BBC.

Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.

About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising – something that requires sunlight.

Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater – H2O – into hydrogen and oxygen.

Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process – and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

Read it.

Watering and fertilizing crops to provide enough food for a changing world is a major challenge in agriculture. Now, scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a “smart soil” that can keep plants better hydrated and provide a controlled release of nutrients. In tests it drastically improved crop growth while using far less water.

It’s been estimated that around 70% of the world’s freshwater usage goes towards agriculture. That of course means that in areas where water is more scarce it can be hard to grow crops and feed populations, so scientists are investigating ways to boost efficiency.

Building on earlier work, the new study marks a good step in that direction. The soil gets its “smart” moniker thanks to the addition of a specially formulated hydrogel, which works to absorb more water vapor from the air overnight, then releasing it to the plants’ roots during the day. Incorporating calcium chloride into the hydrogel also provides a slow release of this vital nutrient.

Read it.

Scientists are leveraging quantum physics to develop new energy production methods, aiming to address the computing industry’s growing energy demands.

Researchers at MIT have devised a novel approach to observe the quantum Hall effect by mimicking it with superchilled sodium atoms, enabling deeper study of frictionless electron flow.

This breakthrough in understanding “edge-state” physics could lead to highly efficient electronic circuits and quantum computers, offering a solution for energy loss in data and energy transfer.

Read it.

Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, in 2018 privately admitted the likelihood of an association between the drug in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders, according to a report by the Daily Caller.

“The weight of the evidence is starting to feel heavy to me,” Rachel Weinstein, U.S. director of epidemiology for Janssen, the pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson, said in company documents obtained by the Daily Caller from the law firm Keller Postman LLC, which brought a class action lawsuit against Kenvue in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“We are talking with Rachel Ochs-Ross, the neurologist in CNS [Central Nervous System] today. Originally it was to talk about biologic plausibility for benefiting acetaminophen, but now we’ve added the studies in prenatal exposure and neurodev outcome.”

Read it.

The number of right-wing terror attacks in the U.S. plunged dramatically in the first half of 2025, while the amount of political violence from the left creeped up, a new study found.

The report on terrorism and political violence by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan research group, found that, through July 4, “2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumber those from the violent far right.”

The study noted there had been one right-wing terrorist incident this year — the June murder of Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband.

The report, written by the Washington think tank’s Daniel Byman and Riley McCabe, called that number “a remarkable drop off.”

Their analysis reviewed terror attacks and plots, which they defined as “the deliberate use or threat of premeditated violence by nonstate actors with the intent to achieve political goals by creating a broad psychological impact.”

Nick Norwitz.

“Ask yourself if you want to let scientists harvest your eyeballs for their next study.”

We now know why blue light at the wrong time of day is a bad thing.

Read it.

Bill Gates has thrown his weight – and his money – behind a Californian startup that believes it can make a rich, fatty spread akin to butter, using just carbon dioxide and hydrogen. And ‘butter’ is just the start, with milk, ice-cream, cheese, meat and tropical oils also in development.

The San Jose company, Savor, uses a thermochemical process to create its animal-like fat, which is free of the environmental footprint of both the dairy industry and plant-based alternatives.

They started with the fact that all fats are made of varying chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms,” Gates wrote in a blog post. “Then they set out to make those same carbon and hydrogen chains – without involving animals or plants. They ultimately developed a process that involves taking carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, heating them up, and oxidizing them to trigger the separation of fatty acids and then the formulation of fat.”

Many of us know the stats – according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), livestock are responsible for 14.5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, and animal-fat alternatives that use palm oil contribute to widespread deforestation and biodiversity loss – but also know how delicious dairy products are. So will Gates’ enthusiastic support be enough to get people excited about butter made from CO2?

(a) Can it scale?

(b) How much will it cost?

Read it.

There have been only a handful of ages of new materials in the history of humankind—ceramics, steel and plastics come to mind—and we are now on the cusp of the next one: composites.

