Frontlines & Backrooms Brief — Greenland, Gaza, Ukraine & the New Rules of Power

In this week’s Frontlines & Backrooms Brief, we examine a series of developments that signal a shifting global order.We begin with an extraordinary moment in international politics, as the U.S. president signals new territorial ambitions — this time involving Greenland, a territory belonging to a NATO ally.We then turn to Israel, where the national security minister claims that doctors are prepared to carry out executions if new death-penalty legislation is approved, alongside reports of worsening conditions in Israeli prisons holding Palestinian detainees.From there, we examine Algeria’s decision to legally define French colonization as a crime, demanding apology and reparations — a move that turns historical memory into an active political weapon.We also look at Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposes demilitarized zones and territorial concessions, raising difficult questions about pressure, containment, and the future of the war.Commentary:This week’s commentary focuses on a growing U.S. military buildup in Latin America and the Caribbean, officially framed as a renewed “War on Drugs,” but raising deeper questions about Venezuela, coercive power, and strategic ambiguity.We close with a moment of light, as Christmas returns to Gaza and Bethlehem — celebrations not of normality, but of survival.From the Frontlines & Backrooms.