In an effort to rebrand the government agency with a more powerful brand, Donald Trump is slated to rename it the Department of Defense.
According to The Associated Press news agency, White House officials who are aware of the rebranding effort are expected to implement the name change in an executive order on Friday.
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Unknown facts: The Department of Defense will have the name “Department of War” as its secondary name until legislation can change it permanently.
In a post above a news story about the reported change, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote “DEPARTMENT OF WAR.”
Hegseth didn’t make any additional remarks.
AUTHORITY OF WAR https://t.co/uyAZGiklRi
When the US was a new superpower, President Trump had predicted that a name change would bring back memories of earlier US military victories in World Wars I and II.
He told reporters late last month that “everyone likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War.”
He explained that the name was changed to “Department of Defense.”
Defense is “too defensive,” he said. And if we have to be offensive, we also want to be defensive, he said.
From 1789 until the US military’s reorganization at the end of World War II, which ended in 1945, the Department of Defense was known as the “Department of War.”
Following a merger with other departments in 1947, it was later renamed the National Military Establishment, and the name was later changed to the Department of Defense.
These name changes were made by a Congress-approved resolution.
The defense department is frequently referred to as simply the “Pentagon” or simply by its moniker, “DOD,” given the distinctive shape of its headquarters close to Washington, DC.
In 2022, the Pentagon can be seen from the air near Washington, DC.
Defense Secretary Hegseth will be instructed to pursue legal and legislative means, according to reports from US media reports that it is still unclear how Trump will change the name.
In an interview with Fox News in the US, Hegseth claimed that his organization wants a “warrior ethos” and made similar remarks to Trump’s regarding the department’s name.
We need warriors who are able to impose lethal force on the enemy, he said.
We don’t want to play defense all the time, so we don’t want to have endless contingencies. We believe that titles, names, and words count. We are currently working on it with the president and the White House. He remarked, “Stand by.”
Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of defense, left [Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP]
Lionel Messi made sure he had vivid memories of his final appearance in a distinguished career playing for Argentina’s national team at home.
In front of a raucous sellout crowd at Estadio Monumental to bid him farewell, the former Barcelona forward scored twice on Thursday in Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Venezuela.
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Messi said, “I’ve always dreamed of being able to finish this way here.”
“I’ve had many experiences on this pitch, both good and bad,” said one player. “It’s always fun to play in front of our fans in Argentina.”
Lionel Messi of Argentina stands in front of one of the numerous banners that the home fans have set up for him during the World Cup qualifying match [Marcos Brindicci/Getty Images]
Messi has yet to disclose when he will leave the sport’s elite, but the qualifiers for the 2030 World Cup will begin in 2027, at age 40.
Lautaro Martinez scored a goal in the 76th minute, while Lautaro Martinez added a goal in the 39th and 80th.
In South American World Cup qualifying games, Messi has now scored 36 goals and is still the top scorer ever.
Luis Suarez, his Inter Miami teammate, has 29 goals in qualifying for the Continental Cup, but he has already left Uruguay’s national team. Marcelo Moreno Martins of Bolivia leads with 22.
Lionel Messi, the forward of Argentina, bids his final farewell on home soil [Juan Mabromata/AFP]
Messi stated in the future that he would only be able to compete in the World Cup in the following year.
“I’m eager, eager,” I say. It continues to experience the sensations day by day. He continued, “I enjoy it if I feel good, and if not, I’d rather not be there,” adding that the nine months until the tournament officially begins “is a long time.”
The World Cup champions, who have already qualified, will continue to lead the South American standings despite what happens in the final round on Tuesday, reaching 38 points.
Venezuela is still in seventh place and 18 points clear of its first World Cup opponent. They are still in contention to make the intercontinental playoffs.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi scores the team’s first goal in the South American FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying match against Venezuela [Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images]
Amanda Anisimova won the US Open final 6-4, 7-6, 6-3, to take on Aryna Sabalenka, who has already lost four sets to Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka, who is now defending her first major title.
