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      How Pete Hegseth is pushing his beliefs on US agency: ‘nothing to prepare forces’

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      More than 50 days into Donald Trump’s second administration and his Department of Defense is already rapidly transforming into the image of its secretary, Pete Hegseth.Now, many of the rants and opinions common during Hegseth’s Fox News career are coming to policy fruition in his new Pentagon.Hegseth inaugurated himself by scolding his Nato allies and confirming the US would never accept Ukraine into the alliance. Then his Pentagon immediately made leadership changes targeting women and people of color. He oversaw total deletions of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs, all the while slashing whole sections of the military overseeing civilian harm reduction in theatres of combat.Combining all of that with his connections to Christian nationalism and a pastor who said slavery brought “affection between the races” has led to calls from former defense department officials that the new secretary is actively damaging his own agency.“What are we seeing in the Pentagon right now? What are we hearing about the future of warfare? What are we hearing about the transformation that is necessary, right now, as we come out of the last two decades of warfighting?” said the retired brigadier general Paul Eaton, a veteran of the Iraq war. “We’re hearing of DEI purging.”Eaton continued: “We’re hearing about taking a Black four-star out of the seniormost position in the armed forces of the United States; a female four-star removed, who was the first chief of naval operations; a four-star female taken out of the coast guard.”In any national military, fighting cohesion and faith in the chain of command is paramount. But Eaton says Hegseth is a “Saturday showman on Fox News” unfit for the office he occupies and has undermined his troops at every turn.Eaton explained that mass firings and transgender bans have distracted from learning lessons from the war in Ukraine and the coming global conflict many inside the Pentagon have been predicting for years. Most of all, Hegseth’s focus on culture war is actively neglecting the “warfighters” he constantly invokes.“What we’re seeing is nibbling around the edges of a culture with a dominant theme that does nothing to prepare the armed forces of the United States to meet its next peer or near peer opponent,” said Eaton.In a period where the Pentagon has struggled to meet recruitment numbers, Hegseth’s dismissal of top female officers and his historical attitude towards gender is not making enlistment a top attraction among women.“Comments that question the qualifications and accomplishments of women in uniform are deeply disrespectful of the sacrifices these service members and their families have made for our country,” said Caroline Zier, the former deputy chief of staff to the last secretary of defense, Lloyd J Austin III, and a VoteVets senior policy adviser. “Secretary Hegseth risks alienating and undermining the women who currently serve, while decreasing the likelihood that other women look to join the military at exactly the moment when we need all qualified recruits.”Hegseth’s office also had social sciences and DEI research axed in a memo announced in early March. The cost cutting measure will save $30m a year in Pentagon funding of internal studies, “on global migration patterns, climate change impacts, and social trends”.In a post on X, Hegseth said: “[DoD] does not do climate change crap. We do training and warfighting.” Those comments match up with his complaint that under the Biden administration the military somehow weakened soldier standards and focused its efforts away from fighting wars in favor of adopting liberal subcultures.“The truth is the United States military is the most lethal fighting force in the history of the world, and the Department of Defense never took its eye off warfighting and meritocracy,” said Zier. “I saw that up close over the course of 15 years working at the Department of Defense, across administrations.”Tough talk about “warfighting” and “lethality” has also followed an obsession within the Trump administration with special forces units – the types that carry out drone strikes or a mission such as the one that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Hegseth and Trump, for example, were dogged defenders of Eddie Gallagher, a Navy Seal pardoned by Trump for war crimes in Iraq.But special operations missions, especially when they have led to civilian carnage, have the propensity to create enemies across the globe if unneeded collateral damage occurs. Which is why new and evolving watchdog policies governing how covert actions are carried out were adopted across the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations of the past. By 2023, Austin instituted new orders surrounding civilian harm mitigation.But Hegseth has closed the Pentagon’s Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response office and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which both handled training and procedures critical in limiting civilian harm in theatres of war. Coupled with plans to overhaul the judge advocate general’s corps to remake the rules of war governing the US military, all signs point to a Pentagon more prone to tragic mistakes.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionEaton thinks that is shortsighted and ignores lessons learned.“When I was in Iraq in 2004 developing the Iraqi armed forces,” said Eaton. “I would stand up in front of my Iraqi soldiers and I would make a case for the most important component of the US military: our judicial system and the good order and discipline of the armed forces.”But then, Eaton added, something happened that undermined those words: “Abu Ghraib”.Not only was Hegseth a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was also a major veteran voice that railed against the Biden administration’s handling of withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Part of that included criticisms of abandoning allies, and yet Hegseth’s time at the top of the Pentagon has coincided with the unprecedented undermining of global alliances – suspending things such as offensive cyber missions countering Russia – which has blemished confidence in military interoperability and intelligence sharing.Ukraine, at risk of becoming the new Afghan government cutoff from American military support, is fighting for its national survival against a superior Russian force.In early March, the Pentagon froze critical intelligence and weapons packages as Trump repostured the US position on the conflict. That kind of uncertainty has borne real fears on the ground of the most deadly war in Europe since the second world war.“I think the Ukrainians and all of us working here regardless of nationality, are anxious about what the future of US support looks like,” said a former US marine currently living in Ukraine and working on defense technologies near the frontlines. “We’re all hoping that the US will do the right thing and provide the Ukrainians the tools they need to end this war and secure their future.”But so far, Hegseth has instead shown he’s turning the Pentagon’s gaze toward the border in Mexico, another obsession during his time on air, for the first time in over a century and to the containment of China. Ukraine, Nato and the many Pentagon cuts are in the backseat.The Pentagon did not respond to several emails with a detailed list of questions about Hegseth’s personal impact on policy making on the department he leads. More

