Hegseth narrowly wins confirmation to become US defense secretary

Pete Hegseth. (Reuters)
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Updated 25 January 2025
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Hegseth narrowly wins confirmation to become US defense secretary

  • Only second cabinet secretary ever confirmed in tie-break vote
  • Hegseth promises to bring major changes to military

WASHINGTON: Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Friday to become the next US defense secretary, a major victory for President Donald Trump after fierce opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to his controversial nominee.
Hegseth was confirmed after a 50-50 vote in the Senate, when Vice President JD Vance came to the chamber to break the tie in his role as president of the Senate, after three Republicans joined every Democrat and independent in voting no.
Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and decorated veteran, is promising to bring major changes to the Pentagon. But his leadership will be under intense scrutiny after a bruising confirmation review that raised serious questions about his qualifications, temperament and views about women in combat.
“We have not had a secretary of defense like Hegseth before,” said Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas, Austin, history professor and presidential scholar.
Hegseth is the most divisive candidate to clinch the US military’s top job, a position that has historically gone to candidates with deep experience running large organizations and who enjoy broad bipartisan support.
It was only the second time in history a cabinet nominee needed a tie-break to be confirmed. The first was also a Trump nominee, Betsy DeVos, who became secretary of education in 2017.
The three Republican senators who voted against Hegseth were Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, was the party’s leader in the chamber until this month.
McConnell said Hegseth had failed to demonstrate that he had the ability to effectively manage an organization as large and complex as the military. “Mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough to fill these shoes,” McConnell said in a statement.
Hegseth will lead 1.3 million active-duty service members and the nearly 1 million civilians who work for the US military, which has a nearly $1 trillion annual budget. Hegseth told lawmakers that, up until this point, the largest group he had managed was 100 people and the largest budget was $16 million.
His nomination was rocked by a series of accusations, including one this week by his former sister-in-law, who said he abused his second wife to the extent that she hid in a closet and had a code word to use with friends if she had to be rescued. Hegseth strongly denied the accusations and his wife had previously denied any physical abuse.

TRUMP STAUNCHLY BEHIND PICK
Trump, whose nominees for FBI and intelligence chief are also under Senate scrutiny, stood staunchly by his pick and he put extensive pressure on his fellow Republicans to back the 44-year-old television personality.
Suri said the vote demonstrated the extent of Trump’s power at the start of his second term in office.
“It means certainly that Trump has enormous leverage over the Republican Party and over members of the Senate,” he said.
Ahead of Friday’s vote, Trump had admonished two fellow Republicans, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who voted against Hegseth in a procedural test vote on Thursday.
“I was very surprised that Collins and Murkowski would do that,” Trump told reporters on Friday morning.
But most Senate Republicans fell into line to defend the nominee who they said would restore a “warrior” mentality to the US military.
Hegseth has criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military, and, in his latest book, asked whether the top US general has the job because he is Black. Reuters has previously reported about the possibility mass firing among top brass, something Hegseth repeatedly refused to rule out during his confirmation process.

