plans

Last week, a British bomb disposal robot roamed the area near the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Fairford and 85 homes were evacuated as the threat of an attack appeared imminent.

Days later, the United States speedily sent B-1 bombers stationed there, which were used to strike Iran in its ongoing war, back home. About a dozen had been stationed at the air base.

The foiled incident resulted in no charges and the release of five suspects, and subsequently a separate British-Iranian suspect. But the US cited concerns about more potential attacks for its decision to withdraw its fleet. Tehran has denied any link to the alleged plot to target the base.

RAF Fairford was a pit stop for US bombers during the war – but more importantly, it allowed Washington to rapidly unleash intensive strikes on Iran, say analysts.

They added that their withdrawal reduces Washington’s ability to rapidly generate and sustain bombing missions, but it will not prevent the US from continuing to strike Iran.

“The United States has lost a convenient launchpad, not its underlying strike capability,” Dania Thafer, executive director of the Gulf International Forum and a lecturer at Georgetown University, told Al Jazeera.

Long bombing campaigns made more demanding

The analysts were in agreement that the British base gave the US a faster and more efficient way to sustain strikes on Iran.

The bombers at the Fairford base were officially stationed there for defensive strikes – at the behest of the UK government – and likely had a modest targeting list, said Christoph Bergs, an analyst at the world’s oldest defence and security thinktank, the Royal United Services Institute.

“Their withdrawal reduces the capacity to quickly surge sorties against Iran, reducing the threat level somewhat,” Bergs told Al Jazeera.

Thafer explained that while the loss of the bombers does not remove the US’s ability to strike or escalate, “depending on where other assets are positioned, it could make a prolonged bombing campaign more demanding”.

The removal of B-1 bombers imposes a number of tactical costs, says Arun Dawson. He is a PhD candidate at King’s College London’s Freeman Air and Space Institute and a researcher with the UK Nuclear Deterrence Network.

Unlike the more modern B-2 stealth bomber designed to make enemy tracking difficult – which has also previously been stationed at RAF Fairford – “the B-1’s principal advantage is its conventional weapons payload – the largest of any aircraft in the US military”, Dawson told Al Jazeera. The B-1 carries at least 34 tonnes of ordnance, he said.

“This makes the B-1 particularly effective at delivering large volumes of precision-guided weapons against multiple targets during a prolonged air campaign,” said Dawson.

“In the Iran war, those targets may include air-defence infrastructure, ballistic missile sites and IRGC facilities,” he added, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

With the B-1s withdrawing, the US may now have to rely more heavily on longer-range missions from the US or other distant bases, increasing flight times, crew fatigue and the need for aerial refuelling, he explained.

Still, the US may have made the withdrawal decision based on an examination of risks, said Dawson.

“Their abrupt departure suggests that specific threats may have been directed at the aircraft, their crews or the base itself,” he said.

Washington may have also calculated that temporarily withdrawing the bombers could protect it for future operations, especially if the US does not expect the Iran war to intensify any time soon, said Dawson.

For David Des Roches, a professor at the Thayer Marshall Institute and a former Pentagon official, the B-1 withdrawal suggests that the risks outweighed the benefits of keeping the jets at the UK airbase.

The security incident last week “exposed a vulnerability” as the aircraft were “out in the open” and only about 300 yards (275 metres) from where the public could see them.

“So they were very vulnerable to, say, drone attacks or other kind[s] of mortar attacks,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Just a small drone or any kind of a drone with explosives on board could conceivably cause significant damage,” said Des Roches.

The former Pentagon official acknowledged that the deployment of the US bombers means “you lose a little bit of operational ability,” but said that given the threat seen at Fairford, “we should have had overhead cover for all of our aircraft, globally, years ago”.

Can the bombers go elsewhere?

The US has two potential options if the bombers are to be redeployed: to Diego Garcia, the remote coral atoll in the central Indian Ocean hosting both a US and UK military base; or to its many US bases in the Gulf.

Thafer pointed out that Diego Garcia offers greater protection from potential Iranian attacks, but requires longer flight distances.

Rerouting the bombers to Diego Garcia will also depend on how quickly additional aircraft can be folded into the local basing infrastructure, pointed out Bergs.

Stationing them in the Gulf closer to Iran would give them the advantage of shortened transit times, reduced tanker requirements and the ability to generate sorties more rapidly, said Dawson.

But basing in the Gulf region, the analysts agreed, will require more deliberate negotiations around risk mitigation, given that these countries have taken the brunt of Iranian counterstrikes throughout the war. They also want to avoid being seen as direct participants in a US campaign against Iran.

Fairford had therefore offered a “useful” middle ground between the two options, said Thafer.

But with Fairford no longer an option, Diego Garcia would be the more obvious choice, Dawson said, offering not only greater distance from Iran but also a more secure operating environment. It has infrastructure designed to support large-scale US air operations, he said.

US capabilities in the war ahead

For now, the withdrawal appears to blunt rather than eliminate US bombing capacity against Iran.

However, the practical impact on US military options will depend largely on whether the administration sees a need for such strikes now, or whether the threat posed by similar aircraft stationed at Diego Garcia is sufficient for the time being, said Bergs.

The expected arrival of the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the Makin Island Marine Expeditionary Force to the Middle East by November, meanwhile, will add significant US carrier-based air power in the region, said Dawson.

“Aircraft for aircraft, carrier fighters cannot substitute for the B-1’s enormous payload, but there are many more of them, giving commanders additional options for shorter-range strikes,” he said.

What this episode highlights, said the researcher, is the importance – and the vulnerability – of the US’ alliances and overseas basing.

Washington has long enjoyed access to a global network of military facilities – which has been key for its ability to project power rapidly and at scale, he said.

