The Blackout: How the Army Sold Pakistan a War It Was Losing

Brief

On 17 December 1971, the newspaper Dawn in Karachi published a front-page headline declaring war till victory alongside a small report confirming that fighting had ended in East Pakistan and Indian troops had entered Dacca. The state-controlled media and military censors concealed the surrender of the Eastern Command at the Dhaka Race Course, presenting the military collapse as a local arrangement.

This information blackout began nine months earlier on 25 March, when the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, expelled foreign journalists, and seized telecommunication networks. Throughout the conflict, government propaganda masked the military crackdown as a restoration of law and order while branding Bengali leaders as traitors and refugees as Indian fiction. Even when select journalists like Anthony Mascarenhas witnessed mass killings and published exposés abroad, West Pakistani citizens remained insulated by a fabricated narrative of impending victory until the war ended.

Why Trump’s “Cosmic Bet” on AI Won’t Beat China

National Interest | Ariel Levite, Athanasios Platias

President Donald Trump champions an unbridled approach to artificial intelligence centered on the premise that whoever wins AI wins the geopolitical competition against China. Rejecting regulatory guardrails and shared safety proposals during a recent Washington summit, the administration instead relies on voluntary corporate codes and a myopic focus on technological supremacy.

However, this narrow strategy overlooks severe structural vulnerabilities, including rapid technological diffusion, fierce Chinese competition in data center construction, and acute financial concentration reminiscent of the dot-com bubble. Furthermore, capital crowding out and geopolitical pressure from efficient Chinese models like DeepSeek threaten the economic foundations of the American wager. Washington must adopt a comprehensive hybrid strategy that couples technological innovation with robust guardrails, industrial integration, and mutual deterrence rules to avoid strategic failure.

Beijing’s London Embassy as an Integrated Threat

Jamestown | Sze-Fung Lee

The People’s Republic of China’s newly approved 5.5-acre embassy in London risks operating as an integrated hybrid warfare hub that consolidates intelligence, influence, and united front operations under diplomatic immunity. The sprawling central London facility could amplify transnational repression campaigns against dissidents while remaining shielded from United Kingdom law enforcement authorities.

Recent incidents involving embassy guards brandishing illegal electroshock weapons against protesters underscore these growing security concerns. Consolidating seven separate locations into a single expansive compound enhances Beijing's whole-of-system approach to cross-domain coercion and cognitive pressure against targets on British soil. This unprecedented diplomatic scale removes structural barriers to information sharing between intelligence and united front personnel, potentially increasing the frequency and effectiveness of gray-zone operations abroad. Host governments face severe enforcement limits under the Vienna Convention when diplomatic privileges shield foreign actors from domestic legal oversight.

Where Every Tree Hides ‘an Enemy’: How I Watched China’s Paranoia Grow

New York Times | Andrew Higgins

Andrew Higgins experienced China's pervasive surveillance state firsthand during a recent reporting assignment that combined state-managed propaganda tours with personal isolation. While traveling through Shanxi province with foreign influencers who filmed promotional chants for China Daily, the author encountered immediate political interference when state security officers ordered a Beijing lawyer to cancel a planned reunion.

This stark contrast highlights the regime's intense sensitivity and pervasive monitoring of social interactions, even with long-standing acquaintances from decades past. The heightened security apparatus reflects a political climate far more paranoid than during earlier periods of the author's tenure in the country. That pervasive surveillance apparatus operates seamlessly alongside modern infrastructure projects like high-speed railways and newly constructed highways. The tightening domestic control apparatus underscores a deepening institutional anxiety within the ruling Communist Party regarding foreign contact and domestic dissent. Ultimately, the expanding security state reveals a system increasingly intolerant of private ties that escape direct official oversight.

After Modi: Political Leadership and the Future of Indian Foreign Policy

Nbr | Rohan Mukherjee

India faces a potential leadership transition as Prime Minister Narendra Modi approaches 78 years of age by the 2029 national election, leaving an unclear succession path within the Bharatiya Janata Party. Yogi Adityanath and Rahul Gandhi emerge as prominent generational representatives embodying contrasting intellectual currents and foreign policy worldviews.

