Big Tech backs Anthropic in fight against Trump administration

Kali Hays

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A slew of America's biggest tech companies have swung behind Anthropic in its lawsuit against leaders in the Trump Administration.

Since Monday, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have publicly supported Anthropic's legal action to overturn Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's unprecedented decision to label it a "supply chain risk".

In legal filings, the tech giants expressed concerns about the government's retaliation against Anthropic after it refused to let its tools be used in mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.

The government's behaviour could cause "broad negative ramifications for the entire technology sector", Microsoft warned.

Microsoft, which works extensively with the US government and the Department of Defense (DoD), said it agrees with Anthropic that AI tools "should not be used to conduct domestic mass surveillance or put the country in a position where autonomous machines could independently start a war".

How Russia Leveraged Asian Partnerships in the Ukraine War

Tahir Azad

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Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine made Europe’s eastern flank the main battleground for modern great-power politics. However, the war’s infrastructure has become more Eurasian than just European. As NATO countries increased their military, intelligence, training, and financial support for Ukraine, Moscow responded by expanding its strategic depth to the east and south. It did this by using partnerships with Asian countries to make up for losses on the battlefield, restock its supplies, stabilize its revenue streams, and make its war economy more resistant to sanctions. This was not an “alliance system” in the way that people thought of it during the Cold War. It looked like a flexible, uneven, and often deniable ecosystem of state ties, business connections, and military-technical exchanges.

The core idea is simple: Western support made it more expensive for Russia to be aggressive, but it also gave third parties, especially those who were sanctioned, strategically non-aligned, or revisionist, reasons to work more closely with Moscow. North Korea’s weapons and troops, Iran’s drone and missile transfers, and China’s role as an economic and dual-use “backbone” all helped Russia stay connected and keep its operations going. At the same time, major Asian energy importers, especially India and China, helped keep Russia’s economy strong by buying oil and doing shipping and financial workarounds – like the “shadow fleet” – even as sanctions got stricter.

Russia’s Middle East Role Below Putin’s Ambitions

Anna J. Davis

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to claim a relevant role in the Middle East while being largely ignored and pushed aside by major actors, including the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump during a phone call on March 9 that Russia wants to “be helpful” in the Middle East. Trump replied that Putin could be more helpful by meaningfully engaging in efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine (The White House, March 10). The Kremlin has not budged on its demands for full control of Ukrainian territory that it illegally annexed in 2022, yet it continues to blame Kyiv for stalling progress in talks (see EDM, February 24; President of Russia, March 9). Meanwhile, the PRC has already begun mediation efforts in the Middle East with no public recognition of the Kremlin’s stated desire to do the same (PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, March 10). Putin is failing to recognize that Russia’s role is irrelevant and unwanted in the Middle East right now and that he is being pushed aside as a result.

The Global Economic Slowdown And China In The Era Of De-Globalization

Yang Xite

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China’s economic growth has transitioned from the double-digit high-speed expansion of the past to a gradual deceleration of around 5%. This shift has sparked significant attention and debate both within the country itself and internationally. The decision to modestly lower the annual GDP growth target during China’s 2026 Two Sessions, its annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, reflects a policy acknowledgment and adaptation to the new realities of the global economy under the pressures of de-globalization. ANBOUND’s founder Kung Chan suggested that observing this phenomenon requires a more comprehensive perspective. A fundamental evaluation is that the current economic downturn is not unique to China. Instead, it is a challenge shared by the entire world.

Why, then, is the global economy weakening collectively? To understand this, one must clarify the underlying logic to see the true picture. The key lies in “de-globalization”. ANBOUND has conducted research on this topic for nearly a decade, initially approaching it through the “New Space Theory” and observing a “fragmentation” of global space. While globalization seeks a unified market and relies on international agreements, multinational corporations, and organizations to integrate the world, de-globalization does the opposite. It carves the market space from a whole into regional or even national units. This can be viewed as a global-scale “balance sheet contraction”.

These are Ukraine’s $1,000 interceptor drones the Pentagon wants to buy

Katie Livingstone

Surce Link

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine warned allied governments for years to prepare for a new kind of war, one in which cheap, mass-produced drones would overwhelm both the tactics and economics of traditional air defense.

