Colorado Springs, United States | AFP | At tens of thousands of kilometers above the Earth, a Russian satellite slowly approached the French-Italian satellite Athena-Fidus in October 2017, a move France later denounced as “an act of espionage.” What is less widely known is that just a few days before …
Read More »Pentagon authorizes $1 bn for Trump’s border wall
Washington, United States | AFP | Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan has authorized $1 billion to build part of the wall sought by Donald Trump along the US-Mexico border, the first funds designated for the project under the president’s emergency declaration. The Department of Homeland Security asked the Pentagon to …
Read More »Outcry in Nigeria over election ‘militarisation’ ahead of next ballot
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Rights groups have gone on the offensive over the deployment of the military in Nigerian elections as a new polling day looms. With elections due on Saturday for governors in 29 states and local assemblies, campaigners say the military cast a dark shadow over last month’s …
Read More »Nigerian president warns vote-riggers of ‘ruthless’ response
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday he had ordered the police and military to be “ruthless” with vote-riggers, as preparations were made for rescheduled elections. Presidential and parliamentary elections were put off just over five hours before polls were due to open on Saturday, causing widespread anger. New polls have …
Read More »A history of armed attempts to dislodge Venezuela’s Maduro
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Monday’s brief mutiny by Venezuelan soldiers was not the first time President Nicolas Maduro has faced a military challenge to his leadership. Since coming to power in 2013 following the death of socialist revolutionary icon Hugo Chaves, the former bus driver Maduro has faced a number …
Read More »US begins withdrawing gear from Syria, but not troops
Washington, United States | AFP | The US military has begun moving non-essential gear out of Syria but is not withdrawing troops for now, defense officials said amid uncertainty over America’s planned exit from the war-battered nation. President Donald Trump last month claimed the Islamic State group had been defeated in Syria and said all …
Read More »US has begun pulling equipment, not troops from Syria: official
Washington, United States | AFP | The US military has started moving non-essential equipment out of Syria but it is not withdrawing troops for now, a defense official said Friday as the Pentagon sought to clarify an earlier statement. “We are not withdrawing troops at this stage,” the official said …
Read More »Eyeing China, US to hold missile drill in Japan’s Okinawa: report
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | The US military will this year conduct its first ever missile drill around the Japanese island of Okinawa, according to a report Thursday, as Washington seeks to counter an increasingly assertive China. The US military has told its Japanese counterpart it plans to deploy surface-to-ship …
Read More »US military apologizes for tweet about dropping bombs
Washington, United States | AFP | US Strategic Command apologized Monday for a joke in “bad taste” after tweeting it was ready to drop something “much bigger” than the traditional Times Square crystal ball at New Year. In a message posted, and later deleted, on Twitter, the military force that …
Read More »‘Hold fast’: Mattis bids farewell to Pentagon
Washington, United States | AFP | Defense Secretary Jim Mattis bade farewell to the Pentagon on Monday, telling the US military to “hold fast” after he quit over a series of fundamental differences with President Donald Trump. Mattis resigned December 20, after Trump stunned the US establishment by ordering a …
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