INTERNACIONAL
UK defense shortfalls highlighted as Britain avoids Iran offensive role amid Trump criticism
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LONDON: The United Kingdom announced Tuesday it will be deploying military assets «as part of a future defensive mission to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.»
While the move can be seen as a positive step in repairing relations with the U.S., Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reluctance to join the U.S. in «Operation Epic Fury» against Iran has still ruffled feathers in Washington — most notably those of President Donald Trump.
Trump has dismissed Starmer as «no Churchill.» In a recent interview with Sky News, the president further complained about the lack of British alignment: «When we asked them for help, they were not there. When we needed them, they were not there… And they still aren’t there.»
TRUMP SLAMS STARMER AS ‘NOT WINSTON CHURCHILL’ FOR REFUSAL TO BACK IRAN STRIKES
British soldiers take part in the Swift Response 22 military exercise at the Krivolak Military Training Center in Negotino, North Macedonia, on May 12, 2022. The exercise involved approximately 4,600 soldiers from North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Greece, Italy, France, the UK and the US to demonstrate NATO forces’ ability to deploy globally and cooperate fully. (Robert Atanasovski/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump also took aim at the British Navy’s readiness in March, ridiculing the fleet during a White House meeting.
«We had the U.K. say that, ‘We’ll send’— this is three weeks ago — ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers,’ which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way,» Trump said, according to Sky News. «They’re toys compared to what we have.»
Two recent reports by a leading military expert and a parliamentary committee may, in part, explain why the U.K. didn’t join the war in an offensive measure.
In a report titled, «Iran War Delivers a Tough Lesson in Hard Power to the U.K.,» Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), wrote, «The outbreak of a new war in the Middle East has led to questions about the U.K.’s relevance in international affairs. Alongside debates about legality and politics, there are some hard truths about military power and the reality of the readiness of the U.K.’s armed forces.»
FILE: Soldiers in action as the British Army demonstrate the latest and future technology used on operations across the globe on Salisbury plain training area on October 29, 2019 in Salisbury, England. (Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
While the report was written with the war still raging on, Savill stated, «Pressure is growing for the deployment of more U.K. forces to the region and direct involvement in strikes, but the government will need to answer difficult questions about prioritization and the effect that it might be trying to achieve. The consequence is that as much as intent and policy drive U.K. involvement, the practical realities will constrain what the U.K. can do.»
Savill added, «On the defensive side, the U.K. has not been idle… [U.K. assets] which also appear to have included some counter-drone units – have been involved in downing Iranian drones while defending Jordan and Iraq.»
UK DEPLOYING WARSHIP, HELICOPTERS TO CYPRUS AFTER DRONE STRIKE
President Donald Trump delivers remarks as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer applaud following the signing of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Oct. 13, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
Savill wrote that «The challenge for the U.K. is that in the past few years, the commitments and visible presence of U.K. Armed Forces in the region have been shrinking, as a result of the pressure on the military, and a conscious decision to prioritize elsewhere, most recently in the ‘NATO First’ approach of the Strategic Defense Review of 2025.»
While the Starmer government has committed to increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, experts warn that this investment may be too late to restore the U.K.’s ability to project power globally in the near term.
John Hemmings, director of the National Security Center at Henry Jackson, told Fox News, «The U.K.’s military capabilities have been systematically underfunded over the past 15 years, with the Spending Review and cuts starting in 2009 and 2010 under Prime Minister David Cameron. The Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) at the time stated that the world was headed in a much more dangerous state, but the fiscal devastation of the 2008 Financial Crisis pushed the Government into a series of cuts that were intended to be short-term. Instead, the Cameron Government sent the U.K.’s armed services into a spiral of terminal decline that has lasted until this day,» he said.
