New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority was aware the flight from Christchurch pivoted following the agency’s issue of a Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, to the aircraft, a CAA spokesperson told Military Times.

The Russian Air Traffic Management Corporation notified the CAA of the space activity, the spokesperson said, causing the authority to issue the NOTAM to the U.S. Air Force flight.

In a follow-up statement, the spokesperson said that the CAA was made aware by the Russian air traffic agency of a planned missile launch and associated potential hazard to international airspace within New Zealand’s Oceanic Flight Information Region.

“As a result, we put in place a danger area and issued a NOTAM to alert aircraft operators to the potential hazard,” the spokesperson said. “This does not prevent aircraft from flying through the area, operators make their decisions based on the information available.”

NOTAMs alert aircraft operators of potential hazards to allow them to make operational decisions around flight planning.

“Much of our Oceanic FIR is over international waters, where we have limited control over activities,” the spokesperson said, referring to the roughly 30 million square kilometers of international waters that spans across the South Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea.

“It is normal practice for Airspace Authorities and Air Traffic Service Providers, provided with such hazard notifications to issue NOTAMs,” the spokesperson continued.

Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 shows a U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster III took off from Christchurch International Airport, New Zealand, on Tuesday at 9 a.m. local time, with the call sign ICE28.

The site shows the aircraft landed around 11:30 a.m. back at Christchurch.

The flight was a routine resupply mission scheduled for this time of year, a U.S. Pacific Air Forces spokesperson told Military Times.

“Christchurch is the gateway to Antarctica,” the PACAF spokesperson said. “Both the United States Air Force and New Zealand Defense Force conduct operations and logistical support out of Christchurch in support of our Antarctic science programs.”

The turnaround happened during the U.S. Air Force’s annual Winter Fly-in period, or WinFly, which usually occurs toward the end of August and delivers teams, equipment and cargo to McMurdo Station and Scott Base, both in Antarctica, ahead of its research season.

The PACAF spokesperson declined to comment on whether this flight was in direct support of the WinFly, but a 2012 Air Force release details that a C-17 delivered over 300 passengers and 230,000 pounds of cargo that year to Antarctica.

“Using Christchurch International Airport, New Zealand as the base of operations, the mission of WinFly is to deliver advance teams and cargo to the remote research center in preparation for the main season of Operation Deep Freeze,” the release reads.

Operation Deep Freeze provides support to the U.S. Antarctic Program, managed by the National Science Foundation, that allows for continuous scientific research in the region.

Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III is a cargo aircraft capable of fast delivery of troops and loads to main operating bases or forward bases in deployment areas. The aircraft can also complete tactical airlift and airdrop missions as well as aeromedical evacuations.

Qatar’s government requested to buy up to four KC-46As, eight PW4062 turbofan engines, 10 AN/ALR-69A radar warning receivers, 15 Guardian Laser Transmitter Assemblies for Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure systems and 8 LAIRCM system processor replacements, according to a Thursday release.

The proposed sale also includes “non-major defense equipment,” such as precision navigation, transportation and airlift support, personnel training and training equipment and other related logistical and program support items, per the statement.

“The proposed sale will increase Qatar’s capability to meet current and future threats by enhancing its defense capabilities and interoperability with U.S. and allied forces and reinforcing Qatar’s strategic role in regional security,” the release reads.

The potential sale is meant to support U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives through assisting in Qatar’s security. The U.S. government statement describes the country as a “strategic regional partner” that continues to be an “important force” for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.

Principal contractors for the envisioned deal include Boeing, Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, RTX Corporation and Northrop Grumman Corporation.

The proposed sale’s implementation will not require any additional U.S. government or contractor representatives to Qatar, the announcement says.

“At this time, the U.S. Government is not aware of any offset agreement proposed in connection with this potential sale,” the statement says. “Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor.”

The KC-46A provides aerial refueling support to the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and partner nations and has greater refueling, cargo and aeromedical evacuation capabilities than the aging KC-135s.

The announcement comes as questions persist surrounding the security features of a Qatari-donated Air Force One aircraft that has been modified for U.S. presidential use. President Donald Trump began using the new jet in July and has since announced it will be “maxed out” for upgrades.

