NEWS

Russia’s Lukoil has until December 13 to negotiate the sale of most of its international assets following U. S. sanctions and the rejection of Swiss buyer Gunvor. Lukoil’s international assets, which include oil and gas ventures, refining, and over 2,000 gas stations across various regions, are valued at around $22 billion, and any deals must be approved by the U. S. Treasury.

Potential buyers for Lukoil’s assets include major U. S. oil companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the Abu Dhabi International Holding Company, Austrian investor Bernd Bergmair, Hungary’s MOL, and U. S. private equity firm Carlyle.

Lukoil’s significant upstream operations in the Middle East include a 75% stake in Iraq’s West Qurna 2 oilfield and a 60% stake in Iraq’s Block 10 development. In Egypt, the company holds stakes in various oilfields alongside local partners. In the UAE, Lukoil has a 10% stake in the Ghasha gas development. In Central Asia, Lukoil owns portions of important oil and gas projects in Kazakhstan and operates fields in Uzbekistan.

In Africa and Latin America, Lukoil holds interests in several offshore oil blocks in Ghana, Congo, Nigeria, and Mexico.

Lukoil also possesses refining assets, including the Neftohim Burgas refinery in Bulgaria, which is the largest in the Balkans. The Bulgarian government has made moves to potentially seize and sell these assets. The U. S. Treasury has allowed some transactions involving Lukoil’s Bulgarian refinery until April 29, 2026. In Romania, Lukoil owns the Petrotel refinery and has about 300 gas stations, with companies reportedly interested in purchasing these assets.

For fuel retail, the U. S. Treasury extended the deadline for transactions involving Lukoil’s gas stations outside Russia to April 29, 2026. Despite this, Lukoil’s Finnish subsidiary Teboil has filed for restructuring and anticipates selling its petrol stations. The Romanian government is also moving to take control of Lukoil’s assets in the country. Lukoil operates around 200 gas stations in the U. S.

U. S. sanctions are dismantling Lukoil’s trading arm, Litasco, causing significant layoffs in its offices worldwide.

With information from Reuters

Follow the build-up, analysis and live text commentary as Inter host Liverpool for league-phase game at the San Siro.

Egypt international Mohamed Salah is attracting interest from the Saudi Pro League amid doubt about Liverpool future.

Saudi Arabia says it will do “whatever it can” to recruit unsettled Liverpool star Mohamed Salah during the winter transfer window, a source at the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has revealed.

“We follow Salah’s position thoroughly and believe there can be a move either by loan or buying his contract,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday, referring to the standoff between the Egyptian and Liverpool.

“There is still no direct negotiations or talks with the club at the moment but there will be a move at the right moment.”

The PIF source said the wealthy Gulf monarchy wanted to sign the Egyptian winger in January, during the next transfer window, to join stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia.

PIF holds a 75 percent share in Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ahli and Al-Ittihad, but the source said it was not alone in wanting the Arab world’s biggest football star.

“There is a competition inside the Saudi league who will bring Salah,” the source said, adding that a club affiliated with Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil and gas company was also interested.

“Aramco’s Al Qadsiah has shown an interest, too. So it’s not only the PIF-affiliated clubs.”

Ronaldo plays for Al-Nassr, Salah’s former Liverpool teammate, Darwin Nunez, is at Al-Hillal, another former Premier League player of the season, N’Golo Kante, is at Al-Ittihad, but Salah is the biggest football star from an Arab country.

Salah said, after he was an unused substitute in the 3-3 draw with Leeds on Sunday, that he felt like he had been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and no longer had a relationship with manager Arne Slot.

The 33-year-old Egypt forward was then left out of Liverpool’s squad for their Champions League tie at Inter Milan on Tuesday.

Salah has played a key role in Liverpool’s two Premier League titles and one Champions League triumph during his iconic spell on Merseyside. He signed a contract extension in April as he led Liverpool to the title.

Salah is set to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations after next weekend’s home match against Brighton in the Premier League.

He hinted that the Brighton game could be his last with the Reds before leaving during the winter transfer window.

In 2024-25, Salah scored 29 goals and provided 18 assists last season, but he has been a shadow of his former self during Liverpool’s struggles this season — the title-holders are 10th in the table — with just four goals in 13 top-flight appearances.

“All players have their ups and downs. Salah is just 33 and has a lot to do here,” said the PIF source.

“Salah is a beloved footballer around the globe and will have a massive impact on the Saudi League both on and off the pitch.”

Sébastien Lecornu faces a vital test to his premiership over the social security budget bill.

France’s National Assembly is set to vote on a major social security budget bill, in a critical test for the embattled Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who has pledged to deliver the country’s 2026 budget before the end of the year.

Debate on the legislation began on Tuesday afternoon. Lecornu governs without a majority in parliament, and has sought support from the Socialist Party by offering concessions, including suspending President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reform.

If lawmakers reject the plan, France could face another political crisis and a funding gap estimated at 30 billion euros ($35bn) for its healthcare, pension, and welfare systems.

“This social security budget bill is not perfect, but it is the best possible,” Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday, warning that failure to pass it would threaten social services, public finances, and the role of parliament.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on Monday that his party could back the bill after the government agreed to suspend Macron’s 2023 pension reform, which raised the retirement age, until after the 2027 presidential election.

But the far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed have both signalled their opposition, along with more moderate right-wing parties.

Even government allies, including the centrist Horizons party and conservative Republicans, could abstain or vote against the legislation. They argue that freezing the pension reform and raising taxes to win socialist support undermines earlier commitments.

France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, has been under pressure to reduce its large budget deficit. But political instability has slowed those efforts since Macron’s snap election last year resulted in a hung parliament.