When we talk of composites, we’re speaking about such things as the carbon-fiber ones in wind turbines, race cars and the Boeing 787. Such materials have the advantage of being far lighter than the metal parts they typically replace, while being just as strong, and requiring fewer resources to make.

Materials scientists have had limited success making composites affordable and accessible for decades, or possibly millennia—technically, they were invented by the Mesopotamians. The labor-intensive nature of their manufacturing has made them expensive, which has limited their application to a handful of areas where their advantages outweigh their costs, such as the aerospace industry.

Now, thanks to new manufacturing techniques that can churn out composite parts quickly and cheaply, all of that is changing, and the results could be both profound and exciting.

The Harvard Crimson, a Voice of the Younger Crust.

Harvard School of Public Health Dean Andrea A. Baccarelli received at least $150,000 to testify against Tylenol’s manufacturer in 2023 — two years before he published research used by the Trump administration to link the drug to autism, a connection experts say is tenuous at best.

Baccarelli served as an expert witness on behalf of parents and guardians of children suing Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of Tylenol at the time. U.S. District Court Judge Denise L. Cote dismissed the case last year due to a lack of scientific evidence, throwing out Baccarelli’s testimony in the process.

“He cherry-picked and misrepresented study results and refused to acknowledge the role of genetics in the etiology” of autism spectrum disorder or ADHD, Cote wrote in her decision, which the plaintiffs have since appealed.

Baccarelli, who was a professor at Columbia University’s public health school at the time, declined to comment on his involvement in the case.

Read it.

How is this guy still alive?

Read it.

The NYT’s coverage of the Gates Foundation’s severing ties with the Arabella network (read report) may signal to other leftist billionaire donors and dark-money groups that some of the largest backers of the permanent protest-industrial complex against President Trump are quietly reassessing their ties as a White House enforcement period nears. After all, no billionaire or their prized nonprofits want to be slapped with RICO charges or providing “material support” to domestic terrorists by funding rogue NGOs subverting the nation.

When an anchor donor like the Gates Foundation withdraws so abruptly, others often follow suit. Another reason may be that the Arabella network funneled at least $114.8 million (as per a Peter Schweizer & Seamus Bruner report) to “No Kings” protest organizers and affiliates that smeared Trump and his supporters as “fascists” while normalizing hate rhetoric and even assassination culture within the Democratic Party.

The Foundry.

The Department of War is discontinuing a committee criticized for pushing feminism in the military, according to a memo obtained by The Daily Signal.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed the memo saying he has determined that the reinstatement of the Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Services should not proceed.

The committee cost the department $1,128,000 in fiscal years 2023-2024. This includes $485,000
in expenses and $643,000 in Defense Department labor.

The committee was originally created following the passage of the 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act to advise on strategies to improve the recruitment of women into the U.S. military during the Korean War. But critics say DACOWITS today is largely advancing a feminist agenda with a detrimental effect on combat readiness.

Newsbusters.

On the second day of the second quarter, President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal tariffs” on goods from countries charging exorbitant tariffs on U.S. exports. By the quarter’s end, the U.S. trade deficit shrank by 42.9%, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Tuesday.

Read it.

The Supreme Court Monday announced it would take up a case that gets to the heart of why the deep state exists—it will revisit a precedent that defended the bureaucracy against the executive power vested in the president.

In Donald Trump v. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Supreme Court blocked a lower court order forcing the president to re-hire a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission after he had fired her in March.

On Monday, the Supreme Court announced that it wasn’t just allowing Trump to fire Slaughter until the case is resolved in court, but also that it would fully consider the case.

The court’s majority directed both parties to argue two central questions: “Whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935), should be overruled”; and “Whether a federal court may prevent a person’s removal from public office, either through relief at equity or at law.”

Read it.

Cutting onions and tomatoes is about to get a high-tech upgrade. Seattle Ultrasonics today unveiled the C-200 that they’re calling the world’s first ultrasonic chef’s knife for home cooks. The $399 knife harnesses ultrasonic technology used in industrial settings, vibrating more than 40,000 times per second to “reduce friction and the force needed to make cuts by 50%.”

