STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. The top U.S. Air Force general in the Middle East warned on Thursday that Iran-backed militias could resume attacks in the region against the United States and its allies as tensions rise — assaults that could lead to a new Mideast escalation.
Speaking to journalists before stepping into his new role at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, with responsibility for military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and across the region, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich also expressed fears over Russian and Chinese influence taking hold as superpowers vie for economic and military influence in the Middle East.
The U.S. Air Force is working to decide how best to train Ukraine’s pilots as the embattled nation’s air force looks to modernize. In comments at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown said Ukraine will need to shift its air force away from legacy Russian MiG and Sukhoi fighters and toward more modern Western-made aircraft.
With the supply of Russian spare parts for MiGs cut off, Brown said, Ukraine will have to eventually move to other fighters. It remains to be seen which platforms make sense, he said, but there are many possibilities — not just U.S.-made fighters such as the F-15 and F-16, but the Eurofighter, Swedish Gripen and French Rafale could also be options for Ukraine’s air force.
A young adult in New York has become the first US resident in nearly a decade to contract polio, state health officials say. The unnamed patient in Rockland County is said no longer to be contagious, but has developed paralysis from the virus. Officials say the person was unvaccinated, and was probably exposed to an individual who received a vaccine that contains the weakened live virus. The last known US case of the highly contagious virus was recorded in 2013.
U.S. officials said Friday that they will send additional sophisticated artillery systems and ammunition to Ukraine, bolstering the country’s forces again as they carry out a coordinated campaign of strikes on Russian military targets.
The latest $270 million package includes four M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, boosting the total number the United States has provided Kyiv to 16, said John Kirby, a White House spokesman. The package also includes 36,000 rounds of ammunition for howitzers and funding for up to 580 Phoenix Ghost drones, unmanned aircraft that can be used to target opposing forces directly or to perform reconnaissance for artillery strikes.
Ukraine already has struck more than 100 “high-value” Russian military targets, including command posts, ammunition depots, air-defense sites, radar and communication nodes, and long-range artillery positions, the U.S. defense official said. While Russia continues to launch thousands of artillery rounds per day, the official said, Moscow “can’t keep it up forever” and has now committed 85 percent of its army to the war in Ukraine.
South Korea and the United States are resuming large-scale field military exercises suspended for four years when the two nations tried to negotiate North Korea away from its nuclear weapons, according to an official announcement Friday.
Combined exercises by battalions and larger units of the U.S. and South Korean militaries will commence in August and again in early 2023, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said in a news release. The exercises will also be rebranded as Ulchi Freedom Shield in August and Freedom Shield next year.
The exercises will be defensive in nature, according to the ministry. The Defense Ministry is also trying to stage naval drills with U.S. carrier strike groups. South Korea’s navy has been taking part in Rim of the Pacific, a multinational maritime exercise in Hawaii and California, since June 29.
US business activity contracted in July for the first time in more than two years as manufacturers and service providers signaled sluggish demand that only adds to heightened recession anxieties.
The S&P Global flash composite purchasing managers output index slid 4.8 points to 47.5, the weakest reading since May 2020, the group reported Friday. Outside of the early months of the pandemic, the July figure is the weakest in data back to 2009. Readings below 50 indicate contraction. The new orders gauge expanded modestly after contracting the previous month.
“Manufacturing has stalled and the service sector’s rebound from the pandemic has gone into reverse, as the tailwind of pent-up demand has been overcome by the rising cost of living, higher interest rates and growing gloom about the economic outlook,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement.
The threat of China looms so large that it has united Washington into advancing discussions on funding an unprecedented package of subsidies for the U.S. semiconductor sector.
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 64-34 to advance debate on the CHIPS Act, a bill that earmarks $52 billion in incentives for chipmakers to build plants in the U.S.—viewed by many in Washington as critical to shoring up American supply chains and the U.S.’s ability to counter China in the global tech arms race. Tuesday’s procedural vote prepares the Senate and House of Representatives for a vote on the legislation by the end of next week.
The CHIPS Act is “about national security, [which] we can’t put a price on,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told PBS on Tuesday. “We need to make more of these [chips] on our shores [to] protect our people,” Raimondo said.
CHIPS advocates say the funding will lessen America’s reliance on Asian chip suppliers—a crucial vulnerability that China could exploit—and rebuild its once-powerful chips manufacturing sector. There’s one catch, though. The tens of billions in subsidies to build chip plants on U.S. soil is unlikely to reduce its dependence on Asia, especially in the short-run, let alone transform it into a semiconductor manufacturing powerhouse.
