A federal judge has ruled in favor of artificial intelligence company Anthropic in its legal battle against the Pentagon after the government labeled the company as a supply chain risk earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a written order Thursday night that the Pentagon acted illegally by punishing the AI company for its criticism of the Department of Defense’s views on AI use. The government is expected to fight the ruling. The dispute between the AI company and the government broke out in February when President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering…
Russia and Iran are advancing a $25 billion nuclear power program that would add several Russian-supported reactors to Iran’s electrical grid. Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said Wednesday that the countries had agreed on the investment framework and selected land near the Persian Gulf for a new nuclear facility, according to CNN, citing Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week. The announcement represents movement on an existing project, rather than an entirely new agreement signed Aug. 26. Iran and Russia originally formalized the $25 billion construction…
A generation that fought World War II is down to its last few thousand. With each passing year, the country loses another living connection to the men who crossed oceans to fight it. On Sunday, it lost the oldest of the Marines still among them. Roy Henry Drinkard died Aug. 23 in Cullman, Alabama, at 106. At the time of his death, he was recognized as the oldest living United States Marine, the last of a service and a generation that is fading from memory into history. By all accounts of those who knew him, he was never a man…
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The Washington, D.C. area is not only home to the federal government and the hundreds of thousands of government workers it employs, there’s a strong military and business community that is in many ways interdependent. That’s exactly what three D.C.-area entrepreneurs found as they took their military experience into an executive MBA-style program designed to help them grow and sustain small businesses. Their common thread, Clark Construction’s national Strategic Partnership Program (SPP), a no-cost business course created to help small, local, and disadvantaged subcontracting and construction firms build capacity and prepare for future growth. “Applying and being accepted into the…
Three Stars and Stripes journalists fired by the Pentagon last week have sued the Department of Defense, seeking to block their terminations. Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, Middle East reporter Lara Korte, and publisher Max Lederer filed the 45-page lawsuit Thursday in Washington. Among the defendants named were the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and two of the department’s public affairs officials, according to their now former employer. The suit asks the court to halt the terminations as unlawful, arguing they amounted to retaliation over unflattering coverage of a Navy deployment as part of a broader attempt to censor the press.…
You cannot simply run a munitions line faster. There is no switch to flip, no second shift that doubles the output overnight. Building missile propulsion takes specialized facilities. It involves chemists who spend careers learning their craft, and an area engineered to handle energetic materials without catastrophe. It takes years to stand up, and once it exists, it must keep running. That reality has collided with a country that has rarely needed more of these systems, at a moment when they remain among the most difficult things it makes. Stockpiles Drawn Down Since the conflict with Iran began on February…
Student op-eds are…interesting.These are younger people who haven’t really lived much of their lives yet, but who have strong opinions on a great many things. That’s fine, obviously, because they have that right. Yet, because many of them lack real-world living experience, their arguments on things like guns can be baffling. Especially when they end up defeating their own argument. That’s what happened with a student op-ed out of Virginia Commonwealth University. The author has an AR-15 and says he will keep it until the Second Amendment is repealed…and wants to see it repealed.I am…
A Navy sailor who jumped from the USS Abraham Lincoln this month is facing disciplinary action and could lose half his pay, according to charging documents and testimony from his wife. The latest news follows a series of reports in mid-August claiming that sailors aboard the 5,000-man USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been in combat with Iran for more than five months and has spent more than 250 days in a row without making land, have made multiple attempts to jump overboard and are experiencing other issues with their mental health. Naval families have also said there are safety concerns,…
