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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam's agency told lawmakers in September that the record surge in requests for concealed weapons permits was one of his agency's "chief ongoing concerns." Equipment used to process weapons permits and other licenses was "redundant," inefficient and outdated, leading to higher costs and "greater operational risk." A $13.3 million fix was needed to meet demand, his agency said in a 2017 budget request. That blunt assessment, previously unreported, conflicts with how Putnam has characterized the concealed weapons program amid reports his department mishandled applications for licenses. When the Tampa Bay Times first reported last month that...

- Artificial intelligence has clear positive uses, but it could be used to teach machines to attack people and their computer networks on their own. - Drones and autonomous vehicles could be hacked using AI and turned into weapons - Traditional cybersecurity methods won't know how to cope with new attacks carried out by smart machines.

North Korea is refusing to denuclearise unless the US meets its demands for a new peace treaty, it has been reported. A month after the historic summit between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, the two sides have made slow progress. Quoting a source with knowledge of North Korea’s position, CNN said Pyonygang wants Washington to make a “bold move” and agree to a peace treaty that would replace the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War. Without such a treaty, which would require two-thirds approval in the US senate, North Korea is unlikely...

These guys built a NERF bazooka/rocket launcher and it is positivalutely SCARY and awesome to behold. 2.5" barrel, pneumatic system powered by a 9-volt battery. The "NERF darts" are pool noodles with PVC fittings, put together and look exactly like ginormous official NERF ammo. 3D printed cosmetics including flip-up sights, safety switch and button to fire. Finally it's painted with the same scheme as real NERF toys.Here's the video of it on YouTube.

Does Iran really want to nuke Israel? Is Israel stronger than Iran? A top security expert explains Israel ranked eighth most powerful country in the world North Korea expanded missile facility during talks with Trump, analysts say Pompeo downplays North Korea's rebuke of 'gangster-like' denuclearization demands North Korea reportedly extended an offer to Israel in 1999 to nix its agreements to sell missile technology to Iran and other enemy states that posed a threat to the Jewish state at the time - if Israel paid Pyongyang $1 billion in cash. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal published...

North Korea's vitriolic criticism of the U.S. following a first round of nuclear negotiations went out of its way to spare one person: President Donald Trump. In a statement issued just hours after the two-day talks finished on Saturday, North Korea accused the U.S. side of a "unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization," then added, "We still cherish our good faith in President Trump." On one level, the sheen of last month's Singapore summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with broad smiles and handshakes, has yet to wear off. But on another, North Korea may be...

A friend of mine recently forwarded me a question a friend of his had posed: "If/when our Federal Government comes to pilfer, pillage, plunder our property and destroy our lives, what good can a handgun do against an army with advanced weaponry, tanks, missiles, planes, or whatever else they might have at their disposal to achieve their nefarious goals? (I'm not being facetious: I accept the possibility that what happened in Germany, or similar, could happen here; I'm just not sure that the potential good from an armed citizenry in such a situation outweighs the day-to-day problems caused by masses...

King Abdullah II of Jordan portrays himself very much as a warrior monarch and has a deep background in special operations and helicopter flying. To this day, the 56-year-old ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom does regular drills with commandos from the country's sprawling special operations apparatus and sometimes we get to see him in action. Such was the case this week when a video appeared online showing the King and the Crown Prince of Jordan practicing close-quarter combat (CQC) VIP protection drills, with the king wielding some unique firepower. Queen Rania Al Abdullah posted the video of father and...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he was confident that North Korea understood the scope of the U.S. desire for complete denuclearization as the two countries negotiate after President Donald Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "We've been pretty unambiguous in our conversations about what we mean when we say complete denuclearization," Pompeo told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on funding for the State Department. Trump has drawn some criticism from national security analysts for an agreement that emerged from his June 12 summit with Kim that had few details on how Pyongyang would...

It wasn’t what he said. But it was much more than nothing. Donald Trump didn’t get much in the way of North Korean denuclearization in Singapore. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In the days since the summit with Kim Jong Un, critics—including me—have pointed out how little the U.S. president got from North Korea’s leader during their much-hyped meeting. And it’s true that Trump fell far short in that meeting of his stated goal to fully dismantle North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program, and then wildly overstated his achievement by declaring the North Korean nuclear threat over. (It’s not.) But...

TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe considers setting up an international foundation to finance North Korea’s denuclearization, media reported. Abe mentioned a global "mechanism" on Saturday that would accumulate donations by the international community to aid the North in its bid to get rid of nuclear weapons, Kyodo said. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un committed to a complete nuclear disarmament in a joint declaration signed after a historic summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12. Abe said Japan would benefit from the North's denuclearization but added Pyongyang would have to make concrete steps to...

•US president Donald Trump left experts baffled when he said North Korea had agreed to destroy a missile engine testing site, but it now looks like North Korea is making good. •North Korea will reportedly destroy a large-scale facility in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province that was used to test engines for the intercontinental-range ballistic missile, the Hwasong-14. •The Hwasong-14 was the first North Korean missile experts said could hit the US mainland with a nuclear payload. •Measures like the destruction of testing sites in North Korea, if monitored by US and international experts, could build the kind of trust needed...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is defending the agreement signed by President Trump and Kim Jong Un at the Singapore summit, insisting it “encompasses” ‘verifiable’ and ‘irreversible’ denuclearization, even though the document does not explicitly use those terms. The document calls only for “complete denuclearization,” sparking criticism the agreement was not specific enough to allow oversight of the denuclearization process. “Let me assure you that ‘complete’ encompasses ‘verifiable’ in the minds of everyone concerned,” Pompeo told reporters in Seoul Wednesday. “One can’t completely denuclearize without validating, authenticating – you pick the word. The President is committed to that.” When a...

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive" document on Tuesday following a historic summit in Singapore aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. There were no immediate details on the contents of the document but Trump said he expected the denuclearization process to start "very, very quickly". Although the breakthrough made at the summit marks just the start of a diplomatic process, it could bring lasting change to the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the transformation of China....

The US says its discussions with North Korea are moving "more quickly than expected" ahead of the summit in Singapore on Tuesday. The preliminary talks between officials have been taking place ahead of the unprecedented first meeting. The White House also confirms that President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un will hold a one-on-one meeting, with only translators present. The outcome may determine the fate of North Korea's nuclear programme. The US insists it will accept nothing less than complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. North Korea has said it is willing to commit to denuclearisation, but that term is open...

Japan could invest in a small arsenal of land-based missiles, each carrying one or more nuclear warheads. The missiles could be stationed in hardened silos, like the American Minuteman III, or on mobile launchers like the Russian RS-24 Yars. A Japanese ICBM would be smaller, not needing the range and fuel to reach North America. The ability to reach all of China, European Russia and the Middle East would be sufficient. It is perhaps China’s greatest nightmare: a nuclear-armed Japan. Permanently anchored off the Asian mainland, bristling with nuclear weapons, a nuclear Japan would make China’s security situation much more...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan said on Wednesday it had cut all defence ties with North Korea, in a rare admission that it used to have such ties in the first place. The announcement came as Washington is locked in a standoff over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear weapons programmes, and as Sudan, which is still on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, reels from an economic crisis. "Sudan's government would like to affirm that its defence production sector has cancelled all contracts ... with North Korea, and ended all relations, direct or through a third party," the foreign ministry...

The US has pledged it will insist North Korea gives up all its nuclear capabilities and is subject to strict verification before sanctions are lifted, as it attempts to allay concerns that President Donald Trump could settle for a quick compromise deal at his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12. “We will continue to implement all UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea,” Jim Mattis, US defence secretary, said after a meeting with his Japanese and South Korean colleagues in Singapore on Sunday. “North Korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates verifiable and irreversible...

A group of House Democrats will take another run this week at stopping President Trump and the Pentagon from developing low-yield nuclear weapons. The new warhead program would be defunded by $65 million in the coming year under an amendment to a Department of Energy appropriations bill proposed by Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dan Kildee, D-Mich. The spending bill could hit the House floor late this week following Rules Committee meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to decide if their amendment will get a vote. The proposal is the latest effort by Democrats on...

FUKUSHIMA, Japan -- The leaders of 16 Pacific island nations and territories, as well as Japan, Australia and New Zealand, adopted a declaration at the end of a two-day summit Saturday committing to concrete action toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It was the first time for participants to refer to the North Korean threat at the summit, which is held every three years. This year's summit, the eighth, was held in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The leaders welcomed the Panmunjeom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula, issued at the April summit between the leaders of...