Adityanath champions a hard-edged Hindu nationalist framework prioritizing internal security and a coercive state, whereas Gandhi advocates a civic nationalist approach rooted in anti-colonial traditions and democratic pluralism. Both leaders view China as an existential security threat and a key enabler of Pakistan, yet diverge in their navigation of U.S.-China competition. While structural material realities dictate continuity in India's balancing strategy, their distinct ideological foundations signal divergent diplomatic paths for future foreign policy execution. This generational shift will fundamentally shape New Delhi's international alignment, strategic autonomy, and regional posture amid escalating great-power rivalry across South Asia.

China Claims Control of Influence through AI Relationships

Deft9 | Anna Varfolomeeva

China regulates artificial intelligence companionship as a matter of state security under the Interim Measures for the Administration of Anthropomorphic AI Interaction Services. The rules compel every domestic AI companion to guard emotional health and conform to core socialist values in output and training data. Tencent tests these provisions with E Ciyuan, an animated gaming companion currently in closed beta.

While California's Senate Bill 243 focuses on consumer protection and mandatory disclosures, the Chinese framework bans commercial dependency engineering while embedding state-sanctioned political norms into emotional interactions. Regulators enforce compliance through mandatory security assessments, two-hour usage nudges, crisis protocols, and penalties reaching 200,000 yuan. Four indicators including pricing models, enforcement priorities, screen data flows, and potential export versions will determine how the regime operates in practice.

Ukraine Wants to Break China’s Thermal Sensor Grip With Mass Production in Europe and the US

United24 Media | Vlad Litnarovych

Ukrainian defense firms The Fourth Law and Odd Systems launched Project Foundation to quadruple European production of long-wave infrared sensors and double US output by 2027. The joint initiative aims to reduce Western reliance on Chinese microbolometers used in military drones and targeting equipment. Headquarters will be established in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, with facilities split between Europe and the United States.

Wartime consumption rates underscore existing industrial deficits. Europe currently manufactures fewer than 500,000 such sensors annually, while Ukrainian forces exhaust that exact volume within five months. Existing European sensors cost roughly five times more than Chinese alternatives and face severe supply constraints. Funding will rely on founders' capital, private investors, government grants, and advance orders. Serial production is slated to begin in 2027, building on concepts outlined in February when Odd Systems projected an annual capacity of one million units.

Corruption in the People’s Liberation Army

Air University

Chinese Ministry of National Defense investigations target Central Military Commission First Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli. These high-level purges isolate Xi Jinping and reduce the Central Military Commission core leadership from seven members in 2023 to two members in 2026, removing the last senior officers with Sino-Vietnamese conflict combat experience.

The sweeping anti-corruption campaign has affected over 100 two-star and three-star flag officers since 2022, including 22 officially acknowledged dismissals among an active roster of approximately 30 to 35 three-star officers. Eradicating systemic corruption stems from fears that graft could obstruct modernization goals, though these leadership vacuums across theater commands and services will create profound readiness disruptions. Xi Jinping and political commissar Zhang Shengmin now solely direct the People's Republic of China military decision-making body amid ongoing institutional purges.

Pentagon Expands Quantum Computing Push to Secure Military Tech Edge

Ground News

The Pentagon has launched a $350 million initiative through DARPA to advance US quantum computing capabilities amid intensifying strategic competition with China. The funding package backs four companies, benchmarking efforts, and specialized workshops designed to validate systems, accelerate manufacturing, and secure a domestic technological edge. This investment underscores Washington's concerted push to transition fragile experimental physics into ruggedized military applications.

Quantum systems face severe environmental fragility and calibration hurdles when deployed outside controlled laboratory conditions. Consequently, the Department of Defense is attempting to bypass commercial venture capital timelines by directly subsidizing industrial scaling and standardized capability testing. Officials intend to establish sovereign supply chains before adversary research labs achieve cryptographic dominance or battlefield sensing superiority. These programs remain vulnerable to persistent hardware decoherence bottlenecks and specialized talent shortages across the domestic defense industrial base. The push highlights an accelerating race to field disruptive dual-use technologies ahead of strategic rivals.

Drones, Missiles, and the U.S. Munitions Shortage

Cnas | Stacie A. Pettyjohn, Bradley Martin, Bryan Clark

The United States military faces severe munitions shortages following high-intensity conflicts, forcing defense planners to reassess the operational utility of low-cost, long-range one-way attack drones known as affordable mass. Drones like the $35,000 Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, reverse-engineered from Iranian Shahed-136 designs, offer rapid producibility and volume that traditional precision munitions lack.

