Category: Security

Two U.S. Marines were killed and another was hospitalized in “serious condition” on Tuesday in a “vehicle accident” that occurred near the southern border between the United States and Mexico.

In a Tuesday press release shared by U.S. Northern Command on X, formerly Twitter, Joint Task Force Southern Border Public Affairs announced, “Three service members deployed in support of Joint Task Force Southern Border were involved in a vehicle accident at approximately 8:50 a.m. MDT today near Santa Teresa, N.M. Two of the service members were killed while one remains in serious condition at a local hospital facility.”

Joint Task Force Southern Border explained that the names of the U.S. service members killed in Tuesday’s vehicle accident “will not be released until the next of kin have been notified.” Officials also confirmed that the cause of Tuesday’s vehicle accident remains under investigation.

READ MORE: Trump puts US military in control of southern border land strip

Sources familiar with Tuesday’s vehicle accident identified the two deceased service members and the injured service member as U.S. Marines and told The New York Post that the accident occurred as the Marines were driving a civilian jeep on a two-lane highway and attempted to pass another vehicle. The sources told The New York Post that the vehicle fell into a 10-foot ditch known as “Snake Canyon,” which is often used by smugglers, and crashed into solid rock.

One source described Snake Canyon as “treacherous, while another source told The New York Post, “It would be a horrible place to go off the road because the canyon is right off the shoulder. It has concrete tunnels that run underneath the highway and we have sensors there because illegal aliens hide under it and then get picked up by a load vehicle.”

A source told The New York Post that a U.S. Border Patrol agent who attempted to save the three service members involved in Tuesday’s accident was “covered head to toe” in blood after responding to the incident. The outlet reported that the two deceased service members were airlifted to a local hospital before dying from their injuries. Meanwhile, sources told The New York Post that the third service member injured in Tuesday’s accident remains in critical but stable condition.

If “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” director Chris Columbus had his way, Donald Trump would be removed from the classic film.

The award-winning filmmaker, also known for “Mrs. Doubtfire” and the “Harry Potter” film series, said the President’s 7 second appearance in the 1992 movie has “become this curse. It’s become an albatross for me. I just wish it was gone.”

“I can’t cut it,” he said in a new San Francisco Chronicle interview, adding: “If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of the country. I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I’ll have to go back to Italy or something.”

“Home Alone 2″ — starring Macaulay Culkin as a precocious child who mistakenly arrives in New York City instead of his family’s vacation destination of Miami, Florida — was a box office blockbuster, raking in $359 million in theaters. The film and its prequel, “Home Alone,” are considered classic holiday fare.

For a few seconds in the movie, the youngster briefly meets Trump, then a real estate mogul, at the Plaza Hotel. The future star of “The Apprentice” owned the luxurious property at the time.

Columbus previously stated that Trump more or less “bullied his way into the movie.”

“We paid the fee, but he also said, ‘The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie’,” Columbus told Business Insider in 2020. “So we agreed to put him in the movie, and when we screened it for the first time the oddest thing happened: People cheered when Trump showed up on screen. So I said to my editor, ‘Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience.’”

The cameo, however, hasn’t aged well for some fans.

During the third year of his first presidential term, the film was edited to remove the Trump scene during reairings in Canada.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation confirmed in 2019 that the scene was axed to make room for commercials.

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© 2025 New York Daily News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

In a rare sign of public dissent, three pro-democracy banners hung on an overpass in China’s southwestern city of Chengdu early Tuesday morning, according to a prominent citizen journalist on X.

The display appeared to be inspired by ‘Bridge Man’ Peng Lifa, who hung similar banners on the busy Sitong Bridge in Beijing, sparking the White Paper protests of November 2022.

During those protests, which took place in several cities in China, people showed blank sheets of paper to symbolize that authorities gave them no voice amid anger over the loss of freedom and pandemic lockdowns.

Tuesday’s display in Chengdu did not appear to set off any street protests, but the pictures of the banners caused a stir online and were reportedly soon blocked and removed when shared on WeChat.

