Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

1) They are always working on improving themselves. Each training day brings new challenges for martial artists. Whether it’s learning a new technique or perfecting one, martial artists know that there is always room for improvement. Not only does this bring them closer to their goals, but it transfers into their daily lives as well. They just want to keep on getting better, at least 1% a day! 2) They are happy. There’s no doubt that martial arts are a great stress reliever. Where else can you kick pads, spar, or hang out with equally awesome people all day long?…

Six federal agencies failed to provide records needed to determine whether Department of Government Efficiency personnel appropriately accessed and protected government systems, leaving Congress and the public without assurances that sensitive information was secured, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday.The watchdog’s report details unanswered requests for system access records, user activity logs and evidence that DOGE personnel met security requirements. Some agencies explicitly refused further cooperation, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disputing GAO’s authority to conduct the review.Four agencies reported giving DOGE teams access to more than 23 systems collectively, including tools for…

Michael Lynch, deputy administrator for the General Services Administration, will be leaving his role and returning to the private sector, according to an email sent to staff Wednesday morning by GSA Administrator Ed Forst. “Mike has been a part of the Administration since January 20, 2025, and I want to thank him for his service to the agency and the American people,” Forst wrote in the email. “During this time, Mike has led initiatives to advance our strategic priorities, strengthen oversight of internal operations, and support effective delivery of our mission. Mike has also helped accelerate GSA’s efforts to increase technology adoption…

Kongsberg Gruppen (‘KONGSBERG’) has signed a contract with the Netherlands for the expansion of the country’s air defence programme CITADEL. The contract has a value of about NOK 1.5 billion and includes several NOMADS systems, high mobility short-range air defence, as well as increases to the NASAMS ground-based air defence system. The new deliveries will increase the overall capacity of the CITADEL programme, which KONGSBERG signed with the Netherlands in 2024. photo courtesy Kongsberg

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine needs a “new Manhattan Project,” former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told a standing-room-only crowd of self-proclaimed tech nerds on Saturday at IT Arena here, the country’s biggest annual technology conference.Then he played an AI-generated clip of what he meant: a robopunk mix of humanoid and crab-like ground robots skittering across a barren front line, doing work that is still too complicated for the robots Ukraine fields today.The video laid out Fedorov’s vision for an Army of Robots, a force of two-legged upright and other ground robots that would take over many of the front line’s most…

Europe’s artillery renaissance began with a shortage of shells. More than three years after European countries started pooling orders for 155mm ammunition, the debate has moved considerably further. Armies are rebuilding ammunition stocks, acquiring new rocket artillery systems and looking beyond the traditional artillery battlefield towards Deep Precision Strike. At the same time, the war in Ukraine has demonstrated that range and precision alone are not enough: weapons must also be available in sufficient numbers, ammunition has to be produced at scale and losses and expenditure must be replaceable. The shift can be traced back to the first year after…

Military doctrine gives officers a clear rule for manifestly unlawful orders: Refuse them. It offers no comparable rule when lawful action appears to threaten the constitutional structure the military serves. The first response is neither refusal nor resignation, but rather deliberative friction.Deliberative friction is the professional duty to raise a credible constitutional concern in a form that remains attributable and survives the decision to execute. The officer submits the concern in writing to the commander and copies an inspector general, while the authorized decision-maker retains control of execution. An individual officer will often see only a fragment of a larger…

Israeli company Smart Shooter has received an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract from the U.S. Department of Defense with a maximum order value of $150 million. The agreement covers SMASH fire-control systems that enable soldiers to use their standard rifles to engage small drones. Smart Shooter has been awarded a 36-month IDIQ contract by Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) of the U.S. Department of Defense. The contract provides for a maximum order value of up to $150 million. Under the agreement, Smart Shooter is the sole supplier of the SMASH fire-control systems covered by the contract, as well as training and…

In January, this article series opened with a blunt question: Economic statecraft is back, but is America ready?Driving the question, in part, was the fact that the United States had not yet articulated (at least overtly) a strategy for economic statecraft. This was despite widening recognition that nations were increasingly using economic tools like tariffs and sanctions to pursue strategic objectives. U.S. awareness was particularly elevated by the realization during COVID-19 that decades of Chinese market manipulation, predatory trade behaviors, and security vulnerabilities deployed against its markets had gone unanswered.On the eve of the nation’s 250th anniversary, Treasury Secretary Scott…

UFC bantamweight Raoni Barcelos was discharged from the hospital Tuesday night, three days after a scary incident in his UFC Vegas 121 main event bout with Raul Rosas Jr. at the Meta APEX.Barcelos posted a picture on social media at around 9 p.m. local time, standing in front of the hospital alongside his wife and son.“Discharged and with my family,” Barcelos wrote in Portuguese. “I want to thank everyone for the love, prayers and positive vibrations. God is our victory.”The 39-year-old fighter and the UFC have yet to confirm what led to him going unconscious in the fifth round of…