MONDAY PDB – From banning taxpayer-funded abortion travel to taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries, the Republican-led House is sticking to its guns and fighting the Pentagon's far-left woke agenda.
STAND STRONG AND WIN – House narrowly passes defense bill after Dems defect over abortion. The House on Friday narrowly passed the annual defense authorization bill largely along party lines after Democrats withdrew their support in protest over amendments that took a hard-right tack on numerous hot-button, culture-war issues.
CALL IT WHAT IT IS – AN ATHEIST ANTI-CHRISTIAN GROUP – Ban on troops communicating with anti-Christian ‘religious freedom' group clears House. A conservative Republican provision of the fiscal 2024 defense policy bill that would prohibit Defense Department personnel from communicating with an aggressive atheist group survived a contentious House vote Friday.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of today's other top defense stories from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.
Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:
NATIONAL SECURITY
More military reservists to be sent to Europe, angering some in GOP. Joe Biden issued an executive order that would make it possible for 3,000 additional reservists to be sent to NATO's eastern flank, the White House announced.
JUST SAY NO – Intel leaders, White House argue for keeping digital spy powers. Agencies have less than six months to convince a divided Congress to re-up an expiring warrantless surveillance authority.
CHINA THREAT
LOL – KETTLE BLACK – China accuses US of militarizing space, protests Taiwan Straight plane. Amid a freeze in military-to-military contacts, China is accusing the United States of militarizing outer space, a day after it protested the passage of a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft through the Taiwan Strait.
Milley praises Japan defense funding boost as a buttress against China. The highest-ranking U.S. military officer on Friday encouraged Japan's commitment to doubling its defense spending over the next five years.
Senate bill sets up AUKUS sub buy as US industrial capacity questions linger. U.S. moving to supply the Royal Australian Navy with its own nuclear attack boats with a new AUKUS bill that sets a framework to transfer Virginia-class attack boats to Canberra by the 2030s.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
MOCKING BIDEN – AND PUTIN HAS USED THEM – Putin says Russia has ‘sufficient stockpile' of cluster bombs. In comments on the delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine from the U.S., Putin said Russia has not used cluster bombs in its war in Ukraine so far.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 509. Vladimir Putin said Ukraine's counteroffensive was failing. “All enemy attempts to break through our defenses… they have not succeeded since the offensive began. The enemy is not successful.”
Small, hidden and deadly: mines stymie Ukraine's counteroffensive. To gain ground, Ukrainian forces have to make their way through a variety and density of Russian land mines they never imagined.
Wagner fighters are in Belarus and training Belarusian troops. A video showing the mercenaries training Belarusian conscripts was the first official confirmation that the group is present there after rebelling against Russia last month.
Russia blames Ukraine for attack on key Crimea military supply bridge that kills 2. Traffic on a key military supply bridge connecting Crimea to Russia's mainland came to a standstill Monday after one of its sections was blown. Kyiv officials didn't openly admit it.
IRAN THREAT
US sending F-16 fighters to protect ships from Iranian seizures. A senior defense official says the U.S. is beefing up its use of fighters around the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
US, South Korea answer North's ICBM launch with airpower drill involving B-52 bomber. The two air forces conducted a bomber escort drill a day after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that achieved a new flight record.
North Korea's ambassador blames US for regional tensions in a rare appearance at UN Security Council. He defended his country's recent long-range missile launch on Thursday where he also accused the U.S. of driving the situation in northeast Asia “to the brink of nuclear war.”
SPACE THREAT
Defense bill amendments target increased UFO transparency for public. Lawmakers in the House and Senate have submitted amendments to this year's defense budget bill to declassify a greater number of documents related to unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Russian plane flew surveillance mission over US base in Syria. A Russian military reconnaissance aircraft flew over a U.S. base in southern Syria on Friday near the country's border with Iraq.
A-10s, Space Force join in on South American exercise for first time. An A-10 “Warthog” landed in South America for the first time ever recently, as Air Forces Southern leads one of the largest exercises under U.S. Southern Command.
Sweden and Finland give NATO an Arctic opportunity. In the wake of Finland's and Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the alliance can take a well-deserved victory lap. The countries have professional and motivated personnel equipped with everything from advanced fighter jets to stealthy naval corvettes.
China, Russia to start joint air and sea drill in Sea of Japan. A Chinese naval flotilla set off on Sunday to join Russian naval and air forces in the Sea of Japan in an exercise aimed at “safeguarding the security of strategic waterways”, according to China's defense ministry.
Ukraine's NATO push hit a bump. Joining the EU will also be tough. Adding such a big country to the bloc will be hard for Europe, not just Kyiv.
Israeli unions and military reservists renew resistance to judicial overhaul. As the government revives its plan, powerful social movements are again voicing their opposition and threatening strikes.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Veteran, Guardsmen among officers involved in Fargo police shooting. Fargo police officer Jake Wallin, a veteran who served with the Minnesota Army National Guard, was killed in the shooting.
US MILITARY
How the hidden story of the most lethal Marine Corps sniper came out after decades of secrecy and what happened when it did. The deadliest Marine sniper by number of confirmed kills is Chuck Mawhinney.
Director of operations for NORTHCOM removed. The director of operations for U.S. Northern Command was suspended last week.
GOD BLESS HIM – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROTHER! – Tuskegee Airman in Denver celebrates 100th birthday. Lt. Colonel James H. Harvey III said his life's motto has always been to do unto others as you've had done unto you. “That's it,” he said. “That's carried me through.”
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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