Zerohedge

With the full liberation of Kursk having been declared by President Putin days ago, both Moscow and its recent defense treaty partner North Korea are much more openly touting the fact that North Korean troops are operating alongside Russian forces against the Ukrainian army.

For the first time, Russia’s Defense Ministry has released official footage showing North Korean soldiers undergoing combat training in Russia. The video was reportedly captured soon after reports began circulating that over 10,000 DPRK troops had been deployed to Russia, where they later fought in Kursk region in particular.

In the footage, Russian instructors teach the North Korean soldiers in shooting techniques and formations with Kalashnikov assault rifles. Anti-drone measures are also featured, as well as hand grenade training. Several live-fire exercises are featured, including firing RPGs and some sniper training.

Russia did not comment on precisely where the training took place, but it confirms that the terms of the Russian-North Korean mutual defense treaty – inked last summer between Presidents Putin and Kim Jong-Un, had been enacted fairly quickly once Ukraine forces crossed the border and entered Kursk.

The latest international reports have said 14,000 or more North Korean soldiers were sent to Russia amid the Kursk operation. The bulk of these are said to be from special forces units. Putin thanked them and Kim Jong-Un this week, in a first such public acknowledgement.

Ukraine is meanwhile urging Washington to take more serious action in light of this confirmation, and is also calling on South Korea, per regional media:

“If the Kremlin sends North Korean troops to the territory of Ukraine it would mean that North Korea is in a state of all out war with Ukraine,” Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Kyiv Independent.

The lawmaker from the ruling Servant of the People explained that such a deployment would cause “serious legal, political, and military consequences for Russia and North Korea,” prompting a stronger reaction from countries such as South Korea and the U.S.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin understands that if he does it (U.S. President Donald) Trump will have to react rather strongly,” Merezhko said.

Watch: video issued by Russian military showing training of DPRK troops at a prior date:

“We won’t invade Ukraine.”
“No North Koreans are fighting for Russia.”
“We want peace talks with Ukraine.”

How many times does the West need to hear Russia lie before it finally learns? pic.twitter.com/a8spASlnLl

— Shaun Pinner (@olddog100ua) April 28, 2025

Ukraine had reportedly breached the Russian border in Belgorod too, so it’s possible North Korean troops might be deployed that region as well. Whether or not they are actually inside Eastern Ukraine is an open question.

As for North Korea’s Kim, KCNA quoted him Monday as saying, “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland.” North Korea “regards it as an honor to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation,” he added. Ukraine has claimed to have captured a handful of both North Korean and even Chinese troops over the past month.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

Only one in eight Afghans who entered Germany through special protection programs, such as for local staff and human rights activists, was fully vetted by German security authorities beforehand, according to a new report from Bild.

Over 31,000 Afghans, including family members, reportedly arrived without complete security checks, the report claims, revealing major security lapses in Germany’s handling of the Afghan admission program.

The federal government has been importing Afghan migrants from its reception center in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad since the return to power of the Taliban, insisting those being received were former collaborators with the German army against the new regime.

However, in reality, only a fraction of those on board these flights met these criteria as former Bundeswehr employees or their family members.

Last month, Remix News reported on a chartered flight carrying 157 Afghan nationals, of which just two individuals were former collaborators, along with 13 of their relatives.

The remaining 142 individuals have been selected under broader humanitarian programs, such as the Federal Admission Program (BAP), which prioritizes Afghans identified as at risk due to their “commitment to democratic values.”

Germany’s federal police union (DPolG) has long called for the suspension of Afghan refugee flights from Pakistan, citing security risks and identity verification issues among those on board. Last month, the union penned a letter to outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz urging an immediate halt.

“The current procedure, in which, despite the identity not being determined without any doubt, travel ID cards are issued for foreigners, is highly risky and irresponsible,” said DPolG federal president Heiko Teggatz.

“Against the background of the currently highly tense security situation in relation to Islamist terrorism, I think such a procedure is unacceptable,” he added.

The lax security measures have sparked outrage among police officials and politicians. There are now loud calls for the establishment of a special asylum task force (“Soko Asyl”) to re-examine all cases and, if necessary, deport individuals who do not pass renewed security screenings.

“All Afghans who have not undergone a full security check must either be transferred back to Islamabad or deported to Afghanistan, unless they can definitively verify their identity on-site with official documents and pass a security screening,” Federal Police Union Vice President Manuel Ostermann told the German tabloid. “A complete re-examination of the cases is essential.”

