🇺🇸 US analyst Larry C. Johnson:
Maduro’s driver and bodyguards cooperated with the US for a $50 million reward.
Trump refused to pay the reward, so none of these men got their money.
They literally sold out their leader to the devil!
Video
— @GBC_Press Jul 12, 2026
Category: Tweets – Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) / Twitter
Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
Summary
The competition for microchip supremacy is accelerating as nations link semiconductor control to autonomous weapons and national security. Meanwhile, strategic analyses suggest Russia has already lost its war in Ukraine despite ongoing fighting, while historical and contemporary espionage narratives highlight enduring patterns in propaganda and intelligence warfare.
Key Stories
Microchips emerge as the new oil in global power struggles — Advanced microchips, essential for AI-driven autonomous weapons, have become critical to national security, with supply chains concentrated in Taiwan and the Netherlands creating dangerous bottlenecks. Nations are racing to build domestic foundries to avoid dependence on fragile global networks.
Russia’s Ukraine war deemed strategically lost despite ongoing conflict — Security experts argue Putin has failed to achieve core objectives, including dissolving Ukraine’s sovereignty and fracturing NATO, while suffering irreversible economic and military damage. The war’s tactical grind continues despite Russia’s strategic defeat.
Espionage history reveals enduring propaganda and intelligence tactics — Historical accounts of Nazi propagandists like Axis Sally and literary connections to intelligence operations suggest persistent patterns in psychological warfare. New books on Trotsky’s assassination and Cold War spycraft indicate renewed interest in intelligence history.
Ceasefire violations highlight Hamas’ military rehabilitation efforts — Israel targeted a Hamas weapons production site in Gaza, accusing the group of violating ceasefire terms to rebuild its military capabilities. The strike underscores ongoing tensions despite diplomatic agreements.
Regional perspectives diverge on Middle East power dynamics — An Egyptian state media analysis claims Iran emerged victorious in past conflicts, with former U.S. leadership capitulating to its demands. This narrative contrasts with Western assessments of regional stability and influence.
Silicon Wars: competition for the microchips supplies, programming, dominance, and control, as required by the smart, autonomous, robotic weapons
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The term Silicon Wars describes the intense, global struggle to control the supply, design, and production of microchips. Today, this conflict is no longer just about smartphones or fast laptops. It is about national security. [1, 2, 3]
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and autonomous, robotic weapons require massive amounts of computing power to think, see, and act without human help. Because of this, microchips have become the most valuable resource in modern warfare. [4, 5, 6, 7]
Here is a breakdown of how the competition for silicon shapes the future of global power and smart weaponry.
🏭 1. The Supply Chain: A Dangerous Bottleneck
The physical creation of advanced microchips is one of the most complicated and centralized processes in human history. [8, 9]The Taiwan Dependency: A vast majority of the world’s most advanced microchips are made by a single company, TSMC, in Taiwan. If this supply chain is disrupted by political conflict or war, global tech production could grind to a halt. [10, 11, 12, 13]
Extreme Manufacturing: The machines needed to print these chips (called EUV lithography machines) are made by only one company in the world, ASML, based in the Netherlands. [14, 15, 16, 17]
Choke Points: Because production is concentrated in so few places, world powers are racing to build their own chip factories (foundries) at home to avoid being cut off during a crisis. [18]💻 2. Programming and Software: The Brains of the Weapon
Hardware is useless without the software to run it. The race for dominance also takes place in the digital world.AI Training: Smart weapons need to recognize targets, dodge threats, and make split-second decisions. Training these AI models requires data centers packed with thousands of specialized graphics chips (GPUs). [19, 20, 21]
Edge Computing: Once a chip is placed inside a missile, drone, or robotic soldier, it must process data instantly on the spot (known as “the edge”) without relying on a slow connection back to a home base. [22]
Operating Systems: Countries want proprietary, unhackable software architectures so enemies cannot hijack their autonomous fleets through cyber warfare.🤖 3. Smart and Autonomous Weapons: The New Military Era
Microchips are changing the face of the military, shifting the focus from the size of an army to the intelligence of its weapons. [23]Drone Swarms: Hundreds of small, cheap drones can communicate with each other using onboard microchips to overwhelm enemy defenses without any human operators. [24]
Precision Guidance: Tiny chips allow missiles to alter their flight paths in real time, steering around obstacles and hitting targets with perfect accuracy. [25, 26]
Robotic Combat Vehicles: Unmanned tanks and submarines use advanced sensors and silicon brains to navigate dangerous environments, map terrain, and detect mines entirely on their own. [27]🌐 4. Dominance and Control: The Geopolitical Standoff
Control over silicon means control over global politics. The world’s superpowers are using various strategies to secure an advantage. [28, 29]Sanctions and Export Bans: Major powers restrict the sale of advanced AI chips and chip-making tools to rival nations to slow down their military advancement.
