How long will it take Artemis II to get to the moon? Here's a timeline

After two major delays, NASA made history on April 1 andlaunched a crew of four astronautson a 10-day expedition around the moon and back.

The Artemis II mission, which is the second under NASA's multibillion-dollar moon program, is a major milestone for the space agency — marking the first crewed deep-space flight in over 50 years. Artemis II crew members are expected to travel "farther from Earth than any previous human mission," according to NASA.

The expedition will send the crew about 252,000 miles into space, which may break the record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, when it was roughly 248,000 miles from Earth,USA TODAY previously reported.

Artemis II and it's crew of four lift off from Kennedy Space Center April 1, 2026 on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back. Craig Bailey, FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> People set cameras to photograph NASA's Artemis II lunar flyby mission, with the next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion crew capsule, on Pad 39B ahead of the launch of the Artemis II mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., March 31, 2026. The rocket is scheduled for an April 1, 2026, 6:24 p.m. launch of the 10-day mission.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> The countdown clock runs as NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft sit on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Photographers set up remote cameras inside Pad 39B March 31, 2026 in advance of the launch of Artemis II.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> The Highland Mint in Melbourne, Fla. has minted an Artemis II collector coin.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft rest on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 31, 2026, ahead of the crewed lunar mission.

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See the moment Artemis II lifts off for historic moon mission

Artemis IIand it's crew of four lift off from Kennedy Space Center April 1, 2026 on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back. Craig Bailey, FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

"This milestone will occur during the lunar flyby phase, when the crew travels on a free-return trajectory around the Moon, which allows the spacecraft to loop around the Moon and return to Earth without entering lunar orbit," NASA said.

While the crew will not land on the moon, NASA said the lunar flyby mission is designed to test life support systems and critical operations, paving the way for future moon landingsand Mars exploration. The mission is expected to last about 10 days, with the crew reaching the moon's vicinity around day five or six before returning to Earth for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Here is a timeline of the Artemis II journey:

Launch day

Four astronauts — including the first Black man, first woman, and first Canadian — lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, one of the largest and most powerful rockets the agency has ever flown.

Following liftoff, the Orion crew capsule will separate from the rocket's upper stage and enter a highly elliptical orbit around Earth.

Toilet checks, conflict resolution:Meet Artemis II crew and their jobs

Earth orbit

During the first one to two days on the mission, the crew will be in a high Earth orbit and conduct systems checks, such as testing the Orion capsule's life-support, propulsion, navigation, and communications systems to ensure the spacecraft is ready to travel into deep space.

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Is Artemis II landing on the moon?No, but here's which mission could

Translunar injection

After the systems checks are complete, the Orion will perform its "translunar injection burn" on day two, according to the Scientific American. The translunar injection involves firing Orion's main engine, which increases the spacecraft's velocity to send it out of Earth orbit and toward the moon.

On days three to four, the crew will continue to monitor spacecraft systems as they approach the moon's vicinity. Mission controllers will track communications and navigation performance.

The Space Launch System rocket Artemis II begins its journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Pad 39B March 19, 2026.

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Inside NASA's Artemis mission to the moon

Moon flyby

On day five, the Orion will enter the lunar sphere of influence, "marking the point at which the pull of the Moon's gravity will become stronger than the pull of the Earth's gravity," according to NASA.

"As they enter the Moon's neighborhood, the crew will have a full day, with the morning almost entirely devoted to tests of their spacesuits," the agency said. "As the first astronauts to wear the new suits in space, the Artemis II crew will be testing their ability to quickly put the suits on and pressurize them; install their seats and get into them while wearing the suits; eat and drink through a port on the spacesuits' helmet; and other functions."

On day six, the crew will come their closest to the Moon and reach the greatest distance from Earth during this phase, according to NASA.

250,000 miles from Earth?Mind-boggling facts about Artemis II.

Return to Earth and splashdown

After the lunar flyby, the crew will spend several days heading back to Earth while continuing to conduct deep-space tests, including evaluations of power systems, thermal controls, and crew operations far beyond low Earth orbit.

