Source: United States Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Telecommunications and Media Subcommittee, released the following statement on the House Republican bill that proposes auctioning off critical spectrum to fund tax handouts for the wealthiest Americans and corporate special interests, rather than investing in expanding broadband access:
“Tucked into House Republicans’ massive giveaway for the wealthiest Americans is a plan to auction off 600 MHz of spectrum — bypassing the committee process, ignoring bipartisan concerns, and doing nothing to connect more Americans to affordable, reliable internet.
“There is strong bipartisan concern about handing over this spectrum. Yet House Republicans are moving ahead at President Trump’s directive, prioritizing billionaires over the urgent need to invest in broadband access.”
Senator Luján has built bipartisan support to use spectrum auction proceeds to expand broadband access. Last Congress, Senator Luján led a bipartisan amendment with Senators Daines, Welch, Vance, Rosen, and Wicker to use $9 billion of spectrum auction proceeds to fund critical communications infrastructure and affordability. The Senate Commerce Committee passed legislation to do the same. Democrats in the House and Senate worked to include this policy in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2025, authorizing $3.08 in spectrum auction proceed from the AWS-3 auction and fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, removing security vulnerabilities from critical infrastructure.
Radio spectrum (“spectrum”) is the continuum of frequencies used to provide wireless services, such as radio broadcasting, mobile communications, and satellite services. Since Congress first authorized the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to auction spectrum in the 1990’s, the FCC has raised over $250 billion in revenue. As Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, Senator Luján has jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that conducts spectrum auction and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that is responsible for managing spectrum for federal agencies including the Department of Defense.
Source: United States Senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar
WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) will travel to Ottawa, Canada as a part of a bipartisan delegation with Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
While in Ottawa, the Senators will meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Foreign Minister Anita Anand, Minister of National Defense David McGuinty, Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly, the Business Council of Canada, and other leading Canadian companies and business groups.
“Canada is Minnesota’s neighbor, top trading partner and close friend. We share a deep bond grounded in trust and a shared commitment to democracy,” said Klobuchar. “I look forward to meeting with Canadian leaders to discuss how we can strengthen our partnership and bolster our trade relationship in the wake of President Trump’s across-the-board tariffs.”
Senator Klobuchar is Co-Chair of the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group.
This week, Klobuchar joined Cramer and Kaine in introducing a bipartisan resolution to recognize the U.S.-Canada partnership and its shared interests in economic, energy and critical minerals, and national security.
In April, Klobuchar’s bipartisan resolution with Kaine and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) to reverse President Trump’s across-the-board tariffs on Canadian goods passed the Senate.
Headline: Statement from Governor Josh Stein on FEMA Ending Direct Assistance
Statement from Governor Josh Stein on FEMA Ending Direct Assistance lsaito
Raleigh, NC
Governor Josh Stein today released the following statement regarding FEMA’s notification that it will no longer provide direct federal assistance for the US Army Corps of Engineers:
“I want to thank FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for its hard work to clear debris all over western North Carolina. I am pleased that they will stay in North Carolina to finish existing missions, and my team looks forward to working closely with them to get those jobs done quickly. Together, we have removed more than 12 million cubic yards of debris from our roads and waterways. Unfortunately, there remains vast amounts of work yet to be done. Our state’s debris removal program is prepared to contract and execute the remaining debris removal and will work diligently and with urgency to complete those jobs as soon as possible.
“We continue to ask President Trump to respond favorably to the state’s appeal for 100% FEMA reimbursement. This is a critical part of the state’s successful recovery. If not, North Carolina taxpayers will be responsible for a portion of the cost to remove the remaining debris, which could total hundreds of millions of dollars.”
NAPLES, Italy – U.S. 6th Fleet Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) and USS Bulkeley (DDG 84) conducted two separate live-fire events as part of exercise At Sea Demonstration (ASD) / Formidable Shield (FS) 25. U.S. Navy destroyers are equipped with the Aegis weapons systems designed for ballistic missile defense.
SAN DIEGO – The U.S. Navy is strengthening maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region through a $125 million initiative designed to enhance India’s maritime domain awareness. Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific is playing a central role in the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) program, a flagship effort under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy.
When most people hear the term “U.S. Navy Special Operations,” they typically think of Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams (SEALs), as the elite, unconventional warfare experts who endure the hardest training the U.S. military has to offer. But while SEALs are deserving of the high esteem in which they are held, the team often overshadows the other exclusive roles that comprise the Navy Special Ops community – Aviation Rescue Swimmers, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians, Hospital Corpsmen-Advanced Technical Field, Divers, and Special Warfare Combat Crewmen.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Iain Boyd, Director of the Center for National Security Initiatives and Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
Posters that President Donald Trump used to announce Golden Dome depict missile defense as a shield.AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
President Donald Trump announced a plan to build a missile defense system, called the Golden Dome, on May 20, 2025. The system is intended to protect the United States from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, and missiles launched from space.
Trump is calling for the current budget to allocate US$25 billion to launch the initiative, which the government projected will cost $175 billion. He said Golden Dome will be fully operational before the end of his term in three years and will provide close to 100% protection.
The Conversation U.S. asked Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineer and director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder, about the Golden Dome plan and the feasibility of Trump’s claims. Boyd receives funding for research unrelated to Golden Dome from defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
Why does the United States need a missile shield?
Several countries, including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, have been developing missiles over the past few years that challenge the United States’ current missile defense systems.
These weapons include updated ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, and new hypersonic missiles. They have been specifically developed to counter America’s highly advanced missile defense systems such as the Patriot and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System.
For example, the new hypersonic missiles are very high speed, operate in a region of the atmosphere where nothing else flies and are maneuverable. All of these aspects combined create a new challenge that requires a new, updated defensive approach.
So it’s reasonable to think that, to ensure the protection of its homeland and to aid its allies, the U.S. may need a new missile defense capability.
Ukrainian forces are using the U.S.-made Patriot missile defense system against Russian ballistic missiles.
What are the components of a national missile defense system?
Such a defense system requires a global array of geographically distributed sensors that cover all phases of all missile trajectories.
First, it is essential for the system to detect the missile threats as early as possible after launch, so some of the sensors must be located close to regions where adversaries may fire them, such as by China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Then, it has to track the missiles along their trajectories as they travel hundreds or thousands of miles.
These requirements are met by deploying a variety of sensors on a number of different platforms on the ground, at sea, in the air and in space. Interceptors are placed in locations that protect vital U.S. assets and usually aim to engage threats during the middle portion of the trajectory between launch and the terminal dive.
The U.S. already has a broad array of sensors and interceptors in place around the world and in space primarily to protect the U.S. and its allies from ballistic missiles. The sensors would need to be expanded, including with more space-based sensors, to detect new missiles such as hypersonic missiles. The interceptors would need to be enhanced to enable them to address hypersonic weapons and other missiles and warheads that can maneuver.
Does this technology exist?
Intercepting hypersonic missiles specifically involves several steps.
