Trump Has Lost Nearly a Quarter of Key Drone Stockpile in Iran
The Trump administration has lost roughly one quarter of the country’s MQ-9 Reaper drones as part of the president’s ongoing war against Iran.
Three U.S. officials told The Washington Post Thursday that the U.S. military had lost at least 45 Reaper drones. Each low-flying surveillance and attack drone costs between $30 million and $50 million to produce, depending on what type of sensor each machine carries, placing the potential total cost of the missing or destroyed Reapers at up to $1.3 billion.
A fourth U.S. official told the Post that not all of the Reapers were shot down—some of them crashed after the operators’ connection to the drone failed.
At the beginning of the war, there were approximately 185 Reapers in the U.S. military fleet, including 165 in the Air Force and 20 in the Marine Corps. Marines spokesperson Lt. Col. Joshua Benson said that none of the Marines’ Reaper drones had been lost.
In May, Air Force Lt. Gen. David Tabor told the Senate that the number of remaining drones had fallen to roughly 135, noting he was “concerned” about the losses.
Reaper drones join the growing list of weapons that the U.S. is shedding faster than it can replace. A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies published in May estimated it will take until at least 2030 to restore the U.S. missile stockpile to pre-war levels, leaving a multi-year “window of vulnerability” for the United States in potential future conflicts. Since that study was published, the United States has only continued to execute military strikes, and Trump’s war against Iran has racked up a total estimated bill of more than $100 billion.
It’s been more than five months since Trump launched his military onslaught against Iran, and multiple reports have raised concerns that the United States is running out of weapons. Trump administration officials have denied the reports, even after they reportedly sent the president into a rage.
Despite insisting that the U.S. weapons stockpile is far from depleted, the Trump administration has launched a desperate campaign to boost weapons manufacturing.
Last week, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg gave industry leaders three weeks to submit their plans to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that the department was actively focused on boosting munitions acquisitions to provide “the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands,” but he claimed the effort predated Trump’s seemingly endless war.
Democrats demand answers for suicidal sailors Trump stranded at sea
President Donald Trump’s ill-conceived and poorly planned war in Iran has stranded more than 5,000 troops on an aircraft carrier in the Middle East for more than 250 days, with the servicemembers onboard experiencing such a deterioration in both their mental and physical health that it’s caused multiple crew members to attempt to jump overboard, CNN reported on Thursday.
Anthropic set AI agents loose on the same task. They started a turf war.
Flock’s Answer to Its Surveillance Scandals: Trust Us
On Thursday, the surveillance technology company Flock announced that it will limit access to its network of over 120,000 automatic license plate readers following disturbing reports dating back to at least 2021 of police officers abusing the technology for criminal activities like stalking.
In his blog announcement, Flock CEO Garrett Langley did not mention the widespread public backlash against the technology, which, in significant part, led more than 20 local governments to begin rolling back their use in July. He only stated that the policy updates work to address “three areas that are critical to the company: strengthening privacy, accountability, and security.”
Among the updates: Flock is now making mandatory a previously optional feature that flags “abnormal activity” for review, shortening the default recommended data storage period for Flock surveillance products from 30 to seven days, and establishing optional limits on data sharing between police departments.
I've learned a lot in nine years of building @Flock_Safety. Some of it from our customers, and some of it from the communities they serve.
Today we’re announcing the changes that came from listening. A new standard for privacy, security, and accountability in public safety…
The ACLU said in a Thursday statement that most of Flock’s policy changes are “merely retreads of previous inadequate safety measures” it highlighted last month. While Flock claims its new policies will empower local police to dictate what other users can and cannot search their data for, the nonprofit said the company is assuming that its system already prevents improper search queries.
Clearly, this isn’t the case. In a statement, Tom Bowman, the policy counsel for security and surveillance at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said that the policy changes are still “asking thousands of police departments to police themselves, despite evidence from across the U.S. that this lack of guardrails is unsafe.”
In other words, Flock’s answer to a crisis of trust is to ask for more of it.
ALT Santa Cruz could lower speed limits near schools, business areas
In 2023, Santa Cruz County ranked worst in the state in reported cyclist deaths and injuries according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. (Nik Altenberg — Santa Cruz Local)
Santa Cruz Transportation and Public Works Meeting- 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17
- Santa Cruz Council Chambers, 809 Center Street, Santa Cruz
- To comment ahead of the meeting, email tpwc@santacruzca.gov no later than 12 p.m. Monday Aug. 17.
