Ukraine Destroys 68 Russian Artillery, 950 Troops In One Day

Russia's once-proud and fearsome artillery has been decimated by Ukraine, contributing further to the Kremlin's ability to launch offenses. 

The targeting of artillery systems by Ukrainian drones has made it more difficult for the Russians to deploy them on the battlefield. JL

Roman Kahanets reports in United24:

Russia lost 950 troops, 68 artillery systems, and 1,819 UAVs over the past 24 hours. Ukrainian forces also destroyed 5 tanks, bringing Russia’s total tank losses to 11,949, and 5 armored fighting vehicles, raising the cumulative figure to 24,599. Russia’s artillery losses rose to 42,579 systems. US Defense Intelligence Agency assessment stated that Ukraine had recaptured approximately 400 square kilometers of territory after thousands of Starlink terminals used by Russian forces were disabled, disrupting their communications on the battlefield.

Russian Fertility Rate Drops To Lowest Level Since Soviet Era

Russia's fertility rate has dropped to its lowest levels since the Soviet era, which ended over 35 years ago.

The reasons for the decline are the decimation of the male population in rural and poor urban areas due to the death rate for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, and to fears about the Russian economy, which have both inhibited the formation of new families. JL

Novaya Gazeta reports:

The average fertility rate in areas of Russia fell to its lowest level since Soviet times last year, citing data from state statistics agency Rosstat. The country’s rural total fertility rate (TFR) stood at 1.464 in 2025. For comparison, the rural TFR was 2.6 in 1990.  Russia's overall fertility rate in 2025 stood at 1.361, compared with 1.327 among the urban population. The rural rate saw the steepest year-on-year decline, falling by 0.06 compared with 2024. Rural areas have ceased to be the main driver of population replacement, as young people leave for cities in search of better-paying jobs and stronger infrastructure. 

Russians Despair As Kyiv's Road-Cutting 'Martian' Drones Choke Off Reinforcement

Russian troops are calling Ukraine's latest Hornet drone swarms "Martians" because the Russians believe they use technology developed by NASA for Mars missions. The reality is that they use visual navigation, comparing terrain features to an internal map, which makes them impossible to jam and difficult to detect or shoot down. 

The result is that the Ukrainians call them 'road-cutters' because they are making delivery of supplies and troops reinforcements almost impossible along the front, hampering the Kremlin's offensive and defensive operations, thereby enabling Ukrainian counterattacks and the decimation of Russian units. JL

David Hambling reports in Forbes:

Destroying tanks 10 miles away may be less important than destroying trucks100 miles away. Ukrainian medium range drone strikes, hitting targets at 7-120 miles, have ramped up in recent months. Ukraine's “Martian” drones are prowling the roads, destroying fuel tankers and other vehicles carrying supplies. Previously safe areas are at risk, supply lines threatened. The “Martian” nickname comes from Russian belief the drone uses technology developed by NASA for Mars missions; visual navigation, matching terrain features to an internal map. The result is a drone which cannot be detected or jammed, while reliably hitting moving targets. Shooting them down is difficult even with massed small arms. “The land route to Crimea resembles Afghanistan in the 1980s. The remains of destroyed vehicles are scattered along the roads. (Ukraine) is disrupting supply with drones.”

China Spurns Nvidia AI Chip Trump Says It Has Permission To Buy

China's refusal to let any of its companies buy Nvidia's H200 chip reflects the mirror image of US suspicion about Chinese tech products: pride, suspicion of security breaching 'back doors,' a, nd desire to become less dependent on the other country.

But China appears to have an ulterior motive, as well. Nvidia's H200, while powerful is not Nvidia's best performing, that being what it calls the Blackwell. Beijing is believed to want to build its own homegrown alternative AI chips, but if it is going to buy US chips, it wants only the best, so denying Nvidia any Chinese sales until it is given access to that one is part of their negotiating strategy. JL

Meaghan Tobin and Tripp Mickle report in the New York Times:

Chinese competitors have yet to build anything that rivals Nvidia’s best, and Mr. Trump’s decision that Nvidia could sell one of its chips, the H200, to China undercut years of U.S. policy to keep those chips out of China’s reach. But six months on, Beijing has not allowed any of its companies to buy one. Rather than turn to Nvidia, Chinese officials have pushed domestic companies toward homegrown alternatives.  Huawei, Cambricon, a start-up, and others are now producing chips that perform on par with the H200. Beijing may also be wary of allowing Nvidia purchases on national security grounds. (And)At Washington’s request, Nvidia has held back its most powerful chips from China, restricting sales to the US and allies. That chip, the Blackwell, outperforms anything available in the Chinese market. “By playing hard to get, Beijing may be hoping for access to better chips,” 

Putin Can't Count On Trump's Permission Trap As Ukraine's Own Weapons Hit Deep

For most of the first four years of Russia's Ukraine invasion, the Ukrainians were dependent on western - mostly US - weapons and, especially for long range munitions, those countries' permission to use them. It became a gatekeeping trap which Putin played artfully as his veiled threats fueled western anxiety about escalation, impelling them to demand that Ukraine pull its punches. No longer. 