The U.S. likely needs hundreds of billions more in funding, and decades, to secure its chips supply and catch-up with Asian chipmakers in any meaningful way, some experts say, prompting the question of whether onshoring chip manufacturing is the best way to achieve its goals.
Taiwan’s capital staged air raid drills Monday and its military mobilized for routine defense exercises, coinciding with concerns over a forceful Chinese response to a possible visit to the island by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
While there was no direct link between China’s renewed threats and Taiwan’s defensive moves, they underscore the possibility of a renewed crisis in the Taiwan Strait, considered a potential hotspot for conflict that could envelop the entire region.
During a visit to Indonesia on Sunday, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years. Milley’s Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, told him in a call earlier this month that Beijing had “no room for compromise” on issues such as Taiwan.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday condemned the Myanmar military regime’s execution of four pro-democracy activists and elected leaders. “The United States condemns in the strongest terms the Burma military regime’s executions of pro-democracy activists and elected leaders Ko Jimmy, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw for the exercise of their fundamental freedoms,” Blinken said in a statement.
“These reprehensible acts of violence further exemplify the regime’s complete disregard for human rights and the rule of law. Since the February 2021 coup, the regime has perpetuated violence against its own people, killing more than 2,100, displacing more than 700,000, and detaining thousands of innocent people, including members of civil society and journalists,” he added.
Myanmar’s military junta Monday reported the execution of four men in the country’s first death sentences carried out in over three decades. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the men put to death were Phyo Zeya Thaw, 41; Kyaw Min Yu, known as “Ko Jimmy,” 53; Hla Myo Aung; and Aung Thura Zaw, all of whom were convicted after closed trials that fell far short of international standards.
The United States will host a virtual meeting on Tuesday of officials representing the 14 countries that have joined the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, as Washington seeks to expand its engagement with Asia. The ministerial meeting will be hosted by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, their offices announced in a statement on Sunday.
The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will sell an additional 20 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a previous plan to tap the facility to calm oil prices boosted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as demand recovers from the pandemic.
A joint venture between General Motors and South Korean battery company LG Energy Solution is set to receive a $2.5 billion loan from the Energy Department to build battery cell factories for electric vehicles in three states.
The Energy Department said it has made a conditional commitment to lend the money to Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture of GM and LG. The loan could help Ultium finance three lithium-ion battery plants planned in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, bolstering the Biden administration’s efforts to promote electric vehicles and reduce dependence on China for critical components.
The plants will help strengthen U.S. energy independence and support Biden’s goal to have electric vehicles make up half of all vehicles sales in the United States by 2030, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
The United States and Japan have decided to launch a new joint international semiconductor research hub, Japanese Trade Minister Hagiuda Koichi said at press conference in Washington.
The countries agreed during U.S and Japanese economic talks to work on joint research for next-generation semiconductors to establish a secure source of the vital components.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said there was extensive discussion Friday “about how Japan and the United States could collaborate, especially with respect to advanced semiconductors.”
The U.S. economy shrank from April through June for a second straight quarter, contracting at a 0.9% annual pace and raising fears that the nation may be approaching a recession.
The decline that the Commerce Department reported Thursday in the gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of the economy — followed a 1.6% annual drop from January through March. Consecutive quarters of falling GDP constitute one informal, though not definitive, indicator of a recession.
The GDP report for last quarter pointed to weakness across the economy. Consumer spending slowed as Americans bought fewer goods. Business investment fell. Inventories tumbled as businesses slowed their restocking of shelves, shaving 2 percentage points from GDP.
Higher borrowing rates, a consequence of the Federal Reserve’s series of rate hikes, clobbered home construction, which shrank at a 14% annual rate. Government spending dropped, too.
The report comes at a critical time. Consumers and businesses have been struggling under the weight of punishing inflation and higher loan costs. On Wednesday, the Fed raised its benchmark rate by a sizable three-quarters of a point for a second straight time in its push to conquer the worst inflation outbreak in four decades.
House Democrats will vote Friday on a historic bill to ban so-called assault weapons in response to a spate of mass shootings this year — a sudden strategy shift after party leaders failed to land the votes for a broader slate of public safety bills also slated for floor action.
The assault weapons vote, a huge party priority, will mark the first time in nearly three decades that lawmakers attempt to reinstate the long-expired ban on semiautomatic firearms. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced the decision Friday morning, called it a “a crucial step in our ongoing fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence in our nation.”
Still, the decision to vote on only that bill — and not a handful of policing bills also under consideration — stings for many centrists Democrats in the caucus, who were eager to vote on bills to support law enforcement before leaving Washington this week. Hours earlier, moderate leader Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), and Congressional Black Caucus chief Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) had secured an eleventh-hour deal (Red/many sources).