First, as explained above, a hostile missile must be detected and identified as a threat. Second, the threat must be tracked along all of its trajectory due to the ability of hypersonic missiles to maneuver. Third, an interceptor missile must be able to follow the threat and get close enough to it to disable or destroy it.
The main new challenge here is the ability to track the hypersonic missile continuously. This requires new types of sensors to detect hypersonic vehicles and new sensor platforms that are able to provide a complete picture of the hypersonic trajectory. As described, Golden Dome would use the sensors in a layered approach in which they are installed on a variety of platforms in multiple domains, including ground, sea, air and space.
These various platforms would need to have different types of sensors that are specifically designed to track hypersonic threats in different phases of their flight paths. These defensive systems will also be designed to address weapons fired from space. Much of the infrastructure will be multipurpose and able to defend against a variety of missile types.
In terms of time frame for deployment, it is important to note that Golden Dome will build from the long legacy of existing U.S. missile defense systems. Another important aspect of Golden Dome is that some of the new capabilities have been under active development for years. In some ways, Golden Dome represents the commitment to actually deploy systems for which considerable progress has already been made.
Is near 100% protection a realistic claim?
Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system has been described as the most effective system of its kind anywhere in the world.
But even Iron Dome is not 100% effective, and it has also been overwhelmed on occasion by Hamas and others who fire very large numbers of inexpensive missiles and rockets at it. So it is unlikely that any missile defense system will ever provide 100% protection.
The more important goal here is to achieve deterrence, similar to the stalemate in the Cold War with the Soviet Union that was based on nuclear weapons. All of the new weapons that Golden Dome will defend against are very expensive. The U.S. is trying to change the calculus in an opponent’s thinking to the point where they will consider it not worth shooting their precious high-value missiles at the U.S. when they know there is a high probability of them not reaching their targets.
CBS News covered President Donald Trump’s announcement.
Is three years a feasible time frame?
That seems to me like a very aggressive timeline, but with multiple countries now operating hypersonic missiles, there is a real sense of urgency.
Existing missile defense systems on the ground, at sea and in the air can be expanded to include new, more capable sensors. Satellite systems are beginning to be put in place for the space layer. Sensors have been developed to track the new missile threats.
Putting all of this highly complex system together, however, is likely to take more than three years. At the same time, if the U.S. fully commits to Golden Dome, a significant amount of progress can be made in this time.
What does the president’s funding request tell you?
President Trump is requesting a total budget for all defense spending of about $1 trillion in 2026. So, $25 billion to launch Golden Dome would represent only 2.5% of the total requested defense budget.
Of course, that is still a lot of money, and a lot of other programs will need to be terminated to make it possible. But it is certainly financially achievable.
How will Golden Dome differ from Iron Dome?
Similar to Iron Dome, Golden Dome will consist of sensors and interceptor missiles but will be deployed over a much wider geographical region and for defense against a broader variety of threats in comparison with Iron Dome.
A second-generation Golden Dome system in the future would likely use directed energy weapons such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves to destroy missiles. This approach would significantly increase the number of shots that defenders can take against ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles.
Iain Boyd receives funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed-Martin Corporation, a defense contractor that sells missile defense systems and could potentially benefit from the implementation of Golden Dome.
Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall
Washington – U.S. Senators Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) today reintroduced the Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development (FEED) Act – bipartisan legislation that would establish a pathway at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for novel feed additives and increase livestock efficiency and production.
“The agricultural industry sets the gold standard when it comes to livestock production,” Senator Marshall said. “Back home, producers are committed to making more with less and leaving the world safer, cleaner, and healthier than they found it. However, outdated regulations are holding back our feed industry and forcing innovations to happen overseas instead of here in America. I’m proud to work with Senators Moran, Baldwin, and Bennet to develop a bipartisan solution that will increase our ranchers’ access to the products they need and support rural America.”
“This legislation will help bolster the animal feed industry and make certain producers in Kansas and across the country continue to have access to feed additives that support animal nutrition,” Senator Moran said. “By expanding research and reducing bureaucratic hurdles at the FDA, more of these products will be available to farmers, encouraging a stronger food supply chain.”
“Wisconsin farmers and ranchers should have the tools they need to grow their businesses and compete on the world stage. Right now, we know there are additives farmers could be using to reduce their environmental impact and provide nutritive benefits to their livestock, but bureaucratic red tape is holding them back,” Senator Baldwin said. “I’m proud to work with Republicans and Democrats to break down barriers for our farmers, help them access these innovative products, and support our rural economies.”
“While producers in Europe and South America are using innovative feed additives to stay competitive, bureaucratic red tape has left America’s cattlemen and dairy farmers without any options. We need to create a level playing field for Colorado’s livestock industry by giving them every available tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the sustainability of their farms and ranches, while ensuring health and safety,” Senator Bennet said.
Joining Senators Marshall, Moran, Baldwin, and Bennet are Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Angus King (I-Maine), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota).
“Iowa farmers and ranchers feed the world with the best products available. Now, it’s time for Congress to remove bureaucratic hurdles at the FDA so products can safely get to market faster and producers can access more tools. Our bill will bolster our food supply chain and ensure America remains globally competitive in animal feed products,” Senator Grassley said.
“Everyone benefits when healthy livestock produce safe, high-quality meat and dairy products – and that begins with how they eat,” Senator King said. “Unfortunately, manufacturers of supplemental additives to livestock feed face needless, burdensome hurdles and bureaucratic red tape which prevents farmers and ranchers from getting their hands on new, innovative products. The bipartisan Innovative FEED Act will expedite the period between the early stages of development and regulatory approval – creating a level playing ground for the agricultural industry and ensuring healthier, sustainable options for consumers.”
The legislation is endorsed by the American Feed Industry Association, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), Environmental Defense Fund, North American Renderers Association, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).
“The animal food industry envisions a healthier world for both people and animals through advanced animal food solutions, but the FDA’s outdated review system has not kept up with the pace of innovation,” said Constance Cullman, President and CEO of American Feed Industry Association. “Thanks to Senator Marshall’s continued leadership, Congress now has the ability to pursue a legislative fix that would give the FDA the tools it needs to more appropriately review new animal food ingredients with non-nutritive benefits. The AFIA thanks Senators Marshall, Baldwin, Moran, Bennett, King, and Grassley for introducing the Innovative FEED Act.”
“Supporting the Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development Act is a critical step toward empowering American farmers with the tools they need to drive innovation in agriculture,” said Chuck Conner, President and CEO of National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. “By modernizing the regulatory process, this legislation paves the way for the introduction of advanced feed technologies that can improve livestock production, reduce environmental impact, and enhance economic opportunities for farmers across the country.”
“We commend Sens. Roger Marshall, Tammy Baldwin, Jerry Moran, and Michael Bennet for their bipartisan Innovative FEED Act to modernize the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory framework for approving animal feed ingredients. U.S. dairy farmers benefit from access to safe and effective feed additives as they continue to innovate on multiple fronts,” said Gregg Doud, president and CEO, National Milk Producers Federation. “The bipartisan initiative led by Sens. Marshall, Baldwin, Moran, and Bennet will help them do just that, and we look forward to working with them to enact this bill into law.”
