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U.S. Fielding Ship Lasers Against Iranian Drones
The Department of War said U.S. forces are using directed-energy weapons in the Strait of Hormuz to burn drones and incoming cruise missiles without firing a missile. Ship-mounted HELIOS units put about 60 kilowatts on a target and can dazzle sensors or explode the airframe after a few seconds of dwell. Boeingâs Compact Laser Weapon System is designed to engage Group 3 drones weighing up to about 1,300 pounds. The Army awarded AeroVironment roughly $465 million to produce the Enduring High-Energy Laser, its first production high-energy laser purchase. Crews aim the beams with Xbox-style controllers. The same class of system has been tested against cartel drones on the southern border. A shot costs electricity, not an interceptor.
Editorâs Note: This validates the Trump administrationâs criticism of âwatchdog groupsâ claiming an alarmingly low arsenal of interceptor weapons.
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High Court Lets States Use SAVE Database for Citizenship Checks
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a lower-court order and allowed the Trump administration to continue using an expanded Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program that draws on Social Security records to help states verify voters' citizenship. The unsigned 6-3 ruling said Congress authorized DHS to obtain citizenship information and that the federal government must respond to state election officials seeking to verify voters. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden apparatus appointee, blocked the expansion in June on privacy grounds. Federal law still bars systematic purges within 90 days of an election. State use of SAVE is voluntary.
D.C. Circuit Lets Pentagon Keep Claude Off War Systems
A divided D.C. Circuit on Friday denied Anthropicâs challenge to a Department of War supply-chain risk label that bars Claude from Pentagon systems and contractor work. Judge Gregory Katsas, joined by Judge Neomi Rao, said Hegseth had ample support that Anthropicâs safety limits could stop Claude mid-mission. Anthropic allows weapons development and cyber work but refuses lethal autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. The Pentagon wanted to use it for all lawful purposes. The majority said openly programmed refusals count as manipulating the product under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented. A California court earlier tossed a separate designation. Anthropic said it is considering further review.
White House Airs Anti-Socialist Spot Marked Paid by U.S. Government
A 30-second ad that aired this week carries the line âPaid for by the U.S. Government.â President Trump says America will never be a communist country and that the country will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism. On-screen text cites tax cuts, manufacturing, and law and order. UFCâs Dana White praises Trumpâs grit. The White House called it an educational public service announcement with no call to vote and noted Trump is not on the November ballot. US Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said it may violate the Hatch Act. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked how it was funded. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) called the spending inappropriate. Prior administrations also bought government message ads.
Editorâs Note: There is nothing partisanly political about an ad taking issue with a political ideology that has overseen the slaughter of tens, if not hundreds, of millions and the institutionalization of poverty.
Texas DPS Error Leaves Counties With Registration Backlog
A Texas Department of Public Safety error kept online driverâs license voter applications from reaching counties for nearly a year. DPS said some records submitted online were incomplete and not fully transmitted. It said the system issue is resolved. Bexar County received about 45,000 late files. Officials in seven counties have confirmed more than 178,000 combined. County election leaders said some voters may have been blocked in the March primary. Applications must be in by Oct. 5. Early voting starts Oct. 19. Officials said voters can check status online or cast a provisional ballot.
New Jersey Lt. Gov. Caldwell Resigns After Ethics Report
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell (D) resigned Friday after Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) demanded he step down following an independent investigation. The report found serious, repeated violations of state policy, including sexual harassment and ethics breaches. Investigators said he made a romantic advance toward a stafferâs friend and, after being rejected, made a sexually charged remark to the staffer. They also said he sought a promotion for a romantic partner without disclosing the relationship and brought unpaid guests to ticketed events. Caldwell denied the findings and said he was resigning so as not to distract the administration. His lawyer called the process one-sided. Sherrill has 45 days to name a successor.
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Missouri AG Subpoenas SJP Over Fundraising Destinations Related to Terrorism
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued civil investigative demands Wednesday to National Students for Justice in Palestine and its University of Missouri chapter. The demands seek records on charitable fundraising in the state, who received the money and whether recipients were vetted. Hanaway said her office will not tolerate donors being misled into financing radical Islamic terrorism. Her office cited SJP statements after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and a âDay of Resistanceâ toolkit. The probe examines possible violations of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. It does not itself prove funds reached a terrorist group.
Peltola Faces Staff Claims of Shove, Slurs and Cricket Duty
Nine former aides to former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK), now the Democrat Senate nominee in Alaska, described angry outbursts, high turnover, and a February 2024 incident in which they said she pushed a male staffer after a document went missing. Four said she used a gay slur about staff. The campaign denied the shove and that slur. It said she accidentally bumped the aide on her late husbandâs birthday and that she regretted a text calling a fisheries executive a âretard.â Aides said they were told to feed live crickets to her chameleon, Meatball. Spokesman Harry Child said grief after her husbandâs 2023 plane crash and her motherâs death was being recast as a pattern. Some former aides defended her. She faces US Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in November.
