Offshoot

The Russians always claim they destroy sea drones before they hit, so likely evasive maneuvers to try to avoid fire. They could also be using decoy drones to draw fire while another makes an attack run. In this case it looks like three drones all hit the same spot midship. It also must be difficult to get a sense of the ship's speed through the FPV so they might have to make sharp adjustments to target especially specific points on the ship. And they also might have protocols to limit collisions between the different drones, for example holding patterns while waiting.

It didn't take long Edit: but I did take too long

Sounds like (one of) the go-pro guys is British and I'm sure I heard a New Zealander (possibly Australian) in there ("Oh, yup"; the guy warning about the dud grenade in the trench).

That is very much the plan: Project 2025 - "Project 2025 is a plan to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Established in 2022, the project seeks to recruit tens of thousands of conservatives to Washington, D.C., to replace existing federal civil service workers it characterizes as the "deep state", to further the objectives of the next Republican president" Steve Bannon calls for ‘4,000 shock troops’ to dismantle US government ‘brick by brick’ Whether they could pull it off would have to be seen. I recently saw Bannon talking again I think saying that the training of the first cadre of thousands was underway and they were going for more but I can't remember where now.

Is this old footage or new? I haven't seen Trump talk about NATO for a while so why now? Or is it a staple of his rallies and just hasn't been reported on recently?

That article is certainly more credible than the unlinked Telegram sources mentioned in Geraschenko's tweet. Assuming what Geraschenko said about the Kovalchuk clan is correct, neither them nor Simonyan blame Putin for the flawed interview; the Kovalchuk clan blame Gromov and Peskov (and Carlson a little bit) and Simonyan blames Carlson wholly. This makes even less sense if Putin himself is unhappy with the interview. He was in the chair and could have talked about any subject he wanted but preferred to dither on schoolbook history.

Maybe, but what it does show is one of two things: the power plays among the Russian clans/factions continue; or Gerashchenko is trying to stir up trouble between the clans.

Assault by Azov on three Russian positions in Kreminna forest. Video has handy overlays to understand the action better. Closed captions are good.

Deal reached on 50 billion euros in EU aid for Ukraine (from the Guardian's live updates, which I don't know how to link directly, if it can be)

Add one more to the pool - Ex-Google CEO’s secret startup to build Ukraine AI-powered $400 kamikaze drones

Ukraine needs to start baking fresh bread all along the front line

Interesting video from the POV of a Russian tank in an attack on Ukrainian positions interspersed with Ukrainian drone footage showing the same action. I assume the Ukrainians captured the tank with the camera intact. Despite RPGs flying and vehicles already knocked out, the tank wanders up to the Ukrainian trenches through the smoke and I don't think fires a shot. Warning: aftermath with bodies shown at the end.

Knock yourself out - https://t.me/motopatriot/18863

It is a translation of a post (in the screen-shot) by Russian propagandist Anatoly Radov.

After the Cold War was won, the UK had decades of downsizing their armed forces (A brief look at the British Defence Budget in the 1990s). According to that article the number of personnel in 1990 was 306,000. So by 2000 (according to the chart shown in the video), they had lost (cut) 200,000 or close to two-thirds and woke hadn't even been invented yet. That aside, he slaps "woke" on some memes but doesn't provide any real evidence for it's effect on recruitment, just some quotes from some nobs in the Torygraph and some broad assumptions. But here are some numbers: -as at October 2018, people from ethnic minorities (not including White minorities) made up 2.5% of officers in the UK regular armed forces, compared with 2.4% in April 2012 -for ranks below officer, 8.8% of all armed forces personnel were from ethnic minorities, compared with 7.9% in April 2012 ( https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/workforce-and-business/workforce-diversity/armed-forces-workforce/latest/ ) -that number has gone up to 10.1% as of April 2023 (compared to an estimated 16.1% of the total UK population). ( https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7930/ ) The disparity between the proportions for officers and non-officers shows me that the British armed forces really need to up their wokeness game. And yeah, people should stop using the word woke if they don't know what it actually means.

Another little crack. I don't recall a protest of such scale (though still regional and not so big) in Russia since the start of the war. The cause is I assume directly related to the war and the crowd is waving and wearing Bashkortostan Republic flags. According to Wiki "On 3 August 1994, a Compact "On separation of authorities and mutual delegating of powers among the organs of power of the Russian Federation and the organs of power of the Republic of Bashkortostan" was signed, granting the republic autonomy. This agreement was abolished on 7 July 2005." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashkortostan )

I just watched this video today on the infrastructure situation in Russia. The first half is mostly videos of incidents and discussion of the causes starts at the 14:00 mark. The presenter used to work as an executive for a Russian company that designed and built power stations, so he speaks from some experience. He doesn't mention sabotage but perhaps obviously puts it down to money (less funding available), people (state enterprises most hit by recruitment for the war) and hardware (sanctions make important parts unavailable). Most surprising fact to me: the Russian government obliged different regions/cities to pay for rebuilding infrastructure in occupied Ukrainian cities, for example, St Petersburg has to pay for Mariupol from it's own budget, leaving less to maintain their own infrastructure.

This article on the Russian air force's operational choices (from Dec 04, 2023) discusses how the VKS have been pushing the A-50 further forward to try and keep their combat aircraft and air defence units safer, so it's not too out there that one might have been lost.

Because it is so rare, some armour v. armour, with a Bradley bullying a T-90M.

On the question of sabotage, a lot of fires in Russia have been reported since the start of the war and there is always the question of whether they were accidental or deliberate. Molfar tracks data on these fires and show a 125% increase in industrial fires in 2023 compared to 2022, with the vast majority occurring in warehouses and factories.

It could also ramp up the involvement of local forces via recruiting and training. It's apparent that not everyone in Africa is happy with Wagner's presence and some locals were already fighting them. If Ukraine could enlarge and improve those forces, they could become a bigger problem for Russia.

Russia already shot down six F16s, so they must be in use Based on Russian analysts, Reporting from Ukraine outlined a theory about how the ambush of the Russian planes happened.

They already had possession of the planes but could not use them fully for fear of losing them. We don't know what they have been doing with the planes they bought, but if they have just been sitting perhaps they are in better condition than the ones they have still been flying. Or they might feel more freedom to pillage them for parts. Or maybe whoever owns S7 was able to call in some favours to keep their business running; it doesn't necessarily have to have been done in the greater service of Russia, though having planes carrying cargo from international countries will no doubt help them to some extent.

Apparently it enables them to fly international routes without fear of the planes being seized ( https://simpleflying.com/russia-2bn-airplane-buyback-lessors/ ). Whether that also enables them to receive maintenance in other countries that aren't sanctioning Russia is another story.

Hopefully the start of a new crack, or the widening of an existing one. ‘We’re tired of being good girls’: Russia’s military wives and mothers protest against Putin