Disclaimer

Beta service

BLUF is in public beta. Features, coverage and accuracy are still being improved, and the service may change, be interrupted or be unavailable without notice. It is provided free of charge, "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind.

Automated summaries

Sourcing is automated, and headlines, BLUF summaries, "why it matters", "what happens next", evidence labels and the CUB audio brief are written automatically by the BLUF engine, an automated machine-learning system, from the linked reporting and official sources. Our team monitors the briefs and corrects problems we find, but stories are published automatically without a person reviewing each one first. Top stories marked “Reviewed” were checked by our team before they were placed at the top of the site or the CUB; if the engine updates a story after that, it is marked “Reviewed · updated since.” The engine can misread sources, leave out context, merge separate events or state things incorrectly. Evidence labels (Confirmed, Corroborated, Reported, Disputed) describe what the linked sources say at the time — not independent verification by BLUF. Always check important details in the original reporting before acting on them.

Not professional advice

Nothing on BLUF is medical, legal, financial, investment, security or other professional advice. Medical coverage is informational only — research findings are often preliminary; talk to a qualified clinician about your health. Market and economic coverage is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold anything.

Emergencies and severe weather

BLUF is not an emergency alert service and may be delayed or incomplete. For weather, hazard and public-safety warnings, follow the National Weather Service, local officials and emergency alerts on your phone. In an emergency, call 911.

Sources and third-party content

BLUF links to and briefly quotes headlines from independent news outlets, government agencies and journals. That content belongs to its publishers, who are responsible for it. BLUF is not affiliated with, endorsed by or speaking for any outlet it links to. Inclusion of a source is not an endorsement of it, and BLUF does not rate outlets or articles politically. File photos come from Wikimedia Commons under public-domain or open licenses and are credited on each story; they show a related subject, not necessarily the event itself.

Not a government product

BLUF and its Commander's Update Brief (CUB) are built from public, open-source reporting. They are independent and are not affiliated with, endorsed by or produced for the U.S. government, the Department of Defense or any military service, and contain no official or classified information.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, BLUF and its operators are not liable for any loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, the service or its content. You use BLUF at your own risk.

Corrections and feedback

Found an error, a broken link or a story that's been merged wrongly? Please tell us — every report is read and helps improve BLUF.

Feedback you send is stored with the page you were on. If you add an email address it is used only to reply to you. See How BLUF works for our editorial standards.