With gas prices now averaging $4.46 a gallon nationwide, the fallout from the conflict with Iran hits closer to home than many expected. The fighting that began in late February has kept oil tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz, sending crude above $105 a barrel and driving up costs at the pump by nearly…
In the months since the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran, questions have lingered about the intelligence that shaped those choices. A former director of the National Counterterrorism Center has now added a pointed perspective. Joe Kent, who held the post until his resignation earlier this year, says the full spectrum of…
You’ve seen it before: heated political talk crosses a line, and suddenly the feds step in. That’s exactly what happened with Jacob Buckley, a 23-year-old from Pennsylvania. In mid-January 2025, right as Donald Trump prepared to return to the White House, Buckley posted comments on TikTok that caught the attention of law enforcement. The case…
In cases like this one out of Scotland, the line between a routine police check and a major firearms bust can blur fast. Robert Weir, a 56-year-old man, kept a collection of weapons hidden away in plain sight at a marina storage unit. His actions led to a sentence of seven years and six months…
Costa Rica stands as a leader in protecting its natural world, home to an outsized share of global species in a compact territory. You wander its trails and notice how the air hums with activity from monkeys overhead to frogs calling at dusk. The country’s long-standing prohibition on recreational hunting, first enacted in 2012 and…
You know how bald eagles represent the nation itself, their image stamped on currency and flags. Golden eagles carry their own power in the skies over the West. Yet one Washington man decided those symbols meant dollar signs instead. Travis John Branson pleaded guilty to federal charges after admitting he killed protected birds and sold…
When you follow the surge in artificial intelligence infrastructure, certain projects stand out for the questions they raise about progress and place. The Stratos Project in Box Elder County, Utah, is one of them. Planned on 40,000 acres of ranchland and open space north of the Great Salt Lake, the campus would house a 9-gigawatt…
Bobby Brandon Galvan, a 30-year-old from Dale in Caldwell County, just heard a federal jury in Del Rio tell him he is guilty on two counts of firearms trafficking. The case pulls back the curtain on how ordinary purchases in Texas gun shops can end up arming cartel fighters in Mexico. You see these stories…
The White House went into lockdown on May 4 after Secret Service agents confronted an armed person nearby on the National Mall. Official accounts describe a fast-moving exchange of gunfire that prompted the precaution, even though the building itself faced no direct threat. You see these protocols kick in whenever something looks off in the…
Russia has laid out a clear shift in how it deals with Afghanistan. On May 14, Sergei Shoigu, secretary of the Russian Security Council, spoke at a gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan. He described the relationship with Kabul as a full-fledged partnership that now covers political contacts, security matters, trade, and cultural…