But if those bases face attacks or political restrictions – the implications would extend beyond the Iran war, warned Dawson.

They would affect “how the US military structures its forces, distributes its assets, generates combat power and sustains operations overseas”.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has scrapped controversial plans to curb some jury trials.

Sir Keir Starmer’s government had introduced proposals to allow judges to make the sole decision on cases that would lead to a sentence of less than three years.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said only complex fraud and financial offences would be judge-alone – and it proposes that thousands of medium-level crimes should stay with volunteer magistrates, who sit without a jury.

Justice Secretary Alex Norris said he had changed course came after hearing the “strength of feeling”. Criminal lawyers have welcomed the decision and the Conservatives say it is a “major victory” for those who fought to defend trial by jury.

Former Justice Secretary David Lammy first announced the plans in December following a recommendation in a major review of the court system in England and Wales.

The series of radical reforms, including scaling back jury trials, were presented as the best way of turning around record backlogs which, in turn, were exacerbating the prison population crisis.

The backlog – which has led to record delays for defendants and victims – currently stands at nearly 81,000 cases – having rocketed largely thanks to cuts before the pandemic and court closures during the national lockdowns. Official projections have estimated it could reach 100,000 before the next general election and, in a worst case scenario, climb to double that number by 2035.

There are, however, indications the backlog is now stabilising after the government committed unlimited funding to pay for more judges to sit in courts that were otherwise being unused.

Under the original plans, Lammy had wanted to reserve jury trials for the most serious “indictable” offences – meaning cases that are always sent to Crown Court, including murder and rape.

Less serious offences, where the sentence would be no more than three years, would be decided without a jury in the Crown Court by a judge alone. Even less serious offences would stay in magistrates’ courts, abolishing defendants’ right to ask for a trial by jury when they feel that is their best chance of beig cleared.

The proposals triggered an outcry across many parts of the criminal justice world, with many opponents saying that eroding the 800-year-old right to trial by jury would not solve the backlogs.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is set to spend $233 million to defeat candidates in this fall’s congressional midterm elections who speak out against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warned US Senator Bernie Sanders, Anadolu reports.

The top pro-Israel lobbying firm in the US “plans to spend $233 million to defeat candidates who dare to speak out against Netanyahu’s extremist government,” Sanders said on US social media platform X on Friday.

“They spent $33 million to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan primary. They lost. They are going to keep losing,” he said.

El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate in this year’s senatorial race in the state of Michigan, strongly opposes unconditional US military aid for Israel and has criticized the Netanyahu government’s policies in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

READ: Former Israeli premier accuses Netanyahu of preparing ground for war that could delay elections

Sanders added: “NO MORE U.S. MILITARY AID FOR ISRAEL.”

In the Nov. 3 US congressional midterms, polls show Democrats broadly favored to win the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.

As the US electorate’s view of Israel has soured, especially in light of the genocide in Gaza, many Democrats running for office this year have taken a harder line against the policies of the Netanyahu government and what many see as its efforts to displace Palestinians and frustrate any hope for peace in the Middle East.

READ: US senator urges Congress to cut off funding for Iran war

IT’S GOOD news for travellers in the north as a regional airport left abandoned for four years is set to reopen.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport closed back in 2022 after becoming “commercially unviable” and has been left empty since.

But now the airport is set to reopen to passengers in 2028 as part of a £193million project.

The airport is home to one of the longest runways in Europe, measuring 2,893 metres, which means it could host big jets for long-haul routes.

Before it closed, the regional airport acted as a gateway to Europe for those living in the north.

Airlines that used to fly from the airport included TUI and Wizz Air.

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However, no airlines have been confirmed for the airport yet.

Christian Foster, Director of FlyDoncaster – the company set up to manage the airport – told Sun Travel: “It does feel like the world has changed post-Covid, whereas people were focused two weeks in Spain or Greece, nowadays we’re seeing a lot of people keen to take city breaks.

“We’d love to fly to places like Croatia, and other destinations that are a bit more quirky like Azerbaijan.

“We’re keen to look at emerging places to visit as well, like India.“

Inside, there are plans to fill the airport terminal with local businesses instead of your usual Costa or Starbucks.

There would be a mixture of restaurants, bars and shops.

Back in July, the airport also gained approval was given by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to move forward with a public consultation.

During the public consultation, locals can express their opinions on the reopening of the airport before October 4.

In the airport’s latest update, three fire appliances have also been ordered for the airport ahead of its reopening next year and before welcoming passengers in 2028.

EUROPE is home to a theme park you might not have heard of, but was named one of the best in the world – and it’s about to get some huge upgrades.

Futuroscope in France is often overlooked by its busier neighbour Disneyland Paris.

Yet earlier this year, it was named one of Europe’s best theme parks by Blooloop and was even dubbed the equivalent to Universal Studios in Europe”.

Celebrating its 40th birthday next year – it opened in 1987 – it has since announced huge new multi-million plans.

Called Vision 2025, the €304million (£260million) masterplan has already included the Aquascope waterpark, three rides and and two themed hotels.

One of the biggest upcoming investments will be a fourth hotel at the park, with a science fiction theme throughout.

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The four-star hotel is currently under construction, with 240 rooms randing from premium to suites.

A 400-seat restaurant, an 120-seat bar and a huge spa area are all part of the plans too.

Guests will be able to access the park directly via a pedestrian bridge when it opens.

An official opening date and prices are yet to be confirmed.

Olivier Héral, Creative Director, said it will be a “spectacular and immersive hotel, designed as a world unto itself, where architecture, scenography and services tell a true story”.

Also new next year will be ATHOS, a new IMAX film at the park’s Kinemax.