Several CDU/CSU politicians, whose parties will dominate the incoming coalition government in Berlin, have demanded action.

“What is now coming to light is inconceivable. At a time when Germany is burdened by migration pressures and rising violent crimes by individual asylum seekers, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock showed no awareness of Germany’s security needs,” noted Hesse’s Minister for International Affairs Manfred Pentz. “Her approach was amateurish, ideological, and a threat to national security.”

“The governing coalition is responsible for these frightening security risks. The Afghan admission programs must be terminated immediately,” said Alexander Hoffmann, parliamentary manager of the CSU in the Bundestag.

“This must not be repeated. Germany’s security interests must always come first,” added CDU MP Christoph de Vries in a stark warning to chancellor-to-be Friedrich Merz, who vowed to tackle the immigration crisis in Germany but whose coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) has raised questions about his commitment.

Read more here…

Via Middle East Eye

“Mossad agents” and “warmongers” are pushing the US into a conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those lines aren’t coming from state-run news agencies in Tehran, but some of US President Donald Trump’s closest media allies and supporters. 

Last week, conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson featured a senior Department of Defense official who he claimed was ousted because he was seen as an obstacle to the US bombing Iran.

Dan Caldwell, a top advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was removed from the Pentagon earlier this month on charges that he allegedly leaked classified information about Hegseth’s use of a Signal chat, according to several media outlets.

Not so by Carlson’s telling, who has unparalleled access to Trump. “You did make maybe one career mistake by giving on-the-record interviews describing your foreign policy views…that are out of the mainstream among warmongers in Washington,” Carlson said to Caldwell, adding, “Then I read all of a sudden that you are a traitor.”

On Sunday, another conservative podcaster, Clayton Morris, a former Fox News anchor, said pro-Israel voices were “working overtime” to destroy the “anti-war team” that Trump has assembled at the Pentagon.

“We’ve learned here at Redacted that former Israeli Mossad agents are working overtime on social media and behind the scenes trying to discredit Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth,” Morris said, referring to his show. He didn’t name the so-called former agents. 

Trump’s administration is divided between more traditional Republicans like US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security advisor Mike Waltz, and “America First” isolationists like White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Some of Trump’s most vocal defenders in the media, who exercise unprecedented influence in communicating his worldview, are media figures like Carlson and former advisor Steve Bannon.

The firing of Caldwell and two other senior Pentagon officials appears to have energized America First anti-interventionists. Their slamming of the pro-Israel voices and former Mossad agents is unprecedented within the Republican Party. It reflects just how far Trump has taken the party from its traditionally hawkish worldview. 

Pro-Trump media personalities have singled out Merav Ceren, who was nominated to head Iran and Israel at the White House National Security Council, for criticism. 

Ceren was born in Haifa, Israel, and worked in the Israeli Ministry of Defense. On his show, Morris, who co-hosted a Fox morning news show with Hegseth, said that, “Neo-con Mike Waltz has now hired basically a dual citizen and former IDF official to work under him.”

The coverage reflects a growing trend in the US to view Israel with skepticism, which has intensified since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel, which sparked the Israeli invasion of Gaza and a simmering Middle East war. 

According to a Pew Poll published in April, 53 percent of Americans now express an unfavorable opinion of Israel, up from 42 percent in March 2022. The shift in negative sentiment has been notable among young Republicans under 50, who are more likely to tune into podcasts like Morris’s Redacted and Carlson’s show.

Dan Caldwell, a top advisor to Defense Chief Pete Hegseth, was escorted out of the Pentagon after being named in a Department of Defense leaks investigation.

Caldwell didn’t toe the usual line on foreign policy. He openly challenged the Washington consensus on Israel, saying the… pic.twitter.com/O2ZoVSNmXd

— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) April 15, 2025

The criticism comes as Trump tries to square his muscular foreign policy instincts with his pledge to refrain from starting new Middle East wars. On Iran, Trump’s closest envoys have been left contradicting themselves. 

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy who has emerged as his go-to global troubleshooter, suggested earlier this month that Washington would allow Iran to enrich uranium at low levels. After backlash from pro-Israel voices, he flipped, saying that Tehran “must stop and eliminate” its nuclear enrichment program fully.

This week, Secretary Rubio said the US could re-enter a deal that sees Iran keep a civilian nuclear programme – so long as it halts enrichment, and instead ships it in from abroad. 

