All posts tagged "United States"

The U.S. military announced Tuesday it had launched "powerful strikes" against Iran — something an analyst signaled could be a sign of what repercussions are to come.

CNN White House reporter Adam Cancryn told CNN anchor Jake Tapper and senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes during a live report that a military official said these attacks were meant as "punishment" after Iran attacked three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Cancryn warned that the retaliation could have a direct impact on Americans.

"At least in the immediate term here, it means more uncertainty when it comes to energy prices," Cancryn said. "So, we've already seen, as a result of these economic sanctions, sanctions being now reimposed, the global oil prices, and markets going up once again. The real risk here again is how the Iranians respond, whether they end up closing the Strait of Hormuz again, which, over the last few months, really pushed the price of oil and the price of gas at the pump up."...

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned top executives that the United States was taking steps to respond to China's state-backed robotics industry, something viewed as a potential national security threat, Politico reported on Tuesday.

During the closed-door meeting on Monday, he told the business leaders that the Trump administration was studying state-subsidized robotics imports, three people who attended the meeting told Politico. The move comes amid concerns that "subsidized Chinese robots could dominate global markets before U.S. manufacturers have the scale to compete."

Dozens of executives from companies such as Boston Dynamics, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Siemens, SpaceX and Rockwell Automation were at the roundtable discussion, Politico reported. Some of the discussion included how the American industry could "reverse decades of manufacturing offshoring and rebuild the industrial base needed to build everything from semiconductors to robots."...

A military expert on Tuesday revealed new details emerging after Iran struck a United States Apache helicopter and how it "changes the entire situation" involving the ongoing conflict.

After reports that a Shahed drone struck the helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz, and it was unclear whether the drone had initially targeted the Apache or if it was an inadvertent strike, Col. Peter Mansoor told CNN that it could change the response.

"I really think that changes the entire situation because Shahed drones are not air-to-air drones," Mansoor said. "It could have been just an accident that the drone was aimed at something else and ran into the Apache, you know, by chance. But, if it was actually aimed at the helicopter, this would be a new use for this particular type of drone, which is really an air-to-surface, guided cruise missile rather than an air-to-air missile like Ukraine has developed."...

House Republicans on the Armed Services Committee released their defense budget proposal this week for fiscal year 2027, which includes more than $1.1 trillion in spending, but buried within the 500-plus-page document is a provision that one foreign policy analyst warned Friday was “unprecedented,” and could reshape the U.S. military indefinitely.

That provision is titled the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” and according to Ben Freeman, a foreign policy analyst at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, it would “provide a higher level of military-industrial integration [with Israel] than the U.S. has with any other country in the world.”

Writing in a report published by Responsible Statecraft, Freeman noted that the United States and Israel “already work together heavily” on military operations and intelligence sharing. He also acknowledged that the United States “has worked closely with its NATO partners” militarily. The provision buried within the defense spending proposal, however, was “a different beast entirely,” Freeman warned....

The United States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday in the Strait of Hormuz, according to an Axios report.

A U.S. official confirmed the attack, saying the U.S. had conducted strikes on targets in the strait. It appeared to happen as the U.S. attempted to enforce the blockade.

The Iranian navy targeted three U.S. destroyers, according to Iranian state media. The country's military said the U.S. had targeted an oil tanker and another ship entering the vital trade channel. ...

President Donald Trump was irritated on Saturday after a reporter asked him about the ongoing Iran negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump spoke with reporters before leaving the White House to head to Joint Base Andrews, snapping at a female NBC News reporter who asked about the stalemate.

"Why do you say that? You don't know anything!" Trump said. ...