TRUMP PRAISED FOR GETTING NATO ALLIES TO BOLSTER DEFENSE SPENDING: ‘REALLY STAGGERING’
The Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon is moored in the Royal Navy Dockyard in Portsmouth, England, on Oct. 28, 2024. Britain announced on May 12, 2026 that it will deploy autonomous mine hunting equipment, counter drone systems, along with Typhoon jets and HMS Dragon as part of a future defensive mission to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Hemmings added, «Consider the Royal Navy, the U.K.’s premier service and source of great power reach; only 25 out of 63 commissioned vessels are actual fighting ships. This force size is impossible to service Britain’s overseas responsibilities and has seen cuts of 50% in only 30 years. In 1996, there were 22 frigates, 17 submarines, 15 destroyers, and 3 aircraft carriers. Today’s First Sea Lord must attempt to carry out the same duties with seven frigates, 10 submarines, six destroyers, two aircraft carriers. In addition, the U.K. underfunded new capabilities like domestic air and missile defenses and advanced command and control systems.»
A U.S. Navy ship launches Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles in support of Operation Epic Fury. (U.S. Central Command Public Affairs)
A second report released last month, by the House of Lords International Relations and Defense Committee titled: ‘Adjusting to new realities: rebalancing the U.K.-U.S. partnership,’ presents several key recommendations where it warned of the over-dependence on the U.S. «Although the U.K. has benefited from closely collaborating with the U.S. on defense, this has fostered a dependency culture leading to a decline in U.K. capabilities and loss of U.K. credibility in Washington. The Government should provide a clear and costed pathway to achieving the commitment to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.»
While the Ministry of Defense did not respond to several requests for comment over the state of forces, Fox News Digital recently reported that the U.K. government said it is reversing an attrition rate in the military, stating that total armed forces strength stood at 182,050 personnel as of Jan. 1, 2026, including 136,960 regular troops, an increase from the previous year.
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The government has also pledged what it calls the largest sustained rise in defense spending since the Cold War, with military spending set to reach 2.6% of GDP by 2027, backed by an additional £5 billion (approximately $6.6 billion) this financial year and £270 billion (nearly $360 billion) in defense investment over the course of the current parliament. Britain has also said it aims to raise defense spending to 3% of GDP by the end of the next parliament.
Analysts say while some in the Trump administration see the U.K.’s absence as a betrayal of the special relationship, others may say it is a tough lesson in the limitations of a mid-sized power that has tried to maintain a global footprint on a shrinking budget.
united kingdom, war with iran, nato, spending, military, donald trump
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Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio, is facing backlash from Republican rival Vivek Ramaswamy after claiming COVID-19 mortality rates had been as high as 50% in the early days of the 2020 pandemic.
Acton highlighted the figure as evidence of her effective leadership as director of the Ohio Department of Health on a podcast appearance in September.
«In those early days, the mortality rate was 50%. I started with that in March. By June, when we reopened, it was because we took swift, decisive action. The mortality rate had gone down to 5%. We learned how to save lives,» Acton said.
ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT PRO-MASK MANDATE STUDIES DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC WAS A MISLEADING FAILURE
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton speaks at a primary election night campaign event after winning the party’s nomination for governor in Columbus, Ohio, May 5, 2026. (Jay LaPrete/AP Photo)
Acton’s retelling of the pandemic’s lethality comes as she defends her record as health director and amid an uphill bid to become the next governor of the Buckeye State.
COVID-19’s mortality rate was well below the 50% Acton described, resulting in 275,000 deaths nationwide in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Of patients who contracted the virus, the death rate was just 15.9% when adjusted for age. And when filtered further for when COVID was the cause of death, that figure fell further to 11.3%.
When asked about the figure, Acton’s office said she had been referring to death rates in hospitals.
She also bashed Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of Roivant Sciences, a biotech pharmaceutical company that helped produce COVID treatments.
«While Dr. Acton was working hand in hand with Governor DeWine to keep Ohioans safe, Vivek Ramaswamy was calling for mandatory COVID-19 testing, making more than $2 billion off of the COVID vaccine and recommending segregating Ohioans based on biomarker status,» Addie Bullock, a spokesperson for Acton’s campaign, said.
