Pentagon asks for major budget increase amid threats from Russia, China and North Korea - CNN Politics

Pentagon asks for major budget increase amid threats from Russia, China and North Korea

By Jennifer Rizzo and Brad Lendon, CNN

Updated 0818 GMT (1618 HKT) February 13, 2018

Trump: We're creating brand new nuclear force

raytheon excalibur n5 projectile orig vstan bb_00000121.jpg

Navy's new 'Excalibur' weapon tested

US Navy commissions newest littoral combat ship

Navy's newest ship USS Zumwalt commissioned

US Navy launches new warship

160613-N-DN943-001

ATLANTIC OCEAN (June 10, 2016) The littoral combat ship USS Jackson (LCS 6) successfully completes the first of three scheduled full-ship shock trials June 10, 2016. The shock trials are designed to demonstrate the ship's ability to withstand the effects of nearby underwater explosion and retain required capability. Jackson is currently ported at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., for required inspections and preparation for the second full-ship shock trial scheduled for later this month.

ATLANTIC OCEAN (April 21, 2016) The future guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) transits the Atlantic Ocean during acceptance trials April 21, 2016 with the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of DDG 1000, the future guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) May 20, 2016. Following a crew certification period and October commissioning ceremony in Baltimore, Zumwalt will transit to its homeport in San Diego for a Post Delivery Availability and Mission Systems Activation. DDG 1000 is the lead ship of the Zumwalt-class destroyers, next-generation, multi-mission surface combatants, tailored for land attack and littoral dominance.

Navy's $3B stealth warship sets sail

Trump says fighter jet is too expensive (2016)

An F-35A Lightning II gets ready to land Sept. 13, 2013, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. This was the first F-35 to land at Hill AFB. The multirole, fifth-generation fighter arrived from the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, at Nellis AFB, Nev. to undergo post-production modifications at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex.

Trump: We're creating brand new nuclear force

Activists, including some who are covered in mock shrounds, take part in a demonstration to protest against the US military presence in Okinawa, Japan, outside of Union Station in Washington, DC on May 26, 2016.

New strains on U.S. bases in Japan

Rescue mission underway for US service members

The A-10s Last Dance_00024708.jpg

Is the A-10 headed for the graveyard?

NEWPORT NEWS, VA - APRIL 8: In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is seen underway on its own power for the first time on April 8, 2017 in Newport News, Virginia. The first-of-class ship -- the first new U.S. aircraft carrier design in 40 years -- will spend several days conducting builder's sea trials, a comprehensive test of many of the ship's key systems and technologies.

Navy ship makes historic launch, landing

THAAD test Alaska US military

raytheon excalibur n5 projectile

Navy's new 'Excalibur' weapon tested

US Navy commissions newest littoral combat ship

Navy's newest ship USS Zumwalt commissioned

US Navy launches new warship

ATLANTIC OCEAN (June 10, 2016) The littoral combat ship USS Jackson (LCS 6) successfully completes the first of three scheduled full-ship shock trials June 10, 2016. The shock trials are designed to demonstrate the ship's ability to withstand the effects of nearby underwater explosion and retain required capability. Jackson is currently ported at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., for required inspections and preparation for the second full-ship shock trial scheduled for later this month.

Navy warship tested against 10,000-pound explosive

160421-N-YE579-005

ATLANTIC OCEAN (April 21, 2016) The future guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) transits the Atlantic Ocean during acceptance trials April 21, 2016 with the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of DDG 1000, the future guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) May 20, 2016. Following a crew certification period and October commissioning ceremony in Baltimore, Zumwalt will transit to its homeport in San Diego for a Post Delivery Availability and Mission Systems Activation. DDG 1000 is the lead ship of the Zumwalt-class destroyers, next-generation, multi-mission surface combatants, tailored for land attack and littoral dominance.

Navy's $3B stealth warship sets sail

Trump says fighter jet is too expensive (2016)

An F-35A Lightning II gets ready to land Sept. 13, 2013, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. This was the first F-35 to land at Hill AFB. The multirole, fifth-generation fighter arrived from the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, at Nellis AFB, Nev. to undergo post-production modifications at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex.

