• Trump signs order to protect Qatar from foreign aggression
• US to regard “any armed attack” on Qatar as threat to Washington.
• Order comes after Israeli PM apologises to Qatar’s premier.
  

The United States will regard “any armed attack” on Qatari territory as a threat to Washington and will provide the Gulf Arab state with security guarantees, the White House said, after an Israeli strike on the country last month.

“In light of the continuing threats to the State of Qatar posed by foreign aggression, it is the policy of the United States to guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar against external attack,” said an Executive Order signed by US President Donald Trump.

In the event of an attack on Qatar, the United States will “take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability,” the order said.

The agreement comes after an Israeli strike on the key US regional ally on September 9, targeting officials from the Palestinian group Hamas who were discussing a US peace proposal for the war in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Qatar’s prime minister from the White House on Monday, apologising for strikes and promising not to do so again, the United States said.

Netanyahu was in Washington to meet Trump, and had until then been defiant since ordering the September 9 strikes.

Qatar is a key US ally in the Gulf and hosts the largest US military base in the region at al-Udeid, which also includes a regional headquarters for elements of US Central Command.

WASHINGTON: A deep impasse between Republican President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats has triggered the 15th US government shutdown since 1981.

Here’s a look at what it will take to reopen the government.

What do Republicans want?

Trump’s Republicans control both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and they have already scored big budget wins this year.

The massive legislation called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed in July, boosted spending for defence and immigration enforcement, rolled back spending on green energy and other Democratic priorities, while making major cuts in the Medicaid healthcare programme for low-income and disabled people to help pay for tax cuts focused mainly on the wealthy.

Republicans also have broadly supported the White House’s efforts to claw back money that had already been approved by Congress for foreign aid and public broadcasting, even though that undermines lawmakers’ constitutional authority over spending matters.

They have said they would vote for a continuing resolution that would extend funding at current levels through November 21 to allow more time to negotiate a full-year deal.

Democrats’ demands

As the minority party, Democrats do not have much power. However, Republicans will need at least seven Democratic votes to pass any spending bill out of the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber.

This time, Democrats are using that leverage to push for renewing expanded healthcare subsidies for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Their proposal would make permanent enhanced tax breaks that are otherwise due to expire at the end of the year and make them available to more middle-income households.

If those tax breaks are allowed to expire, health insurance costs will increase dramatically for many of the 24 million Americans who get their coverage through the ACA, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

The impact would be most acute in Republican-controlled states that have not expanded the Medicaid health plan for the poor.

Democrats also want language inserted into any funding bill that would prohibit Trump from unilaterally ignoring their ACA provisions or temporarily withholding funds.

They also want to roll back other restrictions on ACA coverage that were enacted in the “One Big Beautiful Bill”.

Those changes would provide health coverage for seven million Americans by 2035, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, but also increase government healthcare spending by $662 billion over 10 years.

Republicans say they are open to considering a fix for the expiring tax breaks, but say the issue should be handled separately and it was unclear whether their “fix” would differ substantially from the Democrats’.

Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to use the stopgap funding bill to open the gates for government healthcare subsidies for immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Congressional Democrats argue that group of people living in the US is prohibited by law from receiving such help and that their legislation would not change that

WASHINGTON: Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth portrayed the US military Tuesday as too fat, too focused on leftist “woke” ideas, and in need of a major shake-up with an emphasis on being tough “war fighters.”

The speech, to an auditorium of hundreds of generals and admirals hastily called to Virginia from around the world, touted a plan for ending what the former Fox News host claimed had been “decades of decay.”

Striding across a stage in front of a giant American flag that mirrored his pocket square, Hegseth took aim at “stupid rules of engagement” on the battlefield and “fat troops” at home, calling for the military to look back to the standards of 1990 for inspiration.

He said he wanted a military focused on lethality, not racial or gender diversity, with an end to what he said were troops “walking on eggshells” over fear of complaints about behavior.

“This speech is about fixing decades of decay, some of it obvious, some of it hidden,” Hegseth told the hundreds of senior officers assembled for the highly unusual get-together.

“Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way. We became the ´Woke Department.´ But not anymore,” he said.

Hegseth outlined various changes he wants to make as part of his efforts to reshape the military, recapping some previous announcements.

He called for the strict application of grooming standards — which includes a one-year cap on shaving waivers that are disproportionately used by Black troops — as well as for having the current highest male fitness standard apply to all combat forces.

“Standards must be uniform, gender-neutral and high — if not, they´re not standards. They´re just suggestions, suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed,” Hegseth said.

He criticised out-of-shape troops, saying: “It´s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it´s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of Pentagon.”

´Hunt and kill´

Hegseth also said he would institute what he called the “no more walking on eggshells policy,” which entails “no more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complainants, no more smearing reputations.”

He specifically criticised the Pentagon inspector general — which launched an investigation into his use of the civilian messaging app Signal for classified information this year — saying the office has been “weaponised” and will be overhauled.

Hegseth said that strict rules for when force can be used — measures that are aimed at preventing civilians from being killed — are a thing of the past.

“We untie the hands of our war fighters to intimidate, demoralise, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality, and authority for war fighters,” he said.

That approach has recently been demonstrated in the Caribbean, where the US military has killed more than a dozen people in strikes on alleged drug smugglers traveling in boats.

Trump´s administration has yet to publicly release evidence to back its claims that those targeted were smugglers or that they posed an immediate danger to the United States.

Hegseth warned that anyone not agreeing should quit.

“If the words I´m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he told the officers.

Trump´s administration has already purged a number of top officers this year, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff general Charles “CQ” Brown, who was fired without explanation in February, as well as the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard.