Throughout its 25 years, the post-9/11 war on terror defined presidencies, exacted a staggering human cost, remade the pillars of the federal government and exposed the hard limits of what raw American military might can achieve.
The U.S. Army has rolled out an online drone store for soldiers.
The global oil price benchmark Brent crude rose above $100 a barrel Wednesday following attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on Saudi Arabia and a wave of U.S. strikes.
All three say the new alliance is purely for defense, but make no mistake, the development has captured the wary attention of the U.S. and is generating concern in India and Israel.
Inside the Mojave war game, the shipbuilding "bulldoze," and a first look at Golden Dome testing.
Tehran is signaling that it is prepared to continue the escalation, with Iranian missiles and drones targeting U.S. bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, marking the third consecutive day of attempted strikes on American assets.
The U.S. military is moving to a “wartime footing” level of production for munitions burned through by the war with Iran.
Trump has expressed interest in a summit with the North Korean leader, even cutting joint military drills with South Korea as an apparent olive branch to buy in from Kim.
The U.S. military’s largest branch is left without a top civilian leader or a congressionally confirmed senior officer.
Russia’s saber-rattling is echoing across Europe.
The Trump administration desperately needs Western Hemisphere partners to help battle powerful drug cartels and stem the tide of Chinese influence across the Americas. It may have a new ally in recently inaugurated Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori.
Nuclear microreactors soon will be part of the U.S. Army’s inventory under the Pentagon’s Janus Program
With the Chinese government having swiftly dismissed the major U.S. sanctions package announced against Iran this week, questions are swirling around the extent to which the Trump administration's reliance on sanctions may backfire.
Beyond all of the military's cutting-edge AI technology is a simple question: Do troops trust it?
A series of Russian missile tests in waters near Japanese-claimed islands outraged Tokyo and raised questions about the extent to which Russian and Chinese naval and aerial forces are engaged in a coordinated campaign.
American military installations need reliable power, even if an adversary attack takes down local electric grids. And that's where nuclear microreactors could come in.
It marks the most Tomahawk cruise missiles fired in any military operation since the debut of the weapon.
The Pentagon's proposal, known as the National Security Fund Finance program, or NSFF, is part of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to transform America’s defense and critical minerals industries.
Christopher Kubasik is out as the CEO of major U.S. defense company L3Harris.
The Trump administration's push to open Libyan oil as a Gulf-supply alternative during the war with Iran is struggling after an assassination, a central banker's move to quit and a week of drone strikes and explosions that ran into Sunday.
The latest episode of the Threat Status podcast, just released this morning, features an exclusive interview with Lt. Gen. Brian W. Gibson, vice director of the Golden Dome missile shield project.
The war is showing how protecting important space assets abroad needs to ‘evolve,’ according to Gen. Whiting, the head of U.S. Space Command.
The success of the Golden Dome ultimately depends on its funding, which remains a very open question right now in Washington.
Hard-liners are gaining more power in Tehran, potentially dimming the prospects for a lasting U.S.-Iran peace deal.
Officials also wrote an open letter to defense companies asking for suggestions on ways to "streamline data and audit requirements."
President Trump, hoping to maintain pressure in talks with Iran, vowed to prosecute individuals who told the media that the U.S. military had exhausted nearly all of its highly accurate long-range missiles during the five-month war.
The U.S. Army’s $3 billion Next Generation Command and Control digital communications system is “ready but not done.”
Ukraine's acting foreign minister offered the comparison last month, warning that Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports are a campaign of “economic and humanitarian terror."
The Democratic Republic of Congo is struggling to contain the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak it’s ever seen.
Ukrainian officials said Monday that Russian military planes had dropped eight powerful glide bombs on residential districts of Zaporizhzhia.
Egyptian officials said Thursday a drone attack caused a fire aboard two vessels at the Mediterranean port of Damietta, confirming that the war between the U.S. and Iran has reached the one Arab state that had managed to stay on the sidelines.
The U.S. Army is pushing forward with its new Next Generation Command and Control system.
A successful Ukrainian drone strike on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that Kyiv says was transiting weapons components from Russia to Iran has underscored the growing convergence between the most active wars currently raging on the world stage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned in recent days that North Korea is preparing to deploy 30,000 fresh troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
A pause in military strikes by both U.S. and Iranian forces held for a third day Monday after weeks of escalation in the Mideast war.
The congressman, a North Carolina Republican and rising star on the GOP's national security policy landscape, weighs in on whether President Trump should declare victory and end the Iran war.
Dark Eagle missiles can travel at speeds up to 17 times the speed of sound — fast enough to evade missile defense systems
President Trump is expected to announce a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday afternoon.