Pictures of the banners were originally sent to X account @whyyoutouzhele, also known as “Mr. Li is not your teacher,” by a contributor who claimed he had been preparing these slogans for over a year and hoped the popular X account, which has over 1.9 million followers, would help him spread his message.

The banners read: “Without political system reform, there will be no national rejuvenation,” “The people do not need a political party with unrestrained power,” and “China does not need anyone to point out the direction, democracy is the direction,” according to the X account, which is maintained by artist-turned-citizen journalist Li Ying and shot to prominence during the “White Paper” protests.

Shortly after the original post, which went up at 06:20 am Beijing time on Tuesday, a followup post confirmed that the banners were hung from a bridge outside Chengdu’s Chadianzi Bus Station. Local residents confirmed the location of the banners – hung from a bridge near the Chadianzi Third Ring Road Interchange in Jinniu District, Chengdu.

Subsequently, a second followup post on the same X account on Tuesday evening, confirmed that the man who had shared the information with Mr. Li had been out of contact for more than 13 hours.

“The last thing he wanted to convey to the public through us was that he hoped democracy could be realized as soon as possible,” according to the final post at 07:58 pm Beijing time on Tuesday.

RFA called the Jinniu District Public Security Bureau and Chengdu’s Chadianzi Police Station to seek confirmation about the banners. A police officer at the station said incidents at the Third Ring Road were outside its jurisdiction.

Rights activists opined that the display of banners reflected latent political dissatisfaction and desire for change that is prevalent in Chinese society.

“In the past few decades of the CCP’s rule, there have been many people who demand democracy. Although the voices from the people are very weak, there are always calls to break through the darkness and yearn for light,” said Guo Min, a former police officer turned political activist who relocated to the United States two years ago.

An activist in Chengdu, who only gave his name as Zhao for safety reasons, said the banner incident “is a direct expression of dissatisfaction with the system and despair with reality.”

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

The U.S. has imposed restrictions on the export of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China, tightening its grip on advanced AI technology trade with Beijing as part of Washington’s strategy to pressure China amid an ongoing tariff battle.

Nvidia, a global leader in AI chip development, said Tuesday it was notified by the U.S. government on April 9 that exporting its H20 chips to China would now require government approval. It separately said that the restriction would remain in place indefinitely.

While the H20 chip has relatively modest computing power, it has other features that make it suitable for building high-performance computing systems.

The U.S. government reportedly based its decision on concerns that the H20 chips could be used in or adapted for Chinese supercomputers.

Until now, the H20 was the most advanced artificial intelligence chip legally exportable to China, which already faced U.S. national security-driven curbs on high-end semiconductor sales. Although its performance is below Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chip, it is equipped with high-bandwidth memory similar to that used in Blackwell, giving it a performance boost in certain tasks.

The H20 chip gained attention following its use by DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, which in January unveiled a cost-effective and competitive AI model trained using the chip.

Earlier this year, tech media outlet The Information reported that major Chinese tech companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance, collectively placed over US$16 billion worth of H20 chip orders in the first quarter alone – a surge of over 40% from the previous quarter.

As a result of the new export restrictions, Nvidia expects to incur a loss of approximately US$5.5 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal year.

The U.S. first imposed AI chip export controls targeting China in October 2022 and has since broadened the scope of the restrictions to cover additional technologies and countries.

The export restriction on H20 chips comes as U.S.-China trade tensions intensify. It is also despite Nvidia’s announcement Monday that it plans to work with its partners to invest up to US$500 billion over the next four years to build AI infrastructure, including supercomputers manufactured in the U.S.

Trump has imposed steep tariffs on Chinese imports, many of which now face a total of 145% in additional levies.

More recently, the Trump administration expanded exemptions for certain products – including smartphones and laptops – excluding them from a global 10% duty and the newly announced 125% levy targeting Chinese tech goods.