American and Iranian technical teams met in Oman on Saturday for their third round of talks. Trump told reporters on Monday that the talks are going “very well” and that “a deal is going to be made there”. “We’ll have something without having to start dropping bombs all over the place,” he said.

For some in Chicago, Universal Basic Income came early…

Such was the case when approximately $300,000 was reported stolen last week after bags of cash tumbled from a Brinks Home Security Company truck in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, according to a police complaint, the New York Post and NBC. 

Brinks stated that the truck’s rear door opened by “unknown means,” causing three bags filled with U.S. currency to spill out. 

While driving south on Austin Boulevard last Tuesday, a Brinks driver lost three bags of cash, according to a police complaint. When the driver returned, 50 to 100 people were seen grabbing money and fleeing. Brinks estimated the loss at $300,000. As of Friday, Oak Park officials said no arrests had been made.

We’re sure whoever opened the door was “just looking for bread to feed their family”, to borrow AOC’s parlance…

…and hey – wait til they found out those dollars have already lost 9% of their purchasing power…but we digress.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Congressional Democrats said on April 29 that the Trump administration has blocked about $430 billion in federal funding and that they are chronicling how it is stopping the flow of funds.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees, released a tracker on April 29 to “shine a light on President Trump’s vast, illegal funding freeze and how it is hurting people in every zip code in America.”

“Instead of investing in the American people, President Trump is ignoring our laws and ripping resources away,” said Murray and DeLauro. They said the funding that was cut or frozen by the Trump administration had been approved by Congress.

The powerful Appropriations committees in the House and the Senate, where Republicans have majority control of both chambers, draft the annual funding bills that Congress passes and sends to the president’s desk for his signature to become law.

Since taking office in January, Trump has said that he wants to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government while seeking to terminate various programs that don’t align with his administration’s priorities.

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was created via an executive order in January by the president and is tasked with those efforts. According to its website, DOGE says it has saved an estimated $160 billion, or around $993 per taxpayer.

The White House, which has not responded to the Democrats’ claims, did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment.

In a news release on Tuesday, Democrats highlighted some programs that were slashed under the Trump administration, including $1 billion for HeadStart, which provides early childhood education, health, and nutrition services.

They noted $12 million in canceled funding for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program that gives grants to nonprofits to “prevent housing discrimination.” They also cited nearly $1 billion for the Green and Resilient Retrofit program; $10 million for the Citizen and Integration Grant program; $80 million in grants and contracts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more.

The Trump administration is in court fighting to keep many of the administration’s cuts to federal agencies.

“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” said Musk, a senior presidential adviser and special government employee, in an appearance at the White House in February. “That’s what democracy is all about.”

This past week, after Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla posted lower-than-expected profits and revenue for the first quarter of 2025, Musk told investors on a call that his work with DOGE will drop significantly in the next month or so. In any case, as a special government employee, Musk can work only 130 days for the government before departing.

Musk said he will continue to support the Trump administration and DOGE “to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stop does not come roaring back.”

In a statement released by the White House, Trump said that DOGE is designed to bring “accountability and transparency to federal spending, ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively,” which he said, “has already saved taxpayers billions of dollars.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Not too long ago, we reported that China was stockpiling virtually every form of commodity known to man, from corn to crude and corn… and especially copper: according to a JPMorgan report in early 2022, China held an estimated 84% of all global copper (which naturally begged the question just what was China preparing for).

China currently holds an estimated 84% of global copper, 70% of corn, 51% of wheat, 40% of soybeans, 26% of crude oil and 22% of aluminum inventories: JPM

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 23, 2022

Fast forward just three short years, when commodities trading house Mercuria now predicts that China’s copper stockpiles (located in commercial warehouses) are on track to dwindle to nothing in just a few months – if not weeks – as the market suffers “one of the greatest tightening shocks” in its history on fears of US tariffs.

In some ways similar to the record scramble to park physical gold in US Comex vaults in late 2024 and early 2025, the Geneva-based commodity merchant said that huge US demand – as buyers rushed to get their hands on copper ahead of the potential imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration – was sucking imports of the metal into the country from the rest of the world and setting it up in direct competition with China for supplies.

As a result, Chinese copper stocks have plunged over the past few weeks, and “at the current pace of draws, those Chinese inventories could deplete [to zero] by the middle of June”, Nicholas Snowdon, Mercuria’s head of metals and mining research, told the Financial Times.

