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Celtics star accuses referees of having an ‘agenda’ against him after playoff exit
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown accused NBA officials of having an "agenda" against him in the team’s playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, which ended in a Game 7 defeat.
Brown touched on 76ers center Joel Embiid getting calls after Boston lost to Philadelphia on Saturday night. He further went after referees in a livestream.
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"They keep saying there are push-offs and stuff like that," he said, via Mass Live. "Do you know how many players do that? That’s the common play, a basketball play. Every player does it. So why are you targeting me? They clearly had an agenda. Maybe because I had spoken and was critical of the refs in the regular season. So you know how they responded? You’re going to lead the playoffs in offensive fouls. That was the response from the officiating crew.
"I actually spoke to some refs and there was an agenda going into each game. Anytime Jaylen brings his arm up, just from reputation, just call it. Paul George does the same thing. Jalen Brunson does the same thing. I can go down the list. It’s a basketball play, whether y’all believe it or not. Everybody does that when you drive, especially when you got bodies on you. Philly took advantage of it and they took advantage of the officiating and it cost us to some degree."
Philadelphia won the final game of the series, 109-100. Embiid had 34 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Embiid made nine of his 11 free-throw attempts.
Brown made critical comments toward Embiid.
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"Embiid put a lot of pressure on us, like on all our bigs and our guards," he said. "We didn’t really have an answer for him. We tried a bunch of different things and he just, he’s a big body, and also he was flopping around, he got some extra calls and stuff like that, and they rewarded him for that. That’s the league that we’re in. So, that’s all I got to say."
Brown averaged 25.7 points per game and shot 45.5% from the floor.
He was the best Celtics player all season as the team was without Jayson Tatum for most of the season. He played in 71 games and averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
Boston was 56-26 and finished second in the Eastern Conference.
State Department fires back at accusations of ‘empty planes’ rescuing Americans from conflict zones
The State Department's account of its evacuation efforts is at odds with on-the-ground reports from private rescue teams who helped extract U.S. citizens from conflict zones during the opening days of the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Bryan Stern, founder and CEO of Grey Bull Rescue, a nonprofit evacuation service, is contesting claims that the State Department offered assistance to every American who asked for it, asserting instead that thousands of U.S. citizens were left trapped by missiles, bombs and security threats crowding airspace in the region.
"It’s not for lack of effort. Our State Department colleagues are tremendous. But their process doesn’t work. There is also no one — there's no job specialty," Stern told Fox News Digital, noting a lack of a dedicated government position for handling evacuations.
The contrasting assertions raise questions about the logistical efficiency of American rescue efforts while prompting calls from lawmakers for more specialization to get U.S. citizens out of conflict zones in the future.
Stern believes slow-moving bureaucracy is preventing the government from fully utilizing its rescue options.
As one data point, Stern pointed to a video sent to Fox News Digital depicting a mostly empty flight from Israel to Florida near the start of the conflict.
A source, who recorded the video, confirmed they had been evacuated by the State Department from Israel on flight LY1017 from Tel Aviv to Miami, Florida, on March 8 — a point at which Stern said Grey Bull Rescue was being flooded with hundreds of evacuation requests.
In response to inquiries about the video, State Department officials did not address why they had only booked a handful of seats. While the government sometimes purchases individual tickets on a commercial flight for evacuations, they rarely buy the entire aircraft’s capacity, sources familiar with the Department’s evacuation practices told Fox News Digital.
Beyond that particular instance, Department officials said their offers of assistance exceeded the demand on the ground.
"The State Department has reached out to every American who has registered interest in our support," a State Department official said. "Most Americans who requested assistance have declined seats when offered, opting either to remain in country or book commercial flight options which offer greater flexibility in terms of destination and luggage."
Stern believes the answer is misleading.
"That answer is inaccurate in totality," Stern said.
"There’s a difference between a State Department-contracted aircraft that is filled with Americans to come out and getting them to safety. That’s an evacuation. That’s different from: ‘Hey, go book a commercial ticket. Good luck to you,’" Stern said.
