North Korea fired around 10 “artillery rockets” on Tuesday afternoon, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), as part of an apparent test.
The test came on the same day as leader Kim Jong Un kicked off the ruling party’s year-end plenum. State media had yet to report on the rocket launch as of midday Wednesday.
This week, three members of the NK News team unpack their time at the APEC summit in Gyeongju and discuss how North Korea featured in the week’s diplomatic drama.
Despite high expectations, U.S. President Donald Trump did not meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his trip to Korea, though Pyongyang still loomed large in many of the summit’s side discussions.
U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung pledged to continue efforts to forge a lasting “peace” with North Korea at a summit on Wednesday, despite low prospects for a Trump meeting with Kim Jong Un during his visit.
At a meeting on the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) events in South Korea, Lee praised Trump’s “wonderful skills as a peacemaker” and offered Seoul’s support for his diplomatic outreach to Pyongyang.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un kicked off construction of a large cemetery and memorial for soldiers who died in Russia’s war against Ukraine on Thursday, according to state media, where he said the two countries’ “blood ties” outmatched participation in the war by the “U.S. and the West.”
Thousands of military construction workers and troops who fought in Russia — including those who have recovered from injuries — attended the ceremony to build the “Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations.”
South Korea has suspended tours of the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom ahead of President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit, amid speculation that he could meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Seoul’s unification ministry said on Monday that it will not conduct any special tours of the Joint Security Area (JSA) “from late October to early November,” a move that appears aimed at clearing the schedule for a potential second Panmunjom meeting between the two leaders.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected combat and reconnaissance drones and called their development a “top priority” to prepare for modern warfare on Thursday, reiterating the need to rapidly integrate artificial intelligence in unmanned systems.
During his visit to the Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex (UATC, 무인항공기술련합체), Kim oversaw performance tests of “strategic and tactical unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and multipurpose drones,” the ruling party daily Rodong Sinmun reported on Friday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected “new” ballistic missile production capabilities on Sunday, according to state media, a few days before he is scheduled to attend a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday and meet the Chinese and Russian leaders.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday that Kim visited a “newly-inaugurated combined missile production line of a major munitions enterprise” and approved three new “long-term” plans for missile production and increased spending on weapons development, signaling that he will head into diplomatic talks with no intention of discussing a reduction in arms production.
North Korea’s economy grew almost 4% in 2024, its fastest pace in eight years, thanks in part to stronger economic cooperation with Russia, South Korea’s central bank said Friday.
According to a report by the Bank of Korea (BOK), North Korea’s real gross domestic product (GDP) reached $26.6 billion (36.97 trillion won) last year, up 3.7% from the year prior.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a new fishing village Tuesday to promote “improving the material life of regional people,” according to state media.
However, the message of the leader prioritizing nationwide rural development contrasted with the lack of state media coverage of major flooding on the other side of the country in recent days, according to NK News analysis of satellite imagery.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected the country’s largest new warship under development on the west coast and called this week’s U.S.-ROK military drills “the clearest expression of a will to provoke a war,” according to state media on Tuesday.
The allies’ annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) joint exercises “constitute a clearly stated position that unhesitatingly shows their intent to be most hostile and confrontational toward the DPRK,” Kim reportedly said at the Nampho Shipyard on Monday.
U.S. Army soldiers watch as fellow Coalition soldiers pass by near the entrance to the International Zone on May 30, 2021 in Baghdad, Iraq.
John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The U.S. military carried out retaliatory air strikes on Monday in Iraq after a one-way drone attack earlier in the day by Iran-aligned militants that left one U.S. service member in critical condition and wounded two other U.S. personnel, officials said.
The back-and-forth clash was the latest demonstration of how the Israel-Hamas war is rippling across the Middle East, creating turmoil that has turned U.S. troops at bases in Iraq and Syria into targets.
Iran-aligned groups in Iraq and Syria oppose Israel’s campaign in Gaza and hold the United States partly responsible.
At President Joe Biden’s direction, the U.S. military carried out the strikes in Iraq at 1:45 GMT, likely killing “a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants” and destroying multiple facilities used by the group, the U.S. military said.
“These strikes are intended to hold accountable those elements directly responsible for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria and degrade their ability to continue attacks. We will always protect our forces,” said General Michael Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, in a statement.
A U.S. base in Iraq’s Erbil that houses U.S. forces came under attack from a one-way drone earlier on Monday, leading to the latest U.S. casualties.
