Axios

Munich - Vice President JD Vance shocked many European leaders who came to his speech at the Munich Security Conference expecting to hear about Ukraine, when he instead focused on what he called "the threat from within" Europe.

Why it matters: Vance dove headfirst into the politics of America's European allies, lambasting what he described a "retreat" from shared democratic values when it comes to issues like abortion, social media censorship and immigration.

WARSAW -- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on remarks he made at NATO this week about the terms of a potential Ukraine-Russia peace deal, saying his job was simply to "introduce realism to the conversation."

Why it matters: Hegseth's comments, followed Wednesday by President Trump's initiation of direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, drew fierce criticism from NATO allies and even some Republicans.

The Kremlin on Friday denied an accusation from Ukraine that a Russian drone had struck the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Why it matters: Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation levels remained stable despite the explosion at the plant.

Hamas published on Friday the list of the three hostages who will be released on Saturday as a part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, among them U.S. citizen Sagui Dekel-Chen.

Why it matters: Hamas' decision to comply with the deal's original terms should end the standoff that imperiled the fragile ceasefire agreement — unless President Trump has other plans.

Alexander Vinnik, the Russian co-founder of a bitcoin exchange, was handed over to Russian authorities in Moscow on Thursday after being repatriated as part of a prisoner swap that freed American teacher Marc Fogel, a U.S. official told Axios.

Why it matters: President Trump has hailed the exchange as a "fair deal" after panning past prisoner exchanges with Russia as imbalanced or otherwise poorly negotiated.

President Trump said Wednesday he's going to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss slicing all three countries' military budgets in half.

The big picture: Trump is looking to convince the U.S. adversaries to cut their defense spending while also getting them to commit to denuclearization.

BRUSSELS -- NATO allies are in a state of anger, denial and despair after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth effectively declared an end to America's role as the primary guarantor of European security, particularly over Ukraine.

• President Trump's surprise phone call with Vladimir Putin, just hours later, only added salt to the wound.

Why it matters: Europe has been bracing for this moment since the early days of Trump's 2024 campaign. That hasn't made it any less painful — or the future any less uncertain.

President Trump directed top trade officials to study retaliatory tariffs on global trading partners that have steep import duties on U.S. goods, a process that could take several weeks to complete.

Why it matters: It threatens a historic attack on global trade norms to address what Trump has deemed unfair imbalances, but also leaves room for the White House to strike deals that might ultimately avert tariffs.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky told President Trump during a phone call on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is only pretending to want to negotiate a peace deal because he is "afraid of you," a Ukrainian official and three other sources with knowledge of the call tell Axios.

Why it matters: Trump's phone calls with Putin and Zelensky on Wednesday launched his diplomatic effort to push for a deal to end the war in Ukraine, and raised concerns among some NATO allies that Trump might be backing Zelensky into a corner by pushing for talks while taking some of his likely demands off the table.

Over two-thirds of House Democrats signed a letter to President Trump urging him to retract his "dangerous" comments proposing the U.S. "take over" the Gaza strip, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Trump's comments have drawn criticism from lawmakers in both parties, with even some Republicans groaning that it is unworkable and at odds with Trump's professed non-interventionist foreign policy.

President Trump's vow to deport "millions and millions" of unauthorized immigrants is meeting harsh reality — already stretching the limits of the government's resources, less than four weeks into the new administration.

Why it matters: A lack of funds, detention space, officers and infrastructure to handle arrested immigrants is frustrating many involved in the effort — and made goals such as 1 million deportations this year seem unrealistic.

One of Pablo Picasso's earliest Blue Period paintings contains another portrait hidden beneath its surface, specialist imaging technology has revealed.

The big picture: The artwork of the mystery woman was discovered when Courtauld Institute of Art conservators "took x-ray and infrared images of Portrait of Mateu Fernández de Soto — a portrait depicting Picasso's sculptor friend painted in 1901," per a statement this week from the specialist college at the University of London, U.K.