Unremitting Complexity.

Colorful Chicks.

“There are a bunch of newsletters out there I have read. News Items is the one I want to read.” — Jane Metcalfe, Chair of the Board of Directors, Human Immunome Project, co-founder Wired Ventures and Wired magazine.

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1. Institute for the Study of War:

Western insider reporting about Kremlin demands to end the war in Ukraine continues to align with repeated public statements from Kremlin officials outlining Russia's demands, indicating that Russia's goal of Ukrainian capitulation and destruction of NATO remains unchanged. Reuters yesterday reported that three Russian sources familiar with the peace negotiations stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Western states to submit a "written" pledge stipulating that NATO will not expand eastward; Ukrainian neutrality; sanctions relief; the unfreezing of Russian assets in the West; and unspecified protections for Russian speakers in Ukraine.[1] Kremlin officials have repeatedly used allegations that the Ukrainian government is discriminating against Russian-speakers in Ukraine to justify Russia's calls for Ukrainian regime change and the installation of a pro-Kremlin puppet regime.[2] Russia's demands for a ban on NATO expansion, Ukrainian neutrality, and regime change are the same demands that Russia issued before the war in 2021 and when Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February of 2022. (Source: understandingwar.org, reuters.com)

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2. Times of London:

Russia has gathered 50,000 troops, including some of its most battle-hardened forces, on Ukraine’s northern border for an imminent offensive, President Zelensky has warned.

“Their largest, strongest forces are currently on the Kursk front,” Zelensky said. “[They aim to] push our troops out of the Kursk region and to prepare offensive actions against the Sumy region.”

Kyiv’s forces used the northern Sumy region as springboard for a surprise incursion into Kursk in August, seizing swathes of territory in a big setback for the Kremlin. Russia said in March that it had expelled all Ukrainian troops from the region. (Source: thetimes.com)

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3. Germany will step up financial and military aid to Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday, the latest sign that Europe is moving to replace the U.S. as Kyiv’s key military supporter in its war with Russia. Germany will “maintain and expand” its military support to Ukraine and the two countries will start a joint program to produce long-range weapons that Kyiv can use against Russian targets, Merz said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin. “This is the start of a new form of military-industrial cooperation between our two countries and one that has huge potential,” he said. With doubts mounting about U.S. commitment to Ukraine, Europe is scrambling to fill the potential vacuum. (Source: wsj.com)

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4. “He who commands the sea has command of everything,” the ancient Athenian general Themistocles said. By that standard, the United States has command of very little. America depends on ocean shipping. About 80 percent of its international trade by weight traverses the seas. The U.S. needs ships to deliver nearly 90 percent of its armed forces’ supplies and equipment, including fuel, ammunition, and food. Commercial shipyard capacity is essential for surge construction of warships and sealift-support ships that transport equipment and troops in times of national emergency. Yet the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity. Of the tens of thousands of large vessels that dot the oceans, a mere 0.13 percent are built in the United States. China, by contrast, fulfills roughly 60 percent of all new shipbuilding orders and has amassed more than 200 times America’s shipbuilding capacity. (Source: theatlantic.com)