“You don’t have time,” Andrii Hrytseniuk, the CEO of Brave1, recalled telling officials in recent years. “Shahed [drones] will come not only to Ukraine, but to other countries. You need to use your time not to stick to previous conventional warfare, but to work on the new era.”

Brave1 was established in 2023 as Ukraine’s state-backed defense innovation hub, which funds, tests, and fast-tracks new military technology from hundreds of Ukrainian startups.

Three years after Brave1’s formation, the Iran war has made Hrytseniuk’s warning prescient.

In the first week alone, the U.S. and Israel struck more than 3,000 targets across Iran while Tehran fired over 500 ballistic missiles and nearly 2,000 drones at U.S. bases and Israeli cities across 12 countries, burning through over 800 Patriot interceptor missiles in three days — more than Ukraine received from allies throughout four years of war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed out on Thursday.

A warning for the AI era: Why America's energy infrastructure isn't ready for what's coming

Rob Jordan

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As tech giants race to power AI data centers and extreme weather becomes more frequent, America's electrical grid is straining under conditions it was not built to handle. Alice Hill, senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council during the Obama administration, has a message for business leaders and policymakers: prepare now.

“We need to stop treating rapid grid expansion and resilience needs as competing priorities, Hill said. “Resilience is growth policy.”

The Iran War Is Breaking Global Humanitarian Aid Efforts

Sam Vigersky

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U.S.-Israeli attacks have temporarily displaced up to 3.2 million people within Iran since the start of the conflict. In Lebanon, where more than three hundred thousand people are stranded without homes, displacement shelters are overflowing as waves of families flee for safety. In conflict zones like Sudan and Myanmar, oil market shocks caused by the ongoing military campaign in Iran are driving up the costs of humanitarian programs that provide food, water, medicine, and shelter—all while containers packed with life-saving aid sit untouched in Dubai.

As war continues to escalate across the Middle East, the humanitarian consequences—direct and cascading—are only just beginning to come into focus. For aid workers who are already underfunded and under threat, one question looms: how much worse will it get?

We Should Learn From the Present War, the Chinese Will

Gary Anderson

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Other than tactical events, the first week of Operation Epic Fury has some potential revelations that will likely be overlooked by casual observers of the conflict. These are the sinking of an Iranian warship in international waters by an American submarine and the enormous use of precision weapons and drones by the United States. Both have implications for our country in deterring and conducting a war with China. There is no doubt in my mind that the Chinese are noting this, and American citizens should as well. (RELATED: Broadly Speaking, the Iran War Is About China)

Many international observers were horrified that the Americans would sink a hostile naval combatant outside the recognized naval war zone around the Persian Gulf. This is probably the best move that the U.S. administration has made in the entire war because it signifies that Americans are willing to wage war worldwide rather than arbitrarily limiting themselves to a single tactical area as we did in Vietnam. This signals to China that a future conflict with the United States over a local issue such as Taiwan will not be limited to the South China Sea (SCS), but could impact its interests worldwide. (RELATED: The Clash of Civilizations: 30 Years On)

Report to Congress on U.S. Military Operations Against Iran’s Missile, Nuclear Programs

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On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran. The same day, President Donald Trump listed among the operation’s objectives preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, destroying Iran’s missiles, and “[razing] their missile industry to the ground.” Some Members of Congress have questioned the U.S. military operations in Iran given President Trump’s previous comments that, as a result of the June 2025 U.S.-Israeli strikes, “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” Other Members have supported the President’s action, citing Iran’s efforts to reconstitute its nuclear program and its ballistic missile capabilities.

Shared Understanding at Machine Speed: Preserving Coherence in AI-Enabled Joint Operations

Richard L. Farnell

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In January 1991, coalition forces dismantled Iraq’s command-and-control network with remarkable speed. That success did not rest on a single breakthrough technology or superior platforms. It rested on something more decisive: shared understanding across organizations, functions, and national boundaries. Leaders and staffs had unified mental models—rooted in doctrine, institutional experience, and an understanding of the problem—enabling disciplined initiative and decentralized execution without constant coordination. The result was operational coherence at speed.

