Israel’s shock decision to recognize the breakaway Somaliland has scrambled alliances from Riyadh to Ankara and reopened a battle over minerals, military bases, and control of the Red Sea corridor.

"US immigration enforcement has evolved into a rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar industry in which profitability increasingly dictates policy and enforcement priorities." By: @tylermcbrien.com inkstickmedia.com/the-us-immig...

"In one of the [Ukraine] war’s most scrutinized campaigns, Russian troops advanced less than 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) from Avdiivka to Pokrovsk over nearly two years — an average of about 70 meters per day."

A new series of analyses show how four years of Russian war on Ukraine has reshaped global security, strained both countries’ economies, and destabilized food systems far beyond Eastern Europe.

"Ghamari is unsparing in his critique of US policy across administrations, arguing that Trump represents an acceleration of long-standing trends. 'One of the purposes of this book was to show that many different administrations laid the foundation for the emergence of a Trump administration.'"

"The knife purchases reflect deeper structural issues within the Air Force’s procurement system. Essential maintenance supplies require justification, oversight, and sometimes lengthy approval processes. By contrast, the knives … can be ordered quickly and with minimal scrutiny."

"The Dominican Republic did not wait for Trump’s return to the White House to carry out mass expulsions of Haitians. But his reelection in November 2024 gave the government the backing to continue, as illustrated by Marco Rubio’s visit to Santo Domingo in February 2025."

"Migrants, refugees, and would-be asylum seekers are, by Trump's logic, not people simply seeking refuge or economic stability. Rather, they are no different than a foreign military storming across the southern border."

For Haitians fleeing their country, where gang violence has displaced more than 1.4 million people in 2025, life in the neighboring Dominican Republic has become defined by the constant fear of deportation raids. inkstickmedia.com/how-far-will...

As the Pentagon embraces AI, "the result could be more failed wars and more unnecessary suffering, not the much touted revolution in US capabilities based on the rapid deployment of next generation technologies."

"In Trump’s world, ICE agents killing protestors … and Special Forces kidnapping Nicolás Maduro are two sides of the same impulse: the use of constabulary force to extinguish dissent and maintain a pyramidic order nationally and hemispherically, with Donald Trump on top of it all."

Critical State: Trump Team Races to Limit Huckabee's Mideast Fallout Read & Subscribe for Free: inkstick.substack.com/p/critical-s...

"In the time since Israel’s December recognition of the break-away state, the regional cleavages over the Somalia-Somaliland controversy are intensifying."

"When is our long, national nightmare of embracing war and (wildly overpriced) weaponry going to end? Obviously, not anytime soon. Even the Democrats, supposedly the 'resistance' to President Trump, boast openly of their support for what passes for military lethality..."

During Trump's first year back in office, the number of detention facilities doubled, the number of detainees on any given day rose by 75%, and the number of people with no criminal record held in ICE detention on a given day exploded by 2,450%. By: @tylermcbrien.com

"From Somaliland’s perspective, Israel’s recognition provides the breakaway state diplomatic clout, and could open the door for Israel’s closest international ally — the United States — to soon recognize the breakaway region as well, which Trump has contemplated in the past."

In Tripoli, far from Lebanon's frontlines, the destruction stems simply from the long march of decades with no repairs, allowing parts of the city to decay. The deadly collapse on Feb. 8 was the fifth such incident in Tripoli this year.

"US immigration enforcement has evolved into a rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar industry in which profitability increasingly dictates policy and enforcement priorities." By: @tylermcbrien.com inkstickmedia.com/the-us-immig...

In the latest installment of @inkstickmedia.com's "Adults in a Room," which discusses US policy toward China, and their "spheres of influence," I wrote about how India isn't part of any sphere: inkstickmedia.com/in-trump-2-0...

Trump's recent National Security Strategy document "emphasizes geographic prioritization, economic statecraft, and competitive boundaries — especially in the Indo-Pacific — while casting China as a systemic challenger to US interests and influence." inkstickmedia.com/in-trump-2-0...

Iran's growing isolation is a warning to the United States.

"Transparency in routing would be a first step toward a more informed public which understands the everyday impact of the nuclear weapons complex."

"Cubans, however, have expressed unity against Washington’s interventionist threats. It is, after all, thanks to US foreign policy and the illegal blockade on the island that Cubans have experienced decades of hardships."

"Trump’s delusions of dominance over China pervade his recent National Security Strategy. Amid all its self-indulgent palaver, it displays a dangerously willful ignorance about fast-changing geopolitical realities in the Asia-Pacific region."

“Some people will always be safer than others, but truly, nobody is safe.”

