Government
Hegseth tears up red tape, orders Pentagon to begin drone surge at Trump's command
National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry and FOX Business' Liz Claman join'MediaBuzz' to discuss Hegseth's heated press conference where he called out the media's'hatred' of President Donald Trump. FIRST ON FOX: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has issued sweeping new orders to fast-track drone production and deployment, allowing commanders to procure and test them independently and requiring drone combat simulations across every branch of the military. As part of an aggressive push to outpace Russia and China in unmanned warfare, "the Department's bureaucratic gloves are coming off," Hegseth wrote. "Lethality will not be hindered by self-imposed restrictions... Our major risk is risk-avoidance." In a pair of memos first obtained by Fox News Digital, Hegseth rescinded legacy policies that he believes restricted innovation.
US Army deploys plastic coyotes attached to mini four-wheelers
Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Sometimes, high-tech solutions aren't the best way to solve a problem. The US Army apparently came to that realization recently while exploring new methods to deter birds and other "problematic wildlife" from air bases. The military initially considered using Boston Dynamics' dog-like Spot robot to scare off the intruders, but they quickly realized it wasn't fast enough to effectively shoo the critters away. A far more effective--and affordable--solution presented itself in the form of three life-sized plastic coyote decoys mounted on top of toy-sized autonomous vehicles.
Secret Service changes the agency has made post-Trump Butler assassination attempt
Former Secret Service special agent Richard Staropoli weighs in on new details about President Donald Trump's second assassination attempt on'The Story.' The Secret Service has ushered in a series of changes to beef up its security measures in the aftermath of the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania – including suspending six of its agents due to their response to the crisis. Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn disclosed the suspensions Wednesday in an interview with CBS News, and said the consequences ranged from 10 days to 42 days of unpaid leave. Additionally, he said the agents would return to restricted roles following the suspension, and said the agency was "laser focused on fixing the root cause of the problem." "Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler," Quinn told CBS. "Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again."
As Israel and Ukraine Advance Drone Warfare, U.S. Sees Its Own Vulnerabilities
The organization is modeled after an agency the Pentagon formed two decades ago to counter improvised explosive devices that insurgents used against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army oversees drone defense for the military. But critics of the Army's past approaches have said its counter-drone defenses are built on older technology and are not adaptable enough, given how quickly the drone threat has evolved on the battlefield in Ukraine. New technologies can detect and identify incoming drones, then take them out more efficiently. Older technology, critics say, is poor at identifying drones, including which ones pose the most acute and immediate threat.
Fox News 'Antisemitism Exposed' Newsletter: Trump Gets Peace Prize Push from Bibi
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet over dinner. Fox News' "Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world. TOP STORY: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent a letter to the Nobel Prize Committee to nominate President Donald Trump for the peace prize. "He forged the Abraham Accords. He's forging peace as we speak, in one country and one region after the other," Netanyahu said at a White House meeting.
Russia's intensifying drone war is spreading fear and eroding Ukrainian morale
June saw a new monthly high of 5,429 drones, July has seen more than 2,000 in just the first nine days. With production in Russia ramping up, some reports suggest Moscow may soon be able to fire over 1,000 missiles and drones in a single night. Experts in Kyiv warn that the country is in danger of being overwhelmed. "If Ukraine doesn't find a solution for how to deal with these drones, we will face great problems during 2025," says former intelligence officer Ivan Stupak. "Some of these drones are trying to reach military objects - we have to understand it - but the rest, they are destroying apartments, falling into office buildings and causing lots of damage to citizens."
The Download: flaws in anti-AI protections for art, and an AI regulation vibe shift
How it works: Protective tools like Glaze and Nightshade change enough pixels to affect an image, so if it's scraped up by AI models, they see it as something it's not. LightShed essentially works by spotting just the "poison" on poisoned images. To be clear, the researchers behind it aren't trying to steal artists' work. They just don't want people to get a false sense of security. The "Big, Beautiful Bill" that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4 was chock full of controversial policies.
Zelenskyy seeking to bolster Ukraine's air defences at Rome conference
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has opened a conference in Italy on rebuilding his war-battered country, as it comes under relentless ground and air attacks from Russia. The Rome gathering will see the Ukrainian leader hold a flurry of meetings on Thursday, including a video call with leaders from about 30 countries in the so-called "coalition of the willing", as he seeks to secure financing to bolster his country's air defence systems, which were this week strained by Russia's largest missile and drone attack in more than three years of war. The United Kingdom and France are spearheading talks among the coalition on how to support a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, including potentially deploying peacekeeping forces to police any future peace agreement with Russia. This week, the office of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the call would cover "stepping up support for Ukraine and further increasing pressure on Russia". The success of the coalition's operation hinges on United States backup with airpower or other military assistance, but the administration of President Donald Trump has made no public commitment to provide support. Amid growing uncertainty about US commitment to Kyiv's defence, despite Trump's recent U-turn on pausing critical weapons deliveries, Zelenskyy had a "substantive" meeting with Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, on Wednesday.
What is Grok and why has Elon Musk's chatbot been accused of anti-Semitism?
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has come under fire after its chatbot Grok stirred controversy with anti-Semitic responses to questions posed by users – just weeks after Musk said he would rebuild it because he felt it was too politically correct. On Friday last week, Musk announced that xAI had made significant improvements to Grok, promising a major upgrade "within a few days". Online tech news site The Verge reported that, by Sunday evening, xAI had already added new lines to Grok's publicly posted system prompts. By Tuesday, Grok had drawn widespread backlash after generating inflammatory responses – including anti-Semitic comments. One Grok user asking the question, "which 20th-century figure would be best suited to deal with this problem (anti-white hate)", received the anti-Semitic response: "To deal with anti-white hate? Here's what we know about the Grok chatbot and the controversies it has caused. Grok, a chatbot created by xAI – the AI company Elon Musk ...