Daily Record (UK).

During Harrelson’s trial, Joe Chagra testified the hitman had claimed to have shot Kennedy and even drew maps to illustrate where he had been hiding during the assassination.

However, the witness stated that he did not believe Harrelson’s claim, and the AP reported that the FBI “apparently discounted any involvement by Harrelson in the Kennedy assassination.”

In Jim Marrs’ 1989 book, ‘Crossfire’, it was speculated by some theorists that Charles Harrelson was the youngest and tallest of the “three tramps” who were arrested shortly after Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. A renowned forensic artist, Lois Gibson, reportedly matched photographs of Charles Harrelson to this figure.

I’m perfectly willing to believe him.

In a 1982 interview, Charles Harrelson told Dallas TV station KDFW-TV: “Do you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy, alone, without any aid from a rogue agency of the U.S. government or at least a portion of that agency? I believe you are very naïve if you do.”

Lot of that going around….

Read it.

Hungary will replicate a policy announced Thursday by President Donald Trump and designate antifa a terrorist organization, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.

Antifa, short for “anti-fascist,” is an umbrella term for loosely affiliated far-left-activists and groups that resist fascism, fascists, and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations. It resembles more an ideology than an organization, though some have embraced militant tactics.

Orbán, a right-wing populist and strong Trump ally, said in comments to state radio on Friday that he was “pleased” by Trump’s announcement that he plans to designate antifa as a “major terrorist organization” in the United States.

UPDATE: Europe Cracks Down: Netherlands, Hungary Target Antifa as Terror Group

The Foundry.

Test scores for America’s grade schools continue to show a dismal decline in basic reading and math skills, but four red states that were once seen as laggards are now bucking the nationwide trend.

According to the 2024 assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 12th graders tested in reading and math have shown a continuing decline since 1992. This report follows a 2020 study by the Department of Education that found that 54% of U.S. adults—130 million people—read at or below a sixth-grade level.

This year, 19-year-old Aleysha Ortiz sued the Hartford Board of Education, charging that, although she graduated with honors from Hartford Public High School in 2024, she cannot read or write. And Ivy League schools like Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton are reportedly no longer assigning whole books to students because reading an entire book is too difficult.

Going against this grim trend, however, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, and Tennessee have achieved consistent improvement in their kids’ scores. Education experts say much of this is about getting back to basics in how these subjects are taught, while maintaining tough standards for students and teachers.

Read it.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense has revised the hull classification symbols for Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) vessels effective October 2024. The change adds two new symbols, “CG” and “CVM,” which will be applied to upcoming ship types.

JMSDF vessels are classified into warships that enjoy the status of warships under international law (Self Defense Ship: ??? in Japanese) and other vessels categorized as support ships. The warship category is further divided into escort vessels and auxiliary vessels. Escort vessels are sub-categorized by function into surface/subsurface combatants (destroyers, submarines), mine warfare vessels (minesweepers, minesweeper craft, minesweeper tenders), patrol vessels (missile boats, offshore patrol vessels), and transport vessels (transport ships, landing craft, hovercraft).

The revision this time concerns the classification symbols for escort destroyers, which belong to the surface combatant group. Destroyers are combatant ships in the JMSDF inventory equipped with guns, missiles and other weapons, and possess the capability to engage enemy surface ships, submarines and aircraft. Until now, hull classification symbols have included general-purpose destroyer (DD), guided-missile destroyer (DDG), helicopter destroyer (DDH), as well as smaller coastal escort destroyer (DE) and multi-role frigates (FFM). Last year’s directive added two new symbols: “CG” and “CVM.” Naval News interviewed the JMSDF Office of Public Affairs to clarify what these new codes signify.

This drops the pretense that the new larger ships the Japanese Maritime Defense Force are merely small defensive ships.

The War Zone.

