Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on ‌AI safety. File
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The Pentagon confirmed it had accepted the donation on Thursday “under its general gift acceptance authority.”
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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a review of the department’s 2026 budget. File
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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a review of the department’s 2026 budget to reallocate $50 billion in funds, the Pentagon said Wednesday (February 19, 2025), following reports that he had directed deep, multi-year cuts to military spending.

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U.S. media said Mr. Hegseth directed senior Defense Department leaders to plan for cuts that could slash the Defence budget by eight percent annually, or some $290 billion within the next five years.

The Pentagon did not directly deny those reports but instead described an effort aimed at removing funding from programs favoured by former president Joe Biden and using it on those advocated by his successor Donald Trump.

“Secretary Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden administration’s FY26 budget that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense,” Robert Salesses, performing the duties of deputy secretary of defense, said in a statement.

“The department will develop a list of potential offsets that could be used to fund these priorities, as well as to refocus the department on its core mission of deterring and winning wars. The offsets are targeted at eight percent of the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities,” the statement said.

A report from the Washington Post meanwhile described a memo from Mr. Hegseth — dated Tuesday — that ordered the development of plans for eight percent to be cut from the defence budget in each of the next five years.

Revive the warrior ethos

Mr. Hegseth’s memo said the proposed cuts must be drawn up by February 24, and include 17 categories that Mr. Trump wants to be exempted, including operations at the U.S. border with Mexico and modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense, the newspaper reported.

It also called for funding for Indo-Pacific Command and Space Command, but did not do so for others such as European Command, which has led the way on U.S. strategy throughout the war in Ukraine, the Post reported.

The Defense Department “must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth wrote in the memo, according to the Post.

“Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit,” he reportedly continued.

The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is some $850 billion and the cuts described in the memo, if implemented in full, would reduce that figure by tens of billions each year to some $560 billion by the end of the five years.

Trump has vowed to slash government spending, and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)— which is tasked with carrying out that effort — reportedly visited the Pentagon last week.

Mr. Hegseth signalled support for DOGE’s work at the Pentagon in a Tuesday post on X: “Let’s get to work. DOGE the waste; Double-Down on warriors,” he wrote.

Washington:

The Trump administration has ordered senior US military leaders to plan for expansive cuts that could slash the defense budget by eight percent annually, or some $290 billion within the next five years, US media reported Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Pentagon to develop the deep reductions, The Washington Post reported, citing a memo.

The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is some $850 billion. Lawmakers across the political spectrum agree that the massive spending is needed to deter threats, especially from China and Russia.

The cuts, if implemented in full, would reduce that figure by tens of billions each year to some $560 billion by the end of the five years.

The report did not give details of where the cuts would be made in the world’s biggest military, but an earlier Post report said that junior civilian workers, not uniformed personnel, were being targeted.

The news — which comes after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency reportedly visited the Pentagon last week — was likely to be met with stiff resistance from both the military and Congress.

Trump on Wednesday signaled support for a House of Representatives bill that would increase the defense budget by $100 billion — a move at odds with the Hegseth-directed cuts.

The planned reductions also run counter to calls by Trump and Hegseth for NATO members to increase their military spending to five percent of GDP a year.

– ‘Revive the warrior ethos’ –

The United States currently spends around 3.4 percent of its GDP on defense, and the five percent threshold would be even farther out of reach if the Pentagon’s budget is reduced.

The stock prices of major US defense contractors were hit by the news, with Lockheed Martin dropping briefly before recovering, Northrop Grumann falling nearly two percent and Palantir closing down more than 10 percent.

Hegseth’s memo said the proposed cuts must be drawn up by February 24, and include 17 categories that Trump wants exempted, including operations at the US border with Mexico and modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense.

It also calls for funding for regional headquarters such as Indo-Pacific Command and Space Command.

But other major centers such as European Command, which has led the way on US strategy throughout the war in Ukraine, and also Africa Command and Central Command — which oversees operations in the Middle East — were absent from the list, the Post reported.

The Defense Department “must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth wrote in the memo, dated Tuesday, according to the Post.

“Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit,” he reportedly continued.

US President Donald Trump has vowed to slash government spending and end US support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

China is building a new military command centre near Beijing that is expected to be 10 times the size of the Pentagon, a report in Financial Times, citing US intelligence officials has claimed. Dubbed “Beijing Military City”, the construction on the project started in mid-2024 with recent satellite images showing deep holes dug in the 1,500-acre area, located 30 km southwest of the capital city.