“We commend Senator Marshall and his colleagues for recognizing the importance of modernizing the regulatory framework for animal feed ingredients,” said NGFA President and CEO Mike Seyfert. “This bipartisan legislation demonstrates continued momentum for commonsense reform that promotes innovation, supports U.S. agricultural competitiveness, and protects food safety. The Senate’s engagement brings us one step closer to aligning U.S. policy with other global competitors who have already modernized their systems. NGFA urges Congress to act swiftly and pass this critical legislation.”
“The North American Renderers Association (NARA) strongly supports the Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development (Innovative FEED) Act,” said Kent Swisher, President and CEO, North American Renderers Association. “This commonsense, bipartisan legislation is critical to advancing innovation and sustainability in animal agriculture and feed production. NARA thanks the Senators Marshall, Moran, Bennet, and Baldwin for leading legislation that will allow U.S. renderers and feed manufacturers to more rapidly adopt new technologies that enhance animal welfare, improve feed efficiency, and reduce the environmental footprint of animal agriculture.”
“IDFA members and dairy farmers need innovative, science-backed tools that help lower methane emissions in the dairy supply chain,” said Michael Dykes, D.V.M., president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). “We support the Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development Act because it will create an appropriate regulatory pathway for some of these promising enteric methane technologies, which provide environmental benefits and new market opportunities for farmers, and we thank Senator Marshall, R-KS, Senator Baldwin, D-WI, Senator Moran, R-KS, and Senator Bennet, D-CO, for this bipartisan effort.”
“NASDA supports the Innovative FEED Act’s goals to promote voluntary adoption of innovative new tools producers can use to increase the efficiency of their livestock operations,” said NASDA CEO Ted McKinney. “Most state departments of agriculture inspect and regulate animal feed ingredients, which will include the new products covered under this legislation. This bipartisan legislation is important and timely to ensure that producers, regulators, and the feed industry can collaborate to increase innovation amidst a competitive market in a way that is safe for animals, producers, and consumers.”
The full text of the legislation can be found here.
Background:
American livestock and dairy producers are essential to American communities and are among the top exporters in the global market. Part of what makes these industries the best in the world is their commitment to innovation and the utilization of the latest technologies to improve production while also reducing their environmental footprint.
As the original conservationists, farmers, and ranchers steward the land and rely on feed additives to improve the quality and efficiency of meat and dairy. However, innovation to meet these growing demands has stalled due to outdated, one-size-fits-all federal policies.
Over the years, agricultural stakeholders have called for the development and marketing of safe and effective feed additives that can be used in animal food to improve livestock production. Global competitors have been working to meet this demand. Europe, Asia, and South America have updated their policies to have feed products on the market that demonstrate increased efficiency in meat production and byproduct and waste reduction.
The Innovative FEED Act would:
Amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, establishing a new category in the animal food additive petition process to cover ingredients that address animal health, food safety, or environmental benefits in an animal’s diet.
Help American livestock producers cut regulatory red tape while adding value to their products and remaining competitive on a global scale.
Ensures farmers are rewarded for participating in voluntary, producer-led sustainability efforts, and market their products to companies and nations that have set climate reduction goals.
Modernize the approval process by establishing a new pathway for manufacturers to receive approval for feed additives that improve efficiency in meat and dairy production while also reducing byproducts.
Establish strict guardrails to ensure only qualifying products are eligible for this pathway while also ensuring products are safe to use.
Source: United States Senator for Alabama Tommy Tuberville
“We may never have met Michael or Jason, yet they courageously were willing to give their lives for their fellow Americans. We will continue to share their stories to ensure their sacrifices are never forgotten.”
WASHINGTON – This week, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) honored two of Alabama’s fallen soldiers and their families in advance of Memorial Day. On the Senate floor, Senator Tuberville shared the stories of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Michael Wesley Hosey of Clay and U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Jason Barfield of Ashford.
Earlier this month, Senator Tuberville also introduced a resolution that would designate May 2025 as “Fallen Heroes Memorial Month.”
Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s remarks can be found below and his full remarks can be found on Rumble or YouTube.
MICHAEL WESLEY HOSEY
“For U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Michael Wesley Hosey, there was never a question in anyone’s mind as to what he wanted to do when he grew up. Every Career Day, he would always dress up as a soldier. Michael loved reading about history —and he loved our country. So much so, that his friends and family gave him the nickname, ‘’Merican…’”
“Because Michael was only 17 when he graduated from Clay-Chalkville High School, his dad, also named Michael, had to sign his permission for him to enlist in the Army. As a Vietnam veteran, the elder Michael knew all too well what his son was signing up for. Yet, the Hosey family supported Michael’s decision to serve his country. There’s no question that this courageous young man also came from a courageous family.”
“Michael had a giving heart and continued to earn the trust of the locals—especially all the kids. His sister Laurie recalls him always asking his family to send candy when they sent him a package. At first, she found this odd because Michael wasn’t a big candy eater, but they’d always send Skittles or gum. She later realized Michael wasn’t asking for candy [for] himself—but to share with all the kids in the country. Sadly, Michael lost his life on September 17, 2011, during Operation Enduring Freedom—one week before his 28th birthday. When sharing his story, Laurie wants us to remember that ‘Freedom is not free.’ It’s a reality that her and Michael’s parents—Condi and the older Michael—still carry with them every single day.”
JASON BARFIELD
“Jason lived his life with the goal of making a difference. His mom Kelli says that Jason believed that there was good in everyone—even if you couldn’t find it at first, that just meant just to dig a little bit deeper. Jason lived by the motto that ‘Every Day is A Good Day.’ He also had a gift for music and was in the band at Ashford, Alabama, High school. He enjoyed singing in church, playing the saxophone, and was teaching himself to play the piano. Jason’s hard work and talents earned him a four-year band scholarship to Huntington College—but he chose to forego the scholarship to enlist in the Marines, because he wanted to be part of the best.”
“Jason surprised his family for Christmas in 2010 and spoke about his new goal to re-enlist in the military and become a chaplain. The Barfield’s didn’t know this would be their last holiday that they would spend together. Jason was killed in action on October 24, 2011, at the young age of 22. Sensing the danger that was ahead, Jason pushed eight of his fellow Marines, a native translator, and a K-9 out of the way from the booby trap explosion that would claim his own life. Jason’s platoon Sergeant Gunney Thrash, said, ‘His name and his actions for his fellow Marines will outlive all of us.’”
ON IMPORTANCE OF MEMORIAL DAY
“Michael Wesley Hosey and Jason Barfield are two young men who never got to start a family or fully pursue their dreams. We are forever grateful and indebted to them for their sacrifice that gives us the assurance to continue to sing the national anthem, not with a question mark—but with a declaration that we are the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave.’ I’m reminded of the words in John 15:13—’Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.’ We may never have met Michael or Jason, yet they courageously were willing to give their lives for their fellow Americans. We will continue to share their stories to ensure their sacrifices are never forgotten. As Memorial Day approaches, I hope we take the time to honor America’s fallen, along with the brave families who have been left behind. May we never forget that freedom is not free.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.
Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)
Padilla, Schiff, Murray, Cantwell Call Out Trump’s Outrageous, Partisan Decision to Slash Flood Protection Funding for Blue States
Army Corps work plan zeroes out hundreds of millions of dollars for key California and Washington waterway construction projects, among others — steering hundreds of millions to red states
WATCH: Padilla, Schiff blast the gutting of critical California water infrastructure funding
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, joined the Washington state Senate delegation for a press conference calling out President Trump’s outrageous, overtly political decision to zero out critical funding for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects in blue states like California and Washington while steering hundreds of millions more to red states.
Senators Padilla, Schiff, Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) criticized the Army Corps’ plan released late last week that announced their intention to zero out all Army Corps construction funding for California ($126 million), as well as cut $500 million for the Howard Hanson Dam in Washington state. This funding was included in the Corps’ Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget request, in the Senate’s bipartisan draft FY 2025 funding bill, and even in House Republicans’ draft FY 2025 funding bill. But the Trump Administration — using the new discretion afforded by the yearlong continuing resolution House Republicans drafted that was signed into law — ignored the draft bills and instead apportioned funding on a brazenly political basis.
The four California flood control projects losing Army Corps funding include the American River Common Features Levee Improvement Project, the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project, the Lower San Joaquin River Project, and the West Sacramento Project. These projects will protect some of the most at-risk areas in the nation, including Sacramento County, which the Corps considers the most at-risk region for catastrophic flooding in the United States.
“When anyone takes the oath of office, even Donald Trump as President of the United States, you become the president for all Americans — not just for red states or for blue states, but for every state and every community equally,” said Senator Padilla. “Yet, since the minute Donald Trump returned to office, he’s set out to politicize the office he holds, now trying to take hundreds of millions of dollars in flood prevention funding away from the states that happened to not vote for him and redirect them to projects in states that supported his election. It’s absolutely wrong. In California, that means cutting every last dollar of funding that was allocated for certain flood control projects. For a president so obsessed with fighting waste, fraud, and abuse, I know where he can find it. He just has to look in the mirror. Communities up and down California — including farmers and farm workers in the Central Valley and Pajaro — will now be at a higher risk of flooding because Donald Trump’s playing politics with federal funding.”
“Natural disasters don’t discriminate based on whether a state is red or blue, and the administration and Congress shouldn’t either when it comes to protecting communities from natural disasters. This puts us on a very dangerous path, a path where anything can be on the chopping block for a partisan reason. Today, it’s funding for these projects. Tomorrow, it could be another form of funding meant to save lives. There will be a domino effect of threats aimed at blue states. When you’re elected to be president of the United States. You’re not a half president. You’re not president for only half of the country, not if you do the job right. These baseless attacks threaten millions of people from both parties whose lives are endangered by floods,” said Senator Schiff.
Overall, the Army Corps’ plans would steer roughly $258 million more in construction funding to red states while ripping away roughly $437 million in construction funding for blue states, relative to the Corps’ FY 2025 request, which was fully funded in the draft FY 2025 bills that were produced on a bipartisan basis in the Senate and by Republicans in the House. These requests have historically been fully funded. Trump’s work plan steers two thirds of all Army Corps construction funding to red states while the budget request and House and Senate bills would have split that funding evenly to red and blue states.
Padilla and Schiff voted against the continuing resolution earlier this year, which cut the Army Corps’ construction account by 44 percent.
Senator Padilla has fought tirelessly for California communities devastated by atmospheric river flooding. Last spring, he urged the Biden Administration to prioritize sustained federal investment in the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project to protect disadvantaged communities along the central coast of California. In 2023, he met with families, small business owners, and farmers in Watsonville and Pajaro impacted by extreme storms after he and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18) successfully led the California Congressional delegation in urging the Biden Administration to approve a Major Disaster Declaration.
Additionally, Padilla successfully pushed for the inclusion of a study on the impact of extreme weather on Army Corps dams and levees in the Water Resources Development Act of 2024.
Video of Senator Padilla’s full remarks is available here, and Senator Schiff’s full remarks can be viewed here.
For the past 75 years, America’s nuclear umbrella has been the keystone that has kept East Asia’s great‑power rivalries from turning atomic.
President Donald Trump’s second‑term “strategic reset” now threatens to crack that arch.
By pressuring allies to shoulder more of the defence burden, hinting that US forces might walk if the cheques do not clear and flirting with a return to nuclear testing, Washington is signalling that its once‑ironclad nuclear guarantee is, at best, negotiable.
In Seoul, Tokyo and even Taipei, a once-unthinkable idea — building nuclear weapons — has begun to look disturbingly pragmatic.
Nuclear umbrella starting to fray
Extended deterrence is the promise the United States will use its own nuclear weapons, if necessary, to repel an attack on an ally.
The logic is brutally simple: if North Korea contemplates a strike on South Korea, it must fear an American retaliatory strike, as well.
The pledge allows allies to forgo their own bombs, curbing nuclear proliferation while reinforcing US influence.
The idea dates to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “New Look” military strategy, which relied on the threat of “massive retaliation” against the Soviet Union to defend Europe and Asia at a discount: fewer troops, more warheads.
John F. Kennedy replaced that hair‑trigger doctrine with a “flexible response” defence strategy. This widened the spectrum of options to respond to potential Soviet attacks, but kept the nuclear backstop in place.
By the 1990s, the umbrella seemed almost ornamental. Russia’s nuclear arsenal had rusted, China was keeping to a “minimal deterrent” strategy (maintaining a small stockpile of weapons), and US supremacy looked overwhelming.
In 2020, then-President Barack Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review reaffirmed the umbrella guarantee, though Obama had voiced aspirations for the long‑term abolition of nuclear weapons.
Barack Obama’s 2009 speech advocating nuclear disarmament in Prague.
The Biden administration then embraced a new term – “integrated deterrence”, which fused cyber, space and economic tools with nuclear forces to deter potential foes.
In recent years, however, North Korea’s sprint towards intercontinental ballistic missiles and the modernisation and expansion of China’s nuclear arsenal began testing the faith of US allies.
Trump has now turbo‑charged those doubts. He has mused that his “strategic reset” ties protection to payment. If NATO’s Article 5 (which obliges members to come to each other’s defence) is “conditional” on US allies paying their fair share, why would Asia be different?
Reports the White House has weighed a resumption of underground nuclear tests – and, under the Biden administration, even a more extensive arsenal – have rattled non‑proliferation diplomats.
A Politico analysis bluntly warns that sustaining global “extended deterrence” in two parts of the world (Europe and Asia) may be beyond Trump’s patience — or pocketbook.
A regional nuclear arms race
Allies are taking note. Last month, an Institute for Strategic Studies survey found officials in Europe and Asia openly questioning whether an American president would risk San Francisco to save Seoul.
