House speaker called Gen Mark Milley, chairman of joint chiefs of staff, ‘to discuss available precautions’
Nancy Pelosi spoke to the head of the US military on Friday, seeking assurance that Donald Trump will not be able to launch a nuclear strike during his last days in office.
Related: Effort to impeach Trump again gathers pace after 'attempted coup' at Capitol
Continue reading...Unprecedented letter calls on voted-out president to accept Joe Biden’s election victory amid growing fears over his behaviour
All 10 former US defence secretaries still living, including two who worked for Donald Trump, have called for the president and his supporters to accept he lost the election and warned against attempts to involve the military in his increasingly desperate efforts to overturn the result.
In an unprecedented joint letter published in the Washington Post, the defence secretaries addressed the worst fears of what could happen in 17 days of Trump’s administration remaining before Joe Biden’s inauguration: an attempt by Trump to foment a crises with the aim of triggering a military intervention in his last-ditch struggle to hold on power.
Continue reading...Vice-president’s announcement marks first birthday of signature Trump program but social media mockery follows
Members of the new US space force will be known as “guardians”, Vice-President Mike Pence announced on Friday, at a ceremony to mark the first birthday of the newest branch of the US armed forces, one of Donald Trump’s signature policy initiatives.
Related: Trump unveils logo for Starfleet ... er, Space Force ... and Trekkers take to Twitter
Continue reading...Suspensions and demand for changes prompted by widespread pattern of violence, including murder and sexual assault
The US Army has fired or suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at its Fort Hood, Texas, base and ordered policy changes to address chronic failures of leadership that contributed to a widespread pattern of violence, including murder, sexual assault and harassment.
In a sweeping condemnation of Fort Hood’s command hierarchy, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy fired three top commanders and suspended two others pending a further investigation.
Continue reading...Austin, who would need a congressional waiver due to his recent military service, would be the Pentagon’s first Black leader
Joe Biden will nominate Lloyd Austin, a retired four-star army general, to be secretary of defense, according to four people familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon.
Biden selected Austin over the longtime frontrunner for the position, Michele Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official and Biden supporter who would have been the first woman to serve as defense secretary. Biden also had considered Jeh Johnson, a former Pentagon general counsel and former secretary of homeland security.
Continue reading...Nearly all of 700 troops will leave over next few months follow president’s latest order with short notice
The US will pull out nearly all its estimated 700 troops in Somalia over the next few months, the latest in a series of short-notice withdrawals ordered by Donald Trump in his last few weeks in power.
A Pentagon statement on Friday said that some of the troops would be repositioned in neighbouring countries while others – it did not say how many – would leave the region altogether.
Continue reading...Study says poor equipment could be a reason for higher British fatality rate in Iraq and Afghanistan
British soldiers were 12% more likely to have been killed than their American counterparts during the “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study of casualty figures.
The research – intended as a lessons learned exercise – also concludes that UK forces were 26% more likely to have been killed by improvised explosives, validating longstanding complaints about the poorly armoured Snatch Land Rover.
Continue reading...Unnamed American died alongside four Somali officers when extremists detonated a car bomb
A CIA officer died during a raid in Somalia last month targeting a key extremist thought to be responsible for an attack that killed an American soldier in Kenya last year, local intelligence officials have told the Guardian.
The officer was deployed alongside Somali and US special forces during the operation at Gendershe, a coastal village about 30 miles south-west of Mogadishu, and died when fighters from the al-Shabaab extremist movement detonated a car bomb minutes after the raid began on 6 November, the official said.
Continue reading...Russia says Admiral Vinogradov threatened the USS John S McCain in the Pacific for ‘operating illegally’
A Russian warship has allegedly threatened to ram a US destroyer during a rare naval standoff between the two countries in the waters off Russia’s Pacific coast.
Russia said on Tuesday that the Admiral Vinogradov, a destroyer, threatened the USS John S McCain, a US navy guided-missile destroyer, for “operating illegally” in its territorial waters in the Sea of Japan.
Continue reading...The outgoing president reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran as administration eyes last chance to achieve objectives
Fears that Donald Trump might try to wreak havoc on the world stage in his final, desperate, weeks in office appear to have been well-founded, after he reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran.
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Some of Donald Trump’s advisers now say he will likely never concede that he lost the presidential race, according to NBC News.
NBC reports:
‘Do not expect him to concede,’ one top aide said. More likely, the aide said, ‘he’ll say something like, ‘We can’t trust the results, but I’m not contesting them.’’
