Afghan interpreters and others who helped the Canadian Armed Forces mission in Afghanistan “absolutely have the right to come to Canada,” says Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, but bureaucratic issues evidently persist. She was responding to criticism that the system proposed effectively made it difficult for prospective refugees, notably a 72-hour window for submitting paperwork, but the government now says that was a mistake and no applications would be rejected.

A three-day deadline for Afghans who assisted Canadian forces to be brought Canada, coupled with complicated English-only online applications forms, are frustrating the humanitarian program. “The plan sounded good,” a CAF veteran said July 28. “As of this morning . . . the deadlines are completely unreasonable.”

President Joe Biden says U.S. forces will end their combat mission in Iraq by the end of this year but will continue to train and advise the Iraqi military. His announcement followed a meeting at the White House with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

A woman with dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship who is believed to have been involved with the Islamic State is being permitted to return to New Zealand with her two children after Australia refused to take her back. She had left for Syria on an Australian passport in 2014 and was caught entering Turkey from Syria with her children. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the decision was not “taken lightly” and she accused the Australian government of “abdicating its responsibilities.”

Frank Kendall, former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, has been confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of the Air Force. The engineer/lawyer said during confirmation hearings that recruitment and retention are among his top priorities for the Air Force and the Space Force.

Last year's fatal crash of a Sikorsky CH-148 Canadian helicopter off Greece was caused by a control software which experts say must be fixed without delay. “It's very likely that another fatality is going to happen if they don't address this,” says a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot who reviewed the crash reports. Another says that if he was in the Canadian military, “I would stop everyone from using autopilot until I got this problem fixed.” A professor of industrial engineering at the University of Toronto agrees it is “a present safety issue that the Defence Department needs to immediately address with Sikorsky.”

An 84-yerold German war veteran is at the heart of a legal fight over his ownership of a WWII Panther tank, anti-aircraft gun and torpedo six years after they were removed from his house. Prosecutors have been pushing for a stiff fine and a suspended sentence for violating weapons control laws even though his lawyers argue that the equipment was no longer functional.

Mary Simon, an Inuk from northern Quebec, was sworn in as Canada’s 30th Governor General, the first indigenous vice-regal appointee. In a ceremony held in the Senate chamber, she pledged to use her role to work against climate change, advocate for mental health and work toward reconciliation. “I have heard from Canadians who describe a renewed sense of possibility for our country and hope that I can bring people together," she said.

Up to $100 million from an emergency fund to meet “unexpected urgent” needs of Afghan refugees, including special immigration visas, was approved July 23 by U.S. President Joe Biden. He also has authorized the release of $200 million in services and articles from government agencies’ inventories as the U.S. prepares to prevent thousands of Afghan allies and their families from being captured and potentially executed by the Taliban.

The U.S. House of Representatives have agreed nearly unanimously on the need to expedite visas for Afghan interpreters who fear Taliban reprisals for having worked with the U.S. military. The first group is expected to leave Kabul by the end of this week.

The government announced today that “special immigration measures” to rescue Afghans who helped during Canada’s combat mission as well as those still assisting diplomatic staff even as the Taliban continue to gain ground. “Lives hang in the balance,” Citizenship and Immigration Minister Marco Mendocino said in a news conference with Defence Minister Sajjan and Foreign Affairs Minister Garneau, explaining that the initiative is not limited to interpreters. “Canada will do right by those who did right by us.”

Western allies’ recent Sea Breeze exercise in the Black Sea encountered what has been described as an increasingly intense and aggressive Russian presence. Some NATO member ships were threatened and Russia also effectively closed off the western part of the sea. “There is a tactical risk,” explained U.S. Navy Adm Robert P. Burke, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Force Command Naples. “That tactical risk could turn into a strategic issue and that’s a big concern.”

MGen Dany Fortin, the highly-esteemed officer who ran the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout until he was abruptly fired in mid-May, says his three-decade career has been “irreparably tarnished” by political interests. In announcing his firing, the government simply announced that a complaint about sexual misconduct in the early 1980s was under investigation. Details of the allegation have yet to be made public.

The U.S. State Department is preparing to move thousands of Afghans who provided interpretation and other services to other countries, along with their families, in anticipation of Taliban reprisals. as the Taliban poses a growing U.S. troops are being moved out with their families. Operation Allies Refuge will include 750 to be transported to a base in Virginia next week while others will relocate temporarily to a third country.

Nearly 60 years after early work with “potable” nuclear reactors at various military stations, the U.S. has resurrected the concept as a way of generating carbon-free power at short notice. However, the record to date hasn’t been impressive and there are concerns at senior levels about their vulnerability to terrorists and the potential for a lack of appropriate oversight.

T-72 main battle tanks from a Russian base in Tajikistan have been deployed to a practice range less than 24 kilometres from its neighbour’s border with Afghanistan. The action follows major Taliban gains in Afghanistan and Russia is concerned about a influx of refugees into its Central Asia allies.