Lecornu, a close Macron ally, said last week that rejection of the bill would nearly double the expected shortfall from 17 billion to 30 billion euros ($20bn-$35bn), threatening the entire 2026 public spending plan.

Without a deal before year-end, the government may be forced to introduce temporary funding measures.

The government aims to bring the deficit below 5 percent of GDP next year, but its narrow political options have led to repeated clashes over public spending.

Budget disputes have already toppled three governments since last year’s election, including that of former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who lost a no-confidence vote over his own budget bill.

Cameroon is experiencing a severe shortage of HIV/AIDS test kits following a 74 per cent reduction in financial assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The US agency funding in Cameroon has focused on health initiatives, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis; humanitarian aid, such as food security and support for refugees, and governance. However, significant cuts to this funding in 2025 have adversely affected many health projects, forcing Cameroon to revise its budget.

The United States is the largest bilateral donor of humanitarian assistance in Cameroon, contributing over $650 million annually since 2014. This funding has provided emergency food assistance to more than 1.4 million people, delivered essential relief supplies, and promoted maternal and child health initiatives.

The Adamawa region of the country is facing a significant shortage of HIV/AIDS test kits, making it one of the hardest-hit areas. According to the Regional Technical Group for the fight against HIV/AIDS, the situation in the region is critical. Approximately 5.5 per cent of individuals living with the virus are unaware of their serological status, and 4 per cent of those infected have not yet started antiretroviral treatment.

Among those receiving effective treatment, 9.4% have not yet achieved the goal of suppressing the viral load, a necessary condition for slowing down the transmission of the virus. Recently, a sensitisation march took place in Ngaoundere, the regional capital of Adamawa. During this event, the Regional Technical Group for the fight against HIV-AIDS urged the community to remain vigilant. They also encouraged individuals living with HIV to consistently adhere to their medication regimen.

Despite a 74 per cent reduction in USAID funding, Cameroon continues to provide antiretroviral treatment to AIDS patients.

At the HIV-AIDS unit of the Protestant Hospital of Ngaoundere, which serves approximately 2,000 patients, access to testing, the critical first step, is currently very limited. This restriction complicates the identification of new cases and hinders referrals to available treatment options.

In 2024, Cameroon was estimated to have 480,232 people living with HIV, with approximately 10,000 new cases recorded that year. Although HIV remains a significant public health challenge, there has been encouraging progress, including a 50% reduction in HIV prevalence among individuals aged 15 to 64 over the past 14 years. According to the most recent Demographic Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2018, the prevalence decreased from 5.4 per cent in 2004 to 4.3 per cent in 2011, and further down to 2.7 per cent in 2018.

Hamsatou Hadja, the permanent secretary of Cameroon’s National AIDS Control Committee, attributed the decline in HIV cases to a targeted strategy. “The fight against HIV is organised around a national vision aimed at eliminating AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. This involves reducing new infections, deaths, and the stigma associated with HIV,” Hamsatou said.

The country is on track to achieve the global “95-95-95” target, which aims for 95 per cent of people living with HIV to know their status, 95 per cent of those who know their status to be on treatment, and 95 per cent of those on antiretroviral therapy to have a suppressed viral load. According to the Committee, the rates in 2022 were 95.8 per cent, 92.3 per cent, and 89.2 per cent, respectively.

USAID funding cuts in 2025 have had widespread consequences across Africa, undermining health systems and humanitarian programs. Cameroon’s HIV/AIDS crisis is part of this broader trend, where reduced U.S. support has disrupted testing and treatment services.

The new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill released by Congress Sunday night calls for maintaining funding of arms purchases for Ukraine, though at a rate drastically less than in the past, and support, albeit with caveats, to European allies. The legislation, which still must be approved separately by both the House and Senate, comes days after the White House released its National Security Strategy that distances America from support for Ukraine and Europe. It was also released as U.S President Donald Trump is seeking to end the war and Ukraine continues to lose ground to Russia.

Given that under the Biden administration the U.S. provided nearly $70 billion in direct military aid to Ukraine, the NDAA’s allocations could even be considered something of a symbolic measure aimed at reassuring Kyiv that the U.S. has not completely abandoned it. It continues the Trump administration’s efforts to put the onus of support for Ukraine on European NATO members.

On Monday afternoon, a White House official told The War Zone that the administration supports the $900 billion policy measure, “and has been working diligently to formulate a plan that will bring a durable, enforceable peace to the war in Ukraine.” The Pentagon declined comment because it does not speak about pending legislation.

The bill calls for the Pentagon to include $400 million in both Fiscal Year 2026 and Fiscal Year 2027 for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). That’s a pool of money that Ukraine can use to obtain arms from U.S. defense contractors. In the past, the money has been used to allow Ukraine to purchase ammunition, air defense interceptors and other war materiel.

The NDAA’s call for continued USAI funding for Ukraine is a far cry from the nearly $33 billion allocated for the program under the Biden administration and will provide a very limited amount of weapons. 

Earlier this year, the White House announced the creation of the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), designed to sell weapons from U.S. stocks to NATO nations, which would then turn them over to Ukraine in $500 million tranches. In addition, the Trump administration has yet to authorize any arms for Ukraine under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which funds the replacement of arms shipped to allies directly from U.S. stocks. The Biden administration allocated more than $33 billion in PDA funding to Ukraine, but it does not appear likely Trump will use this authority to help Ukraine.

The NDAA also calls for the Pentagon to notify Congress within 48 hours if it plans to stop providing intelligence support to Ukraine, something that happened earlier this year. That notification would include justifying the cut-off, its planned duration and how it would impact “the ability of Ukraine to conduct effective military operations.”

The cutoff of U.S. intelligence “significantly impacts Ukrainian force protection of High Value Equipment’s shoot, move and scoot timelines, indications and warning of high-threat aircraft,” a retired high-ranking Ukrainian officer told us in March. “It significantly hampers the ability to target Russian forces and conduct long-range strikes against critical, mobile high-value targets.”