The officers stopped the attack and arrested him, according to a police report. It was the kind of assault police might encounter on almost any night in almost any city.

But one detail stood out to police officer Xavier Jimenez, who wrote the report: “There was approximately 15 national guard members in the area on routine patrol who did not take any action.”

President Donald Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops to Washington last summer as the centerpiece of what he describes as a no-holds-barred effort to combat crime, especially in cities run by Democrats. Every day, small clots of soldiers in camouflage and body armor patrol tourist-heavy areas of the U.S. capital, including national monuments, subway stations and the area around its professional baseball park.

What the soldiers seldom do, Reuters found, is fight crime.

Since their arrival last August, the National Guard soldiers Trump ordered to Washington have been mentioned in only a tiny fraction — about 1.3% — of the criminal cases filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which handles nearly all the city’s criminal prosecutions. In dozens of cases, the soldiers appear not as people making the arrests but as victims of crime.

The roughly 4,500 soldiers currently deployed to Washington outnumber its 3,200 police officers. And they cost more: The Trump administration last year told Congress that sending guardsmen to the capital cost about $1.65 million a day — before officials doubled the number of troops this summer. The city’s most recent police budget was about $1.5 million daily.

The administration told Congress it plans to keep sending soldiers to Washington — though it has not said how many — until the end of Trump’s presidency in 2029 at a cost of $1.4 billion.

To gauge the impact of that deployment, Reuters reviewed every publicly available charging document filed in Superior Court and interviewed lawyers, residents, service members and others who are familiar with their work.

The soldiers mostly responded to minor incidents in neighborhoods that are wealthier, whiter and less dangerous than the rest of the capital, Reuters found after comparing court records to the city’s demographics and crime information. Reuters could find no reference in court records to soldiers doing any kind of law enforcement in the neighborhoods where about 82% of the city’s 859 murders occurred over the past five years.

The White House did not respond to questions about soldiers’ work. Spokeswoman Lauren Bis said Trump’s efforts in the city have “driven down crime, beautified the city, and improved quality of life for countless individuals.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has called the deployment “problematic,” declined to comment, as did the city’s police department.

The National Guard task force managing the Washington deployment did not respond to questions about its work or its cost. A spokeswoman, Leona Hendrickson, said soldiers were too busy to be interviewed.

Although soldiers have sometimes broken up fights or assaults, many of the crimes for which they detained people have been minor.

In October, soldiers chased down a man who had taken two slices of pizza and offered $2 as partial payment, according to police records. A week later, they stopped a man who threw a rock at a bus. In April, they detained a man who allegedly stole two beef jerky sticks worth about $7 from a pharmacy, according to the report. Last month, six soldiers held a woman who drank a bottle of root beer without paying.

The Rev. William Young, who lives in the Navy Yard neighborhood where soldiers patrol frequently, laughed when asked whether the troops made him feel safer.

“It’s a way of keeping fear in all of us,” he said. “This is not how a capital of democracy should be protected, by having soldiers marching to protect the streets.”

‘THEY COULD HAVE DONE MORE’

Reuters found 217 criminal cases in Washington in which police mentioned the involvement of the National Guard. In about a quarter of them, 62 cases, soldiers single-handedly stopped people suspected of a crime, often for things like shoplifting or jumping turnstiles to avoid paying subway fare. In another 43 cases, soldiers helped police officers arrest someone.

Videos obtained by community groups also show troops in groups of 20 or more stationed outside subway stations at night, blocking teens from descending the escalators to enforce a city curfew.

“It’s like they brought people here from all across the country, just to be here. And they harass people a lot more than they are actually doing police work,” said the Rev. Norman Nixon, the pastor of the Union Temple Baptist Church.

Although the guardsmen have been deputized as U.S. Marshals, according to government records, they have limited law-enforcement power. The Defense Department has described their work as “presence patrols,” a show of force meant to deter crime rather than respond to it. They can detain suspects, but then must call police officers to make a formal arrest.

