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Russia/China rev nukes as U.S. fiddles; Trump vows vs Project 2025; Mars biosignature tease; Uber Eats’ drone side hustle; UK to return second migrant to France
Russia and China rev the nukes, the U.S. swaps the spark plugs
Russia has modernized over 90 percent of its strategic forces, trading single-warhead ICBMs for MIRVed Yars and moving toward Sarmat, with potential upload capacity estimated around 4,200 to 4,800 strategic warheads once fully loaded. Bomber upgrades lag under sanctions, but the missile legs are the headliners. China is sprinting too, rapidly expanding DF-31 and DF-41 fields, rolling out the DF-61, growing Jin-class SSBNs with Type 096s in the queue, and preparing the H-20 bomber, for a potential upload near 4,800 by some assessments that outstrip public U.S. estimates. The United States is on a calorie-counted modernization, Sentinel for Minuteman III, Columbia for Ohio, B-21 as B-1 and B-2 retire, largely one-for-one with no increase in deployed warheads. Even fully uploaded, roughly 3,000 strategic and about 200 theater weapons. So yes, there is a race. The open question is whether Washington joins it, paces it, or keeps hoping the referees call it a tie.
Where Trump’s campaign promises stand, with a Project 2025 overlay
AllSides is maintaining a running scorecard on President Donald Trump’s 2024 pledges as of September 17, 2025, tracking what has been delivered, what is stalled in the legislative grinder, and what remains a someday special. The tracker also maps the agenda against the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to show where White House priorities overlap that conservative blueprint and where they do not. Accountability, now with footnotes.
Perseverance spots Mars rocks with the strongest potential biosignature yet
NASA scientists report compelling evidence of ancient life on Mars after the Perseverance rover found leopard spot textures in clay and silt rich sedimentary rocks at the Bright Angel outcrop near the Neretva Vallis river valley. The rocks are packed with organic carbon, sulfur, oxidized iron, and phosphorus, a chemistry that on Earth preserves and powers microbial life. After a year of review, researchers say they cannot find a better non-biological explanation and call it the clearest sign yet, while still labeling it a potential biosignature pending further confirmation. More than 1,000 scientists and engineers contributed, mindful of earlier Mars maybes like Viking in 1976 and the inconclusive 1996 meteorite claim. If it holds, it would be the first verified life beyond Earth and proof Mars was once hospitable long before it became the solar system’s most photogenic desert.
Uber Eats tests drone delivery with Flytrex, because gravity needed a side hustle
Uber Eats will pilot drone delivery with UAV operator Flytrex, aiming to drop meals to select U.S. households in minutes. If the lift-off works, expect suburban skies to buzz as salads with commitment issues seek safe landing zones. Convenience, now with propellers and plausible deniability for cold fries.
UK to return second migrant to France after court challenge fails
An Eritrean man will be flown back to France early Friday under the government’s one in, one out arrangement, after his legal challenge failed. The policy approach remains nightclub bouncer arithmetic, people treated as headcount while ministers practice their stern faces for the cameras.
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