Benjamin Reed

Newly released video footage from Minneapolis has added new context to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, complicating earlier official accounts of the incident. Abroad, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has begun a high-profile visit to China as Western alliances show signs of strain and governments reassess diplomatic engagement. In markets, the U.S. dollar weakened further as investors reacted to mounting economic and political uncertainty, driving increased volatility across global currencies.

Alex Pretti was disarmed, on his knees, and incapacitated when federal agents shot him in the back. The story officials told afterward moved faster than the evidence ever did.

Federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, platform moderation decisions by Meta, and new casualty estimates from the war in Ukraine dominated developments overnight, as governments and institutions adjusted posture under growing scrutiny and pressure.

Federal enforcement leadership changes in Minnesota, renewed shutdown risk tied to DHS funding, internal upheaval in China’s military command, and updated Pentagon guidance on counter-drone operations defined the morning’s security landscape. Developments span domestic law enforcement, congressional budgeting, foreign military leadership, and homeland defense as agencies and governments adjust posture under sustained pressure.

A ceasefire in Gaza remains tied to unresolved recovery efforts, a federal shooting in Minneapolis has escalated into a national political confrontation, and the war in Ukraine is settling into a long-term condition rather than a decisive phase. None of the three shows signs of rapid resolution. Together, they reflect a security environment defined less by escalation than by endurance, with governments managing pressure rather than bringing conflicts to clean conclusions.

For two decades, the war in Afghanistan was fought as a coalition effort. NATO allies deployed to combat zones, took casualties, and shared the risks of a war that ultimately ended in failure.

Greenland matters, but how the United States pursues its interests matters more. Power exercised without restraint weakens alliances and erodes leadership.

The idea that Russia offers a return to tradition has gained traction among Western conservatives. Social data on family stability, violence, and despair tells a more troubling story.

A U.S. Army veteran reflects on hero worship, disappointment, and integrity inside modern warrior culture.

American power succeeds only when it enters a conflict with limits, legitimacy, and a political end state already within reach, and it fails when it tries to invent those conditions at gunpoint.

China did not need to fire a shot in Ukraine to come out ahead; it only had to wait while the West bled will and capacity and Russia slid, predictably, into Beijing’s pocket.

As Patagonia burns and Argentina reaches for an old, familiar villain, Israeli backpackers are being cast as arsonists on the strength of rumor, recycled myth, and the comforting lie that disaster always has a single foreign hand behind it.