you are more conservative than you think you are

“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” – Gordon Parks

Published 16 July, 2026.

By Kira Rudik

The more Ukrainian missiles hit Russian oil refineries, the more articles by "new" and "good" Russians we will see. That is the first sign the empire is beginning to fall. The "good Russians" will recycle the same old arguments. In Ukraine, we have heard them so many times they make me sick: “Russia is too big to fail,” “Russians cannot be humiliated—otherwise there will be nuclear escalation,” “The Russian army is incredibly strong,” “Russia has a democratic future,” etc.

None of these claims withstands scrutiny. The truth is that Russia is the last surviving European empire. It outlived the tectonic changes that reshaped Europe after the Second World War. Then it was a totalitarian state controlling the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. Today it remains a centralised empire ruling over 21 national republics within the Russian Federation.

It is a top-down, KGB-FSB state that survives by exporting natural resources while investing billions in propaganda designed to convince the world that it is an indispensable global power.

In reality, before the full-scale invasion, Russia's economy was roughly the size of Italy's or Canada's. Yet we never heard either of those countries claim to be one of the defining poles of a new multipolar world.

Black smoke rises from the area of the Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft's Moscow oil refinery on the south-eastern outskirts of Moscow on 18 June, 2026.

Russia is not too big to fail. Its territory is enormous, but territory alone does not make a superpower. The Soviet Union was even larger—and it collapsed.

The idea that Russia, and especially Vladimir Putin, must never be humiliated, became one of the defining narratives of 2022. I remember it vividly. As the world was discovering the atrocities of Bucha, it felt surreal that so many influential voices were still concerned about protecting the dignity of the dictator who had authorised murder, torture, rape, and countless other war crimes.

Back then, "Putin's red lines" dictated Western policy. Many governments refused to provide Ukraine with essential weapons because they feared escalation or believed Putin might resort to nuclear weapons.

That conversation sounds very different in 2026. Ukraine has demonstrated that the Russian army is not invincible, that Russia cannot adequately defend its own borders, and that its military power has clear limits. The Kursk operation, Operation Spiderweb, and the destruction of Russian warships across the Black and Azov seas proved exactly that.

As someone who lives in Kyiv under almost nightly missile and drone attacks, let me tell you something.

There has never been a diplomatic formula built on fear of Putin that protected Ukrainian civilians. The only thing that has worked is reducing Russia's ability to wage war.

And despite years of warnings about "retaliation," Russia's retaliation looks exactly like its regular attacks. It bombs civilians regardless.

Perhaps the biggest illusion many people in the West still cling to is the belief that Russia can become a democracy, return to the international community, and resume business as usual.

The "good Russians" want you to believe this too. There are two fundamental problems with that narrative.

First, Russia has never been a democracy—not for a single day in its history. Ironically, many of the same people who insist that 148 million Russians cannot simply disappear also expect those same 148 million people to embrace democratic values overnight.

We in Ukraine believed this ourselves in 2022. We thought that if ordinary Russians simply learned the truth about the war, they would rise against Putin. Considerable resources were devoted to breaking through the Kremlin's information blockade.

Reality proved otherwise. The majority of Russians support the war. Many genuinely believe they are fighting NATO and the West to defend their way of life. Good luck convincing them otherwise.

The second problem with the fantasy of restoring relations with Russia under the slogan "trade is better than war" is even simpler.

Russia already had all of that. It belonged to the G8. It traded freely with the democratic world. It created enormous wealth for its oligarchs while distributing just enough prosperity to much of its population. It expanded its influence across Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East while building partnerships with authoritarian regimes.

Now ask yourself a simple question. Can Russia realistically expect to achieve greater economic prosperity than it enjoyed in 2012 or 2013?

It already reached that point. And it willingly sacrificed it for one overriding objective: preserving the empire.

Russia is likely to collapse for many of the same reasons the Soviet Union collapsed—falling energy revenues, the growing political weight of war veterans, and the desire of Russian elites to regain access to the wealth and assets now frozen under Western sanctions.

The story of a sinking empire is never new. As the ship begins to sink, different players suddenly present themselves as reasonable, democratic, pro-Western, and pro-peace. They promise they can build the "good Russia" Europe has always hoped for.

What almost every one of these self-appointed Russian leaders desperately wants to distract you from is a far simpler conclusion.

The destruction and decolonisation of the Russian empire would be one of the best things that could happen to Europe—and the only lasting strategic outcome worthy of the immense price this war has already demanded.

(Source) August 2nd, 2026.

