Source: Spaceflight Now
“SpaceX launched it’s 13th Super Heavy-Starship rocket Friday, with the giant booster chalking up an on-target but ‘hard’ splashdown off the Texas Gulf Coast while the Starship upper stage carried out a successful sub-orbital hop to the Indian Ocean. … It was the second test flight of a third-generation Super Heavy-Starship, building on lessons learned during the initial flight of a ‘V3’ rocket in May when the booster missed its landing target and the Starship suffered an early engine shutdown on the way to space. This time around, the booster appeared to perform as planned throughout its ascent …. But as the booster dropped toward the Gulf, only 10 of 13 engines restarted and at the moment of splashdown, only five appeared to be running. … the Starship deployed 20 third-generation Starlink internet satellites in a real-world test of the rocket’s Pez-like payload dispenser, releasing the satellites one at a time from a slot near the nose of the vehicle.” (07/25/26)
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/07/25/super-heavy-starship-rocket-chalks-up-mostly-successful-test-flight/
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“State ‘motor voter’ laws — especially those which, like New Jersey’s, automatically register people who interact with the license bureau to vote, only later allowing them to opt out — don’t just risk inaccuracies like those produced by this episode, they abandon a key element in any supposed democracy: Consent. When you beg the state of New Jersey for a driver’s license, government ID card, etc., the bureaucrat behind the counter doesn’t request your permission to add your name to yet another database and co-opt you as a ‘member of the electorate.’ It just happens without so much as a ‘by your leave.’ … If someone signed your name on a legal contract you didn’t agree to or a petition you didn’t agree with, you’d be angry — and you’d be right.” (07/26/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20773
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Lube up, because oil is going bye-bye.” (07/25/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-349-lube-up-because-oil-is
Source: The Hill
“Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke (D) was indicted on bribery charges on Friday following a monthslong state investigation into a campaign finance scandal. Luke was accused of accepting campaign finance contributions in 2022 while she was a state lawmaker in exchange for securing funding for COVID-19 testing sites. A Hawaii grand jury returned a 12-count indictment charging Luke with criminal conspiracy to commit bribery and falsifying candidate committee reports among other charges, according to the state’s Department of the Attorney General. … The charges stem from allegations that Luke accepted at least $35,000 in campaign contributions from businessman and lobbyist Tobi Solidum in exchange for support for testing sites operated by the National Kidney Foundation, where Solidum served as a lobbyist and consultant.” (07/25/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5990691-hawaii-sylvia-luke-indicted-bribery
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Hebert
“[I]n the span of a week, the White House effectively told Canada, our closest trading partner and ally, that America’s word means nothing and then told them that they are complicit in forced labor. … Then we set a penalty that just so happens to approximate the Section 122 tariffs that just expired. Foreign officials must now contend with an even clearer reality: not only is an agreement with the United States not worth the paper it’s printed on, but we will accuse you of horrendous practices if it means that an administration can re-impose tariffs.” (07/24/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/judges-can-void-a-tariff-they-cant-rebuild-our-reputation/
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Israeli [squatters] in the occupied West Bank set fire to two mosques early Sunday as well as scrawling buildings with graffiti that local Palestinian officials near Nablus said called for ‘revenge.’ ‘The mosque was in its final stage and was ready to receive worshippers. It had already been furnished with couches. They set it on fire and spray-painted Hebrew slogans on its walls,’ said Abdel Azim Wadi, head of the village council of Qusra outside Nablus. The Israeli military confirmed that graffiti and traces of arson were found when they inspected the area. … Separately, Palestinian authorities said Israeli [squatters] had sought to burn a mosque near Kour and attacked Palestinian laborers at a stone-cutting facility near Ramallah.” (07/26/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/israeli-settlers-torch-mosques-in-occupied-west-bank/a-78120749
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Regime change failed, of course. Worse: the mullahs’ regime hardened and gained confidence from successfully resisting the might of America’s war machine. The US watched helplessly as Iran instantly blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, and couldn’t prevent them from hitting the Gulf states, Israel, and Jordan with what seems like a robust supply of missiles. So we were almost instantly exposed, humiliated, checkmated. The MOU was a recognition of this, but it postponed all the hard stuff and was so vaguely drafted that it soon fell apart. The only clear result of the war is therefore Iran’s control of the strait and enhanced leverage over the gulf. So what now? Escalation to get out of this? That appears to be a live possibility. The president is now in ‘revenge mode,’ we’re told — which is, of course, an emotion, not a strategy.” (07/24/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/revenge-mode-as-strategy-a54
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said a deadly Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea ‘cannot go unanswered’, calling it a violation of the United Nations Charter. In a social media post on Sunday, Araghchi accused Israel of provoking the attack in an attempt to ‘drag Europe into its war’. … Ukraine said it had targeted a Russian warship and vessels used for transporting Iranian-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea. But the Foreign Ministry said Iran ‘has never intervened in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine’. Meanwhile, a senior Iranian lawmaker has warned Ukraine could face retaliation over the strike.” (07/27/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/27/iran-warns-ukraine-of-retaliation-after-deadly-caspian-sea-strike
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by James Bovard
“After Al Qaeda terrorists used Afghanistan for training bases for the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan and quickly routed the Taliban government. President George W. Bush boasted that U.S. troops brought freedom and democracy to Afghanistan. But rather than democracy, the United States brought Hamid Karzai, an oil pipeline lobbyist who was expected to slavishly follow U.S. orders.” (07/24/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/afghan-lessons-for-american-democracy/
Source: Reuters
“Russia considers it premature to comment on reports that the United States and Ukraine are discussing a possible halt to aerial attacks as part of efforts to end the war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. A Ukrainian source told Reuters that Ukrainian and U.S. officials had discussed a proposal for an air ceasefire to present to Russia as part of a new push to revive peace talks aimed at ending the conflict triggered by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The source said Ukraine had approached Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past with offers of a ceasefire, which had been turned down. However, some officials believe that pressure on Russia’s economy from ongoing Ukrainian drone and missile strikes may soften Putin’s stance.” (07/26/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-too-early-comment-reported-us-ukraine-air-ceasefire-talks-2026-07-26/
