retired

Jamal Robinson, who achieved his dream of retirement in 2024 and pays himself a whopping £138,000 a year, has revealed what he forks out to live in a “premium” area of Dubai “right off the beach”

A young retiree who pays himself a staggering £138,000 a year has revealed what he forks out to live in a “premium” area of Dubai “right off the beach”.

Jamal Robinson, who decided that he wanted to retire early when he was just a teenager, went from working as a church janitor to a position at Taco Bell for minimum wage, but would ultimately secure roles at Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon.

Jamal, who at the time of speaking was 40, achieved his dream of retirement in 2024. He’s now living as a US expat in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and has managed to save a cash pot worth nearly $4million (about £3m).

A former executive director of generative AI at Microsoft, Jamal accumulated millions in savings and investments and pays himself a staggering figure of about £11,500 every month.

Jamal told CNBC Make It: “What I love most about Dubai is it really caters to people that have been retired and are looking for a lot of services and activities.”

He continued: “I found that, most often, the things that were promised to me in America actually existed here. So, the levels of safety, the levels of like integration of people into society where everyone’s accepted.”

Jamal revealed that he pays himself roughly $15,400 per month (about £11,500), but he tends to spend around $9,000 (£6,700), usually allowing himself around $2,000 for food (£1,500).

A chart displayed Jamal’s spending for December 2024 (which he conceded was a “unique” month). Among his outgoings were $4,429 (about £3,300) for rent, $2,840 ($2,100) for health and wellness, and a discretionary fund of $1,549 (£1,160).

He claimed that Dubai is “actually much cheaper” for him than the majority of the major US cities in which he’s lived. Jamal added that the UAE city allows people to live the “kind of lifestyle” they want and accommodates “a lot” of price points.

A city synonymous with luxury, Dubai is also a popular holiday destination and global hub for leisure and business. Home to more than 200 nationalities, it also boasts the tallest building in the world, the 828-metre Burj Khalifa.

In addition, curious visitors can take advantage of its luxurious malls and traditional souks, and, in further evidence of its wealth, you may even spot the police driving supercars.

According to the Telegraph, it’s expensive to live in Dubai, and expats will have to pay for medical insurance. Despite this, there’s no income tax imposed on people, meaning you keep more of the cash you earn.

It reports that, as of June 2024 (according to figures by CBRE), average yearly rents for apartments and villas were AED 56,000 (about £11,265) and AED 166,000 (£33,393). It also stated that the average salary of someone living in Dubai was £54,647.

The U.S. Marine Corps recently marked the formal decommissioning of the tracked Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) family after more than five decades of service. Since 2018, the Marines have been working to replace the AAV fleet with new Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV), an 8×8 wheeled design.

The Marines held a sundown ceremony for the AAV at the Assault Amphibian School at Camp Pendleton, California, on September 26, according to an official release put out yesterday. Whether any AAVs technically remain assigned to units as the service continues to work out plans for their final disposition is unclear.

The retirement event at Camp Pendleton featured a small parade of the vehicles, one of which had an individual in an alligator suit standing in an open hatch, as seen at the top of this story. Alligator and gator have been common nicknames for tracked amphibious vehicles, in general, since they first began entering U.S. military service during World War II. The term amtrac, a portmanteau of amphibious tractor, is also commonly used in the United States to refer to vehicles of this type.

The AAV family “has been many things, a ship-to-shore connector, an armored fighting vehicle, a troop carrier, a logistics platform and even sometimes a live [sic; life] boat,” Marine Col. Lynn Berendsen, the Assault Amphibian School’s commanding officer, said at the ceremony, according to the release. “Most importantly, it was in a place where Marines made their mark in combat, in service and in sacrifice.”

The Marine Corps began fielding what was originally known as the Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Personnel-7 (LVTP-7) in 1972. The LVTP-7 was smaller, lighter, and could carry fewer personnel inside than the preceding LVTP-5, which had entered service in 1956, but was faster on land and in the water and offered greater unrefueled range. Unlike its predecessor, which relied on its tracks for propulsion in the water, the LVTP-7 also featured a pair of water jets on either side of the rear of the hull. The vehicle was armed with a single .50 caliber M85 machine gun in a turret on top of the front of the hull, offset to the right. The Marines received additional specialized variants configured for command and control (LVTC-7) and recovery (LVTR-7) missions, as well.

