mission

Trump signs order to integrate supercomputers and data assets in order to create ‘AI experimentation platform”.

United States President Donald Trump has unveiled a national initiative to mobilise artificial intelligence (AI) for accelerating scientific breakthroughs.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday to establish “The Genesis Mission”, the latest iteration of his administration’s aggressive strategy for spurring AI development through deregulation, infrastructure investment and public-private collaboration.

Trump’s order directs US Energy Secretary Chris Wright to unite scientists and technologies at the country’s 17 national laboratories into “one cooperative system for research”.

Under the initiative, US supercomputers and data resources will be integrated to create a “closed-loop AI experimentation platform”, according to the order.

The White House, which likened the initiative to the Apollo programme that put the first man on the moon, said priority areas of focus would include the “greatest scientific challenges of our time,” such as nuclear fusion, semiconductors, critical materials and space exploration.

Michael Kratsios, the White House’s top science adviser, said the initiative took a “revolutionary approach” to scientific research.

“The Genesis Mission connects world-class scientific data with the most advanced American AI to unlock breakthroughs in medicine, energy, materials science, and beyond,” Kratsios said.

Chipmaker Nvidia and AI startup Anthropic said on Monday that they were partnering with the Trump administration on the initiative.

“Uniting the National Labs, USG, industry, and academia, this effort will connect America’s leading supercomputers, AI systems, and next-generation quantum machines into the most complex scientific instrument ever built – accelerating breakthroughs in energy, discovery, and national security,” Nvidia said in a social media post, referring to the US government (USG).

Since re-entering the White House, Trump has made cutting red tape to fast-track the development of AI a key plank of his economic agenda.

Last week, Trump called on the US Congress to pass legislation to create a national standard for AI, while criticising state governments over their laws regulating the emerging technology.

“Overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Growth Engine,” Trump said on his platform, Truth Social.

“We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes.”

Benjamin H Bratton, an AI expert at the University of California, San Diego, welcomed the initiative as a move towards the “diffusion” of the technology.

“It is less important ‘whose’ AI people have access to than they have universal access at all,” Bratton told Al Jazeera.

“Most attempts to throttle AI in the USA and EU [European Union] come from cultural, economic and political incumbents protecting their turf.”

“Those locked out of positions of artificially scarce social agency have the most to gain,” Bratton added. “I support diffusion, not any particular administration.”

A controversial Russian general is now in Venezuela leading a rotational advisory mission, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) told The War Zone exclusively. Colonel General Oleg Leontievich Makarevich commands the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Equator Task Force (ETF), Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov said. Makarevich is in charge of more than 120 troops who are training Venezuelan forces on a wide range of military functions, according to Budanov. Those activities are not in reaction to the current U.S. military buildup in the region.

The War Zone cannot independently verify Budanov’s claim and we have reached out to the White House, Pentagon and U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) for confirmation. We will update this story with any pertinent details provided. Questions to Budanov were prompted in part by a story in Intelligence Online claiming that an elite Russian drone unit has arrived in Venezuela to teach troops there how to use first-person view (FPV) drones.

The Ukrainian intelligence chief’s comments come as the Trump administration has established a significant presence of U.S. forces in the Caribbean. While Task Force Southern Spear is ostensibly aimed at countering narcotics trafficking in the region, the effort is also focused on pressuring Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. You can catch up with our recent coverage of the ongoing Caribbean operation here.

Makarevich and his troops are likely to remain in Venezuela during any U.S. attack, Budanov suggested.

“I think they will be behind the scenes and officially Russia will try to speak to the U.S. because their units are in Venezuela,” Budanov said. “It’s just a game.”

The Russians are serving as “military advisors and also teachers,” Budanov explained. “In general, it’s infantry, UAV and special forces training.”

Among other things, ETF is also providing Venezuela with signals intelligence, Budanov added.

The deployment of Russian troops to Venezuela is a long-standing rotation that has existed for years, Budanov noted. He also said that GUR has not identified any change in Russian troop levels in Venezuela since Trump’s Caribbean push began. However, it appears that Makarevich, who has been in the South American country since the beginning of the year, has had his deployment there extended, Budanov said. Typical rotations for Russian commanders last about six months, he pointed out.

Makarevich and about 90 Russian officers and other troops are located in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, according to a document Budanov shared with us. The rest are stationed at Maracaibo, La Guaira and Aves Island.

The U.S. likewise has advisors throughout South America who also train troops, offer operational advice and sometimes serve as observers.

