đď¸ Ideology Boot Camp for U.S. Military Brass at Trumpâs Quantico Reality Show
Americaâs top generals summoned for push-ups, lectures on âwoke,â and a president warning of an âinvasion from within.â
President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing U.S. military might to combat what he called the âinvasion from within.â Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the militaryâs role in domestic affairs. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to âwokeâ culture and announced new directives for troops that include âgender-neutralâ or âmale-levelâ standards for physical fitness. The dual messages underscored the Trump administrationâs efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but to enlist military resources for the presidentâs priorities and decidedly domestic purposes, including quelling unrest and violent crime. âWe should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,â Trump said. He noted at another point: âWeâre under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they donât wear uniforms.â Hegseth called hundreds of military leaders and their top advisers from around the world to the Marine Corps base in Quantico without publicly revealing the reason. His address largely focused on long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by âwokeâ policies, and he said military leaders should âdo the honorable thing and resignâ if they donât like his new approach. Though meetings between military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, this gathering had fueled intense speculation about its purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it. The fact that admirals and generals from conflict zones were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military showed the extent to which the countryâs culture wars have become a front-and-center agenda item for Hegsethâs Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.Before Trump took the stage, Hegseth said in his nearly hourlong speech that the military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons, based on race, gender quotas and âhistoric firsts.â Hegseth added: âThe era of politically correct, overly sensitive donât-hurt-anyoneâs-feelings leadership ends right now at every level.â Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the meeting âan expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadershipâ by the Trump administration - AP
In his speech to military brass, Mr. Trump said that he had thought the war in Ukraine would be the âeasiestâ one to end, but it âturned out to be the hardestâ of all conflicts to solve. Mr. Trump also called Mr. Putin âa paper tigerâ for failing to win the war, which began with a full-scale invasion more than three years ago. âIâm so disappointed in President Putin,â Mr. Trump said. âWe met in Alaska and had a good meeting. Then he went back and started sending drones into Kyiv.â - NYT
Reaction to the Trump speech to military brass was swift and searing. The Daily Beast opinion writer Rothkopf called it âdumb, deluded and dangerousâ - adding that Trump and his defense chief seem determined to declare war on America itself. âToday was the first time I, like many Americans, realized our Army, Navy and Air Force were now being directed at us,â he wrote. Eliot Cohen, a military historian who served in the State Department under President George W. Bush said: âHe (Hegseth) views the world from the point of view of a not terribly successful major in the National Guard. For him itâs push-ups, pull-ups and pugil sticks. Itâs aggressiveness.â
Qatarâs Prime Minister says several points in Trumpâs plan for Gaza require clarification and negotiation but hoped that all parties would âview the plan constructively and seize the opportunity to end the warâ. Meanwhile, Hamasâs negotiating team is studying US President Trumpâs 20-point plan to end Israelâs war on Gaza. Israelâs Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he agreed to the plan in a news briefing with Trump at the White House, as Israeli forces continued to escalate attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 59 people since dawn. Palestinians in Gaza have said the plan raises many questions, including what a proposed international stabilisation force for the enclave might look like - Al Jazeera
The Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted non-US citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticising Israel, a federal judged has found. In a ruling that sharply criticised the US presidentâs policies as serious threats to free speech, US District Judge William Young in Boston backed university associations that had accused Trump of violating the First Amendment, which protects fundamental freedoms. âThis case â perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court â squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us,â Young, a nominee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote. âThe Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally: Yes, they do.â - AJE
