Illustration / Samantha Wong; Greg Nash; and Jenny Kane, Associated Press |
Joe Kent's resignation from a key Trump administration intelligence post has put the spotlight on a small but vocal segment of right-wing figures who believe Israel has pulled President Trump into a war with Iran. Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center before his resignation this past week, asserted that Iran posed "no imminent threat" to the U.S. and accused the U.S. of starting the war "due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby." |
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Strikes on infrastructure amid the Iran conflict are worsening a global energy crisis.
Energy supplies were already tight and prices were soaring due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping channel through which about a fifth of the world's oil typically flows. But recent strikes on oil and gas infrastructure are exacerbating the problem — and specifically creating issues for global natural gas prices. |
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Taiwan's representative to the U.S. is trying to keep China front of mind in MAGA foreign policy, sounding warnings that Beijing's "threat is active" at the Heritage Foundation's Miami Security Forum this week.
America's intelligence agencies recently assessed that Beijing is not planning a military invasion in 2027. Ambassador Alexander Tah-Ray Yui said that did not mean the People's Republic of China (PRC) was not increasing its capabilities to threaten the island by force. |
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Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Republicans should move to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through a two-step funding process to overcome Democratic opposition: approve a funding bill for all agencies under DHS except for ICE and then pass a separate funding measure for the immigration agency through a reconciliation bill. The department has been shut down for more than a month as Democrats continue to demand major reforms to DHS's immigration enforcement arms, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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The Trump administration lifted sanctions on Iranian oil stuck at sea on Friday evening as the conflict between the U.S. and Iran continues to hike up global energy costs. "Today, the Department of the Treasury is issuing a narrowly tailored, short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced in a social media post.
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President Trump said Friday that the U.S. is "getting very close" to meeting its objectives in Iran as Washington considers scaling back its military operations in the region. "We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
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BY ZACH SCHONFELD AND ELLEN MITCHELL |
A federal judge ruled Friday that the Pentagon's new policy restricting press access violates the First Amendment, siding with The New York Times. "The Court recognizes that national security must be protected, the security of our troops must be protected, and war plans must be protected," U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman wrote in his 40-page ruling.
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The shutdown of the Department of the Homeland Security (DHS) stretched to 35 days on Friday as Senate Democrats voted to block a House-passed bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and other critical federal agencies. A motion to advance the bill failed 47-37, falling short of the 60 votes it needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster. Centrist Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) was the only Democrat to vote "yes." Sixteen senators from both parties missed the Friday vote.
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Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCC), said an FBI probe investigating him for leaking classified information is a mechanism to "steal a narrative" to cover the Trump administration's true intentions for entering war with Iran. "If you've been in MAGA circles for this long, you kind of understand what this is," Kent told Megyn Kelly on her podcast Friday. "This is just an effort for them to steal a narrative, and to have us discussing things like the leaks, the investigation, etc., as opposed to the main issue, which is why we went to war with Iran."
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OPINION | Wars do not end when the bombs stop falling. They evolve. After 18 days of sustained U.S. and Israeli strikes, Iran's air force is grounded. Its navy is at the bottom of the Gulf. Its drone stockpiles, once a credible threat, are finite and shrinking. Tehran knows this. So does every intelligence analyst who is watching the situation. What Iran still has is its cyber capability. And last week, Iran used it. |
BY REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-N.Y.). REP DINA TITUS (D-NEV.) AND EDIE FALCO |
OPINION | By now, most of you have seen little Punch, a 7-month-old macaque who stole the hearts of animal lovers around the world. But while his viral moment is captivating, it reminds us of a disturbing truth: Monkeys like Punch are captured or bred and shipped into the United States every year, not to be loved, but to disappear into research labs. One of us is a Republican from New York City. One is a Democrat from Las Vegas. The third is an actress and animal welfare advocate. We do not agree on everything, but we agree on this: It is time to stop importing monkeys for experimentation. So we are calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to suspend the practice immediately. |
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The Strait of Hormuz is usually an idyllic place for a vacation. Expats stationed in Dubai travel by road to Musandam, the part of Oman that juts into the strait at its narrowest point. There they fish, snorkel in the turquoise waters and sleep on dhows.
Mohamad el Khatib, who has organized tours to Musandam for 22 years, said that when the moon is not shining, it is "the best place to watch the stars."
After all, for decades, the safety of the strait was considered more or less a sure thing, by everyone from vacationers to oil executives and gleaming, cosmopolitan Dubai. It was so strategically important to the world's energy supply that the United States policed it for over 75 years. |
BY ALLISON POHLE, AND ANVEE BHUTANI |
March 27 is a make-or-break day for TSA officers.
If Congress leaves that day for a scheduled two-week recess without reaching a deal to fund the Transportation Security Administration, officers are set to miss more than a month of paychecks.
Mounting bills and dwindling bank accounts are expected to force more officers to find new work, lengthening lines and wait times for travelers trying to pass through airport security during a busy spring break period. |
Iran's attack this week on Qatar's natural gas export facility threatens to disrupt not just world energy markets but also global technology supply chains because the helium it produces is crucial for a range of advanced industries.
Best known as the gas that makes party balloons float, helium is also a key input in chipmaking, space rockets and medical imaging.
Qatar supplies a third of the world's helium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but the nation had to halt production shortly after the war erupted three weeks ago. |
BY ANTHONY FAIOLA AND MARY ILYUSHINA |
A Russian tanker powering across the Atlantic could soon become the first real test of how far the Kremlin is willing to go to aid its old allies in Cuba amid the Trump administration's pressure campaign against Havana.
Six decades after the Cuban missile crisis brought the globe to the brink of nuclear war, the effective oil blockade the administration imposed on Cuba in January is worsening blackouts and fuel shortages on the island, bringing one of Russia's last strategic partners in the Western Hemisphere to its knees. But as President Trump threatens to "take" the country, now teetering on economic collapse, Moscow has appeared to offer little more to Havana than lip service. |
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