“Oh, my God,” The 24-year-old said on Thursday after winning her first final at Flushing Meadows, “it means the world”.
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“I’m attempting to process that right now. Absolutely a dream come true. I’ve wanted to live in the US for a long time. Open final with the goal of winning.
Osaka, the other US Open champion, enjoyed the big game in Arthur Ashe Stadium’s prime-time glare as she entered her first major semifinal since 2021.
In a tight opening set, the pair twice exchanged breaks, and Osaka refocused and roared when Anisimova hit a shot into the net on set point in the tiebreak following a delayed line call from the automated system.
However, Anisimova’s intensity was on par with that of Osaka’s as the 23rd seed struggled to carry the momentum forward in the following set.
After the players exchanged vicious hits for 12 games in the next set, Anisimova slammed into the tiebreak to end the game.
The eighth seed, who defeated Iga Swiatek 6 / 6 6-0 in the Wimbledon final two months ago, held on to her nerve until the win was over and made it back to Grand Slam finals.
She really made me want to run for the final. I wasn’t sure if I made it past the finish line. I made an effort to find more. There was a lot of fighting going on, Anisimova continued.
“I made an effort to remain optimistic. I’m working on that because there were a lot of nerves in the beginning. Yes, I think that was really getting to me because this tournament means a lot to me.
You’re just trying to survive, you’re in the end. I’m making an effort to enjoy the moment. When we were both playing incredible tennis, we would sometimes think, “How are we making these shots?” but we continued to be who we were.
On Saturday, Anisimova will face Aryna Sabalenka, the current US Open champion.
Back-to-back dreams are kept alive by Sabalenka.
In a three-set victory over American fourth seed Jessica Pegula, reigning champion Sabalenka defeated fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula, who had already lost.
In a repeat of the final from the previous year, Sabalenka defeated Pegula 4-6, 6-3, and 6-4.
The Belarusian will make its third consecutive Flushing Meadows final appearance.
She played incredible tennis as usual, and I had to work really hard to get this win, Sabalenka said.
I’m so happy to be back in the final, and I’m hoping to make it all the way.
Sabalenka, 27, wants to become the first woman to have won three straight New York singles titles since 2012-2014 when Serena Williams won three.
Since winning the US Open in 2024, she has already reached the final four of her last five Grand Slams.
She said, “I’ll go out there on Saturday and fight for every reason I can in my life.”
Sabalanka, who is no 1 seeded, will attempt to become the first woman to win two straight championships at Flushing Meadows [File: Kena Betancur/AFP]
Islamabad, Pakistan – For the second time in three years, devastating monsoon floods have strewn a path of destruction through Pakistan’s north and center, particularly in Punjab province, submerging villages, drowning farmland, displacing millions, and injuring hundreds.
This year, India – Pakistan’s archrival and a nuclear-armed neighbour – is also reeling. Heavy monsoon rains swell rivers on both sides of the border, which has caused widespread flooding in northern states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Indian Punjab.
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Authorities in Pakistan claim that at least 884 people have died nationwide, including more than 220 in Punjab, since the monsoon season first started in late June. More than 30 people have died in Indian Punjab, compared to 100 on the Indian side.
Yet, shared suffering hasn’t brought the neighbours closer: In Pakistan’s Punjab, which borders India, federal minister Ahsan Iqbal has, in fact, accused New Delhi of deliberately releasing excess water from dams without timely warnings.
According to Iqbal, “India has started using water as a weapon and has caused widespread flooding in Punjab,” he claimed last month, citing releases into the Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab rivers, all of which flow into Pakistan from Indian territory.
Iqbal added that India’s use of flood water was its “worst example of water aggression,” which he claimed threatened people’s lives, property, and livelihoods.
“Some issues should be beyond politics, and water cooperation must be one of them”, the minister said on August 27, while he participated in rescue efforts in Narowal city, his constituency that borders India.
The two countries’ growing tensions, as well as the collapse of a six-decade-old agreement that allowed them to share waters for rivers that both countries rely on, are at the center of those accusations.
