Axios

The suspect accused of shooting two National Guard members from West Virginia arrived in the U.S. under "Operation Allies Welcome," a program that supported vulnerable Afghan nationals, officials said Wednesday.

The big picture: The administration swiftly suspended immigration applications for Afghan nationals, with President Trump calling for a re-examination of every person who had entered the U.S. from Afghanistan under former President Biden.

The suspect in Wednesday's shooting of two West Virginia National Guard troops is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021 after working with the CIA and other U.S. government agencies during the war, CIA Director John Ratcliffe tells Axios in a statement.

The big picture: After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, "the Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar," Ratcliffe said.

President Trump kickstarted the latest peace talks in Ukraine last week after Vice President Vance, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, made the case that a new 28-point plan could bring a breakthrough, administration officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: Their White House meeting on Nov. 18 — unreported until now — laid the groundwork for the talks in Geneva last weekend that have given the administration more hope than ever of stopping the war.

The Trump administration suspended all immigration applications from Afghan nationals with immediate effect on Wednesday night following a shooting in D.C. that critically injured two West Virginia National Guard members.

The big picture: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' announcement came soon after President Trump in a video address vowed to "re-examine every single" immigrant who had entered the U.S. from Afghanistan during the Biden administration, after confirming that the shooting suspect is an Afghan national who arrived in 2021.

President Trump on Wednesday night confirmed the suspect in the shooting that critically injured two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, D.C., is an Afghan national and vowed to step up his administration's hardline immigration crackdown.

The latest: Soon after Trump's video address, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced: "Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols."

The U.K. Ministry of Defence recently tested the DragonFire laser weapon at a facility in Scotland, destroying high-speed drones with its targeted energy technology.

Why it matters: Militaries have been working on directed energy for years, but it hasn't been widely adopted.

Xi Jinping is attempting to "construct an alternative world order" in which Beijing sits at the center and is propped up by fellow anti-democratic states, such as Russia and North Korea, according to the latest findings of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Why it matters: Such a friends-with-benefits network — as cutthroat as it may be — complicates the calculus of Washington and other capitals across the West.

• Beijing's long-term plan transcends sectors, industries and borders.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's impromptu role in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine thrusts into the mainstream what defense circles have been whispering about: He's a Trump 2.0 power player.

Why it matters: It was Driscoll who formally presented the 28-point peace plan to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. Driscoll then held a flurry of meetings in Kyiv, joined the U.S. delegation in Geneva and jetted to Abu Dhabi to meet the Russians.

President Trump is flirting with one of the most toxic ideas in American politics — a new foreign military intervention — at one of the most precarious moments of his second term.

Why it matters: Trump's push toward regime change in Venezuela threatens to deepen a MAGA rift that detonated last week with the resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

The Trump administration is increasing its icebreaking fleet in the Arctic, per a new report that warns other nations are expanding their "capabilities" in the resource-rich region — singling out China as a particular threat.

Why it matters: As the Arctic climate rapidly warms, China and Russia have been moving into the region — seeing the northern reaches as a resource-rich crossroads, and melting ice grants new travel and trade routes as well as opportunities for military basing, per Axios' Colin Demarest.

The Trump administration is raising national parks' prices and adding fees for international tourists from next year in an "America-first" initiative that'll see U.S. residents "continue to enjoy affordable pricing," the Interior Department announced Tuesday.

The big picture: The new fees that take effect from Jan. 1 follow a tumultuous year for the National Park Service after hundreds of workers were fired in the Trump administration's purge of federal employees, and Axios' Emily Peck reports international air travel has declined amid travelers saying they're put off by tariffs.

The ozone hole over the Antarctic in 2025 was the fifth smallest since 1992 — "the year a landmark international agreement to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals began to take effect," per a new NOAA-NASA report.

Why it matters: While the ozone hole varies in size from year to year, the report says this year's monitoring shows "controls on ozone-depleting chemical compounds established by the landmark Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments are driving the gradual recovery of the ozone layer."

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to begin serving his 27-year prison sentence for plotting a military coup to overturn the country's 2022 election.

The big picture: Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes requested that his order be finalized, preventing Bolsonaro from filing any further appeals to overturn the ruling.

President Trump said on Tuesday that he will only meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin when the parties get closer to an agreement on ending the war.

Why it matters: Trump initially set Thanksgiving as the deadline for getting Ukraine to sign on to his peace plan, but as the negotiations caught steam, he seems open to allowing more time for talks.