As for a high-ranking Russian politician’s claim that Moscow recently provided Pantsir-S1 and Buk-M2E air defense systems, Budanov was uncertain.

“The Buk-M2 we see,” he told us. “The Pantsir we don’t know about.”

That politician, Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, also threatened that Russia could increase the supply of advanced weapons to Venezuela, including long-range standoff weapons, like cruise missiles. Another concern for the U.S. could be Russia providing Shahed-family drones capable of striking targets at great distances and at low cost. In the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened that he could provide standoff weapons to America’s enemies, Venezuela among them, as we have previously noted.

A separate document Budanov shared with us provides greater insight into the ETF mission in Venezuela. It explains how Russian troops are providing training in several key areas and assessing the combat capabilities of the Venezuelan Armed Forces. That includes armor, aircraft, artillery, drones and even dogs. In addition, Russia is helping Venezuela monitor domestic groups and foreign governments, according to the document.

We cannot independently confirm the provenance of the document or the accuracy of the information stated within it.

It is interesting to note that Makarevich, 62, was put in charge of this task force. Putin fired him as commander of the Dnipro Group of troops in October 2023 after Ukraine’s successful Kherson counteroffensive. During that operation, Ukrainian forces recaptured Kherson City in November 2022. You can see Russian officials talking about that event, a huge defeat for Russia at the time, in the following video.

Makarevich is also accused by Ukraine of ordering the June 2023 destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. The incident caused massive flooding and severe economic and environmental damage. At the time, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu blamed Ukraine, saying that Kyiv blew up the dam to prevent Russian offensive actions in the region.

Meanwhile, the world continues to wait on Trump’s decision about what to do with the huge U.S. military presence in the region. It includes the aircraft carrier USS Ford, three of its escort ships, seven other Navy surface warships, a special operations mothership, a wide array of aerial assets and about 15,000 troops.

In another apparent step closer to taking some kind of kinetic action, Trump has “signed off on C.I.A. plans for covert measures inside Venezuela, operations that could be meant to prepare a battlefield for further action,” The New York Times reported.

Asked if Ukraine’s GUR has assets in Venezuela, Budanov offered a coy response.

“We collect all the information about them,” he said.

Contact the author: [email protected]

An MQ-20 Avenger drone flew a mock mission at the direction of a pilot in an F-22 Raptor during a demonstration earlier this year, General Atomics has disclosed. The company says this is part of a larger effort to lay the groundwork for crewed-uncrewed teaming between F-22s and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones. General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing CCA designs for the U.S. Air Force, and that service expects the Raptor to be the first airborne controller for whichever types it decides to buy in the future.

General Atomics made its announcement about the MQ-20/F-22 teaming demonstration today, around the opening of the biennial Dubai Airshow, at which TWZ is in attendance. The actual event, which the company internally funded, took place back in October in the skies over the U.S. Air Force’s sprawling Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the F-22, and L3Harris also took part.

“We recently teamed Avenger with a badass fighter jet for a true airborne, crewed-uncrewed internal demo, where the human pilot commanded the autonomous Avenger from the cockpit for a hypothetical mission,” C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesperson for General Atomics, told TWZ. The “MQ-20 Avenger continues to serve as an autonomy accelerator, routinely flying in a CCA configuration, pushing the envelope.”

“The [crewed-uncrewed teaming demonstration] effort integrated L3Harris’ BANSHEE Advanced Tactical Datalinks with its Pantera software-defined radios (SDRs) via Lockheed Martin’s open radio architectures, all integrated and shared from an F-22 Raptor,” according to a General Atomics press release. “Two L3Harris Software‑Defined Radios (SDRs) supported the demonstration. The first SDR was installed into the General Atomics MQ‑20 Avenger, and the second was integrated in the Lockheed Martin F‑22 Raptor.”

“Through the Pilot Vehicle Interface (PVI) tablet and the F‑22’s GRACE module, the system provided end‑to‑end communications, enabling the F‑22 command and control of the MQ‑20 in flight,” the release adds. “The collaborative demonstration showcased non-proprietary, U.S. government-owned communications capabilities and the ability to fly, transition, and re-fly flight hardware that is core to the Open Mission Systems and skills based unmanned autonomy ecosystem.”

The “GRACE” mentioned here refers to the Government Reference Architecture Compute Environment. This is a previously announced open-architecture systems module for the F-22 that is designed to make it easier to integrate new software packages onto the aircraft, including ones to support the airborne drone controller role.