The new Dance with the Robots attraction will see 10 robots dancing to music, while others include the illusion show Imagine, Live Show.

But there are also some exciting new additions to the park this year too.

From December 5, the new Magical Nights parade will launch with five floats and 23 artists.

In the mean time, there is still loads of things to do with 40 rides and attractions.

This includes the Aquascope indoor waterpark, which have eight slides and a lazy river with four themed universes – and even an “aquatic cinema”.

One visitor previously said:  “Aquascope is a kind of aquatic nightclub crossed with a James Cameron film.“

HEATHROW Airport bosses have warned plans for a third runway could be delayed by four years due to major planning rows.

The Government’s ambition had been to see flights take off from a new runway in London by 2035.

But airport bosses are believed to have told ministers that the deadline is not possible and won’t be ready until 2039, reports The Times.

The initial target had been set by then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves in January 2025 – but it was considered an ambitious goal at the time.

Ms Reeves used a major speech on infrastructure to announce the Government would be supporting the third runway project as a means of growing the economy, and also said it would create 100,000 jobs.

But London Heathrow has said they aim to “secure planning permission” by 2029 and “once achieved, the runway will be open within a decade”.

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Its bosses believe it could be delivered more quickly, but that this may require further regulatory red tape to be removed beyond reforms that the Government has already made to planning law.

A spokesperson said: “It’s right that ambitious targets were set; the sooner expansion begins, the sooner the whole UK will benefit. Our focus has always been to secure planning permission by 2029.

“Once achieved, the runway will be open within a decade – and the benefits of expansion can be felt from today. At least 108,000 new jobs and billions invested in supply chains in every part of the country.

“This is a national project, 100% privately financed, which will support growth today and secure the UK’s position in the global economy once the runway opens.”

Meanwhile, the Department for Transport said the timeline for the plans “has always been ambitious”.

Gary Smith, General Secretary of GMB, said: “This is a deliverable, workable and practical timeline for Heathrow expansion that unlocks over 100,000 jobs.

“We need to put an end to decades of talk and lost benefits for working people across the country and get cracking.”

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander insisted the project could go ahead in a way that would not fall foul of climate change commitments.

The Climate Change Committee, the expert panel that advises the Government, said earlier this month the expansion of Heathrow airport cannot go ahead unless the aviation industry is forced to clean up its emissions.

The cost of international flights might have to increase by hundreds of pounds by 2050 to pay for measures that will help the airline sector cut its carbon pollution to zero overall, known as net zero, the committee said.

Ms Alexander told the Daily Telegraph the committee had set out “one view” but there was “more than one pathway to meeting our climate mate change obligations”.

“We do remain committed to net zero, and we’re updating some of our wider decarbonisation plans in transport as well,” she said.

“But the UK’s climate change targets are ultimately economy-wide targets, and we really need to look holistically at how emissions are reduced across the economy as a whole.”

She said an expanded Heathrow could be “the country’s front door” to tourists from China and India.

The Heathrow proposals involve building a 3,500-metre runway and requires a new M25 tunnel and bridges to be built 130 metres west of the existing motorway.

It is estimated to cost £33 billion, including £1.5 billion on re-routing the motorway which would also see nearby villages demolished.

The government had previously rejected a proposal from Arora Group, led by hotel tycoon Surinder Arora, to build the third runway.

The Arora plan had proposed a shorter, 2,800-metre runway that would not require diverting the M25.

The new 3,500 metre runway will be in the northwest of the airport, and will eventually welcome up to 276,000 new flights a year.

This takes the annual flights from 480,000 to 756,000, with as many as 30 new flight routes a day.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “There is currently no live planning application for a third runway, and we cannot comment on ongoing consultation processes or prejudice them in a way that will only delay progress.

“The timeline has always been ambitious.

Germany – a fellow Nato ally – pledged to permanently station a combat-ready brigade in Lithuania in 2023 as a response to the changing security situation in Europe.

It is expected to be operational by 2027 and to number about 5,000 soldiers and civilian employees, though it has failed to recruit enough personnel voluntarily and is now turning to compulsory assignments to fill some positions.

The majority of troops will be based in Rūdninkai, near the Suwałki Gap – a line that borders Lithuania and Poland and also links Belarus with Russia’s Kaliningrad.

Nato said that as of December last year it had more than 5,000 troops stationed in Lithuania.

The origins of last week’s drone incident over Lithuania have not been confirmed, however Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas told Newshour that it had come from the direction of Belarus.

UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Thanks to the swift and professional actions of Lithuanian and Italian forces, Nato once again demonstrated our readiness to protect our airspace.

“We stand united, around the clock, in defence of every inch of Nato territory.”

Moscow did not comment on the incident.

Military drone incursions have become increasingly common across Europe since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale of invasion of Ukraine.

Residents in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius were also forced to take shelter in May after a drone alert was triggered, briefly grounding flights and rail travel.

Nato jets have scrambled multiple times to shoot down stray Ukrainian drones that have crossed into fellow Baltic countries Estonia and Latvia this year.

Ukraine has blamed the stray drones on Russian electronic warfare, technology designed to change the flight paths of Ukrainian drones.

Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia all joined Nato in 2004, becoming signatories to the Article 5 provision that states “an armed attack against one Nato member shall be considered an attack against all members”.

The United States wants a new “notification mechanism” with China to warn each other when an artificial intelligence incident becomes serious enough to threaten national security.

The proposal, effectively an “AI hotline”, was discussed on Sunday during talks in New York between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington this week.

The two leaders are expected to consider establishing a broader US-China dialogue on AI, including the proposed notification system, around which details remain limited.

The initiative comes amid an intensifying contest for AI supremacy between the world’s top two economies, together with increasing warnings from tech giants that guardrails are necessary around the ever-growing technology.

