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Inside The Effort To Build Ukraine’s Ground Robot Arsenal

With ground maneuver a huge risk thanks to the ubiquity of deadly aerial drones, Ukraine is increasingly relying on uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) to move supplies, rescue the wounded, shoot down drones, lay mines and even fight battles. As a result, the head of the country’s defense technology incubator has been tasked with ensuring that there are enough of these systems to meet the voracious demand.

These efforts are being closely watched. Five years into an existential fight, Ukraine has become a global leader in ground drone technology. Kyiv is deploying these systems at a scale and pace that even the most advanced militaries can’t come close to keeping up with.

In an exclusive hour-long interview earlier this month, Brave1 CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk spoke with us about how Ukraine is set to produce tens of thousands of UGVs this year, how they are being used, and the importance of artificial intelligence in increasing the efficiency of these robots in combat.

This is the second of a two part interview. The first part focused on Ukraine’s interceptor drones, which you can read here.

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity.

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NASA boss reveals unsettling reality behind newly released UFO files

The head of NASA says the UFO files expose years of unexplained encounters that government agencies failed to seriously investigate. 

Jared Isaacman told FOX News that the declassified videos, photos and documents reveal strange objects captured by military sensors around the world.

‘What’s being surfaced isn’t crashed ships or alien bodies, but real unexplained phenomena,’ the NASA administrator said.

Isaacman said many of the cases remained buried inside government databases for decades until President Donald Trump ordered agencies to revisit old records, search classified archives and publicly release what they found.

The comments came after the Trump administration released two batches of previously classified UFO records under a new disclosure initiative aimed at uncovering unexplained aerial incidents hidden inside federal archives.

Officials said additional releases from agencies, including the CIA, are expected in the coming weeks as pressure grows for greater transparency surrounding UFO investigations.

For decades, many UFO-related records remained locked away due to Cold War secrecy, national security concerns and fears about exposing sensitive military technology detected by radar and surveillance systems.

Critics have long argued that successive administrations avoided publicly acknowledging unexplained cases out of concern over public backlash, institutional embarrassment and growing conspiracy theories surrounding UFO investigations.

‘I think the President has really got government agencies now taking this seriously, to go look at the files and bring the data to light, and he’s putting it all out for everyone to analyze,’ Isaacman told Fox News. 

‘This is citizen science right now. Take a look at our files, tell us what you think.’

He added that he is not aware of any files containing information about alien bodies or spaceships, but ‘observations from decades past, from some of our adversaries and potentially some of our allies, essentially saying, “We saw something, we documented it, and we kept it buried in a file somewhere,’ are now being made public.”‘

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Illinois Plans Tax Break for Billionaires and the Chicago Bears. Everyone Else Could End Up Paying More.

The Illinois Legislature is busy advancing a bill that’s one of the most egregious examples yet of the grift between professional sports teams and state and local governments. 

Under House Bill 910, projects designated as “megaprojects” would have their assessed value frozen at a base-year level, effectively shielding all new construction from property taxation for up to 45 years. Just two developments would qualify for the maximum duration under the current language: the proposed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights and the One Central mixed-use development near Soldier Field in Chicago.

Rank-and-file property owners in Illinois pay the highest property taxes in the nation, but middle-class taxpayers get no relief under the bill. Instead, it’s likely their taxes will go up even more. The language says “megaproject” developers (for projects that cost at least $100 million) would be able to negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes with local taxing bodies, with the duration of the tax break varying by the total cost of the development. For example, if a property tax analysis of the Arlington Heights stadium estimates it to be a $5 billion development on land currently valued at $100 million, this bill would reduce the developer’s annual tax liability from roughly $350 million to approximately $7 million.

What happens to the difference of $343 million in this example? Local governments can still count the full value of the megaproject when calculating how much they’re allowed to tax and borrow—they just can’t actually collect taxes on most of the megaproject. Given the record of local governments in Illinois, it’s a pretty good bet they’ll find that revenue elsewhere by raising taxes. The legislation, as it stands, does basically nothing to address this.

The bill passed the Illinois House in April. The bill passed 78–32, with 10 Republicans crossing party lines to support it. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker is busy pressuring the state Senate to get it across the finish line before the end of May. Pritzker (and the rest of the Legislature) are feeling pressure to pass the bill due to the looming threat of the Bears moving to northwest Indiana. Hoosier lawmakers, especially Republicans, have a standing offer for the Bears to relocate just across the state line for over $1 billion in public subsidies. (At least Indiana is in better fiscal health than Illinois.)

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Chilling bodycam reveals UFO-linked Air Force general met shadowy Pentagon unit before he vanished… and his perplexed wife’s reaction

Newly released bodycam footage has revealed a shocking meeting between a missing Air Force general and members of the Pentagon‘s shadowy space unit just hours before his disappearance. 