"In October 2024, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon and have been bombing the country near daily since, destroying homes and businesses. The attacks and the destruction they have caused have strained Lebanon’s already fragile infrastructure."

Deep Dive: The US Air Force’s Costly ‘Box Cutters’ inkstickmedia.com/deep-dive-th...

My wonderful @scovillepf.bsky.social @seantmanning.bsky.social has a great story in @inkstickmedia.com about biking alongside interstates during COVID. Those interstates could soon be carrying new plutonium "pits" - the radioactive core used in a new nuclear weapon: inkstickmedia.com/every-day-nu...

"In an astonishing paradox, a spendthrift military establishment that almost never wins anything, while consistently evading accountability for its losses, has by now captured almost untrammeled authority within our land."

"Taken together, these measures redefine authority inside the Pentagon, centralizing decision-making and compressing traditional checks. Non-statutory requirements can be waived, authorizations expedited, and contracting or testing bottlenecks bypassed."

"Nukes do not merely exist in a post-apocalyptic world — they are driving past kids biking on interstate services roads to get out of doing school work. Barring change, they will soon be driving past many more."

"Worse for the Klansmen than the meager turnout, a much larger number of angry hecklers lined the streets and taunted them. … Tensions spiked, and fearing violence, the police forced the Klansmen to hide in a nearby basement until the crowds cleared out."

The United States government ships its nuclear materials, mostly on US interstates, in unmarked semi trucks. Every day, these nukes are riding along the highway right past people like you. inkstickmedia.com/every-day-nu...

The Al-Hol prison camp’s future had long been a sticking point in negotiations between Damascus and Abdi. Home to over 25,000 people, many of whom have been accused of being affiliated with ISIS, they have been stuck in a legal and social limbo for years.

"The United States has long been tempted to play good cop/bad cop with the world. President Trump is simply taking things to the next distinctly psychopathic level."

"As the situation in Syria further deteriorates, the Kurdish Red Crescent recently announced that five children had died in Kobani due to the cold, warning that 'the continuation of the siege poses a serious and direct danger to the lives of children, the sick, and the elderly.'"

Critical State: Hamas Rejects Unilateral Disarmament as ‘Board of Peace’ Convenes Read & Subscribe for Free: inkstick.substack.com/p/critical-s...

#nukesky Our latest @inkstickmedia.com updates from Utah and its nuclear weapons plants, which the government recently tried to claim were... secret. inkstick.substack.com/p/are-addres...

Despite an integration agreement, Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led SDF fighters have found themselves facing off in recent weeks as the country's future remains unclear. inkstickmedia.com/the-complica...

Tripoli is Lebanon’s medieval-era jewel by the sea. But decades of state neglect and poverty are coming to a head amid a deadly spate of collapsing buildings. inkstickmedia.com/lebanons-dea...

"Being Palestinian is already a sufficient cause for death. And when I became a journalist, I discovered that it could serve as an additional factor. We are treated as suspects despite there being no crime."

"Nuclear weapons are human creations and what is made by us can be dismantled by us. Whether that happens in time is, of course, the question that now should confront everyone, everywhere..."

"Like Roosevelt, Trump showed no regard for the principles of sovereignty in his intervention in Venezuela. Roosevelt didn’t think Filipinos were civilized enough for self-government and Trump, by insisting that Greenlanders must submit to US control, repeats the colonialist pattern."

The Latest at Inkstick Media: Pentagon AI Surge, Gaza Journalists Killed, Imperialism in Latin America, and More Read & Subscribe for Free: inkstick.substack.com/p/pentagon-a...

"Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the leaders of the seven other nuclear-armed states possess the unilateral capacity to destroy the world, a power no country should be allowed to wield. Yet even now, there is still time to avert catastrophe." inkstickmedia.com/after-new-st...

"The spring of 2024 saw the proliferation of pro-Palestine protest encampments at universities nationwide as the Biden administration continued to provide military and diplomatic assistance to Israel during the deadly war in Gaza."

"There are plenty of reasons to believe that what is emerging after these [UN peacekeeping] withdrawals — a patchwork of regional forces, state-backed contractors, and private security firms — may be worse."

A battle inside the Trump administration could decide just how grim Venezuela's fate will be.

"Global cop, then, would not seem to be a suitable aspiration for the likes of Donald Trump. Unlike Obama, he’s not interested in making sure that laws are observed and miscreants punished. Instead, Trump practically fawns over the miscreants..." By: @johnfeffer.bsky.social

The Pentagon is accelerating the use of artificial intelligence across all of its mission areas, touting it as a revolutionary component of the emerging US military posture.