Two airmen supporting U.S. operations against Iran died this month in noncombat incidents, the Pentagon revealed late Thursday, bringing the total number of American military fatalities in the war to 23. 
The incidents were logged in the Defense Casualty Analysis System, the Defense Department’s casualty database, on Oct. 29. The Department of Defense has not identified the two airmen. Or the specific time and location of their deaths, except that they occurred in October.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow is ready for war with Europe, but claimed he did not want the conflict to unfold in the first place.

Putin made his comments following an unusual call with the leaders of Finland and Norway, as Washington tries to spark a new round of talks on the war in Ukraine.

Tu-160 Bomber Russian Air Force Photo

Tu-160 Bomber from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its southern neighbor in February 2022.

As a sign of how isolated Russia’s leader feels he and his country are, Putin said he would welcome any warming of relations between Russia and the West.

But ensconced within the Kremlin’s walls, the Russian president also affirmed that should the war he started in Ukraine expand outward, the ensuing conflagration on the European continent would benefit no one.

T-14 Armata. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Main battle tank T-14 object 148 on heavy unified tracked platform Armata. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

“First of all, we are ready, but we want no war with Europe.

Cheesecake Factory Dispute Continues as Obama Renews Attack on White House Renovations – Former President Barack Obama renewed his attack on President Donald Trump’s White House renovations on Wednesday, accusing the administration of focusing more on a joke about its decorating choices than on Americans’ rising costs.

Speaking in Morrow, Georgia, Obama ridiculed the response to his comparison of Trump’s gold-heavy White House makeover to a Cheesecake Factory opened by Saddam Hussein.

President Donald J.

The Army is rehearsing how to temporarily bury thousands of fallen soldiers and honor their religious beliefs in a future war where recovering bodies and returning them home may be impossible until the fighting ends.
The exercise, reported by Military Times, brought together Army chaplains, engineers and mortuary affairs specialists to rehearse a scenario in which the military could no longer provide individual funeral ceremonies for its fallen.

Putin Raises Taxes to Fund Ukraine War – Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to introduce a new round of tax hikes as the cost of the Ukraine war continues to put significant pressure on the country’s finances. On Thursday, October 29, Russia’s parliament approved the first reading of a new three-year federal budget that would see military spending increased to record levels. Taxes on businesses, investors, and consumers will increase.

ASEAN members continue the development of their defence industries, with localised production of foreign designs being key.

Are Britain’s elite Paras training for th

According to recent media reports, false intelligence generated by AI came close to causing a military confrontation with China this spring. Thinking a Chinese ship in the Middle East was carrying components for nuclear weapons, the U.S. military was prepared to board the vessel. Just before the operation was launched, it was discovered that a chatbot had inaccurately identified the ship’s cargo.
With the Department of War (DoW) aggressively pushing to implement AI across all levels, we cannot assume that close calls like this one will be isolated incidents.

Both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have canceled scheduled appearances ahead of the final weekend before Tuesday’s midterm elections.

President Trump pulled out of planned rallies in Kansas and Iowa and replaced them with telephone appearances.

2016 Donald Trump Campaign Stop Creative Commons

Donald Trump Speaking Creative Commons Released Photo

At the same time, Vance, expected to announce the administration’s anti-fraud campaign, canceled a scheduled rally in Minnesota on Friday.

War can be pretty gruesome, especially for the wars that were won and lost by hacking people to death with sharp objects, smashing the enemy with big, heavy rocks, and yeeting plague-ridden corpses into cities by catapult. These days, wars aren’t “clean” but they aren’t as horrifying as your great-grandaddy’s war, either. Even so, as medical technology advanced, the horrifying ways to maim and kill the enemy advanced, too.

Qatari mediators have returned to Tehran as part of a diplomatic mission to help the United States and Iran reach a deal to end their nine-month war, Reuters reported on Friday.

The source, “an official briefed on the talks,” also said the United States coordinated the talks.

An F-22 Raptor performs an aerial demonstration at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, Sept. 21, 2025. Designed for both air superiority and ground attack missions, the F-22 demonstrates the flexibility and power of fifth-generation fighter technology. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt.

A Win on Tuesday May Not Be a Win for the Democrats – Unless the Republican Party pulls off a historic political turnaround, the Democratic Party is set to win the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3.

National polling shows the party benefiting from dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump.

According to a generic congressional ballot polling average, the Democratic Party leads by nine percentage points, suggesting a successful night is forthcoming even if polls overestimate voter enthusiasm for the Democrats.

Donald Trump Getting Off Air Force One. Creative Commons Image.

The views and opinion expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities mentioned.
On a summer day in the French Alps, Peter Ortiz made a decision. Surrounded by more than 100 Germans with machine guns, the 31-year-old American Marine major stepped into the open and called out in German, French, and English, waving a makeshift white flag.

President Donald Trump was presented with several military options for potential new military strikes against Iran on Thursday, October 29, as the Pentagon continues to move additional military equipment into the Middle East.