Three decades later, leaders must figure out how to maintain shared understanding as artificial intelligence reshapes how organizations sense, decide, and act in a joint operation. AI accelerates collection, analysis, and dissemination of information. But as the joint force integrates AI tools and seeks to leverage these unprecedented advantages, the goal is not solely about adoption, but rather ensuring that speed produces coherent action rather than divergence. Data flows continuously. Decisions are pushed closer to the tactical edge. Yet research and operational experience suggest that speed alone does not improve outcomes. AI can accelerate error, amplify disagreement, and reinforce misalignment when trust in the machine outpaces shared understanding among human decision-makers. Therefore, leaders must govern these processes and provide frameworks for their staffs to keep shared understanding intact while moving at machine speed.

What is the 'FlyTrap' Method, and How Can It Disable Autonomous AI Drones?

Nick Mordowanec

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Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, said they have discovered a critical security vulnerability in autonomous target-tracking drones claimed to have far-reaching implications for public safety, border security and personal privacy.

That vulnerability is exploited by what they described as the “FlyTrap” method, which employs a physical attack framework that exploits deficiencies in camera-based, autonomous target-tracking technology that enables drones to follow selected targets without being directly controlled by humans. These “active track” or “dynamic track” models in the consumer world are AI-powered and used by local and federal law enforcement to track illegal border crossings, conduct surveillance for security purposes, or for other routine operations.

‘Simple plans, violently executed’: One Army unit’s old-school counter to high-tech chaos

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

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WASHINGTON — As high tech proliferates on battlefields from Iran to Ukraine, and the Pentagon wrangles with frontier AI firms, one unique Army unit has embraced the virtues of simplicity.

Drones, electronic warfare, and even artificial intelligence are all valuable tools, officers from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment told Breaking Defense. But the organizations, plans, and processes that wield those tools need to be as simple and robust as possible, they warned, or else it’ll all fall apart under the stress of combat.

“Tech, as it advances, has certainly been a boon,” said Capt. Jake Thomas, an infantryman by training, who’s now in charge of the regiment’s electronic and information warfare assets. But the danger, he told Breaking Defense, is overloading soldiers with more bells, whistles, and information than ordinary human minds can manage.

Human-in-the-Loop or Loophole? Targeting AI and Legal Accountability

Khyati Singh

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There is no doubt that incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) within the targeting cycle has its operational advantages. During a complex urban scenario, the AI-driven decision-support systems (AI-DSS) has the potential to rapidly synthesize incredible volumes of data received from diverse ISR, signals intelligence, and other feeds, at a velocity no human could match. In theory, this innovation would sharpen a commander’s situational awareness, more accurately ascertain military objectives, and model collateral damage with newfound precision.

The objective is to achieve a “cleaner” battlefield that features faster and more accurate targeting with lower collateral damage to civilians and civilian infrastructure. This integration of AI-driven systems is increasingly viewed as a mechanism to fulfill the core mandates of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). By providing commanders with more granular data and precise modeling, these tools are designed to facilitate the principle of distinction, which requires parties to target only military objectives and combatants. Furthermore, the speed and accuracy of such systems are intended to support the principle of proportionality, assisting decision-makers in ensuring that an attack’s collateral impact does not outweigh its intended military necessity. This promise of a more accurate and automated targeting system is desirable within the operational limits of IHL regarding the principles of distinction (between combatants and civilians) and proportionality (not excessive attack).

Transforming in Contact: The Army is Changing—Because It Must

W. Scott Pinkstaff and John Nagl

Soource Link

While the character of war constantly changes, its nature does not. Violence, uncertainty and the human cost of war remain constant. However, who we expect to fight, where we expect to fight, and the pace of war at which we expect to fight have changed dramatically.

For the last 20 years, America fought wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan. We enjoyed air supremacy, uncontested logistics and secure bases. Most of all, we had time to conduct war at the pace we wanted to fight. That era is over.

After decades of counterinsurgency against terrorist groups in the Middle East, great power competition has reemerged as our primary threat and the principal driver of American strategy. Russia’s war in Ukraine exposed old assumptions. China has been deliberately building its military forces while we were focused on counterinsurgency. The uncomfortable reality is this: The United States no longer has the luxury of fighting slow wars with guaranteed dominance.