The lack of satellite imagery over Kursk also played a role in Russia’s ability to end Ukraine’s invasion of that region, the retired officer added.

However, as we noted in October, the United States agreed to provide Ukraine with targeting intelligence for its long-range strikes against Russian energy infrastructure. 

The bill also calls for “an accounting” of military aid to Ukraine provided by the U.S. and allies, including under the PURL and USAI programs.

Beyond Ukraine, the NDAA seeks to continue support for NATO allies. It calls on the Secretary of Defense in coordination with the commander of U.S. European Command to establish a $175 million ‘‘Baltic Security Initiative,” aimed at “deepening security cooperation with the military forces of the Baltic countries” (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).

(The current head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, has replaced the word Defense with War when it comes to the name of the department he oversees. The NDAA, meanwhile, continues to use the terms Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense).

The goal, according to the document, is to “achieve United States national security objectives by deterring aggression by the Russian Federation; and implementing NATO’s Strategic Concept, which seeks to strengthen the Alliance’s deterrence and defense posture by denying potential adversaries any possible opportunities for aggression.”

In addition, the initiative seeks to enhance regional planning and cooperation among the military forces of the Baltic nations, particularly when it comes to long-range precision fires, integrated air and missile defense, maritime domain awareness, stockpiling large caliber ammunition, command and control, intelligence gathering and improving “resilience to hybrid threats.”

However, while calling for support for the Baltics, the spending measure also says it is the “sense of Congress” that these three countries match the spending by the U.S. on this initiative.

The bill also seeks protection against signficant cuts to U.S. forces in Europe. It requires the Pentagon, EUCOM and other relevant agencies to obtain Congressional approval before cutting the U.S. troop levels in Europe to less than 76,000 troops. 

The move comes after the U.S. began pulling forces out of the continent, where there are currently about 85,000 troops stationed. Earlier this year, the U.S. Army sent about 800 troops from Romania back stateside.

While the spending measure signals an enduring, if somewhat symbolic commitment to Ukraine, it also states that NATO allies must pay for the cost of the U.S. troop presence on the continent and for the Secretary of War to “take into account a NATO ally’s progress toward meeting the alliance’s commitment to defense spending at 5% of GDP when making decisions related to military basing and training.”

Meanwhile, the 33-page White House National Security Strategy document released by the White House last week seeks a speedy end to the nearly four-year-old full on war and better relations with Russia. It says Europe is facing “civilizational erasure” and does not cast Russia as a threat to the U.S. 

“It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine,” the NSS states. The goal is to “stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia, as well as to enable the post-hostilities reconstruction of Ukraine to enable its survival as a viable state.”

European leaders have pushed back against the NSS while Russia seems to support it.

“The adjustments we’re seeing… are largely consistent with our vision,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. “We consider this a positive step.”

Amid all this, Trump’s diplomatic efforts to end the conflict continue to drag on with little progress while Russia continues to chew up Ukrainian territory.

The latest development is that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with European leaders in London “to discuss peace talks that have languished because of clashing views about how to end his country’s nearly four-year-old war with Russia,” The New York Times noted.

“Very important things for today are the unity between Europe and Ukraine, as well as the unity between Europe, Ukraine, and the United States,” Zelensky said Monday in a post on X. “Grateful to the leaders of Great Britain, Keir Starmer, France – Emmanuel Macron, and Germany – Friedrich Merz for organizing the meeting and the personal contribution of each on the path to establishing peace. We discussed in detail today our joint diplomatic work with the American side, agreed on a common position regarding the importance of security guarantees, reconstruction, and next steps. Separately, we talked about further defense support for Ukraine.”

Council on American-Islamic Relations has responded to the designation, calling it an ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘defamatory’ proclamation.

Florida’s governor has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a “foreign terrorist organisation”.

Ron DeSantis posted his executive order to list the United States-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group on social media on Monday.

The move follows a similar declaration by the Republican governor of Texas last month. CAIR has rejected the labelling by both states and mounted legal challenges.

In a separate post, DeSantis asserted that the Florida Legislature is “crafting legislation to stop the creep of Sharia law, and I hope that they codify these protections for Floridians against CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood in their legislation”.

The designation, which triggers heightened oversight by state law enforcement agencies and establishes financial and operational restrictions, was also declared against the Muslim Brotherhood.

DeSantis’s order asserted that CAIR was “founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood”, which, without offering evidence, the governor asserted was attempting to establish “a world-wide Islamic caliphate” and has direct links to Hamas.

The order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them with material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.

Neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood is designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government.

However, President Donald Trump has ordered the start of a process to label the branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan as “terrorist” organisations, citing their alleged support for Hamas.

CAIR’s Florida chapter told The Associated Press news agency that it plans to sue DeSantis in response to what it called an “unconstitutional” and “defamatory” proclamation.

The group accused the Florida governor of serving foreign interests and lashing out at CAIR due to its civil rights work.

“From the moment Ron DeSantis took office as Florida governor, he has prioritised serving the Israeli government over serving the people of Florida,” CAIR and its Florida chapter said in a statement.

“He hosted his very first official cabinet meeting in Israel. He diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds. He threatened to shut down every Florida college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, only to back off when CAIR sued him in federal court.”

Founded in 1994, CAIR has 25 chapters around the country. Last month, it asked a federal judge to strike down the designation declared against it by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

In a lawsuit, CAIR said Abbott’s move was “not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law”.

On Monday, it said DeSantis and Abbott are both “Israel First politicians” and asserted that their designations are intended to silence American Muslims critical of US support for Israeli war crimes.