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      I’m a transgender veteran. Trump’s military order is reckless and dangerous | Alleria Stanley

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      Late last month, the Trump administration moved to fire transgender people serving in the armed forces.This includes those who have honorably served for for 19 years (one year short of retirement) those who have served honorably in combat situations, and those in whom the military has already invested millions of dollars in training.I’m a transgender woman who medically transitioned while on active duty service. I wish more people knew that transgender service members are not a threat. Instead, we’re the ones who volunteer when others won’t. We bring unique perspectives and skills to the armed forces. Transgender individuals are twice as likely as all adults in the US to have served in the armed forces, a testament to our commitment and dedication.We are also seven times more likely than US civilians to attempt suicide during our lifetimes. This is no surprise when we are constantly told – through actions like this drastic transgender military ban – that our careers and our lives are not worth saving.I served for 20 years in the army and endured my share of hardships. In 2005, I was deployed to Afghanistan, working as a repairer on Apache helicopters, when I found out that my wife had been diagnosed with cancer. She died 12 months after I got home, and I became a single parent to our young children.As their only provider, I was fortunate to be able to keep my job when I came out publicly in 2016 under President Obama. But while I was stationed in Missouri, I faced a frightening amount of transphobia. I was verbally harassed, physically threatened, and once, someone stood in my driveway and shot into my car. My kids saw all of it. This is the reality of the discrimination that transgender service members face.If I were still actively serving in the military today, I would lose my career, health insurance, and other benefits, and so would my family.The Trump administration is wrong about transgender service members. The Pentagon memo declares that being transgender is “incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service”. This couldn’t be further from the truth.There are at least 15,000 transgender individuals in the military, and they serve everywhere. They are pilots, submariners and infantry; they are in command positions; they are trusted in the highest-skilled military jobs and the riskiest; they hold top secret clearances (as I did). The cumulative loss of institutional and career knowledge across the spectrum that will come from this decision is devastating, as is the personal loss to these service members and their families.This new order is reckless and counter-productive to military preparedness. When we face threats worldwide, we need a strong and resilient military. We don’t need to leave 15,000 skilled positions vacant.Furthermore, what precedent does this set? We already know that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, does not believe women should serve in combat. Many people don’t realize that equal African American military service is not codified by law – only by President Truman’s Executive Order #9981. This means it can be reversed at any time. I use this as an example because when policies are allowed to ping-pong between executive orders instead of law, it puts people’s lives at risk.I was fortunate to have found an online arts organization during my lowest moment in Missouri. Community Building Art offers creative writing and art workshops for female and non-binary veterans. Participating in a community like this saved my life and has proven to reduce suicidality among participants.But I worry now for all those suddenly forced out of the careers and communities they’ve known. We should support their service to our nation, and should they be dismissed, we must offer them safe spaces. Yet, instead of focusing on crises like veteran suicide, the administration is endangering veterans’ care. We will need the private sector to support service members and veterans in this dangerous time.Having retired from the military, I recently discovered a disheartening change in my Veterans Affairs (VA) profile. My medical records now mark me as “male”, a stark reminder of the personal impact of policies like the transgender military ban. While I have weathered storms like these, I worry about those with much more to lose.

      Alleria Stanley is a retired United States army service member, advocate, and member of the LGBTQ+ community. She is a board member of Transgender American Veterans Association

      In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org More

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      Transgender US military personnel must be identified and stood down, says Pentagon memo