The Yemen-based militants backed by Iran claimed Monday to be preparing a maritime blockade targeting Saudi Arabia.
At least 17 Americans have been killed in combat since the war began on Feb. 28. More than 400 have been wounded.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed Friday to have targeted a U.S. Special Forces command center in Syria.
The Pentagon is buying parts of private companies in a new approach to defense funds that it says are meant to foster stable demand and competitive prices.
Three weeks before he is scheduled to be sworn into office, Colombia’s Vice President-elect Jose Manuel Restrepo says his nation hopes to turn around its fortunes by freeing up its economy and strengthening U.S. relations.
His trip to the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan marked the first visit by a NASA chief in eight years.
U.S. Central Command said late Sunday that American forces used "precision munitions" to hit Iran's military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats in a fresh wave of strikes.
The Karansky Quarry in Donetsk, which locals call the "Chinese quarry," offers a clear example of a growing trend: Chinese companies are helping to build and sustain the occupation economy in parts of Ukraine seized by Russia.
The U.S. military and top defense companies are racing to bring secure, artificial intelligence-powered command-and-control tools to the battlefield.
President Trump declared that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is "over." It's unclear where negotiations go from here.
Throughout its war with the U.S., Iran has targeted regional data centers across the Middle East.
Its regime is still standing. Its nuclear program still exists, as does its ballistic missile program.
Threat Status convened leaders from the U.S. military, Congress, the Trump administration, think tanks and the defense industrial base for a special event on June 24 at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington.
The Pentagon is moving nearly every unmanned and autonomous systems program into a new office.
There is growing evidence that China is driving opposition to new data centers in America. And the effort seems to be working.
It's the first such joint patrol since last December, and it comes at a delicate moment for the region.
Along Ukraine's crucial Black Sea ports, the threat of Russian drones is intensifying.
Denys Kapustin, the founder and commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, says his group has become a home for Russians who want to fight in Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invading forces.
The Trump administration is expanding its push to dramatically accelerate U.S. commercial and military shipbuilding.
The navy that wins in a conflict in the critical Indo-Pacific region isn’t necessarily the one with the most hulls in the water, retired Adm. John Richardson, a former chief of naval operations, said Wednesday.
The transformation and all the challenges that come with it will be at the center of a special Threat Status event Wednesday.
Congress is nearing a vote on the Pentagon’s request to send $130 million in military assistance to armed groups in Syria fighting the Islamic State, but changing dynamics on the ground could weaken the program’s effectiveness.
The terms of President Trump's ceasefire deal with Tehran are prompting outrage on Capitol Hill, including among key Republicans, who say the administration has squandered U.S. military gains against Iran.
The U.S. Air Force has lost nearly a third of the available fleet of Reaper surveillance and attack drones in Middle East conflicts since the start of the Trump administration.
Adm. Sam Paparo, the top American military commander for forces that stretch from the U.S. West Coast to India, has warned U.S. lawmakers that the danger of war with China is growing.
Europe’s largest land warfare exhibition opened Monday outside Paris under a cloud of urgency.
Both sides indicated further negotiations for a final end-of-war agreement will continue over the next 60 days.
The Senate Armed Services Committee cleared the National Defense Authorization Act Thursday. The theoretical new command likely would focus on streamlining the acquisition process for small drones and then delivering those drones to troops.
The largest ever deployment of counter-drone technology in American public safety history is unfolding around the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The North Korean dictator pricked an ultra-sensitive strategic fault line by backing Chinese President Xi Jinping's claim of sovereignty over the U.S.-aligned island democracy of Taiwan.
Ukraine on Tuesday approved a new missile and artillery development concept for a long-range strike capability that would put Moscow well within range.
Iran’s military said Monday that it will launch more ballistic missiles at Israel if Israeli forces don't halt their strikes on Tehran-backed militants in Lebanon.
People’s Liberation Army spy units are using numerous online sites to target government and military personnel of five allied states and potentially steal secrets, according to a new threat notice issued this week by the three security agencies.
The case highlights what prosecutors say is an example of Tehran's ability to gain help from the U.S. to aid its military and nuclear program.
At least one person was killed and dozens were injured Wednesday in an Iranian missile and drone attack on Kuwait's international airport.
Russian military forces continue to ramp up their onslaught of drone and missile attacks targeting Kyiv.
The U.S. and Iran traded attacks over the weekend after Iran shot down an MQ-1 Predator drone, the latest American aircraft lost in the conflict. U.S. forces struck Iranian radar and command-and-control sites in response.