PRIVATE SECURITY FIRM HELPING AMERICANS EVACUATE THE MIDDLE EAST AMID WAR WITH IRAN
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who joined Grey Bull Rescue’s operations in Israel last month, applauded government efforts but believes there is room for reform.
"It really opened my eyes to some of the challenges that we have, the bureaucracy that we have," Mace said.
"I'm going to come back to Washington with some ideas on how to streamline what we currently have and how to ensure that we're allocating resources to the State Department, to [the Department of Homeland Security]."
Like Stern, Mace suggested that part of the problem stems from a lack of a single position in the State Department that deals with rescue efforts.
Stern, whose group has worked on over 800 missions to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan, Israel and Venezuela, believes current operations have too many moving pieces.
He said his team’s efforts allow him to communicate more directly with Americans requesting assistance.
"We know them, we talk to them 10 times a day. The current manifest we're working right now has 338 people on it. We do a Zoom call once a day with all the families. Because of that kind of thing, the chain between the person and the airplane is zero, because it's us," Stern said.
"With [the Department of State] you’re calling a center in West Virginia, talking to somebody reading a script who doesn’t know anything; they refer you to a website that goes to a data processing thing somewhere which gets [put] onto an Excel spreadsheet."
Over 43,000 Americans have safely returned to the United States since late February, according to the Department of State. Of those, government operations directly assisted 30,000 Americans.
Dying former congressman Barney Frank tells Democrats their far-left messaging is costing them voters
Former congressman Barney Frank warned on Sunday that Democrats of going too far left while dying in a hospice of congestive heart failure in Maine.
Frank, 86, was a liberal stalwart who fought to legalize same-sex marriage and helped pass Dodd-Frank, the Wall Street regulations, after the 2008 financial crash.
"We didn’t get to marriage until after these other things had been resolved," Frank said on CNN's "State of the Union."
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He added, "And that’s what I’m suggesting that we do today. The analogy is males and female transsexuals playing sports that are for women."
Frank is set to release a book criticizing the far-left wing of the Democratic Party, claiming that they have neglected more pressing issues like economic inequality and instead pushed more progressive causes. The former lawmaker wants Democrats to be more strategic about pushing far-left issues.
"I understand there’s a lot of anger about that," he continued. "And I think, in the interest of the transgender community, as well as others, it would be better to go at that in a more granular way, and not simply announce that, if you don’t support it, you’re a homophobe."
Frank served in the House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013.
SEN KENNEDY WARNS DEMOCRAT 'LOON WING' HAS 'FRIED' THE PARTY’S MOTHERBOARD
A new national poll released earlier this month is the latest to indicate that Democrats are facing major problems with their party's image as they try to win back congressional majorities from the Republicans in this year's midterm elections.
Just 28% of Americans questioned in a CNN poll view the Democratic Party positively, with 56% seeing Democrats in an unfavorable light.
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More than 100 historic shipwrecks identified at key global shipping route, many at risk
Over 100 historic shipwrecks have been uncovered at a strategic maritime gateway — and researchers warn they may be at risk of fading away.
The vessels were found on the seafloor of the Bay of Gibraltar, part of the narrow waterway linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, by researchers with Project Herakles.
The project, a joint venture between Spain's University of Cádiz and the University of Granada, has been underway for six years.
DIVERS UNCOVER 'EXTRAORDINARY' MILITARY TREASURE TIED TO LEGENDARY ROMAN BATTLE
Researchers have identified 150 underwater archaeological sites — the majority of which are shipwrecks, according to The Guardian.
The wrecks span centuries, from as early as the 5th century B.C. to World War II-era vessels.
The vessels include 23 Roman ships, four medieval ships, and the engine and propeller of a plane from the 1930s, according to The Guardian.
The findings were "not a chance discovery," said Felipe Cerezo Andreo, a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Cádiz — and the discovery took years in the making.
MARINE EXPERTS FIND LIKELY REMAINS OF 18TH-CENTURY TREASURE SHIP THAT WAS LOST FOR CENTURIES
The archaeologist told Fox News Digital in translated comments that his team's research has dramatically expanded what was previously known about the area.
