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California notified 11,000 drivers to retake their written license test.

Drivers have 30 days before their licenses face cancellation.

The DMV has not publicly detailed the reported testing irregularities.

California is putting thousands of licensed drivers back in the classroom after identifying what it describes as “irregularities” in its written driver’s license testing process. Roughly 11,000 motorists have now been told to retake the knowledge exam within 30 days or risk having their licenses canceled.

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That’s a strange demand for anyone who believed they had already cleared the state’s licensing requirements, but one major question remains unanswered. What exactly went wrong?

According to reports from CBS Sacramento , the California Department of Motor Vehicles sent letters to drivers who took written exams between July 2025 and April 2026. The notices state that the recipients’ test results showed “non-compliance with the driver testing criteria required by state law,” requiring them to retake the written exam to keep their driving privileges.

Read: California’s DMV Auctioned 5,300 Cars To Cover Debts, Then Kept The Change

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The DMV says the move is intended to protect the integrity of California’s licensing process. “Ensuring the integrity of our testing process is essential,” the agency said in a statement. “Knowledge tests play a critical role in confirming that drivers understand the rules of the road before they are licensed to drive in California.” For recipients, though, the letters have raised more questions than answers.

One Driver’s Story

Sacramento resident David Specht told CBS Sacramento he was blindsided by the notice and insists he did nothing wrong during his exam. After contacting the DMV for clarification, he says he was simply told many other drivers had received the same letter, but no one could explain the specific issue with his test.

“I know I didn’t cheat,” Specht said, adding that he believes many of the other affected drivers are likely in the same position.

Still No Explanation

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Without additional details from the DMV , some recipients have speculated whether the issue stems from alleged cheating, a testing center problem, or even a broader administrative or data-processing error. The agency has not publicly identified the nature of the “irregularities” or whether they were tied to specific testing locations, software, or procedures. We’ve reached out to some who allege they’re in the “irregularity” pool and will update this story if we learn more.

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The way that consumers buy video games is changing, with Sony recently announcing that it would cease the production of new PlayStation game discs in January 2028 in a bid to push consumers towards more profitable digital purchases.

It's a big shift for the $500+ billion dollar video game industry, which once had a significant retail presence in the US, but one that has been predicted for some time.

A matter of time

Speaking in an investor Q&A session all the way back in 2009, then Nintendo president and Satoru Iwata correctly stated that it would take "20 years or so" for digital distribution to render physical copies in stores obsolete.

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He dismissed notions that it could happen sooner as "radical" and argued that it would take a significant number of years for consumer behaviour to change.

His belief has been proven correct by empirical data as Nintendo's latest financial report revealed that the proportion of digital sales have just surpassed physical ones for the first time in the company's 137 year history.

While it seems safe assume that Sony's next console will not feature disc reader, and credible reports suggest Microsoft-owned competitor Xbox headed the same way, Nintendo is ironically the last major industry player that seems fully committed to physical releases — at least for the time being.

Part of a wider trend

Digital game sales are even more dominant on other platforms, hence the Sony decision to ditch physical formats entirely.

According to data from market research firm Ampere Analysis , when the PlayStation 4 originally launched in 2013 just 13% of games sold for Sony platforms were digital.

12 years later in 2025, and the share of digital game sales had steadily grown to almost 80%. Unless plans change, this will presumably be 100% come 2028 — almost exactly two decades since Iwata's 20 year prediction.

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Around 100,000 years ago, an early Homo sapiens man was probably stabbed in the face with a sharp stone tool and later buried in a cave in what is now Israel, archaeologists have determined. The Stone Age cold case appears to be the earliest evidence of this kind of interpersonal violence, according to the research team.

In a study published June 30 in the journal Scientific Reports , the international team of researchers closely examined the skull and lower jaw of a person who was deliberately buried in Qafzeh cave in Israel during the Middle Paleolithic period.

At least 27 people were buried in Qafzeh cave between about 145,000 and 92,000 years ago, making them some of the earliest members of our species to be found outside Africa. Previous analysis of the skeletons, which were excavated between the 1930s and 1970s, revealed that two people had head injuries resulting from blunt trauma.