Court records describe 35 instances in which the troops were witnesses to crimes, sometimes simply watching until police officers arrived. They have told officers about a drug deal, a man urinating in public, another who exposed himself to a subway policeman and two men writing with chalk on a monument outside the city’s train station, one of them wearing a banana costume.

Evelyn Jones said she wonders whether soldiers could have saved her nephew, Keon Jones, who was stabbed to death in April near a trendy strip of hotels and restaurants on the city’s waterfront.

The soldiers called emergency services after finding Jones unresponsive after a fight. They later told police they thought Jones was merely intoxicated. They did not realize, until after officers reached the scene, that he had been stabbed so severely his intestines were spilling out. He died in hospital about two hours later.

“They could have done more to help him,” his aunt said.

The service members themselves have often been victims, a fact underscored last year when two soldiers from West Virginia were shot not far from the White House, killing one of them.

Reuters found 62 cases in which people were charged with pushing, punching or threatening soldiers. Nine were accused of spitting on the soldiers. One man allegedly tried to grab a soldier’s pistol as the soldier tried to arrest him for stealing baseball caps in a subway station. Another man was charged after he told a group of soldiers that he wanted to “shoot you, in between your balls, with a bazooka,” according to a police report.

And twice, police in Washington arrested off-duty soldiers for violating the city’s firearms laws, though the U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against both of them.

This summer, they took on a new mission: guarding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which the Trump administration spent millions of dollars to renovate, only to see it turn green with algae as its liner peeled away. Trump claimed the pool was sabotaged by vandals. But U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro eventually conceded that a government contractor “botched” the job.

PATROLLING SAFER NEIGHBORHOODS

The U.S. has long used National Guard soldiers to respond to disasters, help secure major events like the Super Bowl and occasionally quell riots, but they haven’t been used for everyday crime-fighting. Trump also authorized smaller deployments in Memphis and New Orleans and has mused about sending soldiers to other cities.

“You do not want armed soldiers on the streets of America,” said Gen. Randy Manner, who retired in 2012 as the second-in-command of the National Guard Bureau. He said soldiers are ill-prepared for police work and more expensive than hiring more police officers.

Determining the soldiers’ impact on crime in Washington is not straightforward. In addition to the soldiers, the Trump administration sent hundreds of extra federal agents into the city, who largely functioned as local police officers.

The number of murders in Washington fell for the third consecutive year. But homicide numbers also dropped in cities where the government has not sent soldiers or additional federal agents. And the total number of violent crimes — serious assaults, robberies and sex offenses in addition to homicides — reported by city police between January and mid-August is marginally higher than last year, about 4%.

A study in May by the nonpartisan Niskanen Center found that sending soldiers into Washington led to fewer stolen cars but had no impact on violent crimes.

Charles Stimson, a senior fellow at the pro-Trump Heritage Foundation, said the soldiers’ visibility served as a deterrent.

“When you’re speeding and you see a cop, you slow down,” he said. “If those National Guard went poof and left town tomorrow, crime would go up.”

The Reuters review of court records found little evidence of soldiers’ presence in high-crime neighborhoods where they might have responded to more serious crimes.

Instead, the court records show soldiers were more likely to be mentioned in arrest records in city neighborhoods that have higher incomes, in which more people have college degrees, and where more people are white. Most of the arrests in which soldiers participated were either near the city’s core or its subway stops.

Reuters used the location of incidents in court records to identify the areas in which soldiers were either assisting the police or seeking help from them, then compared those neighborhoods to the rest of the city. That does not account for places soldiers might have been sent if they did not interact with law enforcement there. But it suggests that their presence was not aimed at quelling the violent crime that had ravaged parts of the city in the past.

Salim Adofo, an outreach coordinator with the Anacostia Coordinating Council, a nonprofit operating in a low-income part of the city, said that matched his experience.

“I haven’t seen them all year,” he said.

But he feels helpless now to aid his brother, who worked for the U.S. government during the war in Afghanistan and has been stuck for nearly two years at a holding camp in Qatar, waiting for a visa to the United States.