India’s Foreign Policy in the Age of Populism

Sandra Destradi

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India’s populist, Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for over a decade and won a third consecutive mandate in 2024 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In many ways, Modi is a prototypical populist leader. He has styled himself as a self-made man, an outsider to the corrupt political establishment, the son of a tea seller devoted to the service of his people. This self-presentation casts him as someone able not only to speak in the name of the people, but even to personally embody the popular will against established political elites.1

Populism is commonly understood as a “thin-centered” or “thin” ideology—that is, a limited set of ideas about what society should look like. Specifically, populism “considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and . . . argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people.”2 Who exactly constitutes the people and the elite is mostly determined by a “thick,” more comprehensive ideology combined with populism—in the BJP-led government of Modi, the ethnonationalist ideology of Hindu nationalism, which focuses on the notion of Hindutva (Hinduness). This thick ideology is promoted by the BJP and by a family of related organizations, chief among them the paramilitary volunteer organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

And So It Begins: Iran’s Terror Proxies Emerge From the Shadows

Sharon Hudson-Dean

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The explosion outside the US Embassy in Norway at 1 a.m. on March 8 is likely a significant marker that the war with Iran has now expanded beyond the Middle East.

Other events across the continent reinforce the message that Tehran has activated its terror networks; on March 9, a bomb exploded at a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liege, and on March 6, British counter-terrorist police arrested four Iranian men suspected of spying on Jewish sites.

One week into the conflict, pundits and intelligence officers had been holding their collective breath waiting for the first sign of Iran activating its support groups for attacks outside the Persian Gulf neighborhood. The question has been, not if, but when will Iran’s extensive proxy network, whose online chatter has rung alarm bells since February, take action.

What to Watch for Next in the Iran War

Ilan Berman

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The United States has proved its military superiority over Iran. Whether it can secure Iran’s enriched uranium, protect the Gulf states, and encourage popular protests is a different story.

What is already being called the Third Gulf War is now in its second week, and most of the commentary so far has focused on US and Israeli military operations, as well as Iran’s maximalist response. But three other issues are likely to determine the conflict’s future course and what might come next for both Iran and the region.

The first is the fate of Iran’s remaining uranium. Even if key nuclear facilities have now been damaged or destroyed, the most important issue isn’t the technology that they housed but the regime’s existing fissile material. Iran had managed to accumulate significant stocks of enriched uranium before the war, and those weren’t successfully eliminated during last summer’s “12-Day War.” According to authoritative estimates, the regime still possesses 440 kilograms or more of 60 percent enriched uranium—a sufficient quantity, if it were enriched further, to produce 10 nuclear weapons.

Why China’s critical mineral dominance is still disrupting US supply chains

Kandy Wong

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American companies are grappling with a shortage of critical minerals used in daily operations despite China easing some of its export controls, according to industry insiders.

After Beijing and Washington agreed to a so-called trade truce last November, the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice suspending a ban on shipments of gallium, germanium and antimony to the US for one year.

But China’s dominant position in the global market for these vital raw materials, including heavy rare earths, continued to weigh on US companies, industry insiders said.

“There is no immediate broad-based solution except supply loosening in China,” said David Abraham, director of Three Legged Capital in New York, a specialist advisory firm focused on critical mineral supply chains.

China’s Management of Electromagnetic Spectrum Resources

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China seeks to lead the development of future generations of spectrum management technology. The use of wireless technologies has exploded in recent decades, and technological development is expanding the possibilities for use of the electromagnetic spectrum. As competition between the United States and China intensifies, interest has sharpened in finding better ways to manage the use of spectrum to support critical applications in areas such as warfighting, mobile communications, and remote sensing. Beijing’s approach to spectrum management has been poorly understood, but it offers important lessons regarding the benefits and drawbacks of a relatively centralized, civilian-led approach. This report therefore investigates how China manages its electromagnetic spectrum, how that spectrum is used, how China’s approach to spectrum management is impacting global standards, and what benefits (and costs) China’s approach has offered.

China’s approach to managing its electromagnetic spectrum resources has generated a number of benefits, including rapid deployment of 5G technologies, a highly active spectrum research field, and expanded influence in international markets. The relative centralization of its spectrum management authorities is also likely to improve the People’s Liberation Army’s joint warfighting capabilities in the future. However, its approach has also generated a complex, opaque bureaucratic process, high barriers to entry for smaller companies, and possibly lower efficiency in allocating and utilizing spectrum resources.

