The rulers of the United States and Israel, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, have issued a threat to Iran, saying they will “knock the hell” out of the country if it rebuilds its nuclear or ballistic missile projects. Iran responded and promised a “harsh” and aggressive response if it is attacked. Recently, Iran’s ruler claimed that it was in a “full-fledged war” with the U.S., Israel, and Europe. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated the pledge on Tuesday, stating that “Iran’s response to any tyrannical aggression will be harsh and regrettable.” Iran’s President Claims It’s In A “Full-Fledged War” With The…

“The French like to maintain that the outbreak of war is always marked by a poor vintage, and victory by a gloriously celebratory one. Thus 1945 was a great vintage, 1939 mediocre, 1918 good, 1914 dismal,” writes Julian Barnes. It was as if the ground itself knew of the invasion and then, six long years later, of victory.Alcohol and war have always been intrinsically tied, with a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealing that “service members consume alcohol on more days of the year than any other profession.” Soldiers drink. It’s been an enduring love…

Sign up for This Happened to Me News on backcountry adventure and wilderness survival. A few years ago, while I was researching an article I was writing about a Nazi-killing mad trapper, I came upon unrelated stories of two expert woodsmen who went missing in the Yukon wilderness. The two tragedies occurred within 115 miles of each other but 27 years apart. Both men were alone and in both cases about two weeks passed before anyone knew something was wrong. At both scenes, only scant and bizarre evidence was found. One of the men was Ed Wilkinson, a 58-year-old trapper…

This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.  2025 has truly been a historic year. No matter which side of the fence you are on, nobody can deny that we have witnessed seismic political changes over the last 12 months. Meanwhile, the AI revolution is transforming our lives in ways that we don’t even understand. But despite all of our advanced technology, we can’t stop the endless barrage of natural disasters that have been pummeling us in 2025, and hunger continues to spread all over the globe. Of course, war has been a major theme…

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

A federal appeals court this week upheld a federal district court ruling ordering the Department of Veterans Affairs to dramatically expand housing for unhoused, disabled veterans on its West Los Angeles campus.In a decision filed Dec. 23, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the VA violated the Rehabilitation Act by failing to provide supportive housing for “unhoused veterans with serious mental illness or traumatic brain injuries,” according to documents in the case of Powers v. McDonough. This violation, in turn, meant veterans were denied meaningful access to critical health care services, the judges…

The Army on Tuesday announced that it is standing up a dedicated artificial intelligence and machine-learning career field for officers.The new specialty, designated 49B, will be open to eligible officers through the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program, beginning in January 2026, with the goal of developing a group of leaders that “advances the Army’s ongoing transformation into a data-centric and AI-enabled force,” the statement said. The Army said officers with applicable backgrounds would use their expertise to accelerate decision-making, sharpen targeting, improve logistics efficiency and support the fielding of robotics systems on the battlefield.“This is a deliberate and crucial step in…

After the American victory over the British on Jan. 3, 1777, Gen. George Washington managed to hang on to his army — but just barely. As both British and American armies settled into their winter quarters both were back to almost the same positions held in mid-November. Except for a small garrison at Paulus Hook across the Hudson from lower Manhattan, all of New Jersey had been abandoned by the British, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Rick Atkinson.The withdrawal left thousands of New Jersey loyalists to fend for themselves against the agitated rebels, with one loyalist writing of…

This article was originally published by Wanjiru Njoya at The Mises Institute.  The idea of constitutionalism is that of limited government under the rule of law. The whole point of agreeing on the basic rules by which the country is to be governed is to constrain the tendency of bureaucrats, and all those vested with executive power, to become despots and turn on their own citizens. In theory, the Constitution should safeguard individual liberty by giving citizens a bulwark against state tyranny. As stated in the words of the theoretically mighty First Amendment, the Constitution of the United States declares…

The U.S. Navy announced updates to physical fitness standards for sailors that will go into effect at the beginning of 2026, including aspects that will lead to a sailor’s administrative separation from the service.The service provided a Dec. 30 fact sheet laying out shifts in policy on the NAVADMIN website, after publishing a document that outlined consequences for PFA failure on Dec. 16.Most notably, the Navy is shifting from one fitness assessment cycle per year to two, which will extend from Jan. 1, 2026, through June 30, 2026, and from July 1, 2026, through Dec. 31, 2026.The new policy also…

If a war between China and Taiwan breaks out, Russia has said that it will back China, while the United States has already sided with Taiwan. Tensions have flared recently, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made it clear that Moscow would support China in defending its territorial integrity. China Unveils New Footage Of Carrier-Killer Hypersonic Missile Launch From Destroyer Russia has also said that this is an “internal” matter for China. “Proceeding from the fact that the Taiwan issue is an internal matter of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing has every legitimate reason to protect its sovereignty and…

The Department of Defense did not consistently hold Lockheed Martin accountable for F-35 poor sustainability performance in its 2024 contract, according to a Dec. 19 inspector general audit of the performance.The F-35 Joint Program Office was found to not have adequately overseen contractor performance on the June 2024 air vehicle sustainment contract, resulting in paying Lockheed Martin $1.7 billion by July 1, 2025, without “economic adjustment,” despite a 50% aircraft readiness rate.Although the Full Mission Capable, Mission Capable and Air Vehicle Availability rates did not meet the minimum requirements of the military services, the department still paid more than $1…

The U.S. military said Tuesday that it had carried out a series of recent operations against the Islamic State in Syria, resulting in the death or detention of “nearly 25 ISIS operatives,” according to a U.S. Central Command release.Over a nine-day period, U.S. and allied forces conducted 11 operations that killed at least seven ISIS fighters and destroyed four of the group’s weapons caches, the release stated.“We will not relent,” CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement. “We are steadfast in [our] commitment to working with regional partners to root out the ISIS threat posed to U.S. and…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. Long-range target scopes have one job: to place bullets with repeatable precision at distance. But there’s plenty of room for variation within that performance envelope, and this year’s crop of precision scopes has it all: cheap and expensive, MOA and MIL reticles, digital and analog, and illuminated or not. But one attribute caught our test team’s eye: the increase in these scopes’ magnification. We have 30-power, 32-power, 35-power, and even a 36-power scope in this year’s field. Meanwhile, the bottom of…

A new and exponential escalation of war has occurred after Ukraine used Kamikaze drones to attack the residence of the current Russian ruler, Vladimir Putin. Moscow has already vowed a “non-diplomatic” response. Kiev launched 91 long-range strike drones at Putin’s state residence in Novgorod Region on the night of December 28-29, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. Russian officials said all the drones were intercepted, with no casualties or damage reported, according to RT. Russian lawmakers have uniformly condemned the attack as an act of “state terrorism” and a deliberate attempt to disrupt ongoing peace negotiations between Russia and…

In 1978, the Defense Department conducted an exercise to simulate what would happen if it needed to mobilize all U.S. forces globally in the face of an existential conflict. It didn’t go well. The 21-day exercise, dubbed “Nifty Nugget,” brought two dozen military commands to bear to support a notional conflict in Europe. Due to major holes in planning, communication and logistics, up to half a million troops were late to the fight, and the conflict resulted in 400,000 U.S. casualties. While the exercise did result in useful insights, such as helping to prompt the creation of U.S. Transportation Command…