The Muslim Brotherhood was established in Egypt nearly a century ago and has branches around the world. Its leaders say they seek to set up Islamic rule through elections and other non-violent means.

In the last year, Israel averaged nearly two daily attacks on Syria and grabbed more land in the occupied Golan Heights.

It has been one year since a lightning offensive by allied rebel groups led to the fall of Damascus, ending the al-Assad dynasty’s 54-year reign.

Yet, as the regime collapsed, Israel seized on the instability by significantly escalating its military campaign in Syria, targeting much of its neighbour’s military infrastructure, including major airports, air defence systems, fighter jets, and other strategic facilities.

Over the past year, Israel has launched more than 600 air, drone or artillery attacks across Syria, averaging nearly two attacks a day, according to a tally by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED).

The map below shows the ACLED-recorded Israeli attacks between December 8, 2024 and November 28, 2025.

The bulk of the Israeli attacks have been concentrated in the southern Syrian governorates of Quneitra, Deraa, and Damascus, which account for nearly 80 percent of all recorded Israeli attacks.

• Quneitra, adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, was attacked at least 232 times.
• Deraa was the second most targeted governorate, with 167 recorded attacks focusing on former regime military sites and suspected arms convoys.
• Damascus governorate, which hosts key military highways and logistics hubs, was attacked at least 77 times. Damascus city, the capital, was attacked at least 20 times.

Why is Israel attacking Syria?

While Israel’s air attacks have escalated this past year, it has been attacking Syria for years, justifying its actions by claiming to eliminate Iranian military installations.

Since the fall of the al-Assad government, Israel claims it is trying to prevent weapons from landing in the hands of “extremists” – a term it has applied to a rotating list of actors, most recently including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the primary Syrian opposition group that led the operation to overthrow al-Assad.

Just four days after the fall of al-Assad, Israel announced it had achieved total air superiority by destroying more than 80 percent of Syria’s air defence systems, in order to prevent the new Syrian state from posing any military threat.

Since taking power following the overthrow of al-Assad, President Ahmed al-Sharaa has consistently stated that his government seeks no conflict with Israel and will not permit Syria to be used by foreign actors to launch attacks.

Israel grabs more Syrian land

In the days following the fall of al-Assad, Israeli troops crossed into the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967, violating the 1974 UN-brokered ceasefire agreement with Syria.

The Israeli military has established several military outposts, including at Jabal al-Sheikh, in nearby villages, and within other areas of the United Nations-monitored demilitarised zone, where it has carried out frequent air raids and ground incursions.

Israel’s invasion of Syrian land has drawn widespread international criticism. The UN, along with several Arab nations, condemned Israel’s actions as breaches of international law and violations of Syria’s sovereignty.

Despite these condemnations, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in February that Israeli forces would remain in the area indefinitely to “protect Israeli citizens” and “prevent hostile entities from gaining a foothold” near the border.

To visualise the scale, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights spans 1,200sq km (463sq miles), an area roughly the size of New York City or Greater Manchester. The UN buffer zone covers another 235sq km (91sq miles), comparable to the size of the city of Baltimore. Additionally, Israel has seized an estimated 420sq km (162sq miles) of Syrian land beyond the buffer zone, a territory roughly the size of Denver.

The slider below details the areas Israel has occupied over the past year.

Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington reports from Indonesia’s Aceh Tamiang, one of the areas worst hit by the deadly floods. Survivors there are now threatened by disease and starvation after entire villages were wiped out, leaving people with nothing.

Congress has taken a new step toward blocking the Pentagon from axing the acquisition of new E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft. The latest draft of the annual defense policy bill also includes language that would compel the U.S. Air Force to keep all 16 of its remaining E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) jets in service until a sufficient number of Wedgetails are delivered or other conditions are met. Earlier this year, the Pentagon had laid out a plan to purchase more of the Navy’s E-2D Hawkeyes instead of E-7s to fill interim capability gaps left by the retirement of the E-3 until the Air Force can push most, if not all, airborne target warning sensor layer tasks into space.

The House Armed Services Committee released a new draft of the defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2026 Fiscal Year late yesterday. The draft NDAA is described as a “compromise” bill that follows significant negotiations between the House and the Senate to bring their respective versions of the legislation into alignment.

“None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2026 for the Department of Defense may be obligated or expended— (1) to terminate the mid-tier acquisition rapid prototype contract for the E-7A aircraft; or (2) to terminate the operations of, or to prepare to terminate the operations of, a production line for the E-7A aircraft,” according to one provision within the draft legislation.

The draft NDAA also includes a separate provision that says “none of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2026 for the Air Force may be obligated or expended to retire, prepare to retire, or place in storage or in backup aircraft inventory any E-3 aircraft if such actions would reduce the total aircraft inventory for such aircraft below 16.”

As noted, the Air Force only has 16 E-3s still in inventory in total, according to documents accompanying the service’s most recent budget request, which was released earlier in the year. This means the latest draft NDAA would effectively prohibit the retirement of any of the jets, at least through the end of the current fiscal year.

However, “if the Secretary of the Air Force submits to the congressional defense committees a plan for maintaining readiness and ensuring there is no lapse in mission capabilities the prohibition … shall not apply to actions taken to reduce the total aircraft inventory for E–3 aircraft to below 16, beginning 30 days after the date on which the plan is so submitted,” per this same section of the proposed legislation. In addition, “if the Secretary of the Air Force procures enough E–7 Wedgetail aircraft to accomplish the required mission load, the prohibition … shall not apply to actions taken to reduce the total aircraft inventory for E–3 aircraft to below 16 after the date on which such E–7 Wedgetail aircraft are delivered.”

