Latest news with #PeterHegseth
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘Adults are back in charge': Americans joining the military in ‘record numbers'
BlazeTV host and Texas Family Project VP Sara Gonzales says Americans are enlisting in the military in 'record numbers' due in part to the adults being 'back in charge'. US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth has grilled Democrat congresswoman Sara Jacobs over the inclusion of transgender people in the armed forces. 'Look at the recruiting numbers; they are through the roof because young men are excited about not being told that they are toxic,' Ms Gonzales told Sky News host Rita Panahi.
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Pete Hegseth roasts Democrat congresswoman over trans military troops
US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth has grilled Democrat congresswoman Sara Jacobs over the inclusion of transgender people in the armed forces. Ms Jacobs accused the Defense Secretary of 'injecting cultural wars' into the military, at the detriment of readiness and national security. 'To be clear, these are men who think they are women ... what we have identified is that there are mental health issues with that belief system that are detrimental to readiness,' Mr Hegseth said in response during a committee hearing.
Indian Express
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Operation ‘Midnight Hammer': 5 key takeaways from the Pentagon briefing on US bombing Iran
Senior Pentagon officials on Sunday gave a media briefing on 'Operation Midnight Hammer', the codename given to the US' precision strikes on three of Iran's nuclear facilities hours earlier, which marked a dramatic escalation in the Middle East and brought Washington and Tehran relations to a historic low since the Iranian Revolution. US Secretary of Defence Peter Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine on Sunday reiterated the Washington's policy on Tehran's nuclear programme and revealed new details on the covert operation, which was conducted well before the two-week self-imposed deadline set by Trump. The covert operation involved the use of over 125 aircraft and deception tactics, and the fleet included seven B-2 stealth bombers, the press briefing revealed. The US strike targeted three of Iran's most sensitive nuclear facilities — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Natanz, Tehran's primary enrichment site, reportedly housed 13,500 operational centrifuges, capable of purifying uranium to 5 per cent, and over 160 advanced centrifuges capable of purifying uranium up to 60 per cent — a small step away from 90 per cent (weapons-grade purity). The Isfahan facility housed three Chinese-built research reactors. It also included the Uranium Conversion Facility, which converts 'yellowcake' uranium to uranium hexafluoride (the raw input for centrifuges). The Fordow enrichment site housed 2,000 operational centrifuges. What sets this site apart from the other facilities damaged in Israeli barrages since June 13 is its depth: built into the side of a mountain and buried approximately 260 to 300 feet underground, it is effectively impervious to conventional air strikes. Amid the Israeli bombardment, the Fordow nuclear facility stood unscathed. This site required the direct involvement of the US, which houses the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) in its arsenal – a 30,000-pound 'bunker buster' capable of destroying it. The Pentagon said these strikes were conducted to 'severely degrade Iran's nuclear programme.' The covert op featured seven B-2 Spirit bombers – with two crew members in each – flying from Missouri, backed by over 125 aircrafts, including 4th and 5th generation fighter jets (as decoys), surveillance planes, and aerial refuelers. The B-2s dropped 14 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (GBU-57s) on Natanz and Fordow, while a US guided missile submarine launched more than 24 Tomahawk missiles at Isfahan in a coordinated strike. The mission was conducted during a timeframe of 18 hours and involved multiple in-flight refuellings and deception tactics such as decoys and airspace clearing. All three nuclear facilities were struck between 6:40 pm and 7:05 pm (Eastern Time), with the Tomahawks delivering the final blow at Isfahan. In what marked the longest B-2 mission since 2001 and the first operational employment of the GBU-57, the White House maintained complete secrecy. Describing the operation as 'highly classified', Caine said that very few people in Washington were aware of the 'timing and nature' of the plan. Iran's air defenses failed to respond, and no US aircraft was fired upon. Caine concluded that the US was able to retain the element of surprise. Hegseth said the sites were 'obliterated,' and warned Tehran against retaliation. Hegseth described the strikes as 'bold and brilliant,' adding that it showed the world that 'American deterrence is back' and reaffirmed Washington's stance on the enrichment programme — that 'Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.' He also called the operation a 'spectacular success,' highlighting that no Iranian troops or civilians were targeted. 'As President Trump has stated, 'the US does not seek war', but… we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partner, or our interests are threatened,' Hegseth said, to pressure Tehran to come to the negotiation table. Following the attack, President Trump gave a press briefing from Washington, reiterating his previous calls that 'Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.' He warned Tehran against carrying out retaliatory attacks, saying that 'there will either be peace or tragedy for Iran, far greater than what we have witnessed over the last eight days.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Washington's move and, in a video message addressed to the US President, said, 'Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history.' Iran's Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, 'the US entering the war is 100% to its own detriment.' Later in the day, Iran's Parliament approved plans to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between the Gulf of Persia and the Gulf of Oman, responsible for 20 per cent of global trade. The Supreme National Security Council, the highest security body in the state apparatus, is yet to take the final call, Major General Kowsari, a member of the National Security Committee, said.
Straits Times
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
US strikes Iran: What Trump needs to do to avoid embroilment in a wider regional war
The Fordow uranium enrichment plant near Qom, Iran, after US strikes on June 22. PHOTO: REUTERS Follow our live coverage here. – The US strikes on Iran's nuclear installations had devastated its nuclear programmes, but the mission, codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer, did not target Iranian troops or the country's people, said US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
South China Morning Post
07-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Trump, Hegseth, Rubio: a triple threat to global stability
The Indo-Pacific cannot afford to become collateral damage in America's descent from diplomacy into dysfunction – a decline embodied by Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth's sabre-rattling and Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio's overreach. South Korea , At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore , Hegseth stunned Asia's defence and diplomatic elite by demanding that Indo-Pacific countries raise defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product to 'counter China'. The proposal was not just tone-deaf; it was combustible. No country in the region, save for outliers, comes close to that threshold. Japan Australia – and certainly Southeast Asia, where military spending averages just 1.5 per cent of GDP – are in no position to meet such a demand. What Hegseth delivered was not a strategy, but an ultimatum. And in doing so, he risked catalysing the very action-reaction cycle Washington once sought to avoid: a region arming in anticipation, while Beijing accelerates its military posture in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. Asean , already reeling from intensifying great power rivalries, finds itself caught in the crossfire of an American foreign policy that confuses coercion with clarity, and escalation with influence. Former US president Richard Nixon and then-secretary of state Henry Kissinger wielded ambiguity to signal strategic intent. By contrast, Hegseth, Rubio and US President Donald Trump offer only confusion and contradiction – wielded like a cudgel, fracturing the very alliances they claim to reinforce. In this environment, diplomacy is no longer the art of restraining power. It has become the art of surviving it. A cabinet without guardrails The Hegseth doctrine – if it can be called one – illustrates a deeper unravelling within Trump's second administration: the near-total removal of institutional counterweights. The National Security Council is diminished. The State Department's career corps, once the backbone of US diplomacy, has been hollowed out. What remains is a cabinet of loyalists, not strategists.
