Pentagon

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.

Nvidia Corp., Microsoft Corp., Reflection AI Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have all newly struck agreements with the US Defence Department 'for lawful operational use' of its AI systems

The Department of War assessment suggests Iran has been denied close to $5 billion in oil earnings due to disruptions linked to US enforcement operations in the region

The Pentagon labeled the AI start-up, which is widely used across the Department of Defense, a supply-chain risk earlier this year, barring its use by the Pentagon and its contractors

During his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since the war began, the defence secretary lashed out at lawmakers in both parties who have questioned the conflict

Democratic lawmakers cast the conflict as a costly war of choice that President Donald Trump blundered into without a clear plan

Classified networks are used to handle a wide range of sensitive work, including mission planning and weapons targeting

The policy options are detailed in a note expressing frustration at some allies' perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the United States access, basing and overflight rights for the Iran war

A White House official said Trump and Hegseth agreed new leadership was needed over the Navy

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.

Hegseth said the United States had met its key military objectives, including targeting Iran's missile capabilities, naval forces, and defence infrastructure

Trump administration has deployed US Marines to the West Asia as the war in Iran stretches into its fifth week, and also has been planning to send thousands of soldiers from the US Army's 82nd Airbase

Colby's visit to India concluded on Thursday

A federal judge has ruled in favour of artificial intelligence company Anthropic in temporarily blocking the Pentagon from labelling the company as a supply chain risk. US District Judge Rita Lin on Thursday said she was also blocking President Donald Trump's directive ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic. Lin's ruling followed a 90-minute hearing in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday at which Lin questioned why the Trump administration took the extraordinary step of denouncing Anthropic as a supply chain risk after negotiations over a defence contract went sour over the company's attempt to prevent its AI technology from being deployed in fully autonomous weapons or surveillance of Americans. Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, had asked Lin to issue an emergency order to remove a stigma that the company alleges was unjustifiably applied as part of an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" that provoked the San Francisco-based company to sue the Trump ...

The weapons that could be redirected include air defense interceptor missiles purchased through a NATO initiative launched last year, under which partner countries buy US arms for Kyiv

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic is asking a federal judge on Tuesday to temporarily halt the Pentagon's "unprecedented and stigmatising" designation of the company as a supply chain risk. A hearing scheduled for Tuesday in a California federal court marks a critical step in the feud between Anthropic and the Trump administration over how the company's AI technology could be used in war. Anthropic sued earlier this month to stop the Trump administration from enforcing what the company calls an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology. The company is asking US District Judge Rita Lin for an emergency order that would temporarily reverse the Pentagon's decision to designate the AI company a "supply chain risk". Anthropic also seeks to undo President Donald Trump's order directing all federal employees, not just those in the military, to stop using its AI chatbot Claude. Lin is presiding over the case in federal

The court ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the New York Times, which accused the administration of free speech violations