The base has been repeatedly targeted. Reuters reported on another significant drone attack in October on the barracks at the Erbil base on Oct. 26, which penetrated U.S. air defenses but failed to detonate.
The Pentagon did not disclose details about the identity of the service member who was critically wounded or offer more details on the injuries sustained in the attack. It also did not offer details on how this drone appeared to penetrate the base’s air defenses.
“My prayers are with the brave Americans who were injured,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
The White House National Security Council said Biden was briefed on the attack on Monday and ordered the Pentagon to prepare response options against those responsible.
“The President places no higher priority than the protection of American personnel serving in harm’s way. The United States will act at a time and in a manner of our choosing should these attacks continue,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said.
Still, it is unclear if the latest U.S. retaliation will deter future action against U.S. forces, who are deployed in Iraq and Syria to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State militants.
The U.S. military has already come under attack at least 100 times in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.
The U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad also came under mortar fire earlier in December, the first time it had been attacked in more than a year, in a major escalation.
The latest unrest came less than a week after Austin returned from a trip to the Middle East focused on containing efforts by Iran-aligned groups to broaden of the Israel-Hamas war.
That includes setting up a U.S.-led maritime coalition to safeguard Red Sea commerce following a series of drone and missile attacks against commercial vessels by Houthi militants in Yemen.
The Pentagon said on Thursday that more than 20 countries have agreed to participate in the new U.S.-led coalition, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian.
Civilians conduct search and rescue operations and debris removal work at the heavily damaged buildings after Israeli attacks at Al Bureij Refugee Camp as Israeli attacks continue on the 27th day in Gaza City, Gaza on November 02, 2023.
Ashraf Amra | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The United States is facing its fourth major inflection point in history since the early 20th century, and if world leaders get it wrong, the results could be similar to what occurred during the 1930s and ultimately led to World War II. That’s according to Frederick Kempe, CEO of foreign policy think tank Atlantic Council, and it is a fear he says more CEOs of major corporations are focused on today.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently warned, “This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.”
According to Kempe, that’s a feeling shared in many corporate boardrooms.
“Every CEO, all the banks I am talking to, are factoring in geopolitics in their thinking in a way they didn’t five years ago,” Kempe said at the CNBC Global Evolve virtual summit on Thursday.
This shift has not happened suddenly with the outbreak of war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, Kempe said. It has been building over the past five years as a series of exogenous shocks have upended the status quo in markets.
“Putin’s war in Ukraine was a wake-up call,” Kempe said, with more C-suite members building geopolitical analysis into government affairs teams, adding outsourced relationships with consultants, and bringing more risk management into C-suite positions.
“No one is saying it won’t affect business. … Geopolitics is coming into the board room in way it hasn’t in my lifetime,” he said.
He said it is reasonable for CEOs to conclude it might get worse. The first four years of the latest decade have included four exogenous shocks: COVID, a “sloppy” withdrawal by the U.S. government in Afghanistan which weakened the U.S. standing in the world, contributing to Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine and the need to move entire businesses out of Russia, and now the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
“You may not be able to predict the next risk, but if there is one in each of the first four years [of the decade] why wouldn’t there be more in the next six?” Kempe said.
The last three major inflection points in history were World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, and now the tensions and risks are higher than ever. “There’s a more interconnected world than we’ve ever had with technological capability to do more harm more quickly,” he said.
Kempe believes it’s up to the United States to ensure the global system stays intact. He cited the choices made by the U.S. after World War I that led to isolationism, the Holocaust, and millions of deaths, while the nation “got it right” after World War II, he said, resulting in international institutions like the United Nations and NATO.
The growing bilateral relationships between adversaries of the U.S.—China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—raise the risk level.
The autocratic countries are working together more closely than Kempe has ever seen before, and although they may not be plotting against the U.S. specifically, they are aligned in not wanting the U.S. “to run the global system any longer,” he said.
That danger presents a huge risk, as Kempe does not think the U.S. is unified enough yet with its own allies to counteract this collaboration.
Kempe’s greatest anticipated peril is a move by China against Taiwan, which would have devastating impacts to the global economy due to China’s prominence in the world markets. But as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson seeks to separate funding for Israel from Ukraine military aid, and tie Ukraine aid to legislation covering U.S. domestic border security issues, the U.S. needs to keep the war in Ukraine top of mind, Kempe said. If the U.S. does not support Ukraine enough, China may see that as a green light to attack Taiwan, he said.