So, what do we know about this so-called hotline, and where is the AI battle between the US and China headed?

What did the US say about this mechanism?

US Treasury Secretary Bessent said Washington had proposed creating a US-China AI dialogue, with particular focus on national security and a notification system covering “common goals and common threats”.

“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent told reporters after Sunday’s discussions.

Trump’s science and technology adviser Michael Kratsios told Fox News on Sunday that the “key thing” Washington wants to discuss is “avoiding shared risks”.

Exactly what would trigger a notification has not been publicly revealed.

“The US and China absolutely need to be able to share information with each other as threats evolve. This seems like an obvious win for both sides,” Scott Singer, co-director of the China AI Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera.

“The relationship needs guardrails to keep citizens of both countries safe, and this is a productive first step.”

How did China respond?

Beijing has so far said very little.

China’s official Xinhua news agency acknowledged that He and Bessent discussed issues related to AI, but did not say whether Beijing had accepted Washington’s proposed notification mechanism.

Xinhua said the officials held “frank, in-depth and constructive exchanges” on economic and trade issues.

He and China’s chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang left Sunday’s talks without speaking to reporters.

What other ‘hotlines’ do the US and China have?

The proposed AI mechanism would not be the first time a special crisis channel was established between Washington and Beijing.

In 1997, former US President Bill Clinton and his then Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin agreed to create a “direct secure telephone link” between their respective countries.

The two countries have had a military hotline since 2008, designed to allow senior defence officials to communicate during potentially dangerous incidents. It gives both sides 48 hours to respond, though US officials have complained that sometimes no one picks up.

After the US shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in 2023, then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought a call with his Chinese counterpart, but Beijing declined the request.

Why now, and what concerns are there around AI?

Earlier this month, Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei warned in an essay that AI capabilities have been advancing rapidly, and he proposed pacing the development of frontier models to give governments and researchers more time to manage their risks.

“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails,” he wrote.

His assertions were endorsed by his rivals – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly argued that the US must maintain its advantage over China and has resisted calls from technology executives for a slowdown in AI development. He has said that “whoever wins AI, wins”.

Carnegie Endowment’s Singer does not expect the “fierce competition for AI to slow down”.

“It has the potential to confer tremendous economic and strategic advantage to both countries. But even competitors can find space to cooperate,” he noted.

“Competition and cooperation can coexist. The key for right now is for both sides to act in their own self-interest. Finding some basic areas for cooperation flows very naturally from that.”

Where is the US-China AI war headed?

The US remains ahead in several of the most important features of the AI race, but China has been closing the gap.

American companies continue to dominate private investment and production of leading AI models. According to Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index Report, US companies invested $285.9bn in AI in 2025, compared with $12.4bn in China.

The US also has an advantage in the most advanced semiconductors needed to train cutting-edge models.

However, Chinese companies have demonstrated that they can produce resilient AI models despite US restrictions on their access to the most advanced AI chips.

In January, the release of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek made headlines after it was built using only a fraction of the money its competitors had spent on their own AI programmes. Share prices of US tech companies plummeted.

China possesses advantages in other areas of the AI supply chain, most notably in the production of critical rare earth minerals used in advanced technology and in generating more than twice as much electricity as the US, giving it access to the huge amounts of relatively cheap power needed to operate AI data centres.

What is the Xi-Trump summit about?

Xi’s state visit to the US will take place from Wednesday to Friday, with Trump expected to welcome him at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Trump has said he expects to discuss “almost everything” with the Chinese leader.

Trade remains a central issue, with Beijing and Washington having yet to reach a lasting settlement on tariffs, which have dominated Trump’s relationship with China in his second term as president.

Last month, Trump’s White House accused dozens of countries of helping China to illegally bypass US tariffs.

Meanwhile, the US Congress last week passed a bill that gives Trump sweeping powers to impose sanctions on Russia’s crude exports as well as steep tariffs on buyers of Russian energy, a measure that will impact Moscow’s biggest customers, China and India.

Trump’s war with Iran is also expected to feature. Beijing ranks among Iran’s key economic allies, purchasing a large share of Tehran’s oil exports and attempting to broker an end to the near seven-month-old US-Israel war on Iran.

Other long-standing disputes hang over the summit, including China’s dominance of rare-earth supplies and Taiwan.

The US AI proposal could represent a rare area where the two rivals may find a way to hammer out a deal, experts say.

“I think establishing a permanent channel exclusively focused on AI would genuinely be a major victory. AI has been caught up in the broader ebbs and flows of the US-China relationship, and the 2024 dialogue failed because frontier AI risks got mixed in with other issues,” Singer said.

“This time looks like it might be different, and having an AI risk channel is a necessary precondition to mutually beneficial cooperation.”

Faced with a growing threat to their bases and personnel from missiles and drones and some recent hard-learned lessons, two top Air Force officials on Monday announced plans to increase protection. The statements were made during the Air & Space Forces Air, Space and Cyber Symposium that TWZ is attending. They were delivered as the service is seeking to improve its organic ability to defend its bases and has developed new doctrine to do so. 

The war against Iran exposed gaps in how the U.S. can provide effective, sustained air defenses for its foreign installations and there are major concerns about a future fight against a peer competitor like China or Russia. Drone incursions at home have raised alarms about domestic base protection as has the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The following video shows a fatal Iranian attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan in July.

“For decades, American air and space power has often operated from a position of sanctuary. Those days are over,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach said during a keynote speech. “We can no longer treat point defense as a side hustle. We must make it a core function of air and space power.”

He acknowledged the widespread damage Iran caused to U.S. bases and suggested that lack of base defense played a large role.

