How Ukraine Is Supplanting America As Leader of the Free World

Politics abhors a vacuum. When it became apparent that Donald Trump favored Putin's Russia versus Ukraine, the axis of power began to shift. No one - especially those in Europe and other democracies - wants to live under the blighted, oppressive economic and militaristic system that the Kremlin offers. 

The catalyst for this shift has been Ukraine's heroic but also intelligence, innovative and successful defense against a much larger adversary. The Ukrainians have not just fought the Russians to a standstill, they have begun, in places, to push them back. The Kremlin is running out of willing recruits and its finances are a shambles. The US could have taken advantage of this situation but chose to cast its lot with a dictator. The result is that Europe has discovered it can survive without the US - and the people of the US are starting to pay the price. JL

David French comments in the New York Times:

A remarkable thing has happened on the battlefield. Ukraine - a nation that was supposed to dissolve within days of a Russian invasion - has fought Russia to a stalemate, revolutionizing land warfare in the process. The largest and most battle-hardened land force in the western world may be the Ukrainian Army. It has become an indispensable security partner in the western alliance, including in the war against Iran. Now, Ukraine’s president, is, by word and deed, showing Europe and the world how the post-American free world can preserve its liberty and independence. Politics abhors a vacuum. When America stepped back, other nations were bound to step forward. It is forfeiting its role as the leader of the free world. The moral and strategic heart of the defense of liberal democracy s in Kyiv, where a courageous leader and people have picked up the torch America dropped. 

Why Russia's Spring 'Offensive' Is Running In Reverse

Russia is now in the middle of what was supposed to have been its spring offensive. But that word usually implies advance not retreat. This year, though, the Ukrainians anticipated not just when the Russians would launch, but where they would do so. They beat the Russians to the start, initiating their own attacks before the Kremlin could organize and give the go-ahead for its own. This disrupted Russian planning and execution with the result that, as of now, the Ukrainians appear to have a net gain of territory while - for the fourth month in a row - have killed or severely wounded approximately 35,000 Russian soldiers a month. That number is unsustainable because no Russian with an education or decent economic prospects wants any part of the one-way ticket that fighting in Ukraine offers them. 

Putin is trying to maintain the pretense of military might to impress Trump and cow Europe, but the narrative has clearly changed as few, if any, are buying the Kremlin line anymore. JL

Mark Sumner reports in The Journal of Uncharted Blue:

Russia  is supposed to be in the middle of a spring offensive. But, that offensive seems to be making only tiny gains while suffering losses of troops and equipment that are among the highest in the war. In the last year, even Russia's pattern of blasting the landscape until no shelter remained, then sending men forward in suicidal waves, seems to have stalled out. Russia continues to burn through its resources at an unsustainable rate, but it's no longer seeing much territorial gain for these expenditures.

Russians Try To Replace Starlink But Ukraine Blows Up Cell Towers, Signals Troops

Ever since Russian forces lost access to Starlink, they have lost cohesion, coordination and command decision-making. That the Kremlin also chose that moment to deny access to the widely popular Telegram system due to Putinesque paranoia about technology he couldn't entirely control didn't help. But the Russians have worked hard to try to come up with an alternative system that will provide similar, if not entirely satisfactory communications strength. In doing so, though, they have had to face an unexpectedly serious problem: the Ukrainians have been tracking their technology development and how it is routed, quickly identifying the use of wireless repeating towers. They have then targeted both the towers and the hapless Russian signals troops charged with installing or repairing them, takiing them out with drone strikes as the photo to the right illustrates. The result has been continued frustration for Russian forces attempting to execute battle plans for which there is no easy way of communicating and coordinating. JL  

Emily Rhodes reports in Medium, David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Three months after losing access to Starlink satellites, the Russians are getting desperate. Blowing up Russia’s wireless repeaters, Ukraine is working to prolong its advantage. Russian Wi-Fi communications can partially replace the loss of Starlink, but to be effective, the central nodes must be located as high as possible for radio line-of-sight. That makes communications towers such as this one easy targets for Ukrainian FPV drones. The repeaters aren’t hard to find and strike. When the Russians began climbing towers to install repeaters, the Ukrainians sortied drones to hunt them down. The poor radio troops are easy targets, as montages of Ukrainian drone strikes attest. 

AI Allies Align: Google Invests $40 Billion In Anthropic, After Amazon's $5 Billion

In the history of new technologies, after the initial burst of innovation, there have always been alliances to consolidate financial and operational power. Westinghouse, General Electric, ATT, General Motors, the Sony, Phillips, Toshiba DVD alliance and, of course, the early Microsoft-Intel "Wintel" duopoly in personal computers, followed by the Apple vs Google/Samsung competition in mobile phones. 

