War Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a task force to evaluate senior service colleges to ensure they are not tainted by woke ideology and offer quality education.

“Professional Military Education should produce warfighters and leaders—not wokesters,” he asserted in a post on X.

“That’s why we are establishing a Task Force to evaluate our Senior Service Colleges and ensure the focus is where it belongs. No distractions. Just warfighting,” the post adds.

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Hegseth’s post includes a video message in which he said, “I’m directing the undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness to establish a task force effective immediately.”

“The mission of that task force is to evaluate our senior service colleges, where we educate our own: Think places like the Army War College, or National Defense University, the Naval War College, Marine Corps University or the Air War College, where our senior officers go to continue their education,” he explained.

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He indicated that the War Department will “make sure that what we’ve seen in our civilian institutions never surface in our military education institutions. Trust me. I’ve heard the stories. I know some of our own senior service colleges … have similar courses and similar ideologies. We need to rip ‘em out. And we’re going to. This task force will have 90 days to assess whether our Senior Service Colleges … are actually effective.”

“And if we’re pulling officers out of civilian universities because they’re too woke, then we better make sure our own universities are prepared to do the task properly,” he said.

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Hegseth’s message came as the U.S. continues waging war against the Islamic Republic of Iran in conjunction with Israel.

MEXICO CITY — Cuba has begun direct talks with the United States in an effort to solve “bilateral differences” between the two countries, Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel said Friday.

The comments, broadcast nationwide in Cuba, are the first confirmation of bilateral talks between the Trump administration and Cuban government. The U.S. and Cuban governments have been fierce adversaries for almost 70 years, since Fidel Castro’s revolution toppled the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

What exactly the talks are about remains unclear, but the Trump administration — which has choked off oil supplies to the island, triggering a severe energy crisis — has been insisting that Cuba’s communist government must change.

Díaz Canel’s comments were deliberately vague, but clearly indicated that the nation’s energy-driven crisis — and President Trump’s insistence on a change — had brought Havana to the table. He insisted that the “sovereignty and self-determination” of Cuba would be respected.

“The aim of these talks is, in the first place, to identify which are the bilateral problems that need a solution,” Diaz Canel said. “And, on the other hand, find solutions for those problems that have been identified.”

From the perspective of Trump, the principal bilateral “problem” is an entrenched communist bureaucracy that has not adjusted to the modern era.

Cuban officials have long blamed the more than 60-year U.S. trade embargo for its economic woes.

The Cuban announcement comes 13 days after the U.S. attacked Iran and two months after U.S. forces, deployed by Trump, deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime Cuban ally, and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Speculation about a political transition in Havana has centered on a Venezuela-type scenario in which leadership viewed as antagonistic to Washington is somehow sidelined in favor of a Trump-friendly replacement.

Many Cuba-watchers have wondered who among the leadership could possibly emerge as kind of Delcy Rodriguez, the acting president of Venezuela. She has been following Trump’s dictates since the U.S. special forces raid on Caracas captured Maduro and his wife.

Rumors of direct talks between Cuba and the United States have been circulating for months, but neither Washington nor Havana had confirmed the talks until now.

On Tuesday, the Cuban ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres Rivera, told The Times that the Cuban government was “ready to engage with the U.S. on the issues that are important for the bilateral relations, and to talk about those in which we have differences.”

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, have been insistent that the current government must change.

“It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover,” Trump told Latin American leaders gathered in Florida on Monday.

“It wouldn’t matter because they’re down to, as they say, fumes. They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble,” Trump said.

Trump responded to the Cuban leader’s willingness to negotiate on Friday morning by amplifying a news article with the headline: “Cuba confirms talks with Trump officials, raising hopes for US deal.” He posted that on his Truth Social account.

Rolling blackouts, shortages of food and medicine, a lack of gasoline and other shortfalls have become everyday occurrences on the island, home to 10 million. Images of uncollected garbage rotting on Havana’s streets have been broadcast across the globe. A lack of jet fuel has bludgeoned the critical tourism sector.

“The status quo is unsustainable,” Rubio said last month. “Cuba needs to change… And it doesn’t have to be change all at once. It doesn’t have to change from one day to the next.”

In his 90-minute address, Díaz Canel said that discussions with Washington were based on “respect for the political systems of both countries, sovereignty and our government’s self-determination,” suggesting that from Cuba’s perspective, sweeping political changes in the Communist country were not being considered.

Michel Fernandez Perez, vice director of the Florida-based NGO Cuba Proxima, which pushes for democratic change in Cuba, said he believes leaders in Havana will agree to economic and other changes if it allows them to maintain some degree of political power.

Fernandez said most Cuban Americans are hoping for a full democratic transition in Cuba, where a range of political parties would be able to compete in elections, as well as a free market transformation.

But he said his group, at least, would support less sweeping changes as long as they improved the lives of people living on the island.

“If it means that Cubans live in less misery and have more opportunity, we would support that,” he said.

It is impossible to say what will happen in the negotiations, he said, because Trump is so unpredictable.

“It’s hard to predict what the United States wants or will achieve,” he said. “The [Trump] government is not guided by principals or laws, but the whims of the president and his personal desires and interests.”

McDonnell and Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Ceballos from Washington. Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., on Thursday renewed the push for his bill to expand the denaturalization process for people who commit fraud, serious felonies or join terrorist organizations.

Schmitt brought up his legislation, the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act, after a naturalized citizen originally from Lebanon allegedly rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue and a naturalized citizen originally from Sierra Leone allegedly opened fire at Old Dominion University in separate incidents on Thursday in the latest violent attacks in the U.S. committed by naturalized citizens.

“After the SAVE America Act, we must pass the SCAM Act so we can denaturalize & deport those who are here to hurt Americans,” Schmitt said on X, referring to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require voters in federal elections to prove citizenship by providing a photo ID and other documentation, such as a passport or birth certificate.

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“We must denaturalize those who shouldn’t be here,” the senator continued.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, was shot and killed by security officers on Thursday after driving through Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit before the vehicle caught on fire, according to authorities.

Ghazali arrived in the U.S. 15 years ago on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016, the Department of Homeland Security said.

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Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, served in the Virginia National Guard from 2009 until he received an honorable discharge in 2015. Previously convicted of attempting to offer material support to the Islamic State, Jalloh reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University on Thursday, killing one person and wounding two others. The gunman was also killed.

In another incident earlier this month, a shooting was carried out outside a bar in Austin, Texas, by a naturalized citizen, Ndiaga Diagne, 53, who was born in Senegal, leaving three people dead and more than a dozen wounded.

Schmitt’s SCAM Act was originally introduced in January in response to allegations of fraud by Somalians in Minnesota.

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“American citizenship is a privilege, and anyone hoping to be a part of our great nation must demonstrate a sincere attachment to our Constitution, upstanding moral character, and a commitment to the happiness and good order of the United States,” he said at the time.

“People who commit felony fraud, serious felonies, or join terrorist organizations like drug cartels shortly after taking their citizenship oaths fail to uphold the basic standards of citizenship,” the lawmaker added. “They must be denaturalized because they have proven they never met the requirements for the great honor of American citizenship in the first place. We must protect and restore the institution of American citizenship.”