Why China Won’t Help Iran Beijing Cares About the Oil, Not the Regime

Yun Sun

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China is watching carefully as the United States and Israel bombard Iran. Beijing is, after all, Tehran’s most important partner. The two countries grew close over shared history and goals: both trace their roots to leading ancient non-Western civilizations, and both oppose a Western-dominated global order today. China’s energy security is also connected to its relationship with Iran. More than 55 percent of China’s total oil imports in 2025 came from the Middle East (approximately 13 percent from Iran itself), most of which must pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway bordered by Iran. Because the recent bombing

The Dangers of a Weak Iran

Afshon Ostovar

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After nearly two weeks of withering attacks, the Islamic Republic is weaker than it has been at any point in its history. U.S. and Israeli strikes have killed much of its leadership, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, destroyed much of its navy, heavily degraded its missile program, and buried its nuclear facilities. Bombings have cratered government ministries, police stations, and military buildings. Even the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—or the IRGC, the country’s most powerful institution—has been reduced to ruins.

But although the Islamic Republic is down, it is not out. The regime selected

War expands to central Beirut as Israeli strike kills Iranians in luxury hotel

Alice Cuddy

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It was about 01:30 in the morning when a loud explosion tore through the Raouche neighbourhood in the heart of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

The Israeli strike on the four-star Ramada Plaza hotel marked the first time in this war that Israel's bombing campaign had struck the city centre - a bustling coastal area full of restaurants and hotels.

Inside, the Israeli military said, was a secret meeting of Iranian operatives - an allegation that has now been denied by Iran's government.

The strike came without warning, and locals and displaced people staying in the area ran to their windows and balconies to see what had happened. Those on the streets nearby - still busy with Ramadan crowds - ducked for cover.

The Drone Attrition Trap

David Petraeus and Clara Kaluderovic

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Recent U.S. and Israeli operations against Iran and the latter’s retaliatory strikes have once again demonstrated the mathematics of modern air defense. Waves of Iranian-designed Shahed-136 drones—crude, slow, and estimated to cost as little as $20,000 apiece—have in a number of exchanges forced the United States and several Gulf partners to expend Patriot and SM-6 interceptors that cost millions of dollars each.

Interception rates have been impressive. A successful shoot-down that requires a high-end interceptor, however, can be a Pyrrhic victory. The defender burns through scarce and expensive munitions while the attacker draws from comparatively large stockpiles of low-cost systems. This is the drone attrition trap. And it is not new.

Why Haven’t the Houthis Fired?

Fatima Abo Alasrar

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In the weeks before the U.S.-Iran war began, the Houthis promised that in the event of conflict, the Red Sea would run with the blood of their enemies. In speech after speech, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the group’s leader, told his followers that any attack on Iran would trigger an immediate and devastating response. The movement that had spent two years disrupting global shipping, launching ballistic missiles at Israel, and branding itself as the most committed member of the “axis of resistance” staked its credibility on a single proposition: If Iran is hit, we strike.

Iran has been hit constantly for more than a week. The Houthis have not struck.

Conflict In Iran Creating New Winners And Losers Across Former Soviet Space

Paul Goble

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The military conflict in and around Iran is creating new winners and losers among the countries of the former Soviet space, transforming their relationships with one another and with the rest of the world (RITM Eurasia, March 3). Iran appears to have launched drone attacks on Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan (Akcent, March 5; Caliber, March 7). Tehran has also restricted the flow of food northward to some countries in the region (Stan Radar, March 5).

Broader transformations stem, however, not from direct effects on these countries, but rather from the conflict closing Iran as a transit corridor, boosting oil prices, and prompting Iran’s neighbors to take sides in the conflict (Cronos Central Asia; Stan Radar, March 3; Bugin.info, March 6). Some of these consequences are likely to end when the conflict does, but others may continue long into the future. As a result, many governments in the region are now discussing how to benefit from the fallout if they find themselves on the winning side, or how to reduce their losses if they have suffered from the conflict itself (Stan Radar, March 7).

Iran Conflict And The Strait of Hormuz: Impacts On Oil, Gas, And Other Commodities

Phillip Brown, Michael Ratner, Liana W. Rosen, and Clayton Thomas

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U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran since February 2026 and subsequent Iranian military action throughout the Persian Gulf have raised concern about oil and natural gas markets in relation to the Strait of Hormuz (the Strait). Starting on March 4, 2026, Iranian forces have declared the Strait “closed,” threatening and carrying out attacks on ships attempting to transit the Strait. In light of a considerable decrease in shipping traffic, President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of U.S. actions intended to reestablish free transit of the Strait.