Kempe advises companies to decentralize China in their supply chains, mitigate against risk, and build up resilience, “because you may not be able to redirect the next risk. … You have to understand risk first and be humble about it.”
Sign up to watch all of CNBC’s Evolve Global Summit exclusively on-demand. Hear how CEOs from Target, FedEx, Kraft Heinz, FanDuel and more are adapting, innovating and transforming in this new era of business. Access now.
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — A handful of centenarian survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor are expected to gather at the scene of the Japanese bombing on Wednesday to commemorate those who perished 81 years ago.
That’s fewer than in recent years, when a dozen or more traveled to Hawaii from across the country to pay their respects at the annual remembrance ceremony.
Part of the decline reflects the dwindling number of survivors as they age. The youngest active-duty military personnel on Dec. 7, 1941, would have been about 17, making them 98 today. Many of those still alive are at least 100.
About 2,400 servicemen were killed in the bombing, which launched the U.S. into World War II. The USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half the death toll.
Robert John Lee recalls being a 20-year-old civilian living at his parent’s home on the naval base where his father ran the water pumping station. The home was just about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) across the harbor from where the USS Arizona was moored on battleship row.
The first explosions before 8 a.m. woke him up, making him think a door was slamming in the wind. He got up to yell for someone to shut the door only to look out the window at Japanese planes dropping torpedo bombs from the sky.
He saw the hull of the USS Arizona turn a deep orange-red after an aerial bomb hit it.
“Within a few seconds, that explosion then came out with huge tongues of flame right straight up over the ship itself — but hundreds of feet up,” Lee said in an interview Monday after a boat tour of the harbor.
He still remembers the hissing sound of the fire.
Sailors jumped into the water to escape their burning ships and swam to the landing near Lee’s house. Many were covered in the thick, heavy oil that coated the harbor. Lee and his mother used Fels-Naptha soap to help wash them. Sailors who were able to boarded small boats that shuttled them back to their vessels.
“Very heroic, I thought,” Lee said of them.
Lee joined the Hawaii Territorial Guard the next day, and later the U.S. Navy. He worked for Pan American World Airways for 30 years after the war.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t have statistics for how many Pearl Harbor survivors are still living. But department data show that of the 16 million who served in World War II, only about 240,000 were alive as of August and some 230 die each day.
There were about 87,000 military personnel on Oahu at the time of the attack, according to a rough estimate compiled by military historian J. Michael Wenger.
The ceremony sponsored by the Navy and the National Park Service will feature a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the minute the attack began, and a missing-man-formation flyover.
Navy and park service officials are due to deliver remarks.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A member of the U.S. Navy who was injured while helping prevent further harm during a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado last weekend said Sunday that he “simply wanted to save the family that I found.”
Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas James made his first public comments on the shooting in a statement issued through Centura Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, where James is recovering from undisclosed injuries suffered during the attack.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said that James was one of two men who helped to stop the shooter who walked into Club Q late on Nov. 19 with multiple firearms, including a semiautomatic rifle, and killed five people. At least 17 others were injured when a drag queen’s birthday celebration turned into a massacre.
James reportedly pushed a rifle out of the shooter’s reach while Army veteran Rich Fierro repeatedly struck the shooter with a handgun the shooter brought into the bar, officials have said.
“If I had my way, I would shield everyone I could from the nonsensical acts of hate in the world, but I am only one person,” James said in a statement. “Thankfully, we are a family and family looks after one another.”
Patrons of Club Q have said the bar offered them a community where they felt celebrated, but that the shooting shook their sense of safety.
The shooting suspect — Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22 — was visibly injured during his initial court appearance on Wednesday. He was ordered held without bail. Formal charges have not been filed and Aldrich has not spoken about the shooting.
“I want to support everyone who has known the pain and loss that have been all too common these past few years,” James said. “My thoughts are with those we lost on Nov. 19, and those who are still recovering from their injuries.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly gay man elected governor in the United States, appeared on two Sunday morning TV shows saying he would support increasing licensing requirements for semiautomatic weapons, improving mental health services and better use of red flag laws that allow courts to remove weapons from people having mental health crises and who may be a danger to themselves and others. He also urged the toning down of anti-LGBTQ political rhetoric.
