Latest news with #B-1
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Green Beret nominated to top Pentagon position to oversee special ops
A former Army Special Forces officer who was in charge of a team involved in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan was nominated as the Pentagon's head of special operations. Derrick Anderson was nominated Monday by President Donald Trump to serve as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, according to a notice on His nomination was referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration. If confirmed to the largely bureaucratic position, Anderson would oversee administrative and policy issues that apply to special operations and irregular warfare units and advise the secretary of defense and other senior civilian leaders on issues like equipment, readiness and training for the force. While a captain in the Army in 2014, Anderson was the commander of a Special Forces team in Afghanistan from the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. On June 9, 2014, his team and allied Afghan soldiers engaged in a firefight with the Taliban that ended in a wayward American airstrike that killed five U.S. soldiers and one Afghan. A U.S. Central Command investigation found that miscommunication and a lack of proper protocols among Anderson, his tactical air controller and the crew of the B-1B bomber that dropped the bombs led to the friendly fire. In a later interview with 60 Minutes about the incident, Anderson disputed that his leadership was at fault in the strike. A classified report on the strike obtained by 60 Minutes found that a central cause was the inability of the B-1's sensors to detect the strobe lights worn by the Green Berets on their equipment — an issue that neither the bomber's crew nor the ground team were aware of. 'I'm the commander of this team. This is my team. I miss my guys tremendously. But at the end of the day there's nothing that myself or my Team Sergeant did that day or failed to do that day that caused that incident to happen,' he told 60 Minutes. 'We made the decisions that we thought were best at the time on the ground for the guys that were getting shot at.' In 2024, Anderson also ran for a Congressional House seat in Virginia as a Republican but lost to Democratic candidate Eugene Vindman. Anderson grew up in Virginia and attended Virginia Tech on an Army ROTC scholarship, according to a Special Operations Association of America bio page. He went on to become an infantry officer, went to Ranger School and became a platoon leader in Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division. He served on a 13-month tour during the 2007 'Iraq surge.' He also oversaw burial and memorial ceremonies with the 3rd Infantry Regiment in Arlington National Cemetery. After leaving the military, he attended law school at Georgetown University and clerked for three federal judges, according to his LinkedIn page. Navy SEAL Team 6 operator will be the military's new top enlisted leader Veterans receiving disability payments might have been underpaid, IG finds Guam barracks conditions are 'baffling,' Navy admiral says in email Navy fires admiral in charge of unmanned systems office after investigation The Pentagon wants troops to change duty stations less often
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
19 vintage Goodyear Blimp photos on its 100th anniversary
On June 3, 1925, Goodyear launched its first civil airship. Over the next century, the blimp could be spotted floating over sporting events as an icon of advertising. Before the branded blimps hit the skies in 1925, Goodyear built approximately 25 airships for the US Navy, starting in 1917. The hangar at the company's Akron, Ohio-based Wingfoot Lake Airship Base was not yet complete when the Navy placed their order, so production of the first prototype, the B-1, occurred in an amusement park building in Chicago. Notable moments in the airships' history include: In 1955, cameras onboard the airship provided the world's first live aerial video for a national broadcast at the Rose Bowl game. In 1989, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit near San Francisco while the company's Columbia blimp was flying above the World Series. The blimp ended up sending images to first responders to show the damage from above. A Goodyear blimp could be seen above the Super Bowl in 24 of the first 30 games. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Goodyear will fly its three operational airships above northeast Ohio June 3-5.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump-Appointed Justice Seems Real Skeptical of Plans to End Birthright Citizenship
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh launched a series of pointed questions at a Trump administration lawyer about the president's plan to end birthright citizenship. The shockingly blunt approach during oral arguments Thursday signaled an apparent opposition to the administration's arguments. The Trump-appointed jurist asked Trump's Solicitor General John Sauer to provide details on any procedures that hospitals and states would have to follow under the order, which would end birthright citizenship but offers little guidance for how to carry out a new system. 'This is just a very practical question: How is this going to work?' Kavanaugh began. 'What do hospitals do with a newborn? What do states do with a newborn?' Sauer replied, 'I don't think they do anything different.' 'What the executive order says in Section 2 is that federal officials do not accept documents that have the wrong designation of citizenship from people who are subject to the executive order,' said Sauer, who in 2024 defended Trump in his presidential immunity case before the same court. Kavanaugh pressed: 'How are they going to know that?' 'The states can continue to—the federal officials will have to figure that out,' Sauer replied. 'How?' Kavanaugh responded. 'So, you can imagine a number of ways that the federal officials could—' Sauer said, prompting Kavanaugh's patience to wear thin. 'Such as?' he inquired. 'Such as, they could require a showing of, you know, documentation showing legal presence in the country,' Sauer said. 'For a temporary visitor, for example, they could see whether they're on a B-1 visa, which would exclude kind of the birthright citizenship in that context.' Kavanaugh still appeared unsatisfied. 'For all the newborns?' he wondered. 'Is that how that's going to work?' 'Again, we don't know because the agencies were never given the opportunity to formulate the guidance,' Sauer said. Kavanaugh interjected again, asking whether a thirty-day window is sufficient for them to 'get it together.' Sauer replied, 'That's what the executive order instructs them to do. And hopefully they will do so. Again, it's a speculative and hypothetical scenario, because they were enjoined from even starting that process.' This wasn't the only time during Thursday's argument when Sauer had a tense interaction with a Trump-appointed justice. Amy Coney Barrett confronted Sauer after he gave what she deemed an insufficient answer to Justice Elena Kagan. 'Sir, are you really going to answer Justice Kagan by saying there's no way to do this expeditiously?' she said. Thursday's case relates to the legality of lower courts' injunctions against the Trump administration rather than the constitutionality of birthright citizenship itself. But if the court opts to overturn the injunctions, then Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship will take effect until challenged.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Illegal use of foreign drivers undercuts US trucking industry, stakeholders say