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      Transgender service members will be separated from the US military unless they receive an exemption, according to a Pentagon memo filed in court on Wednesday – essentially banning them from joining or serving in the armed forces.Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way – at one point saying that a man identifying as a woman was “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member”.This month, the Pentagon had said that the US military would no longer allow transgender individuals to join and would stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members.Wednesday’s late-evening memo went further. It said that the Pentagon must create a procedure to identify troops who are transgender within 30 days and then within 30 days of that, must start to separate them from the military.“It is the policy of the United States government to establish high standards for service member readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity,” said the memo, dated 26 February.“This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria or who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria.”There is no requirement for transgender troops to self identify and the Pentagon doesn’t have a precise number.The Pentagon said waivers would be granted only “provided there is a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities”.It added that for a waiver, troops must also be able to meet a number of criteria, including that the service member “demonstrates 36 consecutive months of stability in the service member’s sex without clinically significant distress”.The military has about 1.3 million active duty personnel, according to Department of Defense data. Transgender rights advocates say there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members. Officials say the number is in the low thousands.The move, which goes further than restrictions Trump placed on transgender service members during his first administration, was described as unprecedented by advocates. “The scope and severity of this ban is unprecedented. It is a complete purge of all transgender individuals from military service,” said Shannon Minter of the National Center For Lesbian Rights (NCLR).The memo was filed in court as part of a lawsuit brought by NCLR and GLAD Law. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the January executive order and argues that it violates the equal protection component of the fifth amendment.This month, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said people with gender dysphoria already in the military would be “treated with dignity and respect”. More

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      Trump’s Iron Dome for America system is now reportedly called Golden Dome

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      Donald Trump’s Iron Dome for America initiative for a missile defense system protecting US skies from attack has been reportedly renamed the Golden Dome for America.In a video published on Thursday, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth referred to the project as “the Golden Dome or Iron Dome”. A defense official confirmed shortly after that the name of the initiative has been officially changed to “Golden Dome”, according to military news website Defense One.A spokesperson for Space Force did not respond to a Guardian query on the possible name change.The idea of a new name comes as a team of technical experts has been assembled by the US Space Force to determine which programs can help build out the initiative.The Iron – or perhaps now Golden – Dome for America executive order, signed by Trump on 27 January, is a directive for Hegseth to submit a comprehensive plan that details an implementation strategy, including the required architecture, for a missile defense system.Trump is known for his grand renaming of things, including the Gulf of Mexico, which is now known officially in the US as the Gulf of America, as well as having a gaudy taste for golden and luxurious decorations, such as that which often adorn his apartments and buildings like Trump Tower in New York.The defense system focuses heavily on the concept of space-based sensors and interceptors. The company that currently dominates the market for such equipment is the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, leading to concerns that this project is another way for Musk to make money from federal programs.The team will finish planning in “a matter of weeks”, a senior Space Force official told reporters Monday.Last month, it was announced that the space development agency, a branch under the Space Force, was in the process of acquiring new satellites in order to create a network of missile-tracking sensors within Earth’s orbit. This network would be part of the Dome system.While Trump’s executive order argues that the US is in need of a space-centric defense against missile threats, many critics question the technical and financial feasibility of such a project.The name and concept of the Dome for America alludes to Israel’s Iron Dome, a defense system designed to counter against short-range rockets and missiles. More

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      Judge blocks Trump immigration policy allowing arrests in churches for some religious groups – live

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      A federal judge blocked immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations in houses of worship for some religious groups, the Associated Press reported. US district judge Theodore Chang found that the Trump administration policy could violate their religious freedom and should be blocked while a lawsuit challenging it plays out.

      Trump said the US and Ukraine are “very close” to coming to terms on a rare earth minerals agreement, in comments made during a visit from French president Emmanuel Macron amid European concerns over the US position on Ukraine. Follow the latest from the leaders’ joint press conference here.

      The Trump administration said it was placing all but a handful of USAid personnel around the world on paid administrative leave and eliminating about 2,000 of those positions in the US, as the rapid dismantling of the organization appears to move into its final phases.

      Attorneys for federal workers said in a lawsuit that billionaire adviser to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, had violated the law with his weekend demand that employees explain their accomplishments or risk being fired. An updated lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in California and was provided to the Associated Press, is trying to block mass layoffs.

      Many federal government departments, including the FBI, have told staff not to comply with the Musk directive to list their accomplishments in the past week by 11.59 pm ET tonight. But the US Transportation Department has told workers they should respond to the demand by Donald Trump’s adviser.