A Quiet Rule Review Could Drain the Prairie Pothole Region, America’s “Duck Factory”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule revision would drain thousands of tiny-but-vital wetlands across the northern Great Plains

“Right now, the most important waterfowl habitat in the United States of America is at risk. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering repealing the rule that protects the integrity of the Duck Stamp easements that have been purchased for generations. Whether you’re a duck hunter or not, you understand the importance of conservation, the importance of waterfowl habitat, wildlife habitat, and clean water. Please take advantage of this opportunity to make your voice heard.”  - Adam Putnam, CEO of Ducks Unlimited

On the northern Great Plains, the grasslands in states from Montana and the Dakotas to Minnesota and Iowa, as well as parts of Canada, are dotted with countless often-temporary wetlands. Some cover less than an acre. Many dry up and disappear during the year, only to return with snowmelt and spring rain. Collectively, these glacial depressions form one of North America’s most productive wildlife landscapes—the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). Often called the continent’s “duck factory,” this is the breeding, nesting, and hatching habitat for over 60% of ducks in North America, as well as dozens of other species of migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, and songbirds. This sprawling collection of millions of shallow wetlands is arguably America’s least known yet most important and threatened ecosystem. Now, however, an obscure federal review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has placed the future of many thousands of those tiny wetland habitats in doubt. "Right now, the most important waterfowl habitat in the United States of America is at risk. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering repealing the rule that protects the integrity of the Duck Stamp easements that have been purchased for generations," said Adam Putnam, CEO of Ducks Unlimited. "Whether you’re a duck hunter or not, you understand the importance of conservation, the importance of waterfowl habitat, wildlife habitat, and clean water. Please take advantage of this opportunity to make your voice heard..."

Read more and speak up for your ducks, geese, pelicans, cranes, sandpipers, grebes, and dozens of other water and songbirds here:

Mural in Dartford, UK commemorating the Spanish Revolution which broke out 90 years ago, on 19 July 1936, in response to a military coup, the workers and peasants of Spain rose up, launching a general strike. By acting quickly, they defeated the military in most major cities.

But they didn’t stop at putting down the coup. Roughly two million workers kicked out their bosses and took control of the economy.

It was a social revolution. Decisions were made by assemblies of workers in their workplaces and executed by committees elected from the shopfloor.

Mansions were turned into communal dining halls, schools, warehouses, and free medical centres. Thousands of useless capitalist jobs were abolished. Unemployed workers helped share the workload in necessary industries. In some cases, this meant the work day could be shortened.

In 1939, Franco’s army won and established a dictatorship. When he died, Spain transitioned back to an ordinary parliamentary system.

But the Spanish Revolution wasn’t defeated because ‘communism doesn’t work’. It was destroyed by international isolation and counter-revolutionary politics. The moderate socialists opposed revolution and capitalists around the world preferred fascism to anarchism. This scared CNT leaders into convincing workers to stop the revolution half way, leaving some power in the hands of the old capitalists and government.

Meanwhile, the Liberals and the Stalinists sabotaged the revolution. They centralised control, arrested and murdered anarchists, and then lost the war after taking power.

The anarchists had been well organised industrially. But they needed better political organisation to keep the movement on a revolutionary path. They also needed to support anti-colonial struggles in Morocco, where Franco was getting troops.

“The relationship between Blackness and disability is especially important to investigate, because it explains so much about how we ended up where we are. Just like prisons and policing are related to slavery, so is the way we think about disability…(Dustin) Gibson discusses the 1840 census, which was the first time there were questions about both disability and race

That census says that the majority of free Black people were “insane” and “idiotic”, to use their language, while saying that the majority of people that were still enslaved were sane. So it’s creating this idea that to be free and Black, and to have the urge to want to be free and Black, is deemed to be a mental illness.

There was even a medical diagnosis for slaves who had the overwhelming urge to run away: drapetomania. This shows that medicallization has always been a tool of white supremacy in the United States.

Race—and specifically Blackness—has been used to mark disability, while disability has inherently “Blackened” those perceived as unfit. Black people were—and continue to be—assumed intellectually disabled precisely because of race. —Work in the Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework by Moya Bailey and Izetta Autumn Mobley

In other words, white supremacy means that Black bodies are seen as inherently disabled, and disability is inherently bad. Ableism and racism are often used as pretexts for each other, which is why it’s so important that we use for the intersectional approach that disability justice calls for.”

"Against All Wars, Against All Governments, Against All Oppression"

The connection between football and domestic violence isn’t uncommon. A study shows that police receive increased calls reporting domestic violence every Sunday during football season [iii]. Researchers analyzed over 700 cities and counties using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) of police reports, revealing that these spikes are linked to teams losing a game [iii]. In fact, domestic violence incidents rise by about 10% on days when NFL games are played, usually occurring in family homes and most of the time affecting women [iii].  This shows that the outcomes of football games can have a real impact on people’s lives off the field. It’s important for fans, teams, and communities to recognize these patterns and work together to raise awareness and prevent domestic violence from happening, especially during football season.