Pentagon Has No More Money for Ukraine as It Hosts a Meeting of 50 Allies on Support for Kyiv https://english.aawsat.com/world/4807321-pentagon-has-no-more-money-ukraine-it-hosts-meeting-50-allies-support-kyiv%C2%A0
Pentagon Has No More Money for Ukraine as It Hosts a Meeting of 50 Allies on Support for Kyiv
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov shake hands after their meeting, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 20, 2023. (Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov via X/Handout via Reuters)
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Pentagon Has No More Money for Ukraine as It Hosts a Meeting of 50 Allies on Support for Kyiv
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov shake hands after their meeting, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 20, 2023. (Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov via X/Handout via Reuters)
For the first time since Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin established the international group to support Ukraine in April 2022, the United States will host the monthly gathering of about 50 countries out of money, unable to send the ammunition and missiles that Ukraine needs to fend off Russia.
While waiting for Congress to pass a budget and potentially approve more money for Ukraine’s fight, the US will be looking to allies to keep bridging the gap.
Tuesday's meeting will focus on longer-term needs, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday.
“Even though we aren’t able to provide our security assistance right now, our partners are continuing to do that,” Singh said.
The meeting will be virtual because Austin is still recuperating at home from complications of treatment for prostate cancer.
The Pentagon announced its last security assistance for Ukraine on Dec. 27, a $250 million package that included 155 mm rounds, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other high-demand items drawn from existing US stockpiles.
The US has not been able to provide additional munitions since then because the money for replenishing those stockpiles has run out and Congress has yet to approve more funds.
More than $110 billion in aid for both Ukraine and Israel is stalled over disagreements between Congress and the White House over other policy priorities, including additional security for the US-Mexico border.
Meanwhile, Russia has shown no willingness to end its conflict in Ukraine, and on Monday the United Nations ruled out any peace plan backed by Kyiv and the West.
The US has provided Ukraine more than $44.2 billion in security assistance since Russia invaded in February 2022. About $23.6 billion of that was pulled from existing military stockpiles and almost $19 billion was sent in the form of longer-term military contracts, for items that will take months to procure.
So even though funds have run out, some previously purchased weapons will continue to flow in. An additional $1.7 billion has been provided by the US State Department in the form of foreign military financing.
The US and approximately 30 international partners are also continuing to train Ukrainian forces, and to date have trained a total of 118,000 Ukrainians at locations around the world, said Col. Marty O’Donnell, spokesman for US Army Europe and Africa.
The United States has trained approximately 18,000 of those fighters, including approximately 16,300 soldiers in Germany. About 1,500 additional fighters are currently going through training.
This combination of pictures shows (L/R) US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2026 and in this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Novosibirsk region on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Putin Told Trump about Iran's Position on Peace Deal
This combination of pictures shows (L/R) US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2026 and in this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Novosibirsk region on August 11, 2026. (AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Donald Trump about Iran's position on a possible Mideast peace deal, the Kremlin said Saturday.
The Kremlin said Tehran's stance was relayed in a phone call held between the two leaders on Friday. It did not say how Trump responded, nor elaborate on Iran's position.
Diplomatic efforts to end the more-than-seven-month-long Iran conflict, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, have been at an impasse since the summer, according to AFP.
Putin met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a summit in Turkmenistan earlier this week, where the Russian leader expressed an interest in helping broker peace.
"In coordination with the Iranian president, Putin conveyed the Iranian side's views on a possible resolution to the conflict to Trump," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday, according to Russia's state RIA news agency.
The United States and Iran agreed a memorandum of understanding in June that spelled out a framework for ending their conflict, but Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz prompted a resumption of US military operations.
Recent indirect talks between Washington and Tehran on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly failed to produce a breakthrough.