“So, if we had more robust base defense, perhaps those bases wouldn’t have been as damaged as they were,” the general admitted. “Look at Israel; they have a significantly layered, very robust defense of their country, and they didn’t take that many hits. Very few, in fact, and that shows you what a good defensive system can do, which can help you to operate not quite with impunity, but almost, and you can just keep generating air power, and your defensive systems take care of the incoming.”

Wilsbach offered some concrete suggestions about how to make improvements. 

“First, we will establish the point defense weapon system, bringing together kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities to secure our air bases,” the general said. He did not offer any specifics. 

While Wilsbach offered no details about what a point defense weapons system would entail, we recently wrote that the Air Force is seeking an anti-aircraft gun system to help defend its air bases around the world from drones and cruise missiles. Introduced via a Request for Information (RFI) recently posted on the government’s contracting website, the gun system concept is part of a larger Air Force effort to play a greater role in air base defense via ground-based air defenses (GBADs). This role is largely performed by the U.S. Army, most notably with surface-to-air missile systems like Patriot and the Humvee-based Avenger system. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system can also provide broader area defense against incoming ballistic missiles. Other short-range systems optimized to swat down drones and even incoming rockets include the Centurion Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) system, Coyote counter-drone interceptors and more.

The Air Force currently has no such systems. Now it is set on changing that.

The Air Force is also looking at directed energy weapons like lasers for force protection and especially for defending bases overseas. While gaining traction across the services due in large measure to the much lower cost of delivering effects, these systems are still works in progress.

It’s one thing to have equipment, but another to have experts that know how to use it, Wilsbach noted.

“Second, we have established a new career field of point defense airmen,” he added. “This new career field will be operational in two years. Together, these two new initiatives will strengthen our defenses, reinforce our ability to generate air and space power under fire, and protect our greatest advantage: our airmen and guardians.”

“Protecting the force and generating combat power are inseparable,” Wilsbach explained. “We need our airmen trained, equipped, and ready to fight from the opening moments of a conflict.”

“Don’t you think we ought to have them at every base?” he suggested when asked about point defenders during a media engagement at the symposium. “Because if every base is going to be threatened, we have to have somebody that knows how to defend it. So, obviously, that’s a long-term objective. But what I’ll tell you for right now is we’re going to develop the career field and push it forward to the critical bases that need protecting most, and then we’ll expand it beyond there.”

Though he wants the Air Force to come up with new defensive systems and personnel with the know-how to operate them, Wilsbach is not quite as sold on building out hardened aircraft shelters (HAS). This is his long-standing position that he reiterated on Monday.

“If you know where you’re going to fight from, hardened shelters aren’t that bad of an idea,” the general posited. “Deeply buried are even better. But if you are like us, and we don’t necessarily know where we’re going to fight from, if you build a hardened shelter and you don’t happen to be there, then you perhaps wasted that money.”

“So, given a resource-constrained environment, I would like to put my dollars in systems that can go anywhere in the world and protect you with basically the same level of security by shooting down incoming rounds versus making a hardened shelter that is impervious to an attack,” Wilsbach explained. “You have to put it 200 or 300 feet underground. Any hardened shelter that you show me that’s above the ground, I can blow up. So unless it’s really deeply buried, and then if it is, it’s expensive. And so that’s my logic: the best bang for the buck.”

To speed up the fielding of defensive systems, the service is interested in building out a procurement process specifically designed to develop weapons and other equipment needed to defend bases.

“How do you make sure that [airmen] have the kit they need to do the job?” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink asked rhetorically at a separate symposium session.

The Air Force, he said, is considering creating a new base defense Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE). The service created PAEs at the beginning of the year as part of an overhaul of its acquisition process ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. 

“The creation of PAEs is a central element of that direction,” according to an Air Force memo on the topic. “By organizing acquisition leadership around portfolios of capability, rather than discrete programs alone, the Department seeks to improve integration, decision speed, and outcome-focused execution across the acquisition enterprise.”

Meink acknowledged that there are challenges to creating a new PAE, most notably the overhead cost of establishing a new office with its associated personnel and infrastructure.

“Probably not going to do it right away, but obviously I think we’re on a path to something like that in the future,” the secretary suggested. “But there definitely has to be a continually increasing focus on making sure we can defend our airmen and guardians wherever they are in the world. This is not just an overseas problem; it’s a U.S. problem as well.”

Though we have been raising the alarm for years about the need for domestic base protection, the issue came into sharp focus in December 2023 after Langley Air Force Base in Virginia was beset by mysterious drone incursions for much of that month. The nature of those flights, which we were the first to report, remains publicly unknown. Since then there have been incursions at several other bases in the U.S., including Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, home of B-52 Stratofortress bombers and nuclear weapons storage facilities, and a key part of the airborne leg of America’s nuclear triad. There have also been numerous incursions over U.S. bases in Europe, many of which we were the first to report.

As we noted earlier in this story, the U.S. is already facing a challenge defending against Iranian threats. A war with China would be more devastating and, when it comes to the Air Force protecting its bases, require more robust defenses and a lot more of them at many more locations. At the same time, the Air Force is still very early in the process of taking on more responsibility for protecting its assets.

Meanwhile, the Army has its issues when it comes to air defense. Its existing Patriot battalions have already been shown to be worryingly inadequate to meet heavy existing operational demands, something TWZ has been calling attention to for years now. We have also been raising concerns for a long time about its lack of SHORADS.

For the Air Force, recognizing the problem and taking steps to fix it are important steps. Whether these are the right approaches is something we will keep an eye on.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

A HUGE estate with beautiful grounds, tea room and even a museum could be set to completely transform.

Waterperry Gardens in Oxford has submitted plans for a complete change-up including the building of a brand-new tea room additions to the courtyard.

