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Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org The Pentagon is counting on Congress to navigate a legislative tightrope and pass a party-line bill to fund nearly a quarter of its $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, including billions of dollars for top priorities like Golden Dome, the F-35, munitions, and unmanned systems. Experts and lawmakers from across the political spectrum think the Defense Department is betting too big on that plan—and fear a future headache if it…

Carlos Prates delivered a third-round TKO over Jack Della Maddalena at UFC Fight Night Perth on May 2, 2026, in the main event at RAC Arena. The Brazilian striker landed leg kicks and elbows that forced a stoppage at 3:17, marking his second win over a former welterweight champion after Leon Edwards. Daniel Cormier, ex-double champion and longtime training partner of current titleholder Islam Makhachev, broke down the performance on his podcast. Cormier Crowns Prates’ Beatdown Over Makhachev’s Title Win Cormier pointed out how Prates made Della Maddalena look outmatched. I mean, it feels like it’s going to be Ian…

By Rikard Jozwiak May 04, 2026 The Armenian capital, Yerevan, will get a rare opportunity to be the center of global attention when dozens of world leaders — and the NATO chief — gather in the south Caucasus nation for two European-led summits beginning this week. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, will serve as hosts for more than 40 leaders and officials, mainly from EU countries, for the European Political Community (EPC) summit on May 4. The following day, EU chiefs will conduct a summit between the bloc and Armenia, a landlocked…

VMware users considering a new home might find it cheaper to move to an IBM mainframe than adopting Broadcom’s new licenses, according to Gartner Vice President Analyst Alessandro Galimberti. Speaking to The Register to discuss the analyst firm’s mid-April publication, “The State of the IBM Mainframe in 2026,” Galimberti said some buyers in many fields are comparing mainframes to modern environments and deciding Big Blue’s big iron comes out ahead. “I can build a multi-region cloud application, but things like data synchronization and high availability are things I need to build into application logic,” he said. “The mainframe has that…

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently addressed the issue of what happens after the Trump administration’s assault on America’s administrative state is over. The work needed to restore the country’s governing capacity, he argued, involves more than just putting the bureaucratic Humpty Dumpty back together again. The next president can’t “go around and just find all the little bits and pieces of everything that they smashed and tape it together and say: ‘Here you go. I give you the world as it looked in 2023,’” Buttigieg said. The Trump team is “destroying a lot of good, important things,” he added. “They’re destroying…

In his 2026 State of the Union address, U.S. President Donald Trump repeated a familiar refrain celebrating his role in ending the May 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan—the deal he has said he is most proud of. He declared that but for U.S. efforts to pull both sides back from the brink, the conflict “would have been a nuclear war.”Trump’s claims rankled New Delhi, which has long insisted that its disputes with Pakistan are purely bilateral and don’t require the mediation or intervention of outside powers. But the president had a point. The May 2025 crisis, in which the…

UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall believes he’ll be back to business soon. Aspinall hasn’t been inside the Octagon since he was double poked in the eyes back in Oct. 2025. Aspinall and Ciryl Gane collided in a title fight at UFC 321. Gane had early success before accidentally poking Aspinall in both eyes. The champion couldn’t continue, and the fight was ruled a no contest. Aspinall underwent eye surgeries and has been waiting to be cleared for contact. In a new vlog on his YouTube channel, Aspinall provided a positive update on his recovery (via MMAFighting). “We are just on…

Since February 2022 most countries, in Europe and not only, modified their defence stance which led to an increase in defence budgets. Notwithstanding initial criticisms, armoured vehicles reman key in land warfare, which led the Swedish company based in Örnsköldsvik to invest in new production space, new machines, new procedures and especially an increasing workforce Part of BAE systems since 2004, BAE Systems Hägglunds is based in Örnsköldsvik, some 450 km north of Stockholm, on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Botnia. Started in 1899 by Johan Hägglund as a furniture joinery, he was succeeded by his sons, the…

Ready Before the Call: LRMC Advances Trauma Readiness Through Simulation Training LANDSTUHL, Germany — At Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, preparation does not begin when patients arrive. It begins long before, in controlled environments designed to replicate the urgency, complexity and pressure of real-world medical emergencies. More than 250 clinical staff recently participated in progressive, high-fidelity simulation training events aimed at strengthening both clinical performance and operational readiness across the joint medical force. Developed by the Center for Nursing Science and Clinical Inquiry in collaboration with the European Medical Simulation Center, the training immersed teams in realistic scenarios that reflect the…

AIM Defence’s Fractl portable high-energy laser system is powerful enough to burn through steel, and it can track objects as small as a 10-cent piece travelling 100km/h one kilometre away. (AIM Defence)With drones now ubiquitous on the battlefield and demonstrating devastating impact in recent conflicts, Australia has announced increased investment in its military counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) capabilities.On 21 April, the Australian Department of Defence unveiled plans to invest up to A$7 billion (US$5 billion) in counter-drone capabilities for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) under the 2026 Integrated Investment Program (IIP). This more than doubles current funding.Unveiled on 17 April,…