The Wire - February 4, 2026

//The Wire//2300Z February 4, 2026//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: FLESH EATING PARASITE CONCERNS GROWING IN AMERICAN SOUTHWEST. TRAVEL WARNINGS ISSUED FOR CUBA. ICE DRAWDOWN CONTINUES IN MINNEAPOLIS.//

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-International Events-

Cuba: Over the past few days travel alerts to the island have been issued by the US State Department, regarding Cuba's failing electrical grid. US Persons in Cuba are advised to be prepared for prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages, as infrastructure failures continue to increase in severity throughout the nation.

Middle East: This afternoon, conflicting reports emerged concerning Friday's scheduled negotiation meeting between the United States and Iran. Some reports state that the meeting has been canceled altogether, however SECSTATE Marco Rubio made statements at roughly the same time as these reports, which seemed to indicate the meetings were going ahead as planned. Later on this afternoon, the talks were back on, after a few powers throughout the region smoothed things over.

-HomeFront-

Minnesota: As per a press briefing this morning, ICE has begun the drawdown in Minneapolis. Tom Homan stated that 700x federal law enforcement personnel would be leaving the city, reducing the total posture by around 25%, with the overall goal of ending the surge as soon as possible. Otherwise, civil disruption operations continue to be carried out in the Twin Cities as before, with most activists continuing to harass and tail ICE convoys.

California: Sunday evening a Catholic school was broken into and vandalized in Long Beach. Holy Innocents Catholic School was burglarized and desecrated over the weekend, with much of the facility being destroyed. Yesterday the DoJ announced that a civil rights investigation will at some point be opened on this case, however no arrests have been made so far.

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Analyst Comments: Throughout the American southwest, concerns are growing regarding the spread of New World Screwworm (NWS), the infamous flesh-eating parasite that infects livestock. NWS was at one point eradicated in the United States, however after decades of neglecting management practices in Central and South America, NWS is back with a vengeance, and has been creeping northward for a few years. Yesterday, one case was detected in Florida after a horse from Argentina was attempted to be brought into the country carrying the parasite. A few days ago, Texas formally issued a disaster declaration concerning the spread of NWS, after local authorities detected several dozen more cases throughout northern Mexico.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
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