Stars and Stripes Daily Headlines

July 20, 2017     GI Bill expansion, identical to House legislation, introduced in Senate One week after a sweeping expansion of veterans’ educaton benefits was introduced in the House and fast-tracked to a vote, an identical bill was introduced Thursday in the Senate.   N. Korea calls South’s efforts to improve ties ‘nonsense’; Seoul still hoping for talks A day before South Korea hoped to hold talks aimed at easing border tensions, North Korea’s main newspaper called efforts to improve ties “nonsense” as long as Seoul maintains what it called confrontational policies and a dependence on the United States.   Trump makes 3rd attempt to fill Army secretary post, 1 of many key Pentagon jobs still vacant President Donald Trump will nominate Army veteran and Raytheon executive Mark Esper to become the Army’s top civilian, the White House said Wednesday as it works to fill three dozen key Pentagon posts still vacant six months into the new administration.   Veterans will soon get to shop tax-free online with AAFES Starting later this year, all honorably discharged veterans, no matter their branch of service, will be eligible to shop tax-free online at the Army & Air Force Exchange Service with the same discounts they enjoyed on base while in the military.   Despite cancer diagnosis, McCain says, 'I'll be back soon' Battling brain cancer, John McCain on Thursday vowed to return to the Senate, leveling fresh criticism at the Trump administration and aiming a good-natured dig at Republican and Democratic colleagues shaken by news of his diagnosis.   Army surgeon general shares her path to success with US soldiers in Italy She’s the first African-American surgeon general in Army history, the first black female Army officer to earn three stars and the highest-ranking woman ever to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy.   US, Australia form formidable amphibious alliance during Talisman Saber drills Under the cover of darkness, U.S. and Australian troops aboard the USS Green Bay loaded into small rubber boats early Wednesdayand crept toward the eastern Queensland shore.   US Army Europe sets its posture as big Russian wargame looms The U.S. plans to deploy a Patriot missile battery, helicopters and a National Guard tank company to neutral Sweden in September to join one of the largest drills in that country in decades, but the move isn’t a direct response to Russia’s concurrent Zapad war game, U.S. Army Europe’s Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges said.   US to monitor Russian-Chinese naval drills in Baltic Sea U.S. European Command is monitoring a series of coming exercises between Russia and China in the Baltic Sea, warning Moscow to observe safety protocols that American officials accuse Russia of flouting.   No decision on more troops to Afghanistan as Trump meets with Pentagon leaders President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that White House and Pentagon officials have yet to complete their review of the military strategy to break the stalemate in the nearly 16-year-old war in Afghanistan.   US and other nations converge for large-scale Black Sea drills The United States and multinational forces are wrapping up a two-week exercise on the Black Sea, a region of heightened tensions since Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.   10th Mountain Division soldiers tapped for fall Iraq deployment About 2,100 soldiers from Fort Polk in Louisiana will deploy to Iraq later this year to take over the mission to train and advise Iraqi security forces fighting Islamic State militants following the fall of Mosul, the Army announced Thursday.