Taiwan has officially rolled out a new anti-ballistic missile system called Chiang Kung, or Strong Bow, which it says is now in production. The system features a two-stage interceptor and includes the first active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar domestically produced on the island. Taiwanese armed forces would face huge barrages of ballistic missiles as part of any future invasion from the mainland.

Watch it.

Today’s guest is David Ludwig, MD, PhD, an endocrinologist, pediatrician, and international thought leader in obesity medicine and metabolic health. He’s also a treasured mentor of mine from my time at Harvard Medical School. In this episode, we discuss his new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine on ultra-processed foods and why “simple” is the enemy of metabolic health. We explore the science of nutrition, weight loss, and food quality, challenging conventional wisdom about diet and metabolism. If you’re courageous enough to listen all the way through, this conversation will expand your perspective, change the way you think about food, and inspire a healthier relationship with eating.

You are what you eat. So this is important.

ALSO: Ultra-Processed Food, Retold by HC Andersen

Read it.

Nexstar’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show. Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”

Read it.

In 2023, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, 613,349 Americans died of cancer. That number is projected to increase to over 618,000 this year. As a result, medical research has been focused on the development of cancer treatment protocols for decades for all types of cancer.

The National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Trials Support Unit (CTSU) and the National Institute of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov website list hundreds of active protocols, with 457 NCI-supported protocols noted in clinical trial databases for various cancer types and stages.

For example, there are approximately a dozen known treatment protocols for Stage 4 prostate cancer that focus on managing the disease since it is considered to be incurable. For context, the American Cancer Society’s estimates for prostate cancer in the US for 2025 are about 313,780 new cases and about 35,770 projected deaths.

Medical researchers are continually developing potentially breakthrough cancer protocols. This is the true story of one man’s experience with a new protocol that exploits repurposed drugs.

Politico, a Voice of the Crust.

The nation’s service academies next month will announce they will accept scores from the Classic Learning Test, a standardized exam that emphasizes classical literature such as Greek and Roman classics and Christian thinkers beginning in the 2027 admissions cycle, according to internal communications obtained by POLITICO and a person familiar with the matter granted anonymity to discuss the policy change.

Jerusalem Post.

While working on a new airport, a 4,000-year-old structure was discovered in Crete, and may have been the legendary labyrinth built for Minoan King Minos, LiveScience reported last week.

Atop a hill near the town of Kastelli – and approximately 51 kilometers southeast of Heraklion, Crete’s capital city – the ancient structure features a unique architectural design, commonly attributed to the Minoan civilization, and is believed to have been constructed around 2000-1700 B.C.

The structure, measuring 48 meters in diameter, features two main sections: a central circular building and an outer area formed by walls and created by a pattern similar to the spokes of a wheel. The building consists of eight stone rings intersected by small walls, creating a labyrinthine layout.

Read it.

Swiss bank UBS is considering moving to the United States in response to proposals from the Swiss government on new capital requirements, the New York Post reported at the weekend.

Senior UBS executives have met officials in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to prepare a strategy shift that could include the acquisition of a U.S. bank or a merger, the newspaper cited people close to the matter as saying.

When asked to comment on the report, UBS referred Reuters to comments made by CEO Sergio Ermotti in the last week.

Time to leave.

Read it.

Over 100,000 people gathered in London on Saturday for a free speech rally spearheaded by Tommy Robinson which featured an appearance by Elon Musk in a virtual interview broadcast on stage.

BBC, a Voice of the Crust.

Twenty-six officers have been injured while policing a protest organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, which saw up to 150,000 people march through central London.

Tensions flared at the Unite the Kingdom rally, with some protesters throwing bottles and other projectiles at police, the Metropolitan Police said – leaving four seriously hurt.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk spoke to protesters on Whitehall via videolink; while 5,000 people joined a nearby counter-protest organised by Stand Up To Racism.

The Met said 25 people had been arrested for a range of offences in what it described as “wholly unacceptable” violence.

A huge policing operation was put in place in central London with the Met deploying 1,000 officers and drafting in an extra 500 from other forces including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Devon and Cornwall.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said officers had “policed without fear or favour”, knowing it would be challenging.

