Dog acts

The US, Ukraine, Moldova, China, Indonesia, and Australia.

"It was to the death." Philip R Goodwin, 1903, illustration in Jack London's Call of the Wild, p. 95, Norwood Press, Norwood, Mass.

The five things you need to know today:

• UNITED STATES. Trump's lieutenants are playing offence as defence.

• UKRAINE. MOLDOVA. A pivot amid a truce.

• CHINA. Beijing fishes for Washington’s reactions.

• INDONESIA. Prabowo parties like it’s 1997.

• AUSTRALIA. Pre-election handouts trump a sober reckoning.

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UNITED STATES. His master's voice

Trump's lieutenants are playing offence as defence.

Donald Trump downplayed a journalist’s access to a sensitive White House Signal group as a "glitch" Tuesday. JD Vance said he would join his wife in a visit to Greenland. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was omitted from the delegation.

INTELLIGENCE. Though Trump described him as a "good man" who had "learned a lesson", Waltz is in the doghouse after The Atlantic's scoop. So is Vance, now being sent to Greenland, after being quoted in the story as saying Trump's Houthi polices were a "mistake". Vance, who has never had the easiest relationship with Trump, has embraced the loyalty test, saying he didn't want to miss out on the "fun." Denmark’s prime minister said the trip was “unacceptable.”

FOR BUSINESS. Playing Trump’s bad cop on Europe is not everyone’s idea of fun. And the itinerary’s shifted from a dogsled race in Sisimiut to an air base at Cape Atholl. But Vance is focussed on the race in 2028, where he presumably hopes to succeed Trump, assuming alleged plans for a third term don’t come to pass, or the job doesn’t go to one of the president’s children. As others in Trump’s cabinet of rivals have found, fealty is a verb in a patrimonial system.

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UKRAINE. MOLDOVA. Between the Devil and the Black Sea

A pivot amid a truce.

Eugenia Gutul, an ethnic Gagauz leader in Moldova, was detained late Tuesday following the disappearance of two other pro-Russian politicians. Washington announced ceasefire deals with Kyiv and Moscow on energy and maritime targets.

INTELLIGENCE. As the White House claims victory and eyes an easing of Russian sanctions, the Kremlin is eyeing