OPPOSED WOMEN IN COMBAT
For years, Hegseth also strongly opposed women in combat roles but walked back that stance as he courted support for his confirmation, including from military veterans like Republican Senator Joni Ernst.
Ernst was one of the 14 Armed Services Committee Republicans who voted for Hegseth when the committee backed him by 14 to 13, with every Democrat opposing his nomination.
A number of episodes have sparked concern about Hegseth, including a 2017 sexual assault allegation that did not result in charges and which Hegseth denies. Sexual assault is a persistent problem in the US military.
Hegseth has also been accused of excessive drinking and financial mismanagement at veterans’ organizations. He has vowed to abstain from alcohol if confirmed and said he made financial errors but denied wrongdoing.
In a 2021 incident first reported by Reuters, Hegseth was branded an “insider threat” by a fellow member of the Army National Guard over his tattoos. Hegseth noted the incident during the hearing, which led him to be pulled from Guard duty in Washington during Biden’s inauguration.
He takes over as the Trump administration has said that border security and immigration will be a focus for the US military.
On Friday, US military C-17 aircraft began flying detained migrants out of the country following orders from Trump, in the first such involvement by the US military in deportations in recent memory.
The Pentagon has announced plans to send 1,500 active-duty troops to the border in response to Trump’s orders, a number that looks poised to quickly grow. US officials on Friday told Reuters that the military was preparing to send a second wave of troops, likely from the 82nd Airborne.
Little is known about where Hegseth stands on key foreign policy issues like arming Ukraine, how to prepare the US military for a potential conflict with China and whether he would seek to scale back the US military footprint in places like Syria and Iraq.
The nearly party-line confirmation vote was a departure for a position that Republican and Democratic administrations have long sought to ensure was bipartisan.
Former President Joe Biden’s defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, was confirmed by a 93-2 vote in 2021, and Jim Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary in his last administration, was confirmed 98-1 in 2017.
Hegseth’s Republican supporters in the Senate have argued that he has acknowledged personal failings, including infidelities and past drinking, and is the right person to bring the Pentagon’s core mission of winning wars back into focus.
The last nominee for defense secretary who was defeated was former Senator John Tower in 1989. Tower was investigated over claims of drunkenness and inappropriate behavior with women.


South Korean tech giant to display Saudi-tailored AI models at LEAP 2025

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South Korean tech giant to display Saudi-tailored AI models at LEAP 2025

  • Naver is South Korea’s largest search engine and internet portal provider
  • Company is one of few globally with a comprehensive AI value chain

SEOUL: South Korea’s tech giant Naver is going to present special Saudi-tailored artificial intelligence technologies at the LEAP 2025 conference, which will start in Riyadh on Sunday.

Organized by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, LEAP is the largest tech event in the Middle East. This year, the four-day event is expected to draw nearly 700 startups, more than 1,000 expert speakers, 1,800 tech brands and 170,000 visitors.

Naver is among the few companies globally that has a comprehensive AI value chain, spanning data centers, cloud infrastructure and AI technologies. Its LEAP 2025 exhibition is themed “AI for Saudi Arabia, Powered by Naver” and will feature services currently provided in South Korea, with a focus on their potential adaptation for the Kingdom’s market.

These include an AI-powered tutor, an AI-driven electronic medical records service that converts conversations with patients to text-based documentation, and Naver Works, a tool that can summarize, translate, and generate emails.

The Korean company will present the potential localization of these technologies in Saudi Arabia’s education, healthcare, media and labor sectors.

“We aim to present AI models tailored specifically for Saudi Arabia, ensuring that the Kingdom maintains its own sovereign AI capabilities,” Han Dong-geun, Naver’s public relations officer, told Arab News.

“We already have two data centers and have cloud business know-how. And we also have AI experience in the form of LLMs (large language models). And so we want to introduce this value chain at LEAP 2025. AI development needs all three of these components, and we have all these capabilities.”

Naver has consistently emphasized the importance of sovereign AI, warning that the expansion of generative AI — driven primarily by US and Chinese tech companies — could threaten the technological independence of other countries.

The company believes its HyperCLOVA X — a Korean-based LLM, which is a type of AI program that can generate and understand text — is an example of a self-sufficient AI ecosystem that could serve as a model for Saudi Arabia’s own AI development.

“South Korea is the third country in the world to develop its own LLM ... We want to collaborate with Saudi Arabia and share our know-how and experiences to develop a custom AI model that preserves Saudi Arabia’s AI sovereignty,” Han said.

Saudi Arabia is emerging as the key Middle East market for the Korean tech giant, which is accelerating its foray into the region.

In 2023, the company won a $100 million contract to develop a digital twin platform — a software system that creates and manages a virtual replica, or “digital twin,” of a physical asset, process, or system, enabling users to monitor its real-time behavior and simulate various scenarios.

Last year, it also signed a memorandum of understanding with Aramco Digital and the Saudi Data and AI Authority to collaborate on the first Arabic LLM project, and partnered with Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company to advance smart city projects and urban planning.