“We know that when people are saying incendiary things, somebody who’s not well-balanced can hear those things, and think that what they’re doing is heroic when it’s actually a horrific crime that kills innocent people,” Polis said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’
James ended the statement by urging young members of the LGBTQ community to be brave.
“Your family is out there. You are loved and valued,” James said. “So when you come out of the closet, come out swinging.”
———
This story was corrected to fix a quote from James in which he said, “My thoughts are with those we lost on Nov. 19,” not “My thoughts are with those with lost on Nov. 19.”
JERUSALEM — The body of an Israeli teen that was taken by Palestinian militants from a West Bank hospital was returned to his family on Thursday, the Israeli military said.
Relatives of Tiran Fero, 17, said Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin entered the hospital where Fero was seeking treatment after a car crash. They disconnected him from hospital equipment while still alive, according to his father, and removed him from the hospital. The Israeli military said Fero was already dead when he was snatched and that the circumstances of the teenager’s death remained under investigation.
The incident threatened to ratchet up already boiling tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, but the body’s return appeared to defuse that for now.
Fero was from Israel’s Druze Arab minority, members of which serve in the Israeli security forces and also have links to Palestinians.
An Israeli military official said that the return of the body was conducted through the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited autonomy in areas of the West Bank, and that no negotiations were made with the gunmen who held the body. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Akram Rajoub, the Palestinian governor of Jenin, told Israel’s Kan public radio that the kidnapping of Fero’s body was “a big mistake,” and that Palestinian officials made great efforts to secure its release. He extended condolences to Fero’s family and the Druze community.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the kidnapping. Palestinian militants in the past have carried out kidnappings to seek concessions from Israel but the Jenin militants issued no public statement about the act.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz thanked Palestinian officials “who worked tirelessly” for the return of Fero’s body.
“This is a basic, humanitarian measure taken after a horrific incident,” he said.
The incident angered the Druze community, which demanded the body be returned.
Police said Thursday that it was investigating an incident in which three Palestinian laborers were allegedly attacked by residents of the overwhelmingly Druze village of Yarka in the Galilee. Police said officers located the Palestinians after they had been injured, kidnapped and bound.
The police did not say whether the incident was related to the kidnapping of Fero’s body.
More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006.
The fighting has surged since a series of Palestinian attacks in the spring killed 19 people in Israel.
The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Another eight Israelis have been killed in a fresh wave of Palestinian attacks in recent weeks. On Wednesday, twin explosions at two bus stops in Jerusalem killed a teen and wounded at least 18 people.
In a story published Nov. 22, 2022, about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, The Associated Press erroneously reported the rank of U.S. Navy Information Systems Technician Thomas James
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In a story published Nov. 22, 2022, about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, The Associated Press erroneously reported the rank of U.S. Navy Information Systems Technician Thomas James. He is a Petty Officer, Second Class, not an officer.
MANILA, Philippines — The United States is seeking an expansion of its military presence in the Philippines under a 2014 defense pact, U.S. and Philippine officials said, one of the initiatives that will be discussed during Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit that focuses on the defense of its treaty ally in the face of China‘s sweeping territorial claims.
Harris will hold talks with President Ferdinand Jr. and other officials on Monday during a two-day visit that will include a trip to western Palawan province facing the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.
She was expected to reaffirm U.S. commitment to defend the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty in case Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.
“The United States and the Philippines stand together as friends, partners, and allies,” a statement issued by Harris’s aides said. “Now and always, the U.S. commitment to the defense of the Philippines is ironclad.”
A range of U.S. assistance and projects would also be launched by Harris to help the Philippines deal with climate change and looming energy and food shortages.
The Philippines, a former American colony, used to host one of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s, after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.
In 2014, the longtime allies signed the Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows larger numbers of American forces to stay in rotating batches within Philippine military camp, where they could build warehouses, living quarters, joint training facilities and store combat equipment, except nuclear arms. The Philippines could take over those buildings and facilities when the Americans leave.
After the agreement was signed, the Americans launched construction projects in five Philippine camps and areas, including in the country’s south, where U.S counterterrorism forces have helped train and provide intelligence to their Filipino counterparts for years. Many of the projects were delayed by legal issues and other problems, Philippine defense officials said.
Large numbers of American forces stayed in local camps in southern Zamboanga city and outlying provinces at the height of threats posed by Muslim militants, which have eased in recent years. More than 100 U.S. military personnel currently remain in Zamboanga and three southern provinces, a Philippine military official told The Associated Press.
A U.S. official told reporters new areas have been identified and would be developed to expand joint security cooperation and training. He did not provide details, including the type of military facilities, locations and the number of American military personnel to be deployed in those sites, saying the projects would have to be finalized with the Philippines.
Philippine military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro told reporters last week that the U.S. wanted to construct military facilities in five more areas in the northern Philippines.
Two of the new areas proposed by the Americans were in northern Cagayan province, Bacarro said. Cagayan is across a strait from Taiwan and could serve as a crucial outpost in case tensions worsen between China and the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own.
The other proposed sites included the provinces of Palawan and Zambales, he said. They both face the South China Sea and would allow an American military presence nearer the disputed waters to support Filipino forces.
The Philippine Constitution prohibits the presence of foreign troops in the country except when they are covered by treaties or agreements. Foreign forces are also banned from engaging in local combat.
On Tuesday, Harris is scheduled to fly to Palawan to meet fishermen, villagers, officials and the coast guard. Once there, she’ll be the highest-ranking U.S. leader to visit the frontier island at the forefront of the long-seething territorial disputes involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The Philippine coast guard said it would welcome Harris on board one of its biggest patrol ships, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, in Palawan, where she is scheduled to deliver a speech, according to coast guard spokesperson Commodore Armand Balilo.
Harris will underscore the importance of international law, unimpeded commerce and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, according to the U.S. official, who said that she would affirm a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal that invalidated China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds.
China has rejected the decision by an arbitration tribunal set up in The Hague under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea after the Philippine government complained in 2013 about China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters. Beijing did not participate in the arbitration.
NORFOLK, Va. — Phillip Slaughter left the Army after 18 years and found a job similar to one he had in uniform: behind the wheel of a truck. Instead of towing food and bullets through war zones, he hauled packages for FedEx.
It wasn’t what he wanted to do. The work aggravated his post-traumatic stress disorder. It would be three years and several jobs before he landed his ideal position as a sourcing recruiter for a tech company.
“I think it’s the first job that I’ve worked 10 consecutive months without quitting,” said Slaughter, 41, who lives in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Slaughter is a U.S. military veteran who found a job he loves at a time when the nation is experiencing some of its lowest monthly veteran unemployment on record. But the rate — 2.7% in October — can mask the difficulty of a transition that sometimes takes years of working unfulfilling jobs, while forging a new identity and a new purpose beyond serving one’s country.
“Even though (veteran unemployment) is low, I’m interested to see a survey on how many people are happy in the position they’re in,” said Slaughter, who also runs his own consulting firm for fellow vets.
Veterans account for about 7% of the civilian population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their jobless rate can help gauge the nation’s efforts to assist former service members, experts say. It can also reflect on the military and how it prepares departing personnel. High veteran unemployment is not good for recruiting.
For this Veterans Day, a handful of former service members talked about their experiences looking for work at a time when the veteran jobless rate is so low. For some, it was easy — but others have struggled.
Pierson Gest, a former Army infantryman, landed his first post-military job in August as a hydropower system designer in California.
Gest joined up during the Great Recession, knowing he’d eventually go to school on the GI Bill. Starting college in 2017 was tough at first as he developed study habits. But he got the hang of it, earning his engineering degree in June.
“I was lucky enough to negotiate a six-figure salary,” said Gest, 37, who lives outside San Francisco. “And I definitely used and leveraged my experience in the Army to negotiate that wage on top of my college degree.”
Across the country in Florida, Thomas Holmes is still searching for his ideal job.
Holmes, 46, left the Air Force in 2012 after 17 years, during which he maintained parachute systems for various types of aircraft, from F-15 fighter jets to U-2 spy planes.
He said the one full-time job he’s worked, in the billing and claims department of a warehouse office, was toxic. He quit after about 18 months.
Holmes used the GI Bill to earn three degrees, including a master’s in sports management. He found part-time work in the industry, but rising gas prices and the lure of more consistent hours prompted him to work at a nearby UPS store.
“I’ve applied for many jobs — county jobs, state jobs, all sorts of things,” said Holmes, who lives outside Tampa. “And then all I get is: ‘Well, thanks for your service.’”
Jayla Hair’s transition from Navy to civilian paralegal wasn’t easy, despite a bachelor’s degree in the field and skills that would seem transferable.