      A federal judge has blocked the government downsizing team Doge from accessing sensitive data maintained by the US Education Department and the US Office of Personnel Management. US district judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland issued the temporary restraining order at the behest of a coalition of labor unions.
      Although a US-based Associated Press reporter was barred from the joint news conference between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, a France-based AP reporter was allowed it.The French press corps decided the France-based AP reporter should be allowed to ask the first question.The administration blocked AP reporters from the White House press pool after the news agency said it would continue to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” in its articles, instead referring to the body of water as the “Gulf of America,” following Trump’s order to rename it.The AP has sued over its exclusion from the press conferences, but a judge denied the AP’s emergency motion to restore its access.A federal judge who blocked the Federal Bureau of Prisons from carrying out Donald Trump’s executive order that would transferred three incarcerated trans women into men’s facilities earlier this month, has extended protections for nine additional women.US district judge Royce Lamberth in Washington said the court “sees no reason to change its legal conclusions” from its previous order. On 4 February, Lambeth issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s executive order seeking to erode trans rights behind bars.My colleague Sam Levin reported earlier this month:
      Lambeth ruled that Trump’s order discriminates against transgender people and violates their constitutional rights.
      The Federal Bureau of Prisons must “maintain and continue the plaintiffs’ housing status and medical care as they existed immediately prior to January 20”, he wrote.
      The judge said the trans women had “straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow” if they are denied healthcare and forced into men’s institutions.
      US officials “have not so much as alleged that the plaintiffs in this particular suit present any threat to the female inmates housed with them”, the judge added. The family of one plaintiff said her life would be threatened if she were moved.
      The judge said there were only 16 trans women housed in women’s facilities, and the ruling applies to all of them.
      On 26 January, a federal judge in Boston issued a restraining order in a separate challenge to the same executive order. That order was limited to one transgender woman in a woman’s prison.
      The Washington Post reports that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) which functions as the the government’s HR department, has told federal agency leaders they can ignore Elon Musk’s threat to fire employees who do not send in the bullet-pointed list of accomplishments that he requested.The Post, citing anonymous sources, reports that OPM told agency chief human capital officers on a Monday call that they could ignore Musk’s threat. Per the Post:
      Another person briefed on the call said that OPM is also looking at weekly reporting for government departments, the person said. But the person said that OPM was unsure what to do with the emails of employees who responded so far, and had “no plans” to analyze them.
      As my colleagues at the Guardian reported earlier, Musk’s ultimatum to federal workers has been causing chaos.
      Musk’s ultimatum was sent out on Saturday in a mass email to federal employees from the office of personnel management (OPM), one of the first federal organs Musk and his team on the so-called “department of government efficiency” infiltrated after Trump was sworn in. The message gave all the US government’s more than 2 million workers barely 48 hours to itemize their accomplishments in the past week in five bullet points, and in a post on X, Musk indicated that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation”.
      The order provoked instant chaos across the government, with Trump’s own appointed leadership in federal agencies responding in starkly different ways. Workers in the Social Security Administration and the health and human services department were told to comply with the email, and CNN reported that the Department of Transportation ordered all its employees to respond to the Musk email by its deadline. That included air traffic controllers who are currently struggling with severe understaffing and a spate of recent accidents.

      A federal judge blocked immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations in houses of worship for some religious groups, the Associated Press reported. US district judge Theodore Chang found that the Trump administration policy could violate their religious freedom and should be blocked while a lawsuit challenging it plays out.

      Trump said the US and Ukraine are “very close” to coming to terms on a rare earth minerals agreement, in comments made during a visit from French president Emmanuel Macron amid European concerns over the US position on Ukraine. Follow the latest from the leaders’ joint press conference here.

      The Trump administration said it was placing all but a handful of USAid personnel around the world on paid administrative leave and eliminating about 2,000 of those positions in the US, as the rapid dismantling of the organization appears to move into its final phases.

      Attorneys for federal workers said in a lawsuit that billionaire adviser to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, had violated the law with his weekend demand that employees explain their accomplishments or risk being fired. An updated lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in California and was provided to the Associated Press, is trying to block mass layoffs.

      Many federal government departments, including the FBI, have told staff not to comply with the Musk directive to list their accomplishments in the past week by 11.59 pm ET tonight. But the US Transportation Department has told workers they should respond to the demand by Donald Trump’s adviser.