On Tuesday, Trump took further aim at Beijing, posting on his Truth Social platform that China had failed to fulfill commitments under a prior trade agreement that temporarily halted the tariff war during his first term from 2016-2020.

He said Beijing had purchased only “a portion of what they agreed to buy,” and criticized the previous Biden administration for showing “zero respect” in trade enforcement.

In the same post, Trump said that American farmers were often “put on the Front Line with our adversaries, such as China,” during trade conflicts – pledging continued support for U.S. agriculture.

Later that day, Trump turned his focus to a major aerospace deal,saying that China had backed out of a previously committed agreement with Boeing.

“They just reneged on the big Boeing deal, saying they will ‘not take possession’ of fully committed-to aircraft,” he wrote.

Bloomberg earlier reported that Chinese authorities had instructed domestic airlines to stop taking deliveries of Boeing jets, and to pause purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from U.S. suppliers.

In retaliation against U.S. actions, China has introduced counter-tariffs targeting American agriculture and imposed a 125% levy on other U.S. imports.

A new report claims that a Washington State University instructor and another university employee were arrested after assaulting a student in February for wearing a hat in support of President Donald Trump.

According to Turning Point USA’s Frontlines, Jay Sani, a student at Washington State University, said he was assaulted in February outside “The Coug” campus bar, by college instructor Patrick Mahoney and Gerald Hoff, another university employee. Sani claimed the two men attacked him and forcibly removed his red “Trump 2024 Take America Back” hat.

Frontlines reported that Sani said the college instructor took his hat off, threw it on the ground, and said, “Go get it, b-tch” before punching him multiple times in the back. Sani said he was also kicked multiple times by Hoff while Mahoney grabbed his chest and forced him onto the ground. A video shared by Frontlines shows multiple bruises Sani attributed to the February assault incident.

According to Frontlines, police officials police officials were able to locate both attackers within hours of the assault. The outlet noted that Mahoney told police officials he had previously seen Sani on campus and knew he was a “right-wing dude.”

The college instructor told police officials that he grabbed the student’s hat, threw it, and told him, “Go get it.” Meanwhile, Hoff told police officials, “We did grab him and threw him to the ground.”

While the two suspects admitted to forcibly removing Sani’s hat, Mahoney claimed he did not hit the student and that he did not believe he had committed an illegal act. The college instructor added that Sani “got what’s coming to him.”

READ MORE: Viral Video: Fmr. NFL star arrested after anti-MAGA protest

According to Frontlines, Mahoney and Hoff were arrested in connection with February’s incident and charged with fourth-degree misdemeanor assault. The outlet noted that Mahoney was temporarily suspended from teaching by Washington Statue University after the assault incident; however, Sani indicated that the professor could be reinstated soon.

“He really shouldn’t be teaching here in my opinion,” Sani said. “Because you know, if you can’t tolerate different opinions…then what’s the point?”

Frontlines reported that Sani participates in Turning Point USA and other conservative groups at Washington State University. On the other hand, the outlet identified Mahoney as a left-wing graduate student and political science instructor who has participated in pro-Palestinian protests and is linked to Democratic Socialists of America and other left-wing groups.

According to Frontlines, Mahoney also seems to publicly support communism. As an example, the outlet included Mahoney’s official university picture, which features the communist hammer and sickle pin, in its video report.

Sani told the outlet, “Mahoney’s goal is to turn this country into a communist dictatorship or a communist authoritarian system.”

EXCLUSIVE: Frontlines reporter @choeshow has obtained surveillance footage showing Washington State University (WSU) PhD student instructor Patrick Mahoney and WSU employee Gerald Hoff attacking engineering student Jay Sani.

Sani claims that Mahoney and Hoff assaulted him… pic.twitter.com/AhNae3FDMT

— FRONTLINES (@FrontlinesTPUSA) April 15, 2025

President Donald Trump’s administration referred Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James to the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday for potential mortgage fraud prosecution.

