Out of Africa? Pressure Builds Against Pentagon As It Weighs Reduced Presence on Continent
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NBA MILITARY NATION Nuggets’ Porter stays US Navy sends Impeachment trial patient as playing warship through begins with partisan time increases Taiwan Strait battle in Senate Back page Page 3 Page 7 Joint Syria raid kills ISIS oil official who financed sleeper cells » Page 5 stripes.com Volume 78, No. 198 ©SS 2020 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas Out of Africa? Pressure builds against Pentagon as it weighs reduced presence on continent BY DAN LAMOTHE cus on the Asia-Pacific region. U.S. Africa Command, which includes the U.S. Army Spc. Felipe AND DANIELLE PAQUETTE Defense Secretary Mark Esper has entire continent except for Egypt, which Martinez trains a member The Washington Post undertaken a review of each geographic falls under U.S. Central Command. Presi- of the Rwanda Defence combatant command, its missions and as- dent Donald Trump has said that he wants Force on squad battle drills he Pentagon is facing growing pres- during Exercise Shared signments and will assess whether allies to get the United States out of “ridiculous sure from Congress to maintain U.S. and partner nations can take on more re- Accord 2019 in Gabiro, Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and troop levels in Africa as the Defense sponsibilities, said Jonathan Hoffman, the Rwanda, in August. bring our soldiers home.” TDepartment considers significantly chief Pentagon spokesman. HEATHER DOPPKE reducing the American presence to refo- The review began with the region under SEE AFRICA ON PAGE 6 U.S. Army Reserve Space Force focused on warfighting capabilities, senior NCO says BY SETH ROBSON nior noncommissioned officer for Com- designating the Air Force Space Command “Members will look like their joint coun- Stars and Stripes bined Force Space Component Command as its own service branch, are airmen who terparts they’ll be working with, on the and Space Operations Command at Van- will eventually become something else, ground,” the Space Force wrote in a tweet. YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — It’s fun to denberg Air Force Base, Calif., spoke to said Bentivegna, who wore a shiny space Space Force officials will meet with talk about Space Force uniforms and blast- U.S. and Japanese service members Tues- operations occupational badge. President Trump to talk about logos, nam- ing troops into orbit, but the first priority day during a “Space Symposium” at Yo- A photo of the first Space Force name ing conventions and ranks for the new for the new service branch is getting capa- kota, home of U.S. Forces Japan in western tape on a camouflage uniform on social force, Bentivegna said. bilities to warfighters, a top Space Force Tokyo. media recently provoked a slew of snarky There’s been talk about what the culture enlisted leader said. Service members working for the Space comments from people saying the camo of the new service should be, he added. Chief Master Sgt. John Bentivegna, se- Force, which was created in December by wouldn’t blend well with the stars. SEE SPACE ON PAGE 4 PAGE 2 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Wednesday, January 22, 2020 BUSINESS/WEATHER EXCHANGE RATES Trump seeks to sell US to global business community Military rates Switzerland (Franc)........................... 0.9675 Euro costs (Jan. 22) ..........................$1.1396 Thailand (Baht) .................................... 30.40 Dollar buys (Jan. 22) .........................€0.8775 Turkey (New Lira) .............................. 5.9333 BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE Washington. — that many scientists fault for British pound (Jan. 22) ........................$1.34 (Military exchange rates are those Associated Press Japanese yen (Jan. 22) ...................... 107.00 available to customers at military banking “Today I’m proud to declare the trapping heat in the Earth’s at- South Korean won (Jan. 22) ..........1,137.00 facilities in the country of issuance United States is in the midst of an mosphere and raising global Commercial rates for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the DAVOS, Switzerland — Presi- economic boom, the likes of which temperatures. Bahrain (Dinar) ................................... 0.3770 Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For dent Donald Trump sought Tues- British pound .................................... $1.3059 nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., the world has never seen before,” But he spent the majority of his Canada (Dollar) .................................. 1.3058 purchasing British pounds in Germany), day to sell the United States to China (Yuan) ....................................... 6.9043 check with your local military banking Trump told the audience . speech boasting that his presi- the global business community, Denmark (Krone) ............................... 