As the Orion approaches Earth, it will separate key components before plunging into the atmosphere at speeds of about 25,000 miles per hour. One of the mission's primary objectives is to test the capsule's heat shield during re-entry, which had partially cracked and charred away during the Artemis I mission in 2022,reported Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The spacecraft is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery teams will retrieve the crew.

Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY; Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:When will Artemis II reach the moon? Timeline of NASA mission

byVincento Seyarto

in

April 01, 2026

How long will it take Artemis II to get to the moon? Here's a timeline

After two major delays, NASA made history on April 1 andlaunched a crew of four astronautson a 10-day expedition around t...

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Reactions as Artemis II astronauts lift off on historic lunar mission

April 1 (Reuters) - Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on NASA's Artemis II mission, a 10-day trip around the moon that would be the farthest humans have ever traveled ‌and a major step toward returning people to the lunar surface this decade.

Here are some ‌reactions.

U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IN ADDRESS TO NATION:

"Let me begin by congratulating the team at NASA and our brave astronauts on the ​successful launch of Artemis II. It was quite something.

"It will be travelling further than any manned rocket has ever flown and will very substantially pass the moon, go around it and come back home from a distance that has never been done before.

"It's amazing. They are on their way and god bless them, these are brave people. ‌God bless those four unbelievable astronauts."

NASA ADMINISTRATOR ⁠JARED ISAACMAN AT PRESS CONFERENCE:

"So after a brief 54-year intermission, NASA is back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon.

"We arrived at this point through a ⁠sustained effort, a national commitment, and the work of thousands across the agency, our industry partners and our international allies."

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER MARK CARNEY IN A STATEMENT:

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"Today, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Colonel Jeremy Hansen makes history as the first ​Canadian ​to venture to the Moon.

"With Artemis II, Canada becomes only ​the second nation on Earth to send ‌an astronaut on a lunar mission.

"This remarkable achievement is a testament to Colonel Hansen's exceptional skill, and to the decades of discipline, dedication, and perseverance that brought him to this moment.

"It is also a testament to Canada and our world-class science, our cutting-edge technology, and our remarkable astronauts."

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON ON X:

"With Artemis II, more than fifty years after Apollo 17, the Moon once again becomes that gathering place for peoples who ‌pool their resources and dare to dream.

"French, Europeans, we can ​be proud to take part in this extraordinary adventure by playing ​a key role thanks to the European service ​module developed by the European Space Agency."

RETIRED ASTRONAUT AND FORMER NASA ADMINISTRATOR CHARLIE BOLDEN ‌TO REUTERS:

"It was incredible to see. I'm ​an emotional person, just tears ​of joy, thinking about all the people that have been working to this day for more than a decade just to get here. Very proud.

"I hope that in the morning when I wake ​up and I watch all the ‌news coverage, no matter what country it's coming from, people will be saying, 'We are on our ​way back to the moon.' We are on our way back to the moon."

(Compiled by ​Jamie Freed; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Clarence Fernandez)

byVincento Seyarto

in

April 01, 2026

Reactions as Artemis II astronauts lift off on historic lunar mission

April 1 (Reuters) - Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on NASA's Artemis II mission, a 10-day trip...

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Hummingbird migration map reveals new locations across US

Hummingbirdsare beginning toappear farther northas the fast‑winged birds continue their annual spring migration.

Sightings have been reported across the Gulf Coast in recent weeks, and as far north as New Jersey, where a male ruby‑throated hummingbird was spotted March 31, according to Hummingbird Central'sinteractive migration map. Another hummingbird was seen near Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 22,AccuWeatherreported.

Forecasters sayhummingbirds will continue moving northas temperatures rise, becoming more common across central and eastern states by May.

It is unclear exactly what causeshummingbirds to migrateduring this period, but experts believe longer daylight hours, as well as the abundance of flowers, nectar and insects prompt the birds' northward journey according to Hummingbird Central.

The birding site notes that hummingbirds migrate alone, often following familiar paths, and can travel up to 500 miles at a time at speeds of 20 to 30 mph.

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Here's where hummingbirds have been spotted so far this year and how to attract them to your garden.

See hummingbird migration map

Hummingbird Central tracks hummingbirds across the country and has published aninteractive hummingbird migration mapfor 2026. The map is updated as of March 31.

