Latest Military and defense News

UN halts all food distribution in Rafah after running out of supplies in the southern Gaza city

May. 21, 2024 18:56 PM EDT

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday due to a lack of supplies and an untenable security situation caused by Israel’s expanding military operation. The U.N. warned that humanitarian operations across the territory were nearing...

Russia begins nuclear drills in an apparent warning to West over Ukraine

May. 21, 2024 16:44 PM EDT

Russia’s military on Tuesday began drills involving tactical nuclear weapons that were announced by Russian authorities earlier this month in an apparent warning to senior Western officials who had spoken about the possibility of deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine. It was the...

Germany's foreign minister says in Kyiv that air defenses are an 'absolute priority' for Ukraine

May. 21, 2024 10:37 AM EDT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Sending air defense systems to Ukraine to help protect it from Russian cruise missiles, rockets and drones is an “absolute priority,” Germany’s foreign minister said in Kyiv on Tuesday after visiting a local power plant that was largely reduced to ruins by a recent...

France is trying Syrian ex-officials for the torture and killing of a father and son. Here's why

May. 21, 2024 04:40 AM EDT

PARIS (AP) — The Syrian soldiers came first, at night, for the son, Patrick, a 20-year-old psychology student at Damascus University, and said they were taking him away for questioning. They came back the next night for his father, Mazen. Five years later, in 2018,...

Pentagon vows to keep weapons moving to Ukraine as Kyiv faces a renewed assault by Russia

May. 20, 2024 16:44 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin committed Monday to keeping U.S. weapons moving to Ukraine as Kyiv faces one of its toughest moments against a renewed assault by Russia. Austin and as many as 50 defense leaders from Europe and around the world met Monday to...

Ireland's top diplomat concerned over slow pace of justice in peacekeeper's killing in Lebanon

May. 20, 2024 04:58 AM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — Ireland’s top diplomat in a visit to Lebanon on Monday expressed his concern over the slow progress in criminal proceedings against several Lebanese men charged with the killing of an Irish peacekeeper in 2022 in the tiny Mediterranean country. Micheál Martin,...

US troops, equipment will depart from Niger by mid-September, the Pentagon says

May. 19, 2024 16:33 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. troops ordered out of Niger by the West African country's ruling junta will complete their withdrawal by the middle of September, the Pentagon and Nigerien defense officials said Sunday. The timeline was the product of four days of talks between the...

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange facing pivotal moment in long fight to stay out of US court

May. 19, 2024 02:59 AM EDT

LONDON (AP) — The host of a news conference about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition fight wryly welcomed journalists last week to the “millionth” press briefing on his court case. Deborah Bonetti, director of the Foreign Press Association, was only half joking....

Chinese ambassador promises 'friendship' and 'cooperation' as 2 Chinese warships dock in Cambodia

May. 19, 2024 02:15 AM EDT

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AP) — Two Chinese warships docked Sunday at a commercial port in Cambodia, in preparation for joint naval exercises between the two countries. The Jingangshan amphibious warfare ship and Qijiguang training ship sailed in to the Sihanoukville Port as...

As ethnic armed group claims to have captured a town in western Myanmar, Muslim Rohingyas flee again

May. 18, 2024 16:41 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military government in the country’s western state of Rakhine claimed Saturday to have seized a town near the border with Bangladesh, marking the latest in a series of victories for foes of the country’s military government. ...