However, these systems face severe limitations: prohibitive total volumes for specific desired effects, insufficient range to strike deep within mainland territory, and an inability to penetrate hardened or buried installations. Consequently, military planners must integrate affordable mass alongside existing high-end weapons rather than treating them as total replacements. This complementary integration aims to generate crucial munitions depth, overwhelm regional air defense networks, and introduce complex tactical dilemmas for peer adversaries during protracted multi-domain campaigns.

Why Saudi Arabia has returned to war in Yemen

Responsible Statecraft | Annelle Sheline

Saudi-backed government forces and coalition airstrikes have renewed military operations against Houthi positions in Yemen following Houthi seizures of the Red Sea coastline and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Riyadh launched the assault after concluding that diplomacy had failed and that previous attempts to appease the Houthis merely expanded their territorial ambitions.

Ansar Allah forces have steadily improved their domestic weapons manufacturing capabilities and deployed advanced asymmetric technologies, including AI tools and drone boats, to threaten regional adversaries. Although the Houthis maintain a strategic alliance with Tehran, their immediate objective remains the total consolidation of political control over Yemen. Meanwhile, the internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council struggles with severe internal divisions, corruption, and military ineffectiveness. Saudi Arabia now faces a critical strategic choice between sustaining military operations alongside the fractured government, attempting to mend ties with marginalized southern separatists, or ultimately returning to negotiations to orchestrate a withdrawal from the protracted conflict.

Saudi Arabia will have to respond to Houthi airport attack – but the choices are stark

Msn | Mostafa Salem

Saudi Arabia faces a critical dilemma following a Houthi ballistic missile strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh that killed 13 people, including an American citizen. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Defense Minister Khaled bin Salman confront stark limitations as the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels escalate their campaign with increasingly sophisticated weapons and persistent drone attacks.

Riyadh has largely restricted its military intervention to air cover for government coalition forces, avoiding an extensive and costly ground invasion across rugged terrain that could undermine the kingdom's stable investment image. Meanwhile, the Houthi movement has expanded its tactical capabilities through alleged collaboration with Iranian experts and artificial intelligence software utilization. Saudi leadership has sought international assistance from nations including France, Britain, Pakistan, and Syria, while US President Donald Trump weighs potential direct military intervention following the airport casualties.

America Shouldn’t Let Go of the Middle East

Foreign Affairs | Philip H. Gordon

United States presidential administrations over the past three decades have repeatedly found themselves pulled back into Middle Eastern crises despite frequent pledges of disengagement. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all discovered that profound regional instability defies attempts at complete withdrawal or peripheral pivoting. Regional conflicts directly threaten global energy supplies, maritime commerce routes, and the security of key regional partners like Israel.

Total disengagement risks creating power vacuums that rival actors such as Iran, Russia, and China would aggressively exploit to expand their influence. Washington cannot abandon the theater without severely damaging broader geopolitical credibility and vital economic interests. Maintenance of a sustained, balanced security architecture remains essential for preventing total regional escalation. Abandoning long-standing commitments invites cascading strategic failures across adjacent theaters.

War Through Weakness

Thinking about... | Timothy Snyder

Donald Trump has driven the United States into a state of superpower suicide through a catastrophic and strategically unviable war in Iran. Washington wasted vital missile interceptors and drew down forces from Middle Eastern bases and Great Britain without any coherent plan for victory or escalation dominance. Consequently, the resulting energy disruptions and soaring domestic fuel prices have prompted the administration to scapegoat Ukraine and pursue illicit purchases of Russian diesel fuel.

Rather than projecting strength, this policy reflects deep subservience to Vladimir Putin while violating explicit American statutory sanctions. Bending to Russian interests without securing tangible national gains further erodes institutional integrity and rule of law at home. Ultimately, this compounding cycle of strategic failure and personal corruption locks Washington into an escalating spiral of global impotence.

Watch the gap

Comment is Freed | Lawrence Freedman

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at the Valdai Forum on 2 October 2026 that any direct European attack on the enclave of Kaliningrad would immediately trigger a nuclear response from Moscow. Putin argued that Western policies have forced Russia into conflict while dismissing claims that Moscow intends to launch offensive operations against NATO members in 2029, 2030, or 2050.

