Latest news with #Phelan


The Hill
17 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Hegseth reassigns first female Naval Academy head
Navy Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the first female to serve as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy is being reassigned, the Defense Department announced Friday. Davids was instead tapped to serve as deputy chief of naval operations, plans, strategy and warfighting development, according to a press release. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael J. Borgschulte was named to lead the Naval Academy in her place — making him the first Marine to lead the institution. 'The Naval Academy remains one of the most consequential institutions in American public life. It forges leaders of character, men and women of integrity, resilience, and intellect who will guide our Fleet and our Nation through the challenges of an increasingly contested world,' Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan said in a statement. 'Lt. Gen. Borgschulte is uniquely prepared to lead the next generations of naval and marine officers and ensure they are ready for the future fight,' Phelan added. Superintendents at the Naval Academy are there for at least three years typically, but the stint can be shorter. Davids, a 1989 graduate of the academy in Annapolis, Md., had been the leader of the institution since January 2024. Her reassignment, which was first reported by USNI News, comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has overseen the shake-up of top military leaders. Trump removed Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr. in February and nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan 'Razin' Caine, who was eventually confirmed by the Senate for the role. The administration also fired chief of naval operations Adm. Lisa M. Franchetti, who was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump also removed Adm. Linda Fagan, the first female U.S. Coast Guard commandant. Phelan congratulated Davids on her appointment, adding that she commanded 'at every level and has led with distinction in some of the most complex security environments of our time.' 'Her strategic vision and operational depth will be an exceptional asset to the Navy and the Department of Defense,' Phelan said. Davids said in a statement that she was honored to be nominated to her new role. 'I look forward to continuing to serve alongside America's strongest warfighters,' she wrote.

Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Science
- Sky News AU
US and China will be ‘competing for data'
Former DFAT Australia-China Council scholar Andrew Phelan says China and the Western world have 'very different' operating systems. Mr Phelan told Sky News Australia that the two operating systems are 'incompatible' with one another. 'The US and China are going to be competing for data.'

Sky News AU
10-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Former foreign affairs offficial hits out at Anthony Albanese's 'naive' stance ahead of Beijing trip while warning of strategic crisis
Former DFAT Australia-China Council scholar Andrew Phelan has launched a stinging assessment of Canberra's current approach to Beijing, calling it 'naive' as he warned of a growing strategic crisis. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to embark on a six-day visit to China, where he will hold talks with President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking officials where the agenda is expected to cover a range of global and regional matters, along with strengthening ties in areas such as trade and tourism. Prior to the trip, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, said China was clearly aiming to expand its 'strategic influence' and bolster its 'military power'. 'China's size and weight makes it central to solving global challenges, from climate change to global public health, from international trade to the energy transition,' she said on Thursday at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia. 'China continues to assert its strategic influence and project its military power further into our region and we have seen the worrying pace of China's nuclear and conventional military build-up, without the transparency that the region expects.' Mr Phelan backed the Foreign Minister's assessment, but said the government's broader strategy was misjudged and lacking transparency. 'Penny Wong's absolutely right,' he told Sky News. 'The size, speed and scale of China's military buildup is incredibly concerning.' He said the Prime Minister had failed to grasp the broader implications of the shifting geopolitical landscape. 'The Albanese visit's coming at the end of a 30-year era, where the US and China have had this mutually convenient symbiotic relationship,' Mr Phelan said. 'And that worked well until it didn't. Now is that time and we're seeing a separation of the two. So, it's a real turning point in history and I'm not sure the Prime Minister fully appreciates the strategic depth of what's happening at the moment.' Describing the meeting as lacking clear purpose, Mr Phelan questioned the rationale for the trip, saying it had not been properly explained to the Australian public and suggesting that China had already achieved what it wanted by coercing Australia into a more 'compliant' posture. 'The Prime Minister hasn't really explained the purpose and timing of this trip to the Australian public very well. And I think that's a conversation that he's got to have and be honest with the Australian people,' Phelan explained 'China played Albanese very well and I think he's been a little naive. Remember, China unilaterally coerced Australia after the COVID pandemic, it's China that's let those various trade bans lapse, I think they've done that unilaterally, and they've got a relatively compliant Australia out of it.' While Albanese will be accompanied by business leaders, including mining and banking executives focused on trade, Mr Phelan warned China's interests go far beyond commercial deals. 'China will be lobbying for more access, FDI access to critical minerals and rare earths,' he said. 'The Treasurer has made clear that he's not going to relent in that space. So, it's hard to say what China really wants to get out of this. Or for that matter, what Australia is going to get out of it, other than continuity. 'We don't talk about the flood of internet connected vehicles and other aspects of the energy grid or where the software is going to be written in China. So, it's all sort of one-way traffic in terms of our exports. We don't talk about imports.' Mr Phelan admitted that he fails to see anything of real significance coming out of these talks in China. 'I don't see a lot of substance coming out of some of these meetings. For instance, the visit to Jakarta on route to the Pope's funeral and so on and because he hasn't really laid out an agenda, it's hard to say what the big takeaway for Australia is,' he said. His comments appear to clash with the Prime Minister's recent assertion that Australia must act as a 'sovereign nation' and not simply follow Washington's lead, a message echoed by Ms Wong, who stressed that Australia would take its own approach to international engagement. Nonetheless, Phelan's stark assessment paints a picture of a regional power increasingly willing to exploit trade and defence leverage, and an Australian government that may not yet be fully prepared to meet that challenge. 'We can't even maintain a small naval fleet adequately, so, I think we're in a crisis,' said Mr Phelan.