As shown below, last week the country’s inventories fell by almost 55,000 tonnes to 116,800 tonnes last week, the biggest weekly drop on record. At this rate of decline, Chinese copper stocks would run out in 2 weeks time.

This “is potentially going to be one of the greatest tightening shocks this market’s ever seen”, Snowdon said. Beijing had a “razor thin inventory buffer” to meet domestic demand, he added.

Ironically, copper prices tumbled after Liberation Day to the lowest level in over a year, only to surge again as copper demand in China proved remarkably resilient despite headwinds from the US-led trade war and the nation’s property crisis, with buyers taking advantage of price slumps to snap up supplies.

“The copper market remains in a tight balance, despite macro-economic difficulties,” Xiao Qianjun, vice general manager of trade business at Jiangxi Copper, a top smelter, told an industry conference this week. After prices fell recently, “spot orders from fabricators exploded,” Xiao said.

At the same time, there is growing speculation Beijing may ramp up stimulus to support the world’s second-largest economy – and especially the copper-intensive housing market – to counter more challenging overseas conditions as Trump imposes punishing tariffs, while also holding out the promise of talks and a deal. 

“Demand in the spot market, from surveys of downstream users or apparent consumption, are all very good,” Angela Bi, head of Asian metals and mineral research at Mercuria said at a conference, held by Shanghai Metals Market in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Indicators “are too good to be true,” Bi added.

Meanwhile, the Yangshan premium – a gauge of import demand – recently hit the highest since 2023. And local yuan-priced futures are steeply backwardated, a bullish pattern that points to near-term tightness.

The problem is that besides soaring domestic Chinese demand, there is also massive demand for physical copper from the US. Mercuria’s head of metals and mining, Kostas Bintas, said the US was for the “first time” competing with China for supplies of copper, which was likely to supercharge prices. The impact of US protectionism on the copper market adds to pressure from Chinese domestic demand and retaliatory levies that could hit vital flows of copper scrap.

Similar to the frenzied record deliveries of physical gold to Comex, metal traders have been importing massive amounts of copper into the US ahead of possible tariffs, which could result from an investigation initiated by US President Donald Trump into alleged “dumping and state sponsored overproduction” of the metal. He has already imposed a 25% levy on aluminium and steel imports.

And just like gold, copper stocks in Comex warehouses in the US have soared this month to their highest level on Friday since 2018.

Helping drive supplies to the US is the same arbitrage observed in late 2024 in the gold market, one created by investors’ fear of tariffs, among others. This has pushed up sharply the price of the metal on New York’s Comex exchange in comparison with prices on London’s London Metal Exchange.

This spread has created an unprecedented arb for traders who buy copper futures contracts in London and sell contracts in New York. The spread stood at nearly $1,200 per tonne on Monday, having risen above $1,600 in March, well above its long-term average of roughly $0.

The arb has been so popular, a potential short squeeze is emerging: as the FT reports, “some traders who had large commitments to sell copper on Comex have been urgently trying to get their hands on additional tonnes into the US to cover those short positions before any new tariffs were introduced, said Bintas.” Which explains the panic scramble of physical out of China and into the US… because if they don’t “get their hands on additional tonnes”, the price of copper could go vertical.

There could be even more chaos: retaliatory tariffs imposed by China on US imports could also hit the crucial copper scrap market, analysts said, adding to the tightness in the Chinese market.

That could worsen if the US imposes a ban on the export of copper scrap, of which it is a big exporter. It shipped 960,000 tonnes in 2024, with almost half going to China, according to commodity pricing agency Fastmarkets.

In January and February, the latest data available, the US exported 142,000 tonnes in total, compared with 149,000 during the same period last year. That number could quickly hit zero if Washington decided to impose an embargo on the commodity to hammer Beijing, which urgently needs copper to develop everything from electrical infrastructure, to AI data centers, to ghost cities.

Sure enough, Andrew Cole, a metals analyst at Fastmarkets, said he expected “a significant plunge in scrap shipments from the US to China in March to May at the very least.

“That’s what will lead to the escalation of supply squeeze in China we have been expecting to develop as the year progresses,” he said.

“Imported copper scrap stockpiles in China have dropped significantly,” said Mercuria’s Bi

However, while Chinese stocks were being depleted, in reality markets would react before stocks reached zero, with higher prices attracting more imports of copper and scrap, said Snowdon.