Jamshidi’s brother is one of roughly 150 family members of U.S. troops and veterans stranded at Camp As Sayliyah, according to the aid organization AfghanEvac. The camp is currently slated to close Sept. 30. And while organization leaders aren’t confident the U.S. government will follow through on that closure timeline, nothing has been formally communicated, they say, to camp residents who are waiting in limbo.

Jamshidi was born in Afghanistan, but he came to the U.S. with his family around age five. He opted to enlist in the Marine Corps, he said, because he had a deep appreciation for the freedoms America offered, having experienced life without those guarantees in Afghanistan.

“My mother, her dying wish is to see her son before she goes … so we’re trying to keep her healthy until my brother gets there,” Jamshidi said. “I want to continue shining a light on this crisis so the American people can hear these stories and demand change … This is not a partisan issue; it’s an American obligation.”

AfghanEvac leaders say some 3,000 U.S. military family members in all are affected by a hard stop in visa distribution to Afghans that took effect late last year.

They say many, like Jamshidi’s brother, have received consulate Chief of Mission approval and completed the required interviews to come to the U.S.; all they lack is the final paperwork.

As the U.S. marks the fifth anniversary of the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended the war but left thousands of allies stranded, a coalition of refugee assistance and resettlement groups is calling on Congress to pass the Afghanistan TPS Act, which would create temporary protected status for Afghan refugees and allow visa processing to begin again.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired Air Force brigadier general and a cosponsor of the bipartisan bill, said in a call with reporters this week that he supports a discharge petition, a measure that would force the bill out of committee and onto the House floor for a vote.

“Most Americans want a decent, I would call it a Christian policy here, and that’s not what we’re getting,” said Bacon, who describes himself as an “old Ronald Reagan-type Republican.”

“We have a moral obligation to those we serve with in Afghanistan, who served by our side, helping us out.”

Camp As Sayliyah, which began to be used as an indefinite waypoint for Afghans who’d been evacuated by the U.S. government in 2021, has received over 1,000 refugees. In addition to the limited freedoms and constrained conditions of life at the camp, residents are now contending with post-traumatic stress and other mental health crises from missiles flying overhead due to the Iranian conflict, Jamshidi said.

“There’s missile fragments falling on people’s homes; there’s loud noises and uncertainty,” he said.

One White House proposal has been to send the refugees in Qatar to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to figure out life for themselves from there. Jamshidi said he served at the U.S. Embassy in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, in 2018, and the thought troubles him.

“I know the conditions there, and it’s even worse than some areas in Afghanistan,” he said.

Bacon and another member of Congress, Texas Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson, said there wasn’t a clear timeline for filing a discharge petition on the Afghanistan TPS Act, but emphasized it would happen “soon.” They both stressed that the ultimate goal was to create a pathway for permanent resettlement in the U.S. for eligible Afghan allies.

Jamshidi said he was part of a chat group with other troops and veterans with family at Camp As Sayliyah. The chat, he said, has largely gone silent as members have gradually lost hope in a policy solution. Jamshidi said he’s working to hang onto that hope.

“As a Marine, I understand what it means to keep your promise and to stand by our coalition, our partners who served us and who supported us, who sacrificed their life for us, and how important that is,” he said. “So I’m going to continue fighting for that.”

But the services have been unable to complete those requirements because they are hampered by a lack of resources, including a shortage of staff and the technology needed to conduct such assessments, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

In 2024, after extensive reporting by The New York Times on the impact routine weapons training can have on the brain, including traumatic brain injury, the Pentagon issued several policies to protect troops from blast overpressure.

The policies included restrictions on the proximity trainers should have to weapons at firing ranges. They also called for increasing the use of simulators in training, conducting cognitive assessments of all troops and monitoring exposure.

The policies also required new recruits to receive cognitive assessments by the end of 2024. Screening for all active-duty personnel in “high-risk” specialties — such as those who handle howitzers, mortars, M 107 and MK 15 sniper rifles, breaching charges and other weapons — was supposed to be completed by the end of fiscal 2025.

The GAO found that nearly 200,000 recruits were screened in fiscal 2025 and 86% of personnel in occupations at increased risk received assessments, with 87% of Army personnel, 81% of Air Force members and 59% of Navy sailors screened.

