RB—As the Ukrainian army suffered horrendous losses in its ill-fated 2023 campaign, and later in its ill-thought out 2024 Kursk campaign, the equipment and munition reserves of Europe were used up to replace the Ukrainian losses. The Russians mobilized to vastly increase their presence in Ukraine and pushed the Ukrainians back while causing vast Ukrainian casualties that have withered the pool of available fighting age men. Europe kept up with its sanction packages, desperately trying to crush a Russian economy that continued to grow, with the latest EU sanctions package being its fifteenth. All the while, Russia looks stronger than ever in Ukraine and the Ukrainian army weaker than ever.

IGL—The US-Iran war may mark one of the biggest turning points in modern geopolitics. In this in-depth conversation, Professor Radhika Desai argues that Iran’s resistance has accelerated the decline of Western imperialism and exposed the limits of American military, financial and political power.

GN/JB—Palestinian solidarity activists like those in Palestine Action have confronted the war machine directly by protesting and disrupting arms manufacturing. The British state’s over-the-top legal response—treating protests as terrorism, holding activists under harsh pre-trial conditions, and banning media coverage—demonstrates how anti-imperialist dissent is criminalized. This repressive approach aims to intimidate broader dissent, shift public discourse by manufacturing “terror” narratives, and suppress effective mass action against militarism and genocide.

GER—The historical context provided by Yasha Levine’s Surveillance Valley research reveals that this fusion of Silicon Valley with military and intelligence agencies has been present since the internet’s inception, dismantling the myth that the internet and tech firms are emancipatory forces. Rather, they have long served as tools of U.S. global control and surveillance capitalism—a system designed to monitor, manipulate, and dominate populations both domestically and internationally.

GD-AM—Putin’s transformation was catalyzed by internal crisis and external pressure: The December assassination attempt marked a pivotal moment, convincing Putin that the West is waging a direct, escalating hybrid war against Russia. His subsequent silence and internal debates gave way to a resolute war posture focused on definitive military victory, reflecting a leadership hardened by perceived existential threats. This shift explains why former diplomatic overtures have ceased, and victory rhetoric dominates.

TP—Ted Postol, a former MIT professor and expert in missile defense, critically reviews the supposed success rates of the Patriot missile defense system, which the US and Israel have claimed to intercept up to 90% of incoming missiles using systems like PAC-3 and Iron Dome. Postol disputes these figures, arguing that actual intercept rates are closer to 2-3%, reflecting a massive overestimation propagated during the 1991 Gulf War and still perpetuated today without credible evidence.