Along with these two provisions, the new draft NDAA includes the approval of $647 million in additional funding for “continued development and procurement” of the E-7. This is in addition to nearly $200 million for Wedgetail that Congress already included in a bill that was passed last month to reopen the federal government following a protracted shutdown. Additional funding from the 2025 Fiscal Year originally intended for the procurement of aircraft was previously reallocated to ongoing research, development, test, and evaluation activities, as well.

The Air Force had formally decided to buy E-7s as replacements for at least a portion of its E-3 fleet in 2022, and had moved first to acquire two production representative prototypes. Those aircraft were to be used for test and evaluation purposes, and as a lead-in to the production of Wedgetails in a service-specific production configuration. The goal had been for production E-7s for the Air Force to begin entering service in 2027.

However, delays and cost growth had marred the Air Force’s E-7 program, factors the Pentagon cited in announcing its intention to cancel the program earlier this year. Concerns about the survivability of the Boeing 737 airliner-based aircraft, especially in future high-end fights, such as one against China in the Pacific, were also raised. It is worth noting here that versions of the Wedgetail are currently in service in Australia, South Korea, and Turkey. The United Kingdom is also working to acquire E-7s now. In November, NATO canceled its plans to purchase Wedgetails to replace a fleet of E-3s that the alliance operates collectively after the U.S. military separately withdrew from that effort.

As mentioned, the Air Force’s longer-term vision has been and remains to eventually have space-based assets provide the bulk of its airborne target warning sensor layer. From the outset, the service had described the E-7 acquisition effort as a ‘bridge’ to future capabilities in orbit.

For months now, members of Congress and other advocates of the Wedgetail program have been openly questioning the viability of using E-2s as an interim substitute, as well as the timeline for a realignment around space-based capabilities. Though the U.S. Navy and other E-2 operators have employed those aircraft from bases on land, the Hawkeye was designed around the unique requirements and constraints of carrier-based operations. Compared to the E-7, the E-2 is a lower and slower flying aircraft that would have to operate even closer to threat areas in order to provide similar surveillance capacity. The E-7 is also larger and more adaptable to expanded operations, especially when it comes to critical battle management and networking node capabilities, than the Hawkeye, as well. Previously stated survivability concerns would apply to any crewed airborne early warning aircraft in a future near-peer conflict.

The Air Force has also said it does not expect to have an operational ability to persistently track air or ground targets from orbit until the early 2030s at the earliest. Even then, the service expects traditional airborne early warning and control aircraft to remain part of the equation for years afterward.

In the meantime, the aging E-3s are already increasingly struggling to meet existing operational requirements, and the fleet would only be strained even more if a major sustained conflict were to erupt.

“I have been concerned. We have E-3 capability up north, of course, but we were all counting on the E-7 Wedgetail coming our way. We’re kind of limping along up north right now, which is unfortunate. And the budget proposes terminating the program,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, had said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in June, where the E-7 cancellation plans first emerged publicly. “Again, the E-3 fleet [is] barely operational now, and I understand the intent to shift towards the space-based – you call it the ‘air moving target indicators’ – but my concern is that you’ve got a situation where you’re not going to be able to use more duct tape to hold things together until you put this system in place. And, so, how we maintain that level of operational readiness and coverage, I’m not sure how you make it.”

The House and the Senate do still have to pass a final version of the NDAA for the 2026 Fiscal Year, and President Donald Trump then has to sign it, before any of its provisions can become law. What timeline the Air Force might now be looking at for actually fielding operational E-7s remains to be seen.

Regardless, Congress looks increasingly set to halt the Pentagon’s plans to cancel the E-7 program, at least for another year or so.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

“The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within,” Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference, February 14, 2025.

America’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) marks an ideological and substantive shift in U.S. foreign policy. The administration of President Donald Trump is attempting to define a new “America First” foreign policy doctrine that is deeply pragmatic. It invokes the Monroe Doctrine but with a “Trump Corollary.” The agenda of previous administrations to spread democracy around the world through foreign military interventions is no longer the aim. Foreign policy choices will be made based on what makes the United States more powerful and prosperous. This is a truly pivotal moment in the way the US will navigate world affairs.

This NSS is a real, painful, shocking wake-up call for Europe. It is a moment of significant divergence between Europe’s view of itself and Trump’s vision of as well as for Europe. If Europe had any doubt that the Trump administration is fully committed to a tough love strategy, it now knows it with certainty. The administration is asking — demanding, really — that Europe polices its own part of the world and, most importantly, pays for it itself. The strategy—which has been long overdue—chastises Europe for losing its European character. The orientation behind the words seems to indicate that the US sees Europe as evolving into a rigid, intransigent, globalist entity. And the latter is apparent given the EU’s reaction to the new NSS as illustrated by Brussels and the establishment elite of France, Germany, Poland and the Baltics: one of shock and dismay as met Vice President JD Vance’s Munich speech.

The continent of Europe is plagued with immigration issues and a predilection towards censorship, according to the US president’s newly issued National Security Strategy (NSS).

Europe is facing potential “civilizational erasure” as EU policymakers encourage censorship, stifling of political dissent, and turning a blind eye to mass immigration.

The landmark and strongly worded document released on Friday says that while the EU is showing worrying signs of economic decline, its restive cultural environment and internal political instability pose an even greater threat.

The strategy cites as serious concerns EU-backed immigration policies, suppression of political opposition, curbs on speech, collapsing birthrates, and “loss of national identities and self-confidence.” It warns that Europe could become “unrecognizable in 20 years or less.”

Over-regulation

The document argues that many European governments are “doubling down on their present path,” while the US wants Europe “to remain European” and abandon what it termed “regulatory suffocation.”  The latter is an apparent reference to America’s push back against the EU over its strict digital market guidelines, which Washington claims discriminate against US-based tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday denounced the European Commission’s $140 million fine against Elon Musk’s social media platform X, calling it an attack on American tech companies and “the American people.”

