Applebaum: Of course Orban was authoritarian. The fact that he gave up power peacefully proves nothing by itself.

What matters is what it took to beat him: 16 years in power, panic before the vote, and a campaign that felt to Hungarians like regime change. 1/ Applebaum: To defeat Orban, Peter Magyar had to endure bugging, sex-tape leaks, grotesque smears, and an 18-month grassroots campaign.

No democratic leader should have to go through that. That is what unwinding authoritarian rule looked like. 2/

Applebaum: Trump clearly did not expect the Iran war to last this long. He seems to have imagined it would be easy.

If people in the room told him otherwise, he ignored them. He knows very little about Iran and even seemed surprised by Hormuz and Iranian strikes. 1/ Applebaum: People around the world now read news from Washington by first asking whether it is real.

Trump helped create that post-reality world by nurturing conspiracy theories and undermining trust in media. That is a classic authoritarian tactic. 2/

The US, EU, Turkey and China all now compete with Russia for control over the Caucasus.

Armenia and Azerbaijan just ended a decades-long war, and that peace opened new energy and trade routes through the narrow strip linking Europe and Asia. — Bloomberg.

1/ The US secured exclusive rights to develop the TRIPP corridor — a rail and road route across Armenia's south connecting Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhchivan.

The agreement extends to oil and gas pipelines and fiber optic networks for 99 years.

2/

A group of five Ukrainian hackers tricked 2500 Russians into revealing their location — The Times.

They created a bot that posed as a group of cybercriminals. Russians asked to add their Starlinks to the database as Ukrainian. In exchange, they gave their crypto wallet.

1/ “Fucking Ukrainians, you are liars! Always find a way to take money. You are worse then Jews” — a Russian soldier after he was told that he was scammed by Ukrainian military.

After getting the wallet, the hacker group always revealed themselves to demmoralize Russians.

2/

Kellogg: The Ukrainians have fought brilliantly. Since 2014, they have lost only about 1% of their land.

If Russia were really winning, it would be across the Dnipro, in Kharkiv, in Kyiv. It is not. My message to Moscow is simple: you are not winning, you are losing. 1/ Kellogg: Putin has a problem of his own making. Russia has taken roughly 1.2 to 1.4 million dead and wounded.

The Soviets left Afghanistan after losing only 18,000. And yet Moscow still cannot take the rest of Donbas from fortified Ukrainian positions. 2/

Kellogg: The [Hormuz] blockade was a brilliant move, but I think it has to go further.

We need to put the regime itself at risk, put the people running it one step from death, and make clear this is no longer just about Hormuz. Iran’s national survival is now at stake. 1/ Kellogg: I would go to Kharg Island or the Gulf islands and open the waterway. Then you have real leverage.

It stops being a negotiation over shipping lanes and becomes a negotiation over regime survival, with pressure placed directly on the Guards and the leadership. 2/

Russia is dismantling memory of Soviet repression while restoring its architects.

Apr 19: authorities demolished the “Stone of Grief” memorial in Tomsk. Apr 22: Putin named the FSB academy after Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of Soviet state terror, Kara-Murza for WP. 1/ Gulag History Museum shut down. Memorial — the main archive of Soviet repression — banned as “extremist.” Soviet anthem restored earlier, honoring Stalin-era legacy. 2/

Pompeo: There is no such thing as a moderate Iranian leader. They are all radicals.

If they appear to surrender, do not fall for it. For us it will look like surrender. For them it will look like continuation. 1/ Pompeo: We are already taking military action.

The US Navy, Space Command, and others are enforcing a blockade to stop Iran from rearming and resupplying not only its nuclear capabilities, but its conventional forces too. The blockade has proven effective. 2/

Russia stopped feeding human waves into FPV drones — Telegraph.

Putin’s units now send 2-4 man teams, often at night with minimal radio, to slip through gaps in Ukraine’s line, dig in behind it, and build pressure from the flank or rear. 1/ Russia has taken about 1.3M killed or wounded since the invasion began, including an estimated 325,000 dead.

Drones spot large formations within minutes. Electronic warfare disrupts comms, and interception risk makes radio contact dangerous. Russia shrinks the footprint. 2/

"There will be no amnesty for Russian criminals," says Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's MFA.

The Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression is the first since Nuremberg. 24 states have signed on, EU committed €10M — United24. 1/ Q: How does the Tribunal differ from the ICC?

Tykhyi: "The ICC is about 'you are waging war incorrectly.' The Special Tribunal is about 'you started an unjust war in the first place.'" 2/

A Ukrainian electronic warfare network knocked down 58 of 59 Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles since last summer.

The wall is called Lima. It costs a fraction of a Patriot interceptor — Kyiv Independent. 1/ The Cascade Systems-built Lima stations have a 300 km range against Kinzhals.