Police officers in New Mexico were recording as they spoke with a witness who allegedly had dinner with William Neil McCasland the night before he vanished without a trace on February 27.

McCasland is a retired Air Force Major General who has been linked to both US nuclear research and classified UFO-related programs during his career.

The bodycam footage, obtained by the Law&Crime Network, captured a phone call with an unidentified woman who said McCasland met with her and members of the US Space Force at a restaurant in Albuquerque around 6pm local time.

Officially, the Space Force equips the military for operations in space, protecting satellites and other assets from threats, but the newest branch of the armed forces also tracks unexplained space objects, such as UFOs, as part of national security.

The unnamed caller claimed she worked with McCasland, who was still a member of the Kirtland Partnership, a nonprofit working to protect and expand Kirtland Air Force Base, a major military research facility and nuclear weapons lab.

Previously, McCasland’s wife, Susan Wilkerson, had posted online that the retired general only had ‘very commonly held clearances’ since retiring from the Air Force 13 years ago, but the new witness revealed that the 68-year-old was still a key figure in secretive government circles.

‘He was the head of Air Force Research Lab to the point the man’s names are in the UFO documents that are fixed to be released,’ the witness claimed. ‘He’s in that depth, so he has a very high security clearance.’

However, the woman who met with McCasland said something seemed wrong during the meeting with Space Force and the retired general was not acting like himself that night.

‘I was shocked this morning when I saw the alert because what I noticed Thursday evening [February 26] is that he wasn’t his usual self. He was kind of spacey and quiet and you know that that happens with people.’

The newly obtained bodycam footage also revealed the conversation between officers from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and Wilkerson, revealing that McCasland’s disappearance caught her completely off guard.

However, she noted that the retired general was just prescribed a new medication hours before he vanished, which was supposed to help battle several symptoms he was having that may have been signaling cognitive decline.

‘Today he had taken a drug that the doctor prescribed last night that was supposed to help him sleep,’ she said in the bodycam recording obtained by Law&Crime Sidebar with Jesse Weber.

‘With weight gain, he’s lost about 20 pounds for no reason, and with anxiety, today he woke up and said, “Well, I have got better sleep, but it’s like the after effects of a bad hangover. I’m just foggy. I can’t get any motivation to do anything.”‘ 

McCasland was reportedly seeing doctors for his physical and mental difficulties. Before police arrived at the home, Wilkerson had told 911 dispatchers the military veteran feared his brain was ‘deteriorating.’

He was last seen leaving his home without his phone, wearable devices or any identification and his wife told authorities she believed McCasland ‘had planned not to be found.’

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Vile ex-Mamdani aide who’s running for Congress called white women ‘ugly colonizers’ in rant against interracial relationships

Vile racial remarks have surfaced from a former aide of New York City socialist Mayor Zorhan Mamdani as she makes a run for Congress.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, who was the lead for Mamdani’s campaign in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan areas, had her racially charged uploads to X in 2019 brought back to light, according to the New York Post.

‘Black men [handshake emoji] Arab men fetishizing ugly colonizer women,’ the 32-year-old allegedly wrote in a September 2019.

Chevalier, who is currently on the campaign trail in hopes of representing Harlem’s 13th Congressional District, also detailed an incident with a ‘white lady’ who questioned her anti-Israeli shirt.

‘I held the door on an old white lady at Popeyes… Her: is that a BDS shirt? Me: Yes, she wrote, referring to the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” campaign against Israel and Israeli-owned businesses, “Her: Do you know what they do to– Door closed before I could find out what they do,’ she wrote on X in September 2019, as cited by the Post.

The uploads were published by an X account, which at the time was Twitter, named darializabonet, which could no longer be found.

Chevalier trails behind incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat by 14 points, according to a poll conducted toward the end of March by The City.

She also had a successful first quarter of the year, funding outraising Espaillat $270,000 to his $230,000, according to campaign finance reports.

Chevalier launched her bid for Congress in November, following Mamdani’s win for mayor, appearing to ride the moment of the democratic socialist movement.

She has pledged to legalize prostitution and private drug use, as well as abolish prisons, according to her DSA candidate questionnaire.

Additionally, she called for the abolishment of Immigration Customs Enforcement and the end of US military support for Israel.

The Congress hopeful boasted on her campaign site about releasing immigrants who were allegedly illegally detained from ICE detention centers and highlighted how she has protested outside of Trump Tower.

Furthermore, she credited herself as a leader of the ‘tentefada’ encampments at Columbia University, which she attended from 2012 to 2016.

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Spotsylvania’s top prosecutor tells why he won’t enforce tighter gun laws

New Virginia laws banning the sale and transfer of assault weapons go into effect in about five weeks. But at least five conservative prosecutors say they won’t enforce them.

Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey said he believes the laws violate the Constitution.

“The Second Amendment is alive and well in Spotsylvania County,” he told News4.

The commonwealth will ban the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic weapons, shifting gun laws to more closely align with states such as California and Illinois. But as Virginia teeters from purple to blue and back again, some elected officials are making clear that the new laws won’t be enforced in their counties.

Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement: “Commonwealth’s Attorneys are elected to enforce our laws, which is what we expect them to do when these laws take effect on July 1.”

The law will make it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for people to buy, sell, transfer, import, or manufacture an assault firearm.

Mehaffey said the law is in direct conflict with the Second Amendment.

“It’s fundamentally opposed to a free society, a society where liberty reigns. And this is the moment in time where the Second Amendment was drafted and enacted, where the government couldn’t take the right of the people to defend themselves away,” he said.

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Trump Files Motion to Restart WH Ballroom Project After Second Assassination Attempt in a Month

President Donald Trump is again pushing back after another violent incident near the White House, arguing that the courts are now standing in the way of critical security upgrades on the property.

In a Truth Social post on Monday morning, Trump shared a six-page legal filing signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche asking a federal court to lift an injunction blocking construction on the White House East Wing ballroom and security project.

The filing came after a shooting outside the White House on Saturday night in which the attacker was killed by Secret Service agents.

The incident came just weeks after another armed man attempted to rush into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with apparent plans to kill Trump.

Those threats follow the two assassination attempts Trump survived during the 2024 campaign, including the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where the president was shot in the ear and nearly killed.

Trump’s legal team argued that the latest shooting proves exactly why the White House project is necessary.

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Residents of Polluted Areas Say Trump’s Regulatory Rollbacks Are “Getting Really Scary”

ita Robles’s life is ruled by allergies, the worst effects from which can last for months at a time. She uses rescue inhalers, a nebulizer, and a maintenance inhaler — on top of a slew of other medications. Even then, it’s often not enough.

“There are times when I’m outside just walking to the driveway and it’ll feel like something catches in my throat, and it causes me to go into a choking fit,” Robles told Truthout. “It’s miserable.”

Robles lives in a Houston, Texas, neighborhood suffocated by heavy industry — Denver Harbor, the largest petrochemical hub of the U.S. Robles, 56, calls the neighborhood a “disaster.”

She’s just one of millions of Americans, however, living in communities where people’s quality of life is secondary to the hum of big business — communities at the front line of the government’s regulatory rollbacks and budget cuts.

Since Donald Trump came back into office in January 2025, the federal government has either succeeded in, or is attempting to, weaken and roll back many of the country’s key environmental regulations and other broader programs. Things could get worse if the proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget is approved, with its 52 percent cut in funding under the latest agency head, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin.

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Westminster Recycles Tobacco-Style Panic Campaign For Internet Crackdown

The British government ran a public consultation on whether to ban social media for under-16s. The consultation opened in March. It closed today. In April, while the public was still filling in the forms and expressing their outrage, ministers announced they would impose “age or functionality restrictions” regardless of what the consultation found.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 already requires restrictions for under-16s. The consultation was the democratic version of asking someone where they’d like to eat dinner after you’ve already ordered the food.

Today, on closing day, a coordinated media blitz dropped with the subtlety of a carpet bombing.

Wes Streeting, the former Health Secretary who quit earlier this month and is now clearly auditioning for the Labour leadership, used the usual trope and compared social media to tobacco.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was photographed meeting bereaved families. Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch wasn’t doing much opposing and accused Labour of dithering on the decision.

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Fox News Issues Explanation After Guest Goes Mega-Viral for Allegedly Wearing a ‘Creepy Full-Face Mask’

Fox News has issued a statement after one of its guests went viral for supposedly wearing a “creepy full-face mask” during his appearance on the network.

As The Gateway Pundit’s Cassandra MacDonald reported, social media users erupted on Thursday night after a Fox News segment featuring retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward went viral because he appeared to be wearing a “creepy full-face mask.”

Harward is a retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral and decorated Navy SEAL. He has served as Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), led special operations across multiple theaters, and is fluent in Farsi, having lived in Tehran as a teenager.

The topic of the interview was President Donald Trump’s hardline approach to Iran, including crushing sanctions, potential military options, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and the strategy of forcing the regime to capitulate without another nuclear deal.

Harward told viewers that Trump “has time on his hands” and can deliver a decisive strike. He stressed the importance of sustained economic pressure and naval strength over rushed negotiations.

But the clip did not go viral for what he was saying. Instead, social media was captivated by Harward’s neck, which had a dark line or what appeared to be a “separation” below the jawline and at the collar.

Immediately, people began insisting it was the edge of a hyper-realistic silicone full-face mask.

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