Rubio wrote on X, “The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on @X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over.”

Rubio’s comments reflected others within the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, who also posted on the social media platform that the Commission was punishing X for not engaging in censorship.

“The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage,” he wrote.

Immigration

Another one of Washington’s key objectives is “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations,” the paper adds.

Trump’s strategy notes that the rise of “patriotic European parties” offers “cause for great optimism,” in a reference to growing bloc-wide support for right-wing Euroskeptic parties calling for strict immigration limits.

The document proclaims that “the era of mass migration is over.”  It argues that large inflows have strained resources, increased violence, and weakened social cohesion, adding that Washington is seeking a world in which sovereign states “work together to stop rather than manage” migration flows.

Normalizing relations with Russia

President Trump’s security strategy for the US also calls for a swift end to the Ukraine conflict and preventing further escalation in Europe.

To this end, the US has placed the restoration of normal ties with Russia at the center of its newly released National Security Strategy, presenting both aims as among America’s core interests.

The 33-page report outlining President Donald Trump’s foreign-policy vision was released by the White House last Friday.

“It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine,” the paper states, “in order to stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”

It notes that the Ukraine conflict has left “European relations with Russia… deeply attenuated,” resulting in destabilization of the entire region.

The report criticizes EU leaders for “unrealistic expectations” regarding the outcome of the conflict, arguing that “a large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy.”

The US, it says, is ready for “significant diplomatic engagement” to “help Europe correct its current trajectory,” reestablish stability, and “mitigate the risk of conflict between Russia and European states.”

In contrast with the US national strategy during Trump’s first term, which emphasized competition with Russia and China, the new strategy shifts the focus to the Western Hemisphere and to protecting the homeland, the borders, and regional interests. It calls for resources to be redirected from distant theaters to challenges closer to home and urges NATO and European states to shoulder primary responsibility for their own defense.

The document also calls for an end to NATO expansion—a demand that Russia has repeatedly voiced, calling it a root cause of the Ukraine conflict, which Moscow views as a Western proxy war.

Overall, the new strategy signals a shift away from global interventionism toward a more transactional foreign policy, arguing that the US should act abroad only when its interests are directly at stake.

President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy puts the Western Hemisphere at the center of US foreign policy and revives the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, appending it with a “Trump Corollary.”

The document invokes the legacy of the Monroe Doctrine but pushes it further. It states that the US will block “non-Hemispheric competitors” from owning or controlling “strategically vital assets” in the Americas, including ports, energy facilities, and telecommunications networks. It describes the Western Hemisphere as the top regional priority, above Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, and ties that status to controlling migration, drug flows, and foreign influence before they can reach US territory—clearly a fundamental and much-needed break with the foreign policies of recent presidential administrations.

Israel says it targeted Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, adding pressure to a US-brokered ceasefire.

Israel’s military has carried out waves of air attacks in southern Lebanon, causing damage to several homes, according to Lebanese state media, as anger mounts over repeated Israeli violations of a ceasefire with Hezbollah agreed upon last year.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported late on Monday that Israeli jets targeted Mount Safi, the town of Jbaa, the Zefta Valley, and the area between Azza and Rumin Arki in “several waves”.

There was no immediate report of casualties.

The Israeli military, in a post on X, said it struck several sites linked to Hezbollah, including a special operations training compound used by its elite Radwan Force.

The military said several buildings and a rocket-launching site were also hit.

The attacks come days after Israel and Lebanon dispatched civilian envoys to a military committee tasked with overseeing their ceasefire, a step towards a months-old demand by the United States, which has been urging the two countries to broaden their talks.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that his country “has adopted the option of negotiations with Israel”, and that the talks were aimed at stopping Israel’s continued attacks on his country.

The current ceasefire, brokered by Washington in 2024, ended more than a year of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.

But Israel has continued to strike Lebanon on a near-daily basis.

A United Nations report released in November said that at least 127 civilians, including children, have been killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect. UN officials have warned that the strikes amount to “war crimes”.

Tensions spiked further last week when Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing Hezbollah’s top military commander, Haytham Ali Tabtabai.

The group, still weakened after last year’s conflict, has yet to respond.

Israel has accused Lebanon of not doing enough to compel Hezbollah to relinquish its arsenal across the country, a claim the Lebanese government denies.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said last week that Lebanon wanted to see the ceasefire monitoring mechanism play a more robust role in verifying Israel’s claims that Hezbollah is rearming, as well as the work of the Lebanese army in dismantling the armed group’s infrastructure.

Asked whether that meant Lebanon would accept US and French troops on the ground as part of a verification mechanism, Salam said, “Of course”.

The continued Israeli strikes have raised fears in Lebanon that the Israeli military could expand its air campaign further.

Hezbollah has said it is unwilling to let go of its arms as long as Israel continues its strikes on Lebanese territory and its occupation of five points in the country’s south.

US President Donald Trump has cleared the way for tech giant Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chip to China, in a significant easing of Washington’s export controls targeting Chinese tech.

Trump said on Monday that he had informed Chinese President Xi Jinping of the decision to allow the export of the chip under an arrangement that will see 25 percent of sales paid to the US government.

Trump said exports would be allowed to “approved customers” under conditions that protect national security, and that his administration would take the “same approach” in relation to other chipmakers, such as AMD and Intel.

“This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Nvidia, which is based in Santa Clara, California, said the move struck a “thoughtful balance” and would “support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America”.

Nvidia shares jumped more than 2 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

Trump’s announcement marks a major departure from the policy of former President Joe Biden’s administration, which confined Nvidia and other chipmakers to exporting downgraded versions of their products specifically designed for the Chinese market.

