This story has been updated to include a statement from the Air Force. As lawmakers negotiated an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, they added hundreds of millions of dollars for projects related to the B-21 bomber and Sentinel ICBM programs. The three-bill funding package signed into law on Wednesday night gives the Air Force $3.9 billion for military construction projects, some $204 million above the service’s 2026 budget request. And it includes more than $850 million for flexible spending beyond the continuing resolution for at least 11 projects related to the B-21 and Sentinel. The allocations for military construction show continued bipartisan support for the Air Force’s nuclear modernization efforts, which have seen massive cost overruns on the Sentinel effort and shutdown-stalled talks about accelerating B-21 […]

On the outskirts of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian electronic warfare teams are deploying home-grown systems that automatically detect and suppress Russian drones. Along the southern front, domestically developed observation drones are giving Ukrainian troops real-time visibility in contested airspace. These are not prototypes; they’re battle-proven Ukrainian technologies saving lives on a daily basis and shaping the future of warfare. Yet as Ukraine cements its reputation as a defense tech powerhouse, a strategic risk is emerging. Without robust intellectual property (IP) protections, Ukraine may lose control of the very breakthroughs that are currently helping to defend the country on the battlefield. Ukraine could potentially win the war itself and secure national survival, only to lose the innovation economy that should underpin its recovery.

Executive ministers have warned the chancellor that she must use her budget to invest in public services to allow transformation to continue in Northern Ireland. Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and Finance Minister John O’Dowd were speaking after meeting Rachel Reeves at Stormont Castle. They both welcomed the visit but the deputy first minister said they warned the chancellor some of her decisions could have a “disproportionate impact” on businesses, farmers and the economy in general. The finance minister said the UK government had to understand “decisions made in London can have a detrimental impact here” and they need to “engage with us before those decisions are made”.The chancellor, who was on her first official trip to Belfast on Tuesday, said the government is committed to working in “partnership” with […]

European allies have rallied behind Ukraine in a renewed surge of support, insisting that any peace talks with Russia must include Kyiv. A joint statement issued by the leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland and the European Commission came ahead of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. A White House official has said that Trump is willing to hold a trilateral meeting which would also include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but, for now, it remains a Trump-Putin summit, as initially requested by the Russian leader. Zelensky has said any agreements without Kyiv will amount to “dead decisions”. Trump has previously suggested that he could start by meeting only with Putin, telling reporters he planned to “start off with […]

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is set to meet President Donald Trump this week on the heels of the U.S. leader announcing plans to sell NATO allies weaponry that they can then pass on to Ukraine. Rutte will be in Washington on Monday and Tuesday and plans to hold talks with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as well as members of Congress. “I’m gonna have a meeting with the secretary general who’s coming in tomorrow,” Trump told reporters as he arrived in Washington on Sunday night. “But we basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated (weapons) and they’re gonna pay us 100% for them.” A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, […]

A united conservative majority of the Supreme Court ruled Friday that federal judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, but the decision left unclear whether President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship could soon take effect in parts of the country. The outcome represented a victory for Trump, who has complained about judges throwing up obstacles to his agenda. Nationwide, or universal, injunctions had emerged as an important check on the Republican president’s efforts to expand executive power and remake the government and a source of mounting frustration to him and his allies.But the court left open the possibility that the birthright citizenship changes could remain blocked nationwide. Trump’s order would deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of people who are in the country illegally or temporarily.The cases now return […]

Chloe Dalton was taking a winter walk near her farmhouse when she encountered it: a tiny baby hare — known as a leveret — lying huddled and alone in the middle of a narrow country lane. A London political adviser who was living in the English countryside during the pandemic, Dalton knew next to nothing about hares. Yet when she found that the leveret hadn’t moved for hours, she decided to take it home and try to save it — despite her fears that by interfering she might hurt its ability to return to the wild. What follows, as recounted in the new memoir, “Raising Hare,” was an unexpected experiment in coexistence. The book is part of a timely genre: true stories about people who open a window into the […]

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence in a 52-48 vote, making Donald Trump’s controversial nominee — whose approval appeared unlikely just weeks ago — the nation’s spy chief. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and an Army combat veteran, passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee in a 9-8 party-line vote last week. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the former Senate majority leader, appeared to be the GOP’s only “no” for Gabbard during the final vote. “The [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] wields significant authority over how the intelligence community allocates its resources, conducts its collection and analysis and manages the classification and declassification of our nation’s most sensitive secrets. In my assessment, Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared […]

A handful of employees inside the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency focused on countering disinformation, misinformation and related influence operations were recently put on administrative leave, a DHS spokesperson confirmed to Nextgov/FCW Wednesday. The statement confirmed earlier reports about staff being sidelined, a move that comes as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has vowed to overhaul and reshape the scope of the cyber agency amid GOP concerns that its past efforts to reduce false information on social-media sites helped censor conservative voices. “The agency is undertaking an evaluation of how it has executed its election-security mission with a particular focus on any work related to mis-, dis-, and malinformation,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “While the agency conducts the assessment, personnel who worked on mis-, dis-, and malinformation, as well […]

COPENHAGEN—When the United States asked its friends for help earlier in this century, Denmark stepped forward, sending troops to fight and sometimes die in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now Danes face threats and intimidation from the United States in the form of President Donald Trump’s demand that Denmark sell or cede Greenland, against the apparent wishes of the Greenland people. That’s a shameful prospect for those who remember that the United States rose to world leadership by standing for something more than great-power bullying, à la greedy European kings and dynasties that the United States was founded to leave behind. Trump claims to put “America first.” There is a better way to advance US interests. I spent the last days of January in Copenhagen, Denmark, meeting with Danish officials, experts, and old friends […]