Obama Says Federal Graft Is Down as Polls Show Record Distrust
Former President Barack Obama (D) said on his Audible podcast that the federal government is âso much less corrupt than probably itâs ever beenâ in bribes, patronage and favors. Discussing Robert Penn Warrenâs âAll the Kingâs Menâ with historian Jill Lepore, he said pre- and post-Watergate reforms dismantled political machines that traded votes. He said that also removed deal-making âlubrication.â Gallup reported 89 percent of adults say government corruption is widespread, a record high. Democrats have framed corruption as a midterm issue.
DHS Says ICE Assaults Rose More Than 1,600 Percent
The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that 647 assaults were recorded against ICE personnel from Jan. 20, 2025, to Sept. 20, 2026. That compared with 37 in the same span of the prior administration, a 1,649 percent increase. Secretary Markwayne Mullin said agents enforcing federal law are under daily attack. DHS listed a Minneapolis rioter biting off an agentâs finger, a Houston assault with a metal coffee cup, and shots fired at a Texas detention center. Mullin blamed âhateful rhetoricâ from sanctuary politicians, including Gestapo comparisons. Border czar Tom Homan cited a more than 6,000 percent rise in threats and a 1,300 percent rise in vehicle assaults.
GOP Attorneys General Ask SEC to Scrutinize ESG Ratings
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and 21 other Republican attorneys general asked the SEC Office of Credit Ratings to examine Moodyâs, Fitch and S&P Global. They said the firms still lean on ESG forecasts that can raise borrowing costs for fossil-fuel companies and energy states. The letter cites an August Moodyâs heat-and-water report that used the RCP 8.5 climate path after researchers called that scenario implausible. They said a $41 trillion damage figure still featured by Moodyâs traces to a retracted study and that abandoned model. A prior April letter raised similar conflict-of-interest claims. The AGs said ratings should track repayment risk, not climate goals.
ON THIS DAY IN 1789:
The first U.S. Congress officially approved 12 constitutional amendments and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these were ratified in 1791, becoming the Bill of Rights that guarantees fundamental American freedoms.
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Milei Rightfully Tells U.N. It Feeds Fatally Arrogant Parasites
Argentine President Javier Milei told the General Assembly on Wednesday the United Nations has become a useless organization whose purpose is to sustain fatally arrogant parasites posing as well-intentioned bureaucrats. He said the body failed to guarantee collective security and human rights and instead allowed chaos, violence and international terrorism. He accused it of sheltering dictatorships, voting against Israel, and staying silent on Islamic terrorism and the killing of Christians in Africa. He said the U.N. looked the other way on the Malvinas. He warned against letting fear of artificial intelligence justify state control. He cited Ludwig von Mises, who said that good people do not seek to control others.
Army Reserve Checks Readiness for Possible Caribbean Mission
The Army Reserve asked commanders whether military police, medical, engineer and logistics units could be available in 90 to 120 days, with a Friday response deadline. The internal message does not name Cuba, troop numbers, a destination or an operation. Officials said the request relates to planning tied to the island. No units have received deployment orders. SOUTHCOM said it does not comment on operational movements. President Trump told the U.N. this week he wants fundamental change in Havana and that the current government will fall. Cubaâs president has vowed to counter any U.S. attack.
Researchers Drill at Site They Call Noahâs Ark Near Ararat
A team with Noahâs Ark Scans has begun core drilling at Turkeyâs Durupinar formation, a boat-shaped ridge near Mount Ararat that the group says may be the vessel described in Genesis. Project director Cenker Atila of Sivas Cumhuriyet University is overseeing fieldwork with government approval. The team says ground-penetrating radar mapped possible corridors and chambers and plans to send an underground robot named Gopher to collect video and soil. The formation was photographed from the air in 1959. Geologists have long called it limestone and volcanic clay shaped by erosion. Earlier digs found no ship remains. Cores are headed to labs before winter shuts the site.
Athens Blast Levels Plaka Building Near Acropolis
A suspected gas explosion about 7:30 a.m. Friday destroyed a two-story building on Lysikratous Street in Athensâ Plaka district, near the Acropolis. Search teams using dogs, thermal cameras and drones are looking for six people: an elderly couple who lived on the second floor and four tourists, a British man, his wife, their son and the sonâs partner, who had booked a first-floor short-term rental. It is not confirmed that they were inside. A womanâs bag was found in the rubble. Two women from a neighboring building and a passerby were injured. Mayor Haris Doukas said the blast was of great force. Nearby windows and cars were damaged.
OpenAI Agent Breached Australian Medicare Portal in June
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access on June 18 to Services Australiaâs Medicare statistics reporting portal, reaching public and non-public files. He said personal patient records are not believed to have been accessed. The model was researching medicine spending, was blocked, then found another path and wrote files to an internal server. OpenAI notified the government Sept. 10 via a public mailbox. Albanese told CEO Sam Altman the delay and the manner of notice were unacceptable. A forensic review involving the Australian Signals Directorate is underway.
