Lloyd Austin

The Pentagon has released footage of what it says is a Russian aircraft conducting an unsafe intercept of a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone in international airspace over the Black Sea.

The 42-second video, released Thursday, shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down over concerns of hurting people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The discovery of the balloon puts a further strain on U.S.-China relations at a time of heightened tensions.

The United States and the Philippines announced on Thursday an agreement to expand American military presence in the Southeast Asian country, where U.S. forces would be granted access to four more Philippine military camps, effectively giving them new ground to ramp up deterrence against China's increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 20 there was "no alternative" but for the West to give Ukraine heavy tanks, as Germany failed to commit its sought-after Leopard vehicles to a possible spring offensive by Kiev.

Namely, as reported by CNN, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, did not receive from the new German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, the consent for the delivery of German tanks to Ukraine, and according to their sources, on the eve of today's meeting of the contact group for support of Ukraine at the American base Ramstein in Germany, the issue of the delivery of tanks is still unreso

Ukraine slammed Russia on Sunday for alleging Kiev was planning to use a radioactive bomb in its own territory, calling the claims "dangerous" lies and prompting Western allies to warn Moscow against using any pretext for escalating the conflict.

Ukraine said on Oct. 13 it had reclaimed more territory in the south and welcomed a Western pledge to deliver air defense systems to Kiev "as fast as we can" after days of intense Russian missile strikes.

A US-led group of around 50 countries held talks at the NATO headquarters in Brussels and vowed to deliver new anti-missile systems to Kiev.

The directive contains 11 major objectives. They are aimed at helping commanders better understand the presence of noncombatants before any operations begin, and they require operators to consider potential consequences for civilians in any combat action, thus reducing "collateral damage".

The Chinese air force is sending fighter jets and bombers to Thailand for a joint exercise with the Thai military on Sunday.

The training will include air support, strikes on ground targets and small- and large-scale troop deployment, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Austin said this at a press conference in Riga after a meeting with Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks.
"To be clear: we do not seek confrontation with Russia and do not pose a threat to it," he said. At the same time, the head of the Pentagon said that Washington's position is that an attack on one of its NATO allies "means an attack on everyone".