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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 124 · Saturday, 17 October 2026

OpFor

Iran condemns US plan to livestream execution as barbaric

Tehran questions whether America has completely abandoned standards of human decency

Vetbro apparel company pivots from stupid shirts to aggressively homoerotic ones

AI deemed ‘too smart’ to replace infantry

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Vol. 15 · No. 124

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Vol. 15 · No. 124 · Deployed worldwide

Saturday

17 October 2026

0940 Zulu

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· Page 2

SCANDAL: Q-Tips company bribed armorers to refuse clean rifles

Filed · 1534

PENTAGON — Pentagon officials today announced the indictment of 4,957 armorers across all branches of the military for accepting bribes from Unilever, parent company of the Q-tips brand in a press conference.

Between 2001 and 2017 the company paid out an estimated $3 million for armorers to reject rifles, requiring the needless use of hundreds of millions of additional Q-tips, investigators said.

The case opened up thanks to Ohio State finance student and Marine Corps reservist Sgt. Shanae Jackson. During a group project last Spring Jackson noticed that out of Unilever's $200 million in sales in 2016, 32% were tied to military bases across the country. Intrigued, she reached out to their corporate headquarters:

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