A significantly increased percentage of Ukraine's ground, naval and aerial weaponry is now domestically produced, eliminating the need to beg for the right to hit back at the Russians. The results have been profound. Ukrainian attacks on weapons, ammunition and electronics plants, as well as on Russia's oil industry, has further thwarted Russian offensive efforts on the ground, as well as its ability to hit Ukraine from the air. Ukraine learned the hard way that self-sufficiency was the only way to defend itself. JL

Newsweek reports:

Putin can no longer count on the US being the gatekeeper of Ukraine. The shriek and bang of Ukrainian drones is heard well beyond Russia, where a "cloud of anxiety developed over the last four months." Kyiv's expanding domestic arsenal is making U.S. permission less decisive than industrial facts. Ukraine can go it alone, gaining options without American materiel. Ukraine's May 16-17 strike used local drones against a microchip plant 18 miles from Moscow and an oil pumping station 30 miles away. It has drones for missions of 900 miles, carrying 260 pounds of explosives. It also has cruise missiles which can travel 3,000 kms carrying a 1,150-kilo payload. The political effect is harder for Putin to quarantine because the war is becoming immediate for Russian civilians now experiencing economic pain, airport shutdowns, internet disruption and attacks near the capital of their country.

Ukraine "Armageddon Blast" Destroys Russia's FSB Kherson HQ, Kills 100

A targeted Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's FSB (secret police) headquarters in occupied Kherson oblast destroyed the facility and killed as many as 100 FSB officers working there. 

The FSB in Kherson have become notorious for launching drones targeting civilians in Kherson city. The FSB drones have followed people doing their shopping, riding bicycles and taking buses to go about their daily lives. The Russians have never reconciled themselves to the loss of Kherson city to the Ukrainian offensive of 2022 so have taken out their ire on innocent Ukrainian citizens. This strike will help pause those Russian war crimes. JL

Will Stewart and Christopher Mallett report in The Mirror; Defense Express reports:

The headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in Kherson oblast was destroyed, along with a Pantsir-S1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system. Russia suffered a devastating loss of  100 security service officers killed or wounded in the Ukrainian "Armageddon" hit on the Putin spy headquarters. The attack was carried out by drones from Kyiv's SBU security service triggering explosions that destroyed one multi-story building and several others. The Russian Pantsir-S1 system deployed to protect the center - which is the same system used to guard Putin’s multiple palaces - failed to halt the strike and was itself destroyed. 

How Americans' Anti-AI Rebellion Is Becoming "Acute Crisis" Threatening Growth

Don't believe or like this poll data? Go ahead, look around online and find your own. What you are highly unlikely to discover is any credible survey research revealing support for AI. The reality, as even the demonstrably pro-business Wall Street Journal reports, is that Americans "hate" AI. And that opposition is threatening financial results. 

Which is why public opinion matters. Because if the AI industry cannot open more data centers, it cannot grow at the rate it has promised investors. And that means sub-optimal returns. To say nothing of what may happen to an economy increasingly dependent on those AI investments. The problem is that Americans at the local level, even in deeply conservative states like Texas and Utah, are seeing rising energy, water costs and job losses due to data center construction as well as AI adoption. They are also being subjected to tone-deaf corporate executives and venture capitalists - we're looking at you, Marc Andreesen, among others - who callously tout the benefits of laying off thousands of mere humans in order for a few already wealthy white guys to get even richer. So as even reliably Trump-supporting voters are vociferously rejecting data centers and threatening elected officials, this could have what we might politely call, economic implications. JL

Amrith Ramkumar and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

AI rejectionism is creating an acute crisis for AI companies and builders of data centers. Investors have staked tens of billions of dollars on ever-larger quantities of computing power, and have pledged much of that to data-center construction. But all over the country, communities are blocking data-center projects. Booed commencement speakers and plummeting poll numbers (reveal) the only thing growing faster than the AI industry may be negative feelings about it. In polls, respondents overwhelmingly voice concerns about AI. Consumers resent energy-price jumps. Workers fear widespread job losses. Parents worry about AI harming children’s mental health. The rapid rise of AI’s salience as a political issue is unprecedented, shaking up re-election races and scrambling partisan battle lines. “People hate AI. It is less popular than ICE, (even) less popular than politicians.”