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The House voted to pass a sweeping defence policy bill on Wednesday that authorises USD 900 billion in military programmes, including a pay raise for troops and an overhaul of how the Department of Defence buys weapons. The bill's passage comes at a time of increasing friction between the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump's administration over the management of the military. The annual National Defense Authorization Act typically gained bipartisan backing, and the White House has signalled "strong support" for the must-pass legislation, saying it is in line with Trump's national security agenda. Yet tucked into the over-3,000-page bill are several measures that push back against the Department of Defence, including a demand for more information on boat strikes in the Caribbean and support for allies in Europe, such as Ukraine. Overall, the sweeping bill calls for a 3.8 per cent pay raise for many military members as well as housing and facility improvements o
, Oct 11 The US military is moving forward with plans to build a dedicated facility in Idaho to train pilots from Qatar, an important US ally in the Middle East, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday. Hegseth, who made the announcement during a visit by Qatar's defence minister, said the facility to be built at the Mountain Home Air Force Base would host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase the lethality, interoperability. The arrangement is not unusual. Pentagon officials noted that similar facilities have been set up for other allies for decades, and the Idaho base already hosts a fighter squadron from Singapore. But the news drew a sharp rebuke from close Trump ally and right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who called the plan an abomination and accused the Qataris of being associated with Islamic terror organisations. No foreign country should have a military base on US soil. Especially Islamic countries, Loomer wrote in one
President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth plan to address hundreds of US military officials in person Tuesday after the Pentagon suddenly asked top commanders from around the world to convene at a base in Virginia without publicly revealing the reason. The gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico near Washington has fuelled intense speculation about the purpose and value of summoning such a large number of generals and admirals to one place, with many stationed in more than a dozen countries that include conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere. Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new. But experts say the scale of the gathering, the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it are particularly unusual. The notion that the secretary is going to talk to the generals and give them his vision for running the department and maybe also for strategy and organisation that's perfectly reasonable, said Mark ...
The United States Naval Academy in Maryland was put on lockdown Thursday and a building was cleared in response to reports of threats made to the military school, and one person was injured, officials said. The person injured was airlifted to a hospital and was in stable condition, Lt. Naweed Lemar, the spokesperson for the base that hosts the academy, said in a statement. Naval Support Activity Annapolis security and local law enforcement had responded to the reports of suspicious activity, Lemar said. Additional details about the threat and how the person was injured were not immediately available. Lemar had said earlier that the academy in Annapolis was on lockdown out of an abundance of caution. Police were seen near Bancroft Hall, which houses midshipmen in its more than 1,600 dorm rooms. It is considered the biggest single college dormitory in the world, according to the school's website.
In a pointed show of solidarity against US President Donald Trump, state and local leaders walked through one of Baltimore's most historically underserved neighbourhoods on Friday evening amid ongoing efforts to curb gun violence. Those efforts are working, Governor Wes Moore said. Homicides in Baltimore have reached historic lows with sustained declines starting 2023. He said the last thing Baltimore needs is the National Guard presence Trump has threatened. We do not need occupiers, Moore said to a crowd of law enforcement officers, anti-violence advocates, local clergy and other community leaders who gathered in northwest Baltimore's Park Heights neighbourhood. Moore wrote a letter to the president last month inviting him to visit Baltimore and see its recent success firsthand. Officials attribute the progress to their crime-fighting strategies, which include social services meant to address the root causes of violence. In an escalating feud over public safety, Trump responded
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force if necessary but refused to answer repeated questions during a hotly combative congressional hearing Thursday about his use of Signal chats to discuss military operations. Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly got into heated exchanges with Hegseth, with some of the toughest lines of questioning coming from military veterans as many demanded yes or no answers and he tried to avoid direct responses about his actions as Pentagon chief. In one back-and-forth, Hegseth did provide an eyebrow-raising answer. Rep Adam Smith asked whether the Pentagon has plans to take Greenland or Panama by force if necessary. Our job at the Defense Department is to have plans for any contingency, Hegseth said several times. It is not unusual for the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans for conflicts that have not arisen, but his handling of
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday reassured allies in the Indo-Pacific that they will not be left alone to face increasing military and economic pressures from China. He said Washington will bolster its defences overseas to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly developing threats by Beijing, particularly in its aggressive stance toward Taiwan. China has conducted numerous exercises to test what a blockade would look like of the self-governing island, which Beijing claims as its own and the US has pledged to defend. China's army "is rehearsing for the real deal", Hegseth said in a keynote speech at a security conference in Singapore. We are not going to sugarcoat it -- the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent. China has a stated goal of having its military be able to take Taiwan by force if necessary by 2027, a deadline that is seen by experts as more of an aspirational goal than a hard war deadline. But China has also developed sophisticated man-ma
NATO foreign ministers on Thursday debated an American demand to massively ramp up defence investment to five per cent of gross domestic product over the next seven years, as the US focuses on security challenges outside of Europe. At talks in Antalya, Turkiye, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that more investment and military equipment are needed to deal with the threat posed by Russia and terrorism, but also by China which has become the focus of US concern. When it comes to the core defence spending, we need to do much, much more, Rutte told reporters. He underlined that once the war in Ukraine is over, Russia could reconstitute its armed forces within 3-5 years. Secretary of State Marco Rubio underlined that the alliance is only as strong as its weakest link. He insisted that the US investment demand is about spending money on the capabilities that are needed for the threats of the 21st century. The debate on defence spending is heating up ahead of a summit of US Presiden