|
Trump officials say the program is vital to national security, but skeptics — including some Republicans — have stonewalled its reauthorization without changes to protect civil liberties.
|
|
"We've seen now, in the last six weeks, Iran and Hezbollah almost single-handedly checking — not defeating, but checking — the two biggest military powers in the region, which is the U.S. and Israel," says Rami Khouri. Khouri says the U.S. and Israel have been "forced into" ceasefires in Iran and Lebanon. This is all a sign "of the evolving balance of power across the region" and demonstrates that Iran's Axis of Resistance "is still effective." Khouri is a Palestinian American journalist and public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut.
|
|
The Senate would need to also approve the stopgap measure that passed the House early Friday. Libertarian-leaning House Republicans had balked at a long-term extension.
|
|
Cameron Hamilton had publicly disagreed with previous efforts to dismantle FEMA. While those plans have shifted, the agency's future is still unclear.
|
|
Dan Driscoll, the top political appointee in the Army, gave his first public testimony since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced out the service's top officer.
|
|
The White House is seeking a record-shattering Pentagon budget of $1.5 trillion for the next fiscal year, the largest year-over-year increase in a presidential military spending request since World War II. The United States already has the world's largest military budget at roughly $1 trillion, more than the combined budgets of the next nine highest-spending countries. The Trump administration's budget request includes funding for F-35 stealth fighter jets, new warships and President Trump's "Golden Dome" missile defense shield, among other priorities.
"All it means is buying more weapons for more," says Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. "It's beyond the wildest dreams of the military-industrial complex." The budget proposal also includes deep cuts to social programs.
We also speak with Josh Paul, a former State Department official involved in arms sales who resigned in 2023 over Israel-Palestine policy. He notes that the $1.5 trillion figure does not even include the costs of the Iran war. "It's just a vast amount of money in a way that is reckless by an administration that is corrupt," says Paul.
|
|