In South Korea, public backing for a bomb now tops 70%.
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is, for the first time since 1945, considering a “nuclear sharing” arrangement with the US. Some former defence officials have even called for a debate on nuclear weapons themselves.
Taiwan’s legislators — long muzzled on the subject — whisper about a “porcupine” deterrent based on asymmetrical warfare and a modest nuclear capability.
If one domino tips, several could follow. A South Korean nuclear weapon program would almost certainly spur Japan to act. That, in turn, would harden China’s strategic outlook, inviting a regional arms race and shredding the fragile Nuclear Non‑Proliferation Treaty.
The respected international relations journal Foreign Policy has already dubbed Trump’s approach “a nuclear Pandora’s box.”
The danger is not just about more warheads, but also the shorter decision times to use them.
Three or four nuclear actors crammed into the world’s busiest sea lanes — with hypersonic missiles and AI‑driven, early‑warning systems — create hair‑trigger instability. One misread radar blip over the East China Sea could end in catastrophe.
What does this mean for Australia?
Australia, too, has long relied on the US umbrella without demanding an explicit nuclear clause in the ANZUS treaty.
The AUKUS submarine pact with the US and UK deepens technological knowledge sharing, but does not deliver an Australian bomb. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insists the deal is about “deterrence, not offence,” yet the debate over funding nuclear-powered submarines exposes how tightly Australian strategy is lashed to American political will.
A regional cascade of nuclear proliferation would confront Australia with agonising choices. Should it cling to the shrinking US umbrella, invest in a missile defence shield, or contemplate its own nuclear deterrent? Any such move towards its own weapon would collide with decades of proud non‑proliferation diplomacy and risk alienating Southeast Asian neighbours.
More likely, Canberra will double down on alliance management — lobbying Washington to clarify its commitments, urging Seoul and Tokyo to stay the non‑nuclear course, and expanding regional defence exercises that make American resolve visible.
In a neighbourhood bristling with new warheads, middle powers that remain non‑nuclear will need thicker conventional shields and sharper diplomatic tools.
This means hardening Australia’s northern bases against a potential attack, accelerating its long‑range strike programs, and funding diplomatic initiatives that keep the Non-Proliferation Treaty alive.
The Trump administration’s transactional posture risks broadcasting a deficit of will precisely when East Asian security hangs in the balance. If Washington allows confidence in extended deterrence to erode, history will not stand still; it will split the atom again, this time in Seoul, Tokyo or beyond.
Australia has every incentive to prod its great power ally back toward strategic steadiness. The alternative is a region where the umbrellas proliferate — and, sooner or later, fail.
Ian Langford is affiliated with the University of New South Wales.
Oscar Jenkins, a 33-year-old former teacher from Melbourne, was one of many foreigners who responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call in 2022 for volunteers to join Ukraine’s armed forces to help repel Russia’s invasion.
In early 2024, Jenkins joined Ukraine’s International Legion of Territorial Defence, which has attracted some 20,000 fighters from 50 countries since the war began. He had no previous military experience, but this wasn’t a requirement to join.
In December, Jenkins was captured by Russian forces in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine and accused of serving as a “mercenary” in Ukraine’s 66th Mechanised Brigade’s 402nd Rifle Battalion. He was tried in a Russian court and sentenced on May 16 to 13 years imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony.
When a foreigner volunteers to fight in a war, their legal status under international law can be complicated.
Are they a soldier with the full authorisation of one of the warring parties to engage in hostilities? Or are they an illegal mercenary?
And what happens if they are captured?
Why legal status matters
The answers to these questions have very real importance to the thousands of foreigners who have joined Ukraine’s International Legion since 2022.
Russian authorities have classified all of Ukraine’s foreigner fighters as “mercenaries”. They’ve used this label to deny foreign fighters the status of “prisoner of war” (POW), with the requisite protections that come along with that under international humanitarian law.
While foreigners are permitted under international law to enlist in the armed forces of a state for political or moral reasons, mercenaries have historically been outlawed due to their sole motivation being financial gain.
International humanitarian law (the rules that govern war) define mercenaries as individuals who are not nationals or residents of a state engaged in war and are recruited to fight outside that state’s official armed forces.
They are motivated solely by private gain (like money or promises of reward), often well in excess of what the traditional armed forces are paid. Mercenaries are essentially professional soldiers who sell their services to a state without any real ties to that country.
Once a fighter is classified as a “mercenary”, they lose all the legal protections that are traditionally afforded lawful combatants.
This includes prisoner of war status if they are captured and immunity from prosecution for fighting in a conflict. Prisoners of war are also entitled to humane treatment and access to food and medical care. And they cannot be subjected to sham trials or torture.
According to my research, many of the foreign nationals who joined the International Legion were motivated by a desire to defend Ukraine against Russia’s aggression. They were sworn into Ukraine’s armed forces and paid the same as a Ukrainian soldier of equal rank.
Once enlisted in the armed forces, they were immediately exempt from “mercenary” status, irrespective of their motivation for joining.
As such, these foreign fighters should be entitled to the full range of protections guaranteed to members of Ukraine’s armed forces under the Geneva Conventions.
Labelling lawful foreign members of the Ukrainian armed forces as “mercenaries”, and denying them their protections, is an abuse of international law.
How can Australia protect its nationals?
If an Australian enlists in Ukraine’s armed forces and is captured by Russian forces, there is a limited toolkit the Australian government can use to help him or her. However, it is not powerless.
Through its embassy in Moscow, Australia can request access to detainees to assess their welfare while in prison. Russia can, however, decline this access. Details of a detainee’s capture may also be withheld.
Australia can also apply diplomatic pressure to ensure humane treatment of prisoners and their full POW rights.
This can be done by working with international bodies, such as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention or organisations like the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), which can request access to detainees.
It appears the government is already doing some of these things. According to Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the government has been working with Ukraine and the ICRC to advocate for Jenkins’ welfare and release, and providing consular support to Jenkins’ family.
Australia also has an obligation to warn its citizens they will likely face severe consequences if they travel to Ukraine to fight and are captured by Russian forces, given Russia’s misuse of the “mercenary” label.
Through back-channel negotiations, Australia could also push Ukraine or its allies to include Australians being held by Russia in future prisoner swaps.
In January of this year, Ukraine and Russia carried out such an exchange of 470 prisoners from both nations. And in talks last week in Turkey, both sides agreed to release another 1,000 prisoners on each side.
Such exchanges have involved foreign fighters in the past. In 2022, 10 foreign citizens were included in a prisoner swap, including five Britons, two Americans, a Croatian, a Swede and a Moroccan. Several of them had been convicted of being mercenaries and sentenced to death after a Russian sham trial.
There is no guarantee Jenkins would qualify for such an exchange, however, if Russia continues to classify him as a mercenary.
