Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

On July 9, the Army announced it was consolidating official social media accounts in the interest of improving information access while reducing operational risk. Nearly a month later, some military families say the changes have made it harder to find information about child care, community programs and installation services.Army Directive 2026-17, Optimizing Digital Media, required many subordinate units and installation organizations, including Army Community Service, Morale, Welfare and Recreation, Child & Youth Services, military treatment facilities and other organizations to discontinue standalone Army social media accounts. Instead, those organizations are expected to communicate through higher-level command or installation accounts.When introducing…

The North Carolina National Guard settled a federal lawsuit with a former guardsman who alleged the service violated his First Amendment rights by blocking him on Facebook for criticizing its leadership.Under the settlement agreement, NCNG agreed to restore Timothy Stanhope’s access to its Facebook page and make reasonable efforts to unhide his comments.The agreement also requires the Guard to revise its Facebook moderation policy. It can no longer block users or remove, hide or filter comments simply because they are deemed “inappropriate.” However, comments will still be subject to Facebook’s community standards, and each side agreed to pay its own…

Key PointsErez Defense Solutions, based in Hod HaSharon, Israel, completed field experiments testing a capsule and launch mechanism for an aerial defense system.The company said testing focused on physical limits, operational feasibility, and basic reliability of the core system components.A small Israeli defense startup has put a mystery device through a brutal round of real-world stress testing, and the company is being unusually candid about exactly which parts still need work. Erez Defense Solutions, a company based in Hod HaSharon, a city in central Israel roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv, announced that it completed another round…

The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday published a report that uncovered more information about the individuals who worked for the Department of Government Efficiency. Still, the congressional watchdog’s findings were limited, including with respect to whether the DOGE employees completed required ethics training and paperwork, due to a lack of cooperation from agencies. Investigators determined that there were at least 206 employees who worked for the Trump administration’s cost-cutting entity that held positions in the Executive Office of the President, even if they were detailed to other agencies, between Jan. 20, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2026. That number excludes DOGE staffers…

If you lined up the world’s biggest active military forces by headcount, the gap at the top is striking. China has more than two million active personnel, while the other four countries each maintain forces of roughly 1.3–1.4 million. These numbers make the top five a particularly interesting group: some rely on huge population pools, others on conscription, and others on a globally deployed professional force.For this ranking, the key measurement is active military personnel, people considered to be serving in active status and available for military duties. Global Firepower’s 2026 data places China first with about 2,035,000 active personnel,…

BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing is heading back to Mississippi on October 23, with Bally’s Fightnight by BKB set for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi. The card is led by former BKB lightweight champion Jarod “Kid Gatti” Grant against Bekhzod “The Lion” Usmonov. Grant enters looking to rejoin the title race after Jon Barnard stopped him to take the lightweight belt at BKB 53 in April. Usmonov, a Tajikistan-born fighter who has competed in MMA and bare-knuckle boxing, gets a major chance to make his case in the BKB lightweight division. Grant’s listed BKB record for the matchup is…

The full main card for UFC 331 on September 19th, 2026 has finally been revealed and features the return of top ranked Arman Tsarukyan … against Mauricio Ruffy? For weeks multiple reports had Tsarukyan facing Charles Oliveira in a rematch of their hotly contested UFC 300 fight. Instead, “Akhalkalakets” will face the flashy Brazilian striker who most recently trounced Michael Chandler at the White House in June.While the match-up feels somewhat random, Ruffy is certainly taking it seriously. He sees it as an opportunity to jump from the bottom of the top 10 (No. 7 according to the Media Panel…

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become increasingly critical to national security and other high-stakes domains, the risk of model theft, manipulation, and misuse by sophisticated adversaries grows. In this report, the authors present a vertically integrated security strategy for secure inference data centers (SIDCs): purpose-built, Security Level 5 facilities designed to protect trained AI models against the most-advanced nation-state adversaries. The authors’ proposed SIDC architecture employs rigorous system partitioning, unidirectional data diodes, and formally verified cross-realm protocols to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of model weights, algorithms, and inference data. The report details a concept-to-circuit methodology, emphasizing minimal, purpose-built features…

The Philippine Air Force has now received all 32 S-70i helicopters that it ordered under its second contract for the platform. (Gordon Arthur)The final tranche of five Sikorsky S-70i Black Hawk helicopters reached Philippine shores on 3 August 2026, touching down at Clark Air Base aboard an Antonov Airlines An-124 transport aircraft.This delivery completed the Combat Utility Helicopter Phase 4 order for 32 helicopters that Manila placed on 28 December 2021, and which was valued at PHP31.8 billion (US$624 million).These final aircraft are expected to be inducted into the Philippine Air Force (PAF) in August, as well as two other…

Supercell confirms Guardians will become independent from the Town Hall starting with TH19.Alex explains how merged defenses and progression could evolve in future Town Hall updates.Annual Town Hall releases are still intact but long-term progression solutions are being explored. There’s always excitement when it comes to knowing about the next Town Hall levels in Supercell’s Clash of Clans. Town Hall 19 is definitely not as far away as it was when TH18 released, and as we inch closer to its debut, we get some new interesting details. In the latest and final episode of Judo Sloth Talks 2026, Game Designer…