Matthew Palmer

How a four-year onslaught has changed Ukraine The border guards who faced Russia’s tanks were changed for ever, like their country

“Life turned upside down,” says Baloo. “Before, I had plans, I had hopes.”

How four years of war have changed Russia The fighting in Ukraine has reshaped everyday life

“Everything has frozen and turned into a grey, viscous paste consisting of bombing and shooting, bargaining and lying, restrictions and repressions.”

Interesting article by @davidallengreen.bsky.social

How Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence Insufficient details about the US data intelligence company’s recent contract have been made public

Rather damning verdict on the MOD's contract with Palantir.

Because of the inconsiderate timing of US Supreme Court striking down Trump’s tariff policy, nobody is going to be interested in my piece on Palantir and public procurement law at the FT.

How Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence Insufficient details about the US data intelligence company’s recent contract have been made public

Rather damning verdict on the MOD's contract with Palantir.

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans ...

Fantastic read.

Spoiling a lot of takes but begging a large number of other questions... "Worsening graduate fortunes, it turns out, are a particularly British problem"

www.ft.com/content/649d...

Always Start with People, Not Technology A people‑centred industrial strategy for AI, good work, and the everyday economy

The top UK jobs are retail assistants, care workers, managers, drivers, and teachers. Mostly not in the AI firing line-and in services. How do we make them better.

Meanwhile the focus is on "something big is happening" AI hype. We're distracted.

New piece.

open.substack.com/pub/anthonyp...

UK swings to record £30.4bn budget surplus in January Figures come ahead of Spring Statement in March

UK swings to record £30.4bn budget surplus in January ft.trib.al/jy6yxtZ

2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA

I finally watched 2000 metres to Andriivka.

Fuck me it hits hard.

We take this stuff seriously. Have done for over 300 years.

Just in: country which invented the rule of law and holding royalty to account upholds rule of law and holds royalty to account

We need to emphasise the 'Civil Wars' as the English Revolution. The political debate, ferment and change of the period was immense.

We tried and executed our King - in the 17th Century, for fucks sake. Long before it was cool.

We need to emphasise the 'Civil Wars' as the English Revolution. The political debate, ferment and change of the period was immense.

We tried and executed our King - in the 17th Century, for fucks sake. Long before it was cool.

The pop-history account of how France chose violent revolution and Britain chose gradual reform always slides over the fact that Britain fought its own very bloody revolution(s) over the same issues, they just did it a few centuries earlier.

Its amazing, because if you do even the most cursory reading of Japanese history in the late 19th and eary 20th century you would know it was fucking bollocks.

Just spending 10 minutes on wikipedia would have told you that.

2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA

I finally watched 2000 metres to Andriivka.

Fuck me it hits hard.

We have become aware of a fraudulent website - ospreypress (dot) com - that is misrepresenting itself as Osprey Publishing. This site is not affiliated with us in any way.

Excellent reminder that the weather is, as it ever has been, a critical factor in warfare, for both people and machines.

The midnight convoys that freed thousands from Isis camps Women and children flee facilities holding alleged members of extremist group after Kurdish forces lose control

Truly a shit endstate for Al-Hol and a failure of Western policy.

The tragedy was that over the last few years, progress was being made. Inhabitants were being repatriated in sizeable numbers.

Now we've just let the whole thing collapse, with unpleasant ramifications for the future.

Excellent reminder that the weather is, as it ever has been, a critical factor in warfare, for both people and machines.

Forever the drama with European defence procurement.

Everyone wants a share, nobody is willing to budge.

The midnight convoys that freed thousands from Isis camps Women and children flee facilities holding alleged members of extremist group after Kurdish forces lose control

Truly a shit endstate for Al-Hol and a failure of Western policy.

The tragedy was that over the last few years, progress was being made. Inhabitants were being repatriated in sizeable numbers.

Now we've just let the whole thing collapse, with unpleasant ramifications for the future.

Yes. My personal view is that the GCAP trio shouldn't accept any workshare input from external partners as it will just complicate and delay the project. Instead, offer very good inducements (e.g. first dibs/cheaper orders) for upfront financial backing.

Not easy politically of course.

I am going to save you all a lot of time.
No, this is not the beginning of the end of the British monarchy.

Just the beginning of a 21st century chapter.

Yes. My personal view is that the GCAP trio shouldn't accept any workshare input from external partners as it will just complicate and delay the project. Instead, offer very good inducements (e.g. first dibs/cheaper orders) for upfront financial backing.

Not easy politically of course.

I'd be surprised if there were not conversations with the UK, Italy and Japan over GCAP.

Getting ever more irate with officials mechanically trotting out the tired 'the US is our closest and most important ally'. It evidently is not.

Evident of a generation that can't psychologically compute the new world we now live in.

...these signals were reversed. Pravda was just telling whatever the regime wanted it to say, whereas the truth could only be found by reading the handouts on the street, the photocopies stuck to lampposts.

I am very interested in how this maps onto our world, hugely influenced by Putin's trolls