Some quick X threads that I thought were interesting. This post is also an open thread. I welcome any readers to post comments or additional links related to national security or history issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
South China Sea – On October 26, 2025 at approximately 2:45 p.m. local time, a U.S. Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to the “Battle Cats” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 73 went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations
— U.S. Pacific Fleet (@USPacificFleet) October 26, 2025
Two aircraft went down on the same day. Everyone was rescued, but President Trump said it could have been bad fuel? Regardless, something to keep an eye on.
In today’s Congo War Security Review:
The Congolese government refused to sign the US-brokered peace agreement in a proposed head of state ceremony on October 23.
Members convened for the third meeting of the Joint Security Coordination Mechanism.
The Congolese army conducted… pic.twitter.com/KzvXoQa6VH
— Critical Threats (@criticalthreats) October 24, 2025
Africa. So much fighting. I am not sure if it’s the mountains, the heat, the lack of navigable waterways, or the disjointedness, but the conflicts are constant. Unfortunately, this is just another one.
⚠️ WATCH THIS (PART 1)⚠️
China’s claimed “Nature Reserve” at Scarborough Shoal threatens our seas and our future.
China calls it a “nature reserve.” But beneath the label lies the truth — a reef ringed by damage, coral turned to rubble, and Filipino fisherfolk pushed to the… pic.twitter.com/t7fhlWLTmk
— BRP Sierra Madre (@BRPSierraMadre) October 24, 2025
Every single story about the destruction in the West Philippine Sea needs to be shared. Welcome to the front line of Great Power Competition. On another note, as a country, China is the second highest country of origin for readers of this blog.
I came to Germany in 2016 to start my PhD. Germany then was a hotbed of scientific and engineering activity. And now in a span of 9 years I have had the incredible opportunity to witness a first world country on the cusp of becoming a great superpower systematically decimate… https://t.co/e11E0RHdI2
— Mayukh (@mayukh_panja) October 26, 2025
While this post does not look like Great Power Competition, it is great power production, and affordable power production is Great Power Competition. I don’t understand how the collective West has done this to ourselves. In my opinion, cheap energy should be a policy for all governments.
Beneath the brown water of a New England river sits a 40-ton sandstone mystery….etched long before a European map ever touched this coast.
Figures. Spirals. Hands.
Symbols no outsider could read.They called it Dighton Rock.
And it rewrites what “history” looks like. pic.twitter.com/nRrAtu9aCF— MoundLore (@MoundLore) October 25, 2025
Some cool history about our forgotten past.
🧵 1/ On this day in 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed, instantly linking the East and West coasts with a message from California Chief Justice Stephen Field to President Abraham Lincoln—shrinking America from weeks of Pony Express mail to seconds of… pic.twitter.com/R7hDLYqISM
— Manifest History (@ManifestHistory) October 24, 2025
Another cool history thread.