NATO enlargement and Western backing for Ukraine have turned the strategic defeat of Russia into a self-fulfilling prophecy, deepening mutual antagonism. Kaliningrad has increasingly transformed from a long-standing confrontation flashpoint into a notable Russian vulnerability amid shifting regional dynamics. Moscow attempts minor shows of strength around the enclave to deter European support for Kyiv, raising the risk of unintended escalation. As security positions harden across Europe, the vulnerability of isolated Russian territories heightens the danger of wider military conflict.

Russia’s Hybrid War Has Entered a Dangerous New Phase

Foreign Affairs | Julianne Smith

Russia executes escalating hybrid warfare operations across Europe, encompassing severed undersea cables, concealed incendiary packages, and coordinated arson attacks on military depots. NATO allies respond with reinforced critical infrastructure, expanded Baltic Sea patrols, and heightened intelligence sharing. These defensive measures remain largely reactive, constrained by the small scale and plausible deniability of Moscow's persistent sabotage campaign.

Western capitals struggle to establish effective deterrence against sub-threshold aggression that deliberately avoids triggering a direct collective military response. The alliance faces an expanding security challenge as hostile grey-zone tactics intensify across member territories. Continued reluctance to impose severe costs risks normalizing sub-conventional warfare as a permanent instrument of coercion.

The Russia–Ukraine War and the Global System Rupture

Velina Tchakarova | Velina Tchakarova

The Russia-Ukraine war is developing within three distinct diplomatic negotiation tracks alongside a broader Global System Rupture driven by simultaneous conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. Donald Putin's administration and the United States recently engaged in a limited economic rapprochement marked by the US Treasury issuing General License 135 to authorise Russian-origin diesel transactions through 7 April 2027, responding to soaring domestic energy prices.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has continued long-range strikes against Russian refineries and industrial facilities to maintain strategic leverage despite US pressure to halt them, tying any energy ceasefire to strict reciprocity. Meanwhile, Russian forces launched 160 drones overnight against critical Ukrainian energy infrastructure, compounding severe infrastructural damage ahead of the winter of 2026-2027. This convergence of compounding economic shocks and stalled trilateral negotiations threatens both Ukrainian national resilience and the longer-term fiscal sustainability of Russia's war economy.

With hybrid attacks and nuclear bluster, Putin aims to end Europe’s support for Ukraine

Washington Post | Catherine Belton

Russian President Vladimir Putin is exploiting domestic European vulnerabilities, including political upheaval in Germany, violent student protests in France, and a continental fuel crisis, to undermine European backing for Kyiv. European officials and analysts warn that Moscow is escalating a hybrid war characterised by cyberattacks, online disinformation campaigns, and explicit nuclear threats designed to fracture Western resolve.

As allied governments grapple with severe internal pressures, the Kremlin calculates that cumulative economic and political strains will compel European capitals to abandon their commitments to Ukraine in the coming months. This multi-pronged pressure campaign seeks to exploit perceived fractures in the transatlantic alliance and erode critical military and financial aid pipelines sustaining Ukrainian forces on the battlefield. Ultimately, Moscow’s aggressive posture combines coercive diplomacy with covert disruption to force a strategic retreat of Western support before allied defence postures can consolidate against long-term attrition.

Footage Shows Russia’s Most Advanced Tanks Being Withdrawn for Repairs After Frontline Combat Damage

Military Watch Magazine

Footage emerging from Russian social media demonstrates damaged T-90M main battle tanks moving by rail toward the Uralvagonzavod manufacturing facilities in Nizhny Tagil for frontline repair overhauls. Enhanced armor protection and crew survivability features on the T-90M enable a higher proportion of combat-damaged hulls to return to active service, exemplified by instances of individual platforms restored after absorbing 26 drone strikes.

This industrial refurbishment capacity supports the Russian Army amid a severe depletion of Soviet-era armored reserves, which satellite imagery indicates have dropped to 2,088 remaining vehicles across nine facilities. Battlefield attrition from first-person view drones targeting vulnerable upper and rear compartments drives continuous design adaptations, including upgraded roof slats, electronic warfare suites, integrated drone capabilities, and Arena-M active protection systems integrated during overhauls.

Russian search engine Yandex struggles after Ukrainian strikes on data centres

BBC | Tinshui Yeung

Russian tech giant Yandex is struggling to maintain services after Ukrainian drones struck two of its five data centres in Sasovo and Kaluga over a two-day period. President Volodymyr Zelensky stated the operations were executed in response to recent Russian strikes against Ukrainian digital infrastructure. The Sasovo facility, which houses two critical supercomputers used for AI development, suffered complete operational suspension, while part of the Kaluga site was taken offline.

