U.S. Navy sailors carved a replica of an F-35C Lightning II for their entry in the 75th annual Sapporo Snow Festival on Japan’s northernmost main island.

DEA New England posted on social media Thursday that agents had taken down what they described as a fentanyl mill in Lawrence that contained “12 kilos of powdered fentanyl, 5-thousand fake fentanyl pills (and) 1-thousand fake Adderall pills.”

Employee misconduct, malfunctioning computer systems, confusing policies and program inefficiencies hamper operations at the Department of Veterans Affairs, despite the hard work of most personnel, the VA’s acting inspector general told lawmakers Thursday.

U.S. military bases in South Korea are expected to resume normal operations over the weekend after a winter storm blanketed the area with about 3 inches of snow, leading to school closures, limited base services and hazardous road conditions.

Syria is open to letting Russia keep its air and naval bases along the Mediterranean coast as long as any agreement with the Kremlin serves the country’s interests, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said in an interview this week, underscoring the pragmatic approach taken by his government as it charts new alliances and reassesses old ones forged under the previous regime.

Fort Riley officials gave an all-clear Thursday afternoon following a lockdown at the Kansas Army base sparked by fears of an active shooter. Reports of a shooting were not verified.

There are a dozen ski resorts in and around Yuzawa, one of the most accessible snow sports destinations for U.S. troops stationed in or near Japan’s capital and a regular stop for base outdoor recreation day and weekend bus trips.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will lead Ukraine’s delegation at the Munich Security Conference next week, which U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, are also expected to attend, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff said Thursday.

The Rwanda-backed rebels who captured eastern Congo ‘s key city of Goma sought to reassure its residents Thursday, holding a stadium rally and promising safety under their administration as they try to shore up public support amid growing international pressure.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is sending strong assurances that the Trump administration is not shutting down the United Nations-authorized and heavily U.S.-financed multinational armed force trying to help neighboring Haiti root out deadly armed gangs.

Between 1951 and 1976, women service members were involuntarily separated from the military due to motherhood, leaving without separation benefits, counseling or assistance. New legislation seeks to establish a process to upgrade military records and provide a one-time payment of $25,000 to affected veterans.

OpenAI is scouring the U.S. for sites to build a network of huge data centers to power its artificial intelligence technology, expanding beyond a flagship Texas location and looking across 16 states to accelerate the Stargate project championed by President Donald Trump.

Iran has inaugurated its first drone-carrier warship, saying the vessel is capable of operating in oceans far from its mainland, the official IRNA news agency reported Thursday.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal workers by offering them financial incentives, the latest tumult for government employees already wrestling with upheaval from the new administration.

A bipartisan duo in the the U.S. House is proposing legislation to ban the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from federal devices, similar to the policy already in place for the popular social media platform TikTok.

Cultural observances at Defense Department K-12 schools are out, and clubs, extracurricular activities and library books are all under review in response to executive orders from President Donald Trump.

The U.S. Department of Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on a network of more than a dozen people and firms that are accused of facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China.

President Trump has signaled that a grand Middle East bargain is a top foreign-policy priority, and MBS, as Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader is known, sees the deal as an opportunity to get what he wants — namely a defense, technology and nuclear cooperation agreement with the U.S. But Trump’s musing on Gaza is putting the prince in a tough spot.

The Trump administration’s decision to close the U.S. Agency for International Development has drawn widespread criticism from congressional Democrats and raised questions and concern about the influence billionaire ally Elon Musk wields over the federal government.