Politics
War in Ukraine Rallies Support in Congress for More Military Spending

WASHINGTON — From his perch as chairman of the Armed Providers Committee, Consultant Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, has lengthy lamented what he sees as a Pentagon price range bloated by inefficient spending. When hawkish lawmakers led a profitable cost final 12 months to pour practically $24 billion extra into the navy’s coffers, he opposed the transfer.
However final week, as Russian forces continued their assault on Ukraine and he contemplated the dimensions of the approaching 12 months’s navy price range, Mr. Smith sounded a unique tone.
“I haven’t picked a quantity but,” he stated, “however with out query, it’s going to should be greater than we thought.” He added: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine essentially altered what our nationwide safety posture and what our protection posture must be. It made it extra difficult, and it made it costlier.”
His shift alerts a stark new actuality dealing with President Biden on Capitol Hill, the place Democrats had already proven they’d little urge for food for controlling the protection price range, at the same time as Mr. Biden declared an finish to the period of floor wars and indicated he wished to reimagine the usage of American energy overseas.
Now, dealing with a navy onslaught by President Vladimir V. Putin in Ukraine, and rising fears of a protracted battle in Europe and an emboldened China, lawmakers in each events — together with some who had resisted prior to now — are urgent for huge will increase in navy spending to deal with a modified safety panorama.
As photographs pour out of Ukraine of cities devastated by a relentless and indiscriminate volley of Russian missiles, Democrats and Republicans who’ve struggled to coalesce behind significant laws to assist the Ukrainian trigger are rallying round one of many few substantive instruments out there to them: sending cash and weapons.
The Home this week is poised to approve $10 billion in emergency funds to Ukraine, together with $4.8 billion to cowl the prices of weapons already despatched to Ukraine and japanese flank allies, in addition to the deployment of American troops. However already on Monday, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the bulk chief, urged lawmakers might approve a $12 billion bundle, in an indication of how keen lawmakers have been to ship extra support to Kyiv. The US alone has deployed greater than 15,000 troops to Europe, whereas committing a further 12,000 to NATO’s response power if crucial.
Past funding quick wants, the consensus round extra beneficiant Pentagon spending previews a dynamic that’s prone to drive negotiations round subsequent 12 months’s protection price range, probably locking within the sort of massive will increase that Mr. Biden and plenty of Democrats had hoped to finish.
“I believe individuals are form of waking up out of this haze that we have been dwelling by some means in a safe world,” stated Consultant Elaine Luria, Democrat of Virginia, who sits on the Armed Providers Committee.
Ms. Luria added: “I used to be not happy with the price range that came to visit final 12 months from the White Home, particularly with reference to China, particularly regarding the Navy or shipbuilding, and I’ll be very dissatisfied, in mild of the brand new world state of affairs, in the event that they give you a price range like that once more.”
The speedy shift in considering is a setback for progressives who had hoped that unified Democratic management of the Home, the Senate and the White Home would translate right into a smaller Pentagon price range and a diminished footprint of American troops around the globe.
Consultant Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, stated in a short interview that she believed it was essential that the USA present Ukrainians with some defensive weapons, however added: “Do I believe that there’s a level the place it turns into an excessive amount of? Sure.”
Ms. Omar stated she was significantly fearful concerning the prospect of arming an insurgency, particularly as civilians from around the globe have flocked to Ukraine to assist push again towards the Russian Military.
“We’ve seen what the results of that was in Afghanistan, once we armed so many individuals to combat towards the Russians,” stated Ms. Omar, who was born in Somalia. “A lot of these individuals went again to their very own international locations and triggered a variety of havoc, together with the one I come from.”
Mr. Biden final weekend approved a $350 million bundle of weapons that included Javelin antitank missiles and Stinger antiaircraft missiles in addition to small arms and munitions, a cargo that represented the biggest single approved switch of arms from U.S. navy warehouses to a different nation.
Many lawmakers wish to go additional. A number of Republican senators have endorsed organising a separate fund to assist the Ukrainian resistance, signaling an urge for food to proceed arming these in Ukraine keen to combat for an prolonged time frame, even within the occasion their authorities falls.
“I wish to see extra Javelins,” stated Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the highest Republican on the Armed Providers Committee. “I wish to see extra Stingers.”
Russia-Ukraine Battle: Key Issues to Know
An emotional digital assembly on Saturday through which President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has been defiant within the face of continuous Russian assaults, pleaded with senators for extra weapons rallied extra assist for his trigger.
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, referred to as for Congress to cross a further navy support emergency spending invoice. And Consultant Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey, urged that Congress shortly approve funding to reimburse Japanese European allies if they supply Ukraine with planes or surface-to-air missiles.
“We ought to be signaling to the Poles and Romanians and others that that is one thing we’d wish to assist them do,” Mr. Malinowski stated.
Lawmakers are eyeing long-term options, too, in Europe and past. At an Armed Providers Committee listening to final week, each Republicans and Democrats endorsed growing the U.S. navy presence within the Baltics.
Consultant Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan and a former Pentagon official, referred to as Mr. Putin’s invasion “a sea change” for “how each the Protection Division and the State Division ought to take into consideration our presence in Europe.”
“I couldn’t agree extra with my colleagues who’ve talked about placing extra power in proper now,” Ms. Slotkin stated, including later, “We now have to fully re-evaluate deterrence and the way we re-establish it.”
The battle in Ukraine has additionally spurred issues that Mr. Putin’s marketing campaign will embolden President Xi Jinping, who has lengthy sought to convey Taiwan again below Chinese language rule, leaving some lawmakers to conclude that further navy assist each in Europe and within the East is important.
“Our unified response in Ukraine ought to ship a message of deterrence to Beijing of what’s going to await in the event that they invade Taiwan,” said Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana.
The dynamic has dealt a blow to these urgent to cut back navy spending, who had been counting on Democrats answerable for Washington — significantly antiwar liberals who’ve been most outspoken concerning the challenge — to paved the way.
“It’s undoubtedly a problem for progressives who have been making headway, at the very least when it comes to successful some assist on Capitol Hill,” stated Erik Sperling, the chief director of Simply International Coverage, a progressive advocacy group. “Now I believe a variety of progressive members who have been beforehand strongly with us are going to have just a little little bit of a problem doing a balancing act there.”
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.