First Execution to Be Livestreamed in the US: Nidal Hasan’s Journey from Psychiatric Clinic to Death Rowhttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5328061-first-execution-be-livestreamed-us-nidal-hasan%E2%80%99s-journey-psychiatric-clinic-death-row
(FILES) This April 9, 2010 file photo released by the Bell County Sheriffs Department, shows US Major Nidal Hasan after being moved from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio to Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas. . (Photo by Handout / BELL COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT / AFP)
First Execution to Be Livestreamed in the US: Nidal Hasan’s Journey from Psychiatric Clinic to Death Row
(FILES) This April 9, 2010 file photo released by the Bell County Sheriffs Department, shows US Major Nidal Hasan after being moved from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio to Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas. . (Photo by Handout / BELL COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT / AFP)
In an unprecedented move that has shaken Washington’s political and legal establishment, American society stands on the threshold of a deeply sensitive historical and moral turning point. The Pentagon is preparing to carry out what would be the first public execution broadcast live over the internet in modern US history, sentencing former Army Major and psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan to death on December 3.
The case is particularly significant because it would mark the first execution by firing squad under military law since 1945, the end of World War II. It would place a US Army major before the ultimate punishment, in a highly publicized execution watched by millions on their screens, after decades in which such military sentences had remained uncarried out.
Origins and Background: Between Achievement and Extremism
Nidal Malik Hasan was born in September 1970 in Arlington County, Virginia, to a family of Palestinian origin. He attended American schools before deciding to join the military in 1988, immediately after graduating from high school.
The US government fully funded his university education until he earned his medical degree in psychiatry. He steadily advanced through the military ranks, eventually becoming a major and Army psychiatrist, a position that placed him on a promising career path.
Behind this distinguished military career, however, a profound identity crisis and bitter ideological struggle were taking shape out of sight. Subsequent investigations revealed that Hasan had engaged in extensive ideological correspondence with extremist figures abroad, most notably Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader in Al-Qaeda, according to US media reports.
Hasan increasingly voiced strong opposition to US foreign policy, viewing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as direct attacks on his beliefs. The crisis reached its peak when he received official military orders assigning him to active duty in Afghanistan.
Fort Hood and the Mass Shooting
On November 5, 2009, just weeks before he was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, Major Nidal Hasan made the decision to completely repudiate his military oath and stormed the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at the well-known Fort Hood military base in Texas.
Hasan drew his firearm and opened fire indiscriminately and repeatedly on his fellow service members, who were unarmed and waiting to undergo medical examinations and routine vaccinations before deployment.
The surprise attack killed 13 people, including 12 military personnel and one civilian, and wounded another 32, with injuries of varying severity. It was described as the deadliest attack on a US military base in modern history.
The shooting ended when civilian security personnel at the base opened fire on Hasan, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair from that day onward.
The Courtroom and the Shocking Admission
During his landmark military trial in 2013, Nidal Hasan stunned those present by refusing to use lawyers and choosing to represent himself before the military jury.
Hasan made no effort to defend himself or offer excuses. Instead, he openly accepted full responsibility for the incident before the court, stating that he had changed his allegiance and switched sides to protect those he believed were fighting against US forces.
The 13-member military panel convicted him on 45 counts, including premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder. He was sentenced to death and subsequently transferred to the strict military confinement facilities at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Hasan was not formally convicted of terrorism, as US military criminal law does not contain a separate offense bearing that designation. Instead, the case was prosecuted as a major mass-murder crime.
Nidal Hasan in a 2007 photograph at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Hasan held the rank of captain in the US Army when the photograph was taken. (Wikipedia)
Trump’s Approval and the End of Six Decades
Under the strict and complex provisions of US military law, the death sentence of a serving military member cannot be carried out without formal approval and the final signature of the US president in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
After all available levels of appeal and legal challenges had been exhausted, and the Supreme Court had rejected his petitions, President Donald Trump signed the execution order following an explicit recommendation from his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.
