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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

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 29, 2026

Allies in Limbo. By a foreign volunteer who has seen both sides of the wire: the one the enemy builds, and the one Ukrainian bureaucracy builds around us.

Israel Now Using Netting To Protect Combat Vehicles Against Scourge Of Hezbollah Drones

The UAE Leaves OPEC

How the Iran crisis affects Japan

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland collapsed in 2024. No one has rebuilt the bridge yet despite Gov. Wes Moore’s describing the project as “the nation’s ‘fastest-moving’ large infrastructure effort.” Plans hit a major snag on Tuesday when Maryland officials “canceled a key construction contract.”

Researchers report in Engineering that cinnamic acid, a natural substance present in cinnamon and widely used as a food additive, can interfere with how bacteria share antibiotic resistance.

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Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 28, 2026

Iran War Triggers Helium Shock Threatening Global Chip Supply

The war in Iran is weighing on China’s economy, with car sales plunging, toy factories shutting down, and thousands of workers taking to the streets following a surge in plastic and energy prices.

UK Borrowing Costs Hit Highest Since 2008 as Oil Tops $111

The Senate report, however, omitted any mention of dangerous gain-of-function research funded by the NIH, and gave no notice of virus studies conducted in the United States, even though Baric is the top researcher in the field. The report pointed the finger only at China as the sole problem with dangerous virus research.

New York State Police adding high-performance muscle cars to patrol fleet

This scenic NY stretch is one of the most ‘rattlesnake-infested’ spots on the East Coast, ranking finds