Politics
Ilhan Omar claims no one has 'attacked Americans,' but Iran's deadly history tells different story

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As lawmakers debate what role, if any, the United States should play in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, progressive “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., made the curious claim that no one has “attacked” the United States.
“No one is attacking or has attacked Americans. It’s time to stop dragging Americans into war and letting Israel once again get America involved in their chosen war. Stand up for the Americans who believed you wanted peace and don’t commit another generation of Americans into a costly war,” Omar said in response to President Donald Trump.
Trump called for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” on Truth Social on Tuesday, and said the United States won’t strike Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei “at least not for now,” but signaled America’s “patience is wearing thin.”
A Fox News Digital report published Wednesday morning refutes Omar’s claim that Americans have not been attacked, including extensive examples of Iran’s direct and proxy strikes on U.S. forces, support for terror groups and assassination efforts.
IN IRAN’S ‘FOREVER WAR’ AGAINST THE US, REGIME HAS TARGETED AND KILLED AMERICANS WORLDWIDE
In this April 20, 2021, file photo Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., speaks in Brooklyn Center, Minn., during a news conference. (Morry Gash/AP Photo)
Omar’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s inquiry about the validity of her claim.
TRUMP PROMISES TO RESPOND WITH ‘FULL STRENGTH AND MIGHT’ OF US MILITARY IF IRAN ATTACKS AMERICA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday that Trump remains an Islamic Republic target. “They want to kill him. He’s enemy No. 1.”
The Department of Justice announced charges against an Iranian citizen and two New Yorkers in November for their role in a murder-for-hire plot targeting multiple American citizens, including Trump.
Iran bears responsibility for the deaths of 603 U.S. service members in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, according to a 2019 Pentagon report cited by the Military Times. That figure accounted for 17% of U.S. deaths in the country during the period.
In 2022, surviving family members and victims won a case against the Islamic Republic of Iran, using the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to hold the regime accountable for its support of terror actors who killed or injured 30 U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