U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran since February 2026 and subsequent Iranian military action throughout the Persian Gulf have raised concern about oil and natural gas markets in relation to the Strait of Hormuz (the Strait). Starting on March 4, 2026, Iranian forces have declared the Strait “closed,” threatening and carrying out attacks on ships attempting to transit the Strait. In light of a considerable decrease in shipping traffic, President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of U.S. actions intended to reestablish free transit of the Strait.

Middle East war: military, strategic and diplomatic angles

Douglas Barrie

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Tehran’s stock of close, short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles was a central pillar of its deterrence strategy. However, this strategy was found wanting when faced with the aerial onslaught by Israel and the United States.

Iran expended a significant element of its medium- and intermediate-range ballistic-missile inventory during the Twelve-Day War in June 2025. The extent to which it was able to replace these missiles in the interim would have depended on its ability to repair damaged manufacturing facilities and secure the raw materials for propellant manufacture.

Despite this, however, Iran may have so far launched over 700+ ballistic missiles, with Israel and the United Arab Emirates the recipients of most attention. Ground-based air defence was used in both countries to intercept nearly all the missiles. In the UAE, the Ministry of Defence said on 1 March 2026 that since the beginning of the Israeli and US attacks, it had engaged 165 ballistic missiles. Two days later, this figure had grown only to 186, of which 172 were engaged, 13 fell in the sea and one impacted the UAE. By 4 March, the total was 189, and by 9 March it had reached 253, of which only two had struck UAE territory.

Unpacking Iran’s Drone Campaign in the Gulf: Early Lessons for Future Drone Warfare

Kateryna Bondar

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The first week of Iran’s retaliation campaign during Operation Epic Fury demonstrates that drones are no longer auxiliary strike systems but central instruments of modern air campaigns. Their ability to generate sustained pressure at relatively low cost allows actors to impose economic, psychological, and operational strain on adversaries while preserving higher-end missile assets for select targets. The effectiveness of such campaigns lies not only in the drones themselves but in the broader ecosystem that enables their large-scale employment—production capacity, operational doctrine, targeting architecture, and integration with other strike systems.

The Middle East crisis escalated in early March 2026 after coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes under Operation Epic Fury killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior commanders. Iran responded with a large-scale retaliatory campaign primarily targeting Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Despite damage to parts of its command and control structure, Tehran has rapidly generated sustained strikes using a layered architecture combining drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles against military installations, energy infrastructure, and economic centers.

Iran’s Real War Is Against the Global Economy

Navin Girishankar

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Iran may be losing the military contest with the United States. But it is fighting a different war—one aimed at the global economy.

Over the past 12 days, the United States has demonstrated clear military superiority. Iran’s navy has been severely degraded, with more than 50 ships sunk or damaged; its retaliatory missile launches are down more than 90 percent; and its air force has been grounded. On the battlefield, the scorecard favors Washington, despite risks of escalation.

Strategically, the picture is far less certain. Even as the Trump administration struggles to define its objectives—be it decapitating Iranian leadership, destroying Iran’s nuclear capability, or pursuing regime change—it must confront a new reality.

Iran War’s Maritime Front Heats Up

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The United States and Israel carried out heavy bombing of Tehran yesterday, while officials on both sides warned of maritime escalation. The United States announced it destroyed Iranian vessels capable of laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, which could have added to the risks faced by commercial ships. Three ships were attacked in separate incidents in the strait today, the United Kingdom (UK) maritime agency said. As countries across the world begin to feel the gap in global oil supply, the thirty-two member states of the International Energy Agency are due to decide today whether to release strategic oil reserves.

The debate in Washington. Around 140 U.S. service members have been wounded in the war so far and seven have died, the Pentagon said yesterday. It has not released estimates on the war’s financial cost, but the Washington Post reported that the United States spent $5.6 billion in the first two days of the war alone. U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine said yesterday the United States was making progress reducing Iran’s missile, drone, and naval capabilities and was looking at options to get maritime trade flowing.

