A Federal Judge Just Called the Pentagon's Blacklist of Anthropic 'Illegal and Baseless'

A federal judge spent Thursday night handing the Pentagon one of the sharpest rebukes it has taken over its AI policy, in a 59 page order that does not read like typical court prose. Nvidia, meanwhile, posted the biggest quarter any chipmaker has ever had. Meta quietly closed a privacy hole in its smart glasses that let people record video with the “I am recording” light covered. And in India, a five decade old hockey drought eased a little and a long delayed missile deal finally got signed.

The line that will follow the Pentagon around

US District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the Department of Defense broke the law when it labeled Anthropic a “supply chain risk” earlier this year. The dispute started after Anthropic refused to let the Pentagon use Claude for two things: mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon wanted no limits at all. When Anthropic held its ground, the department responded by formally flagging the company as a security threat, a designation with real consequences for a firm that does government business.

Lin was not gentle about it. Her order states plainly that “the empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” and finds that the Pentagon’s actions amounted to unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment, on top of denying Anthropic the legal process it was owed under the Fifth Amendment. One report on the ruling quoted Lin’s characterization of the Pentagon’s motive as punishing the company for what she called its “arrogance,” a striking word to see in a federal order about a cabinet department.

The government is expected to appeal, and Anthropic is still fighting a related designation in a separate case in Washington. But for a day at least, a court put in writing that a US agency cannot use “national security” as cover for going after a company that told it no.

Nvidia’s biggest quarter, by a lot

Nvidia’s second quarter revenue came in at 96.2 billion dollars, up 106 percent from the same quarter last year and comfortably past Wall Street’s forecast of about 92.3 billion. Net income for the period was 59.69 billion dollars, or 2.46 dollars a share, more than double the profit from a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, earnings came in at 2.22 dollars a share against a consensus estimate of 2.09 dollars.

CEO Jensen Huang used the earnings call to forecast about 70 percent revenue growth for the fiscal year ending in January 2028, well above what analysts had penciled in, and the company guided to roughly 108 billion dollars in revenue for the current quarter. It is now a rare company whose quarterly numbers move entire stock indexes, and this was its biggest one yet.

Meta closes the gap in its glasses

Meta’s smart glasses have a small light that is supposed to turn on any time the camera is recording, so people nearby know they are on camera. Users discovered they could start a recording first and cover the light afterward, since the software only checked whether the light could be seen at the moment recording began. Alex Himel, who runs Meta’s wearables division, announced on Threads on August 27 that an update now stops the camera from recording the instant it detects the light is covered, whether that happens before or during a clip.

It is the second privacy patch to the glasses in under two months. An earlier update dealt with people physically drilling the light out of the frame. Meta says it is also running an “education and awareness” push, including a billboard in Los Angeles, to make sure people actually notice the light exists in the first place.

A sixteen year wait for Javelin ends

India’s army has signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance with the United States for the FGM 148 Javelin, a shoulder fired, fire and forget missile built to destroy tanks and fortified positions. The deal, worth about 45.7 million dollars, covers 100 missile rounds, one additional missile for testing, and 25 lightweight command launch units, along with training gear, spare parts and technical support. US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor confirmed the signing on August 28.

The Javelin has been on India’s wish list for years, and the agreement is being framed by both governments as a first step rather than a finish line. Officials on both sides say the deal opens the door to talks on co-producing the missile system inside India, which would be a meaningfully bigger commitment than a straight purchase and a marker of how far the US-India defense relationship has moved.

India’s best Hockey World Cup finish in over fifty years

India’s women’s hockey team beat Germany 3-1 in Utrecht to finish fifth at the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup, its best result at the tournament since India placed fourth at the very first edition in 1974. Ishika opened the scoring in the 43rd minute, and forward Navneet Kaur put the game away with two goals in the space of three minutes, in the 44th and the 47th.

It capped a tournament in which India also put six goals past South Africa and opened with a win over Wales. Fifth place will not satisfy a program with ambitions of a podium finish, but for a team that has spent most of the last fifty years finishing well outside the top tier at this event, beating a European heavyweight like Germany to close out the tournament is the kind of result that changes how the next World Cup gets talked about.