The LVTP-7 arrived too late for service in the Vietnam War, but Marines did bring them to Lebanon in the early 1980s as part of a multi-national peacekeeping operation. They were also employed in the amphibious assault role as part of the U.S. intervention in Grenada in 1983. It’s also worth noting here that LVTP-7s were offered for export, and Argentinian examples were used in the opening phase of the Falklands War in 1982.

Starting in the early 1980s, the Marine Corps’ LVTP-7 fleet was also put through a major upgrade program, which included a host of improvements, including a new engine and transmission, and updates to the water jet pumps. The resulting vehicles were redesignated AAVP-7s. The LVTC-7s and LVTR-7s were also brought up to this new configuration, becoming AAVC-7s and AAVR-7s. Later in the 1980s, the original M85-armed turrets on the AAVs also began being replaced with completely new ones sporting the much more common M2 .50 caliber machine gun and a 40mm Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher.

The Marines took their improved AAVs into combat during the Gulf War in 1991. The vehicles were also employed in other operations in the years following the end of the Cold War, including in Somalia in the early 1990s. This period also saw the development and fielding of the Enhanced Applique Armor Kits (EAAK), giving the vehicles improved protection against small arms fire and shrapnel.

The AAVs went through another round of major upgrades starting in the late 1990s, including another engine change and improvements to the suspension. The resulting A1 variants notably had the same engine and other components as the U.S. Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicles, offering additional logistical and supply chain benefits.

Marines brought AAVs with them back to Iraq in 2003, where their performance faced significant criticism, especially over the level of protection afforded to the crew and passengers. Eight of the vehicles were damaged or destroyed during the Battle of Nasiriyah, with at least one having been struck by fire from a friendly U.S. Air Force A-10 Warthog ground attack jet.

“I can think of several times in and around Fallujah in 2005 having been shot at many times, having had bullets bounce off the side of the vehicle, knowing that it was going to operate every time I needed it to,” Assault Amphibian School commander Col. Berendsen did tell our colleagues at Task & Purpose in an interview yesterday. “It was just one of those things that I was very comfortable operating in, and I knew it was always going to take on the job, no matter what it was after.”

Starting in 2012, the Marines had moved to replace AAVs with a more modern amtrac called the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV). The EFV was notably designed to travel at nearly 30 miles per hour over the water by hydroplaning. This was intended to allow U.S. Navy amphibious warfare ships to deploy the vehicles from much further offshore, helping to protect them from growing threats, especially shore-based anti-ship cruise missile batteries. The EFV also featured a turret with a 30mm automatic cannon, offering a significant boost in firepower.

All of this came at a price, with the EFV eventually having an estimated unit cost of around $20 million, more than that of a contemporary variant of the M1 Abrams tank. While the original goal was for the first EFVs to be fielded in 2015, the program was instead cancelled over cost growth in 2011. Development of another round of upgrades for the AAVs, with a heavy focus on improved survivability, began in 2015, but was also canceled in 2018 following the decision to acquire the new ACVs.

By that point, the aging AAVs had also become increasingly prone to serious and sometimes deadly accidents, including fires and instances where the vehicles sunk, trapping their occupants. In a particularly infamous incident in July 2020, one of the vehicles sank during training in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Clemente Island, California, killing the eight Marines and one U.S. Navy sailor on board. In late 2021, the Marines ceased regular deployments of AAVs and banned them from entering the water except in support of emergency crisis response operations. The vehicles were still being used in exercises on land, including ones overseas, as recently as last month.

The replacement ACVs also suffered a string of accidents early in their fielding. The Marines placed the blame for that largely on the 8×8 wheeled design being substantially different from the tracked AAV, and personnel having trouble making the transition. ACVs are now in regular use in support of operations worldwide, and the service is in the process of acquiring additional variants, including ones featuring turrets with 30mm automatic cannons.

The Marine Corps’ decision to go with a wheeled design over a tracked one in the first place had been the subject of much debate. In particular, compared to tracked types, wheeled armored vehicles have historically offered mixed performance on softer ground, like sandy beaches, but also higher speeds on firmer ground, especially improved roads. The ACV is also notably no faster in the water than the AAV. You can read more about all of this here.

Since 2020, the Marine Corps’ overall view of armored vehicles has changed dramatically, as well. The service is still in the process of a total overhaul of its force structure in line with new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations (CONOPS), which notably put significantly less emphasis on operations involving heavy forces deploying via traditional large amphibious warfare ships. This already led to the total divestment of its M1 Abrams tanks. The planned total size of the ACV fleet was also slashed from 1,122 vehicles to 632.