Wood storks look distinctively prehistoric among wetland birds

How to invite hummingbirds to your yard

With impossibly fast wings, small bodies and long distances to travel, hummingbirds must eat every 10 to 15 minutes and visit 1,000 to 2,000 flowers per day, according to theNational Audubon Society.

If you want to boost your chances of seeing a hummingbird in your own backyard, the National Audubon Society says flowers, perches, insects and water are key. Here's what the organization suggests:

• Flowers: Plant native, flowering plants in your yard. Red or orange tubular flowers attract hummingbirds, as do natives like honeysuckle, bee balm and hummingbird sage, which are rich with nectar.

• Perches: Give them somewhere to rest, both open and somewhat sheltered.

• Insects: Hummingbirds also get protein from small insects. Avoid pesticides in the yard, plant insect-pollinated plants in addition to hummingbird-pollinated plants and try hanging overripe fruit near a hummingbird feeder to attract fruit flies.

• Bathtime: Hummingbirds like to bathe. Giving them fine, fresh water to do so could help attract them. Consider a misting device or a drop fountain.

• Feeders: Hummingbird feeders also help give hummingbirds nectar, the necessary fuel for their long migrations.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Hummingbird migration map and where to spot them this spring

byVincento Seyarto

in

April 01, 2026

Hummingbird migration map reveals new locations across US

Hummingbirdsare beginning toappear farther northas the fast‑winged birds continue their annual spring migration. ...

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Activist vessel collides with krill trawler in Antarctic confrontation

MIAMI (AP) — A ship operated by a group founded by anti-whaling activist Paul Watson collided with an industrial krill trawler in Antarctica in what the ship's Norwegian owner said was a "deliberate attack" that endangered its crew and could've caused a disaster in the same environmentally sensitive waters the activists claim they want to protect.

CORRECTION Antarctica Krill Ship Collision

A two-minute video provided to The Associated Press by the Aker QRILL Co. shows the moment Tuesday when the M/V Bandero, operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, slowly steams toward the stern of the fishing vessel, hitting its port side at a slight angle.

The collision underscores thegrowing battlein the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean over the future of Antarctic krill, a shrimplike crustacean central to the diet of whales and critical buffer to global warming that's also in demand for use in health supplements, fishmeal and other products.

Aker said Wednesday that the Bandero came within centimeters of striking a diesel tank on its vessel, the Norwegian-flagged Antarctic Sea, and put at risk a habitat teeming with multiple whale species, seals and seabirds — all feeding on the Southern Ocean'sabundant but environmentally sensitive krill population.

The company said its multinational crew was shaken but unharmed and it would pursue all available legal action.

"Our crew were put at risk in some of the most remote waters on Earth, and only luck avoided potential environmental damage," Aker CEO Webjørn Barstad said in a statement.

The Captain Paul Watson Foundation did not respond to a request from the AP about Aker's accusations. But in its own news release, it characterized its actions as "aggressive nonviolence." It said the crew, led by French activist Lamya Essemlali, managed to disrupt all krill fishing during a five-hour "direct intervention" against two Aker-owned vessels. It also provided images showing the crew launching giant metal net shredding devices intended to disrupt fishing.

Watson himself was not on the ship, which departed Australia in February as part of what the Watson foundation called Operation Krill Wars.

"Throughout the encounter, the crew witnessed Antarctic wildlife in the surrounding waters, including penguins, seals, and even a whale, underscoring what was at stake as a small ship challenged a powerful industrial krill operation in a stark David-and-Goliath scenario," the foundation said in a statement.

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Watson founded the global Sea Shepherd conservation movement in the 1970s and for decades won a fearsome reputation for ramming vessels and other aggressive tactics in confrontations on the high seas that repeatedly landed him in jail. He was lastdetained in Greenland for five monthsin 2024 on a Japanese warrant that was later rejected by Denmark. Japan's coast guard sought his arrest over an encounter in 2010 in which he was accused of ordering a captain of his ship to throw explosives at what the Japanese labeled a whaling research ship.

While the Canadian-American citizen in the past has drawn support from Hollywood celebrities, his hard-line tactics have split the movement he started, with affiliates in France and Brazil rallying behind his newly created namesake foundation while Sea Shepherd Global and 20 national affiliates focus more on watchdog patrols on the high seas, policy action and supporting law enforcement in poorer countries where illegal fishing is rampant.