“That comes at the point of record pull of copper units into the US. As those two forces meet that creates an unprecedented competition for copper,” he said.

Authored by Jeffrey H. Anderson via RealClearPolitics,

Many Americans of Generation X and older will recall the red, white, and blue American Freedom Train that was a centerpiece of America’s glorious Bicentennial celebration. But few know that the Freedom Train, pulled by a steam locomotive and filled with American historical artifacts, was the brainchild of none other than John Wayne. As we fast approach the 250th anniversary of American independence, it’s time to get Wayne’s American Freedom Train back on the tracks as part of the quarter-millennium celebration.

Ross Rowland, who spearheaded the American Freedom Train effort as a young man, recently told me how Wayne came to have the idea. Rowland had run away from home in the 1950s and fortuitously ended up working as a groundskeeper for Wayne. The Duke befriended Rowland and eventually convinced him to return home. Rowland, whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all been railroad men, had success on Wall Street and then commemorated the centennial of the 1869 “golden spike” – the completion of the transcontinental railroad – by having a steam train travel from New York City to Salt Lake City.

Wayne joined Rowland for the final leg of that journey (and arranged to have “True Grit” premiere in Salt Lake City the night before). As they rode in an open-air train car, observing the large crowds as they passed, Rowland says Wayne told him something to the effect of, “You know, Ross, we’ve got America’s 200th birthday coming up. We should do this for that.” And they did. Rowland handled most of the planning and execution, Wayne got support from Bing Crosby and others in Hollywood, and President Nixon agreed to let the train carry artifacts usually housed at the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, and National Archives.

The American Freedom Train was a tremendous success. During the bicentennial period, it traveled to all 48 contiguous states, stopped 138 times, and had an average of more than 50,000 visitors board at each stop. Riding along a moving walkway, visitors saw such artifacts as Paul Revere’s saddlebags, George Washington’s copy of the Constitution, the actual Louisiana Purchase document, Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, Babe Ruth’s bat, John F. Kennedy’s handwritten copy of his inaugural address, and enough more to fill 12 display cars. 

The American Freedom Train, perhaps more than anything else, tied the national and local bicentennial celebrations together. John Warner, who headed up the congressionally created American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, said the train was “the most visible” of the bicentennial offerings and was able to “sew together” various festivities. President Ford said it “brought the story of America to the people.”

During the recent period of peak wokeness, from around 2020 to 2024, it looked like the nation’s 250th anniversary risked becoming more of a condemnation than a celebration of American history. Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris largely ensured that the occasion will be a celebration. Yet there is a very real danger that this milestone anniversary – perhaps the best chance in 50 years to reset how Americans view our nation’s founding – might barely register with the public, making it a massive lost opportunity.

Planning for the quarter millennium is woefully far behind where planning was at this stage for the bicentennial. The official planning entity, created by Congress during the Obama administration, is useless and focused on DEI. President Trump wisely created Task Force 250 to fill this void, but it faces a severe shortage of time. 

Fortunately, the American Freedom Train could hit the tracks in the first half of 2026. Rob Gardner, president of the American Steam Railroad, told me the “sister engine” of a locomotive that pulled the train during the bicentennial is being restored and will be ready for action. All that’s really needed is for President Trump to authorize the use of federal artifacts at the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, and National Archives, consistent with his recent executive order telling the Smithsonian to stop denigrating America and instead “remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage.” Everything else would quickly fall into place.

There’s still a chance to make the quarter millennium anniversary a spectacular and unifying event like the bicentennial was a half-century ago. Reprising the American Freedom Train is a big part of that. Let’s bring back John Wayne’s rolling tribute to America’s finest.

Jeffrey H. Anderson is president of the American Main Street Initiative. He served as director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2017 to 2021.

The Washington Commanders are officially returning to Washington, D.C., after securing a $3.7 billion deal to redevelop the RFK Stadium site, according to DC News Now. Announced Monday, the agreement ends months of negotiations between city leaders and the team’s ownership.

The project will transform the area into a modern stadium complex surrounded by restaurants, hotels, housing, and green space.

“As a native Washingtonian who grew up three blocks from RFK stadium, I’m actually happy that the team is moving back to those hallowed grounds,” said Landover resident Frank Marshall.