Hair, 30, said she applied to about 300 jobs over eight months. After seeking help from a Navy program and friends, Hair overhauled her resume and job interviews eventually came her way. But potential employers cited her lack of experience with state laws and civilian courts.
Hair took temporary jobs in the legal field and recently landed a full-time position as a paralegal for a Fortune 500 company in the Chicago area.
“Just having my military experience was not enough,” said Hair, who plans to pursue a law degree in the future. “If it wasn’t for me having these temporary jobs to build my civilian resume, I don’t know where I’d be right now.”
Hair landed her job at a time when veteran unemployment has been mostly dropping. The annual veteran jobless rate fell steadily from 8.7% in 2010 to 3.1% in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, after a spike fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the annual rate was 4.4%. But the seasonally adjusted monthly percentage in March was 2.4, hailed by President Joe Biden as tied for the lowest rate on record. August also hit that mark.
The tight labor market and demand for workers after the coronavirus pandemic is likely one factor for the low veteran jobless rates, said Jeffrey B. Wenger, a senior policy researcher at the Rand Corp. But so are significant efforts in recent years by the U.S. military, Department of Veterans Affairs and veteran service organizations to provide assistance to outgoing service members.
Training such as resume-writing is now mandatory and American companies have launched initiatives to hire hundreds of thousands of vets.
Many of those undertakings grew from the Great Recession and the abundance of stressed-out service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, which “brought the veteran employment crisis to a head,” Wenger said.
“And over the last 10 to 15 years, people have been putting in more and more resources and have become more and more dedicated to fixing that problem,” Wenger said.
Among them is Transition Overwatch, a firm that runs career apprenticeship programs across the country. CEO Sean Ofeldt said the company zeroes in on what active service members want to do as civilians, not what they’re doing or the skills they’ve learned in the military.
“A lot of military members don’t want to keep doing what they did,” said Ofeldt, a former Navy SEAL. “We train them up while they’re still on active duty and then launch them into an actual career with all the support they need for that first 12 months.”
But the formula for supporting veterans has to encompass more than just employment. It needs to focus on social challenges as well, said Karl Hamner, a University of Alabama education professor.
Veterans can feel isolated after losing their tribe of fellow service members. Hamner said new data indicates that loss can be especially acute for women because they formed strong bonds with one another as they navigated a male-dominated military.
In a soon-to-be released national survey of 4,700 female veterans conducted by Hamner and his colleagues, 70% said adjusting to civilian life was difficult; 71% said they needed more time to figure out what they wanted to do.
“They had to prove themselves in a valued, highly regarded profession,” Hamner said. “And now they’re back to trying to figure out what it means to be a civilian woman and deal with all the standard discriminatory stuff.”
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s defense minister said on Wednesday he had told the nation’s military to review secrecy safeguards in response to concerns that Beijing was recruiting pilots to train the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
Defense Minister Richard Marles ordered the review after asking the Defense Department last month to investigate reports that China had approached former Australian military personnel to become trainers.
“In the information that has now been provided to me by Defense, there are enough concerns in my mind that I have asked Defense to engage in a detailed examination about the policies and procedures that apply to our former Defense personnel, and particularly those who come into possession of our nation’s secrets,” Marles told reporters.
Marles declined to say whether any Australian had provided military training to the Chinese.
He said a joint police-intelligence service task force was investigating “a number of cases” among former service personnel.
“What we are focused on right now is making sure that we do examine the policies and the procedures that are currently in place in respect of our former Defense personnel to make sure they are adequate,” Marles said. “And if they are not, and if there are weaknesses in that system, then we are absolutely committed to fixing them.”
Australia‘s allies Britain and Canada share Australia’s concerns that China is attempting to poach military expertise.
Britain’s Defense Ministry last month issued an intelligence alert warning former and current military pilots against Chinese headhunting programs aimed at recruiting them.
Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said authorities will make it a legal offense for pilots to continue with such training activities.
Sky News and the BBC reported that about 30 British former military pilots are currently in China training PLA pilots. The reports said the pilots are paid annual salaries of 240,000 pounds ($272,000) for the training.
Canada’s Department of National Defense was also investigating its own former service personnel, noting they remained bound by secrecy commitments after they leave the Canadian Armed Forces.
The Australian Defense Department will report to the minister by Dec. 14.