"Before starting Project Herakles in 2019, only four underwater sites were known in the area; today we have information on more than 150 documented sites in just three years of work," he said.
"They can now be studied, protected and shared."
Researchers combined historical research with advanced technology to locate, map and study the wrecks.
"We began by analyzing historical archives, museums and interviewing the local community of fishermen and divers, who know the seabed better than anyone," Andreo recalled.
Archaeologists then used advanced marine scanning technology to map the seafloor and locate buried shipwrecks, including magnetometers to "detect metallic anomalies."
Andreo said most of the recorded shipwrecks are from the 18th to 20th centuries — but older Phoenician, Punic and Roman vessels are also buried in the sands.
"The bay was a very important space in antiquity," he said. "We have evidence of settlements such as Carteia and Iulia Traducta that used these waters as their main port."
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He added, "Although the more recent ships are more visible, beneath them lie Phoenician, Punic, and Roman wrecks that tell the maritime history of both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic."
The scale of the findings suggests the area holds a continuous record of maritime history, he said.
"This tells us we are not dealing with isolated shipwrecks, but rather a submerged historical archive that has recorded every commercial and military movement since antiquity," said Andreo.
"The bay has functioned as a funnel of global history, and this is reflected in a seabed that preserves archaeological evidence."
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Most of the ships are in "critical" condition, he said — with the biggest threats coming from human activity, including port work, construction and looting.
"We have identified that a large portion of these 150 sites are at significant risk of deterioration," he said.
"Some are directly exposed on the seabed, making them vulnerable to erosion."
An invasive algae called Rugulopteryx okamurae is "drastically altering the marine environment and hindering the preservation and study of the remains," he said.
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"That is why, in Herakles, we prioritize non-intrusive documentation, [such as] photogrammetry and 3D models, to record everything before it disappears, following UNESCO principles of in situ conservation," he said.
The archaeologist stressed that the shipwrecks are still a living cultural resource, and that his team is "working to make this heritage accessible to everyone."
The team is planning an underwater park and VR experiences, so that people can explore the shipwrecks without risking further damage to the sites, Andreo added.
"We want society to feel that these shipwrecks are their 'museums beneath the sea,'" he said.
"Ultimately, protecting these remains is about protecting the pages of the book that explain who we are today."
Jon Ossoff silent on SPLC indictment after taking more than $700K from affiliate of indicted group
Federal prosecutors' stunning indictment of a left-wing activist group for alleged financial crimes is reverberating in Georgia's 2026 Senate race, with Republicans targeting Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., for his past ties to the organization.
The Department of Justice brought criminal charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center in April for allegedly defrauding its donors by secretly transferring money to extremist groups with the goal of infiltrating and monitoring their activities.
Ossoff, the most vulnerable Senate Democrat running for re-election in 2026, is endorsed by the law center’s 501(c)(4) arm. The group contributed more than $700,000 to his campaign account in 2020, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
The Georgia Democrat has also praised the group’s purported efforts to combat racism.
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"Thank you for decades of work defending civil rights in the United States," Ossoff said in a video celebrating the nonprofit group’s 50th anniversary in November 2021.
"I'm deeply concerned, like many of you, by the rising level of polarization, hatred and mistrust in our society," he added. "We must recommit to the path of love, tolerance and peaceful coexistence if we are to flourish as a nation and as a world."
During that time, federal prosecutors allege that instead of combating extremism, the SPLC was providing financial support to organizations that spread it.
Between 2014 and 2023, the Alabama-based organization paid more than $3 million to informants belonging to the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nation and other neo-Nazi groups, according to the 11-count indictment, which included charges of bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The group allegedly concealed the payments by setting up bank accounts under fictitious names and did not inform federal law enforcement about their activities.
One informant, who the law center paid more than $270,000, was a member of an online group that helped plan the deadly 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to the indictment. Federal prosecutors said the informant attended the rally at the direction of the SPLC and "made racist postings" on behalf of the left-wing nonprofit.
Thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer died after a man drove his vehicle through a crowd of counter-protesters while injuring nearly 20 others.
"The SPLC was not dismantling these groups," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference in April. The group, he added, "was instead allegedly manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred."
SPLC interim CEO Bryan Fair slammed the charges as politically motivated and has argued the since-defunct program "saved lives."
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) hammered Ossoff’s ties to the law center.
"If Jon Ossoff is too spineless to reject the Southern Poverty Law Center’s endorsement and return their money, he’s complicit in funneling millions to violent extremist groups like the KKK," RNC spokeswoman Emma Hall said. "Anyone who doesn't condemn these indicted fraudsters is wrong for Georgia — plain and simple."
Ossoff has not commented on the grand jury indictment. His campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Ossoff is facing a crowded field of GOP challengers ahead of November.
Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, R-Ga., and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley are vying for the Republican nomination in an increasingly bitter three-way contest. President Donald Trump has yet to intervene and a significant chunk of the state’s Republican voters are undecided, according to recent polling.
The GOP candidates have raised just a fraction of the Ossoff campaign’s $31.7 million war chest.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report changed its race rating to "lean Democrat" in Ossoff’s favor earlier in April, citing an "increasingly sour national environment" for Republicans.
Mets' Carson Benge lays out for incredible catch vs Angels
Highlight reel plays have been few and far between for the slumping New York Mets this season, but rookie right fielder Carson Benge had one of the best catches of the year on Sunday night.
Los Angeles Angels second baseman Vaughn Grissom hit a line drive down the first base side in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out and a runner on first. Benge then laid out for a spectacular diving catch, likely saving a run and destroying the Angels’ chances of building momentum for a potential comeback.
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The Mets picked up a 5-1 victory for their 12th victory of the season.
"I dove still not knowing," Benge told reporters after the game, via MLB.com. "But I know I was going to try to make a play for my guys."
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Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen described the play as "pulchritudinous," which left Todd Zeile speechless in the booth. Dictionary.com says that "pulchritudinous" is used to describe something breathtaking, heartbreaking or beautiful.
All of the above truly describes Benge’s grab.
At the plate, Benge was 1-for-2 with two runs scored, had an RBI and two walks.
New York took two-of-three from Los Angeles in their series. It was the Mets’ first series win since taking two games from the Minnesota Twins on April 23.
Mets starter Clay Holmes allowed one run on four hits and struck out six. His ERA improved to 1.69.
Out of control, unqualified illegal alien truckers endangering kids on US roads, insider warns: ‘Just madness’
A trucking industry insider is warning about a deadly danger rampant on U.S. highways: unqualified, under-trained commercial truckers, many of whom are illegal immigrants and cannot read basic road signage.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of Illinois-based JKC Trucking, issued an impassioned appeal for more investigations into the problem, saying, "This is just madness."
"You wouldn't put someone in a cockpit of a Boeing 737 flying from New York to California if they weren't properly trained or couldn't communicate clearly or speak English. The same standard should apply to our highways," said Kucharski.
"Every day, truck drivers are driving alongside school buses, families and commuters just trying to get to work and back home safely," he continued. "When unqualified drivers slip through the cracks, that creates risk for our motoring public, and you can see that there's accidents all the time."
This week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into several commercial driving schools in the state for allegedly "endangering Texans by providing inadequate commercial driver training, including to non-English speakers."
A statement by Paxton’s office said these practices violate federal law requiring basic English comprehension and Texas law mandating adequate training to operate a commercial vehicle.
Paxton’s investigation comes just months after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced his department had issued more than 550 notices of removal — decertification — to "sham CDL training schools" across the country. A statement by the DOT said the schools were found in violation of federal safety standards.
Speaking from inside the industry, Kucharski said that Duffy and Paxton are exactly right to crack down on the rampant CDL school abuse. He pointed to the ongoing spate of fatalities allegedly caused by individuals holding improperly issued CDLs.
In one recent case, Ohio officials revealed last week that Modou Ngom, a semi-truck driver charged in a fiery interstate crash that killed a young family of three, fraudulently obtained an Ohio driver’s license, a commercial driver’s license and later U.S. citizenship under an alternate identity.