The move marks the end of the Commanders’ decades-long stay at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland. Maryland officials, including Gov. Wes Moore (D), had tried to keep the team by proposing a major redevelopment plan but prepared for the possibility of the team’s departure. “Our priority has always been ensuring that the Landover community will see a transformative new development in the years ahead, regardless of the stadium decision,” Moore said.

The report says that an earlier memorandum of understanding ensures the Commanders will oversee demolition of the old stadium and maintain the property until it is redeveloped. “We’re looking at different proposals around mixed-use developments, also we’re looking at other sports venues that could potentially go there,” said Prince George’s County Council Chair Ed Burroughs III.

Moore emphasized that Maryland’s leaders will work closely to guarantee the site is revitalized and the community benefits: “In other words, we will not be left with another RFK Stadium.”

The D.C. Council must still approve the new stadium plan this summer. Construction at the RFK site is expected to begin in late 2026.

Instead of a ticker tape parade if they win the Super Bowl, does this now mean they get a red tape parade?

Authored by Steve Cohen via RealClearDefense,

The Trump administration seems serious about resurrecting a domestic shipbuilding industry and increasing the size of the Navy. Both are admirable objectives, and neither is possible without the other – assuming that Congress could put aside partisan trench warfare long enough to agree on a multi-year Defense appropriation. There is broad agreement that the Navy needs about 85 additional ships to do the jobs the nation expects it to do. This will cost nearly $1 trillion. That is about $40 billion annually for 25 years – about double what Congress has appropriated annually for the last five years.

The President’s Executive Order establishing the Maritime and Industrial Capability Office – colloquially known as the shipbuilding office – within the National Security Council focusses almost exclusively on commercial ships. And while it doesn’t explicitly address what most knowledgeable observers already know – that we have too few yards, antiquated technology at many of them, and inadequate workforce – it makes some very good suggestions, and calls for a comprehensive Maritime Action Plan within 210 days. (That’s seven months for us history majors.)

The Administration’s focus of commercial ships and yards is fine: without a larger, more predictable flow of both commercial and Navy construction, shipbuilders won’t be able to attract or retain a skilled workforce or have the right financial incentives to invest in new technologies and infrastructure. It is well documented that many of the recent Navy cost overruns were the result of frequent construction errors which had to be corrected. Similarly,  with  virtually no demand for building commercial ships domestically, the few remaining shipbuilders have failed to make adequate investments in technology or infrastructure.

No discussion of Navy shipbuilding delays or cost-overruns could survive a smell test without upfront acknowledgement of the Navy’s complicity. Choose a construction program: the Ford, the LCS, the DG-1000, the new Constellation class frigate – and its history is replete with recurring mistakes: from failures to agree on capabilities, or design, or adequately proving new technologies or just changing direction midstream – the Navy’s track record is not impressive.  The 800-pound gorilla in the room, of course, is that there has been very little high-level accountability for such behavior.

Ever an optimist, I’m hoping that the Maritime Action Plan will rub off on the Navy. Whether it can evolve into a mini-Operation Warp Speed is unclear. But I believe the White House needs to take on one more challenge simultaneously, or the commitment to build more ships will be for naught: we must figure out how to man not only the new ships, but our existing fleet.

For years, the Navy has been unable to meet its recruiting goals. The Navy needs approximately 332,300 sailors and officers to man its current fleet of 295 ships. Because people retire and leave the service, the Navy needs 40,600 new recruits annually. And it has missed that target in two out of the last three years. In 2024, it hit its mark partly because it lowered its standards. Moreover, there is a shortfall of about 20,000 operational gaps at sea.  Moreover, if the Navy ever achieved a fleet size of 355 ships, it would need an additional 50,000 sailors.

Staffing quasi-Navy ships is a problem too. The Navy has 61 U.S. Naval Service ships oilers, supply ships, transports, pre-positioned support vessels, two hospital ships – operated by the Military Sealift Command. Although owned by the Navy, they are crewed by civilians. Last summer, thee MSC announced plans to temporarily mothball 17 Navy support ships  because it didn’t have crews to man them.

The Navy is not alone in its recruiting problems: the Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard have all been having trouble meeting their targets. So, while it is encouraging that the Navy has met its most recent recruiting numbers, lowering standards is not a smart nor sustainable strategy, especially for a fleet that continues to get more technologically complex.

