid rules, it is also playing down the threat of the virus. The move could help ease the burden on hospitals but comes with its own risks.
Russia appears to retaliate for a third attack on their airfields. Plus: the Finnish defence minister visits Turkey, the latest art news and we head to Senegal where Chanel has held its first fashion show in Africa.

Among those detained were a German prince, a former far-right member of Parliament, an active soldier and former members of the police and elite special forces.
Raphael Warnock, a son of Savannah public housing who rose to become Georgia’s first Black senator, secured a full six-year term and a spot among Democrats’ rising stars.
The justices are considering whether to adopt the “independent state legislature” theory, which could give state lawmakers nearly unchecked power over federal elections.
Beijing’s costly policy of lockdowns has pummeled the world’s second-largest economy and set off mass public protests that were a rare challenge to China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
We discuss reports of China operating more than 100 police stations abroad, plus: South Africa’s parliament votes on impeaching President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesia bans sex outside of marriage and what will Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidency mean for indigenous tribes in the Amazon?

Prosecutors did not indict the former president, but they invoked him throughout the monthlong trial. The Trump Organization had been his springboard to fame and power.
In the final battle of the 2022 midterms, Senator Raphael Warnock dealt another blow to Donald Trump, whose handpicked candidate, Herschel Walker, was outspent and outmatched.
Speaking before a formal decision had been made, Representative Bennie Thompson said his panel had not yet agreed on who would be the subject of the referrals or what the charges would be.
The cat-and-mouse experience of Proton, a Swiss company, shows what it’s like to be targeted by Russian censors — and what it takes to fight back.
Russia launches a fresh barrage of missiles towards Ukraine. Plus: Iran disbands its “morality police”, Georgia’s Senate run-off, the latest business news and Unherd launches its first print edition.

Launching drones at air bases 300 miles from its own territory, Ukraine changed the geography of the war. It said it had developed drones with a range of over 600 miles.
These misty and damp parts of the country have long beckoned to mushroom hunters with the promise of plenty, but now peril, too, lies beneath the earth’s surface.
The justices are expected to settle a question left open in 2018: how to reconcile claims of religious liberty with laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.
These misty and damp parts of the country have long beckoned to mushroom hunters with the promise of plenty, but now peril, too, lies beneath the earth’s surface.
December 5, 2022: China boosts online censorship and surveillance following zero-covid policy protests. G-7 sets $60 crude oil cap on Russian oil. United Nations representatives meet with the Taliban.

While Russia’s economy has not collapsed, an exodus of Western companies is eroding hard-won progress, and experts say the worst may be yet to come.
The move, which the government did not confirm, might be a concession to the protest movement that erupted after the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police.
Senator Raphael Warnock preached from his Atlanta church and put on rallies, while Herschel Walker held a series of low-key events.
A Colorado graphic designer says she has a First Amendment right to refuse to create websites for same-sex weddings despite a state anti-discrimination law.