North America

The M250 is not the Army polishing an old idea, it is the Army admitting the fight moved out, got tougher, and demands a belt-fed demon that can reach out and make every burst count.

The Washington and California National Guards surged forces to manage flooding and mudslide threats as atmospheric rivers hit the West Coast during the holidays. In separate incidents, two officers were critically wounded in a North Carolina custody exchange shootout, and a Washington State Patrol trooper was assaulted and had her cruiser stolen during an I-5 stop before the suspect was captured.

In the thin, hard air of Fort Carson, two 10th Group Originals reminded everyone watching that heroism does not need an enemy, only a moment where a man chooses to risk everything so someone else gets to live.

After a deadly ambush near Palmyra, US forces hit more than 70 ISIS targets across central Syria in a heavy retaliation strike meant to keep ISIS cells from regrouping. Russia is pounding Odesa while massing forces near Pokrovsk, and back home a Bellevue officer-involved shooting is under review by King County’s independent investigators as both the officer and suspect recover.

Federal regulators are moving to let massive AI data centers connect closer to power plants, a fast-track grid shift that could bring reliability. Norway is also stocking the shelves with consequences, funding F-16 munitions and air-defense weapons for Ukraine while tightening security rules on Jan Mayen as the Arctic heats up.

The Senate’s vote is Congress doing its job the way the Constitution intended, putting sunlight on military force and drawing a hard line against any president who thinks war powers come with no questions asked.

Trump’s National Security Strategy reads like a needless pickaxe to America’s European alliances while offering a transactional “reset” with Russia that risks trading long-standing democratic commitments and regional stability for short-term political and economic convenience.

From Kabul evac fallout to a deadly ambush in Abyei and the mess of armed factions in Gaza, these stories all point to the same truth: rushed decisions and fragile ceasefires always get paid for by people standing post. Whether it’s Guard troops at home, peacekeepers abroad, or IDF units hunting bomb-makers, the work is still dirty, dangerous, and done without applause.

Floods in Washington, a brutal drone-and-missile strike in Ukraine, and a new UK intel superstructure all point to the same truth: when things go sideways, it’s the quiet professionals on watch, on shift, and on the ground who keep people alive. And on the Army National Guard’s 388th birthday, the message is simple: everyone loves the Guard the moment the mission gets real, because these citizen-soldiers show up, do the unsexy work, and hold the line.

Trump’s National Security Strategy isn’t isolationism, it’s a hard pivot toward a narrower, transactional worldview where borders and identity politics drive the threat picture, “Western civilization” becomes a tribal banner, and allies are left wondering if they’re partners or just the next line item to be renegotiated.

Base to Bellies treats the MRE like a piece of kit, proving that if you want harder, smarter warfighters, you start with the ground under their boots and the food in their rucks.

The M7 started life as the heavy new kid in the squad, but once soldiers had their say and engineers listened, it grew into a rifle worth carrying.