Relatives and friends of Daisy Yitzhaki, 85, who was killed during an Iranian missile attack, mourn during her funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva, Israel, on Wednesday. (Oded Balilty/AP Photo)
Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal who testified in support of the victims, told Fox News Digital that “Iran’s support for the Taliban and al Qaeda and the impact it had on the deaths and injuries to American soldiers and civilians is incalculable.”
“Iran provided money, weapons, training, intelligence, and safe haven to Taliban subgroups across Afghanistan, including in the heart of the country in Kabul,” Roggio said.
By Roggio’s estimation, “Iran’s support for the Taliban was only rivaled by that of Pakistan. I would argue that Iran’s extensive support facilitated nearly every Taliban attack on U.S. personnel.”
In 2020, in attempted retribution for the murder of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran targeted two U.S. bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq with surface-to-surface missiles.
In 2022, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., found that Iran likewise owed damages to the families and victims of 40 U.S. service members who were injured or killed in Iraq due to Iran’s support of terrorism in the country.

Israel’s air defense targets Iranian missiles in the sky of Tel Aviv in Israel on June 16, 2025. (MATAN GOLAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2023, Sayyed Issa Tabatabai, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Lebanon, admitted during an interview with the state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that the Islamic Republic was involved in two 1983 bombings that killed Americans in Lebanon.
The bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut resulted in the deaths of 63 victims, including 17 Americans. When two suicide truck bombs exploded at the barracks of multinational forces in Lebanon, 220 Marines, 18 U.S. Navy sailors and three U.S. Army soldiers were killed, and 58 French troops were murdered.
Between October 2023 and August 2024, Iranian-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq militias launched 180 attacks against U.S. forces in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Throughout their “decades of experience,” Roggio said, Iraqi militias “are estimated to have killed more than 600 U.S. service members.”
In January 2024, three Americans were killed, and 25 others were wounded in a drone attack on an outpost in Jordan near the border with Syria. Two Iranians, one of whom had dual U.S. citizenship, were charged in connection with the attack.
At the time of the attack, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Iranian proxies had “launched over 150 attacks on U.S. troops” following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

Smoke rises from the building of Iran’s state-run television after an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, on Monday. (AP Photo)
Roggio reported that on June 14, Iranian-backed militias “launched three drones” at Ain al Assad, a U.S. base in western Iraq. The drones were shot down before reaching their target.
He said that the drone attack appeared to be an “unsanctioned strike by an unnamed Iranian militia. Unlike past attacks, no group has claimed credit, and there have been no follow-on strikes.” He believes Iran “wants to keep the U.S. out of the fight, as the U.S. military has the capability to hit the underground nuclear facility at Fordow.”
Politics
California decarbonization projects are among two dozen eliminated by Trump's Department of Energy