Several months ago, in February, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Indiana arrested Bekzhan Beishekeev, an illegal alien semi-truck driver issued a commercial driver’s license by Pennsylvania. The Department of Homeland Security said that Beishekeev allegedly killed four people on Feb. 3, when he swerved into oncoming traffic and struck a van in a head-on collision.
In Oregon, ICE also recently arrested Indian illegal immigrant Rajinder Kumar, who is accused of jackknifing his semi-truck and trailer, blocking both lanes of traffic, causing a crash that killed a newlywed couple.
There have been several other high-profile traffic fatalities involving illegal immigrants and improperly issued CDLs that have rocked the nation in recent months.
"This is just madness what's happening," he said, adding, "It has to stop because the longer this continues, there's going to be more accidents, more people that are going to perish."
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Besides the danger posed to U.S. citizens on the roads, Kucharski said the abuse has been crushing the commercial trucking industry, and by extension, causing disruptions to the U.S. supply chain and impacting prices.
"This is an economic issue, not just a safety issue," he emphasized. "When unqualified drivers get on the road, it doesn't just increase risk, it drives up the insurance costs, which has already risen for all of us; our insurance keeps going up, lawsuits, ultimately prices for the consumers."
Kucharski has previously blown the whistle on illegal immigrants carrying sanctuary state licenses, sending a "shock wave" through the industry by edging out qualified, legitimate American drivers who require higher salaries.
He explained that illegal immigrant truck drivers can exploit a "loophole" in the system by obtaining non-domiciled commercial drivers’ licenses from states such as California and New York. They are then able to outcompete legitimate trucking businesses by charging lower prices, leading to the demise of many American small businesses in the industry.
"All our truckers are fighting for the same load, and it goes to the lowest bidder," he went on. "If you have these drivers coming in that are non-domiciled, they have no family here, they have no home, they live in their truck… They're saying, ‘OK, look, all the market's doing for $2,000, we'll do it for $1,700.’ So, it's putting small trucking businesses out of business every day."
Regarding the CDL schools certifying unqualified drivers, Kucharski confirmed, saying, "They're putting bad actors in there, and they're causing chaos in the trucking industry."
"It's just a huge black eye to the trucking industry," he said.
"This investigation is absolutely necessary," he continued. "It's about protecting the American public and restoring trust in the industry."
He encouraged other trucking owners to "jump in and join the fight" against the abuse, which he referred to as an "abomination."
"This driving school nightmare keeps me up at night," he admitted. "Our job as owners is to educate everyone else that is not familiar, so we can come up with solutions together that keep the wheels rolling and the U.S. economy roaring."
Innovation will provide solutions to Long COVID — the new chronic disease of our time
Long COVID is a serious, growing public health crisis. Though estimates vary, as many as 18 million Americans may be affected. This is why it continues to capture the attention of Senator Todd Young, who asked Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to prioritize Long COVID research in his confirmation hearing last year. This week, the senator had the opportunity to follow up with the secretary at this year’s budget hearing, who reported on the department’s efforts to identify biomarkers and committed to continuing the effort.
This is welcome news. For most of us, the COVID-19 pandemic is a distant, though searing memory. However, too many Americans are still experiencing the pandemic as a daily reality, suffering from what is now known as Long COVID. In 2026, three years after the end of the Public Health Emergency, Long COVID patients report a wide variety of symptoms, which include significant cognitive dysfunction, extreme fatigue, post exertional exhaustion, autonomic dysfunction, cardiovascular conditions, blood vessel pathology, air hunger, intravascular micro-coagulation, tinnitus, and other neurological symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no molecular diagnostic test, no detailed elucidation of the pathogenesis of the disease, and no definitive therapy.
I devoted my medical career — in the U.S. Army, at the University of Maryland and in public service — to fighting deadly and debilitating diseases. Today, much of my medical practice is focused on helping patients afflicted with Long COVID. The current Long COVID crisis reminds me of my early days as a new doctor confronting AIDS before the NIH and HHS made solving AIDS a research priority.