6.7305 facility. Commercial rates are interbank Trump announced that the U.S. dency has been great for the U.S. Egypt (Pound) .................................. 15.8004 rates provided for reference when buying telling an economic conference Euro .......................................... $1.1103/.9007 currency. All figures are foreign currencies in the Swiss Alps that America’s will join the economic forum’s economy. Hong Kong (Dollar) ............................ 7.7694 to one dollar, except for the British pound, initiative to plant 1 trillion trees “America is thriving. America Hungary (Forint) ................................ 301.93 which is represented in dollars-to-pound, economic turnaround has been Israel (Shekel) .................................... 3.4557 and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.) “nothing short of spectacular.” across the globe. The initiative is flourishing and yes, America is Japan (Yen) .......................................... 110.00 Trump addressed the annual aims to mobilize an online com- winning again like never before,” Kuwait (Dinar) .................................... 0.3037 INTEREST RATES Norway (Krone) .................................. 8.9463 World Economic Forum in Davos, munity to boost reforestation and Trump said before talking about Philippines (Peso)................................ 51.01 Prime rate ................................................4.75 Switzerland, hours before his his- grow trees that can help gobble a newly signed trade deal with Poland (Zloty) ......................................... 3.81 Discount rate ..........................................2.25 Saudi Arabia (Riyal) .......................... 3.7517 Federal funds market rate ...................1.54 toric impeachment trial was to up excess carbon dioxide — often China and a pending trade agree- Singapore (Dollar) ............................. 1.3492 3-month bill .............................................1.52 reconvene in the U.S. Senate in caused by burning of fossil fuels ment with Mexico and Canada. South Korea (Won) ......................... 1,166.83 30-year bond ...........................................2.29 WEATHER OUTLOOK WEDNESDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST WEDNESDAY IN EUROPE THURSDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 40/34 Kabul 36/27 Seoul 44/30 Baghdad 51/48 Kandahar 49/35 Osan Tokyo Mildenhall/ Drawsko 46/33 45/32 Lakenheath Pomorskie Busan 47/40 39/36 51/44 Iwakuni 54/47 Kuwait Bahrain Zagan Sasebo City 68/63 Brussels 36/30 Guam 67/59 35/28 Ramstein 62/51 80/77 Lajes, 32/27 Riyadh Doha Azores Stuttgart Pápa 73/57 69/55 59/56 31/27 33/29 Aviano/ Vicenza 41/29 Naples 53/42 Okinawa Morón 72/69 51/47 Sigonella Rota 53/46 The weather is provided by the Djibouti Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 80/70 54/51 53/50 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. T O D A Y IN STRIPES American Roundup ..... 11 Classified .................. 13 Comics ...................... 15 Crossword ................. 15 Faces ........................ 14 Opinion ..................... 16 Sports ...................17-24 Wednesday, January 22, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 3 MILITARY US sends warship through Taiwan Strait BY CAITLIN DOORNBOS eignty over the island. Stars and Stripes In a tweet last week thanking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, for his congratulations on her Japan — The U.S. Navy sent a reelection, Tsai said, “Taiwan is warship through the Taiwan and will ever be great friends of Strait for the first time this year, the U.S.” less than a week after a separat- “We are grateful for the ac- ist president was reelected the tions you’ve taken to protect free island’s chief executive. markets, democracy and free- The Yokosuka-based guided- dom around the world,” Tsai said. missile cruiser USS Shiloh sailed “Taiwan stands with you & we through the strait Thursday, dem- will be that bastion of freedom in onstrating “the U.S. commitment the Indo-Pacific.” to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” The U.S. last year sent 11 ships 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Kei- through the Taiwan Strait on ley said Monday. He called the eight separate transits, most re- transit “routine.” cently with the USS Chancellors- In response, Chinese Foreign ville on Nov. 12. Ministry Spokesman Geng Sh- uang urged the United States to It was a significant increase “prudently and properly handle from 2018, when the U.S. made issues relating to Taiwan to avoid just three passages through the harming China-U.S. relations strait. and affecting peace and stability Though the pace of the transits across the Taiwan Strait” at his sped up last year, the number did daily press conference Friday. not reach that of 2016, when the “China paid close attention to Navy sent vessels through the wa- and monitored from start to end terway 12 times, according to a the passage of the U.S. military