Fighters participating in the Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on the White House grounds later this month aren’t the only ones who need to make weight. Service members attending the event must also meet certain physical standards, according to an internal document reviewed and authenticated by Military Times. In the document, the Pentagon called on commanders to find volunteers to attend the June 14 matches, which are being held in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary — and President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.The administration set aside about 1,200 tickets for active-duty troops, said Dana white, CEO of the UFC. Celebrities and personal…
Author: Tommy Grant
From the Horn to the Sahel, a jihadist front is gaining ground across Africa, the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned in its annual risk analysis. The “Global Terrorism Threat Assessment 2026″ identifies terrorism on the continent as “the greatest uncertainty,” citing the rising capabilities of al-Qaida and Islamic State affiliates. “Unlike the Middle East’s terrorist organizations, most African terrorist groups are unquestionably ascendant,” the authors wrote, pointing to larger fighting forces, greater financial resources, and the groups’ ability to move through wide swaths of territory. Many are also capitalizing on the proliferation of unmanned aerial systems and artificial…
House lawmakers want to stop any reductions in service or closures of military hospitals or clinics by the Department of Defense, according to draft legislation under consideration this week in the Armed Services Committee.The panel’s personnel subcommittee has proposed limiting the DoD’s plans to restructure the military health system and called for reversing any changes the department has made to 41 military treatment facilities. The subcommittee’s draft of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization bill also would improve congressional oversight of military medical reforms by requiring the Defense Health Agency to give quarterly updates to Congress of its plans to…
The U.S. military’s current cyber forces are “insufficient” to leverage the increase of cyber threats facing the nation, propelling the push by some policymakers to create an independent cyber branch, according to a report completed by two independent think tanks.If lawmakers decided to move forward with the development of a U.S. Cyber Force, there would be challenges to its implementation because current responsibilities are shared between the various services and U.S. Cyber Command, per the Wednesday report written by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Many observers contend that the challenge of…
Defense officials need to review their special needs health care coverage to make sure it meets the needs of military families, according to a new report from government auditors.The Government Accountability Office looked at the Tricare Extended Care Health Option, known as ECHO, and its ECHO home health care benefit, known as EHHC. Military families may face challenges getting access to these services, which help individuals keep, learn or improve skills and functioning for daily living; provide durable medical equipment and incontinence supplies; and offer caregiver support, such as respite care. Families with special needs may have difficulty getting access…
The U.S. Navy is in the process of expanding the amount of grab-and-go food stations at shore-based installations and implementing changes that will make those options accessible all day.Vice Adm. Scott Gray, commander of Navy Installations Command, announced the development during a media roundtable Wednesday, in which he discussed the service’s recently announced food service transformation initiative.“We acknowledge that our sailors are busy,” Gray said in the roundtable. “This grab-and-go is an effort to ensure that no matter what your schedule looks like during the day, you have the opportunity not only to ensure that you get something to eat…
This article was originally published by Vincent Cook at The Mises Institute. The socialists who have been taking over the Democratic Party lately have a problem—the state and local jurisdictions where they are able to seize power still have to compete with rival jurisdictions that are still relatively friendly to private property and capitalist businesses. The principal targets of egalitarian fury, namely possessors of great wealth, are strongly incentivized to escape from dystopian hell-holes created by socialists to saner locales. Even those who aren’t so clearly targeted as objects of envy suffer from the effects of economic and social decline…
BRUSSELS — The U.S. expects European NATO allies and Canada to swiftly increase the number of manned and unmanned aircraft and ships they contribute to the alliance’s defense plans as Washington steps back in these areas, a top U.S. general said on Wednesday.The statement by U.S. Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s top commander and the head of U.S. forces in Europe, followed a decision by the Trump administration to shrink the pool of U.S. military capabilities available to NATO in a crisis.U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO and told its European members they will have to take…
People in Kenya are protesting the United States’ plan to create a quarantine facility in the country for Americans who may be infected with the Ebola virus. Kenya’s high court effectively delayed the Trump administration’s plan to send American citizens exposed to the Ebola virus to a quarantine unit at Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya. A judge at the court, the Honorable Lady Justice Patricia Nyaundi, said in a ruling that the next proceedings in the case would not take place until June 23rd, at which point a date for a full hearing would be set, according to a…
A measure included in the House’s version of the fiscal 2027 defense bill calls for more integration between U.S. and Israeli defense technology sectors — an idea that is receiving pushback before the bill goes up for debate Thursday. The United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, part of the House’s edition of the National Defense Authorization Act released last week, would “expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation,” according to the bill. The measure was introduced by Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., the chairman and ranking Democrat on the House…