Intro For the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 2001, more Americans say their sympathies lie with the Palestinians than with the Israelis. In Gallup’s February 2026 survey, 41% chose the Palestinians and 36% the Israelis a reversal from 54% to 31% in Israel’s favor just three years earlier, according to the Associated Press. Support for a...
October 23, 2026
More Wars, Fewer Brakes: Is the World Drifting Toward Something Bigger?
Many readers have the same sense right now: that the world is less stable than it has been in decades, and that the pressure is building rather than easing. The data supports part of that feeling. In June 2026, two widely cited sources on armed conflict, Uppsala University’s conflict database and the Institute for Economics & Peace, both reported that...
Voter ID on the Ballot in Seven States: The Record, the Turnout Evidence, and the Close Races
Voters in seven states are deciding voter identification measures in 2026, the most in any single year on record, according to Ballotpedia. Oklahoma approved its measure on Aug. 25. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio vote on Nov. 3. History favors passage. Of 13 statewide voter ID measures from 2004 through 2025, voters approved 10. The three that failed had...
From the Water to the Land: Where the U.S. Campaign Against Cartels Stands in October 2026
Thirteen months after the first U.S. missile hit a speedboat off Venezuela, Washington’s campaign against Latin American cartels is shifting from the sea to the shore. In the past week alone, the Treasury Department sanctioned a business network tied to Mexico’s Cartel del Noreste, and the Army sent soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York, to...
Cruel and Unusual? Christa Pike Survived Her Execution. Can Tennessee Try Again?
Quick Answer Can Tennessee try to execute Christa Pike again? Under current law, probably yes in principle. No court has ruled on her case. Intro Christa Gail Pike is back in a Tennessee prison cell, 10 days after the state tried and failed to execute her. Her death sentence has not changed. Pike, 50, was discharged from a Nashville hospital...
“End the Genocide,” Marchers Say. Gaza’s Ceasefire Death Rate Now Matches America’s Deadliest Cities.
On Oct. 10, several thousand marchers moved through central London carrying placards that read “End the genocide.” The director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign told AFP the march marked three years of what she described as an ongoing genocide in Gaza. The same day, a march in Berlin drew about 3,500 people, according to police, and smaller crowds marched in...
Most High School Seniors Aren’t Proficient in Math or Reading. Here’s Where the Jobs Are and What They Demand
Only 22% of American high school seniors performed at the proficient level in math in 2024, and only 35% did so in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal assessment known as the Nation’s Report Card. Put the other way, roughly 78% of 12th graders are not proficient in math and 65% are not proficient...
Kratom, Ketamine and the Campus Drug Gap
Introduction Two college stories have dominated campus news this fall, and both have been described as drug stories. They involve two different drugs. At the University of Mississippi, two students died on Sept. 21, 2026, in separate incidents. Kratom-derived pills were found at both scenes. Court records disclosed at an Oct. 9 federal hearing say toxicology found the same three...
Who Signed the Omar Warrant? The Court Record Doesn’t Back Either Side
Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, under a judicially authorized warrant. Within a day, a second fight broke out over who signed it. Conservative commentators have named U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh as the likely signer. Their argument: if a judge they describe as a Democrat approved the search, the evidence...
France Now Pays More to Borrow Than Greece. Here’s Why the Bond Market Flipped.
Intro Fourteen years ago, Greece was the country investors would not lend to. In March 2012, Greek 10-year bonds yielded close to 40%, and the country was effectively shut out of normal market borrowing. France, in the same month, raised 10-year money at under 3%. Today the order is reversed. In mid-September, Greece’s 10-year government bond closed at about 4.29%,...