Then-sergeant first class Jacob Gaskill felt uneasy last year. He had been in the Army for more than a decade as an explosive ordnance technician before heading to the Army Software Factory. There and over the course of multiple years, he helped fix some of the service’s most pressing digital issues.
But in 2025, his software tour was coming to a close. Armed with an “additional skill identifier” that denoted his qualifications as a software developer from his time at the ASWF, he was set to go back to the EOD branch and finish out his service in the job he entered back in 2010.
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Public Domain
One day, and that day may never come, there will be an easy search mechanism for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Until then, the best a humble citizen from the provinces can do is take a low pass, bite a nibble at the most attractive bits, and then head off to digest what you got.
Speeches, orders, and policy statements from the Executive Branch are important, but if you really want to drive change or correct error, you have to do it through the legislative branch.
The Ukraine War Comes Closer to Putin: Russia’s capital city was once again under bombardment by Ukrainian drones in the latest round of strikes to hit Russia’s largest city and the seat of power in the world’s largest country.
Posting to his Telegram channel, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote that more than 60 explosive-laden drones had been successfully shot down by Russian air defenses, but it was not immediately clear how many Ukrainian drones had managed to evade being shot down.
Tu-160 Bomber from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Russia Tu-160 Bomber on Tarmac.
At the beginning of this year, world events seemed to be leaning in Russia’s favor. Distracted by military action in Venezuela and Iran, with the potential for conflict in Cuba and other parts of the world, the Trump Administration’s attention and interest in resolving the war in Ukraine through a peace deal seemed to be on life support. Perhaps waning interest in Washington would provide a window of opportunity, thought the Kremlin.
Annual “religious liberty training” may soon be required for troops and commanders if the Pentagon adopts recommendations from a White House-directed commission of faith leaders and military advocates.
The recommendations, which Pentagon leaders said Tuesday they “welcome,” come from the Religious Liberty Commission, a 12-person committee established by President Donald Trump in May 2025 to develop policies across the federal government to “secure domestic religious liberty.
Image by Simon Dawson/10 Downing Street
Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer — expected to leave office next month after losing Labour MPs’ support — unveiled a long-delayed Defence Investment Plan on Tuesday, pledging almost £300 billion over four years to “transform” Britain’s armed forces. Headline items: over £5 billion for drones and autonomous systems, a promise to make the Army “10 times more lethal” through drones, missiles and AI, and roughly 60,000 new jobs by decade’s end.
Ukraine’s top general says Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian General Staff to draw up plans for a new offensive that includes capturing Kyiv. Speaking on the TSN telethon on June 30, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Putin tasked his General Staff with calculating several options for a renewed assault, one of them launched from Belarusian territory and aimed at the Ukrainian capital.
The claim is real and alarming on its face.
Archibald MacLeish didn’t have much downtime to enjoy the holidays in 1941.
As the United States’ ninth Librarian of Congress, MacLeish was too preoccupied with work. A few weeks after Japan’s surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, MacLeish was among those tasked with making the final arrangements to safeguard the nation’s most important documents from enemy attack or sabotage.
Related: 6 things you didn’t know about the Declaration of Independence
This initiative was on such a need-to-know basis that MacLeish did the packing himself, according to a 2016 article on History.com.
After months of increased drone attacks, multiple regions throughout Russia are starting to feel the economic ripple effects of the war. Originally contained to Crimea and other border regions along the border with Ukraine, regions throughout Siberia and even Moscow itself have been forced to implement fuel rationing as drone attacks against oil refineries and other fuel infrastructure sites have forced the government to take drastic measures to cope with the strained supply, much to the displeasure of ordinary Russians.
Iran has blocked nearly one-third of the world’s agricultural inputs via the Strait of Hormuz. Critical ingredients needed to grow food–from fertilizer feedstocks to industrial chemicals–have been prevented from moving through one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints at precisely the worst possible moment: the heart of the global planting season. The disruption has persisted for so long that even if the Strait fully reopened tomorrow, much of the damage has already occurred — it has not yet harmed Americans.