      A federal judge has blocked the government downsizing team Doge from accessing sensitive data maintained by the US Education Department and the US Office of Personnel Management. US district judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland issued the temporary restraining order at the behest of a coalition of labor unions.
      House Republicans face a major test this week as the fractured and narrow caucus tries to unify around a plan to advance Donald Trump’s agenda for trillions in tax cuts and new spending on defense and border security, Reuters reports.With only a 218-215 majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson can afford to lose just one vote on any measure that all Democrats vote against. He faces resistance from as many as a dozen Republicans over a budget resolution that would allow congressional committees to begin crafting full-scale legislation to enact the Trump agenda.The House budget Ccmmittee was due to take up the measure on Monday, with the possibility of a floor vote as early as Tuesday. But Johnson said timing would also depend on the outcome of Monday night meetings with wavering lawmakers.“We expect to get it done this week,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters in the Capitol. “There’s a couple of folks who just have lingering questions. But I think all those questions could be answered and we’ll be able to move forward,” he added. “We’re very optimistic. We’ll get this thing done.”The House resolution calls for $4.5tn in tax cuts – a concern to lawmakers worried about the nation’s growing $36tn in debt – and calls for $2tn in cuts to spending, which have worried some lawmakers that their constituents could lose out on key services.Republicans in both the House and Senate need to pass the measure to unlock a key part of their strategy: a parliamentary tool allowing them to circumvent the Senate filibuster and opposition from Democrats.But that is only one feat awaiting lawmakers over the coming weeks. Congress also needs to avert a partial government shutdown after 14 March, when funding runs out and then raise the nation’s debt ceiling or risk a catastrophic default at mid-year.Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leapt on to the back of John F Kennedy’s limousine after the then president was shot, then was forced to retire early because he remained haunted by memories of the assassination, died on Friday. He was 93.Although few may recognize his name, the footage of Hill, captured on Abraham Zapruder’s chilling home movie of the assassination, provided some of the most indelible images of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on 22 November 1963.Hill received Secret Service awards and was promoted for his actions that day, but for decades blamed himself for Kennedy’s death, saying he didn’t react quickly enough and would gladly have given his life to save Kennedy.In an interview with David Smith in 2023, Hill recalled:
      From that point on, my life changed. Before that day, before I attempted to put my body up on top of the car to protect President Kennedy and Mrs Kennedy, I was just Clint Hill. But afterward, because of photographs and the Zapruder film, I was no longer just Clint Hill. I was that guy that got on to the back of the presidential vehicle and I went through life from that point on with that being said about me and of me.
      It has bothered me a great deal. I had a serious guilt complex about not being able to help him more than I did and that just grew and grew and grew from that point on.
      It was only in recent years that Hill said he was able to finally start putting the assassination behind him and accept what happened.You can read more on the remarkable story here:*scrambles to change the subject* Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron are now holding a joint news conference following bilateral talks at the White House. Trump said his meeting with Macron was an “important step forward” to achieving a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.I will post a summary here with the main lines once it’s over, but my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong is posting live updates here:An AI-generated video of Donald Trump licking Elon Musk’s toes briefly played on video screens at a US government office as staff returned to work on Monday.With a caption emblazoned over it reading “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING”, the fake footage, played on loop for several minutes throughout the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Washington headquarters, according to Marisa Kabas, an independent journalist who posted a video of the incident to social media citing an agency source.Washington Post journalist Jeff Stein also said on social media that the department’s televisions had been hijacked.Reuters was unable to establish the provenance of the video.“Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. Appropriate action will be taken for all involved,” department spokesperson Kasey Lovett said in an email.Just an observation; if you look closely at the fake footage, you can see it features two left feet. Was this deliberate, multi-layered messaging? I mean, equally, if you just want to keep scrolling and try to forget you ever saw this, that’s okay too.A group of Democratic and Republican US senators will offer a resolution backing Ukraine on Monday, amid fears that Donald Trump could make a deal with Moscow that leaves Kyiv on the sidelines three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.The resolution, seen by Reuters, expresses solidarity with the people of Ukraine, offers condolences for the loss of tens of thousands of its citizens and seeks a role for Kyiv in any ceasefire talks.The resolution was led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the foreign relations committee, and Republican Senator Thom Tillis. The two lawmakers visited Ukraine last week, along with Democratic Senator Michael Bennet.It has at least 12 backers, including such senior Republicans as Mitch McConnell, the party’s former Senate leader; Roger Wicker, chairman of the armed services committee, and Chuck Grassley, chairman of the judiciary committee, as well as Democrats Dick Durbin, a member of the party’s leadership, and Bennet, a Democratic foreign relations committee aide said.The resolution says:
      The Senate emphasizes that Ukraine must be a participant in discussions with the Russian Federation about Ukraine’s future.
      The measure does not specifically back Nato membership, but reaffirms US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and “supports Ukraine’s efforts to integrate into Euro-Atlantic structures”.In an emailed statement, Shaheen said:
      As Vladimir Putin’s illegal and brutal full-scale invasion enters its fourth year, I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan resolution that clearly states our unwavering support for and solidarity with the Ukrainian people and condemns Russia’s aggression.
      In a loss for abortion opponents, the US supreme court on Monday declined to take up two cases involving “buffer zone” ordinances, which limit protests around abortion clinics and which anti-abortion activists have spent years trying to dismantle.The two cases dealt with buffer zone ordinances passed by the cities of Carbondale, Illinois, and Englewood, New Jersey. In filings to the supreme court, which is dominated 6-3 by conservatives, anti-abortion activists argued that these ordinances ran afoul of the first amendment’s guarantees of free speech. They also asked the justices to overturn a 2000 ruling called Hill v Colorado, which upheld a buffer zone law in Colorado.The justices didn’t explain why they declined to hear arguments in the cases, but the far-right justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have preferred to take them up. In a dissent outlining his desire to take the Carbondale case, Thomas wrote that he believed Hill “lacks continuing force”, in part due to recent rulings such as Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v Wade and abolished the federal right to abortion.“I would have taken this opportunity to explicitly overrule Hill,” he wrote. “Following our repudiation in Dobbs, I do not see what is left of Hill. Yet, lower courts continue to feel bound by it. The court today declines an invitation to set the record straight on Hill’s defunct status.”Here is more detail on our earlier post on Donald Trump’s remarks in defence of Elon Musk’s chaos-inducing demand that federal workers document what they do, from the AP.Trump voiced support for Musk’s demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments by the end of Monday or risk getting fired, an edict that has spawned new litigation and added to turmoil within the government workforce.“What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’” Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron. “And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”The president claimed that Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” has found “hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud” as he suggested that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees. He did not present evidence for his claims.“If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person, or they aren’t working,” Trump said. More