The new military command may house large buildings and hardened bunkers, designed to protect the top Politburo officials during any conflict, including a nuclear war.

“Nearly 10 times bigger than the Pentagon, it’s fitting for Xi Jinping’s ambitions to surpass the US,” an unnamed Chinese researcher told the publication. “This fortress only serves one purpose, which is to act as a doomsday bunker for China’s increasingly sophisticated and capable military.”

“Guards at one gate abruptly said that entry was prohibited and refused to talk about the project. One supervisor leaving the construction site refused to comment on the project,” the report stated.

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China’s future plans

Currently, China’s main command center is located in the Western Hills, northeast of the new facility, and was built decades ago at the height of the Cold War.

“If confirmed, this new advanced underground command bunker for the military leadership, including President Xi as the chairman of the Central Military Commission, signals Beijing’s intent to build not only a world-class conventional force but also an advanced nuclear warfighting capability,” said Dennis Wilder, the former head of China analysis for the CIA.

Notably, the Pentagon serves as the headquarters of the Department of Defense and is located in Arlington in the state of Virginia. It is one of the world’s largest office buildings and hub of Washington’s foreign policy.

The development comes in the backdrop of China rapidly increasing its nuclear arsenal to be prepared for any Western misadventure. As per the Pentagon, Beijing will have 1,500 operable nuclear weapons by 2035, matching the firepower of the United States.

Washington:

The US military said Tuesday its forces had hit Huthi targets in Yemen’s capital that the Iran-backed rebels used to attack American warships and commercial vessels.

The attacks began Monday and were carried out by US Navy ships and aircraft that also struck Huthi-controlled coastal regions of Yemen, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

It also said US Navy and Air Force aircraft had destroyed “seven cruise missiles and one-way attack UAVs over the Red Sea,” using an acronym for unmanned aerial drones.

“There were no injuries or damage to US personnel or equipment in either incident,” it said.

One witness in Yemen’s Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa reported several strikes in different locations.

Another reported raids on Sanaa on the Defense Ministry and having heard a powerful explosion.

Huthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam called the strikes “an American aggression” and “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of an independent state and a blatant support for Israel.”

The rebels said earlier Tuesday that they had fired two missiles at Israel, hours after the Israeli military said it had intercepted a projectile launched from the country.

The Huthis control much of war-torn Yemen and have been firing missiles and drones at Israel, and at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

President-elect Donald Trump has called out President Biden and the Pentagon, accusing them of withholding information about the mysterious drones that have been spotted hovering over New Jersey and New York. Trump’s concerns come as the sightings have left many wondering about the origin and purpose of these drones.

“The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from — if it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went, and for some reason, they don’t want to comment,” Trump said during a press conference in Palm Beach.

“And I think they’d be better off saying what it is. Our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense,” he added. 

However, Trump sidestepped a question about whether he’d personally received an intelligence briefing on the mysterious drones spotted over New Jersey and New York. When asked, he refused to comment, leaving many wondering if he’s been privy to any classified information about the drones. The president-elect also said that he doubted that the drones were the work of a foreign enemy.

“If it was the enemy they’d blast it out. Even if they were late, they’d blast it. Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don’t want to tell the people, and they should,” he said. 

Trump also recently mentioned that his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, was one of the locations where mysterious drones were spotted. Due to these sightings, he decided to cancel his upcoming trip to Bedminster.

In recent weeks, residents of New Jersey have reported numerous sightings of unidentified drones hovering over suburban neighbourhoods, industrial areas, and even sensitive locations. The unusual activity has sparked widespread speculation and concern and prompted lawmakers to demand the Biden administration explain what was behind the mysterious sightings. US officials have said that most of the sightings involve manned aircraft and that there is no evidence of any threat to public safety or national security. 

At a Pentagon briefing before Trump’s news conference began, Air Force Major General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, told reporters there was “no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus.”

Meanwhile, White House spokesman John Kirby recently stated that despite using sophisticated electronic detection technologies, federal officials, along with state and local law enforcement authorities, have been unable to corroborate any of the reported visual drone sightings over New Jersey. Instead, many of these sightings have been attributed to the misidentification of regular aircraft, such as airliners and helicopters, as drones.

