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Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds

The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog.

A report released by the department’s inspector general concluded the US military no longer has the people, tools or infrastructure needed to comply with two federal statutes requiring it to maintain a functioning civilian casualty policy, and operate a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE).

Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of making deep cuts to the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) program, designed to handle training and procedures critical in limiting civilian harm in theaters of war.

While the program has not been officially canceled, the inspector general’s report said that funding had ended for a data management platform; committee meetings had halted; and many dedicated personnel had been lost or reassigned.

“As a result, the DoW may not comply with its civilian casualties and harm policy,” the report read. “A policy required by federal law.”

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

The program was created by Lloyd Austin, then defense secretary, in January 2022, under Joe Biden, following years of deadly US bombing campaigns in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Airwars, a civilian harm monitor, estimated that US drone and airstrikes killed at least 22,000 civilians – and perhaps as many as 48,000 – in the 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, has recently come under fire over deadly attacks on Iran, including a US strike in Minab that killed at least 175 people, a majority of them children, at an all-girls school.

Limiting casualties has not been a top priority under Hegseth’s tenure at the Department of War, rebranded on his watch from Department of Defense last September. When pressed on civilian casualties in Iran, he has pivoted to blame the country’s regime for placing rocket launchers in civilian areas, and also claimed no nation in history had taken more precautions than the US to avoid civilian deaths.

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Axios Warns Cuba Stockpiled 300 Attack Drones With Crosshairs On U.S. Homeland

Well, well, well.

On Feb. 3, we first asked whether a Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 was quietly taking shape on the collapsed, communist-run Caribbean island of Cuba.

But instead of Soviet missiles, we warned that Havana may be stockpiling Russian-made Geranium one-way attack drones with the operational range to threaten major U.S. oil and gas refineries in the Gulf of America, key military bases, data centers, power grid infrastructure, and potentially even Washington, D.C.

Nearly three and a half months ago, we laid out the framework for a potential drone threat against the homeland originating from Cuba, using an infographic published by the Russian think tank Rybar.

Rybar is a noteworthy source in this context, and Western officials are not fans. The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information on the outlet through its Rewards for Justice program, while both the European Union and the United Kingdom have sanctioned it.

At the time, Rybar wrote: “But what would the Cubans do in the event of a conflict? Let us hypothetically imagine that Havana decides to resist the Americans and chooses to fight. In that case, the already world-famous Geran strike drones could come to their aid.”

Fast forward to Sunday: Axios, citing newly obtained U.S. intelligence, reports that Cuba has accumulated roughly 300 military drones from Russia and Iran and has discussed potential wartime strike scenarios targeting Guantanamo Bay, U.S. naval vessels, and possibly Key West.

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Virginia Governor Spanberger Rages on X After Supreme Court Kills Democrat Gerrymander

Virginia Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger erupted in anger on social media Friday after the Supreme Court refused to reinstate the state’s new congressional map that Democrats openly designed to flip up to four House seats in the 2026 midterms.

The high court’s one-sentence order left in place a 4-3 ruling from the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down the redistricting amendment on procedural grounds, meaning the state will use its existing 2021 congressional districts for the upcoming elections.

Spanberger took to X to lash out at both the state and federal courts, claiming they had “nullified an election” and the votes of more than three million Virginians.

The governor wrote in full:

The Supreme Court of the United States has now joined the Supreme Court of Virginia in choosing to nullify an election and the votes of more than three million Virginians.

These Virginians made their voices heard — casting their ballots in good faith to push back against a President who said he’s “entitled” to more seats in Congress before voters go to the polls.

As Governor, I will make sure voters know when and how to cast their votes this year. Because our votes are how we choose the representation we deserve.

Spanberger later shared a link on her personal campaign account directing supporters to donate to Democratic congressional candidates via ActBlue.

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What If We Really Are Just Exposing the Tip of the Federal Fraud Iceberg?

Open the Books exposed yet another insight into the stinking, rotten catastrophe that is the massive, systematic, and continuing stealing from American taxpayers via an unknown number of federal social service programs that for decades have all but hung in their windows signs saying “Come Steal.”