AAVs do continue to serve in many other armed forces globally, and the current prime contractor for the vehicles, U.K.-headquartered BAE Systems, continues to offer them for sale. American allies and partners have also already moved to acquire second-hand ex-Marine Corps examples in recent years.

Regardless of how the Marine Corps’ ACV and other armored vehicle plans may now continue to evolve, the sun has set on the service’s AAVs.

Contact the author: [email protected]

There are banking scams, Social Security scams, and scams aimed at retirees searching for a work-from-home job. The thieves behind these scams will do whatever they can to separate you from your personal identity and money.

Scammers are particularly interested in contacting seniors because they assume retirees have the most money to steal. They want your money, whether it’s your Social Security benefits, pension, or retirement plan.

Keep in mind: It’s not always easy to realize you’re being scammed. Scammers create fake company websites or clone real websites. They even create documents that look exactly like real tax, personal information, and banking deposit forms. They can come off as professional and sincere and lull you into believing they have a legitimate job to offer.

Here are some of the most common work-from-home scams and how to avoid them.

Image source: Getty Images.

The “you got the job” scam

Imagine you post your resume on an employment site, like Monster, Indeed, LinkedIn, or ZipRecruiter. Someone posing as a business owner or recruiter contacts you and initiates an online interview through video chat, email, or text message. Shortly after the interview, you’re told you’ve got the job and are provided with employment documents to fill out.

It can be challenging to tell a scam from the real thing because new employees at legitimate companies are also asked to fill out job-related documents. However, if asked to provide a picture of your driver’s license, bank account numbers (so the company can “pay“ you via direct deposit), your Social Security number, and your home address, don’t do it until you’ve vetted them and know it’s a legitimate job.” 

Once you’ve provided that personal information, the scammer has all they need to assume your identity, empty your savings account, open credit cards, and take loans out in your name. The scammer disappears, and you never hear another word about the job.

The “reshipping“ scam

The person behind this scam may offer you a job as a quality control manager or virtual personal assistant. Once “hired,” you’re told part of your job is to receive packages at home, get rid of the original packaging and receipts, repackage the products, and reship them to a specific address provided by your employer. The address may be in the U.S. or overseas.

The products you reship are often high-priced items, like name-brand electronics. Reshipping is never a legitimate job. Anything you’re repacking and sending to a third-party has likely been purchased using stolen credit cards.

Often, the company will promise you a paycheck after one month of work, but when the check doesn’t arrive and you attempt to contact them, they’re gone. In addition, depending on how much personal information you provided them, you may find yourself dealing with identity theft.

The “mystery shopper“ scam

To be clear, there are legitimate mystery shopper jobs, and they can be a perfect fit for a retiree. Thanks to scammers, though, you have to be careful. If asked to pay for anything upfront, including certifications, directories of jobs, or a job guarantee, it’s a scam. A real employer will never require you to pay for a job.

The “job placement service“ scam

Speaking of upfront payments, the job placement service scam involves someone pretending to be from a temporary agency, staffing firm, or headhunter. Typically, they’ll promote outdated or fake job listings and charge upfront fees for their “services.“

Again, if you’re asked to pay a fee, walk away. It’s a scam.

Red flags

The following signs should serve as red flags, warning you that you might be getting scammed:

• The job sounds too good to be true, and grand promises are made.
• The wage offered is notably higher or lower than the average wage for that job (you can check current wages online).
• You never applied to the company’s official career website.
• You can’t find the job posting on the real company’s job page (if there is a real company).
• The interview is conducted through Google Hangouts, Telegram app, TextFree app, TextNow app, or WhatsApp.
• Emails are sent from free accounts, such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail.
• The potential “employer“ requires you to provide personal information. For example, you may be asked for a copy of your driver’s license, passport, or Social Security number during your interview.
• You’re required to supply your bank account or credit card information. From this account, the scammer can steal your pension, annuity payments, or other retirement income.
• You’re required to pay something up front to get the job.
• You’re asked to purchase equipment and told the company will reimburse you. The scammer tells you whom to send the money to for the purchase.
• You must deposit money into your personal bank account and transfer it to someone you don’t know.

If you’re hoping to land a work-from-home job, they are available. As you search, pay special attention to any situation that feels “off“ because it just might be. No scammer has the right to reduce your net worth through fraud.

