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It's Monday, the 29th of December.

We are almost to the very end of 2025. Well, I hope all had a very happy and peaceful and relaxing Christmas. And, of course, Boxing Day. Don't forget Boxing Day. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed.

First up, China and Russia.

Well, they look closer than ever, but what's being sold as partnership is really a story about leverage and dependence and who's quietly calling the shots.

I'll explain how Beijing is exploiting Russian weakness.

Later in the show, Christmas Day a strikes in Nigeria. That doesn't sound very festive.

The U.S. hits ISIS hard, and President Trump makes it clear there's a limit to how long the killing of Christians in Nigeria will be tolerated.

Plus, Israel announces it has killed an Iranian-Kuds force member

involved in planning attacks across the region. And finally, in today's back of the brief,

Israel becomes the first country to formally recognize Somaliland as an independent state,

and that's a move that is drawing sharp condemnation from the international

community. But first, today's PDB spotlight. Today, we're starting off with a topic

that's worth looking at as we wrap up our final week of the PDB for 2025. Now, over the past 12

months, we've heard a lot about the growing ties between Russia and China.

It's a blossoming bromance that is supposedly built on shared interests and respect.

The two countries appear closer than ever before, but appearances, of course, as usual, are in fact deceiving.

And that brings us to a handy rule of thumb that I like to use when

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