Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Five years ago, the Chinese housing market crashed, leaving thousands of apartment buildings unfinished across the country. A generation of Chinese citizens who had bet all their savings on indefinite expansion suddenly found themselves homeless. Over time, however, some intrepid people moved into the ruins of these edifices, setting up tents on the concrete floors, using bed sheets as walls, cooking on makeshift stoves. The Chinese call these abandoned structures lanwei lou, a phrase that literally means “rotten-tail buildings,” signifying a project gone awry, a plan in suspension. The inhabitants of rotten-tail buildings repurpose the old and improvise to find…

Army officials plan to resume Apache training flights in days, after the fleet was grounded following a crash that left two soldiers dead in Texas, according to an internal memo reviewed by Defense One.The two soldiers, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Deontre T. Huey and Warrant Officer Seth L. Olmstead, died during a maintenance test flight out of Fort Hood on Aug. 12. On Friday, Army officials announced a stand down of AH64 Apache training flight operations and said in a news release it “will remain in effect until we have a better understanding of the root cause of the accident.” However,…

A rifle introduced in the 1970s still looks like it came from a science-fiction movie. That is part of what makes the Steyr AUG so distinctive. Its green polymer body, bullpup layout and integrated optic looked radically different when most military rifles followed far more conventional designs.But the AUG was more than an unusual-looking rifle.Austria adopted it as the StG 77 in 1977, replacing the 7.62×51mm StG 58 and moving to the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge. Steyr combined the new caliber with a compact bullpup configuration, polymer construction, integrated optics and an interchangeable barrel system. More than four decades later, the Steyr…

Islam Makhachev may be standing on top of the MMA world after breaking Anderson Silva’s consecutive UFC win streak record and notching a key title defense across a second UFC weight division, but things weren’t always this way for the Dagestan native, according to one of MMA’s most influential, patriarchal figures. This was revealed by way of an unearthed interview from December 2019, with the media outlet Ushatayka, in which Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov touched on the UFC’s issues with giving Islam Makhachev high-ranking opposition. Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov also mentioned that Khabib Nurmagomedov faced the same kind of systemic issues in the promotion…

The Navy’s newest Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier completed acceptance sea trials Saturday, inching the ship closer to its scheduled 2027 delivery.The USS John F. Kennedy successfully concluded the testing period on Saturday after departing from Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia on Wednesday, according to a release from the shipbuilder.“Our nation is depending on us to deliver these critical assets that will protect freedom around the world, and we’re proud to see CVN 79 take another step toward joining the fleet,” said Derek Murphy, NNS vice president of new construction aircraft carrier programs.The ship successfully completed builder’s sea trials…

Saildrone today announced a major expansion of its European footprint, with multiple new manufacturing locations and operation centers. The expansion includes the official opening of an EU headquarters in Copenhagen and three separate European build contracts in Norway, Poland, and the Netherlands. “We are proud to announce not one, but three large construction projects. The first 52-meter Saildrone Spectre will be built at Van Der Valk Shipyard in the Netherlands; the next generation of the Saildrone Surveyor will be produced at Umoe Mandal in Norway; and Southern Spars will produce Surveyor wings in Poland,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and…

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls and Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game both hit the big stage recently, and they have more plans to support their pro scenes moving forward too. Arc System Works revealed today Marvel Tokon’s details for joining the Arc World Tour 2026-2027 while Avatar is getting its own circuit. While Marvel will be joining Guilty Gear Strive at the Arc World Tour Finals next year, they’ll be handling…

The Defense Department has launched three pilot programs that promise to reduce harassment and discrimination complaint processing timelines and standardize how the department handles equal employment opportunity (EEO) programs. Anthony Tata, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, recently announced that the pilots will seek to cut EEO investigation timelines in half, centralize EEO operations across the department and expedite cases involving senior leaders. The pilot programs are part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s broader effort to overhaul military equal opportunity and civilian equal employment opportunity programs, which he claims have been “weaponized,” with some individuals using these…

The TWZ Newsletter Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy. Relief is on the way for the Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, who have endured grueling conditions amid round-the-clock operations without any liberty port calls since deploying last year in November. The George Washington CSG entered the Singapore Strait as the sun was rising on August 13, reportedly en route to the Middle East to replace the Lincoln, which will cross the nine-month deployed mark this week, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. “The USS Abraham…

Islam Makhachev is still the UFC welterweight champion, but it was one of the toughest fights of his career as he hung on to defeat Ian Machado Garry in the main event of UFC 330. Who does Makhachev face in his second title defense, and where does Garry go from his first championship opportunity?On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses what’s next for Makhachev following his record-setting win, if it’s Carlos Prates or Michael Morales, or somebody else, and what could be next for Garry? Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Mackenzie…