The Times (UK).

British nuclear-armed submarines will be detectable in the future with the development of technology designed to make the oceans transparent, a top Canadian military chief has warned.

In an interview with The Times, Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, said the military needed to prepare for a scenario where the oceans are “effectively transparent and submarines are no longer allowed to hide”.

He said such a prospect threatened to “destabilise [the] nuclear deterrent” and that it was “sensible” to have the ability to fire or drop nuclear weapons from other platforms in addition to submarines.’

Are you scared yet? That appears to be his plan.

Finally, at the NINTH PARAGRAPH, we get some actual information:

European defence companies are already developing technology designed to track enemy submarines posing a threat to the West. Autonomous mini-hunter submarines that can lurk under the sea for months on end will be able to use artificial intelligence to detect and identify sounds that could betray the presence of a sub — part of the new Lura system, developed by Helsing, a European defence company. Experts believe this system will effectively “illuminate” the oceans and make the hunt for Russian submarines much easier.

Experts believe! That proves it!  Actually, sound has been the vulnerable point for submarines for decades, and everybody is working to make subs quieter and quieter. Those efforts will not cease.

And, of course, the Israelis were banned from participating because … well, reasons.

The Telegraph (UK).

The suspected gunman who shot Charlie Kirk was handed into police by his father, ending a two-day manhunt.

Donald Trump announced the arrest, and called for the death penalty for the 22-year-old accused of assassinating the president’s close friend and political ally.

“I think we have him,” Mr Trump said during an interview with Fox and Friends.

College drop-out Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested on Thursday night and is expected to be charged with murder.

The Times (UK).

Thousands of supporters of Tommy Robinson have gathered in central London to attend a “free speech” march and rally organised by the far-right activist.

The protesters, many of whom waving Union flags and crosses of St George, are due to set off at 1pm from near Waterloo train station to the bottom end of Whitehall, where they will be addressed by Robinson and a string of other populist speakers.

Thousands of people are also expected to attend a counter-protest organised by the Stand Up To Racism group. They will march from Russell Square to the top end of Whitehall, via The Strand, under conditions laid out by the Metropolitan Police

Read it.

Angry protesters took to the streets of Paris, confronting police and adding to the escalating political pressure on President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

At least 50 people were taken into custody in the capital as part of the ongoing “Block Everything” campaign, aimed at halting transport links nationwide. Protesters attempted to obstruct roads and key rail hubs, including the Eurostar at Gare du Nord, on Wednesday morning.

It would appear that the French are getting fed up as well.

Read it.

A federal appeals court ordered Vermont to let a Christian school compete in state-sponsored sports events—even though the school doesn’t support the state’s view of “transgender” ideology.

That decision allows the school to finally participate in athletics again after suffering a yearslong ban for forfeiting a game that would have forced girls on its team to compete against a male playing on the opposing girls’ team.

In an opinion released Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that state officials likely “displayed hostility toward the school’s religious beliefs” by banning it, and it instructed Vermont to let the school compete while the case continues.

Read it.

Authorities say they have tracked the suspected gunman’s movements before, during, and after the campus shooting that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk and have recovered what they believe to be the weapon used.

Officials said the suspect arrived near the Utah Valley University campus at 11:52 a.m., moved through stairwells to a rooftop, fired from a shooting position, then fled across the roof, jumped from the building, and escaped into a nearby neighborhood. Investigators canvassed the area, speaking to witnesses and viewing doorbell cameras.

“We do have good video footage of this individual. We are not going to release that at this time,” an official said, noting forensic technologies are being used to identify the suspect.

Read it.

The EPA has eliminated some Clean Air Act construction regulations that the department considered obstacles to “innovation and growth.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin described the changes in a release made available to Newsmax: “We are continuing to fix this broken system,” he said.

Zeldin added, “Today’s guidance is another step to allow the buildout of essential power generation, data centers, and manufacturing projects that will bring about America’s Golden Age.”

