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City hold a nine-point lead over Chelsea with 27 left to play for. Having won 12 games in a row since an opening day defeat by Bompastor’s side, it seems unlikely they will lose three of their final nine outings.
Opponents are struggling to stop City from scoring, never mind take points off them.
City have scored in their past 27 WSL games, their longest scoring run in the competition, while this season they have scored an average of 2.7 goals per game (netting 36 in total).
Shaw has played a significant role on that front – with 13 league goals this term, the Jamaican looks a shoo-in to win the Golden Boot for a third straight season.
One criticism sometimes levelled at City is their reliance on Shaw. While there is no denying her importance in Jeglertz’s system, her team-mates are more than pulling their own weight.
Vivianne Miedema is the WSL’s all-time leading goalscorer, but this season is thriving in a withdrawn role at the tip of Shaw’s supporting cast.
It was her perfectly weighted pass that set up Kerolin to score the opener on Sunday; the Brazil winger has contributed three goals and three assists in her past five league appearances.
Now that their early-season injury spike is clearing up, City’s strength and quality in depth cannot be overstated.
Forwards Aoba Fujino and Mary Fowler are nearing returns from injury, while the bench on Sunday boasted Sydney Lohmann, Iman Beney, Grace Clinton and Sam Coffey.
The latter, a club record £600,000 signing, made her debut from the bench and took the corner that led to Shaw’s winner.
City did not play well in south-east London, but like all great champions they found a way to win.
“There’s something in their eyes, a determination that we will find ways [to win],” said Jeglertz.
“There is something in this group that even though it is not a beautiful game, we still find ways to win, to keep on going.
“I am very happy and proud of this winning mentality in the group.”
Former Trump official Christian Whiton argues it is about time to press ‘reset’ on US relations with the world.
United States President Donald Trump realises “the rules-based international order” never existed, and he’s “willing to turn his back on that”, former Trump administration official Christian Whiton argues.
Whiton tells Steve Clemons that US foreign policy remained fairly consistent over the past 80 years while Trump is happy to upset “the globalists and the establishment unity party in Washington – Republican and Democrat – and all the generals”.
In Europe, the US would like to see more populist, anti-immigration governments, Whiton said, adding that Western societies should “cast aside” the idea that they are “inherently racist, a patriarchy [with] … a racist, imperialist history”.
Deadly Israeli air strikes target areas across south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley amid simmering regional tensions.
Published On 25 Jan 202625 Jan 2026
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Israel has launched a wave of air strikes across Lebanon, killing two people, in another near-daily violation of the November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Israeli attacks targeted areas in the eastern Bekaa Valley and several villages in south Lebanon, including Bouslaiya and Aita al-Shaab, the National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday.
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A strike on a warehouse in Khirbet Selm in the Bint Jbeil district killed at least one person and injured another, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted a Hezbollah “weapons manufacturing site”, without providing evidence.
NNA reported that another person was killed in a separate strike in Derdghaya, east of the southern coastal city of Tyre. Several Lebanese news outlets identified the victim as Mohammed al-Hussayni, a school teacher.
The attacks come amid fears of a major Israeli assault to disarm Hezbollah amid simmering regional tensions and possible strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, the Lebanese group’s top ally.
The Lebanese government said earlier this month that it completed the stage of removing the group’s weapons south of the Litani River, 28km (17 miles) from the Israeli border.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to occupy five points within Lebanese territory.
The Israeli army has also levelled several villages along the borders and blocked their reconstruction, preventing their residents from returning.
(Al Jazeera)
In August of last year, the Lebanese government issued a decree tasking the army with formulating a plan to disarm Hezbollah.
But the group has refused to give up its weapons north of Litani, arguing that its military force is necessary to resist Israeli attacks, occupation and expansionism.
Lebanese officials have vowed to push on with a multi-phased plan to disarm the group across the country. The next stage of disarmament will target the region between the Litani River and the Awali River, about 40 km (25 miles) to the north.
Hezbollah has been severely weakened by Israel’s all-out assault against Lebanon in 2024, which killed most of the group’s top political and military leaders, including its chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Since the end of the war, Lebanon has been forced to accept a de facto one-sided ceasefire, where Israel attacks the country almost daily without any response from the Lebanese side.
Hezbollah has been calling on the Lebanese government to intensify its diplomacy and press the sponsors of the ceasefire – the US and France – to pressure Israel to stop its violations.
Karen Stirrat and Charmaine Lacock have fought for years to learn the truth about hospital-acquired infections at Glasgow’s flagship hospital
For years they felt stonewalled, lied to and gaslit. Now they’re angry.
Karen Stirrat and Charmaine Lacock are mothers of children they say were exposed to infections while being treated for cancer at Glasgow’s flagship “super hospital”.
They were some of the first parents to voice fears that something in the way the buildings were constructed was inherently unsafe.
Dozens of vulnerable children like theirs with cancer or blood disorders became even more unwell while being treated at the hospital. Some of them died.
Yet for years the body that runs the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus refused to accept evidence that water and ventilation systems could be to blame for infections.
“From the very beginning we campaigned, with other families, and we got slated for that,” says Karen.
“We knew the truth, but we kept getting told we were just imagining things.”
A week ago, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde performed a jaw-dropping U-turn.
The health board, the equivalent of an NHS Trust elsewhere in the UK, now says it accepts that on the “balance of probabilities” the hospital environment, particularly the water system, caused some infections.
In its closing submission to a public inquiry it also admits that:
the hospital opened in 2015 before it was ready
there was “pressure” to deliver the project on time – though the health board clarified on Saturday evening that this pressure was internal
maintenance in the early years was insufficient
infection control doctors who tried to raise the alarm were badly treated
The belated admissions, which contradict some positions taken by the health board during the six-year inquiry, have been welcomed.
But they have also left parents frustrated – and in some cases furious – that it’s taken so long.
“For them to now backtrack… it’s too little, too late,” Karen says.
“It’s a day of sheer and utter anger at the fact it’s got to this stage.”
Paige is now cancer free after her treatment
Charmaine Lacock’s daughter Paige was three when she picked up a “life threatening” infection while undergoing cancer treatment in early 2019.
When doctors gave her the news, Charmaine says she felt like her little girl had already been placed in a casket.
“A hospital is supposed to be your safe place where you go to ask for help,” she said.
Paige recovered and is now cancer free – but Charmaine still feels traumatised.
“We live in fear that our kids will relapse and have to go back and maybe the second time they won’t be as lucky.
“I think we’re broken as parents having to fight this.”
She and Karen Stirrat also live with “survivor’s guilt” that their children are alive when others, whose parents they have met through years of campaigning, have died.
Karen Stirrat
Caleb’s treatment took place at the adult hospital because of concern about the cancer wards at the children’s hospital
Karen’s son Caleb is still receiving treatment for the side effects of a brain tumour which was diagnosed while he just three.
He had to begin his treatment in the adult hospital in 2019 because cancer wards in the children’s hospital were by then closed due to infection risks.
She says one of the early clues that something was seriously amiss came when she took him to the US for specialist proton treatment.
American doctors were surprised that he had been prescribed a strong antibiotic.
Karen believes it was a precautionary measure because doctors in Glasgow were so worried he would pick up an infection inside their hospital.
When Caleb resumed his treatment at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital he was put back on the drugs, but no-one would tell her why.
She doesn’t blame those doctors or nurses – she says they had been forbidden by managers from telling parents about the problems with the water system and the infection risk.
“A doctor was crying at me, saying she wished she could but management wouldn’t let her. That’s unforgivable,” she said.
PA Media
Queen Elizabeth officially opened the hospital in July 2015, a few months after it had started treating its first patients
The impressive new hospital campus welcomed its first patients in April 2015 and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth during the summer.
One of the biggest hospital complexes in Europe, it had cost more than £840m.
With typical gallows humour, Glaswegians dubbed it the “Death Star” after the Empire space station in the Star Wars film.
But the building seemed to offer new standards of care and comfort – in contrast with the drab corridors of several Victorian-era facilities it was replacing.
Beside it, the Royal Hospital for Children with its brightly coloured windows presented a reassuring space for children and their worried families.
Much of the public inquiry evidence has focused on infections at the Royal Children’s Hospital
“It was a nice building from the outside, a nice building from the inside – it looked clean,” recalls Charmaine Lacock.
“We never thought anything could go wrong in a hospital. We had just had this diagnosis… we were in the best place we could be and they were going to fix it.”
In fact, there had been issues with the hospital from the start.
Within weeks of opening there were reports of difficulties during the patient transfer and long waits for admission.
We now know that 200 contractors were still on site when it opened, rushing to complete the project on time, and NHS facilities staff were overwhelmed by their workload as they tried to fix faults.
But it took years for a more disturbing story to emerge, of higher than expected infection rates and deaths of several patients with hospital-acquired infections.
Kimberly Darroch
Milly Main died after contracting an infection at the Royal Hospital for Children, part of the QEUH campus
In 2017, 10-year-old Milly Main was recovering well from a stem cell transplant at the children’s hospital when she picked up an infection from an intravenous line used to administer drugs. She developed sepsis and died.