Another adviser said that after the legal battles and recounts, the closest the president is likely to get to a concession is, ‘he’ll acknowledge the results and that we’ll never know how accurate they are.’
Joe Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania has now surpassed 50,000, after the latest batch of ballots from Allegheny county were posted.
As of this afternoon, Biden leads Donald Trump in Pennsylvania by 50,483, or 0.7% of the total vote in the state.
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Another adviser to Donald Trump has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus, amid an apparent outbreak among the president’s team.
According to Bloomberg News, David Bossie has now tested positive for the virus.
BREAKING: Trump outside adviser David Bossie tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, sources tell me.
Susan Collins has become one of the few Republican lawmakers to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory in the presidential election.
“First, I would offer my congratulations to President-elect Biden on his apparent victory – he loves this country, and I wish him every success. Presidential transitions are important, and the President-elect and the Vice-President-elect should be given every opportunity to ensure that they are ready to govern on January 20th,” Collins said in a new statement.
My statement on the 2020 Presidential election results: pic.twitter.com/8NY1WpaJpC
Continue reading...Operation believed to have killed several captors of Philip Walton, 27, taken captive on Tuesday in Niger
US special forces rescued an American citizen in an operation on Saturday in northern Nigeria that is believed to have killed several of his captors, US officials said.
Forces including US navy Seals rescued Philip Walton, 27, who was abducted on Tuesday from his home in neighboring southern Niger, two US officials said on condition of anonymity, adding that no US troops were hurt. A diplomatic source in Niger said Walton was now at the US ambassador’s residence in Niamey.
Continue reading...Military chiefs keen to stay out of the way – a decisive result lowers risk of prolonged crisis and the protests it could generate
Federal laws and longstanding custom generally leave the US military out of the election process.
Continue reading...Two dead on board T-6B Texan II aircraft with a house and cars on fire in ‘heavily populated’ area outside Foley, Alabama
A US navy training plane that took off from Florida crashed on Friday in an Alabama residential neighbourhood near the Gulf Coast, killing both crew on board, authorities said.
Zach Harrell, a naval air forces spokesperson, said both people in the T-6B Texan II training plane died. No injuries were reported on the ground.
Continue reading...Tweet calling for troops’ return by Christmas puts peace negotiations in jeopardy and was greeted enthusiastically by the Taliban
Donald Trump has announced on Twitter that he wants to bring all US troops home from Afghanistan by Christmas – a plan that came as a surprise to administration officials and which puts complicated peace negotiations in jeopardy.
Multiple officials told the Associated Press they had not been informed of any such deadline and military experts said it would be impossible to withdraw all 5,000 US troops in Afghanistan and dismantle the US military headquarters by the end of the year.
Continue reading...The top general in the US military, Mark Milley, and several other members of the US joint chiefs of staff who advise Donald Trump entered quarantine on Tuesday, as the president, infected with the coronavirus himself, continued to recuperate at the White House.
While the number of White House staff and aides who have tested positive is unknown, given the administration’s cloak of secrecy around the outbreak, total cases appeared to number in the dozens, making the White House one of the hottest active zones for virus circulation in the entire US.
Continue reading...‘Ninja bomb’, which uses 100lb of dense material and six attached blades, has been deployed in targeted assassinations
The US military is making increasing use in Syria of a gruesome and secretive non-explosive drone missile that deploys flying blades to kill its targets.
Described as less likely to kill non-combatants, the so-called ninja bomb – whose development was first disclosed last year – has been used a number of times in the last year to kill militants in Syria, including those linked to aal-Qaida, most recently earlier this month.
Continue reading...Defence secretary promises future fleet including unmanned ships that will focus on Indo-Pacific region
The US secretary of defence, Mark Esper, has announced an ambitious plan to expand the US Navy with a range of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarines and aircraft to confront the growing maritime challenge from China.
The Pentagon chief said a sweeping review of US naval power dubbed “Future Forward” had laid out a “game-changer” plan that would expand the US sea fleet to more than 355 ships, from the current 293.
Continue reading...Study focuses on post-9/11 wars in which US initiated combat or took part in military operations
Conflicts with US military involvement have displaced at least 37 million people since the beginning of the “war on terror” nearly two decades ago, a report has estimated.
The invasion of Iraq and the decades of instability that have followed in the country have uprooted at least 9.2 million so far, the costliest of the eight US military operations that were included in the report by Brown University’s Costs of War Project.
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