The explicit mention of a tablet-based in-cockpit control interface is also worth highlighting. General Atomics and Lockheed Martin have both been working for years now on control systems to allow crewed aircraft to direct drones in flight, with tablet-like devices being the typical user interface. However, both companies have themselves raised questions to varying degrees about the long-term viability of that arrangement, especially for pilots in single-seat fighters, who already have substantial workloads during real-world missions.

“We started with [the Air Force’s] Air Combat Command with tablets … There was this idea that they wanted to have this discreet control,” Michael Atwood, vice president of Advanced Programs for General Atomics, said during an appearance on The Merge podcast last year. “I got to fly in one of these jets with a tablet. And it was really hard to fly the airplane, let alone the weapon system of my primary airplane, and spatially and temporally think about this other thing.”

“There’s a lot of opinions amongst the Air Force about the right way to go [about controlling drones from other aircraft],” John Clark, then-head of Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works advanced projects division, had also told TWZ and others at Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) main annual conference in September 2024. “The universal thought, though, is that this [a tablet or other touch-based interface] may be the fastest way to begin experimentation. It may not be the end state.”

These are the kind of questions that demonstrations like the one General Atomics conducted in October over the NTTR could help answer. As TWZ regularly notes, there is still much to be worked out when it comes to how future CCA fleets are structured, as well as how they are deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated, let alone employed tactically.

“General Atomics is in a pretty unique situation here, given that we already have operational uncrewed jets to use for experimentation,” Brinkley, the General Atomics spokesperson, told TWZ. “The MQ-20 Avenger, tricked out with mature mission autonomy software, is a perfect CCA surrogate and allows us to move fast and move first.”

It’s important to stress here that Avenger drones have been heavily utilized as testbeds for advanced autonomy and other developments related to CCA-type uncrewed aircraft for years now. The jet-powered drones have some low observable (stealthy) features, as well as an internal payload bay. Much of this work has been in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, as well as the U.S. Air Force. How much crewed-uncrewed teaming testing involving the F-22 and the MQ-20, or other surrogates, may have already been done in the classified realm is unknown.

“We’re leaning forward, because we already know where this is headed,” Brinkley added. “We don’t want to wait for the CCA fleet to be fielded to begin leaning in on F-22 teaming. We already know the F-22 will play a critical role in crewed-uncrewed teaming operations, and General Atomics is in a unique position to get started now.”

As mentioned, the F-22 is slated to be the U.S. Air Force’s first airborne CCA controller, something the service revealed this past summer in its 2026 Fiscal Year budget request. This was further confirmed in an unclassified Air Force report to Congress in October, which otherwise outlined a highly aspirational 10-year plan for the service’s fighter fleets that puts significant emphasis on CCAs.

“F-22 remains the threshold platform for CCA but integration with F-16, F-35A, F-15E, and F-15EX is an emerging consideration,” according to that report. “Ultimately, CCA will be paired with [the sixth-generation] F-47 to meet highly contested mission demands.”

“America’s adversaries are countering US air power with greater mass and a challenging air defense laydown that limits the United States’ ability to project combat power in traditional ways,” the report adds. “CCAs allow for risk-tolerant aircraft at a lower price point and serve as a force multiplier.”

The fighter force structure report also says that details about exactly how many CCAs the Air Force currently plans to buy and across what timeline are currently classified. Air Force officials have said in the past that between 100 and 150 drones will be ordered under the CCA program’s first phase, or Increment 1, with hundreds more expected through future incremental development cycles. Whether the service plans to down-select to a single type or buy multiple designs for the first tranche remains unclear. As mentioned, General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing drones for Increment 1, which are now designated the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. General Atomics announced that the YFQ-42A had made its first flight in August. The YFQ-44A took to the skies for the first time last month. The goal is for operational Increment 1 CCAs to begin entering service around the end of the decade.

CCA drone developments are not limited to the U.S. Air Force, either. The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy have their own CCA efforts ongoing. All three services are directly collaborating on common control architectures and other elements. General Atomics is also one of several companies now developing conceptual CCA designs for the Navy. The company is now actively pursuing foreign sales of drones in this general category, leveraging its Gambit family of highly modular designs, as well. Other companies in the United States and elsewhere globally are eyeing steadily growing opportunities in this market space, too.

“There are companies all over the world making big promises while they figure all of this out for the first time. How to build an airplane, how to incorporate autonomy, how to team that with manned aircraft,” General Atomics spokesperson Brinkley told us. “We’ve been putting our own money into uncrewed jets for 17 years. This [the MQ-20/F-22 demonstration] is just one more milestone in a long history of leaning forward. We’re not out here saying ‘I think I can, I think I can.’ We know we can.”