Her mother Kimberly Darroch told a BBC Disclosure documentary that she had hoped the stem cell treatment would give her daughter a second chance at life.
“Which it did, it worked – only for her to get a line infection which changed everything.”
Milly’s parents came to suspect the hospital water system was the source of the infection, but the health board insisted it was not possible to establish a causal link.
It still does not accept the faults were to blame for specific individual cases.
Kimberly would later become a powerful champion of parents who felt stonewalled and “lied to” by the authorities.
The year after Milly’s death, there was a cluster of infections. Higher than expected levels of bacteria that could harm patients with a weakened immune system were found in water in the children’s hospital.
“The first thing for me was seeing the notice up about the sink, saying this is a handwash sink only,” says Charmaine.
“Then they came in with bottled water and said don’t use the tap water to brush your teeth.”
Eventually most vulnerable young patients were transferred to the adult hospital while the infections were investigated and remedial work took place.
The two women were also noticing other faults – showers that flooded, blinds that wouldn’t open. Karen became so worried about the water she would pack her own cutlery and water jug.
At the start of 2019 another issue hit the headlines.
It emerged that a fungal infection often linked to pigeon droppings had been listed as a contributory factor in the death of a 10-year-old boy.
Suspicion fell on the ventilation system. Could a lack of filters or problems with air pressure have allowed dirty air to enter spaces where vulnerable patients were being treated?
A plant room on the roof near a ventilation intake that had been colonised by pigeons was initially identified as a likely source of the fungus, although a subsequent investigation contradicted that finding.
Armstrong family
The family of Gail Armstrong believe an infection often linked to pigeon droppings hastened her death
Although it admits that the water system probably caused some infections, Glasgow’s health board continues to cast doubt on a link between infections and the ventilation system even though they accept it does not meet national specification standards.
That’s little comfort to the family of Gail Armstrong, who also died with the same Cryptococcus infection as the young boy a short time afterwards.
Although the 73-year-old was terminally ill, her family believe it hastened her decline.
Her daughter Sandie thinks the health board’s new and caveated admissions add “insult to injury”.
“It makes us feel more distressed, more confused and more angry because we feel that they are just trying to limit the damage to their reputation.
“They’re not interested in actually coming forward and speaking openly and transparently to us.”
The timeline of the hospitals controversy
By late 2019, the growing scandal was being discussed in the Scottish Parliament where Anas Sarwar, now the Scottish Labour leader, raised the case of Milly Main.
He had obtained leaked reports which showed experts were warning about the safety of the water system even as the hospital was accepting its first patients.
With public concern mounting and a ventilation problem delaying the opening of a separate hospital in Edinburgh, Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman ordered a public inquiry into their design, construction commissioning and maintenance.
That inquiry, now drawing to close after six years, has heard from 186 witnesses, painting a picture of what some clinicians described as a “defensive” management culture at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
One microbiologist, Dr Teresa Inkster, said she felt discouraged from speaking up at infection control meetings.
Another microbiologist and senior doctor, Christine Peters, said she was advised by a senior colleague to “pipe down” or she would find things “hard” professionally.
She has previously told BBC News she had been flagging concerns about the buildings since 2014 and was advised not to put anything in writing.
The QEUH was one of Europe’s biggest hospitals when it opened in 2015
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, now under a new chief executive, accepts whistleblowing procedures fell short and has apologised to staff who didn’t feel “listened to”.
But it denies there was any cover-up. While it concedes communication was poor, it says it didn’t want to worry patients needlessly before the facts were established.
The failings, it argues, were systemic rather than the fault of individuals who were under great pressure as they dealt with a situation which was not of their making.
That makes Karen Stirrat angry. She believes that some people tried to conceal the truth – and says this lets them off the hook.
“We had looked into those buildings, we had the truth there in black and white… If that’s not saving your own skin, I don’t know what is.”
Infection levels returned to normal by late 2020 after remedial work on the water systems.
The ventilation system still falls short of national standards but the health board claims alternative infection controls measures mean the hospitals on the site are now “wholly safe”.
Lawyers for the public inquiry, whose role is to represent the public interest, have questioned that and suggested that for some vulnerable patients, in certain circumstances, there could still be a heightened risk.
Karen Stirrat
Caleb, pictured here with his triplet sisters, is still receiving treatment
The final report from inquiry chairman Lord Brodie is expected to be published later this year but there has already been political fallout.
In fiery exchanges in the Scottish Parliament, opposition leaders demanded to know where the “pressure” to open the hospital on time was coming from. Was it a coincidence that the opening took place just days before a general election?
First Minister John Swinney responded with an emphatic “no” when asked if political pressure was applied. And he said SNP ministers were not alerted to problems with the water system until nearly three years later, in March 2018.
For parents like Karen Stirrat and Charmaine Lacock it’s less about the politics but more about finally getting answers to questions they have been asking for years.
They still have their children. For them it’s a time of healing both physically and psychologically.
But Charmaine still finds it hard to forgive those who she believes tried to conceal the truth.
“It has taken over our lives. This will haunt us forever.”
Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing as a candidate for an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by Labour’s ruling body.
As a directly elected mayor, Burnham had to get approval from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), after he applied to be a candidate on Saturday.
Labour sources have told the BBC lots of concerns were raised about the costs of an election to replace Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor and the “prospect of a divisive campaign”.
But allies of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer feared Burnham – a former cabinet minister – could mount a leadership challenge, should he return to Westminster.
The move is likely to infuriate Labour MPs and some ministers who said local party members should have had the option of choosing the Greater Manchester mayor as the candidate.
It is a big political gamble by allies of the prime minister and risks inflaming tensions within the party, which is consistently trailing Reform UK in national opinion polls.
One senior Labour source who had been supportive of Burnham’s candidacy said: “They’re gambling the PM’s whole premiership on winning a very hard by-election without their best candidate. It is madness.”
The decision was made by 10 members of the NEC, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, party chair Ellie Reeves and the prime minister himself on Sunday morning.
NEC sources told the BBC the vote was 8-1 in favour of blocking Burnham’s candidacy.
The prime minister was among those who voted to block Burnham from standing.
Mahmood abstained as the chair, while Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell voted to allow him to stand.
Sir Keir’s allies say Burnham is doing “a very good job” as mayor of Greater Manchester, adding a mayoral by election “would cost the party hundreds of thousands of pounds” and “cost the country millions of pounds during a cost-of-living crisis”.
The prime minister’s supporters were worried Reform UK “would outspend us ten to one” during the by-election campaign.
The argument those who blocked Burnham intend to make publicly is that during a period of geopolitics dominating the headlines and deep concerns about the cost of living at home, there would be no appetite in the country for a “return to political psychodramas of the Tory years”.
There was “overwhelming support” in the meeting “for upholding clear Labour Party rules preventing mayors and PCCs standing in by-elections”, a source said.
Earlier, Mahmood told the BBC allowing elected mayors to run as candidates in parliamentary by-elections had “organisational implications” for the party.
A mayoral election in Greater Manchester could also be costly for the taxpayer, with the last one costing about £4.7m.
Singer Troye Sivan hit out at a cosmetic doctor who gave him “unsolicited medical advice” on Instagram
A cosmetic doctor who faced a backlash over a video picking apart pop star Troye Sivan’s appearance says he “feels terrible” for upsetting the singer – but will continue to post.
London-based Dr Zayn Khalid Majeed posted a two-minute clip drawing attention to the 30-year-old’s “problem” areas following an appearance at a recent event in Australia.
Fans criticised the “unsolicited” advice, and the singer himself responded with an essay explaining how the video had triggered long-held insecurities about his body.
Since deleting the video and contacting Sivan to apologise, Majeed tells BBC Newsbeat he will try to make a more positive impact with his content.
Sivan, whose career began when he was a teenager, is regarded by many as a poster boy for the “twink” look.
The term refers to younger, slim gay men with a boyish look, and Sivan’s image appears prominently in Google results and on Wikipedia’s definition page.
In the video, which compared studio images of the singer with recent footage from a red carpet interview, Majeed said Sivan appeared to be showing signs of “twink death”.
The cosmetic doctor, who has more than 250,000 followers across platforms, pointed towards several “problem areas”, such as shadows and “volume loss” in the singer’s face.
He then imagined a scenario where Sivan was his patient and listed various cosmetic “improvements” he could opt for, including skin boosters and dermal filler.
Zayn Khalid Majeed/TikTok
Troye Sivan said he considered getting cosmetic surgery after watching a video breakdown of his face on Instagram
People on social media and fans of Sivan criticised Majeed’s “unsolicited” advice on ways to “retwinkify” himself.
The singer himself then got involved, posting on blogging platform Substack about how the video had heightened his insecurities and pushed him towards considering cosmetic surgery.
“I’ve struggled with my body image for a lot of my life, as I’m sure most people have,” he wrote. “What good is money and modern medicine if not to fix all of these flaws that this random… plastic surgeon told me I have?”
Newsbeat reached out to Majeeed, who said Sivan’s response “was incredibly raw and vulnerable”.
“I felt terrible and it was never my intention to make him feel like that, which is why I reached out to him directly to apologise,” he says.