Mention Aaron Donald and nearly everyone thinks Rams, the team he spent his entire 10-year NFL career with and led to a Super Bowl championship in 2022. Donald was a three-time NFL defensive player of the year, nine-time All-Pro and is regarded as one of the greatest defensive tackles of all time.

But before Los Angeles there was Pittsburgh, where Donald grew up and where he went to college. And it is the University of Pittsburgh where Donald became an unstoppable force from 2010 to 2013, setting an NCAA record with tackles for loss by an interior lineman before the Rams plucked him as their first-round draft pick.

So it is Pitt that will retire Donald’s No. 97 on Nov. 15 during a home game against Notre Dame, Panthers athletic director Allen Greene announced Monday. Donald also will be enshrined in the Pitt Hall of Fame this weekend, joining other iconic alumni names Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett, Mike Ditka and Larry Fitzgerald.

“Born and raised in Pittsburgh, I’m grateful to the University of Pittsburgh for taking a chance on me when so many others wouldn’t,” Donald said in a statement. “I accomplished more in my career than I ever dreamed of, and for that I’m truly blessed.

“To soon see my number hanging alongside other Pitt greats is an honor beyond measure. I will always love this University. Hail to Pitt!”

Donald starred at Penn Hills High, east of Pittsburgh. As a Pitt senior in 2013, Donald led the nation with 28.5 tackles for loss and added 11 sacks and four forced fumbles. He was a unanimous first-team All-American and won every award that exists for a lineman: the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, Outland Trophy and Rotary Lombardi Award.

“Aaron Donald is a proud Pittsburgher who embodies the very best of what it means to be a Pitt Panther,” Greene said. “His humility, determination, and work ethic reflect the character of this community. Retiring his jersey honors not only an extraordinary athlete, but a leader whose relentless pursuit of excellence has defined his legacy.”

The first floor of Pitt’s Duratz Athletic Complex was renamed the Aaron Donald Football Performance Center in 2019, after Donald made a seven-figure gift to the program. He also set a high bar for workouts, as Rams teammate Jared Verse learned when he joined Donald for a punishing series of full-body circuit training in July — months after Donald retired.

“His wife came in laughing at me — I told her to call the police,” Verse joked, adding, “I tried to lie and say my mom was at my house and I had to go let her in. He told me to give my keys to his management or assistant and that they would go let my mom in. So I wasn’t leaving.

“Finished the workout. I’m dead tired, I’m exhausted. I had a plan to go jump in the sauna afterwards, didn’t happen. I had plans to watch film, didn’t happen. Went home and I didn’t work out for another day and a half because I couldn’t move my body.”

Donald also founded the AD99 Solutions Foundation, which provides Pittsburgh’s underprivileged youth access to education, nutrition and community involvement.

Accolades for his Rams career will be forthcoming. Donald will be eligible for the NFL Hall of Fame in 2029 and is considered a lock for first-ballot induction. The Rams have retired eight players’ jersey numbers and Donald’s No. 99 likely will be the ninth.

“I had the privilege — and sometimes the misfortune — of facing Aaron 14 times in his first seven years, and every snap was a reminder of his complete domination,” said Fitzgerald, an NFL Hall of Famer who spent 17 years with the Arizona Cardinals. “As a Pitt man, I was filled with pride watching him redefine what it meant to play defense, but as an [NFL] opponent, I knew he was carving his name into history at our expense.

“He wasn’t just disruptive. He was destructive, bending entire offenses to his will and still making plays no one else could make. Retiring his number is the perfect tribute because there will never be another Aaron Donald, and there will never again be another 97 at Pitt.”

Uniform numbers retired by the Rams

• #7: Bob Waterfield
• #28: Marshall Faulk
• #29: Eric Dickerson
• #74: Merlin Olsen
• #75: Deacon Jones
• #78: Jackie Slater
• #80: Isaac Bruce
• #85: Jack Youngblood

The last MC-12W Liberty turboprop surveillance aircraft under U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s (AFSOC) umbrella have been retired. This is part of a plan to free up resources to help with the fielding of the new OA-1K Skyraider II light attack aircraft, which has also been set to involve the retirement of the U-28A Draco, another turboprop surveillance plane. At the same time, AFSOC insists that the OA-1K is not a direct replacement for the MC-12Ws or the U-28As, which has prompted concerns about capability and capacity gaps.

