Welcome to The Hill's Defense & NatSec newsletter {beacon} View Online Defense &National Security Defense &National Security   The Big Story Trump's sudden pivot toward peace deal Washington and Tehran are reportedly closing in on a framework of a peace deal, news that broke only hours after President Trump announced a sudden end to his...

One of President Trump’s economic advisers projected a “very, very strong” job market future in the U.S. on Wednesday, despite price hikes amid the Iran war.  “I had the head of one of the big five banks in my office yesterday going through credit card data … and credit card spending is through the roof,”...

Click in for more news from The Hill {beacon} Health Care Health Care   The Big Story President Trump tries to save vaping The Trump administration handed e-cigarette companies a win this week when it authorized the sale of blueberry and mango flavored nicotine vaping pods, as well as two menthol flavored products. It was the...

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted that government files on UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) “will be anticlimactic.” “The impending release of U.S. government files on aliens and U.F.O.s is a good thing, even if it feels like a distraction from other important files we’ve all been waiting to be disclosed. I expect the alien...

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.) said President Trump would fire his Commerce secretary if he heard the testimony that he provided Congress on Wednesday about his relationship to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick,” Khanna told reporters following the closed-door briefing. “It...

House Democrats on Wednesday blasted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s testimony before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, arguing that his claimed lack of knowledge about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes is part of an “egregious cover-up.” Lutnick appeared before the panel Wednesday for a closed-door, transcribed interview as part of its investigation into Epstein....

On Tuesday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), who is among the handful of Democrats running to become California's next governor, said if President Trump attacks California in any way, "F him." CNN's Kaitlan Collins was co-moderating the network's California gubernatorial debate when she asked Porter about a fundraising email with the subject line "F--- Trump." She...

Airline fuel costs went up 56 percent in March, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT) — a sharp spike in the first full month after the outbreak of the Iran war. In a Wednesday release, the DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) said that U.S. scheduled service airlines’ total fuel expenditure was $5.06 billion...

The U.S. and Iran are reportedly trying to hammer out the details of one-page memorandum to end hostilities, the latest back-and-forth amid the stalemate over the months-long conflict. The U.S.-proposed memo would establish a framework for future talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, a source familiar with the talks told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer on Wednesday. Earlier...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday condemned Iran's statements warning against a "military solution" as talks with the U.S. to end hostilities in the Middle East "progress." Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on the social platform X earlier in the day that recent events in the Strait of Hormuz "make...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to end its shortened training programs intended to release new officers out on the street sooner, multiple outlets reported. Two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told The Washington Post that ICE will revert to 72 days of training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco,...

A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Wednesday to doxing the home address of a Supreme Court justice, according to the Justice Department. Kyle Andrew Edwards, 59, appeared in federal court and pleaded guilty to posting the justice’s home address online with the intent to threaten, intimidate or incite a crime of violence against them, U.S....