Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 3, 2026

Taiwan military capabilities in jeopardy as defense budget row deepens

California gas prices expected to soar as Valero shutdown worsens oil crisis

Staff at Youth Prison Recount Lockdowns, Turmoil, 24-Hour Shifts. State-run youth prisons are severely understaffed. A Rochester-area facility has regularly operated with only a tenth of the staff it’s supposed to have available to supervise youth. Incarcerated youth at state-run facilities are often locked in small cells for upwards of 23 hours a day, according to staff and a recent lawsuit. They’ve missed out on school and programs.

F-35 From USS Abraham Lincoln Shoots Down Iranian Drone

X office raided in France’s Grok probe; Elon Musk summoned for questioning.

Turkish F-16 Vipers Seen Operating Out Of Mogadishu’s International Airport. Turkey and Israel have long jostled for influence in the Middle East, and now it appears this competition has spread to the Horn of Africa, where Turkey continues to expand its footprint.

Trump Signs Bill Ending Partial Government Shutdown. 21 Democrats broke from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and 21 Republicans voted no on the bill.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 2, 2026

As food prices surge, Russians stop buying fruit, ignore expiration dates, and brace for more hikes

Washington-Tehran Talks Planned As U.S. Military Buildup Continues

New Jersey’s New Governor Declares State of Emergency on Energy

On three individuals who had wildly different impressions of the United States with world-changing consequences

I think it is only recent because a lot of people got two year trade degrees and decided trades where not for them (I know a lot of guys like that). The fact that even with those dragging down the average that they are now more employed then the 4 year counterparts is what is new. Plumbers, electricians and pipe fitters with a two-year degree are more likely to be employed than four-year college graduates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a very new trend, reports Taylor Telford in the Washington Post.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 1, 2026

With President Donald Trump setting a deadline for Iran to negotiate, the regime is removing the nuclear cache trapped in sites damaged in the Israeli and U.S. strike during the 12-Day War last summer.

The Australian government is overreaching already

Berlin hospitals struggle to treat hundreds of slip-and-falls after repeated snow and ice storms because environmental laws forbid the use of melting agents on stairs and sidewalks

Democrat Wins Texas Special Election, Eroding GOP’s Slim House Majority

Fungus could be the insecticide of the future

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 31, 2026

Russia’s oil and gas revenues are shrinking. Meduza explains what that means for the Kremlin’s war chest.

Asia on Alert as Nipah Virus Cases in India Trigger Airport Screenings. India says it has contained Nipah virus outbreak and both the CDC and WHO are “monitoring the situation.” Infections with this pathogen can result in a severe and often fatal illness that primarily affects the brain and respiratory system. The case fatality typically ranges between 40 and 75%, impacted by the quality of medical care available to the infected person.

Births Plummet In China As Population Growth Stalls. According to the National Statistics Bureau of China (NBS), the country’s birth rate fell to 5.63 per 1,000 people in 2025. This is the lowest level since 1949, when the Communist Party took power. Meanwhile, China’s death rate rose to 8.04 per 1,000 people. This resulted in last year being the fourth consecutive year for the country’s population to fall, reaching 1.4 billion.

The prostate cancer test dilemma

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 30, 2026

Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks

A lot of population numbers are fake. Do we have any idea how many people there are in the world?

USAF F-35s Redeploy Across Atlantic From Puerto Rico, Final Destination Unknown. The F-35As are on the move after assisting in the Maduro capture and could end up in the Middle East.

U.S. Handing Over Seized Tanker to Venezuela

This borrowing was in violation of statutory PAYGO and would normally lead to a $529 billion debit in the first year of the PAYGO scorecard, leading to a sequestration of up to $200 billion in mandatory spending. Instead, policymakers passed legislation to ignore the law and wiped out the balances on both PAYGO scorecards, which avoids the requirement for PAYGO sequester for the budget year and removes the accountability for Congress to pay as they enact costly legislation.

For instance: did you know that daily social media use increases the likelihood a child will commit suicide by 12-18%? Or that teenagers are far more likely to visit the ER for psychiatric problems if they have an Instagram account? Or that a child’s amount of social media use, past a certain threshold, correlates exponentially with poorer sleep, lower reported wellbeing, and more severe mental health symptoms? If that was all true for social media— and again, none of it is — you and I both would agree that people under 16 or so should not have access to platforms like Instagram or Snapchat. Imagine allowing your child to enter any system that would make them 12-18% more likely to kill themselves. That would be insane. You wouldn’t let your kid anywhere near that system, and the public would protest until it was eliminated once for all. Great. So let’s get rid of school.

Tesla is killing off the Model S and Model X

US Cancer Survival Has Reached a Milestone High of 70%

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 28, 2026

Destroyer, Electronic Surveillance Jet Joins U.S. Forces Massing In Middle East

Iran’s internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only. The regime is testing a two-tier internet where access becomes a vetted privilege.

Loose Rules Let State Police Hand Out Lax Penalties for Serious Misconduct

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 27, 2026

Residents of world’s largest Arctic city left without heat as sub-zero temperatures persist in northern Russia

Iran’s Currency Falls to Record Low as Intel Says Regime at Its ‘Weakest Point’ Since 1979

MSNBC uses edited photo of man shot by ICE that makes him appear more masculine I would say they just tried to make him look more handsome but whatever. To a certain extent there is a little bit of whataboutsim in this post because the liberals have been making hay about a trump official retweeting an AI generated photo to support his narrative and so now constatives are pointing out the liberals are doing it as well. But I do think there is a little bit of a difference between some trump official mouthing off and a media outlet that supposedly fact checks doing it. I guess it just a sign about how few people care about the truth and just want to embrace everything that builds their team up.

Massive Potomac River Sewage Spill Exposes D.C. Water’s Cracked Priorities

We tend to think that things just work and complain about them failing when they do. But a lot people don’t realize what goes on to keep things from failing on a more regular basis. At a place I used to work I can remember when were told to go on generator or get off of natural gas to help keep things functioning for others. The Energy Department also waived emissions rules so fossil-fuel plants could run at maximum capacity. Early Sunday morning, coal accounted for some 40% of power in the Midwest’s MISO grid, 24% in the eastern PJM Interconnection, and 18% in Texas, with most of the rest coming from natural gas and nuclear. Power plants in New England burned oil, which accounted for 40% of electricity at peak demand

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 26, 2026

Lincoln Carrier Strike Group Has Arrived In CENTCOM’s Area Of Responsibility. Assets continue to pour into the Middle East, including high-end air defenses, but there still hasn’t been a large migration of airpower.

The demise of Zhang Youxia hits different

On immigration warrants

Hard on the heels of the lawsuit targeting Ziploc bags comes a report linking microplastic exposure to coffee consumption.

Do Commodities Get Cheaper Over Time?

I was taught as fact that this came from Europe and honestly I had no reason to doubt it. To get an idea of how sensitive this is to the politically correct read the religious invocation against getting canceled at the end of the article. Ancient DNA pushes back record of treponemal disease-causing bacteria by 3,000 years