Gerry Reed closed his small South Texas trucking company in December because he couldn't compete with foreign B-1 visa drivers illegally delivering loads across the U.S. As FreightWaves has reported several times since 2021, trucking and transportation operations in the U.S. and Mexico have been violating cabotage rules by misusing foreign B-1 visa drivers to deliver loads within the U.S. Reed, whose name has been changed for this story, spoke to FreightWaves on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. 'I closed in December, because I saw what was going to happen now,' Reed told FreightWaves in an interview. 'There was no reason to try and keep up with the B-1 drivers' nonsense. No one really understands what's happened, and there's too many interests in between.'Misuse of the B-1 visa program by carriers and foreign truck drivers is forcing freight rates lower and lower, Reed said, as well as taking business from U.S. companies. In South Texas, where Reed operated, he competed with companies employing Mexico-based B-1 visa drivers. A Mexico-based driver with a B-1 visa can pick up a load in a Mexican city such as Reynosa, across the border from Pharr, Texas, then take that load across the border to Pharr. The driver can either take another load headed directly back to Reynosa, or deadhead back to Mexico through the same border crossing he came through with the U.S.-bound load. That's legal. Instead of returning to Mexico, however, B-1 drivers are then often hired by companies to pick up new loads and go farther into the U.S., which is illegal, taking work for far less pay than a U.S. trucker some cases, it's U.S. carriers that unlawfully use Mexican drivers with B-1 visas, creating significant savings by paying them less than U.S. truckers. In other cases, Mexican carriers are starting U.S. trucking companies and then leasing trucks to themselves using both U.S. and Mexican license plates. Another trucking company in South Texas said B-1 visa truckers continue to undercut his fuel-hauling business. 'Look at I-35 coming out of Laredo: All you see is the Mexican trucks coming across going north, and nine out of 10 trucks are B-1 drivers; it's just getting out of hand,' the fuel hauler told FreightWaves in an interview. He also spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. 'I'm an owner-operator. I have a few trucks that I operate as a regional hauling business, but I can't compete with the B-1s,' the trucker said. 'You have a lot of B-1 drivers, they take less pay, and you lose work because they can get the work. I can't afford to drop down on my rates. Nobody will be making money, right?' It isn't just B-1 drivers from Mexico taking loads for less pay. Sources told FreightWaves that Canadian B-1 visa truck drivers have also been running illegal loads across the U.S. for years. While Reed said authorities have been slow to crack down on foreign B-1 visa drivers, there has been a recent push by the American Trucking Associations to strengthen cabotage enforcement. The ATA discussed the misuse of B-1 visa drivers at the Truckload Carriers Association conference on March 25 in Phoenix. 'If you are using Mexican B-1 drivers to haul domestic loads, that is illegal,' Bob Costello, ATA's chief economist, said during a presentation at the conference. 'It's another reason why the market has been bad.'Costello said he anticipates a possible crackdown in the near future by the Trump administration on companies that illegally employ Mexican B-1 drivers who, upon getting into the U.S. by driving freight from Mexico, stick around and drive domestic routes before heading back south of the border. ATA President Chris Spear also recently sent an open letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urging the DOT to partner 'with other federal agencies to halt instances where drivers entering the U.S. from Mexico overstay to deliver domestic loads.' 'While we recognize this is not within FMCSA's immediate purview, we urge you to work with the Homeland Security Investigations Office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to better patrol violations of international drivers operating domestically with a B-1 visa,' Spear said in the letter. One way law enforcement could check B-1 visa drivers is to have authorities check licenses and visas at weigh stations where trucks are generally required to stop. 'They could check them at the scale houses along I-35,' the South Texas fuel hauler said. 'They definitely have enough manpower. They could check them if they wanted to. Sometimes I'm driving through Eagle Pass, Texas. Any given time, you have 1,000 state troopers securing the border, quote unquote, instead of actually doing work. They're out here chasing illegals. Let the Border Patrol deal with it, and the National Guard, but instead they are here doing that instead of actually cracking down on things that really matter. As far as trucking matters.' Mexican trucking officials said when B-1 visa drivers break the law in the U.S., it also hurts the freight industry in Mexico. In Mexico, truck drivers who have the B-1 visa often leave Mexico to get jobs in the U.S. because the U.S.-based companies can pay more, said a trucking company owner in Monterrey, Mexico, who wanted to remain anonymous. In Mexico, truckers can earn up to $1,500 a month. In the U.S., working for an American company, they can make $5,000 to $6,000 a month. 'It's the same thing as always: U.S. companies are still hiring Mexican drivers, and we're seeing an increase in B-1 drivers,' the owner said. For more stories on B-1 visa truck drivers, click . The post Illegal use of foreign drivers undercuts US trucking industry, stakeholders say appeared first on FreightWaves.