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      Trump fires Black joint chiefs chair Hegseth accused of promoting diversity

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      Donald Trump abruptly fired the air force general CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making Black fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to purge the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.The ouster of the second Black general to serve as chair of the joint chiefs comes three months after Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, outlined a plan for ridding the US military of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts during a podcast interview.“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the joint chiefs,” Hegseth said during a November interview on the Shawn Ryan Show. “Any general that was involved, general, admiral, or whatever, that was involved in any of that DEI woke shit has got to go.”Although Hegseth had been meeting regularly with Brown since the former Fox News host took over the top Pentagon job last month, he had openly questioned whether Brown had been named chair because he was Black. “Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt – which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” Hegseth wrote in one of his books.Brown had been praised, including by Time, for breaking racial barriers in the military and for his “warfighter” credentials. When he was sworn in as the air force chief of staff in 2020, during the first Trump administration, Brown acknowledged previous US military service members who had been denied advancement because of their race, Time reported. “It is due to their trials and tribulations in breaking barriers that I can address you today as the air force chief of staff,” Brown said.In 2020, Trump himself had celebrated Brown’s confirmation on social media “as the USA’s first-ever African American military service chief” and noted that he had appointed him to that role. Brown’s experience as the former commander of Pacific air forces also meant he was “highly qualified to deter China and reassure allies in the Indo-Pacific”, Time noted that year.“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” Hegseth said in a statement after Brown’s firing, calling Brown a “thoughtful adviser”.In a post on his social media platform Friday evening, Trump announced he would replace Brown with retired Lt Gen Dan “Razin” Caine, a retired military leader Trump said had been “passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden”.Trump has repeatedly said that Caine impressed him during his first administration by assuring him that the Islamic State could be defeated very rapidly.“Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat Isis. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday.At CPAC in 2019, Trump previously recounted a conversation in which he recalled asking Caine how fast the Islamic State could be defeated, and claimed that Caine had told him: “Sir, we can have it totally finished in one week,” a story that fact-checkers said at the time “didn’t add up”.Caine, who is white, previously served as the associate director for military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency, and had played a direct role in the air defense of Washington DC during the 11 September attacks. Caine recently became a venture partner at Shield Capital, a venture capital firm, which touted his experience as an entrepreneur who “co-founded and successfully exited multiple aerospace, defense, and healthcare companies”.Trump’s announcements set off a period of upheaval at the Pentagon, which is already bracing for firings of civilian staff, a dramatic overhaul of its budget and a shift in US military deployments under Trump’s new America First foreign policy.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump also wrote that he would soon swap out five other high-level positions in an unprecedented shake-up of the leadership of the US military.In a statement shortly after Trump’s Truth Social post, Hegseth clarified which five positions Trump appeared to be looking to fill, saying that he was “requesting nominations for the positions of Chief of Naval Operations and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff”, firing Adm Lisa Franchetti and Gen James Slife, who currently hold those positions.“We are also requesting nominations for the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force,” Hegseth added.Caine’s military service includes combat roles in Iraq, special operations postings and positions inside some of the Pentagon’s most classified special access programs. However, it does not include key assignments that were identified in law as prerequisites for the job, with an exemption for the president to waive them if necessary in times of national interest.The 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act states that to be qualified, a chair must have served previously as either the vice-chair, as a combatant commander or a service chief – but that requirement could be waived if the “president determines such action is necessary in the national interest”.Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting More

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      Pentagon lays off 5,400 civilian workers, with tens of thousands more firings due

