Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a sweeping corruption scandal among Ukraine’s elite, the U.S. government finally reopening, and a first-place parliamentary win for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s coalition.
Graft Allegations
For nearly four years, Ukraine has battled Russian forces in defense of its land, infrastructure, and independence. But a new front is now emerging in the conflict that could undermine Kyiv’s war effort. And this time, the threat is in Ukraine’s own backyard.
In an independent investigation released on Monday, authorities discovered a massive corruption scheme among the country’s elites, wherein politicians and other powerful individuals received kickbacks from contractors building the defenses that protect Ukraine’s energy facilities from Russian attacks. Five people were arrested, and seven others were placed under suspicion.
The probe, which took place over 15 months and involved some 1,000 hours of audio recordings and around 70 searches, raised questions as to whether potential graft had undercut Kyiv’s ability to defend itself from Russian airstrikes, which have caused widespread power outages ahead of an expected brutal winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised to support the investigation, even as authorities point fingers at some of Zelensky’s closest allies. On Wednesday, Zelensky called for Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk to step down over their alleged involvement. That same day, he also ordered Kyiv to sanction his longtime friend Timur Mindich and another businessman, Oleksandr Tsukerman. The former is alleged to be the ringleader of the scheme, overseeing the embezzlement of as much as $100 million.
“The most important thing is sentences for those people who are guilty,” Zelensky told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday. “The president of a country at war cannot have any friends.”
Experts are closely watching how Zelensky handles the corruption investigation after he attempted to curtail the independence of Kyiv’s two anti-corruption agencies earlier this year. In July, parliamentarians signed a bill placing the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Kyiv’s prosecutor general, a politically appointed position. This triggered mass anti-government protests—the first in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022—and led to condemnation from foreign allies, including the European Union, which Kyiv seeks to join.
Just last week, the European Commission released a report praising Ukraine for making “limited progress” in tackling corruption during wartime. But that may not be enough to silence critics.
“Internally this scandal will be used to undermine unity and stability within the country,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker with Zelensky’s party. “Externally, our enemies will use it as an argument to stop aid to Ukraine.”
Such arguments have already begun, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban—a Kremlin ally—seizing on the scandal to demand that the EU stop helping Kyiv. “This is the mess the people of Brussels want to pour European taxpayers’ money into,” Orban wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “What is not shot at the front line is stolen by the war mafia. This is madness.”
Today’s Most Read
- Trump’s Russia Sanctions Are Really Putting the Hurt On by Keith Johnson
- Putin Will Never Compromise on Ukraine by Casey Michel
- This Is the Future of U.S. Foreign Aid Under Trump by Derek Grossman
What We’re Following
Reopening the government. Washington stuttered back to life on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a funding bill late Wednesday to end the record-breaking government shutdown. The package, which saw six House Democrats break party ranks to push the legislation through, will extend last year’s spending levels through Jan. 30 as well as provide funding for some vital agencies, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits, through next September.
Notably absent from the bill is a key demand of congressional Democrats: a guaranteed extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, which help millions of Americans access health insurance. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune has agreed to hold a vote in mid-December on Democrat-drafted legislation that would extend the subsidies, but Democrats remain pessimistic that Thune will honor his promise and fear that even if it passes the Senate, House Republicans won’t back it.
Although ending the shutdown will resume paychecks and reopen services to millions of people, many Democrats view the funding bill as a blow to party leverage, as its passage exposed deep divides between more moderate and liberal lawmakers. Some Democrats are even calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down, despite the fact that he voted against the deal.
Deadly collision. A truck crashed into a crowd of pedestrians at an outdoor market in the South Korean city of Bucheon-si on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding 18 others, 11 of whom sustained serious injuries. According to local police, the driver (a man in his 60s) was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash. He has since been detained for questioning.
Witnesses at the scene told fire station officials that the driver reversed roughly 92 feet before driving forward nearly 500 feet, hitting civilians on the way. The driver blamed a sudden surge of acceleration for the crash, though authorities have turned the incident over to investigators to determine the cause.
Win for Sudani. Iraq’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that the coalition led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s Furatayn Movement came first in the country’s parliamentary elections on Tuesday, securing more than 1.3 million votes.
“The voter turnout is clear evidence of another success, reflected in the restoration of confidence in the political system,” Sudani said. Despite younger people’s disillusionment with the administration, turnout was 56.1 percent—higher than the last election in 2021, which recorded a record-low turnout of below 41 percent.
However, Sudani’s coalition did not win enough seats to secure an outright majority, and parties affiliated with Iran-backed militias won dozens of seats, setting the stage for what are expected to be long negotiations to determine who will lead the country. In recent years, Tehran has sought to expand its foothold in Iraq in an effort to push back against Western influence in the region. But under Sudani, Baghdad has tried to stay on the sidelines of this political turmoil, including in the Israel-Hamas and Israel-Iran wars, which have seen Tehran and Washington on opposing sides.
Odds and Ends
New genetic testing of Adolf Hitler’s DNA has revealed that the Nazi leader may have suffered from Kallmann Syndrome, a condition that disrupts puberty and oftentimes results in undescended testicles and a micropenis. The research was conducted as part of a documentary produced by Britain’s Channel 4 titled Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator, which will air in the United Kingdom on Saturday. However, the scientific findings have not yet been peer reviewed, and there are doubts about how robust the conclusions actually are. Still, they certainly offer new perspectives on those World War II-era songs mocking Hitler’s anatomy.