Domestic Subsidies: Governments are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into funding local chip factories to ensure they never have to rely on foreign adversaries for military hardware.
Technological Iron Curtain: The world is slowly splitting into separate tech ecosystems, where different regions use entirely different chips, software, and standards. [30, 31, 32, 33, 34]To explore this topic further, let me know if you want to focus on a specific area:
The geopolitical strategies countries use to protect their chip suppliesHow drone swarms use edge computing to talk to one another
The ethical debates surrounding weapons that choose their own targets [35]
Which direction should we take next?[2] cnn.com
[3] averagegeniuses.com
[4] belfercenter.org
[5] facebook.com
[6] thebrainyinsights.com
[7] sites.tufts.edu
[8] worldscientific.com
[9] research.contrary.com
[10] bigthink.com
[11] economist.com
[12] raisesummit.com
[13] tspasemiconductor.substack.c…
[14] jordanharbinger.com
[15] lexology.com
[16] linkedin.com
[17] stansberryresearch.com
[18] rand.org
[19] theatlantic.com
[20] thehill.com
[21] dutchdeadline.substack.com
[22] syntiant.com
[23] pbs.org
[24] facebook.com
[25] amazon.in
[26] microchipusa.com
[27] kingsresearch.com
[28] globalsecurityreview.com
[29] belfercenter.org
[30] icwa.in
[31] atlantis-press.com
[32] eurasiareview.com
[33] sherwood.news
[34] en.wikipedia.org
[35] forrester.com
–— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Jul 12, 2026
MELTON’S BOOK — THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF THE TROTSKY MURDER — DROPS SOON!
amazon.com/Assassination-Leo…— @SpiesVespers Jul 12, 2026
🇫🇷🇺🇦 Macron gathers “Coalition of the Willing” to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense
On July 13, a summit of the “Coalition of the Willing” will be held in Paris, which will be attended by leaders of 37 countries and President Zelensky.
The main topic of the meeting is strengthening Ukrainian air defense, in particular, the creation of a comprehensive missile defense system and the production of Patriot missiles in Ukraine.
Security guarantees for Ukraine will also be discussed.
— @DzisMaksym Jul 12, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump has softened his rhetoric toward Ukraine after reviewing U.S. intelligence assessments detailing Kyiv’s rapidly expanding long-range strike capabilities, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials on July 12
— @NewVoiceUkraine Jul 12, 2026
Inside Moscow’s elite Bauman University, a secret department trains the GRU’s next-gen hackers, saboteurs, and spies. Leaked documents now expose how its graduates feed the units behind Russia’s cyberattacks, election interference, and NATO sabotage. vsquare.org/welcome-to-the-g…
— @panyiszabolcs Jul 12, 2026
JUST IN🇮🇷🇺🇸🔥 US confirms, SIX American service members were killed in an Iranian drone strike on a U.S. command/operations center at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait.
— @rkmtimes Jul 12, 2026
#Putin #UkraineWar #Russia
Putin’s War: Strategic Loss, Ongoing Conflict share.gemini.google/LLQH3wl3…
It certainly seems that way from a strategic perspective, and James Jay Carafano has been highly vocal about exactly this. In his recent analysis—including his July 2026 piece point-blank titled “The War in Ukraine Is Already Over — and Putin Lost”—Carafano argues that while the fighting is still grinding on, Russia has already lost the war in every way that truly matters.His assessment isn’t based on a neat, textbook ending where one side surrenders, but on a cold look at Putin’s original objectives versus the actual outcomes.
