National budgets

Vice President Kamala Harris meets with NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Joe Acaba at Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a tour on Aug. 29, 2022.Bill Ingalls / NASAPresident Joe Biden is seeking to increase the budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to $27.2 billion next year, according to a proposed 2024 budget released Thursday.The request represents a 7% increase from NASA's budget in fiscal year 2023, with more funds allocated for the space agency's Artemis lunar program.In addition to $8.1…

The Air Force needs some new bombers. The B-1B Lancer and B-2A Spirit are in the twilight of their careers, and the B-21 Raider, a new stealth bomber produced by Northrop Grumman aims to take over the role as the premier bomber for the United States.'Our adversary's defenses have increased tremendously, since the advent of the B-2," said Thomas DiNanno, adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute. "Chinese and Russian air defense systems, the S-400, the S-500, are highly capable, they're extremely dangerous. And so the…

Winter is on the way, and in war-torn Ukraine the fight against Russia appears far from over.Moscow continues to target Ukrainian power plants and stations. Grain shipments out of Ukraine have been interrupted since Russia paused participation in a United Nations-brokered agreement that allowed a corridor in the Black Sea for cargo ships to transit. And there's the prospect of a tactical nuclear weapon attack or even a meltdown at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."We're seeing this is becoming a real…

The war in Ukraine and rising tensions over Taiwan have caused demand for high-tech, American-made weapons to surge. And with the ongoing supply chain crunch and inflation continuing to rise, military industry watchers question whether the U.S. defense sector can keep up."We can't rely on China to build components for our weapons, which is to some extent, potentially what we have done — whether knowingly or not," said Elbridge Colby, co-founder and principal of The Marathon Initiative.Even with the largest defense budget…

The U.S. military faces a growing recruiting shortfall — one so large that legislators are getting concerned."The Army has to recognize that there's been an evolution in that young population," said U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif, chair of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel. "And if you're going to target that young population for service, you've got to make it appealing to them."Of all the military branches, the U.S. Army is running into the most difficulty this fiscal year in bringing in recruits. The other…

During the 2010s, Sri Lanka had one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia. Things took a 180-degree turn at the end of the decade as the country's economy stumbled. In May 2022, the government defaulted on its debt for the first time in history. As inflation continued to spiral out of control, with a massive shortage of food, fuel and medicine for the country's 22 million people, Sri Lankans took to the street, forcing the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to resign and flee the country. Even though Sri Lanka has a new…

Artillery has quickly become the most important weapon in Ukraine's war with Russia.Ukrainian forces have begun to use newer Western artillery, like the M777 Howitzer, in the battlefield. But a different kind of weapon has had a bigger impact. The American-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, aka HIMARS, has been a major high-tech upgrade for Ukraine's military."The introduction of the HIMARS rocket artillery to Ukraine has been significant," said George Barros, a geospatial analyst at the Institute for the Study…

After two horrific mass shootings in Texas and New York, Congress just passed the most meaningful gun legislation in decades.The Safer Communities Act will expand background checks in some cases, close the so-called boyfriend loophole to prevent domestic abusers from obtaining or keeping firearms and deal out grants to help prevent gun violence and secure schools."Some parts are very promising," said Alex McCourt, a firearms policy expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. "Other parts? Perhaps less…

Outer space is getting crowded, with both commercial endeavors and secretive military projects. And it's going to be up to the newest United States military branch, the Space Force, to protect American interests there.Space launches in the U.S. have been on the rise, and participation by private companies has increased over the last decade. What's more, satellite imaging in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia has underscored the importance of space-based assets, both commercial and military."We've been…