But service officials told GAO analysts that they faced challenges fully meeting their obligations and evaluating personnel because of the tight timeline set in memos. They said they did not receive the resources or staff to conduct the assessments and relied on existing resources to meet requirements.

In terms of monitoring service members at regular intervals following their initial assessments, the Defense Health Agency said it did not have enough specialists to meet requirements.

Officials in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness told the GAO that insufficient industrial hygienists were the “primary barrier to DOD achieving its targets for exposure tracking.”

The Pentagon announced in April that it will begin a one-year pilot program to test a new cognitive assessment tool, an app that service members can use to complete assessments. DoD officials said the app will be less “resource intensive” than current assessments and will help improve the services’ ability to track exposures.

GAO officials also said the Pentagon has taken several steps to educate service members and ensure they receive care if they show symptoms.

According to the GAO, the DoD now distributes informational material to service members on blast exposure, instructs leaders to schedule training breaks and encourages troops to seek treatment. The department is working to improve access to specialty care while also educating military doctors on blast exposure.

“DOD has taken critical steps to prevent and mitigate service members’ exposures to blast overpressure, steps intended to help protect their brain health and the readiness of our country’s military forces,” the report stated.

GAO made two recommendations, saying the department should complete an assessment of the resources needed to implement the policies and take steps to ensure the services have adequate industrial hygiene staff support.

In response, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Keith Bass said the department is on its way to completing the resource assessment and has taken steps to meet the industrial hygiene staff requirements.

“DOD estimates it will complete the actions for both recommendations by December 2026,” Bass wrote.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect Keith Bass’s correct title.

The change in the drills comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits South Korea on Wednesday and Thursday for regional security talks expected to cover developments on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, late on Wednesday dismissed the move, saying the nature of the exercises remained provocative and aggressive even if the scale and duration had been reduced, according to a statement published by state media KCNA.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which began on Aug. 17, will now run through Aug. 21, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Pentagon official said, instead of the original end date of Aug. 27.

South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said the allies were moving to cancel the drills’ second phase, media said, adding that it had been expected to involve counterattack operations after an initial defensive phase.

At the suggestion of the United States, the countries agreed on partial adjustments to the duration and scope of the drills, the JCS said. Some combined field manoeuvre training would also be scaled back, although details were still being discussed.

A Department of Defense official said the department had substantially reduced the exercise and associated live-training events, with some cancelled or switched to simulations.

The changes would preserve essential readiness and training aims, with no degradation to U.S. training objectives, the official added.

The changes follow Trump’s order on Sunday to “substantially reduce” the U.S. role in the drills, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. On Monday, Trump added that Kim had responded to his steps, without giving any details.

Trump’s objectives in the order appeared to be to pressure Seoul over the pace of its promised U.S. investments under a trade deal, shift attention away from U.S. challenges in Iran and reopen diplomacy with Pyongyang, one analyst said.

“Trump is trying to catch three birds with one stone here,” said Ellen Kim, senior fellow at the Korea Economic Institute of America.

Kim Yo Jong said she was unaware of recent communication between the two but added that Kim Jong Un held fond personal memories and feelings towards Trump.

“The relationship between the two leaders remain excellent,” KCNA quoted her as saying.

North Korea denounces drills

North Korea had earlier on Wednesday denounced the drills and said it would continue exercising its right to self-defense against what it called military threats from Washington and Seoul, KCNA said.

In a commentary, it called the United States and South Korea “warmongers” raising tension on the Korean Peninsula, but stopped short of mentioning Trump, his order or the scaling back.

North Korea’s decision to issue the commentary, rather than a statement by a senior official or a military show of force, may signal an effort to leave room for diplomacy, said Hong Min, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Trump has pushed aides to arrange an in-person meeting with Kim as soon as this autumn, the Wall Street Journal said, citing U.S. officials.

He has discussed holding talks during a possible November trip to Asia for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen, the paper added.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on its approach to North Korea or the military exercises.