32 stations are enough to sever a missile's link to satellite navigation. The "Night Watch" air defense unit has run them since 2023. 2/

More Colombians fight on Ukraine's front than any other foreign nationality — about 7,000 men, the largest single contingent by a wide margin.

Decades hunting guerrillas, paramilitaries, and cartels at home prepared them for the trenches of Donbas. — United24. 1/ They serve in the International Legion, in mechanized brigades, recon units, and drone teams of Ukraine's regular forces.

Alongside them stands the Bolívar Battalion — established August 2023, named after Simón Bolívar. 2/

A 25-year-old Ukrainian drone commander watches 4 Russian soldiers ride into her crosshairs — then erases them with a machine the size of a crow.

“I’m fighting two wars. One against the Russians. And one inside myself,” — FT. 1/
Call sign “Multik.” Real name Yana Zalevska.

From a bunker near Huliaipole, she pilots fibre-optic drones with ~30 km range, carrying explosives strong enough to destroy armored vehicles or dugouts in a single strike. 2/

Blumenthal: In Ukraine, I've gone to drone manufacturing facilities. They're producing 1,000 drones a day. They get real time information from the battlefield and make adjustments as they are manufacturing. I don't know anything in our industrial base that is as agile. 1/ Blumenthal: Ukraine is holding the line against Vladimir Putin, who will keep going against Moldova and NATO allies. We have an obligation under Article 5 to come to their defense, just as they did after 9/11. China is watching what we're doing in Ukraine. 2X

Russia’s GDP grew on paper, yet the trains went empty.

By end 2025, Russia Railways [RZD] freight volume was 13% below 2021, a 16 year low.

Four years into the war Russia still cannot build enough rail capacity to replace European markets, — UNITED24. 1/ Rail freight is Russia’s material base: coal, oil, metals, construction inputs.

If those volumes fall for years, the civilian economy is shrinking even if the Kremlin prints nicer numbers. 2/

The first private Anti-air company in the world works in Ukraine.

Operators in Carmin Sky use joysticks to control automatic turrets. Sky Sentinel turrets, equipped with Browning machine guns are used. They locate target automatically and wait for permission to fire — DW.
1/ Ruslan, communications specialist at Carmine Sky: Our main target is Shaheds. Yesterday we intercepted a jet-powered Shahed.

Everything that enters the turret's range will not fly. The company has provided sky protection services since January 2026.

2/

Zelenskyy approved new drone strikes on Russia.

Zelenskyy: Ukrainian drones — our long-range sanctions.

1,500 km range is no longer news. Russia’s oil sector, military logistics, production are legitimate targets.

If Russia doesn't want diplomacy, it must be imposed on it. 1/ Zelenskyy: We have Russian documents showing that Russia considers our arms exports a specific threat to itself.

Political leadership of Russia is set to disrupt Ukraine’s access to such new investments.

We will counter this. 2/

Russia now calls Leningrad Oblast a “front-line region” after Ukrainian strikes reached ~1,000 km from the border.

Governor Drozdenko says oil terminals and ports became primary targets, hitting core infrastructure behind the front, The Kyiv Independent. 1/ Ust-Luga and Primorsk — Russia’s main Baltic oil ports — handle 60M tons annually and generate major budget revenues, now struck since March 22. 2/

AI will soon decide who dies on the battlefield. In 2002 the US MQ-1 Predator drone carried out one of the first targeted strikes in Afghanistan. In 2026 Ukrainian ground robots capture Russian soldiers without a single human soldier present — Al Jazeera. 1/ In January Ukrainian defense company DevDroid released footage of three Russian soldiers surrendering to a ground robot armed with a machinegun. In April Zelenskyy confirmed: for the first time in the war, a position was captured exclusively by unmanned platforms. 2/

"Ukraine's lack of Western weapons forced it to invent a different kind of warfare — civilian technology and business practices brought directly into combat.

NATO is now studying this." — Gen. Kaspars Pudāns, commander of the Latvian Armed Forces for Kyiv Post. 1/ Pudāns: "What has been surprising is the ability of Ukrainian soldiers and leaders at all levels to innovate and develop new approaches so quickly.

This was partly driven by a lack of support from the West, which forced Ukraine to adapt by using civilian technologies. 2/

Budanov: “You have one chance to stay alive — come out into the open and surrender. If you don’t decide in five minutes, I will order an assault.”

That’s how he spoke to Russian border guards during a raid inside Russia in summer 2023. 5 minutes later, they surrendered, Babel.1/ Artan unit commander Viktor Torkotiuk: the operation was planned two months in advance.

They gathered human intel, ran drone reconnaissance, sent teams deep inside to map routes. Budanov personally adjusted the final plan. Goal: disrupt Russia’s planned offensive on Kharkiv. 2/