Waterperry Gardens is a popular spot thanks to its beautiful ornamental gardens, award-winning tea rooms, garden shop, gift barn, gallery and museum.

It even has an outdoor amphitheatre for opera, theatre and music with performances through the summer months.

It’s visited year-round thanks to its various flower and plant displays with lots saying it’s still worth a trip out of season in autumn.

One visitor said: “We have visited Waterperry several times and in the early autumn the aster borders are at their best.”

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Another added: “Lovely little place. Great gardens (even in late October there was still plenty of colour). Nice cafe. Good shop and gallery.”

A third wrote: “This is difficult to describe how wonderful these gardens are. Even at the beginning of September they were full of bloom.”

But the Waterperry Gardens could well transform as it submits plans to build a brand new home for its tea room – and reconfigure the site.

The plans say “there is an urgent need to replace the existing catering building with a new facility that serves both the current and future needs of the site“.

The building which houses the tearooms was a former laboratory which has “exceeded its lifespan.”

A new design by Cowper Griffith Architects revealed a much brighter building with large windows.

Other plans include relocating the car park to the west of the picnic lawn and seating on a courtyard between the museum and the new building.

These proposals are currently in its consultation period – so there’s plenty of time to see Waterperry Gardens as it is now.

Anyone visiting will definitely want to pop into its award-winning tea room.

Last year it won Afternoon Tea of the Year 2025 by the Garden Centre Catering Awards.

At lunchtimes it serves up jacket potatoes , soups, salads and homemade cakes.

It also has two afternoon tea options; Waterperry Tea or Celebration Tea.

Each comes with a selection of cakes, homemade jam, scones and clotted cream, sandwiches and mini vegetarian quiche tart, along with loose leaf tea, coffee or Prosecco.

Visitors can also pop into its on-site museum which reveals what rural life was like 100 years ago, and kids can enjoy the play outdoor play area too.

Aaron Donald said Friday that he planned to make his season debut for the Rams against the New York Giants on Monday night, but star receiver Puka Nacua’s status is more hazy because of a hip injury.

Donald, 35, rejoined the Rams after ending a two-year retirement. The three-time NFL defensive player of the year did not travel to Australia for the season-opening defeat by the San Francisco 49ers, but he has participated in several 11-on-11 drills this week.

Asked if he would play on Monday, Donald said, “That’s the plan.”

Donald’s plan? Or the Rams’?

“I think that’s all of our plan,” he said. “We have a conversation, we figure it out.”

Donald said he felt as if he had never been away.

“Kind of getting in the groove of things, understanding everything a lot better out there playing a lot more free, a lot more loose and looking more like myself to me,” he said.

Nacua, who was sidelined for a few weeks during the preseason because of a psoas injury, caught five passes for 74 yards against the 49ers and practiced on Thursday. The psoas is involved in hip movement, so it is not clear whether Nacua’s absence was caused by the same injury or a new one.

Nacua was scheduled to speak with reporters on Friday, but did not do so because he did not practice. Coach Sean McVay is scheduled to speak with reporters on Saturday.

Regardless, the Rams are expected to get a boost from Donald, an eight-time All-Pro.

Edge rusher Byron Young played with Donald as a rookie in 2023. Now he will be playing alongside him again.

“He hasn’t missed a beat,” Young said.

Warsaw also says it has scrambled military planes in response to a Russian attack in western Ukraine, close to its border.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says that intelligence information suggests Russia plans to launch drone and missile attacks against countries supporting Ukraine.

Warsaw’s leader outlined the assessment during an address to parliament on Thursday, saying that the attacks will be meant to weaken NATO’s ability to act collectively in response.

“According to intelligence assessments, Russia’s plan … includes hybrid drone and missile strikes against countries supporting Ukraine, including Poland,” Tusk said.

European countries suspect Moscow of being behind a series of acts of sabotage in recent months to put pressure on the allies, especially Germany, helping Kyiv in its bid to resist Russia’s full-scale invasion – something the Kremlin has vigorously denied.

“These potential strikes would be quote-unquote ‘accidental’ in nature, intended to paralyse or at least weaken the resolve of NATO states to invoke the relevant NATO provisions in the event of aggression against a member country,” Tusk added.

He did not elaborate on which intelligence agencies had provided the warning.

He also said such attacks by Russia could coincide with “political changes in certain European countries granting power – or at least a powerful voice – to those who, increasingly invoking noble slogans of peace, pacifism and needless casualties, will call for peace – or rather, the total capitulation of Ukraine”.

Tusk appeared to be referring to the advance of more Russia-friendly parties such as Alternative for Germany (AfD) and National Rally in France.

Air raid near border with Poland

Earlier on Thursday, Poland said it had scrambled military planes in response to a Russian attack in western Ukraine, close to the Polish border.

Airports in Rzeszow and Lublin were temporarily closed, and residents of two eastern regions of Poland received air raid warnings. Local media reported that sirens had sounded and that pupils in some schools had sought shelter.

“Very close to the Polish border, not far from Dorohusk, a petrol station was most likely attacked again,” Tusk said.

On Sunday, a Russian drone hit a passenger train in Ukraine, just two kilometres (1.6 miles) from the Polish border.

Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Poland was strengthening airspace protection.

“We have increased F-16 and helicopter activity, and are reinforcing our air defence and rapid response systems,” he wrote on X.

Tusk said he would visit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday to discuss cooperation within the Integrated Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition, a group of European countries developing an air defence system with Ukraine as a cheaper alternative to the US-built Patriot.

TUNIS: Amnesty International urged Algeria’s government on Tuesday to abandon plans to resume executions after it pledged to give the death penalty to those responsible for wildfires following deadly blazes last month.