SANTA CRUZ >> In an effort to reduce traffic injuries and deaths, the Santa Cruz city transportation planners are proposing to lower speed limits in school zones and neighborhoods with heavy foot traffic. Vehicle speed is a major factor in likelihood of death for pedestrians and cyclists in crashes.
On Monday, the Santa Cruz Transportation and Public Works Commission is set to review the Santa Cruz Road Safety Action Plan, and recommend city council adopt an array of speed reducing measures.
The commission’s recommendations include reducing speed limits to 15 mph from 25 mph in school zones when children are present, and to 20 or 25 mph from 30 mph in pedestrian heavy streets, such as Pacific Avenue and Laurel Street.
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Law enforcement data for vehicle crashes in the city of Santa Cruz from 2020 to 2024 suggests that unsafe speed was the primary factor in 17% of crashes that caused injury or death, according to the city’s Santa Cruz Road Safety Action Plan.
The council’s ability to reduce speed limits comes after a 2021 state law passed, which granted cities and counties in California the option to lower school and neighborhood speed limits to help reduce fatal accidents. Santa Cruz created the safety action plan that same year.
Now with school back in session, the safety risks are even greater with many students walking or biking.
“I think reducing speeds, especially around children in school zones, make neighborhoods more walkable and bikeable,” said Councilmember Renee Golder, who is also principal of Bay View Elementary School.
Bay View Elementary sits at Mission and Bay streets. Mission Street, which is also Highway 1, is a hot spot of fatal traffic accidents, with one as recently as January that resulted in the death of a pedestrian struck near Bay Street.
With Mission Street being one of the top priority streets for local transportation planners to address, other roadways the commission is seeking improvement on include Water Street, Soquel Avenue and Center Street.
The commission is also looking to launch a “20 is Plenty” campaign, a grassroots movement that originally started in the United Kingdom, which advocates for the idea of lowering speed limits on residential streets, particularly for cyclist safety.
In 2023, Santa Cruz County ranked worst in the state in reported cyclist deaths and injuries according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. The state data does not incorporate how many people regularly cycle.
Originally scheduled to be completed by 2030, the action plan was given a new projected completion date of 2050, after the city recognized that there was “more work to be done” and a “more realistic timeline” needed to be implemented, according to the draft of the action plan.
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GOP senator can’t believe RFK Jr. lied to him about vaccines
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana appeared on CNBC, where he was asked the uncomfortable question of whether he regretted his deciding vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the head of Health and Human Services. This is in the wake of yet another broken promise from the brainworm-having, bear carcass prankster—this time undermining childhood vaccination guidelines. Cassidy…
Worst prez ever
A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | Trump too tired to answer for his mistakes…
OpenAI hires new CRO as executive shake-up continues
Ohio GOP Rep. Sued by Ex-Wife for Sharing Nudes of Young Daughter
On August 2, Ohio Republican Representative Max Miller accidentally shared images of his two-year old daughter’s genitalia while attempting to discredit other accusations against him—like holding a gun to his ex-wife’s head, scalding her with boiling water, and breaking said two-year-old daughter’s collarbone.
Now, his ex-wife Emily Moreno—daughter of GOP Senator Bernie Moreno—is suing him for exposing their daughter to online pedophiles earlier this month.
“Defendant Congressman Max Miller, and Miller’s
lawyer, Defendant Aaron Minc of Defendant Minc LLC, recklessly published and disclosed to
the world a nude image of the child depicting her genitalia,” Moreno’s lawyer, Subodh Chandra, wrote. “Faced with a
mostly self-inflicted dumpster fire of public attention to his reputation for abusive behavior,
Miller so desperately wanted to salvage his political job, that he recklessly and intentionally
provided [his attorney Aaron Minc] a trove of documents and photos, indifferent about what they contained or how
they were used.”
Miller’s own lawyer was accused of initially lying about “the seriousness of their offense,” before he admitted to releasing the pictures himself.
“Unfortunately, I missed the last three pages of a 40+ page document with sensitive content. It was completely unintentional and a mistake.... To be clear, this was completely my fault. I am solely responsible for what happened. I was the only person responsible for assembling, creating, reviewing, adding, deleting, redacting, or making any changes to the information and files that were in this folder,” Minc wrote days after the incident.
“Any parent—and any lawyer—knows the grave danger of posting nude photos of a toddler on the public web for pedophiles and bad actors to download,” Moreno’s lawyer contined. “They victimized an innocent child to score political points, and we intend to hold them fully accountable under federal and state law.”