In his Truth Social post, Trump slammed the Biden administration’s approach, claiming it had led to US tech companies spending billions of dollars on downgraded products that “nobody wanted”.

The H200, launched in 2023, is Nvidia’s most powerful chip outside of the latest-generation Blackwell series, which Trump confirmed would continue to be restricted for the Chinese market.

While not Nvidia’s most advanced chip, the H200 is almost six times as powerful as the previous generation H20 chip, according to the Washington-based Institute for Progress, a non-partisan think tank.

Under an agreement with the Trump administration announced in August, Nvidia agreed to pay the US government 15 percent of revenues from its sales of the H20, which was designed to comply with restrictions imposed on the Chinese market.

Tilly Zhang, an expert on Chinese tech at Gavekal Dragonomics, said Trump’s decision reflected “market realities” as well as intense lobbying by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

“The priority is moving away from purely blocking or slowing China’s tech progress, more towards competing for market share and securing the commercial benefits of selling their own tech solutions,” Zhang told Al Jazeera.

As blocking China’s tech advancement becomes increasingly unrealistic, “gaining more market share and revenue is turning into a higher priority”, Zhang said.

“That’s what this US move signals to me.”

Zhang said the race between China and the US to dominate artificial intelligence had shifted from export controls towards market competition.

“That might push chipmakers on both sides towards faster innovation, and bring more market dynamics,” she said.

Trump’s announcement drew a swift rebuke from Democratic lawmakers.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who represents Massachusetts, accused the Trump administration of “selling out US security”.

“Trump is letting NVIDIA export cutting-edge AI chips that his own DOJ revealed are being illegally smuggled into China,” Warren said on X, referring to multiple probes into illegal chip shipments carried out by the US Department of Justice.

“His own DOJ called these chips ‘building blocks of AI superiority’.”

Chris McGuire, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump’s move was a blow to US efforts to stay ahead of China in the race to dominate AI.

“Loosening export controls on AI chips will allow Chinese AI firms to close the gap with frontier US AI models, and will allow Chinese cloud computing providers to build ‘good enough’ data centres around the world,” McGuire, who worked on tech policy in Biden’s White House, told Al Jazeera.

“This risks undermining the administration’s efforts to ensure the US AI stack dominates globally.”

The Trump administration has accused ICEBlock of making federal agents vulnerable to attack and called for its removal.

The developer of a popular app used to monitor and share alerts about immigration enforcement activities has sued the administration of United States President Donald Trump for pressuring Apple to remove it.

ICEBlock, whose name refers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had one million users before it was dropped from Apple’s app store, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday.

Developer Joshua Aaron alleged in the complaint that the Trump administration’s campaign against the tracking app amounted to a violation of free speech.

“When we see our government doing something wrong, it’s our duty as citizens of this nation to hold them accountable, and that is exactly what we’re doing with this lawsuit,” Aaron said in the lawsuit.

The suit calls on the district court system to protect the Texas-based software company from “unlawful threats” under the Trump administration.

It also names as defendants some of Trump’s highest-level officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons.

First released in April, ICEBlock quickly became a widely used tool across the US as communities sought ways to share information about immigration raids.

Since returning to office for a second term, Trump has pushed a campaign of mass deportation, targeting a wide range of immigrants, many of whom are in the country legally.

Those raids, many carried out by heavily armed immigration agents in military-style attire, have also faced repeated accusations of human rights abuses.

Critics have questioned the violence used in some arrests, as well as the ICE officers’ use of face masks and plainclothes to conceal their identities.

There have also been reports of inhumane conditions once immigrants are in custody, including overcrowding, a lack of sanitation and faeces-smeared walls.

Human rights advocates have also questioned the speed with which deportations are being carried out, claiming the immigrants arrested have no opportunity to exercise their due process rights and are often prevented from contacting lawyers.

Even US citizens have been accidentally detained in the immigration sweeps. Some immigrants have been deported despite court orders mandating that they remain in the US.

The Trump administration has faced fierce criticism and judicial rebukes for its tactics.

But it maintains that software like ICEBlock puts federal immigration agents in danger of retaliation.

“ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line,” Attorney General Bondi has said.

In October, ICEBlock was pulled from Apple’s app store, a popular platform for downloading mobile software. The Justice Department confirmed that it had contacted Apple to push for the removal.

The lawsuit states that the tech company told Aaron the app had been removed following “information provided to Apple by law enforcement”.

Aaron has countered that the app is an exercise of essential free speech rights and is meant to help protect people from overbearing government activity.

“We’re basically asking the court to set a precedent and affirm that ICEBlock is, in fact, First Amendment-protected speech and that I did nothing wrong by creating it,” Aaron told The Associated Press news agency in an interview.

“I mean, these are people that are wearing masks — which is the antithesis of everything about this country — and they are not identifying themselves, and they’re zip-tying children, and they’re throwing women into vans.”

Lokacin Da Mai Taimakonta Ya Bace | RSS.com

Saurara a: Apple Podcast | Spotify | RSS

Ka gudu don ceton rayuwarka lokacin da Boko Haram suka kai hari a garinku a Adamawa, arewa maso gabashin Najeriya. Da ka dawo, sai ka tarar da makwabci ya fara gina gida a kan filin ka.

Lokacin da ka nuna rashin amincewa, ya ba wa jami’ai cin hanci kuma ya kore ka, yana cewa ba ka da wani da zai gaji gidan. Ɗanka, wanda shi ne babban mai kula da kai, ya ɓace a lokacin yaƙin, kuma har yanzu ba ka ji labarinsa ba.

Wanne ciwo ne yafi nauyi: jimamin rasa wanda kake kauna da ba ka san ko yana raye ba ko kuma wahalhalun rayuwar yau da kullum da suka biyo bayan rasa mai kula da kai? Duk hanyoyin, sakamakon suna da matuƙar nauyi. To, ta yaya za ka jure wa baƙin ciki, talauci, da rashin adalci duka a lokaci guda?