And that’s just how easy it is. Trump just keeps on winning.

Read it.

A Michigan judge on Tuesday dismissed all charges against Republicans who claimed to be presidential electors for President Donald Trump in 2020, ruling prosecutors failed to show they intended to defraud anyone.

ALSO: Michigan judge tosses case against 15 accused fake electors for President Donald Trump in 2020 (Isabella Volmert/Associated Press)

ALSO: Judge who released Charlotte light rail killer has history of addiction activism (Kaelan Deese/Washington Examiner)

Read it.

Life needs proteins for almost everything, from cell repair to immune defense. Scientists have long asked how the first proteins were formed before cells had complex machinery.

A new study reports a simple, water-friendly reaction that links early ingredients into the first steps toward protein-making.

Read it.

How about No Visas For You Until You Take Your Dregs Back?

Read it.

The French government–facing a crucial confidence vote on September 8th–has drafted two decrees to restrict access to a wide range of healthcare services through the State Medical Assistance (AME) to illegal immigrants.

Prime Minister François Bayrou described the move as “a common-sense measure” in an interview with BFMTV, stressing that in a time when efforts are being asked of the French, it is only fair that those living in France illegally also contribute.

The restrictions are part of broader fiscal adjustments aimed at addressing France’s strained finances, including the 2026 budget, which seeks savings of around €44 billion.

Read it.

It has been 157 years since the last ship taking convicts from the United Kingdom landed in Australia.

Now, in a crushing historical irony, Australia is contracting with the small Pacific island of Nauru to resettle foreign-born criminals who the courts have ruled cannot be imprisoned indefinitely. The court rulings show how our allies are facing the same dilemma in dealing with people who enter the country illegally and then oppose efforts to deport them for years in litigation.

They used to transport them to America, but the 1776 kerfuffle squelched that trick.

I hear that Uganda is in the market for prisoners….

Watch it.

These people make a very plausible case, using both historical and physical evidence.

The invention of the wheel was a significant step in the advancement of human society, to the point that ‘reinventing the wheel’ has become a common phrase. Neolithic societies, although they had tools and fire, the previous steps in technological advancement, sometimes didn’t make it to the wheel–the first nations of North America, for example, for all the sophistication of the MesoAmerican civilizations, lacked this key feature. (If they had, I suspect that Cortez would have encountered an unpleasant surprise in 1519.)

The War Zone.

As the U.S. deploys an armada of ships and aircraft to the southern Caribbean, at least partly aimed at Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. Navy and Marines are conducting an amphibious landing training exercise in southern Puerto Rico. While the U.S. Marine Corps does not make any mention of Maduro or Venezuela in its media release about the exercise, the move comes as tensions are mounting between Washington and Caracas over the flow of illegal narcotics. The Trump administration considers Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and has raised the award for his arrest to $50 million. You can catch up with our most recent reporting on the Caribbean deployments here.

Meanwhile, the U.S. carried out a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X this afternoon, following comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump. Striking this vessel points to a new kinetic angle to this effort, a major escalation.

The War Zone.

The U.S. military has conducted a “lethal strike” in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X. His comments came moments after U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that “over the last few minutes [the military] literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat.” The incident took place as Trump has dispatched at least eight warships to the region to fight drug trafficking.

Read it.

Say not that the struggle nought availeth.

Read it.

Last Tuesday, defense contractor Epirus quietly tested its latest electromagnetic weapon, Leonidas, against a swarm of 49 quadcopters, neutralizing them in seconds at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, according to Axios, the only news outlet invited to the groundbreaking test. Numerous U.S. military services and foreign allies, including Indo-Pacific partners, witnessed the event. In an interview with Axios, Epirus CEO Andy Lowery hailed the “forcefield system” as a “singularity event.”

The great weakness of drones is their command and control systems; disrupt that, and they are useless.

Of course, eventually we will get drones that are fully autonomous, controlled by some sort of on-board AI, and then it will get very interesting. As usual, science fiction stories have been all over this for decades.

Read it.