Trump: We're creating brand new nuclear force

Activists, including some who are covered in mock shrounds, take part in a demonstration to protest against the US military presence in Okinawa, Japan, outside of Union Station in Washington, DC on May 26, 2016.

New strains on U.S. bases in Japan

Rescue mission underway for US service members

The A-10s Last Dance_00024708.jpg

Is the A-10 headed for the graveyard?

NEWPORT NEWS, VA - APRIL 8: In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is seen underway on its own power for the first time on April 8, 2017 in Newport News, Virginia. The first-of-class ship -- the first new U.S. aircraft carrier design in 40 years -- will spend several days conducting builder's sea trials, a comprehensive test of many of the ship's key systems and technologies.

Navy ship makes historic launch, landing

THAAD test Alaska US military

Camera explores inside sunken USS Arizona

raytheon excalibur n5 projectile orig vstan bb_00000121.jpg

Navy's new 'Excalibur' weapon tested

Washington (CNN)Citing increasing threats from China and Russia, the Pentagon is asking for a major boost in military spending for 2019, requesting Congress approve a budget of $686 billion -- one of the largest in US history.

At the same time the Trump administration's budget proposal included major cuts for international diplomacy and overseas aid.

Touting the proposal on Monday, President Donald Trump said the US military would be the strongest it has ever been, including "increasing arsenals of virtually every weapon."

The Defense Department's budget is $686 billion, an increase of $80 billion from 2017, which the Pentagon says is primarily aimed at countering Russia and China.

Trump budget proposal still seeking wall funding

Trump budget proposal still seeking wall funding

"Great power competition, not terrorism, has emerged as the central challenge to US security and prosperity," Under Secretary Of Defense David L. Norquist told reporters Monday following the unveiling of the budget proposal.

"It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model-gaining veto authority over other nations' economic, diplomatic, and security decisions," the budget document says.

Beijing is "using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea."

China's navy expands reach

China's navy expands reach

China "seeks Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near-term," the document says, but in the long term seeks to "achieve global preeminence" over the US.

The document follows confirmed reports of continued Chinese island building in the South China Sea, with facilities being constructed in the Spratly and Paracel islands and Scarborough Shoal. Just last week the office website of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) carried an article touting patrols of Su-35 fighter jets over the area.

The patrols of the long-range, twin-engine jets show the "PLA Air Force's resolution to implement missions in the new era and firmly maintain national sovereignty and security and maritime interests," the article quotes Wang Mingzhi, a professor with the Chinese PLA Air Force Command Academy, as saying.

The growth of China's air force -- on Friday, Beijing said its new J-20 stealth fighters, seen as a challenge to US F-22 and F-35 stealth jets, were now combat-ready -- is consistent with broader efforts to enhance its military capabilities. Last year, China added state-of-the-art warships to its fleet and and formally opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti.

China's push to modernize its military 02:26

The document says "Russia has violated the borders of nearby nations and pursues veto power over the economic, diplomatic, and security decisions of its neighbors."

Moscow is also trying to "shatter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," the post-World War II Western alliance that has been the bulwark of security in Western Europe, the budget document states.

Russian military aircraft have been involved in several near collision incidents with US warplanes over the Black Sea and Syria in the past few months as Moscow challenges US influence.

And last summer Vladamir Putin ordered what analysts called an unprecedented display of Russia's military might, with a day of naval parades from Vladivostok in the east to St. Petersburg in the west, with additional shows in by Russian forces in Syria and Crimea.

The budget plan puts an emphasis on missile defense, with additions to systems that have been identified as key to countering the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear missile program.

It calls for the procurement of 37 Standard Block 1B missile for the Navy's Aegis missile defense ships and sites on shore.

In the Pacific, the Aegis system is deployed on more than a dozen guided-missile destroyers and cruisers that in theory could shoot down missiles fired by North Korea.

Plans for an additional 82 THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) interceptors are also in the budget. THAAD caused great controversy when it was deployed to South Korea last year, including objections from China that it was destabilizing as its radars in South Korea could see into China.

The budget also calls for an increase of 20 additional missiles to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, which would intercept incoming warheads in space.

"Frankly we have to do it because others are doing it," Trump said. "If they stop, we'll stop, but they're not stopping. So if they're not going to stop, we're going to be so far ahead of everybody else in nuclear like you've never seen before."

