The Pentagon on Thursday released footage of what it said was a Russian aircraft pouring fuel on a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone and clipping the drone's propeller in international airspace over the Black Sea. The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, the Pentagon said. Dumping the fuel appeared to be aimed at blinding its optical instruments and driving it out of the area. On a second approach, either the same jet or another Russian fighter that had been shadowing the MQ-9 struck the drone's propeller, damaging one blade, according to the U.S. military. The U.S. military said it ditched the MQ-9 Reaper in the sea after what it described as the Russian fighter making an unsafe intercept of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

For speedier entry into the U.S., your most important travel tool is now your face. All three of the Bay Area's airports are deploying new facial recognition technology, called Simplified Arrival, to screen incoming international passengers and testing it in San Jose to track some departing passengers too. "You get instant verification," said James Hutton of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on a recent morning as hordes of bleary-eyed travelers streamed through San Francisco International Airport's immigration control booths and paused for a snapshot. "The camera does immediate identification," he said, "telling the customs officer that, 'This is the person that's in front of me.' " The old approach we've long relied on -- passport scanning and stamping -- has vanished. Instead, in a major overhaul of its strategy of processing travelers, government officials have installed cameras next to customs officers at all 238 international airports, 13 seaports and every pedestrian and bus processing facility along the nation's northern and southern land borders.

Nowhere is the competition in developing artificial intelligence fiercer than in the accelerating rivalry between the United States and China. At stake in this competition is not just who leads in AI but who sets the rules for how it is used around the world. China is forging a new model of digital authoritarianism at home and is actively exporting it abroad. It has launched a national-level AI development plan with the intent to be the global leader by 2030. And it is spending billions on AI deployment, training more AI scientists and aggressively courting experts from Silicon Valley.

That was the crux of the message a coalition of robotics companies including the famed Boston Dynamics put out in an open letter with the eye-catching subject line "General Purpose Robots Should Not Be Weaponized." The Waltham-headquartered Boston Dynamics is attempting to, well, terminate the idea that its internet-celebrity robot "dogs" and other automatons will be armed to the teeth, and it, alongside other major robotics companies, is encouraging others to do the same. "We believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely available to the public, and capable of navigating to previously inaccessible locations where people live and work, raises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues," the companies wrote in the joint letter posted online on Thursday. "Weaponized applications of these newly-capable robots will also harm public trust in the technology in ways that damage the tremendous benefits they will bring to society. For these reasons, we do not support the weaponization of our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots."

The battle for roster spots is about to kick off in earnest for the Patriots with training camp practices set to start Wednesday. Even though the Patriots didn't make a huge splash in free agency this time around, there are still plenty of new faces in the mix fighting for jobs between 2022 draft picks, players acquired in trades as well as the few of note that landed in free agency. Some of the best battles should come in the areas of third-down specialist with James White on the active-PUP list, boundary corner, and outside linebacker opposite Matthew Judon. We'll see how much it changes throughout the course of training camp and the preseason. Analysis: It makes sense to keep the up-and-coming star (Jones), his much-needed mentor (Hoyer), and future backup (Zappe) in the building.

Don't throw away that smartphone! Just because a Google software engineer whose conclusions have been questioned says a computer program is sentient, meaning it can think and has feelings, doesn't mean an attack of the cyborgs through your devices is imminent. However, Blake Lemoine's analysis should make us consider how little we have planned for a future where advances in robotics will increasingly change how we live. Already, automation has put thousands of Americans who lack higher-level skills out of a job. But let's get back to Lemoine, who was put on leave by Google for violating its confidentiality policy.

Google parent company Alphabet is folding one of its subsidiaries back into Google as the startup's founder steps down to confront a neurological disease. Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff said Thursday he's leaving the company focused on environmentally sustainable urban planning technology because he "very likely" has ALS, also known as Lou Gehring's disease. Sidewalk Labs was one of a hodgepodge of projects to spin off from Google when the tech giant put itself under a new holding company, Alphabet, in 2015. The idea was to separate Google's riskier explorations of futuristic technology from its highly profitable, advertising-fueled core business. Doctoroff said in a Medium post about his departure Thursday that four products developed by Sidewalk Labs now fit squarely into Google's commitments to be more environmentally sustainable and go carbon-free by 2030.

The seafood industry has long been a vital economic force in Massachusetts, generating $14 billion annually in sales and employing more than 127,000. But despite the strength of the industry here and our rich fishing grounds and strong ports, the Bay State still imports far more seafood than it produces. Today the U.S. imports 90% of the seafood we eat, and it's clear that wild capture fisheries alone can't meet our increasing demand for seafood. It's time for the United States take action to diversify our food supply by encouraging development of the nascent aquaculture industry. Aquaculture -- or fish farming -- needs to play a bigger role in producing sustainable protein for our growing population.

The Secret Service has designated Nantucket a "No Drone Zone" ahead of President Biden's Thanksgiving visit. "Due to protective operations in Nantucket, MA, the Secret Service, in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has established a drone flight restriction from November 23, 2021 to November 28, 2021," the agency said in a press release. The restriction applies to all aircraft and pilots, including drone pilots. The Bidens were scheduled to arrive at Nantucket Memorial Airport at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday, the White House Press Office announced this week. The 46th president is a frequent visitor to the Massachusetts coastal island.

Who goes to a demonstration with a high-powered assault weapon? He planned on bringing his high-powered assault weapon to that demonstration with every intention of using it. He claims it was self-defense -- it was not. He was out for blood, his goal was to shoot and kill as many as possible and claim it was self-defense. Absolutely relieved that the jury in this case based their deliberations and ultimate not guilty verdict on the facts and didn't cower to the obvious intended intimidation of BLM, Antifa, the left-leaning liberal loonies, and last but not least, the lying fake media.