ANTHONY FAUCI BLAMES AMERICANS FOR NOT HITTING HIS COVID VACCINE TARGET WHILE IGNORING OTHER COUNTRIES
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at his caucus night event at the Surety Hotel Jan. 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In the past, Acton has received Republican criticism for pushing Ohio’s COVID response too far. Acton has countered by arguing that her leadership, alongside Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, had been effective.
«I had quarantine power. … We were the very first to take action,» Acton said on the podcast.
A Ramaswamy spokesperson fired back at Acton, telling Fox News Digital she was «spewing lies» on COVID-19.
«Liberal Amy Acton is desperately trying to rewrite history, spewing lies in a futile attempt to justify her disastrous decision-making during COVID,» Connie Luck said.
«But her outrageous claims only confirm what we already know: She’s an incompetent, failed government bureaucrat who ran our state into the ground and is wholly unqualified to lead Ohio.»
With Acton’s advice, Ohio was one of the first states to impose broad emergency restrictions, becoming the first state to shut down schools in March, issuing stay-at-home orders, closing polling places and limiting public gatherings of 50 and then 100 people.
In those early days, Acton once overestimated the number of people in Ohio with COVID, asserting in March 2020 that the figure was 100,000, only to walk back the claim a few days later and state that she had been «guesstimating.» Also in March, Acton claimed Ohio could see as many as 10,000 new cases a day at a press conference with DeWine.
DeWine has defended Acton from criticism, saying it was ultimately his decision on which closures to enact and called Acton’s counsel «superb» in comments to local media.
Later, Acton split with the governor’s office. In particular, Acton disagreed with allowing county fairs, citing fears that the events would risk renewed spread of the virus. She also didn’t see eye to eye with which groups entered into partnerships with the state.
RAMASWAMY PUMPS $25M OF OWN CASH INTO OHIO GOVERNOR BID, SMASHES FUNDRAISING RECORDS WITH $50 MILLION HAUL
Amy Acton, former director of the Ohio Department of Health and Democratic, meets with local residents while campaigning at Bottoms Up Coffee in Columbus, Ohio, April 6, 2026. (Stephen Zenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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«I stepped down because I would not sign orders that were being forced on me. I stepped down in June because they began to make COVID, like everything else in the state house, political, giving special interests and certain businesses advantage over other businesses,» Acton said.
Having cleared the Ohio primaries and secured the Democratic nomination, Acton will face Ramaswamy in the Nov. 3 general election.
vivek ramaswamy, gubernatorial, ohio, politics, health
INTERNACIONAL
WATCH: GOP senators tear into former Biden pardon attorney over push to spare ‘mass murderers’ from death row
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Several Republican senators challenged the credibility of the testimony of a former Biden Justice Department official during the second day of the Todd Blanche confirmation hearing, pointing to the part she played in the clemency granted to 37 death row inmates.
Democrats called Elizabeth Oyer, the former U.S. pardon attorney at the Department of Justice, a nonpolitical position she served from April 2022 until March 2025 when then-Deputy Attorney General Blanche fired her, which she argued was politically motivated.
While Democrats cast the former pardon attorney as evidence Blanche had politicized the Justice Department, Republicans argued her recommendations to commute the sentences of federal death row inmates undermined her credibility.
Blanche, who has served as acting attorney general since April 2, did not publicly disclose the reasoning for Oyer’s firing, but she claimed it was because she refused to recommend that actor Mel Gibson, who serves as a special envoy to Hollywood for President Donald Trump, have his gun rights restored. The Justice Department denied this as the cause for her firing.
TRUMP’S AG NOMINEE RACKS UP MASSIVE SUPPORT AHEAD OF CONFIRMATION HEARING: ‘REAL RESULTS’
In her opening testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Oyer mentioned Blanche’s handling of the Epstein files and Ghislaine Maxwell’s reassignment to a lower security prison as among the main reasons Blanche should not become attorney general.
«At the end of the day, the priority of this DOJ is protecting powerful men, even when it comes at the expense of vulnerable women,» Oyer testified Thursday.
But Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.; and Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, hammered Oyer over an internal memo from Nov. 4, 2024, in which she recommended that Attorney General Merrick Garland advise President Joe Biden to consider commuting the 40 remaining federal death sentences. Biden went on to commute the death sentences of 37 of those recommended.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and former Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer (Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty Images; Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
«You have no credibility to talk about Todd Blanche. You have none,» Schmitt said. «You’ve come here, you deny basic facts. You recommended the commutation of murderers. You gave no quarter at all or any time to the victims of these brutal murders. So, again, I can’t believe you’ve been called here by the other side. But I’m glad we’ve had an opportunity to expose your hypocrisy.»
A report from the Justice Department found that Oyer’s 73-page memorandum only dedicated three paragraphs to address the grievances of the victims’ families.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES IT’S READOPTING THE FIRING SQUAD AS A MEANS OF EXECUTION
Earlier in the hearing, Hawley pointed out some of the notorious federal death row inmates whose death sentences Oyer recommended be commuted to life in prison. Among them was Dylan Roof, who was convicted in the June 17, 2015, mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where he killed nine Black parishioners during a Bible study. Biden ultimately declined to pardon him.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks while pointing to a sign during the second day of acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be attorney general on Capitol Hill in Washington July 16, 2026. (Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty Images)
«You said that actually Roof is not a compelling candidate for clemency, but you recommended it anyway,» Hawley said, referring to Oyer’s memorandum. «Why? Because he suffered from anxiety. You said, ‘Right, he suffered from anxiety’. Did it ever occur to you that maybe the family of his victims might suffer a little bit of anxiety because he marched into their church and murdered them in cold blood, because he was an incredible racist and he wanted to get on TV?»
Hawley then turned to Oyer’s recommendation to commute the death sentence of Robert Bowers, who was convicted of 63 federal charges stemming from the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, which killed 11 Jewish worshipers. Biden also did not commute Bowers’ sentence.
«This guy killed people just because they’re Jews,» Hawley said. «A jury recommended that he be sentenced to death, and you substituted your judgment for theirs, and now he’s going to live. Are you proud of that?»
«Sir, what I am proud of is the fact that I took my job as pardon attorney extremely seriously,» Oyer said in response.
«I think your judgment is astoundingly terrible. I’m amazed that this side of the aisle has called you.» Hawley responded.
SENATOR TIM SHEEHY: SOFT-ON-CRIME JUDGES NEED CONSEQUENCES. THE JAIL ACT DELIVERS
But Grassley pointed out that Oyer also recommended commuting the death sentence of Jorge Avila-Torrez. Torrez was on federal death row for convictions for the stabbing deaths of two young girls in Illinois, the murder of Navy Petty Officer Amanda Snell at a Virginia military base and the abduction and rape of a University of Maryland graduate student.
He pressed Oyer on the pardon recommendations she made. Oyer refused to answer, invoking the president’s executive privilege.
«You can’t even tell me if you contacted the victim’s family?» Grassley asked. «You can’t say yes or no to that?»
Oyer said that all the death row inmates who received clemency will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Former Department of Justice Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer is sworn in during the second day of acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be attorney general on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 16, 2026. (Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty Images)
«These are absolutely horrific cases,» Oyer said. «And every one of the individuals you mentioned will remain incarcerated for the rest of their lives, most likely in a maximum security prison facility.»
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., condemned his Republican colleagues’ line of questioning with Oyer later in the hearing.
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«I just want to start off by saying, Miss Oyer, I hold you in the highest esteem and respect, especially what you’re doing now as a private citizen,» Booker said. «You use a platform to educate people about the law.
«It is technical, but yet accessible. And the badgering you just endured, it should be completely unacceptable. You were asked to comment on things you didn’t have before you. The treatment here, to me, is just outrageous. And I apologize on behalf of the United States Senate.»
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office and Oyer for comment.
todd blanche, justice department, cory booker, senate elections, attorney general
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