AFSOC confirmed the divestiture of its last MC-12Ws to TWZ last week. The 137th Special Operations Wing, part of the Oklahoma Air National Guard and aligned with AFSOC, conducted a retirement ceremony for the Liberty aircraft last month. The event was held at Will Rogers Air National Guard Base, which is co-located with Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City. The 137th has also been working closely with the active-duty 492nd Special Operations Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to train the initial cadre of OA-1K pilots.

“During the time it was assigned to 137th Special Operations Wing, the MC-12W logged 50,725 flying hours and 2,501 combat and combat-support sorties across six locations outside the continental U.S.,” according to a brief press release from the wing on August 3.

A modified Beechcraft King Air 350ER twin-engine turboprop, the MC-12W first entered Air Force service back in 2009. The year before, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had directed the service to acquire the aircraft to help meet the massive surge in demand for aerial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support during the Global War on Terror (GWOT) era, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Liberty name is a reference to the Liberty Ships of World War II fame, and the speed with which those vital logistics vessels were built and put into service. The first of what eventually became a fleet of around 40 Air Force MC-12Ws began flying operational missions eight months after funding for their purchase was approved.

The MC-12W configuration included a sensor turret with electro-optical and infrared video cameras and a signals intelligence (SIGINT) suite. Each aircraft also had satellite and other communications capabilities to share video feeds and other data with friendly forces in near-real time.

Amid the scaling back of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early to mid-2010s, regular Air Force units stopped flying the MC-12W. At least a portion of the remaining Liberty aircraft fleet was passed to AFSOC, as well as the U.S. Army. The Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 137th Air Refueling Wing transitioned to the 137th Special Operations Wing in 2015, and subsequently received 13 MC-12Ws.

ISR-configured Beechcraft King Air variants with varying sensor suites and other capabilities have been and continue to be very popular globally, including with the U.S. military and other branches of the U.S. government. Contractor-owned and/or operated examples have often been part of the mix supporting U.S. operations, as well. For decades, dating back to the Cold War, the Army has been a particularly prolific operator of these planes, but the service is now set to stop flying turboprop surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft of any type by the end of this year. The U.S. special operations community has also utilized other variations beyond the MC-12W, and what might happen to those planes as part of the fielding of the OA-1K is not entirely clear.

The two-seat OA-1K, which U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) declared the winner of its Armed Overwatch competition in 2022, is based on the Air Tractor AT-802 single-engine turboprop crop duster. AFSOC is expecting to eventually receive 75 Skyraider IIs, though there have been questions in recent years about whether that fleet size might shrink.

As designed, the OA-1K can carry up to 6,000 pounds of ordnance and other stores on up to eight underwing pylons, but the aircraft for AFSOC have typically been shown with no more than six fitted. The planes also have a “robust suite of radios and datalinks providing multiple means for line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) communications,” L3Harris, the prime contractor for the conversion work, has said in the past.

OA-1Ks can carry camera turrets and other sensors in underwing pods, but these provide limited capability compared to the integrated ISR suite found on the MC-12W. As noted, SOCOM and the Air Force have themselves stressed repeatedly that they do not see the Skyraider II as a direct replacement for the Liberty aircraft or the U-28A, the latter of which also has a mix of electro-optical and infrared video cameras and SIGINT capabilities.

“The MC-12W Liberty’s real-time intelligence and surveillance capabilities complement the OA-1K Skyraider II’s precision strike support, making their collaboration a powerful asset to Air Force Special Operations Command’s mission,” the caption to a picture released by AFSOC’s 1st Special Operations Wing of the two types flying together back in June reads, somewhat ironically now given the divestiture of the former.

What plans SOCOM and AFSOC might have now for a more direct replacement for the MC-12Ws and U-28As are unclear. A slide on crewed ISR platforms that SOCOM’s Program Executive Officer for Fixed Wing programs (PEO-FW) presented at the annual SOF Week conference in May, seen below, simply says the current “driving operational needs” are “maintaining platform effectiveness throughout anticipated remaining lifecycle of the individual programs,” and provides some general comments on possible upgrades to existing platforms. The slide notably shows the U-28A, as well as an image reflecting SOCOM’s fleet of ISR-configured twin-engine Dash-8 turboprops, but not the MC-12W. The uncertainty has already prompted concerns about potential ISR capability and capacity gaps.

