The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a challenge to the Biden administration’s regulation of “ghost guns” — kits that can be bought online and assembled into untraceable homemade firearms. In defending the rule, a critical part of President Biden’s broader effort to address gun violence, administration officials said such weapons had soared in […]
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What Would $60 Billion in Ukraine War Aid Buy?
Shipments of American weapons could begin flowing to Ukraine again soon after House approval of a long-stalled aid package, U.S. officials say, with goods from the Pentagon’s stockpiles in Germany shipped quickly by rail to the Ukrainian border. The measure would provide the Ukraine war effort with about $60 billion. A sizable amount is set […]
Read MoreRussian Missile Attack North of Kyiv Kills at Least 17, Ukraine Says
At least 17 people were killed and scores more injured when three Russian missiles struck a busy downtown district of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, just before noon on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the death toll, reported by the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general, might rise and blamed Ukraine’s lack of air […]
Read MoreFor Many Western Allies, Sending Weapons to Israel Gets Dicey
For months, Western governments have provided military support for Israel while fending off accusations that their weapons were being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. But as a global outcry over the growing death toll in Gaza mounts, maintaining that balance is becoming increasingly difficult, as was clear on a single day this past […]
Read MoreBiden Administration Approves Expansion of Background Checks on Gun Sales
The Biden administration has approved the broadest expansion of federal background checks in decades in an attempt to regulate a fast-growing shadow market of weapons sold online that has contributed to gun violence. Under a rule being released on Thursday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will require anyone “engaged in the business” […]
Read MoreGermany Rebuffs Claim Its Arms Sales to Israel Abet Genocide in Gaza
Germany on Tuesday defended itself against accusations that its arms sales to Israel were abetting genocide in Gaza, arguing at the International Court of Justice that most of the equipment it has supplied since Oct. 7 was nonlethal and that it has also been one of the largest donors of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. […]
Read MoreIran Smuggles Arms to West Bank, Officials Say, to Foment Unrest With Israel
Iran is operating a clandestine smuggling route across the Middle East, employing intelligence operatives, militants and criminal gangs, to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to officials from the United States, Israel and Iran. The goal, as described by three Iranian officials, is to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the […]
Read MoreGaza War Turns Spotlight on Long Pipeline of U.S. Weapons to Israel
In the fall of 2016, the Obama administration sealed a major military agreement with Israel that committed the United States to giving the country $38 billion in arms over 10 years. “The continued supply of the world’s most advanced weapons technology will ensure that Israel has the ability to defend itself from all manner of […]
Read MoreDwindling Ammunition Stocks Pose Grave Threat to Ukraine
The crew at an artillery position in eastern Ukraine had 33 shells in its ammunition bunker, stacked neatly like firewood against a wall. Then came an order to fire. Twenty minutes later, smoke wafted around a howitzer and 17 shells were gone — more than half the crew’s ammunition. The rapidly depleted stack was emblematic […]
Read MoreUkraine’s Arms Industry Is Growing, but Is It Growing Fast Enough?
Ukraine’s military had only one Bohdana artillery cannon in its arsenal when Russia invaded the country two years ago. Yet that single weapon, built in Ukraine in 2018 and able to shoot NATO-caliber rounds, proved so effective in the earliest days of the war that it was trucked to battlefields across the country, from the […]
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