But the new analysis, which employed microscopic and micro-CT scanning techniques, revealed that Qafzeh 25, an adult male, had a cut mark across his lower left jaw that affected one of his bicuspids and part of his upper jaw. The jawbone showed signs of healing, suggesting that the man lived for a significant amount of time after being injured, the researchers wrote in the study.

Archaeologists had previously identified only a few cases of trauma caused by sharp weapons or projectiles in Middle Paleolithic skeletons. Although these injuries could have resulted from hunting accidents, the researchers wrote, they have generally been interpreted as evidence of interpersonal violence.

The cut mark on the jaw of Qafzeh 25 was found on the left side of his face, lending further support to the idea that the injury was not an accident.

A close-up of the left side of the lower jaw, showing a cut mark near a bicuspid. (Image credit: Ana Pantoja et al.) It's not clear what kind of tool made the cut mark, but stone tools found at Qafzeh included flint scrapers and sharp points that could have been fashioned into spear tips.

"Forensic studies of modern human populations have reported that craniofacial injuries resulting from blows are more frequently observed on the left side of the skull, a distribution commonly attributed to the predominance of right-handed assailants in face-to-face confrontations," the researchers wrote.

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If the researchers' interpretation of the cut mark is correct, it "would represent the earliest documented case of sharp force trauma in the archaeological record," they wrote.

Qafzeh cave is already well known within archaeology for its clear evidence that early humans buried their dead. The new discovery confirms that the earliest human groups left Africa with a complex culture.

"These results provide new data to the debate on the origin of complex behaviors such as interpersonal violence, the care of injured or sick individuals and funeral practices," study first author Ana Pantoja Pérez , a paleoanthropologist at Spain's National Research Center for Human Evolution, said in a statement .

See how much you know about early humans with our human evolution quiz!

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Anti-drone nets and cages are rapidly becoming as ubiquitous as the drones they are meant to stop, appearing on today’s battlefields, over roads , around buildings , atop armored vehicles , and even protecting naval vessels . One recent example comes from Taiwan, where anti-aircraft guns have been enclosed in netting to help defend against the growing threat of drone attacks from Chinese forces .

An image , heavily edited, that began to circulate recently shows a pair of Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) Skyguard towed twin-barreled 35mm anti-aircraft cannons with geodesic, dome-like latice structures over them, covered with anti-drone netting. The twin guns protrude out into the open to provide clearance. The design appears intended mainly to defeat small first-person-view (FPV) type drones attempting to dive directly onto the guns.

Taiwan armed forces:

We gonna replace 35 mm AA guns with NASAMS

*Public outcry*

Putting anti-drone cages on the guns. pic.twitter.com/l4ebuBKzaU

— Taepodong (@stoa1984) July 3, 2026

The ROCAF operates around 24 of these Swiss-made systems, specifically the GDF-006 version. They are frequently deployed to protect Taiwanese airbases , which may well be the case here, too.

A ROCAF GDF-006 Skyguard opens fire. Taiwanese Ministry of Defense

That the ROCAF is going to the trouble of shielding the Skyguard from drones (at least smaller, FPV types ) is significant.

Despite being a legacy Cold War-era design, the Swiss-made system remains one of Taiwan’s most effective point-defense weapons against exactly the kinds of aerial threats that have proliferated in recent years, including drones and cruise missiles .

The ROCAF operates around 24 of these systems, specifically the GDF-006 version. They are frequently deployed to protect Taiwanese airbases, which may well be the case in this instance. Keeping them operational during a conflict would be critical, making them logical candidates for additional physical protection against drone attacks.

In particular, the radar-guided Skyguard can engage drones using Advanced Hit Efficiency and Destruction (AHEAD) ammunition. These programmable airburst rounds release a cloud of sub-projectiles just ahead of the target, greatly increasing the probability of a kill against small, slow, and maneuvering aerial threats. They are also effective against cruise missiles, rockets, and mortar projectiles. Besides improving lethality and speeding engagements, the airburst effect also reduces the risk of collateral damage on the ground.