In broad numbers, the Trump budget wants to buy 10 Navy combat ships in the fiscal year, add dozens of F-35 stealth fighters and aircraft-carrier-capable F/A-18 combat jets.

Analysis: The Russia threat is real -- and it matters

Analysis: The Russia threat is real -- and it matters

The budget continues development of the B-21 stealth bomber, seen as an eventual replacement for the B-2s that now anchor the air portions of the US nuclear triad, and it continues development of submarines to update the seaborne nuclear ability.

The increase in funding also addresses Defense Secretary James Mattis' continued alarm over the degradation of the armed forces under the threat of sequestration, something the Defense Department as a whole has been warning about for years.

"I am very confident that what the Congress has now done, and the President is going to allocate to us in the budget is what we need to bring us back to a position of primacy," Mattis told reporters traveling with him to Rome on Sunday.

The proposal would add 25,900 service members to the military and further grow the force by 56,600 by 2023, allowing the Defense Department to fill in units, and recruit pilots, maintainers and cybersecurity experts, according to Norquist. Troops would also receive a 2.6% pay raise during the 2019 calendar year, in what would be the largest salary increase since 2010.

Where might Trump go in a nuclear attack? - BBC News

Where might Trump go in a nuclear attack?

By Tara McKelvey

BBC White House reporter

12 February 2018

Trump has a bunker underneath his Mar-a-Lago estate - but it has nothing to do with him being president

From Truman to Trump, US presidents have had access to bunkers to ride out a nuclear war. So what happens to the commander-in-chief if a nuclear threat looms?

Almost immediately, President Donald Trump would be whisked to a secure location.

He has a range of places at his disposal. One is located under the White House, a fortified area built in the 1950s. Another is tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

He also has a rudimentary bunker at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, and one originally used to store bombs at his golf course in West Palm Beach (it's under the second hole, according to Esquire).

The story of Trump's bomb shelters reflects the ways Americans have tried to grapple with the prospect of nuclear war over the past several decades.

For some people, the idea of nuclear war is unimaginable. Others make plans.

Barnaby Joyce controversy needs swift resolution, Warren Truss says - Guardian

Barnaby Joyce controversy needs swift resolution, Warren Truss says

Reports emerge that delegation of Nationals will ask deputy prime minister to stand aside

Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp

Tue 13 Feb 2018 20.10 AEDT Last modified on Tue 13 Feb 2018 20.12 AEDT

Barnaby Joyce watches Malcolm Turnbull answer questions about whether the he still has full confidence in his deputy during question time.

Barnaby Joyce watches Malcolm Turnbull answer questions about whether the he still has full confidence in his deputy during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

The former Nationals leader Warren Truss says the Barnaby Joyce furore needs to be resolved “constructively and quickly” as reports emerged that a delegation was being formed to urge the beleaguered deputy prime minister to stand aside for the good of the government.

Truss told the ABC on Tuesday night a decision about whether Joyce continued to lead the Nationals was a matter for his parliamentary colleagues, but he noted the deputy prime minister had been “diminished” by rolling controversy over his private life, and speedy resolution was now required.

Truss said Joyce had “enormous capabilities” and could remain in his current role. But, noting the distractions that had blown the government off-course during 2017, the former party leader said the controversy needed to be resolved “constructively and quickly so that the business of government can proceed”.

Barnaby Joyce saga 'not going to end well', Cory Bernardi says – as it happened

While some Nationals sources discount the idea that the party room numbers are there to roll Joyce if he digs in, arguing the current positioning against him is limited to a handful of disaffected colleagues, the ABC has reported that senior party figures have been approached to form a delegation to ask the deputy prime minister to step down.

Joyce spent Tuesday in full-blown damage control, apologising to colleagues at the regular Coalition party room meeting, and making a public statement of regret to both his estranged wife, Natalie, his four daughters, to his former staffer and now pregnant partner, Vikki Campion, and to voters in New England.

In Tuesday’s party room meeting, Joyce said every political career had a “time of trial”, but he told colleagues he was determined to work through the controversy.

The clock is ticking on the resolution of the issue, with Malcolm Turnbull due to leave the country next week, which would make Joyce the acting prime minister – a development some hard heads regard as politically untenable.