Romanian military forces scrambled two F-16 fighter jets Friday after a Russian attack drone hit the roof of an apartment building in a southeastern area of the NATO nation. The incident has sent tensions soaring between NATO and Moscow.
A policy paper circulated recently says the U.S. Space Force must plan to deploy troops on orbiting space stations and at bases on the moon to prevent China from winning the new space race.
A proposed U.S.-backed investment in a South African rare-earths project is emerging as an unlikely bright spot in relations strained by disputes over Israel, refugee policy and South Africa’s growing ties to China.
Russia's military forces carried out a large-scale drone and ballistic missile attack on Kyiv overnight.
Threat Status will convene leaders and the defense industrial base for a special event on Wednesday, June 24, examining the future of U.S. maritime power in the Indo-Pacific as competition with China intensifies.
Ukraine is considering legalizing private military companies to turn the country’s unmatched experience of modern warfare into an export business.
Private capital from Silicon Valley and other tech and industrial hubs across the country is bankrolling a growing number of companies aiming to be a part of the DDI.
Tehran says it will expand the war well beyond the Mideast if the U.S. or Israel carries out new strikes.
The vitality of the informal, authoritarian CRINKS alliance is on display with Russian President Vladimir Putin scrambling to visit Beijing.
Will Special Operations Command receive a major budget increase, exceeding the relatively modest hike in the proposed fiscal year 2027 spending plan?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Chinese warnings of a conflict over Taiwan have not altered the U.S. policy of supporting the island democracy.
The Pentagon has inked agreements this week with Virginia-based defense tech companies CoAspire and Leidos and California-based Anduril and Zone 5.
President Trump has arrived in Beijing with a planeload of U.S. tech and banking industry titans, including Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and executives from Apple, Boeing, Tesla, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.
The Navy is rolling out its 30-year plan to bolster American dominance at sea.
The U.S.-Israel war with Iran has shown how easily a regional economy dependent on seaborne shipping can be taken hostage — a lesson that's particularly sobering for China, the world's biggest exporter.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio anticipates an Iranian response to the U.S.-proposed peace deal by C.O.B. Friday.
The two U.S. primary space launchpad complexes are facing increasingly crowded schedules.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed for China on Tuesday for a meeting with high-level Chinese Communist Party officials.
Terrorism is skyrocketing across the troubled African continent, with almost 24,000 deaths in 2025 blamed on terrorism-related violence.
Military officials and defense industry insiders now acknowledge a reality: The U.S. can't outbuild China in a strictly by-the-numbers contest. But that doesn't mean the Pentagon is ceding any advantages whatsoever to its Communist adversary.
Across the U.S., there's a growing grassroots backlash against the construction of new data centers.
President Trump says Iran is in a state of collapse and warned Tehran to "get smart" or face renewed military attacks.
Russia could be looking to North Korea for help as Moscow's offensive in Ukraine slows.
Cole Tomas Allen, the man accused of opening fire at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner, penned a chilling manifesto ranting against President Trump and outlining his “rage” over “everything this administration has done."
The mystery surrounding this week's departure of Navy Secretary John C. Phelan continues.
The Navy is developing weapons and other military systems to be deployed inside shipping containers.
Japan announced the scrapping of historical prohibitions on arms exports Tuesday, one day after its troops joined multinational combat drills in the Philippines for the first time.
Iranian officials refused Tuesday to commit to rejoining scheduled peace negotiations, even as a U.S. delegation prepared to travel to Pakistan for talks.
An exclusive Threat Status video breaks down the biggest stories from last week's Space Symposium, where technology once viewed as science fiction met reality.
Persian Gulf oil may be off the market, but a global shift to U.S. supplies is more complicated than the Trump administration may have hoped.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman spoke about the Space Reactor-1 Freedom program in an exclusive video interview with Threat Status.
Establishing a permanent U.S. base on the moon, including a nuclear reactor, is crucial before China or Russia does, top Trump administration officials said Tuesday at the Space Foundation's annual Space Symposium.
The annual gathering, which opens Monday in Colorado Springs, is among the largest events of the year for the space industry.
The Houthis have now begun screening ships transiting the Red Sea by political identity — using the same selective-pressure formula that Iran applied to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Golden Dome missile shield budget includes $452 million for high-energy lasers and high-powered microwave weapons.
Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine told reporters on Wednesday that U.S. forces are ready to act quickly and are prepared to strike devastating blows against Iran if Tehran fails to uphold the terms of the two-week ceasefire.
