Tag: United States Defense and Military Forces

Trump Gives Green Light to U.S. Companies to Aim Hacks at Cybercriminals

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The Trump administration is encouraging American companies to conduct their own cyberattacks against criminal hackers, a move that White House officials say will help address digital scourges like ransomware but that some former officials and security experts warn could lead to chaos. Under a national security memorandum that President Trump signed late Wednesday, select companies would work with the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to strike foreign cybercriminal groups with hacks under certain conditions. The attacks would allow both surveillance of the criminal networks and specific types of hacking operations…

A New Security Order Is Taking Shape in Asia

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A historic shift has gathered pace across Asia this summer. Over the past several weeks, China has extended maritime patrols to cover Taiwan’s east coast, demonstrating its ability to encircle the island. It has intensified military, trade and diplomatic pressure on Japan and test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile that showcased its growing sea-based nuclear capability. With an eye on China’s growing power, other countries have drawn closer, revealing the contours of an emerging new security architecture. Japan has strengthened defense ties with Australia, the Philippines and India, and it is…

Iran, China, Canada? A Defense of Trump’s Grand Strategy

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Is President Trump’s grand strategy unraveling? The United States is at war with Iran, China is ascendant, Russia and Ukraine are stalemated and American allies are openly questioning our commitment to them. Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy, joins me to discuss the state of America’s foreign policy and he makes the case that Trump’s approach to our allies and adversaries is making us stronger. Below is an edited transcript of an episode of “Interesting Times.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the…

A.I. Drones Are Coming. We Are Not Ready.

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On a clear afternoon this month, high above the Mojave Desert, an A.I.-powered drone launched a missile in a test that could reshape modern warfare. Since the dawn of the jet age, the U.S. military has used the isolation over this stretch of sand to push secret, experimental aircraft to their aerodynamic and technological limits. It’s doing the same today: fine-tuning machines capable of engaging in aerial combat with barely any human intervention. These drones’ flight is controlled not by a pilot, not by human remote control, but entirely by…

Why China Fired a Long-Range Missile Into the Pacific

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With one missile fired over the Pacific Ocean from a submarine lurking off China’s coast, the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, has proclaimed his determination to build a full suite of nuclear weapons, including sea-based missiles that have long been Beijing’s weak spot. The missile test on Monday came after China’s military has been battered for years by mass removals of commanders accused of corruption and disloyalty. But Chinese media declared that the test showed the country remained on track to create a full nuclear triad; that is, a range of…

Alibaba Sues Pentagon Over China Military Label

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Alibaba, one of China’s most valuable technology companies, sued the U.S. Department of Defense, challenging the Pentagon’s decision to designate it as a company affiliated with the Chinese military. Best known internationally for its e-commerce business, Alibaba has also become a major cloud-computing provider and one of China’s leading developers of advanced artificial intelligence systems. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Federal District Court in the Northern District of California, the company said it had no ties to the Chinese military and argued that the Pentagon had acted unlawfully…

Top Pentagon Official Worked Closely With C.I.A. Officer Later Found With Gold Bars

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David J. Rush, the former C.I.A. officer found last month with $40 million in gold bars in his home and now under F.B.I. investigation, had powerful friends in government. It turns out that one of them, Stephen A. Feinberg, the deputy secretary of defense, even contacted the C.I.A. earlier this year asking to work more closely with him. Before the C.I.A. fired Mr. Rush, he and Mr. Feinberg worked together on a highly classified program focused on spying on China, according to the current and former officials. Mr. Feinberg reached…

Cease-Fires, but No Peace

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When is a cease-fire no longer a cease-fire? Yesterday, American forces struck Iran for the second time in three days. In response to U.S. strikes on Monday, Iran swiftly threatened counterattacks — and yet, so far, both sides say that negotiations are ongoing and the cease-fire is holding. There’s a cease-fire in Lebanon, too, in theory, but Israel has just significantly intensified its campaign against Hezbollah there. There’s a cease-fire in Gaza — but hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since it began in October. It’s remarkable how much firing…

Trump’s ‘Learning Curve’ on China Ends With Conciliation at Summit

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In 2024, Donald J. Trump said China was “killing us as a country.” Last year, he complained that President Xi Jinping of China was “very tough, and extremely hard to make a deal with.” His tariffs on China reached 145 percent at one point. The whiplash that followed culminated in the pageantry in Beijing this week. As Air Force One took off from the Chinese capital on Friday, it remained unclear what deals, if any, President Trump had clinched with Mr. Xi. But the two-day summit in Beijing underscored how…

Why the Bombing of Iran Tied the U.S. More Closely to China

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As the United States works to rebuild its supply of missiles and munitions after deploying many of them in the war with Iran, its defense contractors will need a supply of rare-earth minerals and magnets that are essential to making those weapons. But China dominates global production of those minerals, and it has enacted tight controls over them in the past year to cut off any foreign companies linked to the military and to put political pressure on the Trump administration. China deployed its control over the mineral supply chain…