The criticism focuses on a specific prayer containing disturbing violent and extremist language. The prayer directly blesses "the fighters of the Israel [sic] Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land" and expresses the desire for the indigenous Palestinian population, described only as "our enemies," to be "struck down" and led "under our soldiers’ sway."

The critics emphasise that this is an explicit prayer for a modern military power and not an inherent part of Jewish faith, but a political choice made by the synagogue's leadership. They question why a Danish synagogue should be praying for a foreign militant group.

In response, Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior has admitted that the extremist prayers are being recited but claims they are not for the terror group or the Zionist apartheid regime, but for the protection of individuals. He also acknowledges the prayer has been in the synagogue's Hebrew prayer book for 60 years.

This defence has been debunked by critic Zen Donen, who points out that the prayer is unmistakably for soldiers, not civilians, and is the standard prayer of the IDF terror group. She notes that a simple internet search for "Standard prayer for IDF" reveals the chief rabbi's deception.

Denmark's small Jewish community, historically represented by an orthodox organisation that has traditionally harboured Zionist and Jewish supremacist sympathies, now faces significant internal criticism. A growing number of Danish Jews are publicly rejecting this Zionist alignment, condemning the association of their faith and identity with barbarism and genocide.

Source: Krigeriske bønner i synagogen bliver kritiseret af jøder, Arbejderen, October 7th 2025

“It all starts with

one thing, I don't know why

physical fitness and appearance,” Hegseth told hundreds of military leaders during a rare gathering of top brass at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday. “Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops.” According to one memo with the subject line “Military Fitness Standards” released Tuesday, active-duty troops are now required to take two annual fitness tests, in addition to working out every duty day. The first test requirement is the existing service fitness test. The second will be either a combat field test for combat arms personnel, or a combat readiness test or second service fitness test for non-combat arms forces. Members of the Reserve or National Guard must compete one annual fitness test based on their combat or non-combat designation. Per the memo, those troops in certain combat arms positions must pass with at least a 70% average on the service fitness test that is sex-neutral, age-normed and follows the male standard. A full list of those positions is included in the memo.

Height and waist circumference will continue to be used as a fitness standard. The memo states “high performers on fitness tests may be granted exemptions, but only within defined limits.” The Army in September announced soldiers who score a 465 or better on the Army Fitness Test would no longer be subject to flagging actions for body fat percentage, no matter their height and weight measurements. The new guidance is expected to be released within the next 60 days and take effect starting in January. “High performance does not excuse non-compliance with body composition standards,” the memo reads.

Back to the 1990s

Hegseth is also ordering a 60-day review of the military’s education system curricula and training-school standards to identify any changes to the standards since 1990. Leaders are then expected to make recommendations on whether standards should be restored to those of 1990, or kept the same. It remained unclear Friday why that particular year — before most of those serving in uniform were even born — was chosen. “1990 seems to be as good as a place to start as any,” Hegseth said during his Tuesday speech to military brass. Hegseth also ordered a reduction in mandatory training requirements that service members must complete each year. The Pentagon will relax the frequency for cybersecurity training, eliminate some training requirements through automation and remove Privacy Act training.

Hegseth wrote that the Pentagon will also relax the frequency of training on Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). In a memo, the secretary asked to consolidate training topics as appropriate and championed “test-out” options for refresher training.

looking forward to all the Warthunder forum leaks to come! thanks Pete, you're really showing a lot of care for us curious war nerds around the world

“These critical efforts to eliminate, reduce, and consolidate focus topics advances my emphasis on warfighting,” Hegseth wrote.

as we all know, modern war consists entirely of a bunch of burly manly men fighting it out all manly-like, and includes no other activities whatsoever, like, say, ones involving all kinds of highly-advanced and sophisticated equipment which you probably don't want your enemies to know inside-and-out because you forgot to tell the troops "hey, it's actually not appropriate to post the entire technical manual in order to own someone in a forum argument"

Changes to Equal Opportunity, hazing

Complaints submitted under Military Equal Opportunity and civilian Equal Employment Opportunity, programs that aim to prevent discrimination, will be addressed within 30 days and dismissed if they “lack actionable, credible evidence,” according to new guidance. The option to report anonymously to those offices is being replaced with a “confidential complaint reporting option.” “Those who knowingly submit false complaints or repeatedly submits frivolous complaints are held accountable, pursuant to applicable laws and regulations,” the memo adds.

