Author: Jeffrey Gill

Washington has told Denmark and the Netherlands that they will be permitted to hand over their F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine when the country’s pilots are trained to operate them, the US State Department said Friday. Both Denmark and the Netherlands, which are leading the program to train Ukraine’s pilots on the F-16, have been given “formal assurances” for a jet transfer, a State Department spokesman said. “This way, Ukraine can take full advantage of its new capabilities as soon as the first set of pilots complete their training,” the spokesman said. The United States keeps tight restrictions on the…

United States officials will hold rare direct talks with representatives of the Afghan Taliban in Doha to discuss economic issues, security, and women’s rights, the U.S. State Department said. Thomas West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, and Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights will meet a Taliban delegation led by the militant group’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in a two-day meeting that is expected to begin on July 30. “Priority issues will include humanitarian support for the people of Afghanistan, economic stabilization, fair and dignified treatment of all Afghans, including…

The case for no US recession is building, but some on Wall Street are cautioning against getting overconfident. A plethora of softening data in recent weeks has pointed to a strong yet cooling economy. That has raised hopes among investors that the United States could avoid a recession despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive pace of interest rate hikes. Bank of America economists said in a recent note that they expect the economy to keep expanding over coming quarters, with a gradual rise in unemployment. “Our revisions imply we no longer expect a mild recession and, instead, think the economy may be able to skirt…

FBI officials improperly searched a foreign intelligence database for information on a U.S. Senator, a state senator and a state judge, according to an unsealed court opinion released Friday. The improper queries of the surveillance collection tool, which allegedly occurred last year — could further roil an ongoing push by the Biden Administration to have the Section 702 program reauthorized before it is set to expire by the end of this year. The disclosures come even as the FBI said it has reported significant improvements in oversight to help curb further abuse of what intelligence officials argue is an essential…

A little-publicized clause in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has companies scrambling to recycle electric vehicle batteries in North America, putting the region at the forefront of a global race to undermine China’s dominance of the field. The IRA includes a clause that automatically qualifies EV battery materials recycled in the U.S. as American-made for subsidies, regardless of their origin. That is important because it qualifies automakers using U.S.-recycled battery materials for EV production incentives. Reuters interviewed more than a dozen industry officials and experts who say that is kicking off a U.S. factory building boom, encouraging automakers to research…

In a move signifying deepening cooperation within the Australia – United Kingdom – United States (AUKUS) alliance, defense industry titans Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and Babcock International Group have unveiled plans for a strategic partnership. The collaboration aims to boost their nuclear decommissioning and construction capabilities across the United States and the United Kingdom, marking a critical step in the global defense landscape. AUKUS was established in 2021 as a trilateral security pact, strengthening allied deterrence and defense capabilities in the volatile Indo-Pacific region. The key pillars of AUKUS are the development of conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy and the collaboration on…

A Joint Vision Statement covering the intent to work collaboratively on E-7 Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (SEW&C) capability development has been signed by the chiefs of the RAAF, RAF and US Air Force. The agreement, known as the Wedgetail Trilateral Joint Vision Statement, was signed on 14 July at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at RAF Fairford in the UK and is a commitment by the three services to co-operate on Wedgetail development, evaluation and testing, interoperability, sustainment, operations training and safety. The RAAF has led development of the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail platform since it first entered…

Foreign-policy victories in the Biden administration have been a dwindling commodity in a dwindling community. His State Department struggles to accomplish the most basic of functions, like evacuating civilians from Afghanistan and Sudan. Beijing’s surveillance balloons over the Midwest and spy bases in Cuba are rewarded with a parade of Biden cabinet officials groveling for bilateral dialogues with Xi Jinping, who delights in the optics of an America humbled before him. Oil-rich Gulf States, fatigued by moralistic lectures on climate change and cultural finger wagging, are swiveling to China and Russia. And our diplomats often behave in strange ways, funding oddities such as drag-queen story hours in Ecuador while China…

Anthony Albanese probably didn’t think there was much chance of Donald Trump returning to power when he openly criticised the then US president during his final days in the White House. Albanese, still opposition leader at the time, said Trump had “encouraged” the January 6 insurrection in 2021. He labelled it a direct assault on “the rule of law and democracy”. The Labor leader also suggested Trump’s foreign policy approach “saw the first steps in a retreat by the US from its historical role as leader of the post-war international order”. These comments were made from a position of relative diplomatic…

President Joe Biden could soon face a politically charged decision about whether to release billions of dollars in funds to Iran to secure the release of Americans imprisoned by the regime. The U.S. and Iran have renewed negotiations on a possible prisoner exchange and the indirect talks are showing signs of progress, said two Western officials and three sources with knowledge of the discussions. The possible formula for the deal would include the release of prisoners in each country and freeing up to $7 billion from South Korean banks that is currently blocked by U.S. sanctions, the sources said. NBC…