Cartel leader killed and it set Mexico on fire. Also: US troops finally leave Syria, Iowa fights for raw milk freedom, Google wants developer's IDs, and Connecticut targets homeschoolers
February 23, 2026
1. Mexican gov. Killed El Mencho. His Cartel Burned Half the Country in Response.
Mexican security forces killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), on Sunday in the Sierra Madre mountains. He was 59, Mexico’s most wanted man for a decade, with a $15 million US bounty. At least six associates and seven National Guard members died in the operation.
Then things got bad.
Within hours, the cartel launched military-style retaliation across eight Mexican states. Gunmen torched petrol stations, banks, and stores. They set buses ablaze to blockade highways. In Guadalajara, a 2026 World Cup host city, airport passengers sprinted for cover. In Puerto Vallarta, smoke billowed as prisoners rioted, killing a jail guard. US and Canadian airlines cancelled dozens of flights.
Former Mexican security official Eduardo Guerrero called it “undoubtedly the most important blow dealt to drug trafficking in Mexico since drug trafficking existed in Mexico.”
Sure. And now there’s a power vacuum in one of the world’s largest criminal enterprises. History is clear on what happens next. The Sinaloa Cartel splintered after El Chapo. The Zetas got worse after every leadership “decapitation.” Nobody who has followed Mexico’s drug war thinks this story ends with “and then the drugs stopped.”
The question isn’t whether El Mencho deserved it. It’s whether tourists trapped in Puerto Vallarta, watching buildings burn from their hotel windows, feel like this is victory.
Sources: Guardian, NYT, NYT, Al Jazeera, BBC
2. America’s Decade-Long Syrian Adventure Finally Ends
US forces began pulling out of their largest remaining base in northeastern Syria on Monday. Dozens of trucks loaded with armored vehicles were filmed heading toward the Iraqi Kurdistan border. Reuters, the WSJ, and Syrian military sources confirmed the withdrawal, expected to take about a month.
This follows the US abandoning al-Tanf on February 12 and Shaddadi shortly after. All roughly 1,000 remaining American troops are leaving. The Pentagon said it “will not discuss future force posture or troop numbers to protect operational security.” Translation: yes, we’re leaving, but we’d like to pretend that’s still a secret.
Syria’s new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa agreed to take “primary responsibility” for fighting ISIS. The Kurdish-led SDF has been absorbed into the Syrian government after a US-brokered ceasefire deal in January, handing over Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, all border crossings, oil fields, and prisoner-of-war camps.
Consider the Iran backdrop. Polymarket bettors price a US strike on Iran at 19% by February 28, rising to 59% by March 31, in a market with $373 million in volume. The US is pulling troops out of Syria while running carrier groups toward Iran. Whether that’s strategic repositioning or coincidence depends on how much credit you give the Pentagon.
American soldiers are coming home from a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map, after a decade-long mission against an enemy the government’s own intervention helped create. Better late than never.
Sources: Reuters, Reuters (Feb 18), AP News
3. Iowa Wants to Let Farmers Sell You Milk and Food. Health Inspectors Are Losing Their Minds.
A bill advancing through the Iowa House would let farmers sell raw milk at on-farm stores, put cottage foods in grocery stores, and host farm-to-table dinners under a $100 annual event permit. The state’s health inspectors are treating this like a public safety emergency.
House File 2444, introduced by Rep. Chad Ingels, R-Randalia, passed out of a House subcommittee on February 19. The Iowa Environmental Health Association showed up to oppose it. Their representative said the association has “great concern with many issues” and is “generally opposed to any raw milk legislation.”
Read that again. Not “we found a specific problem.” Not “there’s been an outbreak.” They’re “generally opposed” to you buying milk that hasn’t been processed through an industrial facility. The objection isn’t safety. It’s principle: you can’t be trusted to decide what goes in your own body.
Rep. Shannon Latham, R-Sheffield, pointed out the absurdity: Iowa stores can sell processed goods shipped from other states, but can’t stock locally produced cottage foods. Your grocery store can sell factory cookies from New Jersey, but not your neighbor’s homemade salsa.
In Michigan, a similar bill package (HB 5217) would legalize direct raw milk sales statewide. Around 20 states already allow some form of raw milk sales. The regulators’ argument is always the same: you’re too stupid to decide what food to put in your own body.
Sources: Iowa Capital Dispatch / KTIV, KCRG, Bridge Michigan, Iowa Legislature (HF 2444)
4. Google Wants Government ID Before You Can Install Apps on Your Own Phone
Starting September 2026 in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand, every app installed on a certified Android device must come from a Google-verified developer, with global rollout in 2027. Your phone, the one you paid for, will refuse to run software Google hasn’t approved.
This isn’t a Play Store policy change. It applies to all apps, including sideloaded ones. Google’s Android Developer Verification program requires every developer to pay a fee, provide government-issued identification, upload app signing keys, and register all package identifiers. The kill mechanism is already in Android’s API: try to install an app from an unregistered developer, and the phone blocks it.
F-Droid, the open-source app repository millions of privacy-conscious users depend on, has said this will kill the project. F-Droid builds apps from source and distributes them outside Google’s control. Under the new rules, it would need to register every app in its catalog through Google. That’s not compliance. That’s surrender.
The EFF’s analysis lays out the stakes: requiring government ID to publish software immediately excludes anyone for whom that ID is a liability. Activists under authoritarian regimes. Journalists. Whistleblowers. You don’t just inconvenience developers. You create a database of exactly who built every app, accessible to any government that asks Google nicely enough.
This is the app-store version of “papers, please.” Four countries by September, the rest of us by 2027.
Sources: FOSS Daily, Google Developer Verification, Ars Technica, EFF, Reddit r/degoogle
5. Connecticut Democrats Want to Regulate Homeschooling. They Won’t Say How or Why.
Last Wednesday, the co-chair of Connecticut’s Education Committee raised a concept bill titled “An Act Concerning the Provision of Equivalent Instruction in Connecticut.” When Republicans asked what it would do, she couldn’t say. The motion passed on a party-line vote. There is, as of today, no bill text.
Connecticut is one of 12 states with no homeschool regulation. That freedom is under attack because of two child abuse cases that had nothing to do with homeschooling and everything to do with a failed state agency.
In both cases, the Department of Children and Families had prior contact with the families and did nothing. DCF made years of visits to the Waterbury home before closing the file. Mimi’s estate filed a $100 million lawsuit against DCF.
Rep. Irene Haines, R-East Haddam, noted that just 50% of public school students in her district read at grade level. “When you start talking about equivalent instruction, what’s the benchmark?”
The pattern: a government agency fails, children die, and the legislature regulates the families who wanted nothing to do with the system. DCF had the cases. DCF had the contact. DCF closed the files. Now tens of thousands of Connecticut families quietly educating their children may pay for the state’s incompetence.
Sources: Hartford Courant, CT Mirror, CT Homeschool Parent Testimony