As such, the Skyguard remains in ROCAF service alongside more modern air-defense systems as part of Taiwan’s layered integrated air-defense network. Other ground-based systems fielded by the air force include the U.S.-made Patriot and the indigenous Tien Kung (Sky Bow) family for long-range air and ballistic missile defense . At the lower end, Sparrow surface-to-air missile launchers can be integrated with the Skyguard’s radar and fire-control system to provide another layer of protection. Taiwan formally retired the last of its HAWK surface-to-air missile systems in 2023, later donating some of these to Ukraine .

ROCAF GDF-006 Skyguards light up the sky during a night exercise. Taiwanese Ministry of Defense

As we reported in the past , Taiwan is also set to procure the combat-proven National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System ( NASAMS ) after the United States approved its sale to the country in 2024. As we previously examined , the medium-range system is particularly well suited to defeating cruise missiles and standoff one-way attack drones. It also has the significant benefit of being fed from the common stockpile of AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) that already arm many of the ROCAF’s fighter jets.

Meanwhile, the Republic of China Army fields an even wider array of ground-based air defense systems, including more mobile equipment and man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). Republic of China Army anti-aircraft units are also equipped with anti-aircraft guns, namely the locally made T-82T towed twin-barreled 20mm anti-aircraft cannon, based on the M39 developed for the U.S. Air Force in the late 1940s.

A Republic of China Army T-82T towed twin-barreled 20mm anti-aircraft gun. Office of the Taiwanese President

Taiwan’s multi-layered integrated air-defense system is a critical component of the island’s ability to withstand any aerial assault from China, should Beijing ever go on the offensive against the island . As China rapidly expands both the quantity and sophistication of its unmanned capabilities, however, even air-defense assets themselves are increasingly vulnerable to drone attack.

Protecting the Skyguard with netting reflects this evolving threat. Chinese drones of all types would be employed not only for one-way attack missions, but also for intelligence gathering, target acquisition for standoff strikes, communications relay, and electronic warfare. Swarms of inexpensive drones could also be used to saturate Taiwan’s defenses, exposing key air-defense assets to attack while forcing them to expend valuable ammunition.

A video showing a Chinese drone swarm experiment involving loitering munitions launched from a light tactical vehicle:

Taiwan’s airbases would rank among Beijing’s highest-priority targets in any conflict. The ROCAF already prepares for this possibility by routinely exercising from secondary airfields and highway strips. Wherever ROCAF aircraft are deployed, however, air-defense systems like the Skyguard would be essential to protecting these locations.

Even during peacetime, Taiwan faces a drone threat, especially over islands situated extremely close to the Chinese mainland. In 2022, multiple incursions led to the Taiwanese military announcing that it would shoot down uncrewed aerial vehicles that don’t respond to its warnings, a threat that it soon carried out . These moves came after Taiwanese authorities said they would deploy undisclosed domestically developed drone defense systems across its territory, and following a highly public encounter between a Chinese drone and two Taiwanese soldiers, as you can read about more here .

Imagery filmed from a Chinese drone, showing Taiwanese sentries throw rocks or other objects at the UAV:

At this point, it is also worth recalling other considerable efforts that Taiwan makes to ensure its military assets might survive a potential invasion from the Chinese mainland. In the past, we have looked at how Taiwanese tanks and other armored vehicles have been hidden in urban environments using some ingenious camouflage methods, including hiding them under junk and making them look like civilian construction equipment.

A Republic of China Army M113 armored personnel carrier concealed under a bridge. ROC Military News Agency

Meanwhile, whether draped over roads, tanks, artillery positions, or warships, anti-drone nets have become a defining visual feature of the drone age. Their adoption by the ROCAF to protect its Skyguard guns shows that even dedicated air-defense systems that are suited to down small drones are far from immune from attack by those threats.

Thanks to Taepodong for alerting us to this story.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The post Taiwan’s Skyguard Anti-Aircraft Guns Now Equipped With Anti-Drone Nets appeared first on TWZ .