The Pentagon inspector general’s office will investigate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss air strikes on Yemen, the watchdog said Thursday.President Donald Trump’s administration is facing a scandal over the accidental leak of a group chat by senior security officials on the strikes, which targeted Yemen’s Huthi rebels.The probe will evaluate the extent to which Hegseth and other defense personnel complied with “policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” said a memo from acting inspector general Steven Stebbins.They will also review “compliance with classification and records retention requirements,” it said.The investigation came in response to a request from the top two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a Republican and a Democrat, the memo said.The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in the Signal chat in which officials including Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz discussed the strikes.The magazine initially withheld the details the officials discussed, but later published them after the White House insisted that no classified information was shared and attacked Goldberg as a liar.- Strike timing, intelligence info -The chat included messages in which Hegseth revealed the timing of strikes hours before they happened and information on aircraft and missiles involved, while Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of the military action.The White House and a string of officials involved in the chat — including Hegseth — have tried to downplay the story, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists this week that “the case is closed.”A US judge ordered the Trump administration last week to preserve all Signal communication between March 11 and March 15.The dates cover the period between when Waltz set up the chat — and mistakenly added Goldberg — and the day of deadly US air strikes on the Iran-backed Huthis.The Atlantic said that Waltz had set some of the Signal messages to disappear after one week, and others after four, saying it raised questions about whether federal records law was violated.Trump has largely pinned the blame on Waltz, but has also dismissed calls by Democrats for top officials to resign and insisted instead on what he called the success of the raids on the Yemeni rebels.The Huthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the Gaza war began in 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.Huthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, forcing many companies into a costly detour around southern Africa.The United States first began conducting strikes in response under the Biden administration, and US forces have continued to hammer the Huthis with near-daily air assaults since March 15.

Auto giant Stellantis said Thursday it was pausing production at some plants in Canada and Mexico, a major disruption for the sector on the day US President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs came into force.The announcement from Stellantis — which owns Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge, among other major brands — impacts thousands of workers who have faced fear and uncertainty amid Trump’s efforts to force companies to make more vehicles in the United States.”Stellantis continues to assess the effects of the recently announced US tariffs on imported vehicles,” a company statement said.”Immediate actions we must take include temporarily pausing production at some of our Canadian and Mexican assembly plants,” it added.Vehicle production in North America is highly integrated and the full impact of Trump’s 25 percent levy on foreign-made vehicles and parts, which came into effect on Thursday, remains unclear.Individual parts can cross the US-Canada border several times during the assembly process.Trump’s tariffs will apply only to a vehicle’s non-American components and adhering to the policy could cause headaches at the border.Stellantis said it would “continue to engage with the US administration” on the new policies.The company confirmed the Chrysler plant in the Canadian city of Windsor, across a river from US auto capital Detroit, will pause production from April 7 to 21.The factory, which employs around 4,000 people and is one of three Stellantis has in Canada, manufactures the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and the electric version of the Dodge Charger.Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he stood “in solidarity with those workers in Windsor and all those hurt by President Trump’s tariffs.”Carney said Canada would retaliate by imposing a 25 percent tariff on all autos imported from the United States that are not compliant with an existing North American free trade deal — roughly 10 percent of all vehicles shipped from the United States to Canada, or about 67,000 vehicles annually.- ‘Everybody’s uncertain’ -Windsor has been on edge since Trump first announced his plans for auto sector tariffs.US auto companies have employed people in the city for more than a century and the industry is vital to the local economy.Detroit and Windsor are connected by a suspension bridge and tunnel, with people crossing back and forth daily.Outside the Stellantis plant on Thursday, 58-year-old auto worker David Lumley told AFP Trump was making “a big mistake.””We’re all intertwined,” he said.A two-week production pause was manageable, he said, but warned: “We don’t know what’s going to happen after the two weeks,” raising concern Windsor’s auto industry could ultimately shut down.”This Donald Trump, you don’t know what he’s going to do,” Lumley said.Trump has publicly told auto companies that to avoid tariffs they need to build plants in the United States and employ American workers.Industry experts note North American production chains have developed to maximize efficiency and unwinding those links to relocate jobs to the United States would take years, if not decades.On a break outside the Windsor plant, Philip Sauve rejected Trump’s suggestion that he had taken a job which rightfully belongs to an American.”I feel like these jobs have been ours for a long time and I don’t really feel like we’ve taken anything from them,” he told AFP.Trump and Carney spoke last week and agreed Washington and Ottawa should discuss the broader future of bilateral trade after Canada’s April 28 election.”You feel nervous and you don’t know what the future’s going to be like,” Sauve said.He told AFP his job “provided a good situation at home… Food on the table and a house and a pretty good life so far and I would like to continue that.”burs-amp-bs/jhb