Guest Host Terry Slatic & Monty Torres

When U.S. operations against Iran began roughly six months ago, administration officials described the campaign as a limited action intended to avoid a lengthy military commitment. According to the Journal, the Pentagon is now moving toward an open-ended deployment strategy designed to preserve military options for President Trump. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved plans that could keep significant U.S. military forces in the Middle East into 2027.  

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln arrived at Laem Chabang, Thailand, after an extraordinarily long deployment that kept the ship at sea for more than 200 consecutive days, including extensive operations in the Middle East.  

The Politico article describes growing alarm on Capitol Hill after members of Congress and their staff were shown demonstrations of how modern AI systems can rapidly assemble detailed personal dossiers on ordinary Americans using commercially available data. The briefings left lawmakers from both parties concerned about privacy, surveillance, and the potential misuse of AI. 

MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ is not the name of a new identity category. It is an advocacy and policy acronym referring to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, and LGBTQIA+ people, primarily in the Canadian context. Its purpose is to draw attention to violence affecting Indigenous communities and to ensure that a broad range of affected groups are included in those discussions.