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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got in a fiery exchange during a congressional hearing on Wednesday with a lawmaker who accused him of lying about the number of military service members injured since the Iran war started. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a West Point graduate and Iraq war combat veteran, spoke to Hegseth at the House Armed Services Committee hearing about the wounded soldiers and what they described from the attack on March 1 at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait that left six Americans dead and more than 30 wounded. "Before the war started, there was clear intelligence that was high on Iran's target list," Ryan said. "Internal analysis that said the site was indefensible from aerial attack and should not be used. Yet you sent our soldiers from 103rd sustainment command there anyway. Is that true or false? True or false? Straightforward question."Hegseth got defensive with Ryan over the question. "Are you going to give me a chance to answer or just play 'gotcha?'" Hegseth said. Ryan continued and pressed Hegseth to respond to him. "Let's talk about what defenses they had prior to the attack," Ryan said. "Officers on the ground knew our troops were vulnerable. In fact, they requested additional force protection. Did they receive it?"Hegseth said the soldiers did have additional security resources — Ryan said they did not. "In fact, when asked to describe the base's defense, one survivor who's come forward from the unit said, 'I mean, I would put it in the none category from a drone defense capability. None,'" Ryan said. "So let's be clear. No counter-drone capabilities, no counter-rocket systems, no counter-mortar or counter-artillery, not even the basic overhead protection that you and I had 20 years ago in Iraq. And now six of our soldiers are dead," Ryan said. "The next day, you downplayed the attack. You said it was a squirter that squeaked through fortified defenses. But since then, thankfully, brave survivors have come forward to set the record straight. One of our surviving soldiers told CBS, 'painting a picture that one squeaked through is a falsehood.' Another said the unit was, 'unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position.' Another survivor said the building's protection was about as weak as one gets. Secretary Hegseth, that is obviously in direct contradiction to what you said from the Pentagon podium the next day. So are you saying that these soldiers, our soldiers who survived this horrific attack, are lying?"Hegseth claimed the Pentagon had set a "maximum defensive posture," and Ryan pushed back, interjecting. "Can I speak or are you just going to monologue falsehoods all over the place?" Hegseth said. "It's not a falsehood," Ryan said. The two got into a heated back-and-forth over the questions. "I'm reclaiming my time," Ryan said. "Stop! Stop! I'm reclaiming my time on the behalf of these survivors.""Just because you yelled doesn't make you right," Hegseth quipped. Ryan demanded Hegseth to resign — just as he had said a year ago. "I'm not playing games," Ryan said. "I want to finish. With one more quote from a survivor of the attack and this on the record. Telling the truth is important and we're not going to learn from these mistakes if we pretend these mistakes didn't happen, Secretary Hegseth, those soldiers told the truth. Those soldiers are braver than you are. They are asking for accountability. They deserve accountability. And I'm asking for the same, starting with you."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got defensive when questioned by a Democratic lawmaker about his close adviser Timothy Parlatore.Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) asked the Pentagon chief about Parlatore's role at the Department of Defense, and he expressed surprise multiple times when Hegseth was unable to answer some of his questions about President Donald Trump's one-time personal attorney. "I'm not privy to every professional position he has held," Hegseth said when asked about his time working on the president's legal team."I will help you out, he did," Crow said. "You appointed him as your senior advisor, correct?"Hegseth told the congressman that Parlatore served in the Navy Reserves but conceded he was an adviser to him, and Crow confronted him with evidence when the defense secretary evaded his question about whether they traveled together."He travels with you, doesn't he?" Crow said. "There is public Instagram that shows this, just say yes."Hegseth also evaded a question about whether Parlatore worked at the Pentagon."He sits in meetings with you and advises you, doesn't he?" Crow said, and Hegseth agreed that he sometimes did. "He maintains a desk and an office in the Pentagon, does he not? You don't know?""I'd have to check," Hegseth said. "It's a big Pentagon."Hegseth agreed that he had commissioned Parlatore as a commander in the Navy Reserve in March 2025 and was proud to do so, but he was less willing to say whether his adviser had gone through a Senate confirmation process."I will tell you what I'm getting to," Crow said. "He didn't maintain a security clearance when you appointed him as a special advisor, is that right? You don't know?"Hegseth said anyone with access to sensitive material would obtain appropriate clearance, but Crow pressed for more details."So when you appointed him as special advisor, he had security clearance?" Crow said. "I'm asking a simple question, did he have —"Hegseth interrupted Crow. "No, you are playing a 'gotcha; game like you do on TV and everywhere else," Hegseth said."Clearly you are concerned about my line of questioning," Crow fired back. "You know where it is going, don't you? I think you do. Does he represent foreign governments? He has a private law practice, does he not? You don't know? Someone who sits in meetings, you don't know? Does he currently represent any senior officers who are under consideration by promotion from you or your office?"Hegseth said only he made those decisions, and Crow again asked whether Parlatore represented any senior officers under consideration for promotion."No, I'm the one who makes decisions," Hegseth said. "He doesn't represent anyone. He's a legal advisor and always has been. He's a legal adviser to me on reserve duty and he always has been, and he does a fantastic job." - YouTube www.youtube.com