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More than 30 years ago, I witnessed academia, federal laboratories and industry commit itself to solving AIDS. These efforts converted HIV/AIDS from a once fatal disease to a highly treatable and preventable infection, where individuals infected with the HIV virus can expect to live a full, natural lifetime. This occurred because of an aggressive focus on what was possible and a major investment in innovation by the U.S. government. Similarly, in 2020 with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump had the insight to fund Operation Warp Speed and engage industry in the rapid development of a COVID vaccine.
Many mistakes were made during the COVID-19 response, but developing vaccines at record speed to protect the vulnerable was not one of them. Given the enormity of the Long COVID problem, President Trump should now direct his team to accelerate innovative research to discover and develop an effective treatment for Long COVID.
Sadly, the NIH has failed to effectively invest the necessary resources to solve our understanding of Long COVID pathogenesis or to develop a diagnostic test necessary to move the field forward.
In 2025, the administration undertook a series of actions consistent with a pandemic that had run its course. The Office for Long COVID Research and Practice was shuttered, and research funding was cut. The CDC and NIH both stated that they would, "no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago."
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As much as we might wish this to be true, this is a mischaracterization of the current state of the pandemic, and it is a costly one. Productivity losses and medical costs associated with Long COVID patients continue to cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Sadly, research programs that would have made a meaningful dent in these costs were cut just as they were on the cusp of yielding results that would have led to a wave of clinical trials. Fortunately, some of the cuts in this research have been reversed. Unfortunately, the overall investment in Long COVID is inadequate. More needs to be done.
Now is the time to prioritize the discovery of novel treatments to ease the suffering of the 18 million patients struggling with Long COVID. Simply put, the NIH should aggressively fund Long COVID research efforts.
I applaud Secretary Kennedy’s emphasis on battling chronic disease. This is long overdue. And so, we call on Secretary Kennedy and the administration to aggressively address Long COVID, a new and major chronic disease.
AIDS once was a mysterious, predominately fatal disease of otherwise healthy individuals. Now, it is a treatable and preventable infection. The same could be true for Long COVID, if we aggressively invest in the research and the clinical system so urgently needed. Now is the time to empower HHS and industry to make this a reality and offer millions of suffering Americans the chance to live unencumbered by the effects of Long COVID.
Iran blockade ‘going global’ is a warning signal to China and Russia
On Tuesday, U.S. Marines from USS Tripoli once again fast-roped from their MH-60 Seahawk helicopters onto the deck of a suspicious container ship named Blue Star III heading for Iran. That makes a total of 39 vessels turned back, boarded or seized since April 13.
"The blockade has been unbelievably effective," President Donald Trump said on Sunday. Economic pressure is the main point of the blockade, but it has military impact far beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
"We seized their sanctioned ships, and we will seize more," U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth briefed at the Pentagon on Friday, April 24. "Our blockade is growing and going global," Hegseth added.
"Going global" is sending shockwaves through China. China imports at least 70% of its oil. Of that, 90% moves by sea. Iran alone supplied 14% of China’s imports last year, with Russia adding another 18%. Most of that oil was moved by shadow fleet tankers.
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For all the talk of China’s growing naval power, this sea power phase of Operation Epic Fury is an incredible boost to deterrence in the Pacific. The tactics and joint force coordination on display are not something China can easily match. The web of air and maritime surveillance, intelligence, financial forensics and sheer audacity is something only America can pull off.
Here’s why China and Russia should be very, very worried.
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The drama began in the wee hours of Sunday, April 19, when the Iranian-flagged container ship Merchant Vessel (M/V) Touska tried to enter the Strait of Hormuz and reach the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Touska was pedal-to-the-metal in merchant ship terms, steaming at 17 knots under cover of darkness. Lying in wait was the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111.)
Spruance had already caught a different Iranian ship sneaking out of the strait five days earlier, and Touska was highly visible. At 9 a.m., after multiple warnings, Spruance fired nine inert 5-inch shells into the engine room, leaving Touska dead in the water. Now that’s marksmanship. At 4 p.m., U.S. Marines from the amphibious ship USS Tripoli air-assaulted onto Touska and took the ship and crew into custody.