“SOCOM plans to divest two ISR platforms. Subsequently, some personnel and resources from the platforms will be used to support Armed Overwatch,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, wrote in a report on the Armed Overwatch program released in September 2024. “However, GAO found that SOCOM has not taken steps to plan for, or add, critical ISR capabilities provided by soon-to-be divested aircraft. Also, SOCOM has not addressed risks associated with the loss of these capabilities if the new aircraft does not provide them.”

Broader questions have been raised about the overall operational utility of the OA-1K given the Pentagon’s current stated focus on preparing for future high-end fights, especially one against China in the Pacific. The stated purpose of the Skyraider II is to provide “a deployable, affordable, and sustainable crewed aircraft systems [sic] capable of executing Close Air Support (CAS), precision strike, and armed reconnaissance requirements in austere and permissive environments for use in Irregular Warfare,” according to the most recent proposed defense budget for the 2026 Fiscal Year.

A key driver behind the Armed Overwatch program in the past was also to help free up tactical combat jets, bombers, and other higher-end aircraft that had been performing CAS and armed reconnaissance in permissive airspace over countries like Afghanistan and Iraq for more demanding and/or higher-priority missions. At the same time, this would reduce wear and tear on those platforms from flying constant and often short-endurance sorties. A light attack aircraft like the OA-1K would have the additional benefit of being able to operate a minimal logistics footprint at far-flung locations closer to actual operating areas. In turn, this would reduce the time it would take them to get on station and increase their ability to loiter in a particular area once they arrived, all without adding to the strain of already heavily in-demand aerial refueling tankers.

Furthermore, the Armed Overwatch program, which formally began in 2020, followed years of abortive light attack aircraft programs and other tangential test and evaluation efforts, all driven heavily by the demands of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) era. By the time the OA-1K was picked as the winner of the Armed Overwatch competition in 2022, the U.S. military had withdrawn from Afghanistan. Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, his administration has been working to further reduce American commitments in Syria and Iraq, as well as in various parts of Africa.

“The way that the OA-1K will look on day one is not how probably the OA-1K will look on day 1,000,” A high-ranking Air Force official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss planning issues, told TWZ in an interview earlier this year. “As we field it, it will continue to iterate based on the requirements that our supported forces articulate to us. We’re intimately involved with all of those forces, even as we speak, on shaping the initial and then also the growing requirements that I’m sure that we will find for that platform going forward.”

The Skyraider II “was designed to be very flexible. A big element of the platform is, again, this notion of modularity, [and] open systems architecture,” they continued. “What that does for us is, on a given mission, you might put certain types of capabilities [on the aircraft] – those could be ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] capabilities, … strike capabilities – you may have more of one than the other, depending on the day or the mission requirement of the supported force. But then the next day, that may change, and you can rapidly swap out what the capabilities are of the platform on a given mission.”

“How could we support them [friendly forces] if it’s in the Pacific or anywhere else? The OA-1K certainly has some roles and missions that can [provide] support there. And then in a large-scale combat operation, we are looking at, in partnership with other components of SOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command], what are some of the things that it could do,” they added. “Can it employ air-launched effects, at range, at standoff, in a flexible way that would provide value?”

‘Launched effect’ is a catch-all term that the U.S. military currently uses to refer broadly to uncrewed aerial systems that can be launched from air, ground, and maritime platforms. These systems could be configured as one-way attackers or to perform other non-kinetic missions, including electronic warfare, ISR, and signal relay. AFSOC has also been looking into new standoff capabilities of AC-130J Ghostrider gunships, including the integration of new Black Arrow Small Cruise Missiles (SCM) and existing AGM-48 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles, as a path to ensuring the relevance of those aircraft in future high-end fights.

“From when OA-1K was conceptualized and decided on until now, the world’s changed a little bit,” Lt. Gen. Michael Conley, head of AFSOC, also told TWZ and others at a media roundtable on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association’s main annual conference last year. “But as we move forward, I think there’s opportunity to look at, again, some novel mission sets. …how quick can we get the wings on and off it so we could use it in some sort of crisis response, if we needed to? Where does the role of SIGINT [signals intelligence], or ELINT [electronic intelligence] or… some sort of ISR collect [factor in] there. I think there’s opportunity for that. Again, not anything we’ve committed to yet.”

Air Force and SOCOM officials have also continued to stress that lower-intensity missions, as well as cooperation with allies and partners facing those types of threats, are not going away despite the focus on China in the Pacific region. The possibility of employing OA-1Ks at least in a surveillance role along the southern U.S. border with Mexico has been raised multiple times, as well.