Shannon Bosch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
A displaced boy stands by a tent among the rubble of a destroyed building in the seaport area of western Gaza City, on May 21, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
The first aid in 11 weeks delivered to Gazans includes nutrition supplies, flour, medicines and other critical goods, UN humanitarians said Thursday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 90 trucks loaded at the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem checkpoint headed for multiple destinations, carrying the supplies to Gazans facing the threat of famine.
OCHA said nearly 20 truckloads, carrying about 500 pallets of nutrition supplies, were safely offloaded in UNICEF’s warehouse in Deir al Balah. The material delivered includes ready-to-use therapeutic food and lipid-based nutritional supplements. The life-saving supplies are being unpacked and repackaged into smaller loads to dozens of distribution points.
A handful of bakeries in southern and central Gaza, supported by the World Food Programme, have resumed bread production, the office said.
These bakeries are now operational, distributing bread through community kitchens. However, after nearly 80 days of a total blockade of humanitarian assistance, families still face a high risk of famine, and far more aid is needed across all of Gaza, it said.
OCHA stressed that the shipment is limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the scale and scope of the needs of Gaza’s 2.1 million people. Other supplies as basic as fresh food, hygiene items, water purification agents, and fuel to power hospitals have not been let in for over 80 days.
Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said it is important for commercial trucking to resume to supply markets with fresh fruits and vegetables.
He said the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification committee concluded that people across Gaza are at risk of famine, with nearly 500,000 people teetering on the edge of starvation.
The spokesman said humanitarian workers in Gaza going to and from the Kerem Shalom crossing have to travel through an Israeli-militarized area.
“This means that our teams need to wait, often for hours, for military activities to pause for their safety for a green light to be given by the Israeli authorities to proceed,” he told a regular briefing. “We also need to ensure the use of secure routes from Kerem Shalom onward into Gaza, as we did last (Wednesday) night and hope to do again today (Thursday).”
The spokesman also reminded reporters that military operations continue across the Gaza Strip, with reports of strikes, shelling and fresh ground incursions.
“In recent days, our colleagues on the ground report that attacks have struck tents and buildings where people are sheltering, causing scores of casualties,” he said.
OCHA said Israeli authorities must facilitate the movement of humanitarian convoys, including from southern Gaza to the north, so that all supplies can reach people in need wherever they are across the Gaza Strip.
The office said Al Awda Hospital of North Gaza caught fire on Thursday, reportedly after being attacked. Through coordination with Israeli authorities, OCHA facilitated access for Palestinian Civil Defense to the area, where they spent hours fighting the fire. According to initial reports, the medicine warehouse was heavily damaged.
OCHA also said water wells in some areas of Gaza are shutting down as they remain out of reach or lack fuel. It said Israeli authorities continue to deny attempts to retrieve fuel from areas where coordination is required.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Franchetti, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith testified before the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense, April 10, 2024. Below is a transcript of the hearing:
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Franchetti, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith testified before the House Armed Forces Committee on the 2025 Navy budget request, May 1, 2024. Below is a transcript of the hearing:
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Franchetti, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense, April 16, 2024. Below is a transcript of the hearing:
Modern U.S. Navy guided-missile cruisers perform primarily in a Battle Force role. These ships are multi-mission Air Warfare (AW), Undersea Warfare (USW), Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) and Surface Warfare (SUW) surface combatants capable of supporting carrier battle groups, amphibious forces or operating independently and as flagships of surface action groups.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti spoke during a panel while at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California on Dec. 2, 2023. The panel was “Laboratories of Learning,” and focused on innovation and technological breakthroughs in the Department of Defense. Speakers included: Representative Ken Calvert, U.S. House of Representatives; James Taiclet, Chairmen, President, and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation; Gen. David Allvin, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff; and the moderator, Jim Sciutto from CNN.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti spoke during a panel while at the Paris Naval Conference in Paris, France on Jan. 24, 2024. The panel was “Future Challenges and Perspectives for Navies.” Speakers included: Chief of the French Navy Adm. Nicolas Vaujour; Royal Navy First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff of the United Kingdom Adm. Sir Ben Key; Adm. Enrico Credendino, Chief of the Italian Navy; and Vice-Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command, Indian Navy.
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Holds Posture Hearing with Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger on the Fiscal Year 2024 Navy and Marine Corps Budget Request, March 29, 2023.
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Holds Posture Hearing with Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger on the Fiscal Year 2024 Navy and Marine Corps Budget Request, March 28, 2023.
Attack submarines are designed to seek and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships; project power ashore with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Special Operation Forces (SOF); carry out Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions; support battle group operations; and engage in mine warfare.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a fast, agile, mission-focused warship designed to operate in near-shore environments to counter 21st-century threats. It is a class of small surface combatants armed with capabilities to defeat challenges in the world’s littorals. LCS can operate independently or in high-threat scenarios as part of a networked battle force that includes larger, multi-mission surface combatants such as cruisers and destroyers.
The Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ship class is a highly flexible platform used across various military operations. ESB ships are mobile sea-based assets and are a part of the critical access infrastructure that supports the deployment of forces, equipment, supplies, and warfighting capability.
CNO discussed the Navy’s Navigation Plan and Project 33 with Adm. (Ret.) James Foggo at the 3rd annual “America’s Future Fleet Symposium,” hosted by the Naval War College Foundation and the Center for Maritime Strategy, at the Navy League Headquarters in Arlington, Va.
CNO discussed the Navy’s Navigation Plan and Project 33 with Adm. (Ret.) James Foggo at the 3rd annual “America’s Future Fleet Symposium,” hosted by the Naval War College Foundation and the Center for Maritime Strategy, at the Navy League Headquarters.
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on May 23, 2025.
