“The Most Brazenly Corrupt Action in US Presidential History"
A News Link Round-Up
Here is the latest weekly round-up of links, with items on how Russia is slowly losing its war—there’s been a steady stream of news about this that hasn’t been featured much in American media—plus some new reporting on the bizarrely optimistic plans behind the botched Iran war, how we’re not going to like the alternatives to Pax Americana, a vindication of the Voting Rights Act, the most spectacularly corrupt act of this or any other administration, and a rundown of the numbers on the most bubbly IPO of the AI bubble.
A reminder about this News Link Round-Up format: The main headlines are there to provide context and perhaps a little commentary, the headlines with the links are the original headlines from the articles, and the quotations beneath are extracts from the articles.
The Decline and Fall of the Russian Empire
Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has attacked all major oil refineries in the European part of Russia except for two facilities beyond the Urals. In total, at least 158 strikes on Russian oil refineries have been recorded….
According to analysts, Ukraine has attacked 24 out of 33 Russian oil refineries with a capacity of more than 1 million tons of oil per year. The year 2025 became the most intense in terms of the number of strikes — 88 attacks were recorded then. In 2026, Ukraine has already carried out 32 strikes on Russian oil refineries, which is almost equal to the figure for the whole of 2024.
Reuters previously reported that due to drone attacks, almost all large oil refineries in central Russia either stopped or reduced production. According to the agency, processing volumes at 16 plants decreased by about 700,000 barrels per day compared to last year.
Has Putin Met His Marianas Moment?
The catastrophe for the Japanese was not just strategic. As the Japanese leadership very well knew, the fall of the Marianas destroyed the entire fantasy that they had been selling repeatedly to the Japanese people. Since Pearl Harbor they had described the Pacific War to the Japanese public as a series of smashing victories against the Americans, claiming to have inflicted so many losses on US forces that the Japanese home islands were safe and secure….
The loss of the Marianas, however, could not be bluffed away.
The Marianas brought most of Japan, including the capital Tokyo, in range of America’s newest bomber, the Very Long Range (VLR) B-29 Superfortress….
What happened over the last weekend was really notable in this war, and has shown to the Russian people, if they really were unaware, that their government has been BS-ing them about the course of the war. If you have not been paying attention, since the full-scale invasion, much like the Japanese of 1941-1944, the Putin regime has been protecting Moscow and encasing it in lies. They have done everything possible to assure Muscovites that the war was going to end up in decisive victory while insulating them as much as possible from economic harm. They even have made sure that there was no major troop raising efforts from Moscow and St Petersburg, focussing on more distant Russian imperial provinces to supply their cannon fodder.
The idea that Moscow can be protected has now been shown to be a myth. The attacks of the last few days demonstrate that for now, no matter how much air defense the Russians concentrate around the capital, the Ukrainians can find a way through. Moreover, as Ukrainian production of long range strike ramps up, unless the Russians can devise a counter, these attacks will get worse.