Zayn Khalid Majeed
Majeed apologised to Troye Sivan in what the singer called a “thoughtful and sweet message”
Majeed deleted the videos from his TikTok and Instagram, and Sivan later updated his blog to say there were “no hard feelings from [his] side”.
The doctor admits he can “see how it came across”.
Majeed says he started creating content to “educate and inform” people, but began to talk about celebrities because viewers seemed to enjoy it.
“For every one celebrity video I make, I make five chatty educational videos,” he says.
But, reflecting on the situation with Sivan, he says he doesn’t want to contribute to the “negative beauty standards” that people face.
“I have a voice and I need to use it to shape conversations for the better, where we’re more body positive and we accept ageing as a natural process,” he says. “Sometimes you don’t realise the impact that you can have.”
However, Majeed says he will continue to make videos that analyse celebrity faces because he believes there is an appetite for them.
“It is important to demystify surgeries that celebrities have and educate patients,” he says.
‘It’s mind-boggling’
Samantha Rizzo
Content creator Samantha Rizzo says seeing videos about cosmetic surgery made her think she needed botox
Samantha Rizzo, a “skin-positivity” content creator based in New York, says she can see a benefit to posts that seek to “showcase” cosmetic work or provide more information.
“I appreciate if you’re using your clients and they consent to their before, during, after photos,” she tells Newsbeat. “I feel a little icky when they’re just taking the celebrity’s picture.
“Just because they’re famous doesn’t mean you have the right to just pick them apart.”
Rizzo, 26, had botox injected into her jaw in the hope it would relieve pain and migraines after watching videos online. But it left her with limited facial movement and she says she regrets doing it.
In hindsight, she believes her insecurities were shaped by the content she was “consuming”.
“The things you can see can skew your perception of yourself so much that it forces your hand for a decision like that,” she says. “It’s mind-boggling”.
Keelin Moncrieff
Keelin Moncrieff says she finds the idea of changing her face “disturbing”
Irish-born social media personality Keelin Moncrieff says she has concerns about the availability of information on various procedures and the influence it can have on young people.
The mum-of-one tells Newsbeat she understands some creators might try to be “transparent” about any work they’ve had done, but argues it risks acting as an endorsement for the treatment.
“People can’t make up or fill in the gaps of what they’re not seeing behind the scenes,” she says. “People think that this is an easy process.”
Moncrieff, 28, also says that being online comes with unwanted comments about your appearance – something she’s experienced.
“I remember I got a comment once saying that my hands were really wrinkly,” she recalls. “That’s something that’s never even popped into my brain.”
When it comes to surgical changes though, she’s made her mind up.
“Very often I look in the mirror and think: ‘Oh, I could get this done, I could get this done’,” she says.
“I would find that disturbing. I don’t want to uphold those standards.”
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.
Former captain Babar Azam has returned to Pakistan’s squad for the Twenty20 World Cup, a day after their cricket board chief cast doubt over the team’s participation in the global showpiece, which begins on February 7.
T20 regular Haris Rauf was dropped from the 15-man squad, led by Salman Ali Agha. It was announced on Saturday despite the uncertainty surrounding Pakistan’s plans for the World Cup.
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Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi, also the country’s interior minister, said the PCB was awaiting the government’s permission before confirming the team’s participation after the International Cricket Council (ICC) kicked out Bangladesh over their refusal to play in India.
Hours later, the PCB announced its squad for the tournament
However, chief selector Aaqib Javed said the Pakistani government would make a final call on whether the team would travel to Sri Lanka.
“Our job is to pick the team,” Javed said after naming the squad in Lahore, Pakistan. “We’ve announced the team very close to the deadline.
“The government will decide on our participation, so I can say nothing on that front. That’s what the chairman has said too, so we’ll wait for their decision.”
India will host the majority of the T20 World Cup matches, but Pakistan will play exclusively in Sri Lanka because of the fraught political relations between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Bangladesh have been replaced by Scotland for their refusal to tour India due to safety concerns, which the ICC rejected last week.
In addition to Babar, spin-bowling all-rounder Shadab Khan and fast bowler Naseem Shah have also returned, but there was no place for wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan.
Pakistan’s selectors excluded fast bowler Mohammad Wasim from the 16-member squad announced for next week’s three-match T20 series against Australia in Lahore.
They also continued to ignore Rauf, who hasn’t played since competing in the Asia Cup in September but kept faith with struggling Babar, who scored 202 runs at a strike rate of 103.06 in 11 Big Bash League games while opening the batting for Sydney Sixers.
“We don’t see him opening the batting [at the World Cup],” head coach Mike Hesson said. “He hasn’t opened the batting for us because the ability to attack in the powerplay is very important.”
Hesson said Babar could come in handy on slow pitches in Sri Lanka, where Pakistan are scheduled to play all their games, including the playoffs if they advance in the tournament.
“He [Babar] certainly has the skill to control the middle overs if required and then to feed the strike to certain players,” Hesson said. “If we’re chasing a lower score, he certainly has that ability to control a chase. … The conditions in Australia are significantly different than what we’re going to face in Sri Lanka, so we factored all those things in.”
Hesson said the selectors preferred the three fast bowlers – Shaheen Shah Afridi, Salman Mirza and Naseem Shah – after taking into account their abilities to bowl in all three T20 phases.
With the wickets likely to suit spinners, Pakistan included four spinners: Mohammad Nawaz, Khan, Abrar Ahmed and Usman Tariq.
Pakistan play their opening Group A match against the Netherlands on February 7, followed by matches against the United States (February 10), India (February 15) and Namibia (February 18).
Family members have identified Alex Jeffrey Pretti as the person who was shot dead by federal agents in the United States during an immigration raid in Minneapolis, the largest city in the state of Minnesota.
The shooting of Pretti, a 37-year-old US citizen, came as the city continues to mourn the death of another American, Renee Good, who was killed earlier this month when a federal agent fired into her vehicle.
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz condemned Pretti’s killing as part of a “campaign of organised brutality”, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged the Trump administration to end its immigration crackdown there.
The Department of Homeland Security, however, characterised the incident as an attack, saying a Border Patrol agent fired in self-defence after a man approached with a handgun and violently resisted attempts to disarm him.
Witnesses and Pretti’s family reject that claim, while bystander videos from the scene also appear to contradict the account.
Here’s what we know about Pretti and the circumstances of his death.
What happened in Minneapolis?
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters Pretti had attacked agents during the shooting, while federal officials posted an image of the gun they say the victim was carrying at the time of the shooting.
“He wasn’t there to peacefully protest. He was there to perpetuate violence,” Noem said at a news conference.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commander, Gregory Bovino, said Pretti wanted to do “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement”, while Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, described the victim as “a would-be assassin”.
But bystander videos verified by the Reuters news agency showed Pretti, holding a mobile phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who have been pushed to the ground by agents.
As the videos begin, Pretti can be seen filming as a federal agent pushes away one woman and shoves another to the ground. Pretti moves between the agent and the women, then raises his left arm to shield himself as the agent pepper-sprays him.
Several agents then take hold of Pretti – who struggles with them – and force him onto his hands and knees. As the agents pin down Pretti, someone shouts what sounds like a warning about the presence of a gun. Video footage then appears to show one of the agents removing a gun from Pretti and stepping away from the group with it.
Moments later, an officer points his handgun at Pretti’s back and fires four shots at him in quick succession. Several more shots are then heard as another agent also appears to fire at Pretti.
The agents initially all back away from Pretti’s body on the road. Some agents then seem to offer medical assistance to Pretti as he lies on the ground, as other agents keep bystanders back.
Meanwhile, two witnesses who immediately filed sworn statements before the US District Court of Minnesota said Pretti did not brandish a gun during the incident. According to the court documents, one of the witnesses, a doctor, said Pretti sustained at least three gunshot wounds in his back.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara later said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with no criminal record other than traffic violations.
Who was Alex Pretti?
Anguished family members described Pretti as a compassionate and dedicated healthcare worker who had been angered by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Pretti was working as an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis at the time of his death.
“We are heartbroken, but also very angry. Alex was a kind soul who cared deeply for his family and friends, and also the American veterans who he cared for as an ICU nurse,” his parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, said in a statement released to the media.
Michael Pretti told The Associated Press news agency that his son “was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and had taken part in the protests against the immigration raids.
“He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests,” the elder Pretti said.
At the time of his death, Alex Pretti worked as an ICU nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, according to the federal employees’ labour union AFGE [File: Michael Pretti via AP]
The family told the AP that Pretti studied at the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment. They said he worked as a research scientist before returning to school to become a registered nurse.
As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.
In their statement, the family lambasted the Trump administration’s claim that their son had attacked the officers who shot him. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” they said.
The family added that videos showed Pretti was not holding a gun when federal agents tackled him, but holding his phone with one hand and using the other to shield a woman who was being pepper-sprayed.
“Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” they said.
Meanwhile, the federal employees’ labour union AFGE said it was “deeply stricken by this tragedy” while its president, Everett Kelley, paid tribute to Pretti, saying he “dedicated his life to serving American veterans”.
“This tragedy did not happen in a vacuum. It is the direct result of an administration that has chosen reckless policy, inflammatory rhetoric, and manufactured crisis over responsible leadership and de-escalation,” Kelley said.