Some observers argue that crewed ships and airplanes with actual pilots are a thing of the past; and given the difficulty in attracting young people to serve in the military, we should just go all-in on drones. But a larger number of unmanned aircraft and vessels are already part of mix for the fleet of the future, and that is not going to ameliorate the need for people to join the military.

Just as President Trump tasked his National Security Advisor to deliver a Maritime Action Plan within seven months, he (or Congress) should demand a similar plan on how we are going to get people to serve in the armed forces. Nothing should be off the table, beginning with whether we still want – and can deliver – an all-volunteer military.

One top newspaper editor I recently spoke with said his paper supports the return of the draft. A retired advertising executive complained to me about the inanity of the Navy’s recent ad campaigns – “Can anyone explain what ‘Forged by the Sea’ means?” – but doubted a new tag line would be enough to connect with Gen Z’ers or the younger Gen Alphas who follow. And last week, a freshman at Yale called me to brainstorm about how to get support for mandatory national service. (He had read several articles I had written arguing for a mandatory program of 18 months  where a voluntary option would be voluntary.)

We need to build more ships, and we need to do so smarter, faster, and cheaper. But if we don’t also figure out how to man them, we will be building a ghost fleet.

Steve Cohen is an attorney at Pollock Cohen in New York, and a former member of the Board of Directors of the United States Naval Institute.

US President Donald Trump in a recent interview with conservative show host Glenn Beck expressed doubt whether the White House can actually achieve a comprehensive peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Trump has made Ukraine peace the top foreign policy priority of the early part of his administration, and on the campaign trail and within his first hundred days expressed continual confidence that the US can successfully mediate, but this confidence appears to be fading with each passing week.

In the interview he noted his belief – not for the first time – that Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to making a deal on Ukraine, and is actually easier to deal with than Zelensky.

“When Zelenskyy was in the Oval Office. I was talking about getting it done, and he starts screaming, ‘but we need security’, meaning security, after the fact, I said, ‘security’? I don’t even know if we can get this deal done,” Trump told Beck.

That’s when he expressed rare doubt, saying he’s not sure “if we can get this deal done.”

Referencing Zelensky, Trump continued: “He’s asking for more, just more and more and more. And he doesn’t have the cards. He doesn’t have the cards, so hopefully he’s going to get it done,” Trump said. 

And in reference to Putin, Trump explained, “I think he had the idea of going all the way through” if Trump were not in the Oval Office. “I think he’s [Putin] willing to make a deal. And I would say thus far, he’s been easier to deal with than Zelensky,” Trump added.

Another interesting section of the interview came as follows:

Glenn Beck: Yeah, is he the problem? Is Putin the problem? Or is Europe the problem?

DT: So, look: Russia is a very big military force, and Ukraine isn’t. Without Ukraine — and I’m the one that supplied the Javelins [anti-tank missiles] to them, so, you know, I did a lot for them, because the tanks got stuck in the mud, and then they got Javelined, right? And they always say, “Trump gave the Javelins,” and it was, in that case, “Obama gave sheets.” He gave sheets! They said nothing.

But Biden gave money like nobody’s ever seen — $350 billion! He gave military equipment, gave storage. We had massive storage bins full of ammunition — buildings as long as the eye could see.

And in a separate ‘100-day’ interview published in The Atlantic on Monday, Trump said that without a peace deal Ukraine will soon be crushed:

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he believes Ukraine will be “crushed very shortly,” as it is up against Russia’s “big war machine” that it cannot defeat.

“I think I’m saving that nation. I think I’m doing a great service to Ukraine. I believe that,” he said in an interview with The Atlantic published April 28.

Trump argues it has been easier to deal with Putin than Zelensky pic.twitter.com/TsajLRSaBB

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) April 29, 2025

Trump admin officials have called this week “very critical” for determining whether lasting peace in Ukraine can be forged:

Rubio said that the coming week will be “very critical” for the White House as it makes a “determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in.”

“There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic,” Rubio said, adding: “We’re close, but we’re not close enough.”

“Throughout this process, it’s about determining, do both sides really want peace and how close are they or how far apart they are after 90 days of effort here … that’s what we’re trying to determine this week,” Rubio said of negotiations.

Will the US stop arming Ukraine if no peace deal is reached? Will more sanctions simply be piled onto Moscow? Or perhaps Washington will simply step aside and let Europe lead the way in fueling the proxy war.

Already NATO is said to be making plans to fill the sizeable gap of US leadership in the Western military alliance, anticipating the a US drawdown of support.