The presidential decision paves the way for the end of decades without military executions. The planned execution would be the first of its kind in the US military overall since 1961, when soldier John Bennett was hanged. Its particular historical significance lies in the fact that it would be the first military execution by firing squad since soldier Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion in 1945 during World War II.
Screens of Death and Divisions in the White House
The US Department of Defense sparked a major controversy when it announced that the execution by firing squad would be public and available to watch live on internet platforms. The Pentagon justified the unprecedented measure as an effort to establish a decisive deterrent and demonstrate the grave consequences of military betrayal.
Officials selected 1:30 p.m. as the execution time, precisely matching the time Hasan carried out his deadly attack at Fort Hood years earlier.
The announcement of the livestream triggered a storm of controversy and sharp divisions within American political circles. US Vice President JD Vance expressed serious reservations and deep skepticism about broadcasting the execution publicly, stating that he would not watch the spectacle under any circumstances.
Democrats strongly criticized the move, calling it a regressive act unbecoming of a country governed by institutions. Some prominent Republicans also expressed disgust at turning judicial justice into a media spectacle resembling practices associated with extremist totalitarian regimes.
Nidal Hasan in his 1986 high school yearbook. (Wikipedia)
The Legal Clash and the Constitutionality of a Public Broadcast
The decision to livestream the execution opens a dark and contentious legal and constitutional chapter in the American justice system. No official execution has been broadcast on public screens in the country’s modern history since the last authorized public execution took place in the 1930s.
This political ambition faces a complex legislative framework governing the public disclosure of executions, with substantial differences between state and federal law. In most US states, local laws prohibit filming and broadcasting executions, allowing only a limited number of witnesses and journalists to attend for transparency purposes.
Meanwhile, Federal Military Regulation 190-55 restricts attendance to a small group that includes victims’ relatives and accredited journalists, while imposing an absolute ban on anyone below the legal age.
Despite efforts by the defense to submit emergency petitions to civil courts seeking to halt the execution on the basis of these legal loopholes, the Pentagon appears determined to overcome the obstacles and proceed with both the execution and its broadcast on the scheduled date.
Russian Strikes kill 11, Including 3 Childrenhttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5327982-russian-strikes-kill-11-including-3-children
Local residents stand amid the rubble of a five-story residential building following a Russian attack that killed seven people, including three children, in Zaporizhzhia on October 10, 2026. (Photo by Daria Nazarova / AFP)
Local residents stand amid the rubble of a five-story residential building following a Russian attack that killed seven people, including three children, in Zaporizhzhia on October 10, 2026. (Photo by Daria Nazarova / AFP)
Russian strikes on Ukraine's southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday killed at least 11 people, including three children, according to regional authorities.
Ukrainian national police said Russia had targeted residential neighborhoods in the city with "five guided aerial bombs" early Saturday morning, hitting two residential buildings.
The strikes came a day after Ukrainian and European officials met in Miami in a renewed diplomatic push to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
"The toll from the air strikes on Zaporizhzhia continues to rise. At present, 11 civilians have been killed. Among them are three children," said Mykhailo Semikin, head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration.
He said rescuers were continuing their search for people under the rubble.
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw people being pulled from the rubble by Ukrainian emergency services.
"We saw people under the rubble -- a woman, her husband and a child," one volunteer rescuer, Daniil Pishkin, told AFP.
He added that he saw two people rescued from the wreckage but "unfortunately there was a little girl who died.”
A resident of one of the buildings that was hit, who identified herself as Iryna, 69, said she just had time to seek refuge in the toilets after receiving an air raid warning.
She said her two neighbors were killed.
"They were 75 years old. They were simply thrown out there, onto the street. They didn't make it to the hospital," she told AFP.
The Zaporizhzhia region, located just a few dozen kilometers from the front line, and its capital by the same name have been the target of frequent strikes.
Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukrainian territory in recent months, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.
Diplomatic efforts mediated by the United States to end the war more than four years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine have so far yielded no results.
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