However, experts contend that the evidence is insufficient to suggest that India deliberately attempted to flood Pakistan, and that even if New Delhi were to consider doing so, there are the risks associated with such a plan.
Weaponising water
On August 31, 2025, people who have been affected by the flood walk along the shelters of a makeshift camp in Chung, Punjab province, Pakistan. In eastern Pakistan, flooding caused nearly half a million people to flee after days of heavy rains flooded rivers.
Relations between India and Pakistan, already at a historic low, plummeted further in April after the Pahalgam attack, in which gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir. India canceled the Transboundary Agreement that governs the Indus Basin’s six rivers, the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), leaving the country.
Pakistan refuted claims that it was involved in the Pahalgam attack in any way. But in early May, the neighbours waged a , four-day conflict, targeting each other’s military bases with missiles and drones in the gravest military escalation between them in almost three decades.
The two nations were required to regularly exchange detailed water-flow data under the IWT. Fears have risen in recent months that New Delhi might try to stop the flow of water into Pakistan or flood its western neighbor with unexpected, large releases as India ceases to adhere to the pact.
After New Delhi suspended its participation in the IWT, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah in June said the treaty would never be restored, a stance that prompted protests in Pakistan and accusations of “water terrorism”.
The Indian High Commission in Islamabad has shared several warnings of possible cross-border flooding on “humanitarian grounds” in recent weeks while the Indian government has not officially responded to allegations that it has chosen to flood Pakistan.
Water experts contend that Pakistan’s floods are primarily due to dam-building in India, which raises the possibility of obscuring the urgent, shared challenges posed by climate change and the ageing infrastructure.
“The Indian decision to release water from their dam has not caused flooding in Pakistan”, said Daanish Mustafa, a professor of critical geography at King’s College London.
The rivers in India eventually flow into Pakistan through major dams. He told Al Jazeera, “Any extra water that will be released from these rivers will have a significant impact on India’s own states first.”
Shared monsoon strain
In the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, glaciers provide food for both Pakistan and India. The Indus River basin provides life to Pakistan. It supplies water to most of the country’s roughly 250 million people and underpins its agriculture.
The death toll in Pakistan has surpassed 800, with hundreds of thousands of people being displaced from their homes as a result of the rising water levels.
India controls the three eastern rivers, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas, while Pakistan controls the three western rivers, Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus.
India is obligated to allow waters of the western rivers to flow into Pakistan with limited exceptions, and to provide timely, detailed hydrological data.
The rivers it controls have seen a significant drop in the flow of the Ravi and Sutlej into Pakistan thanks to India’s construction of dams on the eastern ones. As long as the volume of water entering Pakistan is not impacted by it building dams on some of the western rivers, it is permitted to do so under the terms of the treaty.
But melting glaciers and an unusually intense summer monsoon pushed river levels on both sides of the border dangerously high this year.
In Pakistan, heavy rains and glacial outbursts caused levels in western rivers to rise, while rising flows severely damaged infrastructure on India’s eastern rivers.
According to Mustafa of King’s College, dams are typically designed to last about 100 years, just like other infrastructure is designed to have a safe capacity of water. But climate change has dramatically altered the average rainfall that might have been taken into account while designing these projects.
He claimed that the dams’ construction parameters are now meaningless and obsolete. Water must be released when dam capacity exceeds dam capacity, or the entire structure will be in danger of being destroyed.
Among the major dams upstream in Indian territory are Salal and Baglihar on the Chenab, Pong on the Beas, Bhakra on the Sutlej, and Ranjit Sagar (also known as Thein) on the Ravi.
With vast areas of Indian territory between them and the border, these dams are located in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.
A former Pakistani representative on the bilateral commission tasked with monitoring the implementation of the pact, Shiraz Memon, said that it makes no sense to blame India for the flooding in Pakistan.
“Instead of acknowledging that India has shared warnings, we are blaming them of water terrorism. By the end of August, reservoirs across the region were full, according to Memon, adding that it is a simple, natural flood phenomenon.
