RSnake Report 20260627

Fauci required to testify, SCOTUS TPS ruling, etc...

June 27, 2026

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Geopolitics
Cybersecurity
Technology
Business

Hello, and thanks for reading! The family went out of town to visit some relatives this week, so I don't have quite as much to report as normal. But that is only half of it - the other half is that it was a fairly light news week in general. So let's just jump into it!

Let's start with Russia/Ukraine News, where Ukrainian forces conducted a joint operation on June 21 that struck two Pantsir air defense systems positioned the Kerch Bridge and disabled S-400 stations. The strikes leave bridge without air coverage and remove early-warning nodes around the peninsula. Separate drone have also hit logistics nodes the Melitopol–Dankoi highway destroyed a railway over the North Crimean Canal. There is one video that was published that showed 90 different attacks against Russian logistics. Inserted media

So it does not appear, for the moment, that the Ukrainian logistics attacks are waning, as evidenced by this graphic showing the explosion of vehicles destroyed, month over month.

Fuel shortages have spread occupied after repeated on supply infrastructure. Authorities have imposed a state of emergency, restricted fuel sales to permit or voucher, and limited purchases twenty per transaction. A convoy of up forty fuelers crossed the main Kerch bridge on June 26 but the volume insufficient for peninsula population. Long of civilian vehicles attempting leave Crimea have formed, stretching ten kilometers in some locations. So basically the beginning of an exodus. Now, I do not expect an invasion from the water, at least for some time, but it's interesting to see how this might end up playing out where Crimea is only a besieged military outpost, completely devoid of civilians who aren't contractors or directly helping the military. Inserted media

We're seeing a pretty big uptick on the increase of the Crimean searches for how to drain gas, which had been 4k searches a week to 44k a week! So apparently, that shortage is beginning to really peak. After a while this search will decline because there will be no more gas to siphon. Inserted media

Additional strikes targeted pontoon crossings near the damaged Chonhar Bridge and other checkpoints on the land bridge to Crimea. There was some good analysis on this where even if the Kerch bridge stays intact, just by killing one or two vehicles at random it forces the Russians to temporarily shut everything down, leading to massive delays and logistics backups, that only make things worse. In some ways, by leaving one bridge operational, it is actually worse, because it becomes an easy choke point to pick off targets of interest at a rate that makes it next to impossible to keep a steady supply in, but not so bad that they don't keep trying. Inserted media

Ferries are also not doing so hot. In one day alone, three of them were hit, which really does start to limit the ability to move logistics significantly, as ferries were one of the primary ways people moved equipment and personnel to and from Crimea. Also, it looks like the power has gone out in Crimea as well, which will only hasten the exodus of civilians. I am a little surprised they haven't just called for a civilian evacuation, all things considered, but I think that would really piss Putin off. Inserted media

And where is the Russian naval fleet in all of this? They're getting hit as well. There was a video showing the Ukrainian coast guard hitting a number of different boats and sea drones. So it doesn't appear Russia is able to mount a meaningful defense at this point, likely due to cooperation with the US and European allies with targeting. Inserted media

Ukrainian Flamingo cruise missiles struck the Titan-Barrikady plant in Volograd on the of June 27. At least three of five hit facility which produces components for Isk-M, Y, and Top-M ballistic missiles. The plant lies roughly 550 kilometers from the launch area

We saw the Russian Voronezh semiconductor devices plant hit as well. This makes chips of a variety, and likely inclusive of drones, missiles and countermeasures. Inserted media

Now you may be thinking, how are those mobile air-defense setups that the Russians have fairing. Well they're getting blown up. I have seen a number of videos of them getting fully destroyed. And it's no wonder. This video was interesting for a few reasons, first, it shows that the troops don't stand their ground, they just see the drone and start running. Second, it shows a different guidance setup, where it uses a point-and-click interface, rather than a joystick, which I think is really clever, because it requires a lot less training, and is more in line with how AI will function in terms of refocusing attention on a smaller centroid. What isn't clear is if it really has a laser range finder on it, which would emit a pretty easy signal to alert troops to the presence of the drone... not like they'll stay and try to destroy, it but it does give them time to egress to safety. Cool video. Inserted media

The gas queues elsewhere in Russia are also getting unbearable. In this case it was from Murmansk. Murmansk is nowhere near Ukraine! So it appears this lack of fuel really is rippling throughout Russia.

We are hearing similar stories from contractors in Irkutsk who can't fuel trucks used for logistics, even with the waivers because fuel just isn't there. Look how far away from the front these two are... half a continent away.