President-elect Donald Trump has decided not to leave behind his Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth and reiterated his “strong and deep” support for the former Fox News presenter.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe. He was a great student – Princeton/Harvard educated – with a Military state of mind. He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense Defense, one who leads with charisma and skill. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”

In response, Hegseth wrote, “Thank you Mr. President. Like you, we will never back down.”

Hegeth had spent the week meeting senators and trying to gain some support amid the flurry of backlash he has been facing for the sexual assault, alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement accusations.

Although Trump is backing Hegseth publicly, he has been looking for more options for the role of Defence secretary, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been on his radar. But Hegseth seems confident about Trump’s reliability on him and said, “As long as Donald Trump wants me in this fight, I’m going to be standing right here in this fight,” on Thursday.

Hegseth is one of the many controversial picks by Trump, including Matt Gaetz who recently withdrew his name from the post of attorney general after days of debate regarding whether the congressional report about his sexual misconduct should be released.

Apart from the President-elect, he also has the Vice-President-elect backing him. He wrote on X, “Led by President Trump, we’re fighting for Pete Hegseth. And we’re doing so because Pete Hegseth will fight for our troops. For too long, the Pentagon has been led by people who lose wars. Pete Hegseth is a man who fought in those wars. We’ve got his back.”
 

During his re-election campaign, Donald Trump vowed to purge the military of so-called “woke” generals. Now that he is president-elect, the question in the halls of the Pentagon is whether he would go much further.

Mr. Trump is expected to have a far darker view of his military leaders in his second term, after facing Pentagon resistance over everything from his scepticism toward NATO to his readiness to deploy troops to quell protests on U.S. streets.

Mr. Trump’s former U.S. generals and defence secretaries are among his fiercest critics, some branding him a fascist and declaring him unfit for office. Angered, Mr. Trump has suggested that his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, could be executed for treason.

Current and former U.S. officials say Mr. Trump will prioritise loyalty in his second term and root out military officers and career civil servants he perceives to be disloyal.

“He will destroy the Department of Defense, frankly. He will go in and he will dismiss generals who stand up for the Constitution,” said Jack Reed, the Democrat who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Culture war issues could be one trigger for firings. Mr. Trump was asked by Fox News in June whether he would fire generals described as “woke,” a term for those focused on racial and social justice but which is used by conservatives to disparage progressive policies.

“I would fire them. You can’t have (a) woke military,” Mr. Trump said.

Some current and former officials fear Mr. Trump’s team could target the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, a widely respected former fighter pilot and military commander who steers clear of politics.

The four-star general, who is Black, issued a video message about discrimination in the ranks in the days after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, and has been a voice in favour of diversity in the U.S. military.

Asked for comment, Mr.Brown’s spokesperson, Navy Captain Jereal Dorsey, said: “The chairman along with all of the service members in our armed forces remain focused on the security and defence of our nation and will continue to do so, ensuring a smooth transition to the new administration of President-elect Mr. Trump.”

Mr. Trump’s vice president-elect, J.D. Vance, voted as a senator last year against confirming Mr. Brown to become the top U.S. military officer, and has been a critic of perceived resistance to Mr. Trump’s orders within the Pentagon.

“If the people in your own government aren’t obeying you, you have got to get rid of them and replace them with people who are responsive to what the president’s trying to do,” Vance said in an interview with Tucker Carlson before the election.

During the campaign, Mr. Trump pledged to restore the name of a Confederate general to a major U.S. military base, reversing a change made after Floyd’s killing.

Mr. Trump’s strongest anti-woke messaging during the campaign took aim at transgender troops. Mr. Trump has previously banned transgender service members and posted a campaign ad on X portraying them as weak, with the vow that “WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!”

The Mr. Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘LAWFUL ORDERS’

Mr. Trump has suggested the U.S. military could play an important role in many of his policy priorities, from tapping National Guard and possibly active-duty troops to help carry out a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants to even deploying them to address domestic unrest.

Such proposals alarm military experts, who say deploying the military on American streets could not only violate laws but turn much of the American population against the still widely respected U.S. armed forces.

In a message to the forces after Mr. Trump’s election win, outgoing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged the results of the election and stressed the military would obey “all lawful orders” from its civilian leaders.

But some experts caution that Mr. Trump has wide latitude to interpret the law and U.S. troops cannot disobey legal orders they consider to be morally wrong.