Fox News
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump warns Putin 'STOP!' but history says that's not enough
"Vladimir, STOP! 5,000 soldiers a week are dying. Let's get the peace deal DONE," Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday. Oh, the frustration of negotiating with Russia. But this sounded like the cry of a hoop-skirted heroine tied to the railroad tracks. President Donald J. Trump is a master communicator, but with the single-word plea, he brought back bad memories of one of the low points of President Joe Biden's foreign policy. That came Sep. 16, 2022, when 60 Minutes asked then-President Joe Biden what he would say if Putin threatened to use nuclear or chemical weapons. "Don't. Don't. Don't. It would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II," Biden replied. About then came the tragic freeze in strategic planning that frittered away momentum for a battlefield victory for Ukraine. So here we are, with negotiations at an intense phase of swapping Crimea for the huge Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and trying to make sure Ukraine has a viable economic path. "Vladimir, STOP" won't get the job done. Can this be the same President Donald J. Trump who threatened Hamas there would be "all hell to pay," which resulted in a ceasefire and a hostage deal? Trump has come down like a ton of bricks on Ayatollah Khamenei. He's said multiple times he will strike Iran if need be to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. "If we don't make a deal, I'll be leading the pack," Trump said on Friday. Perhaps Trump needs to say something like this next: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation which will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes." So joked President Ronald Reagan on August 11, 1984, during a sound check before a speech. You can hear the laughter in the background. Was it a meaningless slip-up? Not on your life. This Hollywood veteran with five decades of experience before the camera and boundless media savvy knew quite well there was no true "off the record" moment. Reagan had already accelerated production of B-1 and B-2 bombers, introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative, and put the Soviet Union on notice. I bring up Reagan in part because he was not afraid of Russia. Part of the problem shared by Trump and Biden in dealing with the Ukraine war is placing too much stock in Putin's nuclear threats. As many have pointed out, use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would blow radiation back into Russia itself. Don't forget that China told Putin in late 2022 to cool off the nuclear threats. Russia is an economic vassal state of China. Putin can't risk losing China's oil money and sneaky microelectronics, and Xi Jinping has made it clear that tactical nuclear weapons are bad for business. Reagan did not hesitate to play hardball with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to get the Soviets to agree to arms control. Reagan also avoided the one-word trap, either using humor to send a message, or pointing out a wider path, most famously in his Berlin speech from June 12, 1987. "If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Like Reagan, Trump is very close to a deal, and now is the moment to be firm. Trump has done well luring Putin with reminiscences about the U.S. alliance with the Russians during World War II, an event still vivid in Putin's mind. (Putin's mother Maria survived the siege of Leningrad but lost her two-year-old son Viktor to diptheria and starvation in 1942 during the siege.) Trump ought to tell Putin there will be "all hell to pay" if Special Envoy Steve Witkoff doesn't leave Moscow with a smile on his face. Then, of course, Trump would have to back it up, but that's easy. Let Trump threaten to increase the oil sanctions or withdraw all the financial carrots, which I believe are the sweeteners being offered behind the scenes. Or how about a Truth Social post granting Ukraine immediate NATO membership, followed by the deployment of nuclear-capable F-35s to Ukraine for "exercises." Putin's backside would be twitching like a bunny rabbit's nose. All the world knows Vladimir Putin has a taste for war. He continues to launch attacks on civilians in Ukraine to show off his second-rate military, scare European allies, and impress the Russian people who know he's a crook but support him anyway. Now is the moment for Trump to hammer Putin with words and real consequences: renewed NATO military power supporting Ukraine, or a total loss of any business deals to get out from under China's shadow. We begin bombing Crimea in 5 minutes.