Ukrainian officials noted the offensive aims to strain Moscow's resources and disrupt revenue streams funding the war effort. The escalation follows previous Russian missile and drone barrages targeting Kyiv data centres and energy grids ahead of winter. Yandex teams are working continuously to restore functionality, though the timeline for full recovery remains uncertain amid ongoing cross-border infrastructure attacks.

Trump’s Diesel Doctrine and Betrayal of Ukraine

Mickryan

President Trump announced an agreement for Russia to supply over 300,000 tons of diesel to global markets, easing sanctions via a temporary Treasury licence running until 7 April 2027. The deal followed U.S. pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure that have crippled half of Moscow's refining capacity.

Ukrainian officials condemned the move as a weak decision that extends the conflict, while bipartisan U.S. opposition emerged against circumventing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. Concurrently, Trump demanded a new Ukrainian leader and dismissed Kyiv's strategic strike campaign during failed peace negotiations in Miami. These developments deepen the strategic rift between Washington and Kyiv while intensifying allied anxieties across the Indo-Pacific regarding U.S. reliability.

European energy autonomy or net zero: Pick one

Brussels Signal | Karl Pfefferkorn

European policymakers pursuing energy autonomy face an irreconcilable conflict with the European Climate Law, which mandates severe carbon emission reductions and full carbon neutrality by 2050. Brussels remains dependent on imported fossil fuels from the United States, Qatar, Norway, and Algeria, yet refuses to exploit vast domestic hydrocarbon reserves due to strict regulatory prohibitions against fracking, Arctic drilling, and coal use.

The European Commission’s AccelerateEU strategy claims that mass electrification powered by wind and solar will achieve both net zero and energy independence. However, weather-dependent renewables require battery storage capacity that far exceeds global manufacturing capabilities, as evidenced by the bankruptcy of the Northvolt facility and heavy reliance on Asian imports. Furthermore, electrification cannot replace essential industrial inputs like metallurgical coal for steel production. Without dismantling climate regulations to unlock domestic shale gas, coal, and nuclear power, European industrial competitiveness and true energy sovereignty remain fundamentally unachievable under current legal frameworks.

Ethnography

E-International Relations

Ethnography originated in social and cultural anthropology during the early twentieth century before expanding into sociology and other social science disciplines. Ethnographers examine cultural phenomena and social behaviour from the internal perspective of study participants through qualitative methods and participant observation. Traditional physical fieldwork has increasingly been complemented by document analysis, qualitative interviews, and virtual netnography across diverse settings like traditional communities and youth gangs.

Researchers document detailed interaction patterns and local contexts to construct holistic accounts encompassing historical terrain and climate factors.

Unmanned warfare has expanded to the high seas. Is the US ready?

Defensescoop | Vice Admiral Michael Connor, Yoni Tobin

Unmanned naval warfare is expanding rapidly as recent maritime clashes in the Black Sea and Middle East demonstrate the operational utility of autonomous surface vessels. The Pentagon must accelerate its adoption of inexpensive, expendable unmanned platforms while overcoming bureaucratic testing bottlenecks that currently hinder production. However, acquiring low-cost systems is only part of the solution; the U.S.

military must also integrate these distributed assets into a unified command-and-control network. Achieving persistent surveillance and effective coordination across joint domains remains constrained by fragmented deployments and heavy fiscal commitments to vulnerable, manned surface combatants. Resolving these structural and acquisition challenges is essential for naval readiness, particularly in contested Pacific conflict scenarios.

Techquisition: The Pentagon’s New Autonomous Warfare Command

Maggie Gray | Maggie Gray, David Rothzeid

Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo on September 30th titled Project Agincourt, Pathway to the Autonomous Warfare Command, initiating a framework to establish a new functional combatant command focused on autonomous warfare. Defense acquisitions expert Bill Greenwalt joined podcast hosts Maggie Gray and David Rothzeid to discuss the initiative, which aims to address shortcomings in Western acquisition systems highlighted by the war in Ukraine.