With the F-22 set to be the Air Force’s first airborne CCA controller, work to continue proving out the Raptor’s crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities will be especially important.

Update, 1:45 PM EST:

Lockheed Martin has now provided its own remarks regarding the MQ-20/F-22 teaming demonstration.

“Lockheed Martin Skunk Works led and orchestrated this crewed-uncrewed teaming flight test with GA-ASI [General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.] and L3Harris. This demonstration involved an F-22 Raptor, an MQ-20, and Skunk Works’ flexible and hardware-agnostic pilot vehicle interface to showcase capabilities critical to the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft family of systems,” the company told TWZ. “Lockheed Martin’s phased approach to building, testing, and improving teaming capabilities is at the forefront of innovation, developing the future of air combat today.”

“This effort represents Skunk Works bringing its diverse and unique expertise to the table to lead the way, demonstrating the future of air combat, where single-seat aircraft command and control drones with simple and intuitive interfaces in the cockpit,” O.J. Sanchez, Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager of Skunk Works, also said in a statement to TWZ.

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The UN Security Council says further extensions would hinge on real progress between Sudan and South Sudan.

The United Nations Security Council has voted to renew a UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the peacekeeping mission in the oil-rich disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, for another year.

A 12-0 vote late on Friday, which saw Russia, China and Pakistan abstain, extended the mission until November 2026, but warned that progress on ending bloody fighting in the region would be crucial to any potential future extensions.

The United States submitted the draft resolution that renewed the mandate, which was due to expire on November 15, and said it “negotiated this draft in good faith, asking only for reasonable and common-sense benchmarks for this mission”.

Friday’s resolution stated that further renewal would be based on “demonstrable progress” by Sudan and South Sudan, including the creation of a joint police force for Abyei and the complete demilitarisation of the region, as agreed upon by the two sides in 2011 when South Sudan gained independence.

The 4,000 police and soldiers of UNISFA are tasked with protecting civilians in the region plagued by frequent armed clashes.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is now tasked with presenting a report by August 2026 on whether Sudan and South Sudan have made any tangible progress, which would also enable the Security Council to assess the consequences of reducing the peacekeeping force.

“These benchmarks will help describe the mission’s impact and provide a critical tool to hold host governments accountable for measurable progress,” said US representative Dorothy Shea.

UNISFA is a small but politically sensitive mission, operating in a region where clashes have displaced thousands and humanitarian access has often been constrained by a lack of security and dangerous road conditions.

Unrest in the disputed area with South Sudan also continues at a time when Sudan is devastated by a civil war that erupted in April 2023, when two generals started fighting over control of the country.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been committing atrocities in Darfur and other regions, have also been active in Abyei.

If you think Trinity League football is the best in the country, then the Mission League might be its equivalent in boys’ basketball this season.

“It’s off the charts,” Harvard-Wesltake coach David Rebibo said in describing the talent of the eight Mission League teams.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Chaminade coach Bryan Cantwell said. “We could have all eight teams potentially in the top 30 in Southern California.”

Transfers, promising freshmen and the development of young players has set the stage for a league schedule in January that will allow fans to see players who might be soon appearing on weekend TV for college basketball teams or on NBA rosters.

Harvard-Westlake has won seven consecutive league titles and remains in the title mix. The coaching is so good in the league and the talent so plentiful that it would be no surprise if multiple teams win Southern Section titles depending on what divisions in which they are placed.

It’s not as if the league didn’t have talent before this season, but Cantwell pointed out, “There’s just more on all of the teams.”

Every team except Harvard-Westlake added transfer students this season. The biggest were St. John Bosco senior Brandon McCoy going to Sierra Canyon, 7-foot-3 Cherif Millogo arriving at St. Francis from Boston and 6-9 Sam Mbingazo returning to Bishop Alemany after playing at Iowa Prep last season.

One big loss, though, has been suffered at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, where 6-7 Tyran Stokes, ranked No. 1 by many in the class of 2026, won’t be playing for the Knights. He withdrew from school last week. There are others ready to help replace him.

Zachary White has committed to San Diego State and NaVorro Bowman has gotten so good that he’s become one of the best prospects from the class of 2027.

Sierra Canyon could start a lineup solely of transfers, with Maximo Adams in his second season with the Trailblazers and one of the best players in the class of 2026. Brannon Martinsen, a 6-6 senior, arrived from JSerra.

Sierra Canyon’s Maximo Adams hugs coach Andre Chevalier.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Harvard-Westlake isn’t going anywhere, with the return of standout senior guard Joe Sterling, a Texas commit, senior center Dominique Bentho and guards Pierce Thompson, Amir Jones and Cole Holden. Crespi returns the Barnes twins, Isaiah and Carter.

“There are anywhere between three and five Division 1 players on every team with D1 potential between the sophomores and juniors,” Rebibo said. “The senior class in this league is unreal. It makes the league as competitive as it’s been in a very long time.”

As if talent weren’t enough of a draw, there’s the coaching. Former Lakers star Derek Fisher, who used to coach the New York Knicks, is in his third season at Crespi and no one is intimidated coaching against him. Chaminade’s Bryan Cantwell, St. Francis’ Todd Wolfson and Sierra Canyon’s Andre Chevalier are veteran coaches who’ve all won section championships. Loyola has a first-year coach, Cam Joyce, from Ohio, and Mike DuLaney guided Bishop Alemany to a Division III state title in 2024.

“It’s going to be really competitive and really fun,” Cantwell said.

Throughout Southern California, there are plenty of elite prospects. There’s Missouri-bound Jason Crowe Jr. of Inglewood; Kansas-bound Luke Barnett of Mater Dei; high-scoring junior guard Gene Roebuck of La Mirada; Georgia Tech commit Kaiden Bailey of Santa Margarita; top sophomore transfers Evan Willis and Shalen Sheppard of Crossroads; heavily recruited Christian Collins of St. John Bosco; dynamic senior guard Josiah Johnson of Mayfair; standout senior guard Isaiah Rogers of Corona Centennial; 6-11 Josh Irving of Pasadena, who has committed to Texas A&M; 6-6 rising junior Kevin Keshishyan of Los Altos.

As far as teams, Sierra Canyon, Santa Margarita, St. John Bosco, Redondo Union, Rolling Hills Prep, Harvard-Westlake, Corona Centennial and Damien all appear headed to top teams status.

Unfortunately, the City Section has seen most of its top players transfer or graduate. Palisades is the preseason favorite with the arrival of the 6-6 Popoola twins, Elijah and Olujimi, juniors from Las Vegas.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art management on Wednesday declined to voluntarily recognize the union its employees announced they were forming last week. This means LACMA United cannot move forward with collective bargaining efforts until it is formalized by a National Labor Relations Board election. Complicating matters further, NLRB activities — including elections — are on hold amid the federal government shutdown.

The disconnect between staff — a clear majority of whom signed union authorization cards — and management comes at a significant moment in the museum’s history as LACMA works tirelessly to open its $720-million David Geffen Galleries. The new home for its encyclopedic permanent collection, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, contains 110,000 square feet of gallery space and is scheduled to open to the public in April after more than a decade of planning, fundraising and building.

In a news release, the union noted that organizing efforts — in the works for more than two years — have taken on added urgency as workloads have increased in the face of opening the new building.

“Staff across departments — many performing demanding physical labor — are stretched thin as deadlines accelerate,” LACMA United wrote. “Without adequate protections, this pace is unsustainable and has already contributed to burnout and turnover among dedicated employees who deserve better from an institution they’ve helped build.”

The union’s organizing committee added in a statement, “We are disappointed that LACMA leadership has chosen to delay rather than embrace the democratic will of its workers. While the museum reimagines itself as a more collaborative, less hierarchical institution in its new David Geffen Galleries, it has declined to extend that same vision to its relationship with the very people who bring LACMA’s mission to life every day.”

“LACMA’s leadership has great respect for our team and for everyone’s right to make their own choice on this important issue,” Michael Govan, the museum’s director and chief executive, said in an email. “No matter the outcome, my commitment to our employees — to listen, to support them, and to continue building a strong and respectful workplace — remains unchanged.”

Management’s decision stands counter to those made by other cultural institutions across the city, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Academy Museum and the Natural History Museum, all of which voluntarily recognized their unions over the last six years.

LACMA United represents more than 300 workers from across all departments, including curators, educators, art installers, conservators, registrars, visitor services staff, facilities workers, researchers and designers. The union is asking for improved wages, benefits and working conditions in what has proved to be a challenging climate for museum workers across the county.

The union did not demonstrate at last week’s celebrity-packed LACMA Art + Film Gala, which was co-hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio and fashion designer Eva Chow, and raised more than $6.5 million in support of the museum and its programs.