Spillways had to be opened for downstream releases because the water was running out. This is a natural solution as there is no other option available”, he told Al Jazeera.
Politics of blame
The day after flash floods occurred in Chositi village, Kishtwar district of Indian-administered Kashmir, last month [Channi Anand/AP Photo]
According to September 3 data on India’s Central Water Commission website, at least a dozen sites face a “severe” flood situation, and another 19 are above normal flood levels.
The Indian High Commission’s message announcing a “high flood” on the Sutlej and Tawi rivers was referenced in a notification from Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources the same day.
India issued its fourth notice of this nature after three earlier warnings last week, but none of them contained detailed hydrological information.
Pakistan’s Meteorological Department, in a report on September 4, said on the Pakistani side, two sites on the Sutlej and Ravi faced “extremely high” flood levels, while two other sites on the Ravi and Chenab saw “very high” levels.
In a powerful monsoon, the volume of water frequently exceeds the capacity of any single dam or barrage. According to experts, controlled releases have become a necessary but dangerous component of flood control on both sides of the border.
They added that while the IWT obliged India to alert Pakistan to abnormal flows, Pakistan also needs better monitoring and real-time data systems rather than relying solely on diplomatic exchanges.
According to experts, the blame game can have short-term political effects on both sides, especially after the May conflict.
For India, halting the agreement serves as a strong defense of what it perceives as Pakistan’s state-sponsored terrorism. For Pakistan, blaming India can provide a political scapegoat that distracts from domestic failures in flood mitigation and governance.
Rivers are “living, breathing things,” they say. They always make the move because of this. You cannot control the flood, especially a high or severe flood”, academic Mustafa said.
In a move described as “highly provocative,” two Venezuelan military aircraft flew close to a US Navy ship in international waters, according to the US Department of Defense.
The Venezuelan government issued a warning to stop further provocative moves in a statement released late on Thursday, blaming the Venezuelan aircraft’s alleged involvement with the guided-missile destroyer Jason Dunham as an attempt to “interfere with our counter-narco-terror operations.”
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The Pentagon stated in a post on the X platform that two Maduro-style military aircraft flew close to a US Navy vessel today in international waters.
The Pentagon advised the cartel operating in Venezuela to refrain from further efforts to obstruct, deter, or interfere with US military counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations.
pic.twitter.com/PSxm3uRsfM
A US ship did not engage the aircraft, according to a US defense official who was cited by The New York Times as saying that two Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the guided-missile destroyer Jason Dunham in the southern Caribbean Sea.
Venezuelan state media did not mention the alleged US-Venezuela encounter because it covered President Nicolas Maduro’s announcement of the country’s National Militia’s first round of operation, whose ranks have been increased by new volunteers in recent weeks as Washington’s threats grow.
According to Maduro, Venezuela’s Noticias Venevision news outlet, it was the “first time in history that the communal units of the militia will be activated, spanning the national map from north to south, from east to west, down to the final community.”
The US has so far denied any evidence that Maduro is connected to or has any connections to drug trafficking cartels in Venezuela and the region.
Washington increased the reward in August to $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest over allegations that he had been a part of a cocaine trafficking operation. In a move allegedly aimed at drug cartels, the US quickly deployed several ships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the Caribbean and Venezuelan waters.
Maduro has been expressing concern over the US’s recent naval deployment in the Southern Caribbean, claiming that it was “seeking a regime change through military threat” and promising that if Washington attacked, he would ” mobilize the nation and declare it a republic in arms” for weeks.
In a rumored airstrike in the Caribbean on Tuesday, US forces apparently launched a speedboat allegedly used for drug trafficking.
According to Trump, the boat belongs to a violent group linked to Maduro, and 11 people have been killed in the attack.
Washington allegedly carried out extrajudicial killings, accusing Caracas of killing 11 people without a trial. Legal experts have also raised questions about the attack’s legality because the Trump administration failed to provide any proof that the US was in imminent danger from those aboard the ship or that the passengers were even armed.