Pyongyang routinely condemns joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises as rehearsals for invasion, while Washington and Seoul say they are defensive and necessary to ensure readiness against North Korea’s military threats.

Neither South Korean nor U.S. officials knew in advance about Trump’s order, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung said the Ulchi exercises were defensive and Seoul had no intention of using them to attack North Korea or heighten tension on the peninsula.

China, North Korea’s only formal treaty ally, has not commented directly on Trump’s remarks, but Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Seoul that Washington should change its “hostile policy” towards Pyongyang, South Korea’s Yonhap reported.

The Aug. 7 statement followed a review of the Modular Handgun System, a program led by the Army’s Project Manager Soldier Lethality, initiated after an airman was shot and killed because of an alleged “uncommanded discharge” with an M18 handgun.

Last year’s incident resulted in an immediate inspection of all M18 handguns issued by the Air Force Global Strike Command as well as a temporary pause of their use, which was lifted a month later.

Additionally, three airmen involved in the deadly shooting were charged with lying to investigators. They claimed the gun just “went off” when the shooter slammed his duty belt against a desk, when in reality, he had pointed it at the victim in a “joking manner.”

According to the statement, the Army has investigated all reports of incidents involving MHS pistols discharging without a trigger pull, and firearms mishaps account for less than 0.006% of all MHS pistols issued.

“All investigated incidents of alleged ‘uncommanded discharges’ have been traced back to the trigger being pulled,” Army officials say, adding that they blame “public speculation and online misinformation” for the safety concerns regarding the handgun design.

However, the civilian version of the handgun has been linked to dozens of injuries and a handful of deaths, with victims claiming the gun discharged a round without a trigger pull. In turn, the design has been the subject of more than 100 legal challenges since it was introduced in 2014, with varying outcomes.

In many of the lawsuits, attorneys argue that the design’s passive safeties can fail to adequately prevent unintentional manipulation of the trigger. It’s important to note that unlike the civilian P320, the M18 and M17 pistol designs are equipped with a manual safety.

Since the SIG design won DoD approval in 2017, M17 and M18 pistols have become the standard-issue sidearm for the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy. There are more than 400,000 currently in service.

Airmen from the 355th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, assigned to the 355th Wing but located at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, alongside the 88th Test and Evaluation Squadron, deployed two HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters to rescue the Navy personnel near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, according to a Monday release.

The “aircraft mishap” occurred on Aug. 10, per the release. The 88th received initial notification regarding the Navy MH-60S Seahawk hard landing in mountainous terrain during a high-altitude training flight around 11:30 a.m.

The 88th then immediately initiated a recall and joined with the 355th to generate the aircraft while coordinating with the “mishap unit.” The release did not specify which Navy unit was involved.

“When production gave us the word for a real-world mission, I gathered the Airmen I had on the line and started directing traffic,” Air Force Staff Sgt. Lucas Seney, 355th AMXS aerospace propulsion craftsman, said in the release. “The crew worked well together, and I was proud to see just how efficiently everyone was able to get the job done.”

To allow for a swift departure, the 355th had to fix a circuit breaker issue since no spare parts were available, providing the aircrew with a “workaround” to make the system operational, the statement reads.

The 355th was able to generate the two HH-60Ws within 30 minutes, and the aircrews departed Nellis at 1 p.m. Then the crew established two-way radio contact and visually identified the Navy personnel by 3 p.m.

Capt. John Howe, an 88th combat rescue officer, led the pararescue team that deployed to the landing zone, per the release. The team assessed the personnel, deemed that no one was injured and determined that the helicopters should reposition to a closer landing area to reduce the physical exertion required of the sailors.

“The preparation is what makes the execution smooth,” Howe said in the statement. “It’s the combination of preestablished operating procedures, keeping equipment staged and ready for use, and hasty mission planning prior to departure, that makes this process effective, and expeditious.”

All five sailors were extracted successfully by 3:50 p.m., and they were transferred to their unit’s ramp at NAWS China Lake.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, criticized the order that led to the release of the woman, Melissa Farris, 41, who was taken ​into custody last week and charged with two felony counts.

