Republican senators on Thursday confirmed senior Veterans Affairs advisor Cheryl Mason as the next top watchdog for Veterans Affairs programs, despite objections from Democratic lawmakers who questioned her ability to be an impartial investigator of the department. Mason — who previously served as the first woman ever to chair the Board of Veterans Appeals — was approved for the VA Inspector General post by a 53-45 margin, with all of the opposition coming from Democrats. He and seven other fired federal watchdogs have sued the White House over their dismissals, claiming they were done without proper reason or notification. That…

LEMOORE, Calif. — A pilot was safe after an F-35C fighter jet crashed near a central California naval installation on Wednesday, officials said.Authorities received a report that a military jet had crashed and was engulfed in flames around 6:40 p.m., the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post. Responding deputies, firefighters, California Highway Patrol officers and EMS personnel found the wreckage in a cotton field just north of Naval Air Station Lemoore. The pilot, who had ejected, was found with a parachute in a nearby field, the sheriff’s office said. He was flown to a hospital for…

Overnight, Russia attacked a Ukrainian defense industry facility. According to officials, a military depot and an airfield were also struck.  “All designated targets have been hit,” the Defense Ministry in Moscow said in its statement. “The objectives of the strike have been achieved.” The ministry reported in a statement a “large-scale precision strike” involving long-range weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The targets included “Ukraine’s defense industry facilities, a military airfield infrastructure, and a depot storing ammunition, missiles, and components for the production of unmanned aerial vehicles,” according to the ministry. Russia’s increase in attacks comes on the heels of Western vows to minimize…

Seth Reeves was only supposed to be at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, for two weeks.He was slated to work from July 1 to July 15 as part of the Aviation Training Center’s flight mechanic exchange program, which allows guardsmen to stand duty at operational air stations. He had become a third-class aviation maintenance technician just over one year ago, in March 2024.But on July 4, disaster struck, and Reeves — along with three other Coast Guardsmen from Coast Guard Rescue 6553 — found themselves in a treacherous search-and-rescue mission to save hundreds of stranded girls from…

The Navy will continue sharing data with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from satellites that the service had planned to start phasing out on July 31.The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP, satellites used by the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center will now provide data to NOAA until fall 2026, a Navy spokesperson said Thursday.“The Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center will continue processing and disseminating Defense Meteorological Satellite Program data through July 31, 2025,” the spokesperson told Military Times.“The center had planned to phase out the data as part of a Defense Department modernization effort.…

Most survival films sell you adrenaline. The Road strips that away and leaves you with something harder to face: the slow, brutal grind of collapse when everything—food, hope, morality—is running on fumes. It’s not exciting. It’s not comforting. But it’s honest. This is a story about what it really means to survive long after the world has ended. No government. No rescue. No clean water. Just a father and his son pushing forward through ash and silence. What makes it powerful isn’t action—it’s the quiet decisions made when there’s nothing left to lose. If you want a movie that shows…

Some of us are still wondering why, all of a sudden, bird flu has dropped from headlines and is no longer infecting human beings in the United States. Now, the University of Nebraska has asked the same question and given us all an answer. The simple answer given was: Cases have gone down, but experts warn that it hasn’t disappeared. Accoridng to the report by UNMC (University of Nebraska Medical Center), nearly as quickly as bird flu took hold in daily conversations, it disappeared from them and most people’s thoughts—making it easy for the public to think avian influenza’s threat…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. Jake Schmitt, a Utah hunting guide, went into the Uintah Mountains on July 20 to scout for mule deer. He was looking for a big buck in summer velvet that he knew was in the area. Schmitt left his truck on a forest road and drove into the mountains in a UTV, prepared with plenty of gear. He also brought along Buddy, his six-year-old German shorthaired pointer. The next morning, Schmitt crawled out of the mountains — barely alive — by following…

Army leaders have learned from recent counter drone experiments that there is no one solution, no silver bullet to protect soldiers from drones.Leaders from V Corps, Fort Knox, Ky, spoke with reporters on a media call Wednesday to discuss Project Flytrap — an exercise involving U.S. military personnel, partner nation military and industry representatives to help counter the threats posed by unmanned aerial systems on the battlefield. “[Counter-unmanned aerial systems] are essential to success on the modern battlefield,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commanding general of V Corps. ”U.S. and allied forces must rapidly transform to the very real threat…

The appropriations measure advanced out of the Senate Appropriations Committee by a bipartisan 26-3 vote, with both Republican and Democratic leaders praising the plan as meeting the emerging needs of the armed forces. “This bill addresses major funding gaps across the board,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the panel. “It invests in ship building … it expands critical munitions production, including air and missile defense interceptors, long range missiles and next generation hypersonic weapons. “It funds drone and counter drone technologies, which are increasingly changing the nature of the battlefield. Finally, the bill invests in our most precious…

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Russian government has developed a far-reaching, multi-level approach to turbocharge the country’s development and production of drones with an eye to becoming a world leader in the field. The comprehensive strategy includes large amounts of federal and state funding, thousands of startups and even the systematic training of schoolchildren. Drones have emerged as a key technology in the war in Ukraine, which is now in its fourth year after the Russian military’s large-scale invasion of the country that commenced in February 2022. The cheap, unmanned flying systems, often no heavier than a few kilograms and…

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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

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NEW YORK — The secretary of the Army on Wednesday directed the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to review its hiring practices, bar outside groups from choosing employees and remove a newly announced hire who led the nation’s cybersecurity agency under President Joe Biden.The directive, shared on the social platform X by Secretary Dan Driscoll, came just a day after Jen Easterly was announced as the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in West Point’s social sciences department.It demonstrated how vigorously President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to wield control over the ideology and leadership of higher education and the…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. Around four years after it took place, details are still emerging around the wild pig sting operation that was led by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and which targeted several hunting properties on the Upper Peninsula, including one owned by Ted Nugent. Although the famous rocker and outspoken hunter has since been cleared by a judge of any wrongdoing, Nugent is still raising a ruckus about the agency’s policies and what he says is government overreach. In late June, Nugent…

This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.  Did you know that U.S. households are carrying $1.18 trillion in credit card debt? Considering the fact that the average rate of interest on credit card balances is now over 20 percent, that is not good news at all. Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by from month to month in this very harsh economic environment, and turning to credit cards for some relief can be extremely tempting. A thousand-dollar credit card balance can turn into four or five thousand dollars in the blink of…

The U.S. Navy has suspended its search for a sailor reported missing from the aircraft carrier George Washington while it was operating in the Timor Sea, the service announced Wednesday.The Navy ended the active search at 12:40 p.m. Wednesday following “an extensive search” involving Navy personnel, the Australian Defence Force and the Australian Border Force, officials said in a brief release. The sailor was reported missing Monday as it was transiting the Timor Sea, located off Australia’s northern coast.The carrier began search efforts after receiving reports of a possible sailor overboard, officials said in an earlier statement.The sailor’s identity is…