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      The Pentagon announced plans Friday to fire 5-8% of its civilian workforce, staring next week with layoffs of 5,400 probationary workers, a Department of Defense official said in a statement.The initial civilian layoffs will be followed by a Department of Defense hiring freeze to analyze the military’s personnel needs in compliance with Donald Trump’s political goals, Darin Selnick, the acting under-secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in the statement.“We anticipate reducing the department’s civilian workforce by 5-8% to produce efficiencies and refocus the department on the president’s priorities and restoring readiness in the force,” Selnick said.“It is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical. Taxpayers deserve to have us take a thorough look at our workforce top-to-bottom to see where we can eliminate redundancies.”The announcement of sweeping firings of civilian workers was followed by Donald Trump’s firing of the current chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General CQ Brown Jr.The initial Pentagon job cuts planned for next week are a fraction of the 50,000 defense department job losses that some had anticipated, but they might not be the last. The defense department is the largest government agency, with the Government Accountability Office finding in 2023 that it had more than 700,000 full-time civilian workers.A 5-8% cut in that force would mean layoffs of between 35,000 and 60,000 people.The announcement of the cuts comes after staffers from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” initiative, or Doge, were at the Pentagon earlier in the week and received lists of such employees, US officials said. They said those lists did not include uniformed military personnel, who are exempt.Probationary employees are generally those on the job for less than a year and who have yet to gain civil service protection.Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has supported cuts, posting on X last week that the Pentagon needs “to cut the fat (HQ) and grow the muscle (warfighters).”Hegseth also has directed the military services to identify $50bn in programs that could be cut next year to redirect those savings to fund Trump’s priorities. It represents about 8% of the military’s budget.Most of recently terminated employees throughout the federal government began their current position in the last year and were therefore considered probationary, giving them less job protection. Roughly half of them live in states that voted for Trump in the 2024 election, government figures show.The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting More

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      Trans military members on the feared ban: ‘I would meet Trump to show how we’ve served our country’