Court documents showed Farris agreed to conditions of her release, including surrendering her passport and not leaving the continental U.S. unless approved by court.

The Justice Department urged a reconsideration of Monday’s order and said the woman was “a risk of flight.”

The World War II Memorial was vandalized with bubbly soap and graffiti on Thursday. The fountain bubbled over with suds and the words “Clean ​hands Dirty $” were painted on one surface, splattering the area with red and green paint.

In earlier videos posted to her Facebook ​account, Farris recorded herself spray painting the memorial. She described ⁠herself on social media as a “pirate captain” who is “panhandling for America.”

In Facebook posts, Farris had said she was planning the Aug. 13 action to draw attention to U.S. tax dollars not being spent on ordinary Americans and ​to what she alleged were corporate ​racketeering, embezzlement and slave labor ⁠practices, among other issues.

A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 3.

Pirro ​has recently drawn ⁠President Donald Trump’s anger for dropping charges against four people the Justice Department had accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool after Trump oversaw renovations of the pool.

The pool’s condition soon deteriorated, with a peeling liner and algae blooms. When dropping the vandalism charges, Pirro blamed the deterioration on faulty installation. Trump said she ​had “folded like an umbrella.”​

The answer is more complicated than whether the Food and Drug Administration has approved it.

Inside the Department of Veterans Affairs, a treatment can pass one scientific hurdle and still face others before it becomes routine care.

VA says the process can involve research, clinical guidelines, medication reviews, patient-safety systems, ethics reviews and practical questions about whether the health system has the staff, space and equipment to deliver it.

“VA moves new treatments into practice through a step-by-step process,” Dr. Ilse Wiechers, a VA mental health official, told Military Times. “Only after a treatment is shown to be safe and effective does VA roll it out more broadly.”

It starts with evidence, but evidence is only the beginning.

A new treatment may start with research, move through increasingly larger clinical trials and, for drugs and certain medical devices, undergo FDA review. VA must then consider how the evidence applies to the veterans it serves and how a treatment fits into the health system.

The 2023 VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for PTSD uses the GRADE methodology to evaluate the quality and strength of evidence and weigh the benefits and harms of treatment options. The guideline also considers patient perspectives and feasibility when developing recommendations.

The 2023 PTSD guideline applied GRADE more rigorously than the 2017 version, according to the guideline. That resulted in some recommendations being downgraded as the evidence was reevaluated.

Recommendations can change as research develops, and veteran-specific evidence can matter, too.

Wiechers said evidence involving veterans can be an important consideration when VA evaluates whether a treatment should become available, even when research in other populations is promising.

For PTSD, however, the 2023 VA/DoD guideline says a lack of data on veterans or service members alone did not alter its recommendations. That helps explain why FDA approval and VA availability are not necessarily the same thing.

How a treatment moves into VA care

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS, offers a concrete example of how the VA adopts a new treatment.

The FDA approved rTMS for depression in 2008. According to VA, the department then conducted a large study involving veterans, tested the treatment in a pilot program at 35 VA sites and expanded access after the pilot.

VA says more than 60 of its facilities now offer rTMS, with some operating specialized clinics that combine it with other advanced depression treatments. Dr. Wiechers added that the success of the program’s original 35 clinics, as listed on the VA’s website, resulted in the program expanding to over 60 facilities.

The sequence illustrates the difference between FDA approval and VA implementation. VA says it studied rTMS in its own patient population, tested its delivery across multiple facilities, and then expanded access.

There is no single office that makes the decision.

Dr. Wiechers described a team-based process in which draft policies are shared with offices responsible for delivering or overseeing a treatment. That allows potential risks, downsides and ethical concerns to be identified before policies are finalized.

Among the offices involved, Dr. Wiechers identified the Office of Mental Health and its programs, including the National Center for PTSD; the Office of Suicide Prevention; Pharmacy Services; the National Center for Ethics in Health Care; Nursing Services; and Care Management & Social Work Services.

The considerations extend beyond whether a treatment works.

Wiechers said VA also considers whether it has enough trained clinicians, specialized equipment and space to deliver a treatment, as well as whether adding it could take resources away from other care.

