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Saturday, May 02, 2026

The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a rule barring senators from trading on prediction markets effective immediately. read more


Friday, May 01, 2026

Casey Means's nomination stalled as some Republicans questioned her credentials. The new nominee, Trump's third pick for the role, is Nicole Saphier a radiologist and Fox News contributor. read more


Thursday, April 30, 2026

Faced with the rapidly growing China threat, the U.S. has to start hardening its bases now, said Marine Lt. Gen. Stephen Sklenka. read more


Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) told Republican House candidates Wednesday that he plans to suspend next month's primary elections so state lawmakers can pass a new congressional map first, according to two people with knowledge of the calls. read more


NYT Editorial Board: In the war's early days, the mismatch played out as one might expect. American forces destroyed much of the Iranian military. Now, however, the contest looks less one-sided. Iran has taken control of the Strait of Hormuz, and its missiles and drones still threaten America's allies in the region. read more


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More: "Never in recorded history has a nation's military been so quickly and effectively neutralized," Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed on March 26. The next day, Iran launched a drone and missile attack on an American base in Saudi Arabia that wounded more than a dozen service members, destroyed a radar surveillance plane and damaged at least two refueling tankers.

The immediate debunking of Mr. Hegseth's bombast points to the reform agenda that America's military needs. There are four main priorities.

First, the United States needs to invest in counter-drone technologies, like those that Ukraine has developed in its war against Russia. The lack of such defenses is one reason that the vaunted U.S. Navy has been unable to prevent the closure of a vital waterway, the Strait of Hormuz.

Second, the United States needs more of its own cheap, disposable weapons like one-way attack drones and unmanned ships. Although much of the war in Ukraine has been fought by mass-produced drones, the Pentagon is pouring money into much more complex equipment, including pilotless "wingmen" that can fly alongside a piloted plane.
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Third, the country needs larger and more flexible industrial capacity. Until recently, a single factory made all of America's Tomahawk cruise missiles, and there is a constant shortage of Patriot missile interceptors. Congress should pass laws that help the private sector build up its manufacturing capacity. The Pentagon, for its part, needs to stop buying so many of its weapons from just five big weapons makers and start betting on dynamic tech companies that can quickly adapt.

Lastly, the United States needs to collaborate with other industrialized democracies. Mr. Trump's pleas for help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz from the very allies he spurned at the start of the war is just the latest proof that America can't go it alone. In the years ahead, keeping pace with China's economic and military expansion will require collaborating with like-minded democracies.

All of these steps are not merely about winning the next war. They also can help prevent it " by making our enemies believe they would lose any war they start.

Instead, the war in Iran has provided a road map for any country that wants to resist the United States in the future, including Russia and North Korea. For China, the country with the greatest potential to challenge American military might, the war validates its focus on new forms of warfare such as drones and cyber and space power.

More: "My response is that I stand by every single word of this report," she said. "We were very diligent. We were very careful. It went through multiple levels of editing, review, care.

"And I think one of the things that has been most gratifying, after " immediately after the story published was, I have been inundated by additional sourcing going up to the highest levels of the government, thanking us for doing the work, providing additional corroborating information."

Fitzpatrick said that she used more than two dozen sources for her original report, characterizing the officials she spoke to as "people who felt that not only was this conduct embarrassing, unbecoming, but that it was a national security vulnerability, and that Americans were perhaps less safe as a result."

Asked about some of the more shocking details in her report, she said: "I had never heard anything like this as a reporter, and I think I spent a very long time, a very diligent amount of time checking it out because it was so explosive.

"And I think the fact that this was known throughout the FBI, throughout the Justice Department, that it reached the White House is because it was so alarming. And people were really frightened."

She said some of her sources were not merely panicking but profoundly emotional in expressing their concerns to her, describing them as "grown men who have done nothing but counterintelligence and solving some of the worst-of-the-worst crimes who are not easily scared, intimidated, concerned."

"They were frightened," she said. "And that really stuck with me."

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