According to documents obtained by “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, the Federal Housing Finance Agency sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department on Tuesday regarding reporters of mortgage fraud linked to the New York attorney general. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte accused James of allegedly falsifying records to meet loan requirements and receive better loan terms.

The criminal referral accused James of providing “falsified records” to receive home loans for a Virginia property that she allegedly claimed as her “principal residence” in 2023.

“Ms. James was the sitting Attorney General of New York and is required by law to have her primary residence in the state of New York — even though her mortgage applications list her intent to have the Norfolk, VA, property as her primary home,” Pulte wrote.

Pulte added, “It appears Ms. James’ property and mortgage-related misrepresentations may have continued to her recent 2023 Norfolk, VA property purchase in order to secure a lower interest rate and more favorable loan terms.”

READ MORE: Top anti-Trump officials stripped of security clearances

Pulte’s letter also referenced a five-family residence in Brooklyn, New York, that James purchased in February of 2001. Pulte claimed that James has “consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications.”

Pulte told Bondi and Blanche, “Ms. James, for both properties listed above, appears to have falsified records in order to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms.”

Tuesday’s letter also said James purchased another property and had her father listed as a co-signer; however, the documents from 1983 and 2000 had James and her father listed as “husband and wife.”

According to The New York Post, Pulte’s letter indicated that James’ actions could lead to criminal charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, mail fraud, and false statements made to a financial institution.

In a statement obtained by The New York Post following Tuesday’s criminal referral, a James spokesperson said, “Attorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this Administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution. She will not be intimidated by bullies — no matter who they are.”

Prior to Tuesday’s criminal referral, Trump slammed James on Sunday in a post on Truth Social, writing, “Letitia James, a totally corrupt politician, should resign from her position as New York State Attorney General, IMMEDIATELY. Everyone is trying to MAKE NEW YORK GREAT AGAIN, and it can never be done with this wacky crook in office.”

The Department of Defense confirmed on Tuesday that one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s top advisors was placed on administrative leave and escorted out of the Pentagon due to an “unauthorized disclosure” of information.

An anonymous U.S. defense official told Reuters on Tuesday that Dan Caldwell, a Pentagon advisor who previously worked for Hegseth at the Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America think tank, had been escorted out of the Pentagon and placed on administrative leave amid the Pentagon’s investigation into internal leaks at the Department of Defense. An official later confirmed to Fox News that Reuters’s report was accurate; however, the official did not provide a comment on the active investigation.

Last month, Department of Defense Chief of Staff Joe Kasper issued a memorandum on “Efforts to Combat Unauthorized Disclosures.”

Kasper said, “Recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) demand immediate and thorough investigation.”

READ MORE: ‘Attack plans’ leaked by Trump admin revealed: Report

In the memorandum, the Department of Defense chief of staff explained that the Pentagon would be using polygraphs to help identify the source of the recent leaks.

“The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,” Kasper stated. “This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.”

Kasper added, “I expect to be informed immediately if this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution.”

According to Fox News, Caldwell’s importance as a top advisor for the secretary of defense was demonstrated in the recent Signal chat leak regarding the U.S. strikes against the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen in March. In the leaked Signal chat, Hegseth identified Caldwell as the Pentagon’s point of contact for the military strikes.

The Trump administration backed away Tuesday from comments by its top Middle East envoy that the U.S. will focus on restricting Iran’s uranium enrichment and missile capability rather than dismantling its entire nuclear program.

“This is going to be much about verification on the enrichment program, and then ultimately verification on weaponization,” the envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News Monday, adding that Iran must not have the ability to enrich uranium to a purity beyond 3.67%. “Verification will be the key point which undergirds this agreement. We are going to have very tight verification.”

Witkoff’s suggestion that the U.S. was ready to accept some enrichment would mark a significant diplomatic step. It goes against U.S. and Israeli hardliners — who want to dismantle Iran’s entire nuclear program — while reducing the urgency to restore United Nations Security Council sanctions, which demand that Iran suspend all enrichment-related activities.

