Tag: Arms Trade

U.S. Officials Fear American Guns Ordered by Israel Could Fuel West Bank Violence

An Israeli government request for 24,000 assault rifles from the United States is drawing scrutiny from American lawmakers and some State Department officials who fear the weapons might end up in the hands of settlers and civilian militias trying to force Palestinians from land in the West Bank, where violence has been surging, U.S. officials […]

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Israel and Ukraine Need the Same Three Weapons From the U.S.

With his prime-time vow to send more weapons to both Ukraine and Israel, President Biden sought to make clear on Thursday that the United States was not prioritizing one war over the other. But hours earlier, a Defense Department official said that tens of thousands of 155-millimeter artillery shells promised to Ukraine would be diverted […]

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State Dept. Official Josh Paul Resigns Over Arms to Israel

A State Department official in the bureau that oversees arms transfers resigned this week in protest of the Biden administration’s decision to continue sending weapons and ammunition to Israel as it lays siege to Gaza in its war with Hamas. In his resignation letter, Josh Paul, who has been the director of congressional and public […]

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Israel-Hamas War Adds to Surge in Global Weapons Sales

Just days after the assault by Hamas ignited a new war in the Middle East, shipments of American weapons began arriving in Israel: smart bombs, ammunition and interceptors for the Iron Dome missile-defense system. When President Biden meets in Israel on Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, more military aid is a likely topic. The […]

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North Korea Shipped Arms to Russia for Use in Ukraine, U.S. Says

North Korea shipped more than 1,000 containers of arms to Russia in recent weeks for use in the war in Ukraine, U.S. officials said on Friday, the latest example of Moscow scouring the world to replenish its depleted stores of weapons from some of the most isolated outlaw nations. American intelligence agencies tracked the shipment […]

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Town’s Revolt Reveals Larger German Concerns About Arming Ukraine

When government leaders in Saxony learned that Rheinmetall, Germany’s most prominent arms manufacturer, was considering building a new munitions factory in the former East German state, they saw visions of economic boom. It was a chance, they thought, to capitalize on the city’s storied airfield — home to the Red Baron in World War I, […]

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Western Leaders Urge Arms Manufacturing in Ukraine

The chief of NATO and the defense ministers of Britain and France have paid surprise visits to Kyiv, announced on Thursday, in a show of continued solidarity, even as they emphasize the goal of pumping up weapons production within Ukraine. Conscious of softening Western support for the expensive business of arming Ukraine, officials are billing […]

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Europe Made a Bold Pledge of Ammunition for Ukraine. Now Comes the Hard Part.

The pledge last March sounded as catchy as it was ambitious: European Union states would deliver a million rounds of 155-millimeter ammunition to Ukraine within a year. Now, at a critical moment in the war and with Ukraine running short of artillery shells to drive its counteroffensive, experts, weapons manufacturers and even some government officials […]

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Gold Bullion and Halal Meat: Inside the Menendez Investigation

It was January 2018, and Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey had just won a huge legal victory. His trial on federal bribery charges had ended in a hung jury, and the U.S. Justice Department had announced that it would not seek a new trial. He was free to walk with no criminal conviction, ready […]

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Zelensky’s Visit Reveals Strategy Divide Between Ukraine and U.S.

Ukraine will retake the fiercely contested eastern city of Bakhmut from Russia by the end of the year, President Volodymyr Zelensky predicted during his visit to Washington, an assertion that shows the gulf between Kyiv and American war planners who believe that Ukraine should be focusing more on the south. Mr. Zelensky, at a meeting […]

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Putin and Kim’s Embrace May Place Xi in a Bind

To challenge the power of his chief rival, the United States, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has linked arms with two anti-Western states, declaring a “no limits” partnership with Russia and pledging “unswerving” support for North Korea. But the specter of a budding bromance between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the North Korean […]

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Now the Koreas Are the Ones Supplying Weapons

Washington and Moscow flooded the Korean Peninsula with arms and aid as they fueled the war between South and North seven decades ago. Now, in a fateful moment of history turning back on itself, Russia and the United States are reaching out to those same allies to supply badly needed munitions as the powers face […]

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Kim-Putin Meeting Nears, but Where?

Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia on Tuesday, the Kremlin confirmed, traveling aboard his slow-moving armored train to a meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin that could see the two nations increasing military cooperation. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency published photographs on Tuesday of Mr. Kim and other officials on the train, which is […]

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Europe Rushes to Build Defenses But With Little Consensus on How

At Saab’s sprawling combat production center in Karlskoga, Sweden, the 84-millimeter shells that can take out a battle tank in a single stroke are carefully assembled by hand. One worker stacked tagliatelle-shaped strips of explosive propellant in a tray. Another attached the translucent sheafs around the rotating fins of a guiding system. Outside the squat […]

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In Ukraine, a U.S. Arms Dealer Is Making a Fortune and Testing Limits

The Justice Department indicted him in 2009 on conspiracy and money laundering charges after it said he was caught on tape discussing methods for paying bribes to foreign officials. “You just got to be smarter than the government,” Mr. Morales said on one recording. (F.B.I. agents badly botched the case, and prosecutors ultimately dropped the […]

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Vietnam in Secret Talks to Buy Arms From Russia

When President Biden is greeted by Vietnamese officials in Hanoi on Sunday, he will be celebrating the prospect of adding another friend in Asia to a coalition that his administration hopes will side with American interests rather than China’s and Russia’s. During Mr. Biden’s visit, the two nations will underscore their commitment to “increase peace, […]

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