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      View image in fullscreenFor Bree Fram, an active-duty colonel in the US space force with 22 years of military experience, the last few weeks have been “incredibly challenging”.“Like thousands of other transgender military personnel, I am doing my job every day, while feeling fear and uncertainty of what is coming next,” said Fram.Fram and other trans servicepeople are awaiting word on what they fear may be a blanket ban by the Trump administration on transgender people serving in the armed forces. This would affect not only those who wish to join and those within the military who are transitioning and require medical treatment but also service members who have already transitioned and been working in the armed forces for many years.“This is not a place where we expected to be after a decade of open service,” Fram said. “The ban makes me sad for myself and my transgender colleagues, and also concerned for America’s national security. We have thousands of transgender service members who have served openly and honorably, and their loss would leave a massive hole in our country’s military capabilities.”Lt Cdr Geirid Morgan, who has served in the navy for 14 years, said: “An all-out ban would mean the rapid termination of thousands of transgender service members, many of whom are mid-career like myself,” adding: “Many trans service members are senior-enlisted or at officer rank, with 10-plus years of service, multiple deployments, and millions of dollars invested in their lives and careers.” (Fram and Morgan, like the other trans servicepeople featured in this article, emphasized that they were speaking in a personal capacity, and not officially representing the Department of Defense and US government.)View image in fullscreenOpen service for trans people in the US military was introduced in 2016. In announcing the revival of a ban he initiated in his first term of office (later revoked by Joe Biden), Donald Trump said in a 27 January executive order: “The Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion.”In Trump’s executive order, as with a slew of measures targeting trans people in recent weeks in areas such as healthcare provision and sports, the administration made clear it did not recognize trans identities – rather only two sexes, male and female: “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for Military Service.”CPO Ryan Goodell, a signal analyst with the navy, said: “That isn’t true. The requirements for service are the same for trans people as their cisgender counterparts.” He continued: “Let our service speak for itself. I’ve been dedicated to my career for 13 years and would like to continue doing it.”On 7 February, as first reported by the Hill, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, issued instructions for the military to cease employing new trans recruits and suspend medical treatments existing trans recruits may have been receiving, claiming that allowing trans people to serve openly undermined military capability.However, a 2016 Rand study found the opposite, showing that the cost for the military of medical transitions was comparatively minor and unit cohesion was unaffected by the presence of trans service members.Some fellow trans service members have already had medical treatments canceled, Goodell said. “This has caused them distress, but there is also a lot of resilience and determination. I’ve no idea what the obsession with the transgender community is, and it’s very disheartening to watch this campaign to erase the transgender community. We haven’t harmed anyone. We’re not enemies of the state, or anything crazy like that. We’re citizens of the United States. We want to show up in our daily lives, and live our lives.”View image in fullscreenA Department of Defense official did not respond to specific questions about when official policy regarding transgender troops would be announced and what would be included in its sweep, or to charges that the ban was discriminatory and unfair.The official said: “The Department of Defense will fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are carried out with utmost professionalism, efficiency, and in alignment with national security objectives. We will provide status updates as we are able.”Alexandria Holder, a master sergeant with the US air force, said it was “extremely stressful” to work in a climate of such governmental hostility and lack of clarity.“I have served my country for 20 years, and have a family to support,” Holder said, referring to her wife, Brittanie, and their four children. “It makes it very difficult to plan for the future. I’m scared, but I continue to do my job, and do it well. My service is core to my identity.”“People forget this doesn’t just impact us as service members, but also our loved ones and families,” said Fram, who has a wife, Peg, and two children. “The impact goes far beyond us and has major effects on all those people we care about.”The trans military ban, like other Trump administration measures targeting trans people, is already the subject of legal challenges – one by Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign, and the other by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (Glad Law).View image in fullscreenThe organizations are representing trans plaintiffs from the army, navy and air force with many years of decorated service behind them. The plaintiffs include the navy Cdr Emily “Hawking” Shilling, the president of Sparta, an organization representing an estimated 15,000 active and reserve transgender troops.“The language in the executive order and other things is so rabid that we 100% think the final order will go after all trans people – the intention is all-out erasure,” said the senior attorney Sasha Buchert, director of Lambda Legal’s Non-Binary and Transgender Rights Project.Of the pending legal cases, the defense department official told the Guardian: “As a matter of policy, the department does not comment on ongoing litigation.”The charge that trans service members are weak and disruptive “doesn’t resonate with my and my friends’ experiences”, said Morgan. “My engagements with colleagues and leadership only improved when they were interacting with me as my authentic self. I have had two of the most productive years of my professional life since beginning my transition. I am able to trust and depend on people as I have never been able to before. That’s not an exception, that’s a general rule for all my trans colleagues. Being able to be ourselves has made us better service members.”
      We exist. We do incredible things. We are serving in the military with distinction, and we will continue to do so for as long as we are ableBree Fram
      Goodell echoed that sentiment: “It’s taken a very long time in my life to come to the realization of who I am, and I am a better person, a better son, a better sailor and a better leader as a result.”Holder serves as flight chief for 43 airmen, supporting operations in the Middle East and North Africa, leading groups of Arabic linguists and intelligence analysts.“I love what I do, especially when it comes to leading,” she said. “There was a lot of stress around the first ban, but this time is different because of the level of demonization of trans people during and after the election campaign, and the number of anti-trans bills at both state and federal levels.“Being able to come out and go through my transition allowed me to be a better leader, and feel better empathy with the people around me,” Holder said. “Being open about who you are should be seen as strength and be celebrated, instead of being demonized and perceived as a weakness. If someone wants to claim I, or any trans service member, is weaker than them, I would challenge them to do what I have done while serving my country and see if they can do the same.”While Hegseth has stated that trans service members “will be treated with dignity and respect”, those who spoke to the Guardian said that having their years of service nullified and careers terminated simply because they are transgender revealed the opposite.Fram said: “When we are told we are not meeting military standards without any evidence, when the language of these executive orders and memos challenges our honor, it is extremely painful to hear – and also to be put in a position where we have to defend our existence and capabilities.”View image in fullscreenHolder said: “I look at all that trans people have achieved in uniform, and would ask President Trump and Secretary Hegseth to look at what we do and achieve rather than what our identities are, and let us continue to serve.” She added: “I would welcome meeting them to tell them about my experiences and my work, and show them how trans people have served our country.”Fram said she had been “overwhelmed” with the support shown by cisgender colleagues. “Their message is, ‘I see you, I support you,’” Fram said. “The question in the military is, ‘Are you with me? Do you have my back?’ When it comes to supporting transgender service members, the answer is ‘yes’. But I don’t want to be in a position where people feel they need to check in on me or offer support. It’s incredibly gratifying to know I have that, but it takes away from the work we should be doing.”Goodell said he would be “forever grateful” to the doctors who helped him transition, especially with his recent final gender-confirming surgery. “I sensed they were frustrated with the prospect of any ban that would forbid them from providing care, because that is what they do, that is their calling. I expressed my sincere gratitude for all they had done for me.”The service members said they remained optimistic, but all are preparing for “the worst-case scenario”, as Fram put it, should they suddenly find themselves thrown out of their jobs.“In a perfect world I would like to continue to serve and do 20 years of service,” Goodell said. “But if that isn’t the case, those of us who have served I hope will be treated with dignity and respect and be afforded the benefits we’ve earned, like veterans’ healthcare.”Fram said: “No proclamations will erase our existence. The only person who gets to judge who we are is ourselves.” She continued: “Trans people are some of the most resilient people out there. We had to dig deep and find who we really are. Nothing that comes out of this government can invalidate that fact. We exist. We do incredible things. We are serving in the military with distinction, and we will continue to do so for as long as we are able.“My hope is that trans people have the opportunity to serve and thrive now and far into the future – to show that trans people belong everywhere.”@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.woff2) format(“woff2”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.woff) format(“woff”),url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-Light.ttf) format(“truetype”);font-weight:300;font-style:normal}@font-face{font-family:Guardian Headline Full;src:url(https://assets.guim.co.uk/static/frontend/fonts/guardian-headline/noalts-not-hinted/GHGuardianHeadline-LightItalic.woff2) 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