But by Tuesday morning, Witkoff was taking a different tone. Writing in a social media post that “a deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal,” Witkoff said that means “that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”

The State Department quickly retweeted Witkoff’s statement, giving it more exposure. Asked later about Witkoff’s earlier remarks, department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters “what matters is an end result” and that “it’s not what people say but the actions they take.”

Witkoff is leading the U.S. delegation in nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic, which started last Saturday in the Omani capital, Muscat, with Oman acting as a mediator between the long-time adversaries. They are due to meet again on April 19.

In a call Tuesday, President Donald Trump discussed ways to support the current negotiations with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, the state-run Oman News Agency reported.

Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, have already said they’re prepared to provide guarantees and verification that Iran won’t seek nuclear weapons and want to strike a deal that’s similar to the original 2015 agreement — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — that Trump abandoned in his first term.

Underscoring the tentative optimism surrounding the negotiations so far, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that the first round of talks had been “carried out well” and gave a firm green light for them to continue.

“The red lines are clear for the other side as well as us. The talks should continue. They may or may not yield results,” he said in a statement on his official Telegram channel, adding that he was “neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic.”

Khamenei, who has ultimate authority in Iran and is the Islamic Republic’s head of state, backed the 2015 nuclear deal grudgingly and in the face of much opposition from his hardline political supporters.

Trump’s 2018 decision to withdraw from the multinational pact triggered a security crisis and almost led to a war with Iran. Khamenei frequently denounced engagement with the U.S. as a result, saying that it could never be trusted to uphold an agreement.

Iran’s Red Lines

Iran gradually started enriching uranium — a fissile metal that’s required to make nuclear fuel — at levels far exceeding the 3.67% purity limit set under the original terms of the 2015 nuclear deal after Trump abandoned that accord during his first term.

“In some circumstances they’re at 60%, in other circumstances 20%,” Witkoff said, referring to Iran’s current uranium-enrichment levels. “That cannot be.”

While Iran’s uranium enriched to 20% purity is currently used to manufacture medical isotopes at its Tehran Research Reactor, the country has sufficient fuel for years and could procure additional resources from Russia.

Witkoff said the talks would also address the Islamic Republic’s “missiles, the type of missiles they have stockpiled there, and it includes the trigger for a bomb.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — the most powerful wing of Iran’s military that was also designated a terrorist organization by Trump in his first term — repeated on Tuesday that missiles won’t be part of any negotiation with the U.S.

“National security, as well as defensive and military capabilities, are among the Islamic Republic’s red lines and cannot be discussed or negotiated under any circumstances,” Iran’s state-run broadcaster reported on Tuesday, citing a spokesman for the IRGC.

Iran has a large ballistic missile arsenal that was most recently deployed against Israel when the two countries started direct strikes on one another for the first time in a decades-long shadow war.

The terms of the 2015 nuclear accord were also strictly limited to Iran’s nuclear program and didn’t cover any aspect of Iran’s defense or regional activity.

Witkoff reiterated in his Fox interview that the Trump administration aims to avoid military action against Iran as he described the initial talks as “positive, constructive, compelling.”

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© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Five students were hospitalized after being shot by a teenage suspect at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday. The teenage suspect later turned himself in following the shooting.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by WFAA, 17-year-old Tracy Haynes, a student at Wilmer-Hutchins, has been identified as the suspect responsible for Tuesday’s school shooting, which triggered a massive response by police officials and major evacuations at the school.

WFAA reported that Dallas Fire-Rescue quickly responded to the shooting, which took place at roughly 1 p.m. on Tuesday. According to the arrest affidavit, school surveillance cameras documented the moment Haynes was let into the school by an unidentified student at an unsecured door at roughly 1:03 p.m. The affidavit noted that Haynes walked down a hallway before approaching multiple male students, displaying a firearm, and shooting at several of the students.

According to the affidavit obtained by WFAA, Haynes also “appeared to take a point-blank shot” at another student who was not able to run away from the scene of the shooting. The affidavit claimed that five students were shot by Haynes and were transported to the hospital.

