Laura Loomer: I met Ukraine’s chief rabbi, whose son was killed in the war.

I joked: what rabbi would allow his son to serve in a Nazi army? We laughed because it was ridiculous. 1/ Loomer: I said terrible things about Zelenskyy and Ukraine, but I do not feel that my life is threatened here.

Ukraine is a fairly free country. 2X

China may be the reason the Iran war did not send oil to $150 or $200 a barrel.

After Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, China cut oil purchases by about half, keeping prices near $100 instead — The Atlantic. 1/ The Strait of Hormuz used to carry 20mn barrels of oil a day, about one-fifth of global supply.

China stopped buying about 5mn barrels a day, equal to all of India’s imports and about a quarter of the supply lost when the strait closed. 2/

Kyiv may replace Lenin’s empty plinth with Ivan Mazepa.

The plinth has stood empty since Maidan crowds toppled Lenin in 2013. Zelenskyy proposed Mazepa, a Cossack leader who broke with Moscow and fought for Ukrainian independence, The Guardian. 1/ Russia depicted Mazepa as a traitor for centuries.

Zelenskyy: Where Lenin fell, Mazepa will stand firm. The goal was to make Ukrainians view their own history through the eyes of others. 2/

Browder: Putin does not care much about what Russians think.

He has sent 1.5 million men to death or disability and destroyed the economy. The Kremlin’s claim that Russia is fighting the entire West is aimed more at Western countries than at Russians. 1/ Browder: Putin has reached a stalemate in Ukraine. Russia is no longer making progress.

Ukraine is inflicting real economic pain by striking oil refineries, military depots, shadow-fleet ships and other targets. 2/

Russia is losing this war, and still refuses to end it. Every plan Putin built to win has collapsed, yet he keeps fighting.

The 2026 deficit blew past $73 billion in six months, overshooting the Kremlin's full-year plan — Gabuev, Prokopenko and Stanovaya, Foreign Affairs. 1/ Putin set three paths to win. Plan A used Trump to force a deal on Kyiv, Plan B waited for Trump to drop Ukraine, and Plan C won on the battlefield.

In his June interview Putin no longer mentioned Trump, whom he once counted on after their warm Alaska summit. Plan A is dead. 2/

Historian Sarah Paine: This is the Russian business model. Say your business is doing well. One of Putin's security-service enforcers comes to your house and says: I want a monthly payment from you.

That's a mafia shakedown, going back in Russian history forever. 1/ Paine: Putin's own circle owns the refineries Ukraine keeps striking, destroying Russian wealth. Putin wants Donbas, he wants Crimea. For what?

Russians need a legal system that lets them build wealth and live decent lives at home, not more territory. 2X

Chinese military researchers used outputs from OpenAI and Anthropic models to train their own defence AI. More than 80 Chinese papers and patents document it.

Washington restricts Beijing's access to advanced chips. These documents show the shortcut around it — Reuters. 1/ The method is model distillation. Researchers feed the outputs of a powerful model into a smaller one, then run it locally without the compute to build a frontier system from scratch.

The Washington-based Jamestown Foundation compiled the research and shared it with Reuters. 2/

Sikorski: In January 2022, Russia made a brief military move into Kazakhstan to interfere in its succession. I believe China told Russia: get out right now, or we'll cut off trade. Russia obeyed.

It can't prosecute this war without trade with China. 1/ Sikorski: China could actually force Russia to end the war. My guess is the war suits China just fine.

Russia sells China gold, and grows more dependent on it every year. What's not to like about that? 2/

Sikorski: Russia could capture and repair stray Ukrainian drones that fall short, then launch them from a border area against itself or a NATO country, to blame Ukraine.

This scenario is discussed publicly. False flags are Russia's playbook. 1/ Sikorski: We've had cruise missiles already. One landed 10 kilometers from my house. Last September, Poland fought off an incursion of 21 drones. If it were an accident, you'd expect a mix of armed drones and decoys. They were all decoys. Russia was provoking us. 2/

Sikorski: Putin has a couple of cards left. One is mobilization, risky for him politically.

The other — after destroying 80% of Ukraine's electricity and heat capacity, hope another hard winter leaves only nuclear power to survive it. 1/ Sikorski: The relationship between Trump and Zelensky, choppy in the past, seems better now. There are rumors Trump's envoys might visit Kyiv for the first time.

Even some MAGA figures have come around on Ukraine, and Republicans back tougher sanctions on Russia. 2X

Today, a Russian-run agent tried to kill Ihor Obolenskyi, Khartiia’s commander, in Kharkiv.

Yuriy Butusov, journalist: A 69-year-old agent walked up from behind, aimed a Makarov from 3 meters, and pulled the trigger. In panic, he had not chambered a round. 1/
Butusov: The suspect, 69-year-old Kharkiv resident Henadii Parfeniuk, had a spotter watching Obolenskyi and directing him to the place where the commander would appear.

