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A Never-Ending Supply of Drones Has Frozen the Front Lines in UkrainePosted by EditorDavid on Sunday July 13, 2025 @03:47PM from the fight-or-flight dept."In the battle for Ukraine, the front line is increasingly at a standstill" because of "rapid innovations in drone technology..." according to the Wall Street Journal. "Each side has hundreds of them constantly in the air across the 750-mile front line."And drones "now bring everything from food and water to ammunition, power banks — and, in at least one case, a fire extinguisher — to the front, sparing soldiers trips through the most dangerous part of the battlefield where enemy drones might pick them off."CitarDrones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers. Crucially, drones spot any movement along the front line and are dispatched to strike enemy troops and vehicles. When Russia sent tank columns into Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine needed to find out where they were headed — and fast. Enter the humble "wedding drone," available in stores for about $2,000 and repurposed to scan for enemy units rather than capture nuptial panoramas. Deployed by enthusiasts acting independently or attached to army units, the drones helped Ukrainian forces, which were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, to know exactly where to deploy to counter Russian arrowheads.Surveillance drones quickly became a necessity rather than a luxury. Often provided by charity funds, they were used to scan enemy positions for equipment, stores and headquarters.... A cheap and simple tweak made the so-called wedding drones deadly. Tech buffs realized that a simple claw-like contraption, created using a 3-D printer, could be activated from the radio controller by turning on the drone's light, causing it to release a grenade. The explosion could wound or kill a soldier or even detonate an armored vehicle if dropped through its hatch. Over time, soldiers experimented with ways to add more explosives, for example by melting down explosives garnered from Soviet-era munitions and pouring them into new, lighter plastic casings.No innovation has had a bigger impact on the war in Ukraine than first-person-view, or FPV, drones. With explosives strapped to them, FPVs fly directly into their targets, turning them into low-cost suicide bombers. Though FPVs don't deliver as much explosive punch as rockets, they are far more accurate — and the sheer volume that Ukraine has manufactured means they can be deployed to similar effect... Sitting in a bunker several miles behind the front, a drone pilot slips on FPV goggles to see the view from the drone's camera and fly it into an enemy position or asset. The Russians have since adopted FPVs en masse. Their abundance has played a central role in slowing down the movement of the front line. Anything within around 12 miles of the contact line can now become a target for FPVs. They are so cheap to make that both sides can expend them on any target — even a single infantryman.Because they are so small and fast, FPVs are difficult to shoot down. The main defense against them has been electronic jamming systems, which disrupt the communication between the drone and the pilot. Though most drone innovations in the war have come from the Ukrainian side, the Russians pioneered the most important adaptation for FPV drones — the addition of a fiber-optic cable connecting the drone to the pilot that can overcome jamming.Benjamin Franklin once predicted flying machines might "convince sovereigns of the folly of war... since it will be impracticable for the most potent of them to guard his dominions..."
Drones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers. Crucially, drones spot any movement along the front line and are dispatched to strike enemy troops and vehicles. When Russia sent tank columns into Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine needed to find out where they were headed — and fast. Enter the humble "wedding drone," available in stores for about $2,000 and repurposed to scan for enemy units rather than capture nuptial panoramas. Deployed by enthusiasts acting independently or attached to army units, the drones helped Ukrainian forces, which were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, to know exactly where to deploy to counter Russian arrowheads.Surveillance drones quickly became a necessity rather than a luxury. Often provided by charity funds, they were used to scan enemy positions for equipment, stores and headquarters.... A cheap and simple tweak made the so-called wedding drones deadly. Tech buffs realized that a simple claw-like contraption, created using a 3-D printer, could be activated from the radio controller by turning on the drone's light, causing it to release a grenade. The explosion could wound or kill a soldier or even detonate an armored vehicle if dropped through its hatch. Over time, soldiers experimented with ways to add more explosives, for example by melting down explosives garnered from Soviet-era munitions and pouring them into new, lighter plastic casings.No innovation has had a bigger impact on the war in Ukraine than first-person-view, or FPV, drones. With explosives strapped to them, FPVs fly directly into their targets, turning them into low-cost suicide bombers. Though FPVs don't deliver as much explosive punch as rockets, they are far more accurate — and the sheer volume that Ukraine has manufactured means they can be deployed to similar effect... Sitting in a bunker several miles behind the front, a drone pilot slips on FPV goggles to see the view from the drone's camera and fly it into an enemy position or asset. The Russians have since adopted FPVs en masse. Their abundance has played a central role in slowing down the movement of the front line. Anything within around 12 miles of the contact line can now become a target for FPVs. They are so cheap to make that both sides can expend them on any target — even a single infantryman.Because they are so small and fast, FPVs are difficult to shoot down. The main defense against them has been electronic jamming systems, which disrupt the communication between the drone and the pilot. Though most drone innovations in the war have come from the Ukrainian side, the Russians pioneered the most important adaptation for FPV drones — the addition of a fiber-optic cable connecting the drone to the pilot that can overcome jamming.
