A major corruption probe in Ukraine’s energy sector uncovered a $100 million embezzlement scheme involving kickbacks of 10-15% from state nuclear power operator Energoatom contracts, leading to the resignation of Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk and the suspension and resignation of Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko amid allegations of personal benefits. The 15-month investigation by anti-corruption bodies NABU and SAPO, supported by over 1,000 hours of audio recordings and resulting in five detentions and seven suspects, also implicated close associates of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, prompting international concern from G7 ambassadors and European partners. Year after year, we continue to point out that Ukraine has long been one of the most corrupt nations in the world, and perhaps as people begin to more critically examine the behavior of Ukrainian elites, the level of corruption that has been normalized in the country will become more clear.

Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament unanimously passed a bill banning the dissemination of information promoting non-traditional sexual orientations or pedophilia in public spaces, media, or online, with penalties including fines and up to 10 days in jail for repeat offenders. The legislation, mirroring Russia’s 2022 ban on LGBTQ propaganda that prohibits praising or normalizing homosexual relationships, aims to protect children’s health, morality, and ideas about family by forbidding content suggesting such relationships are normal, and it awaits senate approval and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s signature to become law. We consistently discuss in the American context what it looks like for the culture wars to become meaningful policy, and here we see how normative ideas regarding sexuality can become means for heavy-handed repression.

The Taliban has mandated that women, including patients, caretakers, and staff, wear burqas to access public health facilities in Herat, Afghanistan. The restriction has been enforced by morality police and has resulted in a 28% drop in urgent patient admissions. This requirement stems from an August 2024 morality law mandating full face and body coverage in public and prohibiting transparent, tight, or short clothing, although a Taliban spokesperson claims support for regional hijab variations aligned with Sharia law, and the rule also applies to schools and government offices in the city of about 600,000 people. The Taliban continue to chase the gold as they continue to be unsatisfied with being one of the worst governments of the contemporary era and demonstrate their dedication to being one of the worst governments of all time.

House Republicans released 23,000 pages of documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including over 20,000 emails where Epstein claimed Donald Trump knew about his associations with underage girls, spent hours with a victim at his house, asked Ghislaine Maxwell to stop recruiting, and was described as “borderline insane” or “dirty” in correspondences from 2011 to 2019 involving figures like Michael Wolff and Lawrence H. Summers. With the swearing in of a new congressional member, Congress will be able to force a House vote in early December to compel the Justice Department to release all investigative files on Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. The release will come despite Trump’s labeling the campaign as a Democratic hoax and pressure from administration officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to prevent the release. The Epstein scandal continues to be one of the greatest points of intrigue of all time and must be resolved in order for us to have a semblance of the rule of law in the country.

The BBC held an emergency board meeting to address Donald Trump’s billion-dollar legal threat over a deceptive edit in a 2024 Panorama documentary that spliced his January 6, 2021, speech clips over 50 minutes apart to suggest he directly encouraged the Capitol attack by implying he said “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.” Trump’s lawyers demanded a full retraction, apology, and compensation by Friday for overwhelming harm, leading to the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness, while BBC Chair Samir Shah has already apologized for the error of judgment, and the corporation is prepared to issue a more formal apology to resolve the lawsuit threat amid insurance coverage for legal challenges. This is a good example of how members of the intelligentsia have been so frustrated by the dominance of Trump that they’ve been willing to shortcut professional ethics in an effort to influence the decision making of the American public and the perception of Trump globally.

The U.S. government established the Scam Center Strike Force to combat transnational crypto scams known as pig butchering, targeting operations in Southeast Asia including Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines. These scams have allegedly been backed by Chinese criminal organizations that use fake investments and romantic schemes involving human trafficking to defraud Americans of tens of billions. Led by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, involving Treasury, DOJ, State Department, and law enforcement, the force has imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and related entities like Trans Asia International Holding Group and Troth Star Co. Ltd., seized $400 million including 127,271 bitcoin from a Cambodian operation run by Prince Group, and aims to dismantle enterprises by charging leaders, tracing and returning stolen funds to victims, disabling U.S. infrastructure like scam websites, and filing actions for an additional $80 million seizure. This seems like good police work as fraud and scams serve to undermine any hope of the market functioning appropriately.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire defended the police department’s cooperation with ICE, stating they must follow the law by reporting individuals with active immigration warrants, with over 100 such contacts in 2025 primarily from traffic stops compared to nine in 2024, while noting that ending coordination could lead to civil and criminal liability under state law. As Venezuelans in Houston lose Temporary Protected Status this month due to claims of improved conditions in Venezuela, thousands face deportation risks, loss of work permits and driver’s licenses, heightened fear and confusion with risks of immediate arrest or disappearance upon return for protesters. We continue to suggest that city-level officials have an obligation to cooperate with the federal government, and making good on the federal arrangement is in the best long-term interest of the country.

Coinbase, the largest U.S. publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange, announced its reincorporation from Delaware to Texas, approved by a majority of stockholders, citing unpredictable outcomes in Delaware’s Chancery Court and Texas’s efficient, predictable, and pro-business environment with favorable tax rules, lighter regulatory regimes, lower operating costs, regulatory clarity, and a new specialized business court system that limits shareholder lawsuits against insiders for fiduciary breaches. The move follows similar relocations by Tesla and SpaceX led by Elon Musk, representing a trend of companies shifting to states like Texas, Florida, or Nevada amid efforts to combat Delaware’s reputation as unfriendly to business and a shift in power toward founders and executives, highlighted in a lawsuit concerning Coinbase’s 2021 public listing share sales. As we continue to see a serious fracture in American life around stark ideological differences, it is somewhat alarming to see the groundwork for parallel economies come into fruition.

Arkansas enacted House Bill 1467 to update the Uniform Money Services Act, imposing strict requirements on virtual currency kiosk operators including a 72-hour rescission right for new customers to cancel and receive full refunds on fraudulent transactions within 14 days after contacting the operator and filing a report with government or law enforcement. The law mandates a host of protective mechanisms all aimed at expanding fraud protections, reducing elder abuse, and enhancing data security. Hopefully the law is not so burdensome as to stifle innovation, as there are only so many protections one can put into place to stop people from making bad decisions until you ultimately stop people from making any decisions.

Louisiana approved a $125 million loan to New Orleans to ensure payment of city workers through the end of the year, with funds available in two weeks and repayment due by the end of January using property sales tax revenue. Overseen by State Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack, who will send transfer letters and cancel the deal for any breach, the agreement includes weekly Wednesday payroll meetings with the state auditor, setting aside funds for overtime in the new budget without exceeding limits, attendance by Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill at the approval meeting, and anticipation of another loan for future needs. The fiscal problems of major cities in the country have got to be resolved in some sustainable way, as it does not seem possible for cities to continue to rely on loans from larger entities to do their regular tasks.