Earlier this month, the headline on the Open the Books website proclaimed “Hidden Fees: Taxpayers on the Hook for Foreign-Linked Health Care Fraud Schemes.” Here’s what was found:

In January 2026, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz alleged that roughly $3.5 billion worth of fraud, so far unconfirmed, was happening through false hospice billings in a scheme he attributed in large part to what he called the ‘Russian Armenian mafia.’

So, Open the Books took a look at Oz’s claims, what fraud could be confirmed, and its cost to taxpayers. It turns out Russian and Armenian-linked fraud has cost taxpayers almost $1 billion in confirmed losses from Medicare and Medicaid, part of a Department of Justice operation dubbed ‘Operation Gold Rush.’

So now we must add the Russian-Armenian Mafia to the Somali robbing of Medicaid billions in Minnesota and Ohio, and whatever ethnicity may be the thieves behind the similarly systematic filching in California and Maine. And let’s not forget the Mexican Drug Cartels almost certainly have their greasy fingers in this long-running criminal enterprise, too.

Thus far, 11 individuals involved in the transnational criminal operation have been charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Operation Gold Rush, which is the largest health care fraud case ever charged by federal officials. The criminals bought medical equipment firms, then submitted fraudulent Medicare claims using more than 1 million stolen Americans’ names.

Only 11 people charged? There were 324 individuals charged nationwide by the DOJ last year, and the total thus far in 2026 isn’t known. But let us assume DOJ doubles its 2025 level and takes 648 individuals to federal court for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs, SNAP/Food Stamp, and who knows how many more federal benefit programs? And we haven’t even mentioned fraud in Department of Defense procurement.

Given the international scope of the waste and fraud, one might reasonably expect that thousands of criminals are involved who should be identified, charged, convicted, and imprisoned. According to GAO in 2024, the government loses as much as $521 billion annually to fraud, but I expect that estimate to spiral as the DOJ’s current anti-fraud effort goes forward.

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DHS to Push Ahead With Plans to Convert Warehouses Into ICE Detention Centers

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is moving forward with plans to convert warehouses into large-scale immigration detention centers.

The decision comes despite legal challenges from activist groups and opposition from left-wing local officials seeking to slow the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.

According to The Washington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to award contracts for major detention facilities in San Antonio and near El Paso.

The two sites are expected to be operational by early 2027.

The administration sees the warehouse initiative as a central part of its immigration enforcement strategy, allowing ICE to detain and process illegal immigrants more efficiently through large regional hubs rather than smaller, dispersed facilities.

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Fauci Moved Kitten Experiments into NIH After Trump Shut Down USDA Lab, New White Coat Waste Investigation Reveals They’re Still Active

A shocking new investigation by White Coat Waste (WCW) has uncovered how Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) quietly shifted controversial kitten experimentation from a shuttered U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lab into the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) own internal laboratories in Bethesda, Maryland, after President Donald Trump’s administration shut down the USDA’s infamous “kitten slaughterhouse” exposed by the watchdog organization in 2019.

The newly obtained records, obtained by WCW through Freedom of Information Act requests, show that in 2021, under Dr. Fauci, NIAID scientist Dr. Michael Grigg, a collaborator with the now-closed USDA lab, resurrected the kitten experimentation protocols inside NIH intramural laboratories, where they remain active through at least December 13, 2026.

For decades, the USDA’s Beltsville, Maryland, facility bred and killed cats for toxoplasmosis parasite experiments led by scientist Jitender Dubey.

WCW uncovered how Dubey’s lab bred thousands of kittens for painful and deadly taxpayer-funded testing.

Dubey and his staff traveled to China and other foreign countries to visit wet markets and purchase cat and dog meat, which would then be fed to kittens back at the USDA lab in gruesome cannibalism experiments.

WCW detailed the disturbing project in an exchange with Republican Rep. Eric Burlison during a House Oversight hearing last year and highlighted how Dubey was even inducted into the USDA Hall of Fame.