President Trump threatened Tuesday that a "whole civilization will die" if Iran doesn't agree by tonight to comply with U.S. demands
The strait has quickly become the focal point of the war. Iranian military forces and proxies in the region are attacking tankers and harassing shipping via a toll system.
A search-and-rescue operation in Iran could open the door to more U.S. casualties, while the capture of an American service member by the Iranian government would immediately change dynamics both on the ground in the Mideast and in Washington.
The Trump administration and top U.S. defense officials are weighing whether to send in ground troops to retrieve Iran's highly enriched uranium.
Trump has signaled his desire for an end to the conflict, but the Pentagon is deploying the full spectrum of military forces for “maximum optionality” in the Middle East.
Pakistan is pushing for China to play a role in mediating an end to the war in Iran.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the demands in the Trump administration's 15-point peace plan are "excessive, unrealistic and unreasonable."
The U.S. faces hurdles in conducting “battle damage assessments” of its strikes against key targets in Iran, raising questions about whether the Islamic republic’s military infrastructure could be rebuild after the war.
It's been a key subplot to the U.S.-Iran war and one that could reverberate for years.
Russian military forces are engaged in a spring offensive against Ukraine, firing nearly 1,000 drones over a 24-hour period this week, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles that have targeted at least 10 locations across the country since Monday.
The new policy comes just days after a federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s limits on press access to the complex.
Iranian officials remained adamant Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed, despite threats from President Trump.
South Korea imports 70% of its oil from the Persian Gulf and is highly vulnerable to global economic troubles. As a net energy importer, ithe country s exposed to oil shocks such as those being caused by Iran's blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
Adm. Rich A. Correll, who assumed the Nebraska-based nuclear forces command in December, told a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing this week that China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are subverting global balances of power.
Marine Corps. Gen. Francis L. Donovan, commander of the Pentagon's Southern Command, said Tuesday that he's worried about growing inroads China has made in developing port facilities and space stations in the Western Hemisphere.
The Israeli military said Tuesday Mr. Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, was killed in an airstrike overnight.
World leaders were less than enthusiastic on Monday about Mr. Trump’s demand that U.S. allies commit resources to reopen the Strait, with most offering noncommittal statements or outright refusals on Monday.
Six Americans are dead after a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq. U.S. Central Command said neither friendly fire nor enemy fire was to blame.
The Arctic presents troops operating there with a unique set of life-threatening challenges.
Three cargo ships near the Strait of Hormuz were hit by unidentified projectiles early Wednesday. Iran did not immediately claim responsibility for the apparent attacks, but suspicion clearly centers on the Islamic republic.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Tuesday would be the most intense day of airstrikes so far in the war against Iran.
President Trump says a short-term spike in oil prices is a "small price to pay" for ending the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Operation Epic Fury has cost $3.7 billion so far, a new estimate says. It's one of the first detailed price tags for the military campaign against Iran, which President Trump has said could last a month or longer.
Can Iran's vast supply of drones and its stockpile of ballistic missiles outlast the air defenses of the U.S., its Gulf allies and Israel?
An American submarine sank an Iranian warship in international waters, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters early Wednesday. It's the first torpedo attack of its kind in decades.
There's good reason why Iran is labeled the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terror.
The defense secretary said Monday morning that the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran are not akin to the American invasion of Iraq more than two decades ago.
The final deadline for Anthropic is 5 p.m. today, but there are few signs that anything will change over the next few hours. The Pentagon objects to Anthropic's characterization of the dispute over the company's artificial intelligence tool.
The U.S. Army is pushing ahead on development of its "immersive global 3D terrain" system, designed to enhance combat operations with virtual reality.
Trump drew a red line on Iran during his State of the Union address, vowing that he won't allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon and is ready to use military force to prevent it.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out a fresh round of drills in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, a week after similar drills resulted in a partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The full-scale military assault, which began with pre-dawn missile strikes targeting dozens of Ukrainian cities and towns on Feb. 24, 2022, continues today amid the Trump administration's struggle to lead peace negotiations.
African leaders are increasingly condemning what they describe as a cynical campaign by Russia to recruit African men to fight and die in Ukraine. Prominent figures on the continent are pushing Moscow to end deliberately misleading recruiting practices.
The U.S. has continued to move military assets to the Middle East that would be capable of striking at Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear infrastructure.
There was no breakthrough in high-stakes Russia-Ukraine talks on Tuesday and Wednesday, with division remaining deep over the future of land in eastern Ukraine that is occupied by the Russian army and that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to keep.
Moscow is prepared to deploy naval assets to protect its oil ships from seizure by European powers, a senior Russian official said Tuesday.