The proposed entity intends to secure directive manpower, budget, and acquisition authorities while creating dedicated career pathways. Combatant commands differ from services in that services organize, train, and equip forces, whereas combatant commands direct them in operations. The last combatant commands created from scratch were U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Transportation Command in 1987. Project Agincourt is currently an aspirational pathway led by the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems and will require both departmental planning and congressional legislation.

Enabling NATO’s technological transformation

Atlantic Council | David Julazadeh

NATO possesses access to advanced technologies but struggles significantly with their operational adoption, scaling, integration, and interoperability across thirty-two member nations. Cloud-enabled infrastructure serves as a central test case for this structural challenge, acting as the necessary foundation for data sharing, artificial intelligence, distributed command and control, logistics visibility, and rapid software deployment.

While initiatives such as the NATO Innovation Fund, DIANA, and Allied Software for Cloud and Edge Services highlight organizational progress, legacy platform-centric processes and fragmented governance continue to impede execution. Lessons from Ukraine demonstrate that modern warfare demands compressed timelines from sensing to action, raising the stakes for rapid digital integration. Without corresponding institutional reforms, increased defense spending risks scaling digital fragmentation rather than coherent operational capability across the Alliance.

Doctrine Under Pressure 1/15 Principles Endure. Conditions Change.

Linkedin | Eva Sula

Military principles endure while changing operational conditions complicate their execution. The war in Ukraine demonstrates how persistent surveillance, unmanned systems, and electronic warfare constrain movement and force concentration. Conversely, Israel established rapid air superiority in its June 2025 campaign against Iran by combining preparation, electronic warfare, and integrated strikes, highlighting how the ability to shape conditions varies across conflicts.

Current NATO doctrine, including the 2025 AJP-3 Edition D Version 1, already incorporates mission command and the manoeuvrist approach, proving that the friction lies not in obsolete doctrine. Instead, the challenge sits between doctrinal intent and institutional capability, where force design, training, and procurement must adapt to modern operating environments. Bridging this gap requires separating enduring military purposes from traditional practices rather than declaring foundational concepts dead.

The Alarming Iranian Drone Plot in England

National Review | Rich Lowry

United States military forces hastily relocated B-1 bombers out of Fairford air base in the United Kingdom following threats of an Iranian drone attack. This tactical repositioning highlights the expanding reach of Iranian asymmetric operations against Western military infrastructure thousands of miles beyond the Middle East. The Trump administration has implemented a naval blockade and opened shipping channels in the Strait of Hormuz to apply economic pressure, yet persistent aerial threats continue to constrain overseas deployment options.

Military planners face acute vulnerabilities across forward-deployed installations as hostile actors leverage long-range uncrewed aerial systems. Such constraints complicate traditional power projection frameworks and force a reassessment of base security protocols. Tehran's demonstrated capability to disrupt allied operations in Europe underscores a deepening strategic challenge for coalition defense planners.

How Iranian Operatives Used AI To Publish Fake Stories In US Media

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty | Frud Bezhan, Sindre Langmoen

Iranian operatives deployed seven artificial intelligence-generated journalist personas, including a fictitious freelancer named Ervin B. Hoskins, to plant nearly 100 anti-American articles across roughly a dozen international online publications. OpenAI reported that the covert influence campaign utilized ChatGPT to generate story pitches, draft provocative op-eds, and amplify content across social media platforms to shape foreign public opinion.

The operation specifically targeted small to medium-sized US media outlets, framing Washington as the aggressor in an ongoing seven-month conflict while portraying Israel unfavorably. This disclosure follows similar findings by Anthropic regarding state-backed exploitation of LLMs for cognitive warfare and dissident surveillance.

The Battle for Hormuz Is Not the War

The Atlantic | Alan Eyre

President Trump recently rejected a seven-day plan proposed by Iran’s foreign ministry to end the ongoing war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, citing rising crude-oil flows as proof of American success. Seven months into a conflict originally projected to last four to five weeks, the administration continues to conflate tactical dominance with broader strategic victory.

Washington’s confidence is heavily anchored in economic attrition, driven by the U.S. Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports and the Treasury Department’s Operation Economic Outcast, launched in August to sever Tehran’s remaining financial lifelines. However, these maritime restrictions and economic campaigns fail to capture the resilience of the Iranian state or guarantee an end to the conflict on American terms. Increased oil movement through the vital waterway merely reflects localized maritime control rather than a fundamental political settlement of the underlying hostilities.