Chancellor Friedrich Merz has once more vowed that his conservative CDU/CSU alliance would distance itself "clearly and explicitly" from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of five state elections next year. "We will now also be very clear and very explicit about where the AfD stands in terms of content, and we will distance ourselves from them very clearly and very explicitly," he said after a party conference in Berlin.
The US military is facing worsening delivery delays for its advanced F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, according to a new government watchdog assessment. A report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that most F-35s delivered in 2023 by contractor Lockheed Martin and engine maker Pratt & Whitney were late, arriving an average of 61 days behind schedule. In 2024, the problem grew notably worse: every F-35 delivered was late, with an average delay of 238 days.
Footage of the January incident at Alaska's Eielson Air Force base showed the jet tumbling downwards in the sky and hitting the ground, causing a fireball. A new report released this week by the Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation Board found that the ice in the landing gear caused the fighter's automatic systems to wrongly assume that it had landed even though it was still in the air, making the aircraft "uncontrollable."
Spain's defense ministry announced it would not pursue the US-designed F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, choosing to invest in European-made aircraft instead. This decision was influenced by NATO concerns regarding the US commitment under President Trump's administration.