The American Nurses Association also said it was “deeply disturbed and saddened” by the killing, and called for a “full, unencumbered investigation” into the case. Pretti’s colleague, Dr Dmitri Drekonja, told ABC News that it was “galling and enraging” to hear the way federal officials were portraying the victim.
What’s driving the tensions in Minneapolis?
Under Trump, the Republican administration launched immigration crackdowns last year, targeting Democrat-led states and cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, saying the militarised operations were necessary to remove criminals from the US.
The crackdown in Minneapolis is the largest federal immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, according to officials, with some 3,000 agents deployed. The operation began in November, with officials tying it in part to allegations of fraud involving residents of Somali origin.
In addition to the deaths of Pretti and Good, the surge has also pitted city and state officials against the federal government and prompted daily clashes between activists and immigration officers. Amid the tensions, children are skipping school or learning remotely, families are avoiding religious services and many businesses, especially in immigrant neighbourhoods, have closed temporarily, according to media reports.
Pretti is at least the sixth person to die during ICE enforcement efforts since last year, the AP reported, and the incident was one of at least five shootings in January involving federal agents conducting anti-immigration operations, according to Reuters.
At least six people have also died in ICE detention centres since the start of 2026, following at least 30 deaths in its custody last year, a two-decade high.
From pro-Palestine protests in Ireland and jubilant celebrations in Dakar following Senegal’s African Cup of Nations football victory to demonstrations supporting the abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and United States President Donald Trump’s signing ceremony for his Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, as tensions soar back in the US state of Minnesota over another deadly shooting by a federal agent, here is a look at the week in photos.
WARNING: This report contains references to suicide.
Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett suffered heartbreak against Justin Gaethje in his quest to claim a UFC interim title as he lost on points to the American in Las Vegas.
Pimblett, 31, was as brave as he was bloodied through five action-packed rounds that had both men swinging at the final bell.
Gaethje rolled back the years for a vintage performance, forcing Pimblett to raise his game to a new level and fight fire with fire.
Both men raised their arms at the end, but the judges rightly gave 37-year-old Gaethje the victory on all three scorecards.
“Paddy is right; Scousers do not get knocked out,” Gaethje said.
“My coach was definitely upset at me after the first round, but I just love this so much, it’s really hard to control myself sometimes.
“I knew I had to put him on his back foot, he is very dangerous and has great timing. I had to steal his momentum and confidence.”
With victory, Gaethje claimed the interim lightweight title for the second time and will now face absent champion Ilia Topuria once he returns from a personal hiatus.
Pimblett applauded Gaethje as the scorecards were read out, taking the fourth loss of his career with grace.
“I wanted to be walking away with that belt. I know how tough I am and I don’t need to prove that to anyone,” Pimblett said.
“I think 48-47 was a fair scorecard. I won’t lie, he hit me with a body shot in the first round and it got me. I thought I was winning the round up to that point.
“You live and you learn; I’m 31, I will be back better.”
Pimblett also used his post-fight interview to shine a light on mental health issues as he has done before in his career.
“In a few of my post-fight interviews before, I’ve mentioned men killing themselves; two lads who I know have killed themselves over the last few months,” Pimblett said.
Polls have opened in Myanmar for the third and final round of a controversial general election, with a military-backed party on course for a landslide win amid a raging civil war.
Voting began in 60 townships, including in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay, at 6am local time on Sunday (23:30 GMT, Saturday).
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Critics say the polls are neither free nor fair, and are designed to legitimise military rule in Myanmar, nearly five years after the country’s generals ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, leading to a civil war that has killed thousands and displaced more than 3.5 million people.
Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention and, like several other opposition groups, her National League for Democracy (NLD) has been dissolved, tilting the political playing field in favour of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is leading in the polls.
So far, the USDP has secured 193 out of 209 seats in the lower house, and 52 out of 78 seats in the upper house, according to the election commission.
That means that along with the military, which is allocated 166 seats, the two already hold just under 400 seats, comfortably surpassing the 294 needed to come to power.
Seventeen other parties have won a small number of seats in the legislature, ranging from one to 10, according to the election commission.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the current military government, is widely expected by both supporters and opponents to assume the presidency when the new parliament meets.
The military has announced that the parliament will be convened in March, and the new government will take up its duties in April.
While the military has pledged that the election will return power to the people, rights monitors said the run-up was beset with coercion and the crushing of dissent, warning that the vote will only tighten the military’s grip on power.
A new Election Protection Law imposed harsh penalties for most public criticism of the polls, with the authorities charging more than 400 people recently for activities such as leafleting or online activity.
Ahead of the third round of voting, Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also called for the rejection of its outcome, calling it “fraudulent”.
“Only an illegitimate government can emerge from an illegitimate election,” he wrote on X on Saturday.
“As Myanmar’s election ends, the world must reject it as fraudulent while rejecting what follows as simply military rule in civilian clothing.”
Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamad Hasan told Parliament on Tuesday that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, did not send observers and would not certify the election, citing concerns over the lack of inclusive and free participation.
His comments were the first clear statement that the 11-member regional bloc will not recognise the election results.
In Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay, Zaw Ko Ko Myint, a 53-year-old teacher, cast his vote at a high school around dawn.
“Although I do not expect much, we want to see a better country,” he told the AFP news agency. “I feel relieved after voting, as if I fulfilled my duty.”
The previous two phases of the election have been marked by low voter turnout of about 55 percent, well below the turnout of about 70 percent recorded in Myanmar’s 2020 and 2015 general elections.
Official results are expected late this week, but the USDP could claim victory as soon as Monday.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD thrashed the USDP in the last elections in 2020, before the military seized power on February 1, 2021.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors human rights abuses in the country, at least 7,705 people have been killed since the outbreak of the civil war, while 22,745 remain detained.
But the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a monitoring group that tallies media reports of violence, estimates more than 90,000 have been killed on all sides of the conflict.
Al-Maliki remains a potent force despite longstanding claims he fuelled sectarianism and failed to stop ISIL expansion.
Published On 24 Jan 202624 Jan 2026
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Iraqi former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is on the verge of a return to power after being nominated as the country’s next premier by an alliance of Shia political blocs that hold a majority in parliament.
The Shia Coordination Framework said on Saturday that it had picked al-Maliki, leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, as its nominee for the post based on his “political and administrative experience and his role in managing the state”.
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A central figure in Iraq’s politics, the 75-year-old first became prime minister in 2006, as the country appeared to be unravelling amid a wave of violence unleashed by the United States-led invasion of 2003.
He stepped down after ISIL (ISIS) seized large parts of the country in 2014, but has remained an influential political player, leading the State of Law coalition and maintaining close ties with Iran-backed factions.
The move paves the way for negotiations aimed at forming a new government, which will need to manage powerful armed groups close to Iran, such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, while facing growing pressure from Washington to dismantle them.
Potent force
Al-Maliki was Iraq’s only two-term premier since the US-led invasion, and had, over the years, managed to appease both Tehran and Washington, becoming a powerbroker whose approval is considered indispensable to any governing coalition.
He remains a potent force in Iraqi politics despite longstanding accusations that he fuelled sectarian strife and failed to stop ISIL from seizing large areas of the country a decade ago.
The politician spent nearly a quarter of a century in exile after campaigning against the governance of former President Saddam Hussein, but returned to Iraq in the wake of the 2003 invasion that toppled the longtime leader.
He became a member of the de-Baathification commission that barred members of Saddam’s Baath party from public office.
The US-authored programme was widely blamed for fuelling the rise of post-invasion rebel groups by purging thousands of experienced civil servants who were disproportionately Sunni.
These are the key developments from day 1,431 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 25 Jan 202625 Jan 2026
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Here is where things stand on Sunday, January 25:
Fighting
Russian forces launched another major attack on Ukraine overnight on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding four in the capital, Kyiv, and leaving 1.2 million properties without power nationwide, according to officials.
Kyiv’s military administration reported strikes in at least four districts in the capital and said a medical facility was among the buildings damaged. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia targeted the capital and four regions in the country’s north and east.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the worst-affected in the capital was the northeastern suburb of Troyeshchyna, where 600 buildings were without power, water and heat.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia unleashed 375 drones and 21 missiles, including two of its rarely deployed Tsirkon ballistic missiles.
At least 30 people, including a child, were also wounded during the same attack in the country’s second-largest city of Kharkiv. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 25 drones had hit several districts in the city. Among those struck was a dormitory for displaced people and two medical facilities, including a maternity hospital, Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram late on Saturday that more than 800,000 Kyiv households were still without power, as were a further 400,000 in the Chernihiv region, north of the capital.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said more than 3,200 buildings in Kyiv remained without heating in the late evening, down from 6,000 in the morning. Night-time temperatures were hovering around -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha denounced the attack as “barbaric” in a statement posted on X. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of acting “cynically” for launching the attack amid United States-led trilateral talks on the war in the United Arab Emirates.
In Russia, Ukrainian forces launched a “massive” attack on the border region of Belgorod on Saturday, damaging energy infrastructure, but causing no casualties. Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the incident as “the most massive shelling of the town of Belgorod”.