A Democratic lawmaker accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of lying to President Donald Trump during a heated congressional hearing on Wednesday. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), a former Army Ranger who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, raised questions about attorney Tim Parlatore and a potential conflict of interest. He pressed Hegseth during a fiery exchange over whether Parlatore was appointed and asking if Parlatore was removed from a White House investigation in 2025. Hegseth denied the accusations, saying he wasn't aware of it, and claimed he was also not removed from the investigation. "You're not aware of it. That's interesting. Well, is it true that Mr. Parlatore disparaged President Trump?" Crow asked.Hegseth again said that he wasn't aware of the investigation, smiling and appearing to laugh. "Is it true that Mr. Parlatore was accused by President Trump and his lawyers of lying?" Crow asked. Hegseth appeared annoyed by the questions. "What you're accused of is a cute line of questioning that's going nowhere," Hegseth said, referring to Crow's questions as "a stunt."Crow pushed back on Hegseth's comments."Secretary Hegseth, what I'm really concerned about is you purport to have unfaltering loyalty to President Trump, and yet you are continuously going..." Crow said.Hegseth was angry with the comment and interjected Crow's questions. "Oh you care a lot about President Trump, don't you? This is a cute, huge waste of your five minutes," Hegseth said. Crow didn't stand down against the Pentagon chief. "You are repeatedly going behind President Trump's back, appointing people who he has accused of lying, who the White House has accused of lying. And you are not being honest with President Trump," Crow said.

Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) triggered outrage from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he called President Donald Trump's war in Iran a "quagmire.""Secretary Hegseth, you have been lying to the American public about this war from day one, and so has the President," Garamendi said during a House Armed Services Committee budget hearing on Wednesday. "You have misled the public about why we are at war. You and the President have offered ever-changing reasons for this war. You've misled the public about the progress of the war.""This war of choice is a political and economic disaster at every level," he continued. "The President has got himself and America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East. He's desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes."Hegseth responded by calling Garamendi "reckless.""When I said reckless, feckless, and defeatist of congressional Democrats at the beginning, that came after watching you say the same thing on CNN this morning, a quagmire," the Defense secretary gasped. "My generation served in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan, years and years of nebulous missions and utopian nation building that led us to nothing.""Congressman, you should know better. Shame on you calling this a quagmire two months in!" he exclaimed. "You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies, shame on you for that statement."Hegseth complained that Garamendi had said he supported the troops while calling the conflict in Iran a quagmire."That's a false equivalation!" he grumbled. "Who are you cheering for here? Who are you pulling for?""And you sit there and go on TV for your clickbait about quagmires!" Hegseth added. "Your hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission and the historic stakes that the president is addressing, which the American people support. Iran's been at war with us for 47 years! You want to talk about a forever war?""For two months, this president has stared them down. He's going to get a better deal than anyone ever has and ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. I know the American people support that mission, despite your loose talk and words like quagmire!"

Customs officials say group allegedly hid 5kg of ‘kush’ in false walls of bags on return from Bangkok holidayTwenty-two Buddhist monks are in Sri Lankan police custody after customs officials found 110kg of high-grade cannabis concealed in their luggage, the largest ever drug bust at Colombo’s main international airport.The group, mostly junior monks in training from temples across Sri Lanka, were alleged to have “carried about five kilos of the narcotic concealed within false walls in their luggage”, according to a Sri Lanka customs spokesperson. Continue reading...