The briefing, which was delivered by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Adm. Brad Cooper, comes as Washington considers options to resume major combat operations against Tehran.

A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit Bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, undertook a hot pit refueling operation at Lajes Field, on September 12, 2023.

Drones from Ukraine carried out a couple of major strikes in Russia on Friday, hitting both the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in the Samara region and a military food supplier, the Konservsushprod factory, in the Bryansk region. Fires were reported at both facilities.

According to the Kyiv Post, the oil refinery produces jet fuel for the Russian military, while the food supplier also works with the military. Owned by Rosneft, the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery processes about 8.8 million tons of crude oil per year and produces 20 different types of petroleum products.

BUILT FOR BATTLE | Military Motivation
✓ Mili

Trump’s presidency lived by inflation and could be stung by it: There’s a good reason to think that inflation was the biggest reason why Donald Trump is president today.

Throughout Joseph Biden’s presidency, inflation was a major problem, for the first time in a generation. As in much of the world, pandemic-era supply-chain bottlenecks combined with too much money in the economy drove prices up. Politicians had few answers on how to solve the problem.

Joe Biden and Russian President Putin. Image Credit: Creative Commons

President Joe Biden.

JD Vance Sends Letter to Iran to Resume Peace Talks – Vice President JD Vance has reportedly sent a letter to a senior Iranian official in an effort to revive negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the eight-month conflict.

The letter to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, comes as Washington considers renewed military action after Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Vice President JD Vance gives remarks at a Sports Council announcement, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

Over the past decade, the United States has come to recognize that space is no longer a sanctuary. China and Russia are developing weapons to disrupt, disable and destroy American satellites. The Space Force now talks openly about weapons in space, orbital warfare, and space superiority. Just last month, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stated for the first time that the Space Force “has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
Government funding has followed. The Space Force’s fiscal 2027 budget request, at $71.

The European defence procurement organisation OCCAR has ordered 69 additional Schakal wheeled infantry fighting vehicles for the German and Dutch armed forces.

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $1.08bn Other Transaction Agreement from the US Army to further develop and test the PAC-3 Edge interceptor, marking a significant step in the Army’s Future Interceptor programme.

A new survey found that support for President Donald Trump remains strong among white evangelical Christians.

A PBS News/NPR/Marist poll found that 66% approved of Trump’s performance, while nearly three-quarters planned to support Republican congressional candidates.

President Donald Trump holds a press conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Monday, May 12, 2025, in the Roosevelt Room. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

President Donald J.

Eliseo Garcia celebrated his 20th birthday on February 13, 1951.
Well, it wasn’t as though Garcia blew out candles and opened gifts at a party. There was no time for that. Garcia, who retired from the U.S. Army as a command sergeant major in 1972, was fighting in the Battle of Chipyong-Ni, one of the most pivotal skirmishes during the Korean War.
“A lot of us were young guys,” Garcia later reflected. “… Some of the guys were teasing me that I was getting some unwanted guests for my birthday.

As military leaders call for public support and

This video describes the military situation in

WSJ Troops are operating around the clock to maintain the Iranian blockade and protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz

Reuters Iran has harnessed a military-financial complex of 5,000 agencies to bring in components, explosives and heavy-duty trucks critical to its drone and missile programs.

Japan Times Japan and the United States are looking to ramp up their joint military drills, making them even more realistic

Max Seddon, Financial Times An American lawyer, a banker and a former spy hatched a plan to prevent nuclear Armageddon.

Dylan Malyasov, Defence Blog Vladimir Putin said on Oct. 29 that Russia is ready for war with Europe but does not want one, warning there would be no winners.

Engineers developing Russia’s Su-57 fifth generation fighter faced significant challenges balancing stealth, aerodynamic performance and structural strength, according to Mikhail Strelets, director of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. In an interview published by the United Aircraft Corporation, part of the state-owned Rostec conglomerate, Strelets described the competing requirements as central challenges in the aircraft’s development.

There are a lot of professions out there that could put people in the presence of the otherworldly, the unexplained, or the outright haunted. I’m sure there are a lot of clergy, doctors, morticians and the like who have seen some unbelievable things. Serving in the military isn’t all that much similar to those professions, because—although they’re in the business of making ghosts—spending a lot of time around remains isn’t what most of them do.
Also Read: The Civil War created the modern American funeral industry
Still, the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump this week claimed that the war with Iran will end whenever he decides, as new figures show that the war has so far cost the United States more than $47 billion since it began on February 28.

The president made the comments during a speech at a campaign rally in Texas on October 27.

OVER NEVADA — A B-1B Lancer from the 37th Bomb Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., streaks through the sky.

Reuters reported this week that Iran, since early last year, has been employing “a secret network of military agencies” around the world, with the ability to evade both the U.S. military blockade near the Strait of Hormuz and the sanctions against Iran.

The network has given Iran the ability to smuggle “hardware, explosives and heavy-duty trucks,” to the tune of about $2 billion, since the network launched in early 2025, the report said. More than 5,000 agencies exist as part of the network.