Much about the OA-1K’s future still looks to be settled, but AFSOC has now gotten rid of its MC-12W Liberty aircraft to help make way for the new light attack aircraft.

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: [email protected]

A RETIRED judge has shared top tips on what to do if presented with a private parking ticket.

Thousands of motorists across Britain know the feeling of thinking they’ve been unfairly handed a parking fine.

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The unwelcome sight of a yellow sticker on your windscreen is always enough to ruin any motorist’s day.

But Stephen Gold, a retired judge, has revealed the three words that can help you beat a private parking ticket.

Speaking to the MailOnline, he said: “Getting a ticket after parking in a private car park does not mean you have committed any offence.

“It won’t lead to a criminal conviction, whether or not you pay it.

“You can challenge a ticket that has been wrongly issued, and the challenge could take you to the county court, where the park operator would have to sue you for non-payment to have any hope of getting you to pay up.”

THE THREE WORDS

The judge told the paper that a key defence against tickets is: “I knew nothing”.

This is a defence that counts on the you being able to prove that parking conditions were not properly indicated.

The operator would have to prove the conditions of parking were displayed on one or more notices that a reasonable motorist would have seen.

So if you only discovered the terms of parking upon returning – perhaps due to signs being inconspicuous or absent – the defence would hold.

It is always best to take photographs of the signs and their location within the car park if you want to use this defence.

The operator will likely try to rely on pictures of the signs within the car park – but these might not show exactly where they are.

APPEALS PROCESS

It comes as more and more car parks use number plate capturing cameras to send out tickets.

Sometimes this will result in a ticket being placed on your windscreen, but often these days a letter will be sent in the post.

If you wish to appeal a ticket, your first action should be to go to the car park operator.

An independent appeal would be the next step, and a final point would be going to a county court.

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Sue Parfitt is an 83-year-old retired priest who was arrested for protesting in solidarity with Palestine Action, a group designated as a terrorist organisation by the UK government.

In this Unmute, she talks about what led her to stand against the government’s decision.

July 11 (UPI) — A retired lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Army has pleaded guilty to transmitting classified national defense information concerning Russia’s war in Ukraine via a foreign dating app to a person claiming to be a woman living in the war-torn country.

The Justice Department said David Slater, 64, of Nebraska pleaded guilty Thursday and faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 on Oct. 8 when he is scheduled for sentencing.

“David Slater failed in his duty to protect this information by willingly sharing national defense information with an unknown online personality despite having years of military experience that should have caused him to be suspicious of that person’s motives,” U.S. Attorney Lesley Woods of the District of Nebraska said in a statement.

According to federal prosecutors, after retiring from the Army, Slater was hired as a civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base and held a Top Secret security clearance from August 2021 to April 2022.

Court documents state that in his position, Slater attended top-secret classified briefings on the Russia-Ukraine war and conspired to transmit information he learned over an unnamed foreign dating app to a person who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine.

The purported woman called Slater her “secret informant lover” and her “secret agent” and asked him to send her sensitive classified information.

The quantity and the frequency with which information was exchanged was not revealed, but the Justice Department did confirm that “Slater did, in fact, transmit classified national defense information to her, including regarding military targets and Russian military capabilities relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, the shy and frugal small-town New Englander who was touted as a conservative but surprised his Republican backers and nearly everyone else by becoming a staunch liberal on the high court, has died, the court said in a statement Friday. He was 85.

Souter stepped down in 2009 after nearly two decades on the court where he cast key votes to uphold laws on campaign finance, environmental protection, civil rights and church-state separation. He also played a crucial role in upholding a woman’s right to choose abortion.

As an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, Souter was expected to join with then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and other conservatives who were determined to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that expanded abortion rights.

But when a Pennsylvania test case came before the court in 1992, Souter instead joined moderate Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy to affirm the right to abortion. Souter saw the issue as a matter of precedent.

Repealing the constitutional right to abortion would be “a surrender to political pressure,” he wrote. “To overrule under fire in the absence of the most compelling reason to re-examine a watershed decision would subvert the Court’s legitimacy beyond any serious question.”

A second 5-4 decision that spring, with Souter in the majority, upheld the strict ban on school-sponsored prayers at graduations. The five justices who voted to uphold the abortion right and the ban on school prayers were all Republican appointees.

But they no longer reflected the views of a more socially conservative GOP, and Souter was denounced by some in the party as a turn-coat. By the late 1990s, “No more Souters” had become a rallying cry for conservative legal activists.