Mai Gabatarwa: Rukayya Saeed

Marubuciya: Sabiqah Bello

Muryoyin Shiri: Sabiqah Bello

Fassara: Rukayya Saeed

Edita: Aliyu Dahiru

Furodusa: Al-amin Umar

Babban Furodusa: Anthony Asemota

Babban Mashiryi: Ahmad Salkida

Congress is looking to press the U.S. Air Force to provide details of its place to maintain the Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) capability — better known as Looking Glass — including the possibility of hosting it on a platform based on the Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 cargo plane. The ABNCP mission involves the relaying of orders to Air Force nuclear-capable bombers and silo-based Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. Currently, it is fulfilled by the Navy’s E-6B Mercury fleet, which supports both ABNCP and the broadly similar Take Charge And Move Out (TACAMO) mission, which relays orders to Navy Ohio class nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Between them, aircraft fulfilling these two missions are commonly called ‘Doomsday planes.’

As it now stands, the Boeing 707-based E-6B is slated to be replaced by the E-130J aircraft, which Northrop Grumman will modify from C-130J-30s. A rendering of an E-130J appears at the top of this story.

It is important to note here that the current plan is for the E-130J to supplant the E-6B only when it comes to the TACAMO mission. How the Air Force will continue to meet its Looking Glass mission requirements is not entirely clear, though its future fleet of Boeing 747-based E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) might help meet those needs, at least to a degree. The E-4C — and the E-4B Nightwatch aircraft it is set to replace — are also ‘doomsday planes,’ but are configured to act as much more robust flying command centers than the E-6Bs.

The latest version of the defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2026 Fiscal Year, was released late yesterday by the House Armed Services Committee. The draft legislation reflects the results of extensive negotiations with its Senate counterparts. Different versions of the Fiscal Year 2026 NDAA from the House and Senate had to be aligned before it could be put to a vote, which could happen as early as this week.

The draft legislation includes a section outlining a “limitation on availability of funds pending [a] report on acquisition strategy for [the] Airborne Command Post Capability.”

The report appears to be required with a degree of urgency.

Under the relevant section of the proposed legislation, the House Armed Services Committee says that the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force will be permitted to spend only 80 percent of the allocated funds for travel expenses in fiscal year 2026, with the remainder withheld until the report is submitted. This is an unusual measure, but it does happen from time to time, and is an indicator of how forceful Congress is being on this.

As for the concerns about the future of the ABNCP, the questions that the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (together with the Commander of the United States Strategic Command) needs to answer are twofold.

First, the draft bill seeks information on the potential for expanding production of the C-130J-30 Super Hercules “to provide additional airframes to preserve the Airborne Command Post capability.” The C-130J-30 subvariant, which is in common use around the globe, has a longer fuselage than the baseline type.

This indicates that, in the future, the ABNCP mission may be handled by specially modified C-130J aircraft, mirroring the Navy’s approach with the E-130J.

Second, NDAA calls for “an outline of the future relationship of the Airborne Command Post capability with the Secondary Launch Platform–Airborne effort.”

Secondary Launch Capability is the name for the command-and-control architecture that is planned to replace the existing Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS), currently installed onboard the E-6B. ALCS was tested on an E-4B Nightwatch aircraft, but the decision was ultimately made not to install it on these aircraft. 

ALCS provides a survivable alternate capability for launching the Minuteman III, connecting the E-6Bs with the missile fields as well as with the United States Strategic Command, Vandenberg Space Force Base, Hill Air Force Base, and other key nodes. In the future, the Secondary Launch Capability will also carry out this mission for the Minuteman III’s replacement, the LGM-35A Sentinel.

When the Secondary Launch Platform–Airborne (SLP-A) entered development, back in 2020, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center told Aviation Week that the aircraft that will host the system “has not been determined at this time.” The spokeswoman added: “The SLP-A will be adaptable and modular to accommodate future airborne platform(s).”

The inclusion of these questions in the latest version of the defense policy bill is indicative of the fact that, so far, there has been no public description of a detailed plan for ABNCP after the E-6.

It is unclear when the E-130J might begin to enter service. In the past, Navy budget documents have laid out plans to order three of the aircraft in Fiscal Year 2027 and six more in Fiscal Year 2028.

It’s also worth noting that, earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) called into question the viability of using the C-130J as the basis for the Navy’s new TACAMO plane, something you can read about here.

Also of note here is the fact that, before the E-6 entered service, the Navy operated EC-130Q TACAMO aircraft based on the older C-130H variant of the Hercules. Those aircraft were not configured to perform the Looking Glass mission. It was only the arrival of upgraded E-6Bs in the 1990s that led to the consolidation of those two mission sets on a single aircraft.

Previously, it had appeared that the future of the Looking Glass mission might lie in other aircraft, like the Boeing 747-based E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) jets that the Air Force is now in the process of acquiring. The fact that five airframes have been earmarked for the E-4C program, compared to the four E-4Bs that they will replace, was taken by some as evidence that the new aircraft would take on an expanded role, including Looking Glass. The fleet of E-4Cs could also be expanded to as many as ten aircraft, as well. Having E-4Cs take on some of the Looking Glass mission could still turn out to be the case, perhaps augmenting a fleet of specially adapted and far more efficient C-130s. With much of the development working being already paid for by the Navy for its very similar and nuclear-hardened EC-130, the USAF could piggyback onto that effort with its Looking Glass variant.

Either way, it’s certainly significant that there is now serious thought being given to migrating the ABNCP mission onto a C-130-based platform, especially with the Hercules never having hosted it in the past.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com