RECAP

2026 Half Wrapped

In January, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise overnight raid (see his journey); the USDA and HHS unveiled a new upside-down food pyramid (see it here); and Indiana won its first-ever College Football National Championship. The U.S. (sort of?) pursued an acquisition of Greenland; Winter Storm Fern left more than 100 dead and over a million Americans powerless. ICE operations intensified in Minneapolis, where agents fatally shot U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in separate shootings, prompting nationwide protests. The Justice Department released ~3M pages of Epstein files, prompting a wave of resignations and the arrest of (former Prince) Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

In February, Nancy Guthrie, the mom of Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie, was abducted from her home. TPO used up all of our cold-weather sports puns as the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics opened and closed (see Team USA’s results), and the Seattle Seahawks got their talons on their second Super Bowl win. Mexico saw a wave of violence after its most-wanted cartel boss, “El Mencho,” was killed; and the U.S. and Israel began “major combat operations” in Iran.

In March, the 2026 election season kicked off with primaries in Texas, North Carolina, and Arkansas. Iran named a new Supreme Leader in Mojtaba Khamenei, and the U.S.-Israel-Iran war spilled across the Middle East, prompting an oil price rollercoaster. Two pilots were killed in LaGuardia Airport’s first fatal plane crash since 1992. The 2026 Paralympic Winter Games opened and closed in Italy (see Team USA’s top moments); and the Giants hosted the Yankees at Oracle Park to open the 2026 MLB season in the first MLB game to air on Netflix.

In April, the Artemis II mission sent four astronauts on a nine-and-a-half-day trip around the moon (watch splash down); a lone gunman rushed the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, firing shots at the security checkpoint of the Washington Hilton hotel; and average U.S. gas prices reached their highest point since August 2022, as the Iran War passed its one-month mark. Bitcoin’s mysterious inventor was (maybe?) finally named; King Charles and Queen Camilla made the first state visit by a British monarch since 2007 (see the state dinner); and Michigan and UCLA were crowned the kings and queens of college basketball as March (and April?) Madness ended.

In May, the Supremes issued rulings on redistricting efforts ahead of the midterm elections; Spirit Airlines announced it’d been grounded for good; and an outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship grew to 11 cases (three fatal). U.S. and Nigerian forces took out “the most active terrorist in the world”; and conditions at a New Jersey ICE facility sparked hunger strikes inside and protests outside. The Pentagon beamed down decades of UFO sightings (see the files); and President Trump declared the U.S.-Iran war was over as peace-deal negotiations continued.

And in June, the U.S. and Iran announced a “memorandum of understanding” for a peace deal, though some fighting has continued; voters in over a dozen states voted in the primaries; Canada announced legislation to ban kids under 16 from social media; and Britain’s Prime Minister Starmer announced his Brexit from office. Two powerful earthquakes struck northern Venezuela less than a minute apart, killing at least 1,700 people. SpaceX made its long-awaited Wall Street blastoff; the New York Knickerbockers became NBA Champs for the first time in 53 years (see pics from the ticker tape parade); and the World Cup entered regulation time across North America (bracket here).

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ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Someday soon, no one will be talking about the goings on of the Oval Office, who won that sporting event, or where in the universe humans have gone. What will matter eternally are the prayers we’ve lifted up in faith, the forgiveness we’ve extended to our brothers, and the times we’ve boldly proclaimed the gospel.

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Colossians 3:2-4 (CSB) (read full passage)

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