Cloud To Ground: Iran Puts Foreign Data Centres on the Front Line

James Corera , Jason Van der Schyff

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When Iranian drones struck hyperscale cloud data-centre facilities in the United Arab Emirates and damaged infrastructure near Bahrain on 1 March, they did not just target military bases. They also targeted server farms. That distinction matters more than it might appear.

For decades, data centres were treated as oversized commercial warehouses. Today they underpin government identity systems, financial networks, logistics chains and the AI-enabled targeting and intelligence platforms that define modern military advantage. The integration of companies such as Anthropic and Palantir into US and allied defence applications—fusing large-language-model reasoning with operational data to accelerate targeting cycles and intelligence synthesis—runs on exactly this infrastructure. And that infrastructure is physical. It appears on satellite imagery. It has addresses, power feeds, cooling systems and fibre runs. It can be hit.

Hundreds of Tomahawk Cruise Missiles Now Gone: The U.S. Navy’s Ohio-Class SSGN Submarine Crisis Is Coming

Kris Osborn

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Synopsis: Kris Osborn, President of Warrior Maven and former Pentagon expert, evaluates the “massive collective firepower” loss as the USS Ohio, USS Georgia, USS Michigan, and USS Florida prepare for retirement between 2026 and 2028.

-Each SSGN carries 154 Tomahawk missiles, providing unmatched land-attack support for campaigns like Operation Epic Fury.

-This report analyzes the Navy’s transition to the Block V Virginia-class, which utilizes an 80-foot Virginia Payload Module (VPM) to carry 28 additional missiles.

-Osborn concludes that while the Virginia-class improves sensor integration, the Navy must accelerate production to maintain undersea mass in the Pacific.

Behind the Curtain: America's big lie

Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen

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Watch TV, scroll social media or listen to politicians, and the verdict seems clear: Americans are hopelessly divided and increasingly hateful.It's a ubiquitous, emphatic, verifiable ... lie.

Why it matters: Most Americans are too busy for social media, too normal for politics, too rational to tweet. They work, raise kids, coach Little League, go to a house of worship, mow their neighbor's lawn — and never post a word about any of it.

This isn't a small minority. It's a monstrous, if silent, majority. Most Americans are patriotic, hardworking, neighbor-helping, America-loving, money-giving people who don't pop off on social media or plot for power.The hidden truth: Most people agree on most things, most of the time. And the data validates this, time and time again.

Oh, but you're so naive, so delusional and detached from reality. Everywhere I look, I see dispute and decline!

The U.S. Data Center Build-Out Depends on GPU Imports

Kate Koren

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Data center construction is surging as firms rush to build infrastructure to meet growing demand for AI. According to December 2025 U.S. census survey data on construction spending, private spending on U.S. data center construction increased by almost 80 percent in 2025 compared to 2023. Server chips (GPUs) represent the single largest component of modern data center capital expenditures, accounting for at least 45 percent of total investment, by CSIS estimates. For now, the United States must import GPUs—although the chips are designed by U.S. firms, they are produced and packaged almost entirely in Taiwan.

In October 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that Blackwell wafers were in full production at TSMC’s Arizona Fab 21. While an important step, reliance on Taiwan will remain until planned memory production and advanced packaging facilities open in the United States, which likely won’t happen until 2028 at the soonest. For now, the silicon made in Arizona must be shipped to Taiwan for advanced packaging with high bandwidth memory. Imports of the finished GPUs could be subject to the pending Section 232 semiconductor tariff, unless either routed through Mexico for assembly or exempted through a tariff offset program.

The Wars After the War: Why Israel and Iran May Keep Fighting

Daniel Byman

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The end may be in sight for the current war in the Middle East, with its massive U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iran and Iranian attacks on U.S. regional allies and Gulf shipping. Even then, however, hostilities may not stop. One plausible future scenario is that the Iranian regime and Israel remain in a state of low-level conflict that involves cyberattacks, sabotage, terrorism, and the occasional overt military strike, with the United States perhaps joining in from time to time. For Israel, this will be a way to keep Iran weak and off balance, while Tehran will be striking back out of vengeance, to legitimize its tottering regime, and to restore deterrence.

The future of the Iranian regime is unclear, but one plausible scenario—perhaps the most plausible—is that it will emerge from the war weak but unbowed, and perhaps even more radical. Regime change is possible but unlikely, and the decision to choose Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as his successor signals defiance and a strong role for the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).