Half the remaining habitat of Australia’s most at-risk species is outside protected areas Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Ward, Lecturer, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University Land clearing for agriculture poses a real threat to many species. Rich Carey/Shutterstock More and more Australian species are being listed as critically endangered – the final stage before extinction in the wild. Hundreds of species of
How should central banks respond to US tariffs? The RBA provides some clues Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stella Huangfu, Associate professor, University of Sydney Lightspring/Shutterstock With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the United States has signalled a return to aggressive tariff policies, upending economic forecasts around the world. This leaves central banks with a tricky dilemma: how to respond when
Air New Zealand to resume Auckland-Nouméa flights from November By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Air New Zealand has announced it plans to resume its Auckland-Nouméa flights from November, almost one and a half years after deadly civil unrest broke out in the French Pacific territory. “Air New Zealand is resuming its Auckland-Nouméa service starting 1 November 2025. Initially, flights will
Budget 2025: Pacific Ministry faces major cuts, yet new initiatives aim for development By ‘Alakihihifo Vailala of PMN News Funding for New Zealand’s Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) is set to be reduced by almost $36 million in Budget 2025. This follows a cut of nearly $26 million in the 2024 budget. As part of these budgetary savings, the Tauola Business Fund will be closed. But, $6.3 million
Air New Zealand to resume Auckland-Nouméa flights from November By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Air New Zealand has announced it plans to resume its Auckland-Nouméa flights from November, almost one and a half years after deadly civil unrest broke out in the French Pacific territory. “Air New Zealand is resuming its Auckland-Nouméa service starting 1 November 2025. Initially, flights will
Budget 2025: Pacific Ministry faces major cuts, yet new initiatives aim for development By ‘Alakihihifo Vailala of PMN News Funding for New Zealand’s Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) is set to be reduced by almost $36 million in Budget 2025. This follows a cut of nearly $26 million in the 2024 budget. As part of these budgetary savings, the Tauola Business Fund will be closed. But, $6.3 million
Why Donald Trump has put Asia on the precipice of a nuclear arms race Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Langford, Executive Director, Security & Defence PLuS and Professor, UNSW Sydney For the past 75 years, America’s nuclear umbrella has been the keystone that has kept East Asia’s great‑power rivalries from turning atomic. President Donald Trump’s second‑term “strategic reset” now threatens to crack that arch. By
Corroboree 2000, 25 years on: the march for Indigenous reconciliation has left a complicated legacy Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Heidi Norman, Professor of Aboriginal political history, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, Convenor: Indigenous Land & Justice Research Group, UNSW Sydney First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including the distress and death of First Nations people. On
KiwiSaver at a crossroads: budget another missed opportunity to fix NZ’s underperforming retirement scheme Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Gilbert, Professor of Finance, Auckland University of Technology Lynn Grieveson/Getty Images When KiwiSaver was introduced in 2007 it was built on a stark reality: New Zealand Super alone will not be enough for most people to retire with dignity. As the population ages and the cost
Deaf President Now! traces the powerful uprising that led to Deaf rights in the US – now again under threat Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gemma King, ARC DECRA Fellow in Screen Studies, Senior Lecturer in French Studies, Australian National University Archival footage shows Tim Rarus, Greg Hlibok, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl and Jerry Covell, in Apple TV+ Deaf President Now! Apple TV+ In March 1988, students of the world’s only Deaf university started
Head knocks and ultra-violence: viral games Run It Straight and Power Slap put sports safety back centuries Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Yorke, Lecturer in sport management, Western Sydney University runitstraight24/instagram.com, The Conversation, CC BY Created in Australia, “Run It Straight” is a new, ultra-violent combat sport. Across a 20×4 metre grassed “battlefield,” players charge at full speed toward one another. Alternating between carrying the ball (ball runner)
NZ Budget 2025: funding growth at the expense of pay equity for women could cost National in the long run Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Curtin, Professor of Politics and Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Pay equity protest outside parliament on budget day, May 22 2025. Getty Images In 1936, when the National Party was created through a merger of the United and Reform parties, there was a recognition
Australian roads are getting deadlier – pedestrians and males are among those at greater risk Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne At least ten people died in fatal crashes earlier this month in a single 48-hour period on Victorian roads. It was the latest tragic demonstration of the mounting road trauma in
There is a growing number of ‘super-sized’ schools. Does the number of students matter? Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Rowe, Associate Professor in Education, Deakin University LBeddoe/Shutterstock Earlier this week, The Sydney Morning Herald reported one of Sydney’s top public high schools had more than 2,000 students for the first time, thanks to the booming population in the area. This follows similar reports of other
From peasant fodder to posh fare: how snails and oysters became luxury foods Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Garritt C. Van Dyk, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato An Oyster cellar in Leith John Burnet, 1819; National Galleries of Scotland, Photo: Antonia Reeve Oysters and escargot are recognised as luxury foods around the world – but they were once valued by the lower classes
Govt should defuse NZ’s social timebomb – but won’t We have been handed a long and protracted recession with few signs of growth and prosperity. Budget 2025 signals more of the same, writes Susan St John. ANALYSIS: By Susan St John With the coalition government’s second Budget being unveiled, we should question where New Zealand is heading. The 2024 Budget laid out the strategy.
Punitive criminal libel charge against Samoan journalist draws flurry of criticism Pacific Media Watch A punitive defamation charge filed against one of Samoa’s most experienced and trusted journalists last week has sparked a flurry of criticism over abuse of power and misuse of a law that has long been heavily criticised as outdated. Talamua Online senior journalist Lagi Keresoma, who is also president of the Journalists
Grattan on Friday: if Ley and Littleproud find a way to cohabit, it will be a tense household Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Remember that cliche about the Nationals tail wagging the Liberal dog? That tail wagged very vigorously this week, and smashed a lot of crockery, as it sought to bring Liberal leader Sussan Ley to heel. In a gesture of overreach,
Legal academic says Samoa’s criminal libel law should go after charge By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Auckland University law academic says Samoa’s criminal libel law under which a prominent journalist has been charged should be repealed. Lagi Keresoma, the first female president of the Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS) and editor of Talamua Online, was charged under the Crimes Act 2013 on Sunday
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) arrived in Wellington, New Zealand for a port visit, May 16, 2025. This historic arrival marks the first time Blue Ridge has visited New Zealand as well as its capital city. The last two U.S Navy ships to visit Wellington were USS Howard (DDG 83) in 2021 and USS Sampson (DDG 102) in 2016.
JAPAN — U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 374th Airlift Wing came together for a wing run and open ranks inspection at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 22, to honor fallen service members before Memorial Day Weekend. The events were also conducted as part of a wing-wide initiative aimed at strengthening discipline and maintaining readiness while reinforcing dress and appearance standards.
Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
Work plan released by Army Corps zeroes out hundreds of millions of dollars for key WA, CA waterway construction projects, among others—steering hundreds of millions to red states
***WATCH: WA, CA Senators hold press conference calling out Trump’s decision***
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Senate delegations from Washington state and California joined together to call out President Trump’s outrageous, nakedly-political decision to zero out critical funding for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects in blue states like Washington and California while steering hundreds of millions more to red states.
U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) blasted the Trump administration’s plans, released late last week, detailing how the Army Corps intends to zero out all Army Corps construction funding for the state of California, as well as $500 million for the Howard Hanson Dam in Washington state. California was set to receive well over $100 million in funding for projects, and the Howard Hanson Dam in Washington state was set to receive $500 million—in the Corps’ fiscal year 2025 budget request, in the Senate’s bipartisan draft fiscal year 2025 funding bill, and even in House Republicans’ draft fiscal year 2025 funding bill. But the Trump administration—using the new discretion afforded by the yearlong CR House Republicans drafted that was signed into law—ignored the draft bills and instead apportioned funding on a nakedly political basis.
On Tuesday, a top Army Corps official testifying before the House failed to provide any justification for the decision and noted that the ultimate decision rested with Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), headed by Russ Vought.
“We are here for a simple reason: Trump is robbing our states in broad daylight, and we are not going to be quiet about this,” said Senator Murray. “Last year, we worked across the aisle to hammer out a bipartisan understanding about what projects needed Army Corps construction funding. But President Trump is ripping up the roadmap we all agreed on—even House Republicans— and turning the Army Corps construction fund into his personal political slush fund. I don’t know how you get more obviously partisan than cutting California, the most populous state in the country, out of Army Corps construction funding entirely, and I just don’t know how you get more blatantly corrupt than zeroing out half a billion dollars for Washington state and completely shafting major work at the Howard Hanson Dam—work to address dam safety, water supply issues, and more.”