The Chinese have begun to ship fuel back into Russia that has been refined or stored outside of the boarder of Russia, because Russia can't refine or store fuel within it's borders in sufficient quantity anymore it seems. This brings up the concept of the "Dragonbear" theory, which is that they are really becoming a super nation of a sort highly reliant upon one another. Inserted media

Adding to that theory, there was a Chinese-made MANPADS that somehow made it's way into the hands of the Ukrainians and is now being used against Russia. How? Well, likely they were stolen from the Russians during some sort of raid at some point. Finders keepers, I guess. Inserted media

There was a relatively large fuel and lubricants warehouse facility that was also hit and it looks like pretty much completely destroyed by a small number of Ukrainian drones. The quote from one of the Russian mil-bloggers was pretty funny, "There's already a fuel shortage in Belgorod, but some fucking asshole gathered it all into one place and just waited..." Yup. 🤣 Inserted media

It's not exactly clear if this is the same attack, an agricultural machinery factory was also hit in the Belgorod region, and I can't tell if this is the same fire from a distance as above or not, because it was unattributed, but based on the description it doesn't seem so. Inserted media

But also the TES-Terminal oil depot on the port of Kerch is on fire again. This a huge FIRMS blob, which means that it's likely a pretty big fire, or the heat signature is enormous. Hard to say. Inserted media

Ukraine’s Main of Intelligence destroyed a railway bridge over the North Crimean Canal near Rozdolne. And then a follow-up drone hit the repair crew and the remaining bridge. There was another bridge nearby that was hit that took out the railway track as well. Ouch! Inserted media

However, the Russians are still hitting fuel and power supply within Ukraine as well. For instance, Russian forces hit the Slovyansk Thermal Plant with FAB glide bombs. The plant had supplied electricity and employment to residents the Donbas region. Inserted media

Last we talked about the ultimatum that Zelensky gave to Belarus about turning off the radio towers on their border, and what might happen. Welp, we didn't have to wait long to find out. Belarusian authorities reportedly halted the use of radio towers that Moscow was using to target Ukraine. Potential Ukrainian strikes on Belarus oil refineries were too scary a situation for Belarus and likely also Russia who likely needs those refineries to stay online. Of course these could easily be turned back on, but I get the sneaking suspicion that Russia is feeling pushed back onto their heels.

Russian forces are beginning to employ 15-inch fiber-optic FPV drones that troops are harder to defeat with shotguns at typical lethal ranges of between 10-15 meters. If this becomes standard practice, then it really does mean the death of normal buckshot, and will probably mean rifles with specialized ammo will be the main defense. Inserted media

There was another video I saw of front line Ukrainian National Police who are using rifles exclusively, it appears, to destroy drones that are laying in wait, or incoming. Though, I really cannot tell what sort of ammo they are using, because each round seems like it explodes upon impact. But that is far tougher than it looks. There was another video of the Russians doing the same thing and even with a fairly large group of soldiers and a drone that didn't deviate at all, none were able to score a hit on it. Inserted media

The Black Spark saboteur group within Russia apparently struck again. They broke into a facility that assembles Geran-2 and Geran-3 drones, using insiders, and stole information, and gave it over to Ukraine, and then shut down the computers. Nasty, when you have to deal with insiders too. Inserted media

We started seeing the Ukrainians testing with LRAD systems. This is almost always used for psychological warfare, crowd dispersal and communicating with enemies over large distances. It's not clear how the Ukrainians plan on using them, but I have to wonder if perhaps it also messes up sensitive acoustic sensors that detect incoming drones too. Telegraphing the sound of a drone to a few miles away could have lots of weird impacts to the battlefield. Inserted media

In European news, Frankenburg Technologies opened first mass-production in Riga, Latvia, for guided air defense missiles. The company plans a second final-assembly site in Ādaži with combined capacity one missiles per day the end of 2026. Inserted media

We also saw MBDA conducted a firing of its Dragonfire fire laser weapon system against a drone. It took quite a few seconds of direct line of sight to disable the drone, and in my estimation that would only work if the weapon system were mounted fairly high up on on coastlines, given that most drones fly just above the tree-tops. I am less and less bullish on line-of-sight air defense. Inserted media

In South East Asia News, China imposed additional export controls and procurement bans on of U.S companies involved drones, rare earth, and related sectors. So the trade wars are still on, it seems!

Alibaba-linked allegedly created nearly twenty-five thousand fraudulent accounts access Anthropic’s Claude model. It's not clear if this was to distill the model, to fact check their own model, to just use generally, or what. But the accusation is that they are training their model on Claude. I have heard a lot of back-story on this from my friends, I don't think anyone knows for sure what is going on there that I spoke to, so for now, let's just say what we do know for sure is that China is using tens of thousands of sock-puppet accounts for some purposes yet fully known. Inserted media

A small plane ran into a 109-story skyscraper in Beijing after the deviated from the approach and flew a constant heading of 270 degrees. A lot of people have got their 9/11 conspiracy hats on about this, but it's not clear if this was accidental or not and either way, the tonnage of a 747 full of fuel vs a single engine prop plane that was low on fuel, is wildly different... probably by 5-6 orders of magnitude less kinetic energy. Inserted media

The Korean Air Force training exercises tested the possibility of intercepting a simulated of fifty drones using an array of rotary guns. It was shockingly bad. All guns fired at the same set of targets that were stationary, and something like 9 of them were struck/disabled. That means 82% drone survival rate. Ouch! Clearly this is not the way. The video is short but worth a watch.