Prior to the affidavit, Jason Evans, a Dallas Fire Rescue, told reporters that four victims, ages 15 to 18, had been injured in Tuesday’s shooting. Evans told reporters that the students’ injuries ranged from non-life-threatening to serious injuries.

READ MORE: Video: Mass shooting leaves 3 dead, 3 wounded in Virginia

According to Dallas ISD officials, the school campus was secured by 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Dallas ISD Police officials confirmed that Haynes turned himself in at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas shortly after 9 p.m. According to jail records obtained by WFAA, Haynes has been charged with “aggravated assault mass shooting” and was placed in jail with a $600,000 bond.

WFAA reported that Dallas ISD Superintendent Superintendent Dr. Stephanie Elizalde confirmed that Wilmer-Hutchins High School classes will be canceled for the remainder of this week and that mental health resources will be available for any students and staff members.

“Today as we all know, the unthinkable has happened,” Elizalde said. “And quite frankly, this is just becoming way too familiar, and it should not be familiar.”

Following Tuesday’s school shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) released a statement, saying, “Our hearts go out to the victims of this senseless act of violence at Wilmer-Hutchins High School.” Abbott added, “Cecilia and I ask our fellow Texans to join us in praying for the victims’ swift recovery and for the entire Wilmer-Hutchins High School community.”

A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, shows a massive presence of Dallas Fire-Rescue and police vehicles outside Wilmer-Hutchins High School following Tuesday’s shooting.

#BREAKING: A level two mass casualty incident has been declared after a active shooting incident took place at a high school

#Dallas | #Texas

Currently Numerous law enforcement agencies are currently on the scene in Dallas, Texas, responding to an active shooter situation… pic.twitter.com/tI27zRopLG

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 15, 2025

The Department of Defense highlighted the importance of military health care with regard to “force lethality” and military readiness in an update shared on Monday.

In an update shared by Military Health System Communications, Stephen Ferrara, who was appointed in January and is currently fulfilling the responsibilities of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, emphasized readiness as a “strategic imperative to ensure warfighter dominance, survivability, and resilience.”

“Readiness cannot be secondary,” Ferrara said. “You cannot do readiness at the last minute. You cannot cram for readiness. When it comes to mission success, readiness is everything.”

Ferrara, who was deployed four times as an active-duty surgeon in the U.S. Navy, noted that the Military Health System is the only health care system in the country that “goes to war.”

“When America’s sons and daughters go downrange and go into harm’s way, we honor the pact we made with them and with their parents, that should they become ill or injured, they will receive prompt and effective medical attention anywhere in the world,” Ferrara said. “That is the trust that we have. That’s something that our adversaries don’t always have, and it gives us an incredible strategic edge.”

READ MORE: Video: Pentagon cuts $5.1 billion in ‘wasteful spending’ in new wave of DOGE cuts

Ferrara explained that his top priorities for the Military Health System include providing high-quality, accessible, and sustainable care, increasing the lethality of America’s warfighters, and sustaining the medical force’s skills. Ferrara said, “We have to support the warfighter, sustain our skills and strengthen our chain.”

“If we support, sustain and strengthen, that is how we build a system that will fight and win because fundamentally, this is what our job is: to fight and win,” Ferrara added. “We do this by having a ready medical force so we can provide strong battlefield care and keep guns in the fight.”

According to the Defense Department, Ferrara said part of his job is demonstrating to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth how the Military Health System aligns with the Trump administration’s emphasis on “force lethality.” Ferrara explained that the Military Health System “optimizes warfighter performance” by ensuring the readiness of military service members and the individuals responsible for providing service members with medical care and recovery.  

“It starts with maintaining the ready medical force,” Ferrara stated. “We must ensure that every member of the team — from the surgeon who wields a scalpel, to the logistician who procured the scalpel; from the nurse who transfuses the blood, to the team who runs the blood bank — is at the top of their game. A team ready to go downrange to fight and win.”