In another memo released Tuesday, Hegseth said the definition of “hazing, bullying and harassment is overly broad” in department policy.

hmm

:private-pyle-shining:

The two-paragraph memo orders a 30-day review of the definitions of hazing, bullying and harassment because “undue administrative burdens” on commanders “distract” from their core mission of maintaining a ready and lethal force, according to Hegseth. “This review aims to strike a balance,” he wrote.

"ready and lethal" is when half your soldiers have PTSD before they even deploy! and I'm sure this is going to be very helpful for the suicide epidemic (https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/suicide-now-the-primary-cause-of-death-among-active-duty-us-soldiers/)

you know what a military that's constantly struggling to meet recruitment numbers (https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/07/army-losing-nearly-one-quarter-of-soldiers-first-2-years-of-enlistment.html) needs? that's right, to make life for soldiers even more miserable, and kill a bunch of the soldiers it already has by bullying them to death!

Overhauling a military watchdog

Another memo issued Tuesday addresses reforms to the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, which investigates cases of fraud, waste and abuse inside the agency, as well as misconduct, command issues and violations of law. The memo calls for the office to complete a “credibility assessment” of every complaint within seven days of receiving them. “At that point, the complaint must either be closed or the investigation initiated,” Hegseth wrote.

certainly, the well-oiled machine of US military procurement needs a lot less investigation into potential corruption, not more!

Hegseth instructed “artificial intelligence with human oversight” to help speed up the process.

lol. lmao. EVERYTHING'S COMPUTER, including investigations!

it's not even "we've investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing" anymore, it's "we asked ArmyGPT and it said there was nothing suspicious going on" (I even read the AI report twice just to make sure, thus providing the "human oversight")

The investigating agency will need to provide a written update about each investigation every two weeks to the subject of the complaint, his or her commander and the complainant. The IG must also establish and enforce procedures to “identify and manage complainants who submit multiple complaints without credible evidence, that are frivolous, or that knowingly include false information,” according to the memo. Hegseth told military leaders Tuesday the IG process had been “weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat.” The IG’s office is currently investigating Hegseth for his use of Signal to share classified or sensitive information about an attack in Yemen earlier this year. Hegseth’s office has called it a “sham” review. It was unclear Friday how this overhaul could affect the investigation.

Demands for clean-shaven troops

Hegseth followed up his comments Tuesday — when he called for “no beardos” in the armed forces —with a memo on strict grooming compliance. “This is critical not only for defense against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, but also for firefighting, disaster relief, and other hazardous mission sets where respiratory protection may be required, often on short notice,” he wrote in a memo titled “Grooming Standards for Facial Hair Implementation.” Service members must be clean-shaven, with no facial hair other than mustaches that do not extend past the mouth corners. Sideburns must be above the ear opening.

Special operations forces may ask for modified standards as part of “validated mission-essential requirements.”

cult of the operator continues - standards for thee but not for me, the guy who totally needs a beard for "mission-essential" reasons (I need to be able to infiltrate Middle Eastern societies so I can murder children, very important!)

Exceptions to this rule include service members with medical waivers for conditions such as pseudofolliculitis barbae, a skin condition characterized by inflamed hair follicles that disproportionately affects Black men. Waivers are limited to 12 months and must include a treatment plan. Religious accommodations will revert to pre-2010 standards, when facial hair waivers were generally not recognized. “Approvals will be limited to non-deployable roles with low risk of chemical attack or firefighting requirement,” the memo said. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called on the Pentagon to affirm that the department would maintain the religious rights of all service members. “The First Amendment guarantees military personnel the right to practice their faith — including the right of Muslim, Sikh and Jewish personnel to grow beards or cover their hair — as does established Pentagon policy,” CAIR said in a statement.

A Russian fiber-optic-controlled first-person view (FPV) drone made a precision strike within the city of Kramatorsk for the first time on Sunday, the city council said. Though no one was injured in the attack, a fiber-optic FPV drone strike on one of the largest cities in the east raised alarms in Ukraine. Unlike radio-controlled drones, FPV drones that link to their controllers via very long spools of fiber-optic wire are immune to jamming and terrain features that can impede line-of-sight radio signals. While they also have disadvantages, such as having a range defined by the length of the wires they trail and degraded freedom to maneuver, they are hugely threatening due to their resiliency. And the range at which they can reach out is only increasing.