Sky News AU
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
China's top strategic objective is to ‘distance' Australia from the US
Former DFAT Australia-China Council scholar Andrew Phelan discusses how China is attempting to hinder the Australia-US strategic relationship ahead of the PM's visit. "Their [China's] number one strategic objective is to distance us from our allied strategic relationship with the US," Mr Phelan told Sky News Australia. "They will try and exert as much pressure as they can."


Boston Globe
08-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
‘This is the soul of Somerville.' Long-planned ‘tough tech' campus wins key city vote.
Related : Advertisement The successful rezoning follows two prior proposals to develop around 2 million square feet at the site, with buildings up to 16 stories tall. Those proposals proved unpopular with the community, and Rafi in February 2024 'This is the soul of Somerville, right?' said Ben Ewen-Campen, a Somerville City Councilor, at a committee meeting in June. 'I've had very meaningful conversations with people who are worried about just an onslaught of high value, large, snazzy developments... increasing the threat of displacement, kind of changing the nature of our community.' Art outside of 12 Tyler Street in Somerville. David L. Ryan/ Boston Globe Staff The most recent rezoning was proposed by the city of Somerville — not Rafi — and featured a vision of a scaled-down project. This newest iteration of Somernova's expansion also includes a community benefits agreement where Rafi has committed to developing more than of 100,000 square feet of arts and music space. Advertisement The developer has also finalized a project labor agreement with the Greater Boston Building Trades Unions, the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, and Shawmut Design and Construction to guarantee union jobs at the Somernova project. 'Our community has been on kind of a learning curve, from the billions of dollars that were invested in Assembly Square, The Somernova rezoning comes as empty life-science lab space has multiplied across Somerville and Greater Boston and along the extended MBTA Green Line. Tough tech space needs to be flexible enough to accommodate multiple technologies but does not require nearly the level of sophisticated buildout as biotech labs, said Travis McCready, the head of industries leasing advisory in the Americas for brokerage JLL in Boston, who also chairs the firm's global life sciences advisory board. 'If you're servicing the broader tough tech community, then you don't need a purpose-built asset,' McCready said. 'Tough tech doesn't need a Lamborghini. It needs a high-performing sedan.' Rafi has owned the Somernova site since April 2018, when it paid a combined $88 million to acquire multiple parcels along Somerville Avenue, Park Street, Tyler Street, and Dane Street, according to Middlesex County records. Beyond developing a 43,200-square-foot research and development warehouse at 599 Somerville Ave., the firm has little large-scale development experience in Boston. But Rafi has spent years trying to better understand its tenants' needs, said Kristin Phelan, Rafi's vice president of real estate. Advertisement 'How can we help them? What are their challenges?' Phelan said. 'That has been our commitment since day one.' A view of 8-10 Tyler Street in Somerville. David L. Ryan/ Boston Globe Staff A tough tech lab differs from a biotech lab in several key ways, Phelan said. For example, while a biotech tenant might need a 15-foot ceiling and redundant air flow, a tough tech tenant would need 20- to 25-foot ceilings and floors heavy enough to handle forklifts and other heavy equipment. That type of lab space 'does not exist' in Somerville, Phelan said. The development's first phase would likely be a 350,000-square-foot building at the corner of Tyler and Dane streets that would provide expansion space for the tough- and climate-tech focused companies already located at Greentown Labs or The Engine, Phelan said. 'These companies in this space are growing fast, and therefore need to be able to be nimble,' she said. 'And they need to be able to move into larger spaces quickly.' Rafi will work closely with Somernova's existing tenants to develop a master plan and first phase of development before formally proposing the project to Somerville officials, said Collin Yip, Rafi's founder and managing partner. 'We are cautiously optimistic about the demand ... from the tough tech industries,' Yip said in a statement. 'Companies have not stopped scaling at Somernova.' Catherine Carlock can be reached at