“There’s a day of reckoning coming.”That is the opinion of a prominent oil industry executive who is predicting a major surge in prices at the gas pump as Donald Trump’s war on Iran, and the accompanying closure of the Strait of Hormuz, drags on.As oil prices surge and supply dwindles globally, energy experts predict a catastrophic price shock that could decimate Republican chances in the midterms, reports Politico's Scott Waldman and Eli Stoklos.According to Dan Pickering, chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners, when summer driving season begins, gas prices will deliver a shock that "hits people in the face." "It will be painful because I can tell you that the stock market's ignoring this," he said.The timing will likely be politically toxic, the report notes, with another spike in prices predicted around Memorial Day potentially dealing a fatal blow to Republican chances for holding onto the House next year, as Americans' confidence in the economy continues to drop.A senior administration official dismissed expert warnings about the looming crisis, telling Politico: "Everyone feels like we can hopefully get back to even lower prices at the gas pump. That's always the goal. So everyone is very sober about the uptick in gas prices, but everyone feels confident that we can get it down before the end of the year." Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at the Defense Priorities think tank, isn't buying the White House spin, and suggested Trump's optimistic messaging is backfiring. "By talking down the market so effectively, when the price spike becomes inevitable, it's going to hurt way worse because we'll have lost weeks or even months of time where producers could have been ramping up output," she told Politico.There are also oil industry complaints about Trump's optimistic spin on the crisis.Oil and gas executives are openly frustrated with Trump's market-manipulating rhetoric," the report notes with one insider complaining that the president "sends conflicting signals to operators who cannot plan rigs and capital budgets when prices swing wildly based on tweets." "Our hypothesis is [that] the paper market is being manipulated. This will likely lead to an even worse supply and demand imbalance and higher prices in the medium term (next 12 months)," the executive added.

Pakistan officials dismiss Afghan media reports and official statements about strikes on university in Kunar province as ‘blatant lie’Mortars and missiles fired from Pakistan on Monday struck a university and civilian homes in north-eastern Afghanistan, killing seven people and wounding at least 85, Afghan officials said.Pakistan denied the accusation of targeting a university. Continue reading...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday warned that the United States is being “humiliated” by Iran and risks getting trapped in a quagmire there like it did in Afghanistan and Iraq.“The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,” Merz told students at the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia. “The problem with conflicts like this is always: You don’t just have to get in, you have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq.”“At the moment, I do not see what strategic exit the Americans will choose, especially since the Iranians are clearly negotiating very skillfully—or very skillfully not negotiating,” the Christian Democratic Union leader continued. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, particularly by the so-called Revolutionary Guards.”US President Donald Trump on Saturday abruptly canceled a planned trip by special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to Islamabad, Pakistan to negotiate a ceasefire with Iranian officials after prior talks ended without an agreement.Nearly two months of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran have killed more than 3,400 people, at least 2,100 of them civilians—including 503 women, 413 children, 91 health workers, and 9 journalists, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.The Lebanese Health Ministry said Monday that the death toll from Israeli bombing of its northern neighbor has topped 2,500, including hundreds of women and children. At least 14 people were killed on Sunday by Israeli strikes, despite a US-brokered ceasefire.The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Saturday that the organization has submitted evidence of US and Israeli war crimes to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which in 2024 issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes—including murder and forced starvation—in Gaza, where more than 250,000 people have been killed or injured since October 2023.Merz said Monday that the US-Israeli war on Iran is harming his country.“It is at the moment a pretty tangled situation,” he said. “And it is costing us a great deal of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, has a direct impact on our economic output.”Merz said that Germany was still open to deploying minesweeping warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has blocked almost all international shipping. However, the chancellor said such a move would only come after fighting stops.The German leader also told students at the school that their country must assume a greater leadership role within the European Union.“If we were to unite more effectively and do more together,” he said, “we could be at least as strong as the United States of America.”Some observers asserted that the US isn’t the only country being humiliated, pointing to Germany’s support for Israel, which is rooted in deep-seated guilt over the country’s systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews during the Nazi-era Holocaust.In addition to brutally cracking down on pro-Palestine protests and suppressing speech critical of Israel’s obliteration of Gaza, Germany initially planned to intervene in the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also in The Hague.However, Berlin said last month that it will not intervene in the ICJ case in support of Israel so that it can better focus on its own defense in a separate case before the tribunal filed by Nicaragua accusing Germany of enabling Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza via arms sales.