NATO

The Trump administration could cut nearly 50 percent of the State Department’s funding next fiscal year, according to an internal memo laying out a downsizing plan being given serious consideration by department leaders, said two U.S. officials. The plan was drawn up as the White House pressures agencies to make significant budget cuts.

An internal White House memo proposes cutting the budgets of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by nearly half in fiscal 2026, according to new reporting from The Washington Post.

The early proposal for the fiscal 2026 budget would allocate $28.4 billion for State and USAID — down $27 billion, or approximately 48 percent, from the $54.4 billion in the 2025 budget, according to the Post.

President Donald Trump's administration is weighing a dramatic reduction in foreign affairs funding, with a proposal to slash the combined budgets of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development by nearly half in fiscal 2026, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Washington Post, The Hill reported.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has proposed gutting the State Department’s budget by almost 50%, closing a number of overseas diplomatic missions, slashing the number of diplomatic staff, and eliminating funding for nearly all international organizations, including the United Nations, many of its agencies and for NATO headquarters, officials said.

U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, who holds a senior position in NATO, has been fired as part of what appears to be an expanding national security purge of top officials by the Trump administration, three sources told Reuters on Monday.

The information was not immediately confirmed by the Pentagon. However, the sources told Reuters that allies had been notified that Chatfield had been removed from her job.

The US Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee Matt Whitaker to be the US ambassador to NATO, at a time of growing concern about Washington’s commitment to the defence alliance.

Having served in the Justice Department during Trump's first administration, Whitaker comes to the role with a background in law enforcement rather than foreign policy or national security.

He was confirmed along party lines by a 52-45 vote.

On a spring morning two months after Vladimir Putin’s invading armies marched into Ukraine, a convoy of unmarked cars slid up to a Kyiv street corner and collected two middle-aged men in civilian clothes.

Leaving the city, the convoy — manned by British commandos, out of uniform but heavily armed — traveled 400 miles west to the Polish border. The crossing was seamless, on diplomatic passports. Farther on, they came to the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, where an idling C-130 cargo plane waited.

There was "anger," "surprise," and "panic" among the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden after Ukraine sunk the Mosvka, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, a report published by the New York Times on March 29 suggests.

The Moskva sank on April 14, 2022, after being struck by two Ukrainian R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles. The attack marked one of Kyiv’s most significant early victories in the full-scale war and dealt a major blow to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

It is years too late and alternative and independent media had already done so much work on exposing the reality, including 600+ page books which have been published, but the New York Times on Sunday is out with a lengthy report on The Partnership: The Secret History of America’s Role in the Ukraine War.