Naver is South Korea’s largest search engine and internet portal provider. Its business portfolio includes cloud services, AI, e-commerce, fintech, and digital content. The company logged a net income of $1.3 billion in 2024, according to regulatory filings.


Extremist attack kills 10 in northern Mali: sources

Updated 12 min 10 sec ago
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Extremist attack kills 10 in northern Mali: sources

DAKAR: A suspected extremist attack on a convoy escorted by Malian soldiers and Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has killed 10 people, local authorities and a security source said on Saturday.
Friday’s attack took place near the northern city of Gao, they said. Mali has faced serious unrest attributed to extremists since 2012. Its military rulers have broken ties with former colonial ruler France and turned politically and militarily toward Russia.


Rwandan and Congolese leaders to meet over eastern DRC conflict

Updated 08 February 2025
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Rwandan and Congolese leaders to meet over eastern DRC conflict

  • Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC
  • The group took the strategic city of Goma last week and is pushing into the neighboring South Kivu province

BUKAVu, DR Congo: Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi were set to join talks in Tanzania on Saturday as regional leaders convened in a bid to defuse the conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has rapidly seized swathes of territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC in an offensive that has left thousands dead and displaced vast numbers.
The group took the strategic city of Goma last week and is pushing into the neighboring South Kivu province in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in the region.
Kagame arrived for the summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, that brought together the eight countries of the East African Community and 16-member South African Development Community.
However, the Congolese presidency confirmed Friday that Tshisekedi would only attend via video call.
The presidents of Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe were among those present as the summit began.
Since the M23 re-emerged in 2021, peace talks hosted by either Angola and Kenya have failed and multiple ceasefires collapsed.
Rwanda denies military support for the M23 but a UN report said last year it had around 4,000 troops in DRC and profited from smuggling vast amounts of gold and coltan — a mineral vital to phones and laptops — out of the country.
Rwanda accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The summit comes as the M23 advances on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying Congolese troops.
Kavumu is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where panic has set in.
A Bukavu resident said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes on Friday.
“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they said.
UN rights chief Volker Turk warned: “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders.”
Turk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 injured since M23 entered Goma on January 26, and that final tolls were likely much higher.
He also said his team was “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.”
The M23 has already installed its own mayor and local authorities in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.
It has vowed to go all the way to the national capital Kinshasa, even though it lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away across the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.
The DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.
The offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.
Regional foreign ministers gathered on Friday for the first day of the summit in Tanzania ahead of their leaders on Saturday.
Kenyan foreign secretary Musalia Mudavadi said there was a “golden opportunity” to find a solution, calling for the previous peace processes hosted by Angola and Kenya to be merged into one.


Tokyo Governor Koike looks to partnerships with Middle East countries

Updated 08 February 2025
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Tokyo Governor Koike looks to partnerships with Middle East countries

TOKYO: Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is keen to reinforce relationships between Japan’s capital and partner cities in the Middle East following her trip to the region in November when she visited Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Her program in Cairo featured talks with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aati and Cairo Governor Ibrahim Saber, in addition to her attendance at the 12th World Urban Forum on sustainable urbanization where she stated: “I am moving Tokyo forward to a better future.”

Koike has also emphasized the role of startups in urban development. “As we enter a period of major change in the industrial structure, and startups drive global change and growth, it is vital to nurture and cooperate with startups that generate innovation,” she says.

Koike has been promoting SusHi Tech Tokyo, one of Asia’s largest startup conferences, aimed at creating sustainable new value with cutting-edge technology. In May, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will host SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025, which is expected to bring together over 500 startups and investors, as well as at least 50,000 visitors from Japan and abroad, and result in more than 5,000 business negotiations.

“In May, we will hold SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025 to accelerate open innovation with challengers from around the world,” Koike said. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi have signed an agreement on city-to-city cooperation in digital transformation and other practical areas, while Egyptian Communications and Information Minister Amr Talat told Koike that the startup and entrepreneurship sectors stand out as possible areas of cooperation between Egypt and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Koike also met with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and attended a promotion event in the UAE capital by several Tokyo startup companies specializing in sustainable materials, products and devices. The firms included a heatstroke-alarm watch maker and the world’s largest vertical indoor strawberry farm.

The future envisaged by Koike includes greater resilience against natural disasters. The Tokyo Resilience Project prepares Tokyo against increasingly intense and frequent heavy rains due to climate change and other natural disasters.

As part of the project, Tokyo is building huge “underground regulating reservoirs” connected to the sea to prevent flooding in urban areas and rivers from overflowing.

Tokyo is also committed to the goal of achieving zero emissions by 2050. “Tokyo will spearhead the social implementation of clean energy,” she stated.

Tokyo has also been promoting exchanges of high school students with Middle Eastern countries to raise youth awareness towards the creation of a multicultural inclusive society and to cultivate the mindset that encourages students to collaborate with others in solving global challenges.

Since 2022, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education has dispatched 109 students from Tokyo metropolitan high schools to places such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Egypt and Turkey for the purpose of developing global human resources. At the same time, the board has invited high school students from the Middle East for international exchanges.

Another exchange in culture and science is the agreement between the Tokyo Metropolitan Library and the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt to explore their cooperation in the AI-driven digital age.

• This article is based on a report from Noboru Sekiguchi, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Special Advisor to the Governor on International Affairs.


Federal judge blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing sensitive US Treasury Department material

Updated 08 February 2025
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Federal judge blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing sensitive US Treasury Department material

A federal judge early Saturday blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records that contain sensitive personal data such as Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans.
US District Judge Paul Engelmayer issued the order after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued President Donald Trump. The case, filed in federal court in New York City, alleges the Trump administration allowed Musk’s team access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system in violation of federal law.
The payment system handles tax refunds, Social Security benefits, veterans’ benefits and much more, sending out trillions of dollars every year while containing an expansive network of Americans’ personal and financial data.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, was created to discover and eliminate what the Trump administration has deemed to be wasteful government spending.
DOGE’s access to Treasury records, as well as its inspection of various government agencies, has ignited widespread concern among critics over the increasing power of Musk, while supporters have cheered at the idea of reining in bloated government finances.
Musk has made fun of criticism of DOGE on his X social media platform while saying it is saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office filed the lawsuit, said DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s data raises security problems and the possibility for an illegal freeze in federal funds.
“This unelected group, led by the world’s richest man, is not authorized to have this information, and they explicitly sought this unauthorized access to illegally block payments that millions of Americans rely on, payments for health care, child care and other essential programs,” James said in a video message released by her office.
James, a Democrat who has been one of Trump’s chief antagonists, said the president does not have the power to give away American’s private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress.
Also on the lawsuit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
The suit alleges that DOGE’s access to the Treasury records could interfere with funding already appropriated by Congress, which would exceed the Treasury Department’s statutory authority. The case also argues that the DOGE access violates federal administrative law and the US Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.
It also accuses Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of changing the department’s longstanding policy for protecting sensitive personally identifiable information and financial information to allow Musk’s DOGE team access to its payment systems.
“This decision failed to account for legal obligations to protect such data and ignored the privacy expectations of federal fund recipients,” including states, veterans, retirees, and taxpayers, the lawsuit says.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said it’s not clear what DOGE is doing with the information in the Treasury systems.
“This is the largest data breach in American history,” Tong said in a statement. “DOGE is an unlawfully constituted band of renegade tech bros combing through confidential records, sensitive data and critical payment systems. What could go wrong?”
The Treasury Department has said the review is about assessing the integrity of the system and that no changes are being made. According to two people familiar with the process, Musk’s team began its inquiry looking for ways to suspend payments made by the US Agency for International Development, which Trump and Musk are attempting to dismantle. The two people spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Separately, Democratic lawmakers are seeking a Treasury Department investigation of DOGE’s access to the government’s payment system.
Also, labor unions and advocacy groups have sued to block the payments system review over concerns about its legality. A judge in Washington on Thursday temporarily restricted access to two employees with “read only” privileges.