Researchers have given people a taste of superhuman vision after creating contact lenses that allow them to see infrared light, a band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is invisible to the naked eye.

Unlike night vision goggles, the contact lenses need no power source, and because they are transparent, wearers can see infrared and all the normal visible colours of light at the same time.

Prof Tian Xue, a neuroscientist at the University of Science and Technology of China, said the work paved the way for a range of contact lenses, glasses and other wearable devices that give people “super-vision”. The technology could also help people with colour blindness, he added.

The lenses are the latest breakthrough driven by the team’s desire to extend human vision beyond its natural, narrow range. The wavelengths of light that humans can see make up less than one hundredth of a per cent of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Read it.

Israel is not interested in adhering to the Middle East’s established borders set by the WWI Sykes-Picot agreement and has the “capacity or the desire” to take over Lebanon and Syria, according to US special envoy Tom Barrack.

Barrack made the assessment in an astonishing and candid interview with online personality Mario Nawfal, which went online late on Thursday. It was just one of many insights that Barrack, who is at the center of US diplomacy in the region, shared. In addition, he said that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will not sign the Abraham Accords with Israel and alluded to deeply strained ties between Egypt and Israel, which he said are no longer “talking to each other or cooperating”.

Israel realizes that this is a unique moment in history in which they can actually accomplish the things that they have long wanted to do but were undermined by pusillanimous U.S. administrations and Deep State foreign affairs bureaucrats. Trump has turned on the No More Mister Nice Guy sign and the Israelis are striking while the iron is hot.

Federal News Network, a Voice of the Deep State.

A handful more agencies are now under orders from the White House to terminate their collective bargaining agreements with federal unions.

In an executive order signed Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump added more agencies and a few agency components to an already extensive list of federal entities slated for collective bargaining cancellations. Trump said the terminations of labor contracts are intended “to enhance the national security of the United States.”

Trump’s initial executive order from March 27 invoked a narrow, rarely used portion of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act that allows a president to suspend collective bargaining for national security purposes. The White House said the additional agencies it’s now directing to cancel collective bargaining agreements all have missions dealing with national security as well.

The agencies that Trump’s existing anti-union orders now cover are NASA; the U.S. Agency for Global Media; the National Weather Service and the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service — both within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Bureau of Reclamation’s hydropower program; and the Patent and Trademark Office’s commissioner of patents office.

Savor the squeals of the pigs getting kicked away from the trough.

Read it.

President Donald Trump has notified Congress of his intent to use a rarely invoked power to cancel nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid.

…

Initiatives the Trump administration has deemed wasteful include $24.6 million for “climate resilience” in Honduras and $3.9 million to promote democracy among LGBT people in the Western Balkans, the Post reported. There’s also $2.7 million for a South African organization that published inflammatory racial articles including “The Problem with White People.”

Congress loves spending Other People’s Money. Trump has no objection to spending Other People’s Money, either, so long as it is in accord with his program rather than someone else’s. And he is a master at gaming any system, as one has to be, doing real estate in a corrupt Blue State.

ALSO: Noem Canceling FEMA Contracts After DOGE Finds Billions in Waste  Looks like a trend.

ALSO: White House declares $4.9B in foreign aid unilaterally canceled in end-run around Congress’ funding power (Politico)

LiveScience.

Chinese astronauts have just created rocket fuel and oxygen in space using a new type of “artificial photosynthesis.” The breakthrough technology, which used fairly basic equipment and minimal energy, could one day be put to use on China’s proposed moon base, which is scheduled to be completed within a decade.

The new experiments were carried out by members of the Shenzhou-19 crew living on board China’s Tiangong space station (meaning “heavenly palace” in Chinese), which has been fully operational in low-Earth orbit since November 2022

The artificial photosynthesis technology, which has been in development since 2015, converts carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and rocket fuel ingredients using a simple “drawer-like” apparatus and a “semiconductor catalyst,” according to Interesting Engineering. This is a similar reaction to photosynthesis in plants, which produces glucose instead of rocket fuel.