Neil James, chief executive of the Australian Defense Association think tank, said Australian laws on on treason, treachery and secrecy protection were convoluted and depended on circumstances.
“For example, it’s pretty hard to charge anyone with treason outside wartime,” James told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
James said there were no circumstances in which former Australian military personnel should be working with the Chinese.
“Most people in the Defense Force would be disgusted if people are actually doing this, because you’re potentially training people to kill Australians in the future,” James said. “That’s just not on. It’s a moral obligation and a professional one as much as it’s a legal one.”
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops moved large numbers of sick and wounded comrades from hospitals in southern Ukraine‘s Kherson region, Ukrainian military officials reported Saturday as their forces fought to retake a province overrun by invading soldiers early in the war.
Kremlin-installed authorities in the mostly Russian-occupied region previously urged civilians to leave the city of Kherson, the region’s capital. The Moscow-appointed authorities in Kherson also were reported this week to have joined tens of thousands of residents who fled to other Russia-held areas ahead of an expected Ukrainian advance.
“The so-called evacuation of invaders from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, including from medical institutions, continues,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a morning update. “All equipment and medicines are being removed from Kherson hospitals.”
The military’s claims could not be independently verified. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a nightly video address Friday that the Russians were “dismantling the entire health care system” in Kherson and other occupied areas.
“The occupiers have decided to close medical institutions in the cities, take away equipment, ambulances. just everything,” Zelenskyy said. “They put pressure on the doctors who still remained in the occupied areas for them to move to the territory of Russia.”
Kherson is one of four regions of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and where he subsequently declared martial law. The others are Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.
Elsewhere on Saturday, at least two Russian ships suffered damage in a major port in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Ukraine and Russia offered different versions of what happened and who was to blame.
The Russian Defense Ministry said two ships received “minor damage” during an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on navy and civilian vessels docked in Sevastopol at 4:20 a.m. The city, Crimea’s largest, hosts the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The ministry said 16 drones were used in the attack and that Russian forces had “repelled” them. Earlier Saturday, the Kremlin-installed governor of Sevastopol reported an “ongoing” drone attack.
An adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry gave a conflicting account, claiming that that “careless handling of explosives” had caused blasts on four warships in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram that the vessels included a frigate, a landing ship and a ship that carried cruise missiles used in a deadly July attack on a western Ukrainian city.
Neither side’s claim could be immediately verified.
As Kyiv’s forces sought gains in the south, Russia kept up shelling and missile attacks in the country’s east, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday. Three civilians died in the last day and eight more were wounded in the Donetsk region, which has again become a front-line hotspot as Russian soldiers try to capture the city of Bakhmut.
Western analysts have long identified Bakhmut as an important target in Russia’s stalled eastern offensive. Capturing Bakhmut would pave the way for Moscow’s forces to threaten Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest Ukrainian-held cities remaining in the long-embattled Donbas region.
Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province make up the Donbas. Pro-Russia separatists have controlled parts of both provinces since 2014.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, where Russia’s troops retreated last month and Ukrainian troops clawed back broad swaths of territory, Russian shelling overnight wounded three civilians, according to the region’s Ukrainian governor.
Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram said that two women in their 40s and a 60-year-old man were wounded near Kupiansk, a town that served as a resupply hub for Russian forces in the region before Ukrainian troops regained control.
In neighboring Luhansk province, Gov. Serhii Haidai said late Friday that Ukrainian forces have shelled the entire length of the Kreminna-Svatove highway, where the Russians set up their main line of defense after their withdrawal from the Kharkiv region.
A Russian shelling attack Saturday also hit “critical infrastructure” in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian governor of the illegally annexed province said. Around a quarter of the region, including the local capital, also called Zaporizhzhia, remains under Ukrainian military control.
Writing on Telegram, Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the damage was being assessed. He did not specify what was struck and did not mention any casualties.
Political pressure for efforts to negotiate an end to the war are building in parts of western Europe. Zelenskyy had said his country won’t negotiate with Russia as long as Moscow insists the annexed regions are Russian territory.
In remarks to Yale University students on Friday, the Ukrainian leader reiterated his unwillingness to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government because of its “disrespect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
In his nightly remarks, the Ukrainian leader noted that about 4 million Ukrainians live in areas subject to rolling blackouts following weeks of Russia targeting power plants and other infrastructure. He warned the emergency blackouts were possible elsewhere in Ukraine.
———
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine