Which is why companies and countries are investing trillions into this process. If one side is able to achieve this capability before another, then it will give them some sort of insurmountable advantage. This is being touted as mankind’s last weapon. It’s basically an existential race to build the ultimate weapon. And thus, most of the geopolitical moves in 2026 are going to center around energy and AI dominance. Think about the many ways that AI could be weaponized. Whether it’s in the realm of cyber, financial, or actually kinetic warfare like the use of nuclear weapons, this type of technology poses an extreme national security risk to all nations involved.

And this is why my predictions for 2026 revolve around this eventuality. In February of 2026, the New START Treaty will no longer be in effect. This is an arms control agreement between the Russians and the Americans. It not only regulated the size of each country’s nuclear arsenal, but also restricted how many of these weapons could be deployed. As soon as this treaty expires, we should presume that the Russians and the U.S. will potentially move to upload more of their reserve warheads onto existing missile platforms. This also means that both countries will now begin to proliferate more nuclear weapons.

Both Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth of the Department of War have said in 2025 that they are going to recommence nuclear weapons testing. The Russians have said that they will follow in suit if this takes place. Both countries, including the Chinese, have prepared the testing grounds as has been confirmed by satellite data. The end of the New START Treaty will very likely put both countries on a higher state of nuclear readiness. In America, this means that the DEFCON level will very likely be lowered. We will effectively be at Cold War levels of strategic tension, only this time there’s a hot war raging in Europe.

Russia also updated its nuclear doctrine in 2025 that explicitly stated that an attack even by a non-nuclear state that is supported by nuclear states could be considered an existential strategic threat and could elicit a nuclear response from the Russians. The current consensus, even amongst Western analysts, is that the Russians are advancing along the entire front lines. This may compel Kiev and NATO to strike more critical targets deep inside Russia or, as we’ve seen in recent days, attacks on Russia’s shadow fleet in the Black Sea and abroad. Belarus just also recently activated its original intermediate-range nuclear-capable missile system.

And with drone incursions into both Turkish and Polish airspaces in recent days, the war is now testing Europe’s broader boundaries. Ukraine has now secured funding for the war through 2027 from the EU, who’s now allocated $90 billion of their own money to the war effort. However, there has been an indefinite freeze on Russian assets held by NATO countries, and the mechanism that they’re likely going to use to get this money into Ukrainian hands is through a quote-unquote reparations loan, where they don’t actually confiscate or outright seize the assets, but they create loans on the basis of these existing assets.

Essentially, issuing Ukraine a $175 billion loan that will be paid back exclusively using the interest and profits generated by those Russian assets. This technically absolves Europe of any legal recourse and potential economic fallout for other countries who have assets inside Europe, like China. However, it’s very likely that trust will be diminished, as this indefinite freeze essentially means Russia will never see those assets again. A more major geopolitical flashpoint is likely to be in the Indo-Pacific, and specifically the South China Sea. On December 18th, the US finalized a deal to send $11 billion worth of armaments to Taiwan.

This historic arms sale has enraged the Chinese, and now they’ve pledged to step up invasion drills. Most military war games often cite 2026 and 2027 as the peak danger window for a Chinese blockade of Taiwan. And despite the Trump administration recently relaxing chip restrictions to China, this only applies to the less sophisticated chips, not the most advanced chips. And while China is bringing some of its own high-level domestic production online, the Taiwanese chips are still far superior in terms of quality. They produce 92% of the world’s most advanced chips. The problem is, the United States produces 0%.

So if the Chinese were able to acquire Taiwan, that would give them an extreme disadvantage in the artificial intelligence race. This is why, at the time of making this video, the majority of US naval deployments are in and around the Indo-Pacific. We have three aircraft carrier strike groups currently in the region, the George Washington, the USS Abraham Lincoln, and the USS Tripoli. And because it’s estimated that it will take the United States decades in order to achieve chip manufacturing independence, this means that the next few years are critical. Even with the Biden-era chips act that was put into play, it’s likely that the US will only be producing 20% of the world’s leading-edge chips by 2030.

This is nowhere near enough to replace Taiwan, so from the US point of view, it must be secured at all costs. Without Taiwan, the US will barely have enough chips by 2030 to uphold military and critical infrastructure. With this recent historic commitment of $11 billion in weapons, China is incentivized to make a move now before Taiwan can employ this porcupine defensive strategy. And in addition, US activity elsewhere will likely affect China’s decision as to whether or not they go to war. If the US continues to sideline Chinese interests in South America, Russia, and the Middle East, it’s very likely they will have no choice but to make their move.

However, in the Indo-Pacific, it’s not only tensions with Taiwan that’s at play. The newly elected Japanese Prime Minister, Sennai Takayichi, is taking a far more hawkish tone with the Chinese, not only committing to drastic increases in military spending, but also floating the possibility of developing their own nuclear weapons program, or playing host to American nuclear weapons. This has been echoed by senior security policy officials, as well as the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Minoru Kehira. Chinese officials have stated that Japanese rearmament is a national security risk, and that the Chinese will not allow this to happen. Recently, there were images that were leaked of potential war games by Chinese military planners that show potential targets inside Japan, which include critical infrastructure and even nuclear facilities.

So between the AI arms race in Taiwan’s fabs which are integral to that process, the enmity with the Chinese, and the fact that you have the largest naval presence of US forces in the region, despite all the political niceties, this has the potential to be a major geopolitical flashpoint in 2026. If a war with China and Taiwan breaks out, all trade that transits the Taiwan Strait will likely be impeded. This will have economic repercussions around the entire world. What that translates into for you is that you’re going to go to the store, and those products that you’re accustomed to seeing on the shelves might not be there.

Or if they are there, they’re going to be at much higher prices. Some of those items that transit the Taiwan Strait are things like medications. If you have any chronic ailments that require medications, or you wanted to get yourself an emergency medication supply that requires a prescription, you can do so through JACE Medical. It’s a streamlined process that allows you to get things like antibiotics that are going to be essential for a post disaster world, as well as hundreds of other chronic medications. The process is very simple. It literally takes five minutes. They’ll set you up with a consultation with a real live physician who will assess your circumstances and get you a prescription for real medication.

If there is some sort of blockade of Taiwan, it’s drastically going to limit access to this type of medication, or it’s going to significantly impact the prices. In addition to that, it’s very likely that the blockade that the Trump administration has recently imposed on Venezuela is only going to work to further destabilize the relationship between the United States and China. 2026 is forecast to be the fourth consecutive year with global average temperatures 1.4 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. And what makes it worse is that we’re currently in the process of transitioning from the La Niña to the El Niño oscillation.

La Niña is associated with cooler temperatures, El Niño with warmer temperatures. What that means is, even though the last two years were spent in La Niña, we still had record high temperatures. This means that temperatures in 2026 are likely to be even higher. In our current globalized world, we can manage one drought in a major grain producing country. But if we happen to simultaneously have a drought in South America and the U.S. Grain Belt, and even Russia all at once, this could put a lot of stress on the global food supply, causing a global calorie deficit and spiking food prices.

And when food prices spike, civil unrest follows. The only saving grace at this point in time is the relatively low oil prices. But that’s likely going to change moving forward due to a flare-up on hostilities with Venezuela and attacks on the Russian and Iranian shadow oil tanker fleets. In addition to these weather anomalies, the solar cycle 25 is going to be peaking in 2026. This means that the potential for a Carrington level solar flare event remains a distinct possibility. This could create an electromagnetic disturbance that puts the entire power grid at risk, in addition to satellites and global telecommunications.

As people become more financially strained around the world, the risk of civil unrest increases. And because we’re entering an election year in 2026 in the United States, the risk of this divide widening in 2026 is very, very high. People are increasingly more tribalistically polarized along multiple lines, whether they be political, economic, religious, racial, or ideological. This is only going to intensify as we move into the 2026 election season. This threat is going to be amplified by artificial intelligence. We are moving from an age of generative AI to agentic AI. This is AI that can actually take actions, not just write you texts.

The real threat here is a crisis of trust. Identity is going to be the new attack surface in 2026. By mid 2026, it’s expected that deepfakes will be so sophisticated that they’ll be able to bypass the standard biometric verification that’s used by banks and governments. This means that you might see a major collapse of a financial institution or even a social platform, not because of some cyber attack, but because users are no longer able to distinguish between real news and fake news. This could potentially lead to panic selling and bank runs. And of course, this will also be weaponized in the domestic and geopolitical spheres.

And lastly, the financial markets are teetering on a razor’s edge. At the time of making this video, the market is as overvalued as it was during the dot com bubble. This is determined using the Schiller Cape ratio, which is an aggregate assessment of how overvalued the market is. Warren Buffett, widely revered as one of the greatest investors of all time, has been anticipating this crash for several years. And his company, Berkshire Hathaway, is sitting on the most amount of U.S. treasuries that they’ve ever held. And his company is sitting on a record amount of U.S. treasuries, capital waiting to be deployed when this crash hits.

The best case scenario, according to J.P. Morgan, is a 35 percent chance of a recession in 2026. This may not be triggered by a sudden crash, but rather the slow bleed of stagflation. Central banks may be put in a position where they’re forced to choose between fighting inflation, that is, keeping rates high, crushing real estate, or saving the bond market, that is, printing more money, which of course will spike inflation. It’s expected that the next Fed chair that will be nominated by Donald Trump in 2026 will likely be far more dovish and more willing to lower interest rates.

This very likely will contribute to higher inflation. This is why many economic analysts anticipate that the price of gold is only going to increase throughout 2026, with some estimates as high as $6,000 an ounce. And because of several years with industrial demand shortfalls with silver, and its utility for AI, energy, and war mobilization, many expect that the price of silver will also increase. But that’s not financial advice. 2026 is shaping up to be the year of polycrisis, a concatenation of unfortunate events that’s going to make life far more challenging for most people on the planet.

For that reason, the most prudent thing that you can do is continue with the preparedness, momentum you’ve already established. Financial responsibility, learning new skills, quitting bad habits, building healthy relationships, and of course, focusing on your physical health. That’s going to put you in the best possible position to ride out what may come. Thanks for watching, and if you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe. CanadianPrepper out. Use discount code preppinggear for 10% off. Don’t forget the strong survive, but the prepared thrive. Stay safe. [tr:trw].

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