Parfeniuk stayed on the phone with the organizer through earphones while he waited. 2/

Historyk, a Ukrainian soldier, on his brothers-in-arms: My guys held a dugout so hard it came down to hand-to-hand. Bodies piled up around it and inside it.

When army spetsnaz got sent in after that, my men shot one of them too. He just lay there. 1/ Historyk: My squad commander Andriy crawled to me covered in blood, shrapnel had shattered the bridge of his nose.

He asked what to do. I told him to keep crawling to evacuation and put another soldier in his place right there. 2/

Theresa May: It cannot be business as usual with Russia. It wasn’t after the Salisbury attack, and certainly not after what has happened in Ukraine.

People often ask me what Putin is like. Once a KGB man, always a KGB man. 1/ May: Russia and Putin are under significant strain. The economy has been hit hard, and Russia is losing significant numbers of personnel, both killed and wounded.

Ukraine is rapidly improving its ability to fight, and the balance is shifting. 2/

Zelenskyy asked Trump for Starlink access to hit Russian missile launchers inside Russia.

Trump would have to get Musk to lift SpaceX’s ban on using Starlink there.

Ukraine can use Starlink at home, including occupied Crimea, but not inside Russia, The Atlantic. 1/ Trump told Zelenskyy he would think about it and speak with Musk. He gave no timeline and no answer.

Zelenskyy also asked to meet Musk during the U.S. trip. Musk said no. 2/

Kasparov: I would bet a considerable sum that in 10 years Russia will not exist within its current borders. This is not about what I want.

It is going to happen. It is a zombie empire, and a zombie can kill many living souls before it dies. Behind Russia stands China.

1/ Kasparov: The Russian empire is dying. We may see its end in our lifetime. But when a dinosaur falls, you do not want to stand next to it.

Unless Europe acts decisively, Putin may cross NATO borders with drones. He needs a victory narrative, and Ukraine does not offer it.

2X

Kasparov: Russia is not Stalin’s USSR. It is a mafia state, part mafia, part dictatorship. Putin wants empire, but the people behind him want money.

Even Prigozhin’s story was about whether to steal in Africa or keep fighting Ukraine. The war has proved very profitable.

1/ Kasparov: Poles, Balts and Finns understand Russian imperialism in their blood.

Russian polls are nonsense, but pro-war blogs and state media show the mood. Moscow’s hesitation is over. Putin did what he always does: doubled down and raised the stakes.

2/

War analyst Barros: Ukraine wraps tanks in a bubble of drones and jamming before attacking sectors weakened by strikes, real combined arms.

Russia's own mechanized assaults keep failing. One last week cost them over a company's worth of equipment. 1/ Barros: When Western armor gets hit in these assaults, crews mostly survive with concussions or minor injuries.

Old Soviet-style vehicles usually kill the crew on a hit. That's the case for resupplying armor now. 2X

War analyst Barros: Russia's advance has flatlined, basically net zero.

Ukraine is mid-shaping operations to set up a breakout, and I'm confident we'll see Ukrainian territorial gains to talk about in the coming months. 1/ Barros: The front is genuinely contested for the first time in two years. Russia holds the initiative around Pokrovsk.

Ukraine is reportedly counterattacking near Kharkiv and Donetsk, and holds the initiative in Zaporizhzhia. 2/

Loomer: If I were president and Russia supplied Iran with weapons, I would kill Putin.

Putin is afraid of Trump. He can pretend he is not, but he knows Trump calls the shots. Trump could be far more aggressive with Putin if he wanted. I do not speak for Trump.

1/ Loomer: I’m not saying Trump should kill Putin.

If I were president and a country lied to my face while arming an enemy whose state TV chants “death to America” and “death to Trump,” I would find a way for that leader to die of a sudden heart attack.

2X

Loomer: I spoke to Trump about two days after interviewing Zelenskyy.

He told me he likes President Zelenskyy very much, but he also likes Vladimir Putin. He says he gets along with both. I do plan to meet with Trump when I get back.

1/ Loomer: Lavrov mocked questions about Russia arming Iran to kill U.S. soldiers.

U.S. officials should say “fuck the Russians” and come to Kyiv. If I survived ballistic missiles here, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff can come too.

2/

A Russian soldier raped 63-year-old Halyna Tyshchenko at gunpoint, then marched her naked into freezing cold.

Russian guards raped captives with bottles and sticks and threatened to inject expanding foam into their anuses. They said they would leave them childless — The WSJ. 1/ Russians shocked captives' genitals and forced them to stand, crouch, and parade naked for hours. Some guards simply enjoyed it, former captives said. 2/