Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Pentagon R&D spending would drop by about one-third under the White House’s 2027 defense-spending proposal—but the impact of that $4.5 billion reduction might be cushioned by the tech industry’s willingness to fund its own research.The proposed drop, which echoes a similar cut in the first Trump administration’s 2020 proposal, was outlined in Friday’s record-breaking $1.5 trillion defense-spending request. Basic research spending would fall $3.7 billion from this year’s appropriated amount. Most of that—$2.6 billion—would be borne by the Space Force, but reductions would also hit the Army ($173 million), Navy ($529 million), Air Force ($150 million), and the Defense Department-wide account…

President Trump on Friday proposed a $2.2 trillion fiscal 2027 budget, an overall increase on current spending that would include cutting non-defense agencies by 10%, or by $73 billion. The proposed reductions were far less severe than the 22% in non-defense spending that the White House suggested chopping in his fiscal 2026 blueprint after Congress largely ignored those suggestions, though most major agencies would still see their budgets reduced under the new submission. As Trump previously touted, defense spending in the new plan would spike by 44% to $1.5 trillion. A handful of other agencies would also see an increase compared to…

Iran Press TV Friday, 03 April 2026 12:24 AM By Press TV Website Staff Thirty-four days into the US-Israeli war on Iran, launched on February 28 with the assassination of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the military aggression continues to target civilian and industrial infrastructure across the country. US-Israeli airstrikes on Thursday hit a wide range of sites nationwide, including the B1 Bridge in Alborz, the Pasteur Institute, Kashan passenger airport, locations in Khuzestan, and a site outside Qom. Explosions were also reported in Tehran, Karaj, and Mashhad. Iran’s Red Crescent Society (ICRS) released its…

International Criminal Court (ICC) / Cour pénale internationale (CPI) Press Release: 2 April 2026 On 29 January 2026 the Presidency of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) has transmitted Pre-Trial Chamber I’s “Decision to refer Italy’s non-compliance with a request for cooperation to the Assembly of States Parties”, dated 26 January 2026, to the President of the Assembly of States Parties, thereby referring the matter to the Assembly of States Parties in accordance with regulation 109(4) of the Regulations of the Court. On 17 October 2025, Pre-Trial Chamber I issued a “Decision on Italy’s non-compliance with a request for cooperation,” in…

Jiri Prochazka could be the new UFC light heavyweight champion after next weekend, but that doesn’t mean “BJP” isn’t interested in a potential move to heavyweight. After all, his former rival, Alex Pereira, will be waiting with open arms.In case you forgot, Prochazka will face Carlos Ulberg at UFC 327 on April 11 to determine the next UFC light heavyweight king. That’s because Pereira vacated his 205-pound belt in order to move up heavyweight and land a spot on the upcoming UFC White House card in June. This, and only this, is the reason why Prochazka is fighting for another…

How many energy crises will it take before we stop betting our economies on a fragile oil market?The U.S. and Israeli war with Iran quickly morphed from a regional conflict into a global energy shock. Oil and gas markets have been volatile since the start of the war, with Brent crude oil prices rising 59 percent since Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. In the first half of 2025, about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas passed through the strait. Now, five weeks into the conflict, attacks…

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis would be absorbed into DHS headquarters under a consolidation plan proposed in President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget, setting up a potential showdown with Congress in the coming months over the office’s organization and authority.The new structure would shed some $53 million to combine the intelligence unit with the department’s Office of the Secretary and Executive Management, Management Directorate and Office of Situational Awareness into a single office reporting to the DHS secretary, the budget proposal says. It argues the restructuring of DHS HQ “would yield efficiencies and would enable…

UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey doubled down on her fiery remarks about her former promotion ahead of her MMA comeback. Ronda Rousey is weeks away from her first Mixed Martial Arts fight in ten years, as she prepares to face women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano in a Most Valuable Promotions headliner. This will mark Rousey’s first fight since back-to-back losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes in the UFC Octagon. Rousey’s legacy in Mixed Martial Arts is already set in stone ahead of the highly anticipated event. But Rousey’s relationship with her former promotion has become foggy in recent…

This is a developing story. One of two U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle crew members shot down by enemy fire in Iran has been rescued, Israeli media first reported. U.S. officials confirmed the reports in statements to CBS News, Axios and Reuters. A search for the second crew member is ongoing. A multi-aircraft search-and-rescue effort for survivors was launched on Friday in the immediate aftermath of the engagement, with videos circulating on social media appearing to show a low-flying U.S. Air Force HC-130 refueling a pair of HH-60G Pave Hawks over Iran.Israel’s N12 News first reported the rescue of the one…

In experimental and observational data settings, researchers often have limited knowledge of the reasons for missing outcomes. To address this uncertainty, we propose bounds on causal effects for missing outcomes, accommodating the scenario where missingness is an unobserved mixture of informative and non-informative components. Within this mixed missingness framework, we explore several assumptions to derive bounds on causal effects, including bounds expressed as a function of user-specified sensitivity parameters. We develop influence-function based estimators of these bounds to enable flexible, non-parametric, and machine learning based estimation, achieving root-n convergence rates and asymptotic normality under relatively mild conditions. We further consider…