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While the ATF has confirmed that it was the target of a “major” cyberattack by the ransomware group known as Qilin, details of the data breach are still under wraps, and it’s unclear what information may have been stolen or compromised. One of the concerns is that the details of potentially tens of millions of gun owners might have been accessed. The ATF has digital files of billions of documents from FFLs who have gone out of business, including the Form 4473s that were filled out by customers. If the hackers accessed that material, it…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack. The U.S. defense official said the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The NATO official confirmed the low inventories of Patriots among American and NATO forces in Europe. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military…
Stand Your Ground laws have been around for decades, and while they’ve been demonized almost daily since Trayvon Martin was killed for trying to aggressively merge George Zimmerman’s skull with a concrete sidewalk, they’ve got a pretty good track record. We don’t know how many lives it’s saved, but even before it was legislation, it was case law in many states. Basically, people aren’t required to run the moment someone tries to kill them. They can hold their ground and fight back, as God and nature intended.But a of critics of the law decided to…
A judge has suspended criminal charges against a former U.S. Marine who authorities arrested at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course earlier this month. Jeanine John Taele, 38, a veteran who toured both Iraq and Afghanistan, is claimed by authorities to have twice roamed the golf course grounds in August in advance of a Trump presidential visit. He is alleged to be wearing a radio earpiece and taking photos of Secret Service agents, along with being accused of possessing a round of ammunition and a gun in his vehicle. Police arrested Taele and charged him with possession of an…
For anyone trying to increase their self-reliance, learning to bake bread is often one of the first goals. Bread making isn’t difficult and it’s a great way to save money. It’s also a great survival skill. It doesn’t have to stop there, though. If you want to take this skill a step further, you should learn how to bake bread without a traditional kitchen oven. Whether your power is out, your oven is broken, you’re moving off the grid, you’re going camping, or you’re in a survival situation, being able to bake bread without relying on your oven is a…
A 74-year-old woman ended up in handcuffs after allegedly pointing an unloaded gun at several homeless individuals who were camped out in front of a vacant building she owns. While Anastasia Malavanso was eventually released without being charged, she questions why she was ever treated like a criminal, telling the Houston Chronicle that she has a right to protect her property. She does, and in some circumstances she could even use lethal force to protect that property. But Texas law doesn’t grant property owners the right to whip out a gun on anyone who steps…
The Army and the Department of Defense (DOD) have announced $2.2 billion in contracts for the construction of five nuclear energy vendors. Recipients of the combined $2.2 billion will construct and operate nuclear microreactors, which are reactors sized for specific needs rather than grid-scale power, to prove nuclear power in five locations for the army. President Donald Trump, in an executive order, set September 2028 as a deadline for the first operational reactor at a military installation. The contracts come as part of the Army’s Janus Program, which aims to deploy advanced nuclear microreactors for installation energy resilience. FILE -…
BEIRUT (AP) — Iran’s economy, already strained by high inflation, years of Western sanctions and a war that has sharply reduced oil revenue, is poised for more instability as the Trump administration tries to coerce other countries into ending all financial dealings with the Islamic Republic. A decision by the United Arab Emirates to suspend trade relations with Iran last week kick-started the White House’s latest attempt to isolate Tehran into submission. Iran entered the war with its foreign commerce concentrated among a relatively small group of countries, leaving it with fewer places to turn now. The success of the…
LoRa mesh devices are one of the simplest ways to communicate off-grid, whether you’re using Meshtastic, MeshCore, or another network type.I’ve been using Meshtastic devices for over a year now, testing a variety of them for distance, battery life, ease of use, and more.My main recommendation is the Moko Smart WisMesh Tag, which turns your existing smartphone into an off-grid mesh communication device.If you need a standalone device, the LilyGo T-Deck Plus in a specific build is tough to beat with its bevy of included features. I also suggest an excellent treetop solar repeater that extends mesh communication over massive…
Earlier this week a federal judge in Colorado heard oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the state’s 3-day waiting period on gun transfers, with the plaintiffs pointing to a recent decision by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled New Mexico’s 7-day waiting period unconstitutional. That Tenth Circuit decision was also cited in a new cert petition filed with the Supreme Court in a case dealing with Maine’s 3-day waiting period. Unlike the Tenth Circuit, the First Circuit upheld Maine’s law; not by citing any historical analogues, but by deciding that the Second Amendment…