Investment banking set to extend worst run in over a decadeBig US banks have relied on traders for at least 75% of their Wall Street revenues for more than three yearsTrading revenues at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are expected to be almost 10% higher than a year ago © FT montage/DreamstimeInvestment banking is on course to extend a record streak of underperformance, supplying less than a quarter of Wall Street revenues at the biggest US banks for the 14th quarter in a row.Traders are due to come to the rescue of their advisory colleagues once again when the banks report second-quarter results this week, with total trading revenues at the five largest Wall Street banks forecast to be $31bn — more than four times the figure for investment banking.Analysts expect trading revenues at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will be almost 10 per cent higher than a year ago.They forecast that revenues from investment banking, the other part of the banks’ Wall Street operations, will fall almost 10 per cent to $7.5bn, according to consensus data compiled by Bloomberg.If the earnings match estimates when the groups report results on Tuesday and Wednesday, investment bankers will have contributed less than 25 per cent of Wall Street revenues — distinct from money earned from retail banking and money management activities — since the start of 2022.This would be the longest period in which they have failed to breach that threshold since at least 2014.Although trading and investment banking are both volatile businesses, the length of the latter’s downturn highlights how quiet dealmaking and equity capital markets have been since the bursting of the 2021 pandemic-era bubble.It also underlines how strong the trading business has been following a moribund period in the 2010s, when low interest rates and muted volatility held down revenues.Banks facilitate and finance trades. They benefit when activity levels are high and prices are volatile.“This is a normal environment, whereas the low [volatility] environment of the 2010s was the abnormal part,” said Chris Kotowski, research analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.In the past three years, financial markets have grappled with rising interest rates, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and protectionist policies after Donald Trump’s return to the White House.These same trends have damped the ability of company leaders and investment firms to do deals, despite continued optimism from bankers about the potential pipeline.“I think 2025 is more or less done [for investment banking],” Kotowski said. “Yes you could get a strong quarter of equity issuance in the fall, and that would help numbers. The M&A is going to be more a function of what’s been announced already for the back half of the year.”Investors tend to value revenues from investment banking more highly than trading because it can be higher margin and less capital-intensive.Investors are still betting that the long-anticipated recovery in investment banking will materialise, with Goldman’s stock price recently surpassing $700 for the first time.“The first half of the quarter was rough for obvious reasons. But there’s obviously a lot more optimism about the outlook here,” said HSBC banking analyst Saul Martinez.The same political and economic stability that investors hope will grease the wheels for deals could ease the market volatility that has buoyed banks’ trading revenues.Revenue from trading “has been really elevated and I don’t know that you can make the case convincingly that you’re going to see a lot of growth from here”, said Martinez.JPMorgan and Citi report results on July 15, with BofA, Goldman and Morgan Stanley reporting the following day.Along with Wells Fargo, the group represents the six largest US banks by assets. Net income for the six banks overall is expected to fall about 13 per cent from the same quarter last year.The steepest drop is likely to be at JPMorgan, with analysts predicting a decline of 30 per cent from a year ago, when the bank recorded a one-off gain of almost $8bn from its stake in the credit card company Visa.
Donald Trump threatens 100% secondary tariffs on RussiaUS president seeks to step up pressure on Moscow to reach a peace deal with UkraineUS President Donald Trump announced a deal on weapons for Ukraine with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte © REUTERSThe US president has threatened Russia with 100 per cent secondary tariffs if the war in Ukraine does not end soon, as he announced an agreement with Nato allies to send more weapons to Kyiv.During a meeting in the Oval Office with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte on Monday, the US president said he was “very unhappy” with Moscow over the lack of progress towards a deal to end the conflict.“We are very unhappy — I am — with Russia,” Trump said. “I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago.”“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent, you’d call them secondary tariffs,” he added. The tariffs would be “biting” and “very, very powerful”, he said.Trump has previously raised the prospect of applying so-called secondary tariffs, which would apply a charge on countries that trade with Moscow, as he has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin’s intransigence in peace talks.During Monday’s White House meeting, Trump also confirmed plans to send weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot missile systems.The US president said that “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment” would be purchased by Nato allies from the US, and that it would “be quickly distributed to the battlefield” in Ukraine.Rutte said Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada all want to be part of the weapons deal.Trump said that Nato would co-ordinate getting the weaponry to Ukraine. Nato countries “will move equipment fast into Ukraine” and then the US would backfill allies’ weapons, Rutte said.
[El lobo se disfrazó de abuelita de Caperucita, ¿no? No solo un servidor, sino mucha gente, incluidos los ciertos fachas, dicen que los fachas gustan de disfrazarse de liberales. Por eso hemos acuñado la locución nominal «falsoliberales neoliberales». Liberal no significa hoy lo que significaba en el primer tercio del s. XX y ni mucho menos lo que fue hasta el reinado de Isabel II. Hoy, ¡hasta Hitler diría que es liberal! ¿O creéis que pondría de nombre a su partido otra vez nacional-socialista?][Trump está acostumbrado a ganar al otro amedrentándolo. Es un avasallador.Pero EE. UU. ya no es lo que fue. Sus dinámicas de poder ya no son tan asimétricas. Mira la salida de Afganistán. Mira el éxito de Rusia en Ucrania. Pero, sobre todo, mira la impotencia frente a China.Trump no es nadie. Los fachosos solo entienden la historia a través de caudillos. Esto los delata. Quien esté esperando un caudillo anti-Trump va 'dao'.Al avasallamiento no se le vence con anticaudillos magnicidas, sino:• no reaccionado (no alimentando, silencio, cambios en el marco de juego)• fortalezas invisibles (documentando todo, alianzas discretas, conocimiento)• confrontación indirecta (empatía táctica, salidas honorables, firmeza circunscrita a la esencia)• usando su fuerza contra él (cesiones irrelevantes, reforzamiento de egos, bumerán)• desgaste a largo plazo (reputación, amplificación de debilidades, progresión imperceptible en la escalada)Los avasalladores dan trabajo, pero no demasiado. Lo importante es tener paciencia. El imperio anglo es un tigre de papel... pelota (v. papel pelota o de colusión).][Hoy es un día importante para mí. Una de mis tesis es la de los 17 cupos. ¡Helos aquí!]