Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday announced plans to establish a “Space Force” by 2020, which would be the sixth branch of the military and the first new defense branch since the Air Force was created in 1947. During his remarks at the Pentagon, Pence said that President Donald Trump’s “highest priority is the safety and security of the American people... Space is, in his words, a war-fighting domain just like land and air and sea.” He also said that the U.S.’s presence in space was “not enough,” and the country must have “American dominance in space, and so we will.” Pence described some of the steps that will be taken to build the new military branch—including appointing a new assistant secretary of defense for space, building space warfighters, and forming a space-operations force that would pull “men and woman from across the military.” Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced that a report about the establishment of Space Force would be sent to Congress after Pence’s remarks, and called the new branch an effort to “adapt” to space becoming a “contested” domain. “We’ve got to be able to compete, to deter, and to win,” Mattis said.

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Dozens of Yemeni civilians, most of them children, were killed Thursday when an airstrike by U.S.-backed Saudi Arabian fores hit a bus in the rebel-held city of Dahyan, according to sources from the International Red Cross cited by The Guardian. The head of the Red Cross’ Yemen delegation reported the tragedy on Twitter, writing “Scores killed, even more injured, most under the age of 10.” The Guardian notes that although the death toll has not been officially confirmed, a source told Reuters that 43 people were dead, and 61 were wounded. The Red Cross’ Yemen branch took to Twitter to decry the violence, noting that “Under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected during conflict.” The Saudi government, however, denied the attack violated international law, calling it a “legitimate” targeting of “elements” responsible for a Wednesday attack on the city of Jizan. The kingdom also accused rebel Houthi forces, who the Saudis view as proxies for Iran, of using the children as human shields. More than 10,000 people have been killed during the three-year conflict, which has left millions of Yemenis on the brink of starvation as Saudi forces have imposed a strict blockade on key ports for food.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis has been critical of prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office since the start of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial in Alexandria, Virginia, last week—but told the jury on Thursday that he may have made a mistake. “I was critical of counsel for… allowing an expert to remain in the courtroom,” he told the court, according to The Washington Post. “You may put that aside… I may well have been wrong.” Judge Ellis reportedly scolded the prosecution on Wednesday for allowing an IRS expert witness to sit in the gallery throughout the duration of the trial, but lawyers from Mueller’s office pointed out that an earlier transcript showed that the judge gave them permission to do so. “I was probably wrong,” he said, and admitted that “like any human—and this robe doesn’t make me any more than a human.” He continued, “Any criticism of counsel should be put aside—it doesn’t have anything to do with this case.”

The grandfather of Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, the 3-year-old boy whose father was arrested Monday at a “filthy” New Mexico compound on charges of child abuse, has told reporters that the yet-unidentified remains found at that site belong to his grandson. Abdul-ghani initially went missing last December in Georgia, the Associated Press reports, after his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, told the boy’s mother that he needed to be exorcized. The father told her he was taking the boy to a park, but never returned. Although officials have not confirmed that the remains belong to Abdul-ghani, the grandfather claims that children found at the compound last week have said the little boy died and was buried. After a Friday raid on the compound, where officials found 11 children clothed in rags, five adults—including Siraj Ibn—were arrested on charges of child abuse. Siraj Ibn was also accused of teaching the children at the compound to commit school shootings. The child’s remains were found when authorities returned Monday, the same day that Abdul-ghani would have turned four.

Camping fanatics and frequent beach goers know that if you forget one of your tools at home, it can ruin an otherwise perfect summer weekend. With the 1TAC Wallet Multi-Tool, you won’t need to worry about this. This credit card-sized stainless steel plate consolidates 11 tools into one instrument: can opener, knife edge, screwdriver, ruler, bottle opener, 4-position wrench, butterfly wrench, saw blade, sundial, 2-position wrench, and a lanyard hole. Go out in the woods with it strung on a lanyard around your neck, saw off a branch to make a walking stick, pop open a cold one to celebrate your achievement, and then open a can of beans at base camp later. Usually, the 1TAC Wallet Multi-Tool is $14.99 but right now it's on sale for $12.50.