Fishing in Antarctica for krillsurged to a record last season, forcing an early closure of fishing activity for the first time.

Aker is the world's largest harvester of krill, responsible for over half the world's catch.

The remote fishery is managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, an international organization composed of 27 nations and the European Union.

Any investigation into the incident, including possible criminal prosecution, is likely to commence at the Mongolia-flagged Bandero's next port of call. Under international maritime law, an overtaking vessel has an obligation to stay clear of any nearby ship it's passing.

Bandero is named after the tequila company owned by John Paul DeJoria, an American billionaire who founded Paul Mitchell hair care products and has been a longtime supporter of Watson's endeavors.

This story has corrected the month that the Bandero left Australia to February, not March.

___ This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___ Contact AP's global investigative team atInvestigative@ap.orgorhttps://www.ap.org/tips/

byVincento Seyarto

in

April 01, 2026

Activist vessel collides with krill trawler in Antarctic confrontation

MIAMI (AP) — A ship operated by a group founded by anti-whaling activist Paul Watson collided with an industrial krill tr...

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The US is waging AI-assisted war on Iran. Here's how.

Hundreds ofIranian civilian deathsin the war have put the U.S. military's new AI systems in the spotlight and raised concerns from lawmakers over whether these systems are making deadly mistakes.

Experts and former officials say the military's artificial intelligence systems are central to"Operation Epic Fury,"which is seeing AI deployed on the battlefield to a new degree.

"For somebody who spent years talking about how we're moving too slow, I'm now concerned about how fast we're moving," said Jack Shanahan, a retired lieutenant general who led efforts to develop and integrate AI into the military.

"At some point it may become increasingly difficult to define what an advanced AI system must not do, as opposed to humans defining what they want it to do."

The Pentagon is moving to deploy thousands of soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported. The reported deployment from the army division known for its elite paratroopers bolsters a force that already consists of thousands of Marines, sailors and an amphibious assault ship. 

See photos of other moments in U.S. history the 82nd Airborne Division has been deployed.

American soldiers watch as men of the 504th Parachute Infantry of the 82nd Airborne Division descend on Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Sept. 6, 1945. The jump from a height of only 750 ft was in honour of Marshall Zhukov of the Soviet Union who captured Berlin and at the end of the WW II became commander-in-chief of the Russian zone of Germany.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

See the army division known for its elite paratroopers throughout history

ThePentagon is movingtodeploy thousands of soldiersfrom the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East,The New York Times,Wall Street JournalandReutersreported. The reported deployment from the army divisionknown for its elite paratroopersbolsters a force that already consists of thousands ofMarines, sailors and an amphibious assault ship.See photos of other moments in U.S. history the 82nd Airborne Division has been deployed.American soldiers watch as men of the 504th Parachute Infantry of the 82nd Airborne Division descend on Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Sept. 6, 1945. The jump from a height of only 750 ft was in honour of Marshall Zhukov of the Soviet Union who captured Berlin and at the end of the WW II became commander-in-chief of the Russian zone of Germany.

At a closed door House Armed Services Committee briefing on March 25, Pentagon officials told lawmakers AI was used in data management, but not final target selection, according to a person with knowledge of the briefing.

U.S. soldiers are "leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools," Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a March 11video updateon the war. "Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot but advanced AI tools can turn processes that used to take hours, and sometimes even days, into seconds."

The military has hit tens of thousands of targets in the monthlong Iran war, including more than 1,000 in the first 24 hours after the war launched on Feb. 28. One of the sitesbombed that day was an Iranian school, leading to at least 175 deaths, most of them children.

In the early days of the war, the U.S. military fired more long-range, expensive missiles to hit Iran from far away, but has sinceshiftedto using more short-range, gravity bombs that can be dropped from aircraft, now that Iran's air defenses are degraded, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and other officials.

The first targets struck likely came from longstanding Pentagon plans for an Iran attack, said Emelia Probasco, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology who studies military uses of AI.

More:Who attacked a girls' school in Iran, and will there be accountability?