“Justice Souter was a judicial version of a disappearing phenomenon: the moderate New England Republican,” said Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School. “He was not a true liberal and would not have been a liberal on the court of the 1960s and ‘70s. But he believed in privacy and civil rights and precedents, and that made him a liberal on the court of his day.”

He was unusual in other ways. Shortly after he arrived as a new justice in 1990, he was dubbed one of the city’s “most eligible bachelors” in the Washington Post, leading to a series of dinner invitations. He usually found himself seated between a single woman and a guest who spoke only Japanese, he later joked.

Souter became adept at turning down invitations. He would dine with Justice John Paul Stevens and his wife, or with Sandra Day O’Connor, but mostly he worked and ate alone. He spent evenings jogging along the waterfront near his small apartment.

Whenever the court took an extended break, Souter drove to the farmhouse where he grew up in tiny Weare, N.H., so he could hike.

He was in good health and not yet 70 when President Barack Obama moved into the White House in early 2009. Soon after, Souter passed word that he intended to retire. Obama choose Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina on the high court, to replace him.

Souter was dubbed a “stealth nominee” when he arrived in Washington in 1990, and he remained a mystery when he left. He did no interviews and made no public statements.

Back in New Hampshire, he continued to serve part-time as a retired judge on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, deciding low-profile cases out of the public spotlight.

Souter was not the first justice to surprise the president who appointed him, but he may be among the last. Since Souter’s time — and indeed, partly in reaction to him — presidents have carefully selected court nominees with public records showing they shared similar views on legal issues.

Souter had deep ties to the Republican Party. He carried a gold watch that was a prized possession of a great-great-grandfather who attended the Republican party convention of 1860 that nominated Abraham Lincoln as president.

The GOP supported environmental conservation and the separation of church and state when Souter was growing up. But it grew increasingly more conservative over the decades, and Souter didn’t always agree.

In July 1990, he was a 50-year-old bachelor who lived alone in a farm house with peeling paint and books on the floor. He had just been named to the U.S. court of appeals in Boston. Until then, he had spent his entire career as a prosecutor, state attorney and judge in New Hampshire.

His scholarly manner and devotion to the law had won him influential admirers, including then-Sen. Warren Rudman and former N.H. Gov. John Sununu, who was then-White House chief of staff to the first President Bush.

When the Supreme Court’s liberal leader, William J. Brennan, suffered a stroke and announced his retirement, Souter’s name made the president’s short list of possible nominees.

Bush was anxious to avoid a fight with Senate Democrats over abortion and civil rights. Republicans still smarted from the Senate’s defeat in 1987 of Judge Robert Bork, whose strongly conservative writings convinced critics he was too extreme to be confirmed.

Souter seemed an ideal nominee. He was conservative, or at least old-fashioned. He wrote with a fountain pen, not a computer. And he ignored television. He only learned Brennan was stepping down when a postal clerk in his town shared the news.

Two days later, Souter stood in the White House press room as Bush announced his nomination. Souter was said to have no “paper trail,” but Sununu privately assured activists that he would be a “home run for conservatives.”

Liberal Democrats, led by Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, were Souter’s sharpest critics that summer, while the arch-conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina led the fight to confirm him. In less than two years, it became clear that both sides had miscalculated.

By the mid-1990s, Souter had allied himself with Justice Stevens, another moderate Republican who also seemed to move left, and with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, the two appointees of President Bill Clinton. They formed a liberal bloc in cases where the court split along ideological lines.

David Hackett Souter was born in Melrose, Mass., on Sept. 17, 1939, the only child of Joseph and Helen Souter. His father was a banker and his mother a gift shop clerk. When he was 11, the family moved to the New Hampshire farm house in Weare that remained Souter’s primary home until after his retirement.

As a Harvard undergraduate, Souter dated a young woman and spoke of marrying her. But when he won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and went to England to study at Oxford University, she found someone else.

Souter told friends he was disappointed he never married. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1966, he eschewed the big-city law firms and returned to the small-town life and rugged mountains of the New Hampshire he loved.

Friends and former clerks say Souter was never a true conservative as his early backers said, nor was he a solid liberal as he was portrayed years later.

Souter was “a judge’s judge,” said Penn Law Professor Kermit Roosevelt, who clerked for him in 1999. “He didn’t have a political agenda. People had a mistaken idea of what they were getting when he was appointed.”