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A lawyer for Melania Trump’s parents announced Thursday that the couple, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, have become U.S. citizens, according to CNN. “It went well and they are very grateful and appreciative of this wonderful day for their family,” the attorney said in a statement. CNN reports that since February, the pair had been living in the United States on green cards, which allowed them to stay indefinitely. The cards may have resulted from the so-called “chain migration” program, one of the many avenues for legal immigration that Trump is trying to dismantle. Before living in the United States, the Associated Press reports, Viktor was a car dealer and Amalija worked in a textile factory in Sevnica, Slovenia. Both are now retired, CNN added, noting that they travel frequently with the first family to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, New Jersey.

Casey Affleck addressed the sexual-misconduct allegations leveled against him in an interview with the Associated Press, admitting that he behaved unprofessionally on the set of I’m Still Here. “I behaved in a way and I allowed others to behave in a way that was really unprofessional, and I’m sorry,” he said in the interview, which was published Thursday. Affleck did not go into detail about the allegations, but instead talked about the “unprofessional” environment he helped foster on set as a producer. He also told the AP that his understanding of these issues has changed since the beginning of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. “I kind of moved from a place of being defensive to one of a more mature point of view, trying to find my own culpability,” he said. Women who have spoken out have “courage” and “wisdom,” the actor added. “In this business women have been underrepresented and underpaid and objectified and diminished and humiliated and belittled in a bazillion ways and just generally had a mountain of grief thrown at them forever,” he said. Affleck was the subject of two sexual-harassment lawsuits. Producer Amanda White said in court that Affleck told a crew member to take off his pants and show her his penis. She also said he physically intimidated her when she refused to share his hotel room and called her “profane names” via text message.

Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), who was charged with insider trading yesterday, used campaign funds to pay for his legal bills while facing inquiries from congressional ethics investigators. According to Federal Election Commission filings, Collins had been paying up to $60,000 a month since July 2017 to the law firm Baker Hostetler, which is not breaking any campaign finance laws. A spokesperson from the firm confirmed to CNBC that the payments were in relation to Office of Congressional Ethics and House Ethics Committee inquiries into Collins. The firm is representing Collins in his insider-trading case, and the congressmen has paid over $85,000 to the firm so far this year. This comes as Collins said he’s remaining in the midterm ballot later this year despite being accused of sharing nonpublic information about Innate Immunotherapeutics to his son, allowing him to dump his shares before the stock lost value. Collins said the allegations were “meritless” and he pleaded not guilty.

The government of Puerto Rico has quietly admitted more than 1,400 people appear to have died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria—a figure that is more than 20 times its official death toll. Several academic assessments of the aftermath of Maria placed the death toll much, much higher than the Puerto Rican government’s official figure of 64. Now, in a draft of a report to Congress requesting $139 billion in recovery funds, territory officials admit that 1,427 more people died in the last four months of 2017 compared with the same time frame in the previous year. The figures were released quietly—they come from death-registry statistics released in June, but they were never publicly acknowledged by officials, according to The New York Times. “Although the official death count from the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety was initially 64, the toll appears to be much higher,” said the report, titled “Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation.” In another section, it said: “According to initial reports, 64 lives were lost. That estimate was later revised to 1,427.”

Facebook is banning sites that publish 3D-gun blueprints from its platform, according to BuzzFeed News. Gun enthusiasts started noticing last week that links to the plans—which enable people with 3D printers to make guns at home—had been banned on the site. “Sharing instructions on how to print firearms using 3D printers is not allowed under our Community Standards,” the company wrote in a statement. “In line with our policies, we are removing this content from Facebook.” Various sites, including CodeIsFreeSpeech, have obtained plans for three guns—including an AR-15 and a Beretta—and have been circulating them on the social platform. Facebook told BuzzFeed that it will begin “scaling up its anti-3D gun policy.” CodeIsFreeSpeech decried the move as “an outrageous display of censorship and bias.” These controversial blueprints are currently the subject of a court battle between the government and Defense Distributed—a company that produces and publishes plans for the 3D guns. Most recently, a court granted a temporary nationwide injunction that prohibited Defense Distributed from publishing its blueprints.