Gladkov said the attack damaged “energy sites” and that fragments of a downed drone triggered a fire in a courtyard of a building. Reports from the area also said the shelling and sounds of explosions had gone on for some time.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had completed the takeover of the village of Starytsya in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, close to the border with Russia.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had launched six attacks on an area including Starytsya. But it made no acknowledgement that the village had been captured by Russian forces.
Diplomacy
Ukraine and Russia ended their second day of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi without a peace deal, with more talks expected next weekend, amid the massive Russian strikes across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X following the meeting that “the central focus” of the discussions was “the possible parameters for ending the war”, but he did not say if the negotiators were close to a deal.
More discussions are expected next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, according to a US official who spoke to reporters immediately after the talks. The official, who requested anonymity, said negotiators “saw a lot of respect” during the discussions, “because they were really looking to find solutions”.
The US official also voiced hopes for further talks, possibly in Moscow or Kyiv, beyond next week’s discussions in Abu Dhabi, adding that the next step would be a possible bilateral discussion between Putin and Zelenskyy, or a trilateral meeting that includes US President Donald Trump.
An unnamed UAE government spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that there was face-to-face engagement between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi – rare in the almost four-year-old war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion – and said negotiators tackled “outstanding elements” of Trump’s peace framework.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also hinted at the prospects of additional talks with Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul after negotiations in Abu Dhabi, adding that Moscow remains open to a continuation of dialogue, the Russian state RIA news agency reported.
Residents stand in line to fill bottles with drinking water, during a power blackout after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile and drone attacks in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv [Gleb Garanich/Reuters]
Real Madrid win 2-0 at third-placed Villarreal to climb past rivals Barcelona to the summit of the La Liga table.
Published On 24 Jan 202624 Jan 2026
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Kylian Mbappe netted twice to claim a 2-0 win for Real Madrid at Villarreal and take his side to the top of La Liga.
Alvaro Arbeloa’s team moved two points clear of rivals Barcelona, who host Real Oviedo on Sunday.
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La Liga’s top scorer Mbappe reached 21 goals for the season in the competition to help Madrid see off a spirited Villarreal side on Saturday, now fourth in the table.
Arbeloa’s side have won three consecutive matches across all competitions, and victory at Villarreal could be a vital step in the revival of their season.
After the shock Copa del Rey defeat at second-tier Albacete, in Arbeloa’s first match at the helm, his Madrid have started to take shape.
The coach has made clear how important his star players are, and none has been more crucial this season than Mbappe.
It was a lively but imprecise start at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica, as the game glowed but neither side was able to seriously threaten.
Georges Mikautadze lashed a volley narrowly wide after veteran forward Gerard Moreno found him with a floating cross.
At the other end, Madrid midfielder Arda Guler fired straight at Villarreal stopper Luiz Junior after some tidy footwork, and then shot high over the bar at the end of a swift break.
Villarreal’s Juan Foyth limped off hurt in a blow for the hosts, who created a good chance for Pape Gueye just before the break.
The Senegal midfielder, a champion at the Africa Cup of Nations last weekend, powered narrowly wide of the post.
Vinicius, who excelled in Madrid’s Champions League 6-1 rout of Monaco in midweek, also came close, with a rasping effort across Luiz Junior’s goal and wide.
The 25-year-old Brazil forward went a 13th straight La Liga match without scoring, but he was involved as Mbappe opened the scoring two minutes into the second half.
Vinicius came into the box from the left flank, and his low cross was blocked, but Mbappe was on hand to squeeze home his 20th league goal of the campaign from close range.
Villarreal had the better of the second half as they worked hard to pull level, but Moreno spurned their best chance by firing inches over when well-placed.
In stoppage time, Mbappe was clumsily felled by Alfonso Pedraza in the box, and the French forward cheekily dinked home the resulting penalty to seal Madrid’s victory.
I had been asked to give a key-note speech at a conference at Columbia University’s Journalism School. It was January 2002. Two planes had been flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre months earlier and you could still feel how wounded the city felt. You could read it in the faces of New Yorkers you spoke to.
In my speech I made a few opening remarks about what the United States had meant to me. “I was born 15 years after the Second World War,” I said, “in a world America made. The peace and security and increasing prosperity of the Western Europe that I was born into was in large part an American achievement.”
American military might had won the war in the west, I continued. It had stopped the further westward expansion of Soviet power.
I talked briefly about the transformational effect of the Marshall Plan, through which the United States had given Europe the means to rebuild its shattered economies, and to re-establish the institutions of democracy.
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‘I was born 15 years after the Second World War in a world America made,’ Allan Little told an audience. ‘The peace and security and increasing prosperity of the Western Europe that I was born into was in large part an American achievement’
I told the audience, composed mostly of students of journalism, that as a young reporter I had myself witnessed the inspiring culmination of all this in 1989 when I’d stood in Wenceslas Square in Prague.
Back then I’d watched, awestruck, as Czechs and Slovaks demanded an end to Soviet occupation, and to a hated communist dictatorship, so that they too could be part of the community of nations that we called, simply, “the West”, bound together by shared values, at the head of which sat the the United States of America.
I looked up from my notes at the faces of the audience. Near the front of the lecture hall sat a young man. He looked about 20. Tears were running down his face and he was quietly trying to suppress a sob.
At a drinks reception afterwards he approached me. “I’m sorry I lost it in there,” he said. “Your words: right now we are feeling raw and vulnerable. America needs to hear this stuff from its foreign friends.”
In that moment I thought how lucky my generation, and his, had been, to be alive in an era in which the international system was regulated by rules, a world that had turned its back on the unconstrained power of the Great Powers.
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Donald Trump believes the free world has been freeloading on American largesse for too long
But it was the words of one of his classmates that come back to me now. He had arrived in New York just a few days before 9/11 from his native Pakistan to study at Columbia. He likened the United States to Imperial Rome.
“If you are lucky enough to live within the walls of the Imperial Citadel, which is to say here in the US, you experience American power as something benign. It protects you and your property. It bestows freedom by upholding the rule of law. It is accountable to the people through democratic institutions.
“But if, like me, you live on the Barbarian fringes of Empire, you experience American power as something quite different. It can do anything to you, with impunity… And you can’t stop it or hold it to account.”
His words made me consider the much heralded rules-based international order from another angle: from the point of view of much of the Global South. And how its benefits have never been universally distributed, something that the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reminded an audience at Davos last week.
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Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos called for ‘the middle powers’ to act together
“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false,” that young Pakistani student admitted all those years ago.
“That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or victim.”
“Don’t you find it interesting,” he asked, “that the US, the country that came into existence in a revolt against the arbitrary exercise of [British] power is, in our day, the most powerful exponent of arbitrary power?”
He declared that Denmark had only “added one more dog sled” to defend the territory. That speaks volumes to the undisguised contempt with which he and many in his inner circle appear to hold certain European allies.
“I fully share your loathing of European freeloading,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a WhatsApp group that included Vice President JD Vance last year, adding “PATHETIC”. (He hadn’t realised that the Editor of The Atlantic magazine had apparently been added to the group chat.)
Then President Trump himself told Fox News recently that, during the war in Afghanistan, Nato had sent “some troops” but that they had “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”.
The comments provoked anger among UK politicians and veterans’ families. The UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer branded Trump’s remarks “insulting and frankly appalling”.
Sir Keir Starmer said US President Donald Trump’s remarks about Nato troops in Afghanistan were “insulting and frankly appalling”
We know from the White House’s National Security Strategy, published in December, that in his second term, Trump intends to unshackle the United States from the system of transnational bodies created, in part by Washington, to regulate international affairs.
That document spells out the means by which the United States will put “America First” at the heart of US security strategy by using whatever powers they have, ranging from economic sanctions and trade tariffs to military intervention, to bend smaller and weaker nations into alignment with US interests.
It is a strategy which privileges strength: a return to a world in which the Great Powers carve out spheres of influence.
The danger in this for what Canada’s Prime Minister called “the middle powers” is clear. “If you’re not at the table,” he said, “you’re on the menu”.
Re-interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine
In Davos last week, America’s allies, especially Canada and Europe, were laying to rest what is now commonly called the rules-based intentional order, and in some cases mourning its demise.
But, as the young Pakistani student at Colombia journalism school argued all those years ago, to large parts of the rest of the world it has not seemed, in the last 80 years, that the United States, and on occasions some of its friends, felt restrained by rules.
“After World War Two, we saw, under the so-called rules-based international order multiple interventions by the United States in Latin America,” says Dr Christopher Sabatini, Senior Research Fellow for Latin America at Chatham House.
“It’s not new. There are patterns of intervention that go all the way back to 1823. There’s a term I use for American policymakers who advocate for unilateral US intervention. I call them “backyard-istas” – those who see Latin America as their backyard.”
In 1953, the CIA, assisted by the British Secret Intelligence Services, orchestrated a coup that overthrew the government of Mohammad Mossadeq in Iran. He had wanted to audit the books of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later part of BP), and when it refused to co-operate, Mossadeq threatened to nationalise it.
For posing a threat to British economic interests, he was overthrown and Britain and the US threw their weight behind the increasingly dictatorial Shah.
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The CIA played a key role in the 1953 coup which ousted Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq
At the same time, the US was conspiring to overthrow the elected government of Guatemala, which had implemented an ambitious programme of land reform that threatened to harm the profitability of the American United Fruit Company.
Again with active CIA collusion, the left-wing president Jacobo Arbenz was toppled and replaced by a series of US-backed authoritarian rulers.
In 1983 the US invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada, after a Marxist coup. This was a country of which the late Queen, Elizabeth II, was head of state.
And the US invaded Panama in 1989, and arrested the military leader Manuel Noriega. He spent all but the last few months of his life in prison.
These interventions were all functions of the Monroe Doctrine, first promulgated by President James Monroe in 1823. It asserted America’s right to dominate the Western hemisphere and keep European powers from trying to meddle in the newly independent states of Latin America.
The post-war rules based international order did not deter the US from imposing its will on weaker neighbours.
Getty Images / Corbis
Panama’s leader Manuel Noriega was forcibly removed by US troops in 1989 and spent almost all of the rest of his life in jail
When it was announced by the fifth president of the US, James Monroe, the doctrine that bears his name was widely seen as an expression of US solidarity with its neighbours, a strategy to protect them from attempts by the European great powers to recolonise them: the US, after all, shared with them a set of republican values and a history of anti-colonial struggle.
But the Doctrine quickly became an assertion of Washington’s right to dominate its neighbours and use any means, up to and including military intervention, to bend their policies into alignment with American interests.
President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1904, said it gave the US “international police power” to intervene in countries where there was “wrongdoing”.
So could it be that President Trump’s re-interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine is simply part of a continuum in US foreign policy?
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The Monroe Doctrine was first promulgated by US President James Monroe (pictured) in 1823
“In the Guatemala coup, in 1954, that was entirely owned by the US. They orchestrated the entire takeover of the country,” says Dr Christopher Sabatini.
“The coup on Chile in 1971 [against the left-wing Prime Minister Salvador Allende] wasn’t orchestrated by the CIA but the United States said it would accept a coup.”
During the Cold War, the main motivation for intervention was the perception that Soviet-backed parties were gaining ground domestically, representing Communist advances into the Western hemisphere. In our own day, the perceived enemy is no longer Communism, but drug-trafficking and migration.
That difference aside, President Trump’s reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine “absolutely is ‘back to the future’,” says the historian Jay Sexton, author of The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth Century America.
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Guatamalan President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown by a US-backed coup in 1954
“The other thing that gives Trump’s United States a 19th century feel is his unpredictability, his volatility. Observers could never really predict what the United States would do next.
“We don’t know what the future holds but we do known from even a cursory look at modern history, from 1815 onwards [the end of the Napoleonic wars], that Great Power rivalries are really destabilising. They lead to conflict.”
Cohesion among the allies
American unilateralism may not be new. What is new is that this time, it is America’s friends and allies that find themselves on the receiving end of American power.
Suddenly, Europeans and Canadians are getting a taste of something long familiar to other parts of the world – that arbitrary exercise of US power that the young Pakistani journalism student articulated so clearly to me in the weeks after 9/11.
For the first year of his second term, European leaders used flattery in their approach to Trump. Starmer, for example, had King Charles invite him to make a second state visit to the UK, an honour no other US president in history has been granted.
The Secretary General of Nato Mark Rutte, referred to him, bizarrely, as “daddy”.
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King Charles invited Donald Trump to make a second state visit to the UK – an honour no other US president had received
But Trump’s approach to towards Europe brought him clear success.
Previous presidents, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden also believed the European allies were not pulling their weight in Nato and wanted them to spend more on their own security. Only Trump succeeded in making them act: in response to his threats, they agreed to raise their defence spending from around two per cent of GDP to five per cent, something unthinkable even a year ago.
Greenland, however, seems to have been a game-changer. When Trump threatened Danish sovereignty in Greenland, the allies began to cohere around a new-found defiance, and resolved not, this time, to bend.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney gave voice to this moment. In his pivotal speech in Davos he said this was a moment of “rupture” with the old rules-based international order – in the new world of Great Power politics, “the middle powers” needed to act together.
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Previous presidents had also believed the European allies should spend more on their own security – only Trump succeeded in making them act
It is rare, at Davos, for an audience to rise to its feet and award a speaker a standing ovation. But they did it for Carney, and you felt, in that moment, a cohesion forming among the allies.
And in an instant, the threat of tariffs lifted. Trump has gained nothing over Greenland that the US hasn’t already had for decades – the right, with Denmark’s blessing, to build military bases, stage unlimited personnel there, and even to mineral exploitation.
The challenge facing ‘middle powers’ today
There is no doubt that Trump’s America First strategy is popular with his Maga base. They share his view that the free world has been freeloading on American largesse for too long.
And European leaders, in agreeing to increase their defence spending, have accepted that President Trump was right: that the imbalance was no longer fair or sustainable.
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In June 2004 I reported on the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. There were still many living World War Two veterans and thousands of those who had crossed the Chanel 60 years earlier came back to the beaches that day – many of them from the US.
They wanted no talk of the heroism or courage of their youth. We watched them go one by one or in little groups to the cemeteries to find the graves of the young men they’d known and whom they’d left behind in the soil of liberated France.
We watched the allied heads of government pay tribute to those old men. But I found myself thinking not so much of the battles they’d fought and the bravery and sacrifices of their younger selves, but of the peace that they’d gone home to build when the fighting was over.
The world they bequeathed to us was immeasurably better than the world they’d inherited from their parents. For they were born into a world of Great Power rivalries, in which, in Mark Carney’s words, “the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must”.
This was the generation that went home to build the rules-based international order, because they had learned the hard way what a system without rules, without laws, can lead to. They wanted no going back to that.
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The world the veterans bequeathed to us was immeasurably better than the world they’d inherited from their parents, writes Allan Little
Those born in the decades after the war may have made the mistake of believing that the world could never go back to that.
And 24 years ago, as I gave my talk in a New York City still traumatised by 9/11, did I too make the mistake of thinking the post-World War Two order, underpinned, as it was, by American might, was the new permanent normal? I think I did.
For we did not foresee then a world in which trust in traditional sources of news and information would be corroded by a rising cynicism, turbo-charged by social media and, increasingly now, AI.
In any age of economic stagnation and extremes of inequality, popular trust in democratic institutions corrodes. It has been corroding not just in the US but across the western world for decades now. As such Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of Carney’s “rupture” with the post-World War Two order.
Watching those old men making their way through the Normandy cemeteries was a graphic and poignant reminder: democracy, the rule of law, accountable government are not naturally occurring phenomena; they are not even, historically speaking, normal. They have to be fought for, built, sustained, defended.
And that is the challenge from here facing what Mark Carney called “the middle powers”.
Top picture credit: AFP/Reuters
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Trump’s praise comes after UK prime minister called the US leader’s remarks ‘insulting’ and suggested he apologise.
Published On 24 Jan 202624 Jan 2026
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United States President Donald Trump has praised UK soldiers a day after receiving a rare rebuke from United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer over comments he made about European troops staying “a little off the front lines” in the war in Afghanistan.
In an apparent bid to ease tensions with Starmer, Trump took to social media on Saturday to acknowledge that 457 UK soldiers had died in Afghanistan, with many others badly wounded, describing them as being “among the greatest of all warriors”.
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“The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America!” he wrote. “It’s a bond too strong to ever be broken.”
Starmer said on Friday that Trump’s comments to US broadcaster Fox News on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, were “insulting and, frankly, appalling”.
Asked whether he would demand an apology from Trump, Starmer said, “If I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologise.”
While Trump’s response stopped short of an apology, his olive branch came after he spoke to the UK leader earlier on Saturday, according to a statement from Starmer’s office.
“The prime minister raised the brave and heroic British and American soldiers who fought side by side in Afghanistan, many of whom never returned home,” the statement said. “We must never forget their sacrifice, he said.”
King Charles’s younger son, Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, also weighed in on Friday, saying the “sacrifices” of UK soldiers during the war “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect”.
The UK was not the only NATO ally to express anger at Trump’s remarks. Other European leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron, reacted sharply on Saturday.
Alongside the US and UK forces were troops from dozens of countries, including from NATO, whose collective security clause, Article 5, had been triggered for the first time after the attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001.
More than 150 Canadians were killed in Afghanistan, along with 90 French service personnel and dozens from Germany, Italy, Denmark and other countries.
The US reportedly lost more than 2,400 soldiers.
At least 46,319 Afghan civilians died as a direct result of the 2001 invasion, according to a 2021 estimate by Brown University’s Costs of War project.
The new body will buy technology such as facial recognition on behalf of all police forces
A new national police force is being created to take over counter-terror, fraud, and criminal gang investigations.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the new National Police Service (NPS), described as a “British FBI”, would deploy “world class talent and state of the art technology to track down and catch dangerous criminals”.
It will bring the work of existing agencies such as the National Crime Agency and regional organised crime units under the same organisation, buying new technology such as facial recognition on behalf of all forces.
Mahmood said policing was stuck “in a different century” and the new body will form part of a series of police reforms she will unveil on Monday.
The NPS will cover England and Wales but be able to operate in the wider UK, setting standards and training. It will be led by a national police commissioner who will become the most senior police chief in the country.
The Home Office said local police officers have been “burdened” with tackling major crimes without adequate training, leaving them unable to address everyday offences like shoplifting and anti-social behaviour.
In the past week, the home secretary has announced a number of sweeping changes to policing, having described the current structures as “irrational”.
Counter terror policing, led by the Metropolitan Police, the National Air Service run by West Yorkshire Police, and National Roads Policing will also all be brought under the new organisation.
Intelligence and resources will be shared across different forces in stages to ensure the public receive the same level of security “no matter where they live”, the Home Office said in a statement.
The Home Office says it will also look to hire new talent outside of the force for leadership roles.
Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency, backed the new national force and said “the overall policing system is out of date. Crime has changed, technology has changed, and how we respond needs to change”.
He added: “These are threats that affect us all locally, but need a national and international response.”
Mahmood has previously said the current policing structure is “irrational”, announcing on Thursday that she intends to drastically cut police forces down from 43 to make way for 12 “mega” forces.
And on Friday, the government announced details of a licence scheme for police officers, and increased powers for ministers to intervene where police and fire chiefs are deemed to be failing.
The plans have drawn mixed reaction from senior figures in policing, with the Police Federation warning that “fewer forces doesn’t guarantee more or better policing for communities”.
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) also warned that the creation of regional forces would be expensive, time-consuming and risks separating police forces from their communities.
In November, ministers announced plans to scrap police and crime commissioners in 2028 to save at least £100m and help fund neighbourhood policing.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deployed a military radar in the Somali region of Puntland as part of a secret deal, amid Abu Dhabi’s ongoing entrenchment of its influence over the region’s security affairs.
According to the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye, sources familiar with the matter told it that the UAE had installed a military radar near Bosaso airport in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region earlier this year, with one unnamed source saying that the “radar’s purpose is to detect and provide early warning against drone or missile threats, particularly those potentially launched by the Houthis, targeting Bosaso from outside”.
The radar’s presence was reportedly confirmed by satellite imagery from early March, which found that an Israeli-made ELM-2084 3D Active Electronically Scanned Array Multi-Mission Radar had indeed been installed near Bosaso airport.
Not only does the radar have the purpose of defending Puntland and its airport from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, but air traffic data reportedly indicates it also serves to facilitate the transport of weapons, ammunition, and supplies to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), further fuelling the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
“The UAE installed the radar shortly after the RSF lost control of most of Khartoum in early March”, one source said. Another source was cited as claiming that the radar was deployed at the airport late last year and that Abu Dhabi has used it on a daily basis to supply the RSF, particularly through large cargo planes that frequently carry weapons and ammunition, and which sometimes amount to up to five major shipments at a time.
According to two other Somali sources cited by the report, Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni did not seek approval from Somalia’s federal government nor even the Puntland parliament for the installation of the radar, with one of those sources stressing that it was “a secret deal, and even the highest levels of Puntland’s government, including the cabinet, are unaware of it”.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The British Army’s next main battle tank, the Challenger 3, has successfully fired its main gun for the first time. The new tank is planned to enter service in 2027 and is further evidence of the pivot back toward armored warfare — in Europe, especially — in response to the growing threat from Russia, after many years of stagnation.
RBSL has now published a short video of manned firing trials of Challenger 3 held (with some surprise) in Scotland. The tank used, 62KK17, appeared in a photo from factory in Telford in late 2025. By my observations, it belongs to 2nd quartet of pre-production CR3s (P5 to P8). pic.twitter.com/pDNzhtg3Ds
Indeed, it has been so long since the British Army last had any kind of new main battle tank in development that the previous time that such firing trials took place was more than 30 years ago.
The milestone was announced by the Defense Equipment and Support (DE&S) branch, which handles procurement for the U.K. Ministry of Defense. The trials took place at an unnamed firing range in the United Kingdom, with the tank fully crewed.
The Challenger 3 prototype. Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
Responsible for the campaign was Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL), a joint venture between Germany’s Rheinmetall and Britain’s BAE Systems, which is developing the new tank. The gun itself is a product of Rheinmetall Waffe Munitions. This is a 120mm smoothbore L55A1 cannon that can fire both kinetic-energy anti-armor rounds and programmable multipurpose ammunition.
Ahead of the crewed trials with the Challenger 3 and RBSL personnel, the company, together with the British Army and DE&S, had undertaken remote firing of the L55A1 gun.
“Firing the vehicle first remotely and then with a crew in the turret reflects the enormous amount of work that has gone into ensuring the design is safe, robust, and ready,” explained Rebecca Richards, the managing director of RBSL.
“Seeing Challenger 3 fire successfully with a crew in the turret demonstrates just how far the program has progressed and marks a proud moment for U.K. armored vehicle development,” Richards added.
Rheinmetall – Challenger 3 contract signed
The new gun replaces the L30A1 rifled gun, of the same caliber, found in the current Challenger 2. This new weapon provides a notably greater muzzle velocity since the projectile leaves the barrel faster, it ensures an improved degree of penetration and, in some cases, extends the range.
As we have described in the past:
The gun fires single-piece ammunition, rather than the two-piece rounds that are used in the Challenger 2. A wide range of NATO-standard smoothbore ammunition is therefore available, including the DM63 and DM73, Rheinmetall’s armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds. These types of ammunition feature a long dart penetrator, which uses kinetic energy to penetrate enemy armor.
Potentially, the Challenger 3 could also fire the U.S.-made M829A4 round, another APFSDS type, but one that features a depleted uranium (DU) penetrator, denser than many penetrators made of more conventional metals, for improved armor-piercing performance. Currently, the British Army uses a DU round in the Challenger 2, the L27A1 CHARM 3.
While NATO-standard ammunition will bring logistics and cost advantages, the space requirements of the single-piece ammunition mean that the total number of rounds carried is 31, compared to 49 in the Challenger 2. The ammunition is stored in an isolated bustle compartment, at the rear of the turret, to improve survivability if the tank takes a hit.
As well as the new main gun, the Challenger 3 introduces a new optical/targeting package of the same kind that’s used in the British Army’s troubled Ajax tracked infantry fighting vehicles. This comprises the Thales Orion and Day/Night Gunner and Panoramic Sight (DNGS T3). These are part of what the manufacturer describes as a digitized turret, with an open-architecture concept, so that hardware and software upgrades will be easier to install than in the past.
In terms of protection, the Challenger 3 is equipped with a new modular armor (nMA). Using a modular system means that specific parts of the armor can be quickly removed and replaced. It also means the United Kingdom doesn’t need to buy full sets of armor for all its Challenger 3s, equipping individual tanks with nMA when they need to deploy. The nMA package includes appliqué armor for the sides of the hull and the belly.
British Army
Further protection can be provided with an active protection system (APS), although, like the nMA package, this won’t always be installed on the tanks. The United Kingdom chose the Israeli-made Trophy APS for the Challenger 3, a system that employs a radar to detect incoming projectiles before firing intercepting projectiles at them; you can read more about the system here. It is hard to envisage the Challenger 3 ever being deployed for combat without the Trophy, which would provide defense against anti-tank guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. It could also potentially be used in the future to counter lower-end drones.
TROPHY is the world’s ONLY operational APS (Previous Version – Updated Video Available)
Finally, the Challenger 3’s mobility is addressed through the Heavy Armor Automotive Improvement Project (HAAIP), which includes retrofitting an improved engine (although with no increase in power output), a new suspension, a hydraulic track tensioner, an electric cold start system, and an improved cooling system.
The Challenger 3 is being manufactured by RBSL in Telford, England, as part of a contract worth over £800 million (around $1 billion). In early 2024, it was announced that the first prototype of the tank had been completed at Telford, as TWZreported at the time.
More trials will now follow, including further crewed firing activity and reliability testing, planned for later this year.
DE&S describes the Challenger 3 as the “centerpiece of the British Army’s armored modernization program” and says that it will “deliver a step change in lethality, survivability, and digital integration.”
Other elements of this modernization program have not been proceeding entirely smoothly, however.
Earlier this year, we reported on how the British Army had suspended the use of its new Ajax fighting vehicles after dozens of soldiers became ill after riding in them. The U.K. Ministry of Defense confirmed that “around 30 personnel presented noise and vibration symptoms” following an exercise involving the tracked vehicles.
An Ajax vehicle is tested at the Armored Trials and Development Unit (ATDU) facility at Bovington in southwest England. Crown Copyright
Aside from technical issues with the Ajax, there are broader concerns about how the vehicle will be operated in relation to the Challenger 3.
In 2021, a damning report into Ajax from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British defense and security think tank, stated the following:
“If grouped within the Heavy Brigade Combat Teams alongside Challenger 3, Ajax cannot deliver infantry to the objective and cannot perform the divisional reconnaissance function. Alternatively, if made part of the Deep Recce Strike Brigade Combat Team, Ajax will struggle to be sustained operating independently. Ajax’s inability to peer-to-peer recover also makes it a poor independent unit, while its weight, complexity, and size make it hard to deploy with lighter forces, despite the British Army seeking to operate further afield with greater frequency.”
The Brigade Combat Team is the core around which the British Army will be organized, based upon wide-ranging structural changes that call for a “lethal, agile, and lean” force of around 72,500 personnel by 2025, down from 76,000 in 2021.
Deployable Brigade Combat Teams will also include Boxer wheeled armored personnel carriers and AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, among others.
Ajax (left) and Boxer (right) side by side. Crown Copyright Ajax (left) and Boxer side by side during a demonstration of British Army capabilities on the training area at Bovington Camp, England. Crown Copyright
Regardless of how the British Army fields the Ajax — provided that controversial program survives — it is also worth noting that only a relatively small number of Challenger 3s are currently envisaged. This raises questions about the British Army’s ambitions to use the tanks as a “digitized backbone” that will connect combat across the Brigade Combat Team, allowing data to be shared with different platforms in real time.
The United Kingdom currently plans to convert just 148 of its older Challenger 2s into the new version, including eight prototypes. In the past, RBSL has said that it’s technically possible to build new Challenger 3s if required.
A British Army Challenger 2, attached to the 1st Royal Regiment of Fusiliers battlegroup, in action at Camp Coyote, Kuwait, in 2003. Crown Copyright
The Challenger 2 entered British Army service in 1994 and has since been involved in combat operations in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, without loss to enemy action, according to the British Army. However, at least two examples that have been provided to Ukraine by the United Kingdom have been knocked out on the battlefield.
A video showing the first evidence of a Ukrainian Challenger 2 destroyed in Ukraine:
#Ukraine: A Ukrainian Challenger 2 tank was destroyed near Robotyne, #Zaporizhzhia Oblast. A damaged T-64BV and two destroyed IMVs can be seen too.
This is the first confirmed loss of this tank in Ukraine and is also the first one ever destroyed by enemy action. pic.twitter.com/hFWkYQ8XSV
While significant armor losses in the war in Ukraine and the emergence of new threats, such as low-cost first-person-view (FPV) drones, have raised questions about the future of the tank on the modern battlefield, it’s notable that most NATO nations have been driven to reinforce their fleets. Some countries have even returned to tanks after giving them up.
However, there have been specific concerns about the serviceability and operational readiness of the Challenger 2 fleet, which could well port over into the Challenger 3.
The Challenger 2 has long had issues regarding excessive weight. The Challenger 2 weighs 82.7 tons with add-on armor modules, compared to 73.6 tons for the U.S. Army’s M1A2 SEPv3. The Challenger 3 will be heavier than its predecessor, but its engine won’t be more powerful.
Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there was speculation that the British Army might lose its tanks altogether. With that in mind, even a relatively small number of Challenger 3s ensures that the United Kingdom remains in the tank game out to at least 2040, according to current plans.
The Senate Appropriations Committee released the text of the draft Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 Fiscal Year, which is currently consolidated with spending bills for a swath of other government agencies, earlier today. The committee also released a Joint Explanatory Statement report with additional information and Congressional guidance. The House Appropriations Committee had put out more truncated information about the proposed legislation yesterday, which only included a brief note about “enhancing investments” in F/A-XX.
A rendering Boeing has released of its F/A-XX design. Boeing
Last month, the House Armed Services Committee announced that “full funding for the Air Force’s F-47 and Navy’s F/A-XX 6th Generation Aircraft programs” was included in the separate defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for Fiscal Year 2026. However, it subsequently turned out that the legislation, which was signed into law on December 18, only authorized the “full” $74 million the Pentagon had previously requested.
F/A-XX is intended as a very stealthy replacement for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and E/A-18 Growlers currently in Navy service that will offer increased range and an array of other advancements. On top of its expected kinetic capabilities, Navy officials have talked in the past about the sixth-generation jet’s improved ability to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions and to contribute to battle space management. Serving as a flying ‘quarterback’ from uncrewed aircraft, including future carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), is also expected to be a key role for F/A-XX. You can read more about what the Navy has shared about its requirements for its Next Generation Fighter here.
“The agreement provides $897,260,000 above the fiscal year 2026 President’s budget request to continue F/A-XX development and directs the Secretary of Defense to obligate these and any prior funds for the purposes of awarding the EMD contract limited to one performer in accordance with the acquisition strategy to achieve an accelerated Initial Operational Capability (IOC),” per the Joint Explanatory Statement report released today. “The agreement supports the Navy’s efforts to develop the F/A-XX sixth generation fighter and understands the program’s unique capability in delivering air superiority to the fleet, including greater operational range, speed, stealth, and enhanced survivability.”
The full text of the F/A-XX section in the Joint Explanatory Statement released today. Senate Appropriations Committee
It is worth noting that the Senate Appropriations Committee had previously moved to add $1.4 billion to the Fiscal Year 2026 defense budget for F/A-XX. That figure aligned directly with a call for additional funding for the program that the Navy had reportedly included in its annual Unfunded Priority List (UPL) sent to Congress last year.
“The agreement notes the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 provided $453,828,000 to align to the program’s acquisition schedule which assumed a March 2025 award for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD),” the statement adds. “However, rather than proceeding with a Milestone B award, the Department expended nearly all fiscal year 2025 funding on contract extensions with minimal demonstrated value to the program.”
“Further, the Secretary of the Navy is directed, not later than 45 days after the enactment of this Act, to submit a report to the congressional defense committees that details: (1) the current acquisition strategy and updated schedule for awarding the EMD contract; (2) a revised development and fielding, imeline for the F/A-XX program to meet IOC; (3) any programmatic, budgetary, or policy barriers that have delayed execution of prior-year funds; and (4) a spend plan for the active year additional funds that have been appropriated to the Department of Defense for this program,” it continues.
In addition, the text of the draft legislation includes an explicit provision that compels the Secretary of Defense to obligate funding “for the purpose of executing the engineering and manufacturing development contract for the Next Generation Fighter aircraft in a manner that achieves accelerated Initial Operational Capability.” It blocks the use of any funding appropriated for F/A-XX to “pause, cancel, or terminate” the program, as well.
The full text of the section on F/A-XX in the draft defense appropriations bill. Senate Appropriations Committee
House and Senate appropriators had already expressed their displeasure over the Pentagon’s decision regarding F/A-XX last year.
“The [House Appropriations] Committee is deeply concerned by the Navy’s declining investment in strike fighter aircraft, particularly at a time when carrier air wings are sustaining high operational tempo across global theaters,” lawmakers wrote in another report last June. “This shortfall comes as the People’s Republic of China is rapidly out-producing the United States in advanced fighters and threatens to surpass U.S. air superiority in the Indo-Pacific, as the Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command recently testified. China’s continued advancements in carrier aviation underscores the urgent need to modernize and enhance the Navy’s carrier air wing.”
It is worth remembering that the U.S. Air Force considered cancelling the program that led to the F-47. The service ultimately decided not to after assessing that the next-generation fighter would be essential for ensuring U.S. air superiority in future conflicts, especially high-end fights like one against China in the Pacific.
A rendering of the F-47 that the US Air Force has released. USAF
Despite the Pentagon’s desire to put F/A-XX on hold, the Navy has continued to argue very publicly in favor of moving ahead with the program as planned, too.
“It’s my job to inform the secretary of war’s team about that imperative,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, told members of the press at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in December, according to Breaking Defense. “I’m part of those discussions, but my job is to pressurize that decision because the warfighting imperative, I think, is there, and I’m trying to build a compelling case to get that decision made quickly.”
“Does it need to be done at [sic] a cost-effective way? Does it need [to] be done [in a way] that doesn’t clobber our other efforts? Does it need to be done so it actually delivers in the relevant time frame? Yes,” Caudle had also said at the forum, according to Aviation Week. “So hopefully some of this acquisition reform and production improvement can help us get those decisions.”
“I do think there’s a commitment for us to deliver this capability,” Michael Duffey, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said separately at the Reagan National Defense Forum, per Aviation Week. “There’s an interest to make sure that we can, from our standpoint, [ensure] that the industrial base is able to support it, and I think we’ll be working through that question as quickly as we can.”
Executives from both Boeing and Northrop Grumman have publicly said they are ready to move ahead with F/A-XX if chosen. Boeing has more explicitly pushed back on the idea that the U.S. industrial base cannot simultaneously support work on F/A-XX and the F-47.
Another rendering the Air Force has released of the F-47. USAF
Navy Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces, and more commonly referred to as the service’s “Air Boss,” also told TWZ he was still “eagerly awaiting” F/A-XX back in August.
In the meantime, the Trump administration has made major calls recently regarding major Navy programs, some of them controversial, while FA-XX, seen by some as essential to winning a fight in the Pacific and making the best use of America’s very costly carrier force, has remained in purgatory. These have included cancelling the Constellation class frigate in favor of a design with a similar armament package to the service’s current Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and embarking on what could be a gargantuan investment in building huge new ‘battleships.’ These decisions will have their own impacts on the Navy’s budget priorities going forward that could impact other efforts.
The House and Senate do still have to pass the consolidated spending bills, and there is always the possibility of last-minute changes. Afterward, President Donald Trump would then have to sign the final version of the legislation into law, as well.
Still, and despite not having done so with the NDAA in December, Congress now looks very much poised to save F/A-XX from being gutted and to compel officials to finally pick a winning design to be the Navy’s next-generation carrier-based fighter.