Here is a breakdown of why Carafano and other security experts assess that Putin has fundamentally lost:
Total Failure of Primary Objectives: Putin’s goals were to conquer and dissolve Ukraine as a sovereign state and to fracture NATO. He failed on both fronts. Ukraine will emerge from this as a free, independent nation with a growing defense industrial base, and NATO is larger, more unified, and more heavily armed than it has been in decades.
A Devastating Pyrrhic Victory: Russia has managed to hold onto some territory, but Carafano describes these as “marginal territorial gains” achieved at an apocalyptic cost. To get those gains, Putin essentially destroyed his professional army, forced a massive brain drain of fleeing citizens, and crippled the Russian economy.
Global Pariah Status: Rather than re-establishing the Russian Empire as a global superpower, Putin has isolated Moscow. Russia is now heavily sanctioned, internationally condemned, and increasingly forced into subservient partnerships with countries like Iran, North Korea, and China just to keep its war machine running.The Reality on the Ground
Carafano is careful to note that “winning and losing” in real life isn’t like a baseball game where everyone goes home when the score is tallied. While Putin’s strategic defeat is cemented, the tactical reality is still a bloody, protracted mess.
Russia lacks the capacity to achieve its maximalist goals, but it still has the sheer mass to sustain a grinding war of attrition and hold onto occupied territory. Because of this, experts like Carafano emphasize that the focus now must shift toward securing a ceasefire that ends the humanitarian bleeding, forces realistic concessions, and ensures Ukraine is fortified enough to deter Russia permanently in the future.
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Putin has lost his reckless war against Ukraine, or so it seems. See also: security expert James Jay Carafano
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Security expert James Jay Carafano recently argued that the war in Ukraine is already strategically over, and Vladimir Putin has lost. Even though the active fighting on the ground grinds on, Carafano points out that Russia has passed its “culminating point” and cannot reverse several major geopolitical realities. [1]
According to Carafano’s assessment on 19FortyFive, the conflict has permanently reshaped security in a way that defeats Moscow’s original strategic goals: [1]A Sovereign Ukraine: Ukraine remains an independent, highly mobilized, and exceptionally well-armed nation. [1, 2]
An Intact NATO: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) remains fully intact and unified, directly defying Putin’s long-term goal to weaken the alliance. [1, 3]
A Vulnerable Russian Homeland: The conflict has evolved to leave Russia’s own territory permanently vulnerable to deep strategic strikes. [1]While Carafano notes that the war may still drag on without a clean or immediate diplomatic resolution, the structural and economic toll on Russia is severe. The combination of massive manpower drains, international sanctions, domestic economic disruption, and political isolation means that Putin’s regime is operating from a permanently weakened global position. [4, 5]
[1] 19fortyfive.com
[2] gisreportsonline.com
[3] heritage.org
[4] heritage.org
[5] audacy.com
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Pic.: Trump ‘Holds All The Cards’ In Dealing With Iran, Says Heritage Foundation’s James Jay Carafano
And the same with Ukraine, I would add.
rferl.org/a/trump-iran-negot…— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Jul 12, 2026
#CIA #DIA #Mossad
Carafano: Putin lost. Now.
x.com/mikenov/status/2076345…Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) #Putin #UkraineWar #Russia
Putin’s War: Strategic Loss, Ongoing Conflict share.gemini.google/LLQH3wl3…
Putin has lost his reckless war against Ukraine, or so it seems. See also: security expert James Jay Carafano
share.google/aimode/jnu5LU0m…
Pic.: Trump ‘Holds All The Cards’ In Dealing With Iran, Says Heritage Foundation’s James Jay Carafano
And the same with Ukraine, I would add.
rferl.org/a/trump-iran-negot…— https://x.com/mikenov/status/2076345227934073205— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Jul 12, 2026