California Democrats are denouncing the Trump administration’s decision to terminate $3.7 billion in funding for two dozen clean energy projects, including three in the Golden State.
The 24 awards recently canceled by the U.S. Department of Energy were issued by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations under the Biden administration and primarily focused on carbon capture and sequestration and decarbonization initiatives. Trump officials said the projects do not “advance the energy needs of the American people” and would not generate a positive return on investment for taxpayers.
“While the previous administration failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars, the Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment,” DOE Secretary Chris Wright wrote in his announcement about the terminations.
One of the largest cuts was a $500-million award for the National Cement Company of California, whose first-of-its-kind Net-Zero Project in Lebec was geared toward developing carbon-neutral cement. Cement production is notoriously emission-intensive, accounting for as much as 8% of planet-warming greenhouse gases due to both the high heat needed in the process and its byproducts.
National Cement Company officials said the project would capture up to 1 million tons of CO2 per year — effectively the entire emissions profile of its cement plant near the border of Los Angeles and Kern counties — but also would act as a roadmap for the cement industry as a whole.
“As we understand the new priorities of the U.S. Department of Energy, we want to emphasize that this project will expand domestic manufacturing capacity for a critical industrial sector, while also integrating new technologies to keep American cement competitive,” the company said in an email. It is now exploring options to keep the project alive.
The funding cuts arrive amid sweeping changes driven by Trump’s orders to rein in federal spending and “unleash American energy.” The president has removed barriers for fossil fuel companies, such as regulations that limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and called for increased oil and gas drilling and natural resources mining.
California, meanwhile, has set some of the nation’s most ambitious decarbonization goals, including its aim to reach carbon neutrality by 2045. Environmental experts, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, say capturing and storing carbon will be essential for slowing global warming, in addition to efforts to reduce overall carbon emissions.
In a letter to Wright dated Tuesday, California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla said the terminations “run counter to our shared interest in boosting energy production, innovation, and economic vitality.” They urged Wright to reinstate the projects.
“The United States cannot afford to halt our progress and hinder American companies’ efforts to move beyond outdated technologies if we hope to remain competitive and truly energy dominant around the globe,” the senators wrote. “These irrational cancellations will increase energy prices, hamper innovation, and set us backwards as we strive toward a clean energy future.”
The cement project wasn’t the only one canceled in California. The DOE also terminated a $270-million award for an air-cooled carbon capture and sequestration facility at the Sutter Energy Center, a natural gas power plant in Yuba City. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing CO2 and preventing it from entering the atmosphere by storing it underground, in aquifers or other geologic formations.
The Sutter project was projected to reduce emissions from the plant by up to 95% and capture and store up to 1.75 million metric tons of CO2 each year, according to its federal project page.
The federal government also canceled $75 million for a project at the Gallo Glass Company in Modesto, which would have demonstrated the viability of replacing gas-powered furnaces with a hybrid electric melter, reducing natural gas use by as much as 70%, the federal database shows.
Schiff and Padilla said all of the awards were provided through legally binding contract agreements between the recipients and the federal government, and so cannot be canceled “on a political whim.”
For its part, the DOE said it arrived at its decisions following a thorough and individualized financial review of each project, which found that they “did not meet the economic, national security or energy security standards necessary to sustain DOE’s investment.”
However, the terminations also appear to run counter to the administration’s own public commitments. The White House on Earth Day said Trump seeks to promote energy innovation “by supporting cutting-edge technologies like carbon capture and storage, nuclear energy, and next-generation geothermal.”
The DOE eliminated funding for projects across the country, including in Texas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Wyoming, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, Arizona and Nevada.
But the cancellations in California mark yet another affront to the climate conscious state, which has in recent weeks also seen the Trump administration overturn its ability to set strict tailpipe emission standards and eventually ban the sale of new gas-powered gars. The state is suing the administration over that decision.
Politics
Video: ICE Agents Arrest Brad Lander at New York Immigration Court

new video loaded: ICE Agents Arrest Brad Lander at New York Immigration Court
transcript
transcript
ICE Agents Arrest Brad Lander at New York Immigration Court
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a candidate for mayor, after he tried to steer a migrant out of the building to avoid his arrest.
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“Do you have a judicial warrant? Do you have a judicial warrant? Can I see the judicial warrant? Can I see the warrant? I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant. Where is it? Where is the warrant?” “Take a step back. Step back, step back.” “You don’t have authority to arrest U.S. citizens. You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens. You don’t have — I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant.”
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