The Taliban has imposed a nationwide shutdown of telecommunications in Afghanistan, a move that has largely cut off the country from the rest of the world. The hard-line Islamist group severed access to fiber-optic Internet across Afghanistan on September 29. Mobile phone networks, which share the same system, were also mostly shut down. The move has sparked chaos in Afghanistan, disrupting flights and cutting people off from banking and e-commerce systems as well as online jobs and schools. The blackout is likely to exacerbate the economic strife in Afghanistan, where poverty is rising, hunger is widespread, and unemployment is high. Internet watchdog NetBlocks said late on September 29 that Afghanistan was âin the midst of a total Internet blackout.â The Taliban has not given an official reason for the shutdown. But the communications blackout came weeks after the group started blocking access to fiber-optic Internet in several provinces. The group said the move was intended to prevent âimmorality,â with the Taliban previously voicing concern over pornography and online intimacy between men and women - RFE/RL
The Kremlin reaped around âŹ8.10 billion in tax revenues from European energy companies importing Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) between 2022 and 2024, according to new research published on Tuesday by Greenpeace. The EU moved to close the tap to Russian pipeline gas after Russiaâs full scale invasion of Ukraine, but shipments of LNG remained at 12.8 billion cubic meters (bcm) in the first half of the year, a figure 67% higher compared to four years ago. With the âŹ8.10 billion profit tax revenues from Yamal LNG, the primary Russian LNG exporter to Europe and Asia, the research estimates that Russia could buy 9.4 million 152mm artillery shells â roughly three years of Russiaâs current three million-round annual production output â 270,000 Shahed attack drones, or 2,658 battle tanks. Between 2022 and 2024 Yamal LNG gained an estimated âŹ34 billion having contracts with several European headquartered energy companies like TotalEnergies, Engie, Shell, Naturgy and SEFE. France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK were the major recipients of Russian LNG, the study reveals, all with contracts running until 2038 and 2041.These ongoing contracts are, however, due to be broken as the EU seeks to phase out LNG imports from Russia by 2027, a controversial decision currently being discussed by heads of State, which risks legal action by Gazprom against European companies. Belgium, France and Spain were the main Russian LNG importers from 2022 to June 2025, according to the report, with Belgian port Zeebrugge being the largest import hub for Russian LNG in the EU - Euronews
Venezuelan President NicolĂĄs Maduro signed a decree granting himself extraordinary security powers in the event of a US invasion, amid rising tensions between Washington and Caracas. The order comes after the US carried out strikes on alleged drug-trafficking ships off the coast of Venezuela. Washington has also deployed military assets to the Caribbean, reportedly as part of a plan by top White House aides to remove Maduro from power. Though the Trump administrationâs plans remain unclear, many in Venezuela, including some of Maduroâs opponents, fear a US intervention could create a power vacuum for troops, gangs, or even Colombian guerrillas to fill. âYou kill Maduro, you turn Venezuela into Haiti,â one local businessman told The New York Times - Semafor
A military court in Kinshasa on Tuesday convicted DR Congoâs ex-president Joseph Kabila of treason and other charges and sentenced him to death. Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the tribunal, said Kabila was found guilty of charges that included murder, sexual assault, torture, and insurrection. âIn applying Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, it imposes a single sentence, namely the most severe one, which is the death penalty,â Katalayi said while delivering the verdict. Kabila, whose whereabouts are unknown, was also ordered to pay around $50 billion in various damages to the state and victims. DR Congoâs government said Kabila â who ruled the country between 2001 and 2019 â collaborated with Rwanda and the M23 rebel group that seized key cities in eastern Congo in January in a lightning assault. Kabila has denied the allegations - France 24
Police in Northern California were understandably perplexed when they pulled over a Waymo taxi after it made an illegal U-turn, only to find no driver behind the wheel and therefore, no one to ticket. The San Bruno Police Department wrote in now viral weekend social media posts that officers were conducting a DUI operation early Saturday morning when a self-driving Waymo made the illegal turn in front of them. Officers stopped the vehicle, but declined to write a ticket as their âcitation books donât have a box for ârobotâ.â âThatâs right ⌠no driver, no hands, no clue,â read the post, which was accompanied by photos of an officer peering into the car. Officers contacted Waymo to report what they called a âglitch,â and in the post, they said they hope reprogramming will deter more illegal moves. The departmentâs Facebook post has generated more than 500 comments, with many people outraged that police didnât ticket the company. People also wanted to know how police got the car to pull over - AP
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