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Morning Brief: Vance Addresses Marines For Corps Birthday, US Repatriates Alleged Drug Traffickers, Durand Line Goes Quiet

From Red Beach where Marine Vice President JD Vance saluted a roaring 250th birthday, to Caribbean waters where a Navy strike sank a narco sub and sent its survivors home into a legal gray sea, to the Durand Line where guns fell quiet under Qatari and Turkish mediation, the week showed American power flexing while policy and peace try to keep pace. Welcome to Sunday, October 19, 2025. This is your SOFREP Morning Brief.

Evening Brief: Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Under Repair, Tenth Hostage Body Returned, Army Colonel is New President of Madagascar

In a week when a rare frontline truce let crews re-string Zaporizhzhia’s lifeline and Gaza’s fragile ceasefire yielded a tenth fallen hostage, Madagascar’s colonel-turned-president took the oath while the crowds that toppled Rajoelina wait to see if power, water, and promises finally show up. It’s Saturday, October 18th, 2025. This is your evening brief.

The Somali Refugee Camp Rape

I sat in the dust between a surging sea of angry Somalis and a jumpy Yemeni garrison, gambling that a seated man looks less like a threat and that luck would buy enough time to keep everyone breathing.

The Bolduc Brief: Targets for Retribution by Hamas

In Gaza’s shadow war, anti-Hamas clans aligned with the Palestinian Authority quietly gather intelligence, trade fire when necessary, and risk being branded traitors as they gamble that limited cooperation with Israel might carve out a sliver of stability for their families.