“There is a widespread public misperception that the military can choose not to obey immoral orders. And that’s actually not true,” said Kori Schake of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Ms. Schake warned that a second Mr. Trump term could see high-level firings as he pushes ahead with controversial policies.

“I think there will be an enormous chaos premium in a second Mr. Trump term, both because of the policies he will attempt to enact and the people he will put in place to enact them in terms of appointments,” she said.

One U.S. military official downplayed such concerns, saying on condition of anonymity that creating chaos within the U.S. military’s chain of command would create political backlash and be unnecessary for Mr. Trump to accomplish his goals.

“What these guys will find out is that military officers are generally focused on warfighting and not politics,” the military official said.

“I feel they’ll be satisfied of that – or at least they should be.”

HOLLOW OUT CIVILIAN RANKS?

Career civil servants at the Pentagon could be subjected to loyalty tests, current and former officials say. Mr. Trump allies have publicly embraced using executive orders and rule changes to replace thousands of civil servants with conservative allies. A senior U.S. defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there was increasing concern within the Pentagon that Mr. Trump would purge career civilian employees from the department.

“I’m deeply concerned about their ranks,” the official said, adding that several colleagues had expressed concern about the future of their jobs.

Career civil servants are among the nearly 950,000 non-uniformed employees who work within the U.S. military and in many cases have years of specialised experience.

Mr. Trump vowed during the campaign to give himself the power to gut the federal workforce across the government.

During his first administration, some of Mr. Trump’s controversial suggestions to advisers, such as potentially firing missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs, never became policy in part because of pushback from officials at the Pentagon.

“This will be 2016 on steroids and the fear is that he will hollow out the ranks and expertise in a way that will do irreparable damage to the Pentagon,” the official said.

In its final months, President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to allow US defense contractors to work in Ukraine to maintain and repair Pentagon-provided weaponry, US officials told Reuters on Friday, in a significant policy shift that aims to aid Kyiv’s fight against Russia.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the contractors would be small in number and located far from the front lines. They will not be engaged in combat.

They will help ensure US-provided equipment “can be rapidly repaired when damaged and be provided maintenance as needed,” the official said.

Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the United States has given Kyiv tens of billions of dollars in weaponry. But Kyiv either had to move US-provided weaponry out of the country for heavy repair or rely on video-conferencing and other creative solutions to fix those systems inside the country.

The restrictions in the past have sometimes slowed down repairs and proven increasingly difficult as the US has provided Kyiv with more complicated systems, like F-16 fighter jets and Patriot air defenses, officials say.

A lot of equipment in the country is not being used because it is damaged, a second US official told Reuters.

The move is the latest easing of restrictions by Biden’s administration, which has sought to help Ukraine defend itself against Moscow’s 2 1/2 year-old invasion without becoming directly engaged against nuclear-armed Russia.

A third US official said the decision would move the Pentagon in line with the US State Department and US Agency for International Development, which already have US contractors in Ukraine.

The official added that no US troops would be required to defend contractors in Ukraine, and that issues like safety and risk mitigation would be the responsibility of those companies entering into contracts with the Pentagon.

Some US defense contractors have already gone to Ukraine in small numbers in the past, servicing weapons that weren’t being provided by the Pentagon, the official said.

Given there are already are a “wide array of American companies” who have personnel in Ukraine fulfilling contracts for the Ukrainian government, there would not be a substantial increase in US company employees working on the ground, the first official said.

The decision comes at a critical time for the conflict. Russian forces are advancing at their fastest rate since Ukraine first repulsed their invasion at the outskirts of Kyiv in early 2022. Ukraine, for its part, has launched its first major incursion into Russian territory.

Still, it’s unclear how sustainable the policy shift will be with so little time left in Biden’s administration. President-elect Donald Trump has criticized the scale of US military and financial support for Kyiv and vowed to end the war with Russia quickly, without saying how. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

As the biggest contributor by far to Kyiv’s war effort, US support has been essential to Ukraine’s survival against a much larger and better equipped Russian enemy.

Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukraine, and it is increasing pressure on Kyiv, which is facing problems fielding a strong enough fighting force to stand up to Russia’s steady onslaught – bolstered recently by the addition of North Korean troops.

Ukraine has called on the West to lift restrictions on using missiles to attack deep into Russia, which Kyiv says is necessary to disrupt long-range Russian attacks.

But Biden’s administration has not announced any changes to that policy, which officials say might not be sufficient to change the tide in the war, and which Moscow says would escalate the conflict.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)