Earlier in the day, the Victorian National Darren Chester – who was dumped from Cabinet by Joyce in an acrimonious reshuffle last year – confirmed publicly there had been a “robust discussion” about Joyce’s travails at Monday’s meeting of National MPs, and he said he fully accepted the controversy was “a distraction and a problem for us”.

At an impromptu doorstop in Canberra on Tuesday evening, the minister for veterans affairs, New South Wales National Michael McCormack, did not answer questions about whether the party had lost confidence in Joyce and whether colleagues would move against him, but denied that he had spoken to the deputy prime minister directly about standing down.

Attending an Our Watch domestic violence event in Canberra, the Victorian Nationals MP Andrew Broad caused a scene by accidentally playing a video of a news story about the Nationals’ leadership woes from the audience during Bill Shorten’s speech at the event.

After the event, Broad refused to comment on Joyce’s future because “tonight is about Our Watch and reducing the incidence of family violence”, counselling journalists to report on that rather than the Nationals leadership.

“This is an issue about family violence … as the father of a step-daughter I want to ensure that when she grows up she meets a nice bloke who’s going to look after her – thank you. Nice try everyone.”

Labor used question time to focus again on whether the appointment of Campion to ministerial offices during 2017 represented a breach of the ministerial code of conduct, which explicitly forbids ministers employing their partners and also forbids the partners of ministers being employed in other minister’s offices without “the prime minister’s express approval”.

While expressing confidence in Joyce, Turnbull again made it plain that the responsibility for the staff appointments in the National party rested at the feet of Joyce himself.

Barnaby Joyce denies improper behaviour at function and breaches over Vikki Campion

The prime minister also continued to insist that Campion was not Joyce’s partner, noting that the ministerial code didn’t define the term. He cited definitions used by government departments that the partnership threshold was triggered by cohabitation.

Turnbull said Labor had not been able to establish a breach of the ministerial standards, or an alleged breach, despite two days of parliamentary questions.

An analysis of Joyce’s expenses in the first nine months of 2017 reveals that he has claimed $16,690 in travel allowance for a total of 50 nights in Canberra during non-sitting days, including 10 days as acting prime minister and 40 days on official business as deputy prime minister.

Combined with the 62 nights on days that parliament was sitting, the expense claims suggest Joyce spent a total of 112 days in Canberra out of the 272 days in the period examined.

Trump, Putin talk Palestinian peace efforts, North Korea's nukes - Fox News

12/2/2018

Trump, Putin talk Palestinian peace efforts, North Korea's nukes

By Matt Richardson | Fox News

Napolitano: Is Trump naive to think of Putin as his partner?

Judge Andrew Napolitano sits down with former State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf. They discuss President Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone on Monday to address a series of topics ranging from the recent Russian plane crash to North Korea's nuclear threats, the White House said.

Among the issues discussed: a potential peace deal between the Palestinians and the Israelis. “President Putin noted that he would meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas later today, and President Trump said that now is the time to work toward an enduring peace agreement,” the White House said.

Abbas reportedly later told Putin that he would not work with the U.S. “in any form.”

“We state that from now on we refuse to cooperate in any form with the U.S. in its status of a mediator, as we stand against its actions,” Abbas said to Putin, according to a report from Haaretz.

Following Trump's declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year, Abbas has encouraged Putin to assist in peace talks cleaming the U.S. could “no longer play a leading role.”

Putin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month.

Discussions of relations between the Israelis and Palestinians came amid heightened tensions after Israel shot down an Iranian drone that had entered the country during the weekend.

Trump also “reiterated the importance” of taking more steps to ensure North Korea is denuclearized, the White House said without elaborating.

The plane crashed near Moscow, killing 71 people.

The conversation between Trump and Putin came a day after a plane crash in Moscow killed all 71 people on board. Regarding the crash of Saratov Airlines Flight 703, Trump told Putin that the U.S. was standing by to assist Russian officials in their probe of the deadly event.

Putin, who is currently running for re-election, has denied Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump. The president has denied “collusion” with the Kremlin in order to win, labeling the subsequent probe into Russian interference a “witch hunt.”

Fox News’ Kelly Chernenkoff and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

The Inventor of Prepaid Debit Cards Is Going Mobile - Bloomberg

The Inventor of Prepaid Debit Cards Is Going Mobile

Steve Streit runs payment systems that are the backbone for Apple Pay Cash, Uber, Intuit, and more.

By

February 13, 2018, 4:00 AM GMT+11

It was 2012, and payment systems entrepreneur Steve Streit could see that banking was moving to mobile. He also knew that his company couldn’t get there in time.

In what may have seemed like an unorthodox move, Streit, the founder and chief executive officer of the country’s largest prepaid card provider, Green Dot Corp., decided to acquire the failing location-based dating app Loopt for $43 million—not for its technology but for its talent. Loopt’s co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman, stayed on for a time to lead Green Dot’s mobile development program. (He went on to become president of the famed tech incubator Y Combinator.) Streit’s gamble paid off last year when he announced that Green Dot would power Apple Inc.’s new person-to-person payments offering, Apple Pay Cash.

Other deals followed the Loopt acquisition. Now “we’re the bank of Apple and Uber and Intuit,” Streit says. “People that don’t know they’re using a Green Dot account are using a Green Dot account.”

Streit grew up in 1960s North Miami and studied broadcast management at the University of Florida before dropping out in his senior year for a job as a late-night radio DJ. In 1999, with online shopping on the rise, he abruptly switched gears and created a prepaid debit card teenagers could use to shop online. Kids were only moderately interested in his invention, but it quickly took off among adults who didn’t have a bank account or credit history. A decade later, Green Dot went public. “We’re actually one of the most distributed and ubiquitous banks in the entire country,” Streit says. Last year, to expand the company’s reach, it acquired competitor UniRush, founded by the former rap mogul Russell Simmons.

Steven Kwok, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods Inc., reserves particular praise for Green Dot’s recent innovations. “They’ve been able to transform themselves over time from just a regular prepaid provider to almost a financial-services company,” he says. “They focused on using their capital to invest in these acquisitions. It fit together nicely.”

Green Dot’s mobile payments platform will be especially valuable as technology companies seek to push into financial services. “It’s very rare that you have a bank that speaks tech,” Streit says. “That is why I think we’ve been so successful.”

Commonwealth leaders 'begin secret talks on who should replace the Queen' - Independent

13/2/2018

Commonwealth leaders 'begin secret talks on who should replace the Queen'

Prince Charles is not hereditary heir to position that monarch has held since 1953 coronation

Chris Baynes

The Queen was proclaimed Head of Commonwealth at her coronation Senior Commonwealth officials are to hold secret talks in London about who will succeed the Queen as its head, it has been reported.

The “high level” group was set to discuss the sensitive issue during an all-day summit on Tuesday before reporting their conclusions later this year, according to insiders.

The meeting’s agenda, seen by the BBC, includes consideration of “wider governance”, which sources told the broadcaster was code for the succession.

Queen bans plastic straws and bottles on royal estates

The Queen was proclaimed Head of the Commonwealth at her coronation in 1953, when she was head of state in seven of the organisation’s eight members.

But it is not a hereditary position that will pass automatically to the Prince of Wales when the monarch dies. Charles will be head of state in only 15 of the 53 nations and territories that now make up the Commonwealth.

Any decision about the future would have to be made by the Commonwealth heads of government at the time of the Queen’s death, but there is no formal process for choosing her successor.

While many Commonwealth figures presume there will be no realistic alternative to Charles, there has in the past been talk of electing a ceremonial leader to improve the organisation’s democratic credentials.

According to documents seen by the BBC, the high level group will not just confine itself to bureaucratic changes.

One insider said: “I imagine the question of the succession, however distasteful it may naturally be, will come up.”

The agenda for the meeting is reported to say: “Discussions will take into consideration the issues raised in the first session and also the wider governance considerations of the Commonwealth.”

The high level group is expected to report to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London in April, which is likely to be the last that the 91-year-old Queen will attend.

The group is chaired by Anote Tong, former President of Kiribati. It also consists of Lord Howell, former British energy secretary; Louise Frechette, former United Nations Deputy Secretary General; Robert Hill, former Australian defence minister; Dame Billie Miller, former Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados; Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian finance minister; and George Vella, former Deputy Prime Minister of Malta.

The Independent has approached the Commonwealth and the UK Foreign Office for a comment.