But as the war drags on, AI could play an increasing role, Probasco said, including in "prioritization" of targets – telling soldiers where to hit first.

"We are now entering the phase where those targets have been attacked and now you could potentially start to see an even greater impact of AI," she said. "You're looking for time critical targets, targets that move, targets that we didn't know about before."

20 soldiers with AI match the work of 2,000

For nearly a decade, the military has been integrating an AI tool known as the Maven Smart System into its computer systems. The system, often shortened to "Maven," fuses the military's many, disparate channels of data, intelligence, satellite imagery and asset movements into a single software platform. Military leaders say the system can make decisions in the heat of battle faster and more effective.

The system has already drastically increased the number of targets that a given number of operators can hit. According to Probasco's 2024studyof Army exercises using the system, roughly 20 people using it could match the work of more than 2,000 soldiers in Iraq war-era targeting cells then considered the most efficient in U.S. military history.

And its development in the two years since her study has been "dramatic," she added.

In ademoof the Maven Smart System at a March 12 conference, Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon's chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, showed the ease with which a user could turn a structure into a ball of flame with a "left click, right click, left click."

On the screen behind Cameron, a cursor hovered over an overhead image of lined up cars, showing numbers representing their measurements, locational coordinates and other data. With a few clicks, the "detection" of an object could be moved into a "targeting workflow," Cameron said.

The system offered a choice of "which metrics AI should prioritize," including "time to target," "distance," or "munitions." A sleek graphic appeared to show on a map the circular blast radius that the strike would create, and the arc that the weapons would travel. After a couple clicks on a blue "approve" bar and green "task executed" bar, the dark cloud of an explosion filled the screen.

"When we started this, it literally took hours to do what you just saw there," Cameron said.

Iran school strike raises AI questions

In spite of officials' claims that AI improves the military's accuracy, the civilian death toll in Iran has raised concerns over whether it has contributed to faulty targeting.

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Lawmakers have asked whether AI played a role in the school strike.Investigationsby the New York Times and other outlets found that the United States was likely behind the strike, which used a U.S.-made Tomahawk missile. The school may have been on an outdated list of targets that the military failed to recheck, according to thosereports. The Pentagon has said its own investigation into the strike is ongoing.

More than a hundred lawmakers in theHouseandSenatesigned letters sent to Pentagon chiefPete Hegsethin mid-March asking whether the Maven Smart System was involved in the strike on the school, and for more details on how the military is checking the work of AI.

Shanahan said he saw "no indications" that AI was involved in the strike, "but we need to acknowledge that while future AI will be capable of finding more targets than ever before, humans must remain responsible and accountable for the decisions to hit those targets."

In past military exercises, AI has demonstrated far lower accuracy than humans. In the Army exercises that Probasco studied, the Maven Smart System couldcorrectly identifya tank around 60% of the time, as compared to a human soldier's 84% accuracy, and that number dropped to just 30% in snowy weather. An AI targeting system tested by the Air Force in 2021hitjust 25% accuracy when it was tested on imperfect conditions.

The Pentagon in 2023 issued adirectivethat soldiers and commanders using AI systems must be able to "exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force."

"Our military operates in full compliance with all U.S. laws and established policies, such as ensuring a human is always in the loop for critical operational decisions," the Pentagon said in a statement to USA TODAY.

"The responsibility for the lawful use of any AI tool rests with the human operator and the chain of command, not within the software itself."

Pentagon goes after company behind its AI chatbot

The Trump administration as a whole hasmovedto remove regulations around AI in the name of innovation and cutting bureaucracy, and the Pentagon has followed suit. In a Jan. 9memolaying out the military's AI strategy, Hegseth directed the Pentagon to work towards "unleashing experimentation" with AI models and "aggressively identifying and eliminating bureaucratic barriers to deeper integration" of AI.

"We must accept that the risks of not moving fast enough outweigh the risks of imperfect alignment," the memo read.

In recent months, that approach has put the Pentagon at odds with Anthropic, the Silicon Valley company behind Claude, the only AI chatbot that is currently configured to operate on the Maven Smart System.