So it is no surprise to see a similar consolidation beginning to take shape in AI. What is interesting is that Anthropic, the ostensible 'fast follower' in historic Silicon Valley terms, is attracting such a strong set of allies so soon in the process. Some of this may be due to the superiority of Anthropic's Claude AI for certain tasks, like coding. But some of it may be the result of concerns about OpenAI's Sam Altman. There is also the possibility that Big Tech is hedging its bets and investing in both so that they are sure to come out on the winning side. The old line about one lawyer in town starving but two getting rich may also apply as Anthropic and OpenAI emerge as the clear frontrunners, with the various Chinese firms offering another possible alternative. Whatever the outcome, it is clear that industry concentration is going to be the norm, again, in AI as it has been in tech since the initial dotcom era. JL

Cris Tolomia reports in Quartz:

Google will invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic, the AI startup behind the Claude family of models, at a $350 billion valuation. Separately, Google Cloud has agreed to deliver five gigawatts of computing power to Anthropic across five-years, with the door open to additional gigawatts down the line. That computing arrangement builds on a three-way agreement between Anthropic, Google, and Broadcom. (This follows) a $5 billion infusion in Anthropic from Amazon, with an option to put in $20 billion more. The fundraising surge reflects booming appetite for Claude Code, Anthropic's AI agent built to accelerate software writing.

Ukrainian Military Hacks, Disrupts Russian University Recruiting Event

Taking psychological warfare to a new

direction, the Ukrainians hacked a zoom call between what was supposed to have been a Russian soldier trying to convince university students to enlist. 

Instead, a Ukrainian soldier appeared on-screen and warned them that if they made the mistake of volunteering, his comrades and he would have to kill them, as they have over 1.5 million other Russians. One can only imagine what the Russian students were saying to each other after that event. JL

MSN reports:

During a closed recruitment session at Kuban State Agrarian University, a man in camouflage, a balaclava, and dark glasses was introduced as a Russian serviceman but revealed himself as Ukrainian. He warned students that anyone signing a contract to fight in Ukraine would be killed, claimed all their faces had been recorded, and described Russian military failures, heavy losses, and corruption. Russian authorities have ordered universities to recruit 2% of their student body into military service, with a target of 78,800 for drone warfare units by the end of 2026. Some institutions have used coercive measures, such as removing exam retake options, to push students toward signing contracts. Hacking ops blend intelligence-gathering with public psychological impact, aiming to erode morale

Ukrainians Fly Drones Inside Buildings To Blow Up Hiding Russian Tanks

Ukraine's drone operators have become so adept at maneuvering their increasingly sophisticated aerial weapons that they are now able to fly them in between gaps in walls and roofs to find and then destroy the Russian military's shrinking inventory of armored vehicles. 

Due to its catastrophic losses over the past four years, the Kremlin is now reconditioning and sending to the front T-55 tanks which were first introduced in the 1950s. These relics are haphazardly up-armored - sometimes with old ammunition crates - because everything else they have has been destroyed. The Ukrainians' objective is to eliminate what is left in depots near the front so that even these inadequate substitutes cannot be used. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Dialing up the pressure on Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian 225th Assault Regiment is flying tiny explosive drones into buildings in search of Russian armored vehicles. FPV pilots maneuver through narrow gaps between the walls and roofs of sheds, garages and warehouses  The vehicles the Ukrainian drones operators are destroying in their shelters are some of the oldest and weirdest in Russia's war on Ukraine. Blasting awkwardly up-armored T-55 tanks from the 1950s, the Ukrainians are discovering just how poorly equipped the Russian brigades are. At least one of the T-55s the 225th blew up sported discarded ammunition canisters that offer very little protection from a drone. Ukrainian units aren't just sitting around waiting for the coming Russian offensive. They're hunting down that Russian armor before it can roll into action.

X-Twitter At Age 20: Or How To Burn $38 Billion Without Really Trying

The fact that Twitter-X turned 20 last month is probably making some people feel pretty old. Though probably not TikTok users, who may not even be aware of its existence. Which illustrates the story of X-Twitter's rise and fall. 

To be fair, Twitter-X has not collapsed or disappeared - it has a monthly user base of @388 million globally. But its most active are young men 16-24 and the countries with the highest level of engagement are...Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Kenya. It is generally considered a site for news, especially of the toxic right wing/manosphere variety favored by its current owner, Elon Musk, who is its most followed tweeter (though this has raised questions about algorithmic manipulation). It's usership palls by comparison with the Meta sites, Telegram, TikTok and others. Which is not terrible compared to traditional media, but suggests what could have been had it embraced a less hostile positioning. JL

Christophe Asselin reports in Onclusive and Barry Ritholtz reports in The Big Picture:

The X Twitter statistics 2026 tell a story of structural decline and partial stabilisation. The platform has lost casual users, shed advertisers, watched competitors gain ground, and navigated a crisis of information quality, but retains a core audience. The geographic portrait of X is unequal. Nigeria leads the world at 80.7%, meaning 4 in 5 Nigerian internet users say they used X in the past month. Saudi Arabia (66.7%), Kenya (60.0%) and Turkey (58.7%) complete the top four. X is significantly male-skewed at every age group, and across all demographics. The 16-24 male cohort is the most active, The platform fails to generate habitual engagement among women. TikTok’s dominance of daily time (1h 37m) outpaces YouTube (1h 25m). Instagram (1h 13m) and Facebook (1h 07m) complete a top four that all clear the one-hour mark. X’s 28 minutes/day places it 8th.