A prototype of a single-engine stealth fighter was unveiled July 20 at an air show just outside Moscow. Striking similar in general appearance to the Lockheed Martin F-35, the Sukhoi is expected to make its maiden flight in 2023 with a view to deliveries starting in 2026.

With the Taliban resurgency gaining ground daily in Afghanistan, local interpreters who helped Canadian troops during their combat mission have yet to hear from the federal government on how it plans to extract them. ““I’m under threat in Afghanistan, they’re not going to let me and my family leave,” says a former interpreter, appealing to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “As soon as possible, please take us out of this country, it’s so very horrible and very dangerous.”

Canada has joined the U.S. and other countries in blaming China for a massive hack of the Microsoft Exchange email server software and accusing it of working with criminal hackers in ransomware attacks and other cyber operations. “This activity put several thousand Canadian entities at risk, a risk that persists in some cases even when patches from Microsoft have been applied,” the government said in a statement.

The U.S. has been asked by Turkish Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for financial, logistical and diplomatic support for Turkish troops to operate Kabul airport once other foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan. The Taliban has warned Turkey against the plan.

Neither Lockheed Martin nor the F-35 Joint Program Office in the U.S. Department of Defense are prepared to elaborate but the latter says that as the fighter program inches through operational testing, the number of critical technical deficiencies has falled to seven from 11 since January. A JPO official says that while the deficiencies, each of which is “critical to mission readiness”, are not classified, “details . . . are not publicly releasable because the information is operationally sensitive, and its release could be detrimental to U.S. and international war fighters operating F-35s.”

The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says the outcome of a war in Europe, as well as NATO’s survival, will depend on Joint Force Command Norfolk, the alliance’s first operation HQ in North America. “The world is entering a period of potential instability, as some nations . . . and clearly terrorist groups and perhaps some rogue actors are seeking to undermine and challenge the existing international order, Gen Mark Milley said. “They seek to weaken the system of cooperation and collective security.”

The Royal Canadian Navy transferred command of the Combined Maritime Forces’ Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150) to the Royal New Zealand Navy during a change of command ceremony held on 15 July 2021 at the U.S. Naval Base, Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

Another milestone was reached today in the arrival of the RCN’s future fleet with the delivery of the second Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS), the future HMCS Margaret Brooke. She will remain docked at the Halifax Dockyard while post-acceptance work and final ship preparation work are completed. A naming ceremony for the ship is expected to be held later in 2021, with a formal commissioning ceremony expected in fall 2022.

In an unprecedented development, the latest Japanese annual defence policy paper explicitly cites Taiwan’s stability as “important for Japan’s security” and urges officials to “pay close attention to the situation with a sense of crisis.” It also notes that the “overall military balance between China and Taiwan is tilting in China’s favour, and the gap appears to be growing year by year.”

The U.S. business community says partisan squabbling which is frustrating efforts to update immigration laws are contributing to a worrisome brain-drain. They aired their concerns at a congressional hearing, focusing mainly on the loss high-technology workers to Canada. “We're stuck in a time warp,” California Republican Representative Zoe Logren agreed. “It's like driving around with a 30-year-old paper map while others easily navigate the road with turn-by-turn directions from their smartphones.”

U.S. COVID-19 infection rates have more than doubled in the past two weeks with the advent of the Delta variant. Coupled with stalled vaccination rates, it could justify keeping the Canadian border closed to most visitors after July 21 despite pressure from several business sectors. With a week to go, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has reiterated that the government remains “cautious” about reopening the border.

Canada's Department of National Defence is taking steps to "green" defence infrastructure and reduce its carbon footprint while providing military personnel with sustainable and efficient facilities in which to work and train.

U.S. has reaffirmed its 1951 commitment to defend the Philippines’ armed forces, public vessels or aircraft assets against any third-party attacks. The announcement comes as tensions remain high in the South China Sea region where China has expanded militarily in the face of counterclaims by several other nations.

President Joe Biden has signed off on an executive order his administration says is aimed at “promoting competition” in the U.S. economy by curbing “the trend of corporate consolidation.” It calls on the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department to enforce antitrust law “vigorously” and for agencies to “challenge prior bad mergers.”

Twenty-two members of an Afghan special forces unit who ran out of ammunition during a firefight with the Taliban were gunned down by the insurgents immediately after surrendering. The killings occurred June 16 but have only recently surfaced in a video.

University researchers seeking federal government grants are now required to complete a security risk assessment and work with national security agencies and the federal government in a bid to prevent foreign interests from acquiring Canadian intellectual property. The decision, initially applicable to the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council but expected to be broadened, was announced today by Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

Canadian Armed Forces veterans who fought in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province for the better part of five years are reacting to the resurgence of the Taliban last with shock, numbness and resignation.

The Department of National Defence expects further delays and more cost increases in its Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships program. DND documents indicate the sixth AOPS is due for July 2025 delivery, 16 months later than original expected. In addition, “a significant portion of contingency funds will be required.”