Anthropicsought out an agreementfrom the Pentagon that its technology would not be used for mass surveillance, or to hit targets without human signoff. The Pentagon refused to accept those terms, saying Claude must be available to the military for "all lawful uses," as its officials publiclyblastedthe company on social media. The Pentagon moved todeclarethe company a "supply chain risk" – a designationmeant to restrictcompanies vulnerable to sabotage or subversion by U.S. adversaries – but wasblockedfrom the move by a federal judge's ruling on March 26.

"The military will not allow a vendor to insert itself into the chain of command by restricting the lawful use of a critical capability," the Pentagon said in a statement. "It is the military's sole responsibility to ensure our warfighters have the tools they need to win in a crisis, without interference from corporate policies."

Anthropic has said in statements that it does not believe the Pentagon has yet used Claude in a way that broke its conditions. But the disputereportedly aroseafter Anthropic learned that the military used Claude in its operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. "Anthropic currently does not have confidence," the company maintained in court documents, "that Claude would function reliably or safely if used to support lethal autonomous warfare."

AI built for military purposes "already has a lot of accuracy issues," but language learning models like Claude "are actually even more inaccurate," said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute.

"They're not very good at solving for tasks outside of what they've been trained on, and that's ok if you're using it in a non critical environment, like writing an email, but that's very different when you're dealing with novel scenarios like a fog of war."

More:FBI Director Kash Patel's emails stolen by Iran-linked hackers

The dispute with Claude is not the first time that the increasing business partnerships between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon to create high tech weapons and military tools have come under criticism from the companies building them. Google was originally contracted to work on the Maven Smart System in its early developmental stages, but dropped the contract in 2018 in response to aprotest movementfrom its workers. Google and Amazon workers have also in recent yearsprotestedthe companies' AI contract with the Israeli military and Google'sworkwith immigration and border enforcement.

"If any tech company caves to the Pentagon's demands," Hegseth "will have the power to build and deploy A.I.-powered drones that kill people without the approval of any human," a group of organizations representing Amazon, Google, and Microsoft workers wrote in astatementon the Anthropic dispute.

Shanahan said human control of AI for military uses is a "nonnegotiable starting point," but it could eventually be confined to the design and development of systems that increasingly operate on their own.

"You're going to be operating under the assumption that at some point an autonomous weapon is released, and no human will have the ability to bring it back."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:How the US is waging AI-assisted war on Iran

byVincento Seyarto

in

April 01, 2026

The US is waging AI-assisted war on Iran. Here's how.

Hundreds ofIranian civilian deathsin the war have put the U.S. military's new AI systems in the spotlight and raised ...

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Homeland Security pauses plan to purchase warehouses for detention centers

The Department of Homeland Security is temporarily pausing plans to buy warehouses to detain undocumented immigrants,according tomultiple reports, with the move coming less than two weeks into recently confirmed Secretary Markwayne Mullins' tenure.

In an emailed statement to USA TODAY, DHS said that "As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals." It's not clear whether Mullin intends on moving forward with the agency's plan to convert already acquired warehouses into detention centers.

The former Oklahoma senator has previously expressed some hesitancy, noting at his confirmation hearing last month that "it's important that we're talking to the communities" where such centers would be constructed and maintained.

DHS' estimated$38.3 billion plan to buy 24 commercial warehousesand boost its detention capacity to more than 92,000 beds in a few months had received criticism from some local officials and residents in the potential locations, according to previous reporting by USA TODAY. Local authorities have voiced concerns that the facilities could overwhelm public sewage and water systems.

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The pushback contributed to the collapse of at least 11 deals, but as of early March, the federal government had purchased at least 10 warehouses.

Some proposed warehouses are expected to hold more than 8,000 individuals at a time. PresidentDonald Trump's deportation crackdown was a cornerstone of his 2024 reelection bid and first year of his second term.

DHS is currently shut down as Congress islockedin a battle over the department's funding, particularly over immigration enforcement after two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal officers in Minnesota. But Republican lawmakers announced April 1 that the House is set to pass a Senate bill tofund most of the department, minus Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:DHS, Mullin pauses purchasing warehouses for detention centers

byVincento Seyarto

in

April 01, 2026

Homeland Security pauses plan to purchase warehouses for detention centers

The Department of Homeland Security is temporarily pausing plans to buy warehouses to detain undocumented immigrants,a...

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