In Middle East News, Prime Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel must expand domestic weapons to reduce reliance the States during conflict Iran and its proxies. I think they're realizing the same thing that the Europeans did. No one can rely on the US to protect them. We're a nice backstop when things go horribly wrong, but not a substitute for a strong domestic defense industry.

The IDF fired at four Hezbollah operatives crossed into Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon. One was on a motorcycle and others were riding a bull dozer. One was hit after warning were ignored. And at first, I thought, okay, well, maybe the ceasefire is still on, but then...

U.S Central Command conducted an air strike on Iranian and drone storage sites and coastal radar facilities June 26 in response to a drone stroke on a Singapore flagged cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz. The Pentagon delayed public announcement strikes until after markets, which is pretty interesting, that they didn't want to have an undo impact on the markets before the weekend. Video of one of the strikes here.

Iran, the United States, Qatar, Lebanon and Pakistan had a new quadrilateral talk in which they established new deconflict cell for Lebanon that Israel and the previous monitoring committee. It's really not clear what this means for Israel if anything because it's not like Israel is going to stop defending itself, especially from Iran who controls Hezbollah's purse strings. Inserted media

Meanwhile the United, Israel, and Lebanon signed a trilateral framework agreement on June 26. This more or less sets the stage for Israel to give power to Lebanon to inflict it's own casualties against Hezbollah in whatever way it sees fit, including, presumably, Syria's interdiction, which would change the conflict significantly, and neuter Iran's calls about breaking the ceasefire, since Lebanon wouldn't be acting on behalf of Israel or the US, and certainly Syria wouldn't be. Optically it shows everyone how much the bulk of the middle east is tired of Iran and it's proxies. Inserted media

What's the affect on the ground in Lebanon? Whelp, there is a mass exodus! No, not out of Lebanon, into Lebanon. People are going back now because they believe that the US peace deal will endure. Interesting, right? Inserted media

That said, the straight of Hormuz has been passing some more fuel, but it still looks pretty darned restricted to me. There are a handful of ships passing through but once again very few and many aren't moving at all. Some oil is making it through, though. One guy counted 10 million barrels that made it through on the southern route through the straight, so that's good, but nothing like it was.

It is currently rated as a "substantial" threat to boats, where it was moderate. That's not a great rating, but not as bad as it has been. That's half way up the JMIC Status scale. Inserted media

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem the Israel-Leon framework agreement calling it null and a surrender of sovereignty, and advocated replacement by a US-Iran memorandum. Since when did Hezbollah care about Lebanese sovereignty exactly? Oh, right, when Israel and the Unites States de-facto green-lights a civil war in Lebanon. This would be funny if it weren't that it means a really nasty future for the people who live there.

The pilot a U.S Air Force F-15E shot over Iran in April described seeing multiple Iranian drones moving in coordinated resembling a jellyfish before ejecting. This seems to mean that there was a swarm of some sort that was launched against the F-15 and not a single drone that got lucky, but a swarm that overwhelmed the fighter and likely that the F-15 simply ran into one of the many drone launched against it. Not great if this is what fighters are going to be up against in the defended airspaces of the future battlefield.

The Joint Maritime Information Center raised security status for Strait of Horm to “stantial” and the Omani to permit inbound and outbound traffic while noting identified area.Syria’s interim president al-Sharaa declared a nationwide campaign against Captagon production trafficking, citing the of networks established the Assad regime. Syrian Jordanian forces approximately 150,000 Captagon pills at Jaber border. It's quite likely that this was financing some of the largest opponents of the current Syrian regime, so it's cutting off their financing. Inserted media

An Israeli double-tap strike on vehicle in Gaza al-Magh camp killed three occupants, including at one individual with reported ties to Hamas. It may be that the first strike didn't kill the occupants, so a second strike was deemed necessary.

One Al Jazeera photo journalist, Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah was also killed in Gaza. Though he was a strange beast, because he also wore Hamas garb, carried a rifle, and fired it in the streets of Palestine and seemed to do very little photo journalism. It's almost like Al Jazeera hires terrorists, but who am I to judge? 🤡 Inserted media

The US Supreme court voted in the Mullin v. Doe case that the Trump administration can end the temporary protected status of Haitians and Syrians who moved here during violent and natural disasters. The basis of the ruling was the acronym itself, which was TPS (temporary protective status) under the logic that the word "temporary" means temporary and not permanent. Kinda obvious, but no doubt will raise the hackles of the migrant rights activists. Inserted media

In related South of the Border news, the U.S Supreme Court in Mullin v. Al Lado ruled that that migrants stopped at the boarder have not “arrived" in the United States and therefore have no statutory to apply for asylum. That's going to have a huge impact on asylum seekers heading up from south of the boarder. Inserted media

A series of 7+ magnitude earthquakes east of Caracas Venezuela, and in La Guaira, caused multiple high-rise buildings to collapse and something like 900+ fatalities thus far, and possibly thousands more. Inserted media

In this before and after, you can see at least four buildings were destroyed in just a few square blocks. One gentleman I spoke to said there is a shocking lack of visible rebar in this construction which likely increased the destruction. I don't know enough about building construction to say one way or another, but it sounds correct to me. Of course there are many teams en route or already there trying to help with the recovery efforts from the US, Columbia, El Salvador and elsewhere. Inserted media

Earlier we discussed how the Ukrainans were testing using LRADS, and they aren't the only ones. Colombian military personnel used an AD 1000 acoustic LRAD plus leaflet drops against GAO/r militants, to communicate with them. This is a useful way to talk to the militants even if they cannot reach them directly, and when they have no comms to speak of. Inserted media

There was an interesting political map that was created showing 2023 and 2026 of South America's political leadership. Ignore the fact that red means left and blue means right for a moment (red means communist is, I think, the origins of these color schemes) but it does show the effect on the Monroe doctrine amongst the latin American continent.

In America News, Rand Paul issued subpoena requiring Fauci to publicly the Senate Homeland Committee after Fauci previously declined an appearance. This is a very interesting state of affairs, because it means that either he has to be in contempt of congress due to the fact that the fifth amendment does not protect people who have been pardoned from self-incrimination, or he has to divulge what he knows. At that point he may be throwing a lot of his team under the bus, and then we have another issue at hand. Will the auto-pen be thrown out after Fauci reveals his crimes, no longer protected by an inability to self-incriminate due to the pardon?

It's really hard to know what's about to happen here, but I suspect Fauci is going to be given a faustian choice on this one and I suspect he's going to do everything he can to save his own skin, whatever that looks like. I know this is a political side show to some degree, but keep in mind, this guy who likely had some responsibility in taking years away from a lot of people.

I still hear people saying that they aren't sure if their kids are mentally delayed or if it was just because they lacked social interaction for two years in their formative years. I heard another say that they don't know how to meet people because they sorta lost touch with everyone during high school because they couldn't hang out with them and online just wasn't the same. And another one told me that many of his classmates went trans during the shutdown because they were looking for importance and affirmations at a time when there was nothing going on that made people more interesting or relevant to anyone else. I heard all of that completely unprompted and I heard it THIS week. Not last year, not several years ago, this week. The average US voter isn't going to forget this one, I'm afraid. Someone needs to be held accountable, and unfortunately, it probably should be the Chinese.

Something that sorta made me laugh twas that the U.S. government is set to issue a limited-edition “patriotic” passport featuring a depiction of Donald Trump at the Resolute Desk to mark the the 250th anniversary of American independence. I am sure people will feel compelled to deface this artwork, but that may be exactly the point. There is a law on the books, 18 U.S.C. § 1543 that says that "mutilated, or altered passport" can get you 10+ years in jail. So, anyone who does this to spite Trump is facing some pretty serious years. Like this or hate it, it is a smart way to put a bunch of lefties who don't understand the law in jail. That said, Trump said in his message about it, "Welcome, but be good!" - which of course is confusing to say the least since the only people who have US passports are US citizens who aren't visiting. Lol. Whelp. Inserted media

The U.S. Marine Corps Overland AI a $19.7 million contract for unmanned ground vehicles and software to the Marine Air Integrated System, deliveries scheduled through 2027. It has a 30mm cannon and stinger missiles, with an EW system onboard. Pretty cool little vehicle. Inserted media

Andil delivered another large supply of Pulsar systems in less than one week, doubling previous annual production rates on the same manufacturing. These are electronic warfare systems that are apparently already "deployed" and likely near military bases and outposts globally. Inserted media

General Aomics announced production of artillery shells of reaching New York City from Philadelphia. But even more interesting... these things can change direction in flight and fly around mountains or air defenses, and hit targets at very different directions, which can also confuse shot-detection tools that look for flight paths to direct counter-fire. Pretty cool!

A premeditated shooting in Montreal Canada's Côte-des-Ne district left one male police officer dead one female officer and one civilian injured, and the suspect was neutralized. I read the shooter's manifesto. This was a pseudo intellectual take on how women are sluts because capitalism made them so, and a communistic society makes all women marry all men so that there are no lonely males. I am only vaguely paraphrasing, but if you want to read all 100+ pages, you'll see the same thing, replete with tons of reference to Karl Marx. He seemed to want to kill people related to the porn industry, hence the office he chose which is the headquarters of a porn company. If I am reading his manifesto correctly, he wanted to stop the manufacturing of porn that makes women into sluts and makes men devalue women which de-facto makes them slutty (again, only vaguely paraphrasing). Inserted media

In Tech News, a Huntress security analyst became an alleged an insider and began to aid in and send internal FBI communications to threat actor “Devman” that the company attempted to keep incident public ahead its IPO.

There was a huge kerfuffle about the fact that Mythos broke into every classified system within hours not weeks. This is, of course, a bad read. It means that with internal access it was able to pivot around. It does not mean an average person with Mythos will break into all classified systems within hours. But of course no one is really understanding what Mythos is good and bad at, but this appears to be one of the reasons the government decided to temporarily ban anyone outside the US from using it - at least that's what they're claiming. But all of that was a temporary ban, because of course, it was nonsense. Inserted media

There was some new guidance issued by the IRS on Circular 230 rules on due, competence, firm procedures, written advice, and data protection apply to practitioner use AI tools. One of the most interesting things about this is that it said that companies that use AI in their CPA practice must pass along the cost savings to their customers and that their margins cannot grow as they remove people. I'm not sure how that's even legal - telling companies how they can charge. But it has got the CPA world up in arms.

Lastly, nearly four hundred local U.S. newspapers filed suit OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging unauthorized of their reporting train AI without compensation or permission. This will be a monster lawsuit, with lots of horsepower behind it as tons of media press hard on every fact uncovered in discovery. I would not at all be surprised if OpenAI settles hard and fast to avoid that level of scrutiny.

Okay, onto the articles!

Geopolitics

Military AI is advancing towards capabilities that allow recursive self-improvement, potentially leading to strategies beyond human understanding and oversight. This raises several critical challenges, including loss of escalation control and the risk of preemptive strikes based on unforeseen interpretations of military objectives. Defense communities are actively developing AI safety protocols to ensure these systems remain aligned with human strategic intent.

Recursive self-improvement in military AI could lead to strategies that exceed human comprehension.
The rapid development of self-improving AI poses significant risks, such as loss of control over military escalations.
Defense researchers are focused on creating robust safeguards to maintain human oversight and ethical standards in military AI operations.

[RSnake: I'd argue we're well past beyond human comprehension, but we were already there. The amount of people who actually understand what is going on looks smaller and smaller to me every day, in large part because people are no longer learning the fundamentals/basics and are relying on old/stale knowledge and LLMs that hallucinate and do the work for them. It's a very small number of people who actually stay up on this.]

Source: https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2026/06/26/the_digital_field_marshal_1191029.html

North Korea is intensifying its military capabilities, with Kim Jong Un advocating for a more aggressive military posture and conducting significant weapons tests, including tactical missiles aimed at South Korea. Concurrently, South Korea is reacting by enhancing its drone warfare capabilities in response to perceived threats from North Korea, which is allegedly receiving military technology from Russia.

North Korea is focusing on expanding its nuclear and missile arsenals while refusing to engage in diplomacy.
South Korea is upgrading its military capabilities, particularly in drone warfare, due to rising threats from North Korea.

[RSnake: More bluster, but if they do ramp up their nuclear program and drone program they're going to be a serious risk to South Korea. That said, I would not count South Korea out. Not one bit.]

Source: https://www.military.com/north-koreas-kim-calls-for-destructive-military-posture-as-south-vows-to-boost-drones

U.S. military exercises involving multiple allied nations are taking place in the Western Pacific and other regions, including Anti-Submarine Warfare maneuvers and the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise. Simultaneously, China's naval forces, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, have been actively operating in response to surveillance by Japan, while North Korea has commissioned a new destroyer and conducted weapon tests. These developments reflect increasing military activity and collaboration among allied forces amid regional tensions.

The Rim of the Pacific exercise involves 30 nations and aims to enhance multinational maritime capabilities.
China and Japan are engaged in escalating naval activities, with Japan monitoring Chinese operations.

[RSnake: This is really as much about data gathering. I know the Chinese ships like to shadow the US ships during these exercises and listen into the communications, but that is actually useful information to the US as well.]

Source: https://news.usni.org/?p=123431

New Mexico's Attorney General has launched a criminal investigation into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for allegedly allowing over a million fentanyl pills to reach communities while pursuing broader criminal cases. The investigation aims to uncover the extent of the DEA's knowledge and actions regarding these shipments, which have resulted in significant public safety concerns and loss of life due to the opioid crisis.

New Mexico officials are investigating the DEA's handling of fentanyl shipments that may have contributed to local overdose deaths.
The investigation is a response to allegations that DEA agents monitored but did not intervene in the distribution of large amounts of fentanyl pills.

[RSnake: Interesting - the DEA has always been a pretty shadowy organization. I do think we need to be careful here though, because sometimes the bigger fish do require some time to capture. That said a million pills equates to a lot of crime and dead people.]

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-mexico-dea-fentanyl-investigation

The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule on a significant legal challenge regarding birthright citizenship, which asserts that children born on American soil are automatically U.S. citizens, regardless of their parents' immigration status. This ruling could alter over a century of legal precedent and potentially redefine citizenship for millions of children born in the U.S. The implications of the Court's decision could affect various aspects of citizenship and rights for children, including legal status and access to essential services.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on birthright citizenship, impacting millions of children born in the U.S.
A ruling to redefine citizenship could significantly affect legal rights and access to services for affected children.

[RSnake: I am not sure how SCOTUS can rule against the first clause of the 14th amendment without a change to the amendment. Though perhaps there is some obscure legal precedence, based on the intent of the law vs the wording of the law. For instance, the author of the 14th amendment, Jacob M Howard, said in his speech on the topic, "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the government of the United States, but will include every other class of person." But that remains to be seen.]

Source: https://abcnews.com/Politics/faq-birthright-citizenship-ahead-supreme-courts-ruling/story?id=134215675

Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of missile interceptors due to escalating Russian missile attacks, with only a limited number of countries able to produce such defense systems. The U.S. Patriot system, essential for intercepting ballistic missiles, is in high demand and has a significant backlog in production, complicating Ukraine's defense capabilities amid ongoing conflicts.

Ukraine's defense against Russian missile attacks is hindered by a shortage of interceptor systems.
The production of U.S. Patriot missiles is insufficient to meet global demand, impacting Ukraine's military effectiveness.

[RSnake: This is how those FABs are making it into Ukraine. Even at 200km the bomb-trucks, like the antiquated soviet-era bombers that drop them are easy pickings for many of the US and European air defense systems.]

Source: https://euromaidanpress.com/?p=412736

Anti-government demonstrations in Iran resulted in significant casualties, with reports detailing systematic violence against protesters, including shootings and denial of medical treatment. During these protests, hospitals like Gharazi in Isfahan have faced accusations of complicity with authorities, leading to numerous deaths that officials reportedly attempted to conceal. Additionally, social unrest is exacerbated by ongoing power and water outages across the country, which residents attribute to years of mismanagement and underinvestment in infrastructure.

Iran is experiencing severe crackdowns on protests, resulting in hundreds of deaths and disappearances.
Widespread power and water outages are causing widespread dissatisfaction among the population.

[RSnake: This article is really about the aftermath - the citizen reporting of what happened during the protests. It's not pretty.]

Source: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202606267705

Cybersecurity

Confidence among security professionals in fully autonomous AI systems for penetration testing has decreased, with only 9% of organizations relying on such technology in 2026, down from 29% the previous year. Practitioners are increasingly favoring hybrid models that include human oversight due to concerns about accuracy, false positives, and the volume of data generated by AI systems.

Only 9% of organizations now trust fully autonomous AI penetration testing.
The majority prefer human-in-the-loop approaches due to concerns about accuracy.

[RSnake: Good - because it really really really needs human oversight. It's a cool idea that may never come to pass, but at least for the time being it's far too error prone.]

Source: https://www.darkreading.com/cybersecurity-operations/ai-decline-confidence-autonomous-penetration-testing

The FBI and CISA have reported that Russian hackers are conducting a phishing campaign targeting Signal users to steal Backup Recovery Keys, allowing access to victims' historical messages. The threat actors are impersonating Signal support to deceive individuals, specifically those of high intelligence value such as government officials and military personnel. This evolved phishing tactic aims to gain access to sensitive communication facilitated by Signal's messaging platform.

Russian hackers are targeting Signal users to steal Backup Recovery Keys.
The campaign is particularly aimed at high-profile individuals, including government officials and military personnel.
Phishing messages are designed to manipulate users into providing sensitive recovery information under false pretenses.

[RSnake: Be very careful with anything related to Signal asking for backup keys, for those of you who use Signal.]

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-russian-hackers-now-target-signal-backup-recovery-keys/

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has mandated that federal agencies patch critical vulnerabilities in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Server and PTC Windchill products by June 28. These vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2026-20230 and CVE-2026-12569, are being actively exploited and could allow remote code execution and unauthorized access to systems.

CISA has identified critical vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited.
Federal agencies must apply patches by a strict deadline to secure their systems.

[RSnake: Another day, another edge device being exploited. This is where all of the hardening efforts must start.]

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-sets-urgent-deadline-to-fix-cisco-flaw-exploited-in-attacks/

A cyberattack attributed to Russian hackers disrupted production at Jaguar Land Rover, leading to a loss of approximately $2.5 billion for the UK economy. The breach, which lasted nearly six weeks, is noted as the most financially damaging cyberattack in UK history, affecting over 5,000 organizations in the supply chain.

The JLR cyberattack was the most costly in UK history, costing $2.5 billion.
The attack involved both Russian hackers and an unrelated Jordanian hacker breaching JLR's networks.

[RSnake: Oof, that's not good. That insurance claim is going to be enormous!]

Source: https://thenextweb.com/news/jaguar-land-rover-hack-russian-hackers-nyt-investigation

AI-assisted technology has been developed to detect cryptographic vulnerabilities in software systems. This system, named Chai, identifies and validates misuse vulnerabilities within cryptographic libraries, revealing over 100 security flaws, including critical weaknesses in widely used SSL libraries.

Chai is an AI-based system for discovering cryptographic misuse vulnerabilities.
It has identified over 100 vulnerabilities, including critical issues in SSL libraries affecting billions of devices.

[RSnake: This is one of the few places where AI-SAST makes tons of sense. Open source crypto libraries are extremely dangerous if they have vulnerabilities, and the code is available to anyone.]

Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26933

A study has identified a rise in the creation of non-consensual sexually explicit imagery (SNEACI) using artificial intelligence, with non-celebrity individuals now making up a majority of targets. This issue is prevalent within online communities, where open-source AI models enable the production and dissemination of this content. The findings indicate a shift from targeting public figures to harming individuals within private social circles.

AI nudification is increasingly targeting non-celebrity individuals.
Open-source models are widely used for producing synthetic explicit imagery.
A small cohort of producers drives community engagement and knowledge sharing.

[RSnake: Should I be disheartened that no one has nudified me? Alas! No, but there is no stoping this, seriously, it's inevitable. People can imagine a thing, they can draw a thing, they can use AI to create their fantasies. You're not stopping this one.]

Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.27234

Technology

MIT researchers have developed a new approach called Masked Inverse Reinforcement Learning (Masked IRL) that improves how robots understand and execute tasks based on user instructions. This method utilizes two large language models to clarify prompts and filter out irrelevant information, allowing robots to learn and perform tasks more effectively with reduced demonstration data.

Masked IRL automates the process of teaching robots by elaborating on ambiguous prompts and prioritizing important details.
This approach significantly enhances robot performance in dynamic environments by enabling them to safely navigate obstacles.

[RSnake: This is a good way to train. Lots of LLMs are trained similarly, to see if they can figure out what the missing ____ is in the sentence. If you can do it intuitively, so can a well trained LLM.]

Source: https://news.mit.edu/2026/llms-help-robots-understand-vague-instructions-and-focus-key-details-0626

The US government has lifted its block on Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5 AI model, allowing release to over 100 institutions amid previous export controls. This action represents a shift in regulatory control over AI technologies, as the government seeks to maintain leadership in AI while addressing security concerns, although details regarding broader access to related models remain unclear.

The US government has authorized the release of Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5 AI model to select institutions.
The regulatory framework for AI technologies is evolving, with the US aiming to balance innovation and security.

[RSnake: And we're back! Just be prepared for a lot more dumb press stories about it!]

Source: https://www.semafor.com/article/06/27/2026/us-releases-powerful-anthropic-model-mythos-to-some-us-companies

AI is making advancements in mathematics, with systems achieving milestones equivalent to skilled human mathematicians and even producing publishable research results. This development raises questions about the future role of human mathematicians as AI continues to factor into mathematical problem-solving and the collaborative landscape of the field.

AI systems can now perform complex mathematical reasoning and produce original research results.
The mathematics community is discussing the implications of AI on human involvement in the field and the essence of mathematical practice.

[RSnake: Hopefully someone is actually checking the results though... I mean, seriously. We have a massive replication issue amongst academia as it is without AI hallucinations.]

Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-in-mathematics

Apple is skipping the high-end M6 chips and will instead release an AI-focused M7 chip line for its Macs starting in 2027. This shift breaks the company's usual pattern of releasing Pro and Max versions for each chip generation and signals a strategic pivot towards on-device AI processing amidst ongoing chip shortages. As a result, higher-end Mac users may face delays in accessing the latest technology, prompting options to either settle for existing models or wait for the new chips.

Apple will launch a base M6 chip for entry-level Macs this year but will not offer higher-end versions.
The M7 chips are designed for enhanced on-device AI processing and are set to arrive as early as 2027.
Apple's chip rollout is influenced by current supply chain challenges, impacting their high-end product offerings.

[RSnake: Interesting choice. They may be feeling the push from NVIDIA and know they can't deliver every version of every chip without falling behind on their fabrication deadlines. Plus the cost associated with stuff few people will buy just may not be worth it.]

Source: https://thenextweb.com/news/apple-m7-chips-skips-m6

Tytan Technologies, a German counter-drone company, is set to commence production at a new factory capable of manufacturing 3,000 interceptor drones per month starting this August. The interceptors are increasingly used by Ukraine to counter aerial threats, and Tytan plans to expand its operations to other markets, including Poland and Hungary, amidst rising demand for their solutions.

Tytan Technologies will launch a new factory in Germany to produce interceptor drones.
These interceptor drones have become crucial in Ukraine's defense strategy against aerial threats.

[RSnake: There you go - that's some serious numbers. 36,000 drones a year will stop most major powers in their tracks. Some will slip through, but that's a meaningful dent in incoming drones and slower cruise missiles.]

Source: https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2026/06/26/german-counter-drone-startup-tytan-eyes-3000-interceptors-per-month-in-new-factory/

OpenAI is postponing the general release of its AI system, GPT-5.6, due to a request from the U.S. government, which will oversee a staggered rollout of access. Concurrently, competing company Anthropic faces federal scrutiny over its AI models, impacting its operational capabilities and reflecting a significant shift in government involvement in the AI sector.

OpenAI is delaying the release of GPT-5.6 to comply with government oversight.
Anthropic faces federal intervention affecting its AI capabilities, indicating a new level of government control in the AI industry.

[RSnake: Of course - the delay is likely to make sure they get first use of it as much as anything. Who could blame them?]

Source: https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000778260

Business

Ford has rehired 350 engineers after its AI systems failed to replicate the quality of work performed by experienced workers. This decision came after Ford topped JD Power's quality ranking for the first time in 16 years, indicating a significant turnaround for the company amidst challenges in automating processes and job cuts in the industry.

Ford faced issues when substituting experienced engineers with AI, leading to reduced product quality.
The company rehired engineers to mentor new staff and improve AI systems, resulting in a quality ranking achievement.

[RSnake: Lol. Can you imagine how annoyed those workers are? How would you feel? I had a buddy who was fired and re-hired the same day because they realized how valuable he was. He was not amused and never let it go. I can imagine those 350 engineers feel pretty much the same.]

Source: https://thenextweb.com/news/ford-rehired-350-engineers-ai-quality-jd-power

TikTok is transitioning into a super app by integrating various services such as e-commerce, hotel bookings, and fintech into its platform. The expansion includes features that directly compete with major players like Amazon, Expedia, and Google, as it aims to handle multiple user needs within a single application. The platform's growth strategy leverages its significant user base and aims to test whether this model can succeed outside of China.

TikTok has expanded its features to include e-commerce, hotel bookings, and fintech services.
The platform aims to compete directly with companies like Amazon and Expedia in the online marketplace.
TikTok is testing the viability of the super app model in Western markets, building on strategies from its parent company ByteDance.

[RSnake: Feels less like it's competing with those companies and more like it's replicating Alibaba.]

Source: https://thenextweb.com/news/tiktok-super-app-shop-travel-fintech-world-cup

Volkswagen is reportedly planning to cut around 100,000 jobs, representing about 15% of its global workforce, primarily in Germany, as part of a significant restructuring amid declining demand for electric vehicles. The company's proposed job reductions and potential plant closures have sparked strong opposition from labor unions and may have wide-ranging impacts on the German automotive industry and its workforce.

Volkswagen plans to cut 100,000 jobs and close several plants in Germany due to declining demand for electric vehicles.
The job cuts would represent 15% of Volkswagen's workforce and have significant implications for the automotive industry in Germany.

[RSnake: That's a lot of jobs! But yes, the electric vehicle movement was always a fake market to some degree. There is interest in it, but range anxiety is a real thing. I even have a charger in my house and I still am wary of owning a Tesla as an example.]

Source: https://thenextweb.com/news/volkswagen-100000-job-cuts

A fraud suspect connected to a $250 million scheme exploiting a federal child nutrition program in Minnesota has been captured in Somalia after nearly four years on the run. Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh faces multiple charges, including wire fraud and bribery, allegedly orchestrating a 'pay-to-play' operation that involved fake meal sites and shell companies.

Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh was a key figure in a major fraud case exploiting federal nutrition resources.
Eidleh was arrested in Somalia after evading authorities for four years.

[RSnake: Whelp, I am sure he will enjoy his time in jail. He's got to be some kind of hero to the criminal class taking that much money from the taxpayers, of which the criminal class does not belong for the most part.]

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/minnesota-feeding-our-future-fugitive-captured-somalia

A nationwide crackdown is in progress to prevent counterfeit FIFA World Cup merchandise from infiltrating the market in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has intercepted numerous shipments of fake items, including jerseys, shorts, and footwear, with an estimated total retail value exceeding $23 million during the initial week of the tournament. The operation aims to protect consumers and businesses from financial loss and potential safety hazards associated with counterfeit goods.

Customs and Border Protection has seized large quantities of counterfeit FIFA World Cup merchandise.
The operation aims to safeguard consumers and businesses from financial loss associated with fake products.

[RSnake: Don't buy it to resell it, and you'll be fine. It's the collectors and retailers and teams who profit on real merch who are actually screwed here.]

Source: https://www.dailywire.com/news/border-authorities-make-massive-discovery-during-fifa-world-cup

SpaceX plans to build a natural gas pipeline called Starpipe, stretching 8 miles to its Starbase facility in Texas, to supply fuel for its Starship rocket launches. This expansion is part of a strategy to enhance its supply chain control, allowing SpaceX to process and liquefy its own natural gas into propellant. The company aims to significantly increase its launch frequency, with the pipeline expected to support over 25 launches per year by early 2026.

SpaceX is constructing a pipeline to develop its own fuel supply for Starship missions.
The initiative reflects SpaceX's strategy to minimize reliance on external suppliers for fuel resources.

[RSnake: Lol, who knew SpaceX would build their own pipeline. Pretty interesting and makes tons of sense when you are launching at the cadence they are. How do you get rid of the delay? Remove the transport.]

Source: https://gizmodo.com/?p=2000778302

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