Author Archives: The Editor

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 8, 2026

How real is a coup threat against Russia’s president? Increased security around Vladimir Putin and a scaling back of public appearances have given rise to suspicions of a coup or assassination attempt. Yet some observers remain skeptical.

F/A-18 Super Hornet Drops Bombs Down Smoke Stacks Of Iranian Tankers Running Blockade (Updated)

Christians decry persecution in India’s heartland. With Christians in India increasingly targeted by Hindu vigilantes, victims say police often side with their attackers.

What Is Behind Turkey’s Pursuit Of An ICBM? An unexpected reveal of a previously unknown intercontinental ballistic missile has raised major questions about Ankara’s strategic ambitions.

Nearly $2 trillion in economic growth has left blue states and headed for red states. New York had the biggest fall in cumulative adjusted gross income (AGI) — losing $660 billion between 2012 and 2023. In contrast, Florida gained $1.3 trillion, and Texas gained $371 billion between 2012 and 2023.

A Common Vitamin Could Hold the Key to Treating Fatty Liver Disease

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 7, 2026

U.S. Just Struck Iranian Targets Around The Strait Of Hormuz (Updated)

Trapped in Hormuz: Indian Sailors Describe Nights of Missiles, Fear, and Hunger

Elon Musk’s Terafab chip factory in Texas could cost up to $119 billion

Nvidia, the artificial intelligence giant, has signed a deal to invest up to $3.2 billion in New York-based Corning Inc.

Mozilla’s work with Mythos was different, Mozilla Distinguished Engineer Brian Grinstead said in an interview. The biggest differentiating factor was the use of an agent harness, a piece of code that wraps around an LLM to guide it through a series of specific tasks. For such a harness to be useful, it requires significant resources to customize it to the project-specific semantics, tooling, and processes it will be used for.

The Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse metro areas were all among the top 10 metros in the nation with the highest effective property tax rates in 2025

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday she has reached an agreement with legislative leaders on a $268 billion state budget that includes important policy decisions about taxes, housing, immigration reforms and an energy rebate for New Yorkers.

Choice of Tea or Coffee Could Affect Risk of Osteoporosis in Older Women

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 6, 2026

F/A-18 Super Hornet Blasts Blockade-Running Iranian Ship’s Rudder With 20mm Cannon (Updated)

US President Donald Trump’s decision to pause a US operation to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz came as a result of pressure from Saudi Arabia, according to an NBC News report citing two US officials. According to the officials, the US’s allies among the Gulf states were surprised by Trump’s Sunday announcement of Project Freedom, which was launched on Monday.

Jerusalem Christians not surprised by attack on nun as abuse becomes routine. Priest says once-isolated incidents of ultra-Orthodox people spitting near them have become daily occurrences; 61 physical attacks recorded in 2025.

Iran claims to destroy ‘Zionist Christian sect’ in Yazd province.

Cornell Anti-Israel Activists Use “Decision Dilemma” Tactic To Confront and Trap University President. Students follows President to his car, surround the car blocking his exit, then claim the car hit one of them.

Is the Anglosphere also the Swearosphere?

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 5, 2026

New Iranian Attacks On UAE As Ceasefire Holds By A Thread (Updated)

Syria reports neutralizing Hezbollah plot to assassinate senior officials

Inside Lebanon, the conditions for the next extremist uprising are quietly taking root.

UK Gilt Yields Near 30-Year Highs As Political/Geopolitical Fears Spark Trussian Chaos

Britain now down to five operational frigates

How Britain Lost Its (Dye) Empire

Cruise ship infected with terrifying hantavirus strain that has 40% mortality rate

How D.C.’s Police Chief Undermined Crime Data Accuracy

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 4, 2026

Sacked Russian Minister Flees To US Amid Corruption Probe In First Of Ukraine War

First Ships Transit Strait Of Hormuz Under New U.S. Protection Plan

U.S. AH-64 Apache, MH-60 Seahawk Helicopters Sink Six Iranian Boats

Vladimir Putin fears an assassination attempt and a coup, tensions among security services are rising, an EU intelligence agency says

Toyota built a $10 billion private utopia—what’s going on in there?

US Treasury said that it now expects to borrow $189 billion in net debt for the current quarter, up ~$80 billion from the $109 billion it had forecast in February.

NYS Troopers pose as highway workers to catch speeding drivers, issue hundreds of tickets

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 3, 2026

Oil Prices Fall as Trump Launches “Project Freedom” and OPEC+ Increases Output

Iran’s Oil Industry Faces a Geological Time Bomb

Israel To Buy Extra F-15IA And F-35I Squadrons

The Kingdom of Jordan has carried out airstrikes in Syria targeting drug smugglers near Sweida. If Syria had carried out the strikes, then Jerusalem would have threatened Damascus. However, Jordan has the clout and the ties to the West and the Gulf to carry out its own policy.

4 teens charged with attempted murder after attacking man in Binghamton, police say. Investigators said the teens did not know the victim, but were motivated by a social media trend of recording attacks on unhoused or drug addicted people on the street and posting videos online.

After Sweden removed inheritance and gift taxes in 2005, private firms with potential family successors grew faster, invested more, and paid higher corporate taxes than firms without natural heirs, according to a new white paper from the Stockholm School of Economics. The study adds empirical evidence in a policy debate often dominated by ideology and comes as several European countries debate inheritance tax reforms.

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 2, 2026: Russian forces in April 2026 suffered a net loss of territory controlled in the Ukrainian theater for the first time since Ukraine’s August 2024 incursion into Kursk Oblast.

This command vacuum has demonstrably degraded readiness: Joint exercises with Russia plummeted from 14 instances in 2024 to just six in 2025, and exercises around Taiwan in 2025 took between 12 and 19 days to transition from political directive to deployment — a dramatic lag compared to the three to four days required for identical maneuvers in 2024.

The quiet layoffs sweeping China’s tech giants

Trump drops a narco-trafficking nuclear bomb into Mexican politics

This is a long read but worth reading. The focus is on the Southern Poverty Law Center but in the process it shows how easy it is under existing law to go after people for political reasons and do so legally.

A New Religious Divide: Young Men vs. Young Women

Humans May Be Able to Grow New Teeth Within Just 4 Years

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 1, 2026

Putin’s approval rating falls to its lowest point since Russia’s full-scale invasion began

Iran Ceasefire Means Trump Needs No Congressional Approval To Continue War: White House

‘A long time coming’: How to understand the UAE’s decision to leave OPEC

The USGS is saying that Appalachia contains an estimated 2.3 million metric tons of undiscovered, economically recoverable lithium, enough to replace 328 years of U.S. imports at last year’s level.

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 30, 2026

Trump At A Crossroads For Continuing The War With Iran. The president is reportedly discussing new options for attacking Iran while facing a legal deadline on continuing the conflict.

Rockland County School District Sues State for Blocking Its Superintendent Pick. The East Ramapo school board has been overseen by state monitors for years after it slashed millions in public school funds to bankroll private religious education.

Third Editor Fired in Elsevier’s Citation Cartel Crackdown; Hundreds of Papers At Risk of Retraction

One of the world’s most common knee surgeries does not help and may even be harmful