For medications, another layer comes into play.

VA’s National Formulary establishes the department’s national preferred list of medications. Some medications also have Criteria for Use documents that establish evidence-based conditions or restrictions for prescribing.

VA says medication reviews can be prompted by new FDA approvals or research that could affect evidence-based prescribing, clinical practice or health outcomes for veterans.

The formulary process includes VA physicians, Pharmacy Benefits Management officials and Veterans Integrated Service Network pharmacist executives. Formulary documents are reviewed, and feedback is solicited from health care teams.

An FDA-approved medication, therefore, can be available in civilian medicine while having different prescribing conditions inside VA.

That distinction can be particularly important for treatments that carry significant risks or require specialized monitoring.

Emerging treatments test the boundaries

Emerging mental health treatments illustrate the difference between scientific promise and routine clinical care.

The VA/DoD PTSD guideline, for example, recommends against benzodiazepines for PTSD, citing a lack of evidence of benefit and known harms, such as drug dependence and addiction.

It also recommends against cannabis and cannabis-derived products for PTSD, citing a lack of well-designed randomized controlled trials and potentially serious side effects.

Veterans are questioning why their legal cannabis license can’t be considered by the VA.

“I have a medical cannabis license, and I have to pay for my medication out of pocket, but almost any other medication is covered by the VA,” explained George Canfield, a retired Army veteran.

“Why can’t VA offer some kind of subsidy to offset the cost of this naturally derived treatment? I don’t expect a VA-run dispensary, but I would like it to be more affordable since it’s what helps me more than any other medication I’ve tried,” he said. “And I’ve tried them all!”

Ketamine presents a different example. The VA/DoD guideline retained a weak recommendation against ketamine for PTSD, citing limitations in the evidence and a lack of demonstrated effectiveness for the condition.

Psychedelic-assisted therapies remain an area of active research, meaning promising findings do not by themselves establish a treatment as routine VA care.

VA has recently expanded its research into psychedelic therapies and is recruiting veteran participants for clinical trials in select regions.

For veterans, those distinctions can affect whether a treatment encountered outside VA is available or subject to different conditions within the federal health system.

What happens after a treatment works?

The process continues after a treatment enters clinical practice.

VA says it monitors treatments through individual reports of adverse events or other problems, ongoing quality monitoring and formal research.

If a patient experiences a bad reaction or other adverse outcome, local staff can report and investigate it. Dedicated safety programs can identify patterns that may warrant broader review or changes in guidance.

VA also evaluates how treatments perform in actual clinical practice, particularly when a new treatment is introduced or when policies governing its use change.

Once a treatment becomes standard care, researchers generally cannot create the same untreated comparison group used in many clinical trials.

Dr. Wiechers said the most rigorous safety and effectiveness checks tend to occur early, while a treatment is still being rolled out.

The process does not end there. VA and the Department of Defense periodically revisit clinical practice guidelines as evidence changes. The current 2023 VA/DoD PTSD guideline contains 34 evidence-based recommendations and is intended to assist, rather than replace, clinical judgment. The guideline is a tool for clinicians and does not define required care.

What veterans see at the end of the process

For a veteran sitting across from a VA clinician, much of this process is invisible.

The veteran sees a treatment that is available, restricted, unavailable or offered only through a clinical trial.

Behind that decision may be years of research, clinical practice guidelines, formulary reviews, safety monitoring and assessments of whether VA can deliver the treatment.

Dr. Wiechers said there are several reasons why a treatment may not be available to veterans.

“VA only offers treatments that have solid research behind them showing they help,” she said. When a treatment is not available, she said, it may be because “the evidence isn’t strong enough yet, or it hasn’t been proven to work well specifically for Veterans.”

There is no single moment when someone decides a treatment “works.”

Instead, VA describes a sequence of decisions involving evidence, safety, effectiveness for veterans, clinical guidance, feasibility and resources. Once a treatment reaches the clinic, monitoring and research continue.

The system is designed to answer a question bigger than whether a treatment works:

Is there enough evidence that it works for veterans, can VA deliver it safely and effectively, and should it become part of routine care?