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Former Kansas Mayor Detained by ICE After Guilty Plea for Illegally Voting

A former Republican mayor of a small Kansas town has been taken into federal immigration custody after pleading guilty to illegally voting as a non-citizen.

Jose “Joe” Ceballos-Armendariz, 55, a Mexican national who has held a green card since 1990, turned himself in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials at their Wichita office on Wednesday.

Ceballos is now being held at the ICE-contracted Chase County Jail in Cottonwood Falls and faces potential deportation proceedings.

The green card holder served two terms as mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, a conservative Comanche County town of fewer than 700 residents.

Ceballos was first elected in 2021 and won re-election in 2025 with 83% of the vote.

The charges surfaced the day after that re-election when Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced felony election fraud charges.

Court records show Ceballos illegally voted in multiple elections despite knowing he was not a U.S. citizen. He also admitted during a January citizenship application that he had falsely claimed U.S. citizenship.

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AI Agent Wipes Out Startup’s Entire Database In Seconds After ‘Thinking For Itself’

An AI coding assistant went rogue during a routine task and permanently deleted a company’s core database along with its backups, crippling operations for multiple businesses that relied on the platform.

The event hit PocketOS, a UK-based startup supplying software to car rental companies. Founder Jer Crane had instructed the agent — built on Anthropic’s Claude via the Cursor tool — to resolve a bug. Instead, within nine seconds, it bypassed safeguards and wiped everything.

Crane later shared details on X, writing that the agent “went outside its security parameters and delete[d] my production database and the backups.”

When challenged, the system reportedly responded that it had independently decided to take the action.

Businesses using the service woke up to vanished bookings, vehicle records, and customer data when they attempted to open for the day.

This incident underscores the unpredictable nature of AI agents now being deployed to handle complex, real-world tasks with limited supervision. These tools can chain together actions like editing code, modifying files, and altering databases at speeds that leave humans little chance to intervene.

Commentators have pointed out that AI often interprets instructions too literally. A request to “clean up” data, for example, might result in mass deletion if that appears the most efficient route to the goal.

The episode arrives hot on the heels of a widely discussed simulation in which multiple AI agents were placed inside a virtual town environment for two weeks. In that controlled test, the bots quickly began ignoring rules, forming alliances, breaking laws they had helped draft, and in some runs escalating to violence and destruction despite clear prohibitions.

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Father of ‘Missing’ GOP Congressman Says He Is Under Doctor’s Care, Remains Vague About His Return

Further details are emerging about the disappearance of New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr. from Congress for over two months.

In an interview with CNN, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean Sr. said his son is receiving medical treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.

“He’s hopefully coming back soon, and he’s under the care of a doctor,” Kean Sr. said, adding that his son had been evaluated by multiple physicians.

“They all agree he’s going to be fine. He’s under a doctor’s care.”

“It took a real illness to knock him out,” he added.

“This won’t linger. It’s not some kind of disease that’s going to incapacitate him in the future. The consensus is that he will be 100% OK.”

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‘Callous and Careless’: AAP Pushes Doctors to Vaccinate Hospitalized Children

As federal health agencies revisit childhood vaccine schedules and emphasize shared clinical decision-making, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is encouraging hospitals to use pediatric admissions as a “unique opportunity” to vaccinate more children.

A series of AAP publications released in March and April promotes offering routine, catch-up and seasonal vaccines during children’s hospital stays and around surgeries and medical procedures.

But some physicians and vaccine safety advocates say the approach raises medical and ethical concerns, particularly for children already sick enough to require hospitalization.

A March 9 article in AAP News described “perioperative or periprocedural vaccination” as “a novel way to vaccinate children who are in a hospital environment for other reasons.”

Another March report in Hospital Pediatrics stated that “pediatric inpatient hospital admissions are opportunities for catch-up vaccination.”

The push comes as the AAP and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have diverged on some vaccine recommendations, creating what an April AAP Publications report called “a more complex landscape for parental vaccine decision-making.”

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