Iran Missiles. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Iran Army Tank.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said overnight on October 28-29th that more than 600 drones from Ukraine were fired at the Moscow region overnight, as reported by the Kyiv Independent.

Of the 613 drones that were shot towards Moscow, 231 were shot down while they approached the Russian capital. There were no reports of casualties or damage done to Russian buildings.

A California Congressman is pushing for the Navy to include military housing in its massive redevelopment project in San Diego that has drawn public backlash over plans for a potential data center.
“When you talk to active duty folks, they talk about how tough it is to make it and to pay for housing even with their housing allowances,” Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat who represents California’s 50th Congressional District, which includes parts of San Diego, told Task & Purpose. “It seems to me that that’s something that would be helpful.

This video describes the military situation in

5 km with 15 kg on Your Back!

The Pentagon’s criminal investigative service is leading a joint investigation into mysterious refrigeration failures at military commissaries across the country amid concerns that the incidents may have been caused by cyberattacks, a Defense Department official confirmed Thursday.
“We are aware of speculation regarding a potential cyber incident,” the official said. “The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the criminal investigative arm of the [Department of Defense] Office of Inspector General, is leading a joint investigation.

The Army gave the nod to Lockheed Martin to further develop a new missile interceptor that’s expected to have better engagement range, altitude, velocity and maneuverability than legacy systems, the service announced Thursday.
The contractor secured an Other Transaction agreement for the Future Interceptor program.
The total project value is estimated to exceed $1 billion. Under a cost-sharing arrangement, Lockheed is expected to kick in $423 million while Uncle Sam provides about $660 million, according to an Army press release.

The ongoing conflict in Iran and across the wider Middle East has inflicted catastrophic environmental damage across the Persian Gulf.

The damage serves as a reminder that wartime consequences often extend beyond military casualties and physical destruction.

(Dec. 01, 2020) – The guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) launches a Block V Tomahawk, the weapon’s newest variant, during a missile exercise. This event marked the first time a Block V Tomahawk missile was operationally tested, marking the Navy’s transition to a more advanced capability for the fleet.

Senior Trump administration officials are reportedly fighting internally over what comes after the midterm elections, positioning themselves for promotions and preparing for a reshuffle.

Reports have circulated for weeks about growing tensions among senior officials, along with questions about whether White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will remain in her position if Republicans suffer major midterm losses.

President Donald J. Trump signs an Executive Order creating an anti-fraud task force to be led by Vice President JD Vance, Monday, March 16, 2026, in the Oval Office.

On Oct. 28, 2026 the State of New Jersey Office of Policing Strategy & Innovation (OPSI) issued an Officer Safety Alert regarding the SIG Sauer P320 pistol.
“The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Statewide Affirmative Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Office, has serious safety concerns regarding the Sig Sauer P320 pistol,” the alert reads. “The SAFE Office has filed a lawsuit against Sig Sauer detailing many incidents of the gun firing without a trigger pull, causing serious injury.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has removed the Pentagon’s senior military planning officer amid growing concerns that the United States could restart strikes against Iran following the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3.

The Associated Press reports that the Pentagon dismissed Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia as director for strategy, plans, and policy on the Joint Staff.

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress assigned to the 23rd Bomb Squadron sits on the flightline during exercise Prairie Vigilance 25-1 at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, April 12, 2025.

Israeli elections on Oct. 27 produced a complex result, with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition alliance, led by Gadi Eisenkot, winning enough seats in the Knesset to form a government. The opposition faces a tricky choice: attempt to form a unity government with Netanyahu, after channeling anger at the prime minister during the campaign, or partner with the Israeli-Arab parties, which performed unusually well in the election. The latter option, however, is deeply unpalatable to most of the Jewish opposition.

For decades, militaries have chased the next revolution in warfare. But what actually makes a revolution in military affairs revolutionary? Is there one happening now? Does it matter? Is it just about drones and AI or something more? Ryan digs into the promises, pitfalls, and persistent myths of military transformation with Mike Horowitz (Penn), Stacie Pettyjohn (CNAS), and Benjamin Jensen (CSIS). This episode is brought to you by Arkenstone Defense. Learn more about them at warontherocks.

A Russian drone strike killed at least 14 people at a railway station in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, October 29.

Regional authorities said the strikes injured 14 more people.

Tu-160M Bombers from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Tu-160 Up Close. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders strongly criticized the attack.

A Crowded Platform
Ukraine’s state railway operator said a jet-powered drone struck the platform on Thursday morning, when train No.

If the polls are right about both President Donald Trump’s low approval ratings and a generic ballot that strongly favors Democrats, then the Republicans are probably looking at a tough election night next Tuesday.

Trump’s approval rating is around 20 points underwater, Democrats lead on the generic ballot by the high single digits, and voters are unhappy with the high cost of living and the war in Iran.

President Donald Trump boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Thursday, September 11, 2025, for a trip to New York.

“Get ready for war!