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The White House has formally requested USD 87.6 billion mostly to replenish the Pentagon after the US war against Iran, submitting the request to Congress at a politically difficult time as a majority of lawmakers have objected to any further military action. The Office of Management and Budget sent the supplemental spending request Wednesday. It arrived just hours after President Donald Trump assailed Republican senators during a private lunch -- engaging in a shouting match with one -- over their votes to approve a war powers resolution that would halt further hostilities. The request is mostly for Operation Epic Fury, but it also includes a range of other items including aid to American farmers, help for the Ebola crisis in Africa and other needs closer to home, including restoration projects in Washington, D.C. "I urge the Congress to take action on these important and urgent requests as soon as possible," said OMB Director Russ Vought in a letter to House Speaker Mike ...
The Pentagon has told senators it needs roughly USD 80 billion, mostly to cover the cost of the US war against Iran, adding to what is already a sizable military spending boost being sought by President Donald Trump. The White House Office of Management and Budget has yet to make a formal request to Congress. But Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill, including Monday evening. A top deputy defence secretary told senators about the Iran funding request last week, according to two people familiar with the situation but not authorised to discuss it publicly. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the developments. Push for Pentagon money faces skeptical lawmakers --------------------------------------------------------- The push for billions of dollars in Iran war funding comes at a fraught political moment. Lawmakers are skeptical of the deal Trump struck with Iran to bring an end to the war, and wary of next steps. The White House has reques
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that America's allies in Europe must take the lead on the defence of their own continent and help turn NATO into "a read hard-line military alliance." At a meeting of NATO defence ministers, Hegseth called for a reboot of the 32-nation organisation to turn it into a "NATO 3.0" capable of deterring any threat. His remarks came a few weeks after the United States told its allies that it would no longer supply certain warships and aircraft if one of them comes under attack. European allies and Canada are trying to work out how to plug the gaps. "NATO 3.0 is post-Cold War recognition that (NATO) needs to go back to a real hard-line military alliance that has real military capabilities capable of deterring right here on the continent and taking the lead for the conventional defence of Europe," Hegseth said. As part of that, he told reporters, the United States would be investing $1.5 trillion in its own defence in 2027, sending "a message
The Department of Defense has announced that a significant reduction in the number of religious affiliations it officially recognises. The new list of 31 is down from more than 200 previously recognised traditions that troops could choose from. The list no longer includes atheists, Unitarian Universalists, pagans and Wiccans. "This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of officially approved' religions," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. "Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups." Parnell added the department values the free exercise of religion and chaplains facilitate service members' "ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all." The list creates bro
In another of a series of moves restricting media access at the Pentagon, the Defense Department has declared that its press office is now a classified space inaccessible to journalists. On X, acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the move, saying there was "nothing controversial" about it and that it came because speechwriters, who use classified material, were now occupying the space. "The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility," Valdez wrote. "These speechwriters routinely handle classified material as a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. There's nothing controversial about that." The latest move, first reported by The Washington Post, took place against a backdrop of escalating tensions between the U.S. media and the second Trump administration, which has played out both in the public ar
The New York Times sued the Defence Department on Monday for the second time in five months, arguing that a requirement that journalists be escorted while on Pentagon grounds violates the First Amendment. The escort policy is "an unconstitutional attempt by the Pentagon to prevent independent reporting on military affairs," a Times spokesman, Charlie Stadtlander, said in an email to The Associated Press. "As we have said before: Americans deserve visibility into how their government is being run, and the actions the military is taking in their name and with their tax dollars." On X, Defence Department spokesperson Sean Parnell called the Times' latest lawsuit "nothing more than an attempt to remove the barriers to them getting their hands on classified information." Continuing tension between the administration and the media ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times lawsuit is another salvo in what has become an escalating tension between the U
The Pentagon has begun releasing new files on UFOs, saying members of the public can draw their own conclusions on "unidentified anomalous phenomena." In addition to the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI. The Pentagon said Friday in a post on X that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Donald Trump "is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files." The Pentagon says additional documents will be released on a rolling basis.
A US federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Defence Department is violating his earlier order to restore access to the Pentagon for reporters. US District Judge Paul Friedman sided with The New York Times earlier this month in deciding that the Pentagon's new credential policy violated journalists' constitutional rights to free speech and due process. He sided again with the Times in saying that the Pentagon had tried to evade his ruling by putting in new rules that expel all reporters from the building unless guided by escorts. "The department simply cannot reinstate an unlawful policy under the guise of taking new action and expect the court to look the other way," Friedman wrote. Friedman had ordered Pentagon officials to reinstate the press credentials of seven Times reporters and stressed that his decision applies to "all regulated parties". The Pentagon building serves as the headquarters for US military operations.