Kramatorsk was home to about 200,000 people before Russia’s all-out invasion, but that has dwindled to about half that population. Located 12 miles from the front lines in Ukraine’s war-torn east, Kramatorsk has come under increasing attack from Russian radio-controlled FPV drones. Boosting the range of Russia’s fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones extends the depth of the front lines and increasingly puts civilians at risk. “One strike and one damaged car will not change the security situation on the front line or directly in Kramatorsk, but it demonstrates a trend,” the Ukrainian Radio Liberty media outlet reported. “However, firstly, the Russian troops have demonstrated the reach and vulnerability of the administrative center of Donetsk Oblast to fiber optic. Secondly, if strikes with different types of FPV are scaled up, we can talk about a threat to civilian and military logistics in order to create the prerequisites for a future offensive…” The video feed from the drone itself is incredibly clear, which is a major feature of this class of FPV drone. On the other hand, a radio-controlled one would have an intermittent video feed dominated by static due to the great distance from its controllers and especially amongst tall buildings and general urban terrain. The video shows the drone flying over a relatively pristine street in Kramatorsk, before making a sharp turn to the left and striking a pickup truck — much like the ones many Ukrainian troops use — parked near an apartment building.

Both sides have developed fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones that can now reach as far as 25 miles, but generally, those in operation fly a fraction of that distance carrying much smaller spools of wire. Still, efforts to extend the range to more than 30 miles are underway now, which could be highly problematic for forces operating deep behind enemy lines and civilians, as well. It’s worth noting that the Russians started the use of fiber optic wires on the FPV drone in the spring of 2024, and Ukraine quickly followed suit. You can read more about that in our original story here. The use of fiber optic cables to transmit the guidance data between the controllers and the FPV drones has become so prevalent on both sides that fields once used for farming are now covered in the strands.

The increasing range of Russia’s fiber-optic-controlled FPVs is worrisome to one of Ukraine’s major players in drone development and production efforts. “The enemy’s FPV drones can fly even greater distances,” Serhii Sternenko warned on X. “There is no such thing as a rear area up to 30 kilometers (about 18.5 miles) from the front. This needs to be realized now, especially by local officials.” Sternenko is urging Ukrainian city leaders to adopt new defensive measures to protect civilians. “All settlements in this zone should already be closing roads with anti-drone nets,” he suggested. You can see a driver’s view of traveling through one such system in the following video. These nets are a measure first introduced by Russia and later adopted by Ukraine to create miles-long ‘tunnels’ designed to protect military transport vehicles from drone attacks. Russia has even designed a system to protect buildings with nets. In addition, Sternenko wants civilian movement on the streets to be limited and ultimately have non-combatants evacuated. “It will only get worse, because technology doesn’t stand still,” he posited.

Though fiber optic cables increase the range of FPV drones, there are also limitations, as we have previously discussed and touched on at the opening of this article. The extra weight of the large spools needed to operate over long distances slows them down and makes them less maneuverable. In addition, environmental factors come into play, the head of Ukraine’s defense tech incubator recently told us. Just because such a drone can reach 25 miles doesn’t mean it will. “It depends on what we are measuring, the length of the fiber optics, or the distance between the ground station and the target,” Andriy Hyrtseniuk, the new head of Ukraine’s Brave1, told us. “It’s two different stories because, because of the wind, the fiber optics is moving,” reducing the range of these drones. Still, given the advantages offered by longer fiber optic cables, both sides are in a race to increase their distance, Hyrtseniuk explained. “This is very similar to the game of cat and mouse, and the innovations are enhancing [the range] very, very quickly,” he stated.

Ukraine was slower to develop the fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones, but it is catching up. “This is actually one of the very few areas where Russia was faster than we were, but we are very quickly reducing the [gap],” he posited. “And right now, more than 35 Ukrainian companies are building the fiber optic drones and have scaled their production. So right now we are comparable with Russia.” “Of course,” he added, “we and the Russians are working on the increasing distance and increasing lengths of the fiber optics…I don’t want to give more detailed information about fiber optics, but the level of 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) was completely reached, and it works.”

There has been very little movement on the front lines, providing Ukraine a degree of security within a dozen or so miles from them due to Russia’s lack of air superiority.

uh, yeah, I'm sure the guys getting bombed in Kiev and recently Lvov are really feeling that security

But AI-infused drone technology, using Ukraine’s own telecom network to control long-range drones far beyond the front, and long-range fiber optic drones could disrupt this delicate balance. We discussed how AI-enabled Shaheds could have a massive impact on the war in a story we wrote last year. Even putting nearby towns at risk of highly resilient fiber-optic FPVs could have major impacts, especially on both sides’ ability to supply troops at the front. So far, Kramatorsk is battered, but 100,000 people still call it home. Right now, cable-guided FPV drones are an emerging threat to this city. However, as we have seen across the battlefield, the ability to extend the range of these weapons makes defending against them even harder.