“The Ports of Seattle and Tacoma received $45.4 million less in this budget,” said Senator Cantwell. “This is a huge problem for the next five years. We want to stabilize our ports. We want the Army Corps to do their investment on important waterway issues. We want to grow economic opportunity at an age when the Pacific economy is continuing to grow. We want to be on the doorstep of that access and to be efficient about delivering it, not giving those jobs away to Canada and Mexico.”
“When anyone takes the oath of office, even Donald Trump as President of the United States, you become the president for all Americans — not just for red states or for blue states, but for every state and every community equally,” said Senator Padilla. “Yet, since the minute Donald Trump returned to office, he’s set out to politicize the office he holds, now trying to take hundreds of millions of dollars in flood prevention funding away from the states that happened to not vote for him and redirect them to projects in states that supported his election. It’s absolutely wrong. In California, that means cutting every last dollar of funding that was allocated for certain flood control projects. For a president so obsessed with fighting waste, fraud, and abuse, I know where he can find it. He just has to look in the mirror. Communities up and down California — including farmers and farm workers in the Central Valley and Pajaro — will now be at a higher risk of flooding because Donald Trump’s playing politics with federal funding.”
“Natural disasters don’t discriminate based on whether a state is red or blue, and the administration and Congress shouldn’t either when it comes to protecting communities from natural disasters. This puts us on a very dangerous path, a path where anything can be on the chopping block for a partisan reason,” said Senator Schiff. “Today, it’s funding for these projects. Tomorrow, it could be another form of funding meant to save lives. There will be a domino effect of threats aimed at blue states. When you’re elected to be president of the United States, you’re not a half president. You’re not president for only half of the country, not if you do the job right. These baseless attacks threaten millions of people from both parties whose lives are endangered by floods.”
Overall, the Army Corps’ plan would steer roughly $258 million dollars more in construction funding to red states while ripping away roughly $437 million dollars in construction funding for blue states, relative to the fiscal year 2025 request—which, historically, has been fully funded and was fully funded in the draft fiscal year 2025 bills produced on a bipartisan basis in the Senate and by House Republicans in the House. Trump’s work plan steers two-thirds of all Army Corps construction funding to red states while the budget request and House and Senate bills would have split that funding roughly evenly to red and blue states.
Supporting the Howard Hanson Dam has been a longtime priority for Senator Murray, and she has pressed the Army Corps to prioritize funding for the Dam for years. Under the last administration, Senator Murray was able to secure critical funding boosts for Howard Hanson Dam, including $220 million in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $50 million to begin construction of a new facility in the funding bills for fiscal year 2024 that Murray wrote as then-Chair of the Appropriations Committee. Back in 2010, Murray secured $44 million in badly needed emergency funds for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair the Howard Hanson Dam. In the draft fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill she cleared unanimously out of Committee last year, Senator Murray secured $500 million for the dam, which would support fish passage and address dam safety and water supply issues for cities like Tacoma and Covington. $500 million was also included in the House’s draft fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill. The funding is needed to execute a construction option on the contract for the project, which would have allowed construction to begin in 2026 as scheduled.
Congress typically provides specific, detailed instructions in its annual appropriations bills on how the Army Corps (and so many other agencies) must spend funding provided by Congress. Annual appropriations bills note exactly what Army Corps projects must be funded and at what levels. But instead of working with Democrats to pass full-year appropriations bills that deliver for communities across America, Republicans in Congress put forth a yearlong continuing resolution (CR) that failed to include hundreds of specific directives on how funding must be spent. For months, Senator Murray warned of the dangers of passing Republicans’ slush fund CR, noting, for example, that it would allow the administration to zero out funding for Army Corps projects.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“We are here for a simple reason: Trump is robbing our states in broad daylight, and we are not going to be quiet about this.
“We are not going to stop fighting for our communities, and we are going to make every single person understand what is happening—and what it means for our states, for our communities, and for this democracy.
“Last year, we worked across the aisle to hammer out a bipartisan understanding about what projects needed Army Corps construction funding. And ‘we’—isn’t just the four of us here. It includes our Republican counterparts and even our House colleagues.
“But President Trump is ripping up the roadmap we all agreed on—even the House Republicans—and turning the Army Corps construction funds into his personal political slush fund.
“To give you a sense of how blatantly political this is, consider the fact that the Corps’ budget request last year, the bipartisan Senate bill my committee passed unanimously, and the House bill—yes the Republican House bill—all split this funding just about evenly—every one of them split it just about 50-50 between red and blue states.
“Now compare that to Trump’s partisan takeover. This thing is totally lopsided—roughly two-thirds goes to red states and one-third for blue states.
“This is not how it should work—an out-of-control Republican president punishing blue states and rewarding his friends instead.
“I don’t know how you get more obviously partisan than cutting California, the most populous state in the country, out of Army Corps construction funding entirely. Trump slashed over $100 million for projects that reduce flooding for crying out loud! I mean who is pro-flooding?
“And I just don’t know how you get more blatantly corrupt than zeroing out half a billion dollars for Washington state and completely shifting major work at the Howard Hanson Dam—work to address dam safety, water supply issues, and more.
“This is a project years in the making, and it is being slashed at the stroke of one careless pen, at the will of one corrupt President alone.
“So why does President Trump think our constituents don’t need a safe water supply?
“Why does President Trump think our constituents don’t need to be protected from floods?
“It’s clear he simply doesn’t care.
“But it’s actually worse than what I just laid out—because Trump is not just taking hundreds of millions of dollars from blue states for projects that we all agreed on. He is actually shoveling this money to projects that were not funded by either bill in either chambers—and that is nakedly political.
“Suddenly, projects in or near his allies’ districts are funded.
“So we need answers. And more than that, we need accountability.
“Yesterday, a top Army Corps official testified before the House, and let me tell you: she had absolutely no acceptable—or even half-convincing—justification for these decisions.
“In fact, she very explicitly stated that OMB—not the experts at the Corps—called the final shots.
“That should raise everyone’s eyebrows—Russ Vought calling the shots for your constituents.
“So we’re here to call this out—and we are going to fight tooth and nail to make this right, and make these critical projects whole.
“I will tell you right now: I will not let defunding Howard Hanson Dam stand in any future bipartisan spending bill.
“And, I will continue warning my colleagues about passing another partisan CR, which gave this administration that power to pick winners and losers like this in the first place.
“I warned about exactly this before I voted against the CR—I warned that Trump could, and would, abuse the discretion in a slush fund
CR to rob our communities. And now, here we are.
“So every single member needs to pay close attention to what is happening here—and needs to speak out.
“Because it may not be your state today but what happens when your governor disagrees with the President? What happens when you vote against him and your state loses out on funding?
“Take my word—you don’t want to find out. We have to put a stop to this, and push back now.”