This is just one of many, many fires for Miller. His father-in-law Senator Bernie Moreno has been virtually the only Republican to call on his resignation, saying he needed “serious psychological help.”
“He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter,” Moreno wrote on X. “If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them.” Miller also received a restraining order from his ex-girlfriend and former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
Miller has done his daughter—whose collarbone he’s already been accused of breaking—an incredible disservice, regardless of the outcome of this lawsuit. Even still, the entirety of GOP leadership from Trump to House Speaker Mike Johnson has stood steadfastly behind Miller as a House Ethics Committee investigation commences.
One dead after vehicle drives off West Cliff Drive near Steamer Lane
One person has died following an incident in which a vehicle drove off a cliff on West Cliff Drive near Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz authorities said.
Santa Cruz Regional 911 received a call around 12:50 a.m. Wednesday, and units from multiple agencies responded, including all five units from the Santa Cruz Fire Department (four engines and a ladder truck, plus a battalion chief), three units from the Central Fire District of Santa Cruz County, a battalion chief from the Scotts Valley Fire Department and units from the Santa Cruz Police Department, according to a news release.
Crews found one victim who had escaped from the vehicle and received a report that another victim was still inside. Four rescue swimmers from SCFD went into the water to search for the victim.
They located and extracted the second victim, and the swimmers confirmed no other victims were in the car.
The first victim who escaped the vehicle sustained minor injuries. The second victim was transported to a nearby medical facility, but later passed away there, according to the release.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available.
Have news that should be in Lookout Briefs? Send your news releases, including contact information, to news@lookoutlocal.com.
MORE LOCAL COVERAGEThe post One dead after vehicle drives off West Cliff Drive near Steamer Lane appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.
The WNBA ‘felt like a lifeline’ for LGBTQ+ fans. Anti-trans attacks are testing that refuge.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s remarks opposing transgender athletes in women’s sports injected political debate into a league with no openly trans women players. By Brooke Migdon for The 19th Irene Vázquez found the WNBA at just the right time. It was the summer of 2020, and emergency pandemic guidelines had kept them physically separated from their friends and support…
Tommy Tuberville Brags He Talks to ChatGPT as Congress Ramps Up AI Use
Members of Congress are outsourcing their work to artificial intelligence without much, if any, oversight or limits.
Staffers and legislators are using AI chatbots to write speeches and news releases, manage mail from constituents, draft questions for congressional hearings, and even draft amendments, The Washington Post reports. The Senate and House have cleared staffers to use ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Google’s Gemini, with the House also approving Claude. Last year, the House bought 6,000 Copilot licenses, encouraging staffers to use them.
Senators and representatives regularly use the services themselves. Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville asks ChatGPT questions about issues such as Medicare and Medicaid while driving across his home state of Alabama.
“It’s kind of like you can sit there and talk to an expert,” Tuberville told the Post. “You don’t know whether or not they’re 100 percent correct. But they put you on the right path.”
Republican Representative Mike Flood asked a chatbot where private equity was buying single-family homes while working on a bipartisan housing bill last year. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who supports stricter regulations on tech companies, has used ChatGPT to look up demographic information.
Congressional staffers aren’t clear about if there are limits on using the bots. One staffer uses Copilot to draft bill amendments, while another fed all of his phone contacts and text messages going back years into Claude and told it to build a database of reporters, including what he pitched them, what they accepted, and what went badly. Claude also runs the communications budget of that congressional office, overseeing taxpayer-funded mailers and all ads sent to constituents.
That staffer isn’t sure what congressional rules allow for AI use.
“You’re still not supposed to put constituent data into AI,” he told the Post. “There are weird things around where the rules are. I don’t know all of them.”
In reality, Congress’s own rules are that AI can’t be used to make deepfakes, make personnel decisions, handle sensitive information such as constituent information, or finalize legislation. AI can be used to help draft a bill, but humans have the final review of it. And chatbots can be used to draft a response to a constituent, but aren’t allowed to be told who the constituent is.
Most of the staffers who spoke to the Post said they didn’t know these rules, and enforcing them is left to staffers self-policing or reporting their colleagues. This has already caused problems, such as when Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna proposed an amendment to a defense bill earlier this summer.
One of her staffers included a summary of the proposed change with the amendment, and the first line began with “increasing example specific factors. Identical to H.R. 100 (118th Congress).11:25 AM????Claude responded:”, which was clearly lifted from a chatbot. Until rules and enforcement are tightened, incidents like this, and worse, will continue, and the public might not ever know.