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Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, is a Navy fighter pilot and TOPGUN grad, best known for an intense technology and warfighting focus. His forces hunted down and captured two Iranian oil tankers last week. Motor Tanker (MT) Tifani is a shadow fleet tanker notorious for hauling oil from Iran to a spot off the coast of Malaysia, then offloading it onto China-bound ships. U.S. forces boarded MT Tifani, took control of the bridge, and took custody of 1.9 million barrels of oil. Street value: $171 million, at $90 per barrel. Next, the Motor Tanker Majestic X was boarded and seized in the Indian Ocean. Officially, it’s called maritime interdiction and right-of boarding, since MT Majestic X was a stateless vessel sanctioned back in 2024 for carrying Iranian oil.
Both Tifani and Majestic X are sailing west, in close proximity, on course for the U.S. Military Sealift Command base at Diego Garcia. The Motor Vessel Blue Star III was luckier; the crew promised the Marines she was not bound for Iran, and they let her go on her way. With eyes on, no doubt.
Historically, this year has seen the biggest haul of captured enemy vessels since President Franklin D. Roosevelt requisitioned 90 foreign merchant ships idling in American harbors in 1941. Don’t forget how U.S. Southern Command seized seven Venezuelan oil tankers in the Caribbean in January.
As for Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s shadow fleet may also be at risk in global seas. Vladimir Putin and his cronies acquired a large, unflagged ghost fleet of tankers to evade sanctions after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The shadow fleet may top 770 vessels, moving 3.7 million barrels of oil per day. Mainly to China, of course. By taking ships on the high seas, Operation Epic Fury is demonstrating that the Russian shadow fleet could be next.
Inside China’s AI ‘wolf pack’ drones built with Taiwan conflict in mind
China is developing AI-enabled robotic "wolf packs" designed to scout, supply and potentially support combat operations alongside troops in a future war — including a possible invasion of Taiwan — according to a new report.
The analysis from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) says Beijing is reshaping how wars can be fought by integrating artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous systems directly into frontline operations.
At the center of that effort are quadruped robots — often referred to in Chinese reporting as "robotic wolves" — that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is testing as part of its push toward what it calls "intelligentized warfare."
While China has showcased robotic dogs in recent years, the report argues the People’s Liberation Army is moving beyond demonstrations and beginning to integrate these systems into coordinated battlefield units designed to operate at scale — particularly in high-risk scenarios such as the opening phase of a Taiwan invasion.
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The report warns that a force built around expendable, networked machines could allow Chinese commanders to sustain offensive operations while reducing risks to personnel, potentially lowering the political and military costs of conflict for Beijing.
"China is not just modernizing its military," the report states. "It is reimagining how future wars will be fought."
The U.S. military is also developing robotic and autonomous systems, though analysts say China’s ability to leverage its commercial technology sector could give it advantages in scaling production.
In testing and demonstrations cited in the report, the robotic systems are used primarily for reconnaissance and support roles, moving ahead of troops to map terrain, detect threats and carry supplies through hazardous areas. The quadrupeds can navigate difficult terrain, including stairs and debris-filled urban environments, and operate in coordinated groups to extend a unit’s reach.
Some Chinese reporting also depicts armed variants operating alongside troops and drones during simulated assaults, though many of these capabilities have not been independently verified.
The report identifies a potential conflict over Taiwan as the most likely scenario for deploying the systems.
An amphibious invasion would force Chinese forces to operate in dense urban terrain, contested coastal zones and degraded communications environments — conditions where unmanned systems could be used to clear routes, absorb initial losses and maintain momentum as troops push inland.
Despite the rapid development, the systems face limitations. They rely on communications links and battery power, making them vulnerable to jamming, cyber interference and logistical disruptions.
They are also susceptible to small arms fire and environmental conditions such as smoke or debris that can degrade sensors. The report notes that human operators remain in the loop for lethal decisions, limiting the systems’ autonomy in combat.
The report calls on U.S. policymakers to prioritize countering China’s autonomous systems, including developing strategies to disrupt robotic platforms and strengthening domestic technology capabilities. Analysts warn that as unmanned systems become more integrated into combat operations, they could shape the pace, risk and outcome of future conflicts.