Author: Defenceline Webdesk

House Homeland Security Committee staff are requesting a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security on the breach of the agency’s Homeland Security Information Network, according to a committee aide with knowledge of the matter.Staffers are hoping to be briefed on the intrusion—first reported by Nextgov/FCW last week—by Friday, said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive. Hackers are believed to have penetrated HSIN sometime between late May and early June, though their affiliation and whether any contents were pilfered from the platform is unclear, a person familiar with the matter previously said. Approved users…

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In the midst of a three-year-long civil war, Sudan has few friends. The international community has largely left – no Western country maintains an embassy within the country. The World Food Programme and the International Red Cross run limited campaigns to deliver water or medical supplies, but the United States closed its embassy in April 2023 at the outbreak of the civil war and ceased all aid in January 2025. The European Union has committed over €200 million for aid, but deliveries rarely arrive in an appropriate manner. Meanwhile, the de facto government of Sudan, General Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces…

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Pentagon CIO Kirsten Davies recently spoke with Nextgov/FCW about her efforts to update IT acquisition and move beyond policy to operational effectiveness, warfighter readiness, and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Nextgov/FCW: What are some of your office’s priorities under the current administration?Kirsten Davies: President Donald Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth have given us a tremendous opportunity with a mandate for change. What you’re seeing out of the Department of War now is enormous enthusiasm and momentum around that. For example, the secretary has been very clear that we will take acquisition risk today in order to reduce…

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Every time Uzbek citizens file taxes, renews their driver’s license, pays utility bills – all of which can be done from their smartphone – they participate in one of Central Asia’s most ambitious state-building projects, many without thinking who governs the growing digital power created by the systems they use. Central Asia’s most populous country, Uzbekistan, is undertaking an ambitious push toward a digital economy and electronic governance. In 2024, it ranked 63rd out of 193 countries with an E-Government Development Index (EGDI) score of 0.7999, entering the “Very High EGDI” group for the first time. In the latest World…

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Pakistan’s military says 42 people, including security personnel and civilians, were killed across Balochistan over four days in what the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) described as three major attacks between 4 and 8 July. Addressing a press conference in Rawalpindi on 8 July, ISPR director-general Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said the dead comprised four civilians, 27 policemen and 11 army personnel, while security forces had killed 54 militants in the attacks and the operations that followed. By the ISPR’s account, the first incident occurred on the night of 4-5 July in the Hanna Urak area on the outskirts of Quetta,…

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So, he’s running. Or he can.  On July 7, Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court weighed in on whether senior officials who are subject to term limits – like the president – could be re-elected or re-appointed to those same positions under the new constitution, which went into effect on July 1.  Their conclusion: yes. Kazakh President Kassym Jomart Tokayev is not the first president in Central Asia to benefit from creative constitutional reinterpretations in the wake of a referendum. Uzbekistan’s first president, Islam Karimov, was elected four times despite the two-term limit in the Uzbek Constitution. Via referendums, Karimov’s administration moved elections…

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Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed that its JF-17 Thunders are in service, releasing on 6 July its first footage of the type, which showed two single-seat JF-17C Block 3 fighters, serials 24-501 and 24-502, flying with three external fuel tanks and no weapons. The aircraft were shown as part of a training cycle that also saw the fighters deploy to Türkiye for the multinational “Guardians of the Skies” exercise, the type’s first overseas activity under Azerbaijani control. Baku’s order traces to a February 2024 contract for 16 aircraft worth about $1.6 billion, later expanded to 40 JF-17s in a…

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