Algeria struggled to put out fires that swept through its northeast and killed 12 people last month, according to an official tally, while witnesses spoke of dozens of deaths.

The North African country has not carried out executions since 1993 but has handed down the death sentence in some instances, including terror-related cases, without carrying it out.

Last month President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the justice minister to amend the penal code to impose the death penalty for people who start wildfires after the deadly blazes.

“Algeria’s authorities must immediately abandon any plans to expand the scope of the death penalty or resume executions after more than three decades without carrying one out,” Amnesty said in a statement.

It also called for the country to impose an official moratorium “as a first step toward fully abolishing the death penalty.”

Tebboune also said that people sentenced to death should be executed right after exhausting their right to appeal.

The government began looking at draft penal code amendments this month.

Tebboune said “child abductors and abusers” would also be included in the expanded death penalty plans.

Forest fires occur regularly in northern Algeria during the summer, but climate change is amplifying their impact by causing increasingly frequent droughts and intense heat.

But Tebboune alleged that there was “something criminal” about the recent blazes.

Amnesty also said “credible sources have since reported significantly higher casualties” than the official tally in the latest wildfires, “including over 70 deaths in a single municipality.”

More than 30 people were killed in July 2023 when fires tore through thousands of hectares of forests and farmland in Algeria, as well as hundreds of homes.

In 2023, Algeria handed the death penalty to more than 50 people — some in absentia — over the lynching of a 38-year-old man who was falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires two years earlier.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to sell to Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion, which will include tens ​of thousands of highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs, according to a US official familiar with the sale.

The planned sale, which has been informally communicated to relevant congressional committees who weigh in on large arms sales, includes 20,000 MK 84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, the official, speaking on ‌the condition ‌of anonymity, said.

News of ​the ‌package ⁠was first ​reported ⁠by the Washington Post.

The State Department and the Israeli embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US public support for Israel has fallen since the Gaza war began in 2023, particularly among Democrats. A June Quinnipiac University ⁠poll found 48 percent of voters and ‌66 percent of Democrats ‌believe the United States is too ​supportive of Israel, up ‌from 16 percent and 20 percent when the question ‌was first asked in 2017.

The 2,000-pound bombs have been regularly used by Israel in Gaza as well as in Lebanon, drawing scrutiny from rights experts. More ‌than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign, according to ⁠Gaza health authorities. ⁠A UN inquiry determined that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a charge Isarel rejects.

Israel calls its actions self-defense, after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an October 2023 attack.

The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. ​US-Israeli strikes on ​Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.

The United States Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump’s bid to restrict voting by mail ahead of the November midterm elections, in a setback to the US president’s efforts to change rules governing elections.

The ruling on Monday by the conservative supermajority court allows states to continue sending out mail ballots as they have done for years, dealing a blow to Trump’s plans to stop the ballots before the elections and halting possible last-minute legal actions as voting begins in some states.

Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the security of mail-in voting, citing debunked claims of widespread election fraud associated with it. That is despite the president voting by mail himself, including during the 2024 election.

Mail ballots, in place for decades, have been found to increase voter turnout and currently account for a third of all votes cast in the US.

Here’s what we know about the legal challenge to overturn them:

What are mail-in votes?

Voting by post works by sending ballots to the homes of registered voters, who then mail them back before a deadline.

Eight states, several of them Democratic-leaning – California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington – as well as the District of Columbia, allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail.

Others only allow smaller elections to be conducted by mail.

Although there are cases of forgery or repeat voting, they are rare and amount to just four in 10 million mailed votes, according to the Brookings Institution.

What has Trump said about the mail-in votes?

Trump falsely blamed his 2020 presidential election loss on mail-in voting fraud. He and his supporters also opposed changes made during the COVID pandemic to expand mail-in voting.

During the 2020 Republican National Convention, Trump called mail-in voting changes “the greatest scam in the history of politics”.

His attempt to push the SAVE America Act, which calls for sweeping voting laws, has stalled in the US Senate. The bill, passed in the House of Representatives in February, faces opposition over concerns that millions of voters will be disenfranchised.

How did Trump target mail-in votes?

In March 2026, Trump signed an executive order directing the US Postal Service to take control of mail voting by designing new envelopes with special barcodes that would allow the federal government to ensure ballots are only from eligible voters.

For the midterms, that move would force all states to adopt a uniform envelope style in a short time.

The order also required states to provide the US Postal Service with a list of eligible voters ahead of elections. Several government departments, including Homeland Security and US Citizenship and Immigration Services, would also have the voters’ lists.

The postal agency was additionally empowered to deny mailed ballots if they did not comply with new standards or were not associated with registered voters on the states’ lists.

What happened to the order?

Democrats and activists challenged the order in several courts, resulting in a series of back-and-forth rulings between May and August.

US District Judge Indira Talwani imposed an injunction against the rule in June on the basis that it likely violated the US Constitution. Talwani also noted in her injunction that Trump’s executive order would be impossible to apply when the midterms were already so close.

But her ruling was overturned by the conservative-majority Supreme Court in late August in a temporary judgement.

The Supreme Court had not decided at the time whether Trump’s move was constitutionally legal. Rather, it only sided with the Trump administration on procedural grounds after the administration argued that Democrats sued too soon.

What does the latest judgement mean?

In the latest and final decision, the Supreme Court refused to lift Judge Talwani’s injunction.

In a brief written order that did not go into detail, the court noted that the administration was likely to fail in its push to restrict mail-in votes ahead of the midterms.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was appointed by Trump, voted with the majority against the administration, though he indicated he could support the policy at a later stage. Two judges, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, dissented.

Critics have long warned that restricting mail-in ballots could disenfranchise some voters who typically rely on this method.

It could also disrupt the delivery of mailed votes, as some states, including Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, have begun sending in midterm ballots.

MARFA, Texas — Landowners, ranchers and business owners in the Big Bend region of Texas along with a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the region’s landscape and heritage are suing to stop the Trump administration’s plans to build a wall and other border infrastructure through the remote section of the state.

The lawsuit, filed by Conserve Big Bend and with the support of dozens of landowners, comes as the administration is ramping up a $46-billion effort to line the roughly 2,000-mile southern border with a collection of 30-foot steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers and technology intended to keep out smugglers and migrants.

In Texas, the effort has run up against numerous lawsuits and bipartisan opposition from sheriffs, elected officials, tour guides, environmental groups and landowners.

Officials backing the wall “were woefully unprepared for the hornet’s nest they stirred up because they had no idea how much we love this place,” said David Keller, an archaeologist and historian who specializes in the Big Bend and lives in the region.

“For us, the Big Bend is not an empty place on the map,” he said. “It is our home.”

As part of its wall-building efforts, the administration has waived numerous regulations and statutes designed to protect the environment, archaeology or wildlife, on the basis that there’s an urgent need to protect the border in what Homeland Security has called areas of “high illegal entry.”

But in the lawsuit announced Monday, the plaintiffs argue that when it comes to the Big Bend region, that’s not an accurate description. They’ve cited historical statistics issued by Customs and Border Protection showing how few people cross the border in Big Bend compared with other areas along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Big Bend has about 500 miles of border with Mexico — roughly one quarter of the length of the border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. But the region only accounted for about 1% of arrests, according to the lawsuit’s stats.

The plaintiffs are arguing that the Department of Homeland Security is misusing powers from Congress that allow the secretary broad authority to waive regulations in order to build border walls or other infrastructure in areas where there are large numbers of people trying to cross into the country illegally.

“That determination is legally and factually unsound and unsupported,” the plaintiffs wrote.

The lawsuit filed Monday is the latest in efforts to slow or stop the administration’s plans in Texas and elsewhere.

The biggest outcry has come over Customs and Border Protection’s plans for the Big Bend National Park, which sits in a far southwestern corner of Texas where the Rio Grande separates the U.S. from Mexico.

The park’s remote and rugged location, its steep limestone canyon walls and crystal clear starry night views attract visitors from around the world. The government has said in court hearings that no final plans have been decided for what will be built in the park but plans made public so far have included building a new road, installing detection technology and barriers to stop vehicles from crossing the border.

When bulldozers were spotted clearing land in the park in August, people across the state were outraged. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott temporarily paused construction-related activity in the park but many activists and residents would like to see even more changes to the administration’s plans in the broader Big Bend region.

Native American groups have argued that the construction could inhibit their ability to practice their faith and is damaging important religious sites while environmentalists worry the wall will cause flooding or keep animals from migrating.

Landowners who’ve lived and worked along the Rio Grande for years have questioned how they’ll feed livestock or water their crops if they can’t access the river.

Santana writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Philippine President Corazon Aquino, given a rousing reception, told a joint meeting of Congress today that if she fails to negotiate peace with communist guerrillas threatening her government she will not flinch from “taking up the sword of war.”

“I will not stand by and allow an insurgent leadership to spurn our offer of peace and kill our young soldiers and threaten our new freedom,” Aquino said.

Aquino was greeted in the House chamber by enthusiastic applause and cheers from the members of Congress, many of whom sported yellow flowers in their lapels. Aquino wore her trademark yellow suit, like the ones she wore so often during her campaign for the presidency earlier this year.

Many visitors in the gallery, and several members as well, chanted “Cory, Cory, Cory” for half a minute as she entered the chamber.

Several members later said her speech had been so well received that it could mean more U.S. aid for her nation. Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill said it was the best he had ever heard on Capitol Hill.

‘Hit a Home Run’

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole said he told Aquino she had “hit a home run” with Congress, and said she replied: “I hope the bases were loaded.” Impressed senators and House members called her speech “brilliant,” “eloquent,” “magnificent” and “moving.”

She opened her speech with a tribute to her husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., a human rights activist whose murder in Manila in 1983 after years of exile in the United States swelled the widespread disenchantment with the government of Ferdinand E. Marcos and eventually led to his downfall.

Her husband’s death “was my country’s resurrection in the courage and faith by which alone they could be free again,” she said. “And so began the revolution that has brought me to democracy’s most famous home, the United States.”

Aquino’s speech underscored her policy of negotiating with the communist New People’s Army guerrilla movement and, if the talks fail, waging a vigorous war against the insurgents.

“I must explore the path of peace to the utmost, for at its end, whatever disappointment I meet there, is the moral basis for laying down the olive branch of peace and taking up the sword of war,” she said.

“Still, should it come to that, I will not waver from the course laid down by your great liberator,” a reference to Abraham Lincoln and his determination to fight the Civil War.

‘Whatever It Takes’

“Like Lincoln, I understand that force may be necessary before mercy,” she said. “Like Lincoln, I don’t relish it, yet I will do whatever it takes to defend the integrity and freedom of my country.”

She said the aim of the negotiations is “to bring the insurgents down from the hills and, by economic progress and justice, show them that for which the best intentioned among them fight.” Persuading the guerrillas to stop fighting will be accomplished by “political initiatives and local reintegration programs.”

She said her predecessor, Marcos, set aside democratic rights to wage a war against “a communist insurgency that numbered less than 500.

“Unhampered by respect for human rights, he went at it with hammer and tongs. By the time he fled, that insurgency had grown to more than 16,000.

“I think there is a lesson here to be learned about trying to stifle a thing with the means by which it grows.”