Tensions are rising between China and Japan — a key U.S. security ally in Asia — following Tokyo's seizure of a Chinese fishing vessel off the Japanese coast.
Frustration among America's European allies over the Trump administration's ongoing push for the U.S. to take control of Greenland from NATO member Denmark will take center stage at the annual Munich Security Conference.
The U.S. Space Force is accelerating the deployment of counterspace weapons under a new policy.
The U.S. and Israel are pushing for Iran's ballistic missile program to be the center of ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran. But would Iran ever even entertain the idea of limits to its prized ballistic missile stockpile of 2,000 weapons?
President Trump on Monday threatened to block the opening of a bridge between Michigan and Ontario.
The issue of military-to-military and other connectivity is growing between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Iran’s rejection of Turkey and request for Oman as the venue for nuclear talks with the United States today exposed a hard truth about Middle East diplomacy: No one in the region is expecting a breakthrough.
Thursday's expiration of New START — the last nuclear arms agreement between Washington and Moscow — could accelerate the 21st century arms race.
A U.S. fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively approached” the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, and American forces later drove off Iranian boats harassing a U.S.-flagged merchant ship, Pentagon officials said.
A ruling by the Supreme Court of Panama voids a pro-Chinese company’s contracts for running two port facilities at either end of the Panama Canal.
The Air Force Association rebranded itself as the “Air & Space Forces Association,” a move that it said would better reflect its mission to advocate for 21st-century American power not just in the air, but in space as well.
The Trump administration spent $496 million deploying military personnel to U.S. cities in 2025 to smother crime and protect federal buildings, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The San Francisco-based company Scale AI says the Pentagon should shift from the current use of large language model AI to a new form of combat.
President Trump says "time is running out" for Iran to make a deal on its nuclear ambitions and that a U.S. armada is ready to make Tehran pay if it does not come to the negotiating table.
President Trump has put the U.S. on an expansionist path not seen since the early 1800s.
The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group rerouted from the South China Sea in mid-January as President Trump ramped up threats to use American military to halt the killing of protesters.
All eyes are on the United Arab Emirates as Russian, U.S. and Ukrainian officials gather in Abu Dhabi for their first direct three-way talks since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The Navy's recently deployed an oceanographic survey ship, along with a guided missile destroyer, through the Taiwan Strait to gather key data for future underwater drone operations.
The House plans to vote later this week on a final package of fiscal 2026 spending bills that includes a nearly $8.4 billion increase in defense funding.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's assertion Tuesday that there have been no U.S.-Russia talks on the soon-to-expire Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty has sparked new speculation.
Critics say China and Russia are likely to seize on the developments, offering Moscow a tailor-made justification for its designs on Eastern Europe and Beijing a rationale for flexing its muscles in the Indo-Pacific.
Turkey is delivering increasingly pointed warnings to Washington amid escalating violence in neighboring Iran: What the Trump administration may see as an opportunity, Ankara sees as the prelude to catastrophe.
Military attaches from the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden are discussing the immediate need for AI-equipped uncrewed vehicles.
Regional experts say the defection of high-profile officials from within the Islamic republic's ruling power structure, switching sides to join the protests, would be the kind of development that could tip the scales in favor of regime change.
More boats, smarter weapons and deadlier guns. Those are just a few of the wishlist items that Navy officials and defense industry leaders will tackle in Virginia this week.
President Trump told reporters he's looking at "very strong options" and that the U.S. could "hit them at levels they've never been hit before."
The first "request for solutions" in the Pentagon's Drone Dominance Initiative, a $1 billion plan to have small, expendable drones built domestically, closes Friday, as companies compete for a shot at long-term defense contracts.
U.S. military forces demonstrated highly effective mission suppression of enemy air defenses in the opening minutes of Saturday's raid on Caracas. U.S. forces knocked out both the Chinese radar and extensive Russian air defense missile systems.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells Threat Status it "couldn’t have been more fitting" that a Chinese delegation was visiting Caracas during the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.
The leaders of France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Poland and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement that U.S. domination of Greenland would be unacceptable and NATO should be responsible for ensuring the autonomous island’s security.
The secret training facility gave commandos from the Army’s Delta Force the opportunity to rehearse the mission repeatedly before President Trump gave the order to capture the Venezuelan dictator.
President Trump's fixation on Venezuela reflects a unique combination of factors that has led the White House to pursue a multipronged push to squeeze what many see as the illegitimate government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The notion of actual kinetic warfare in space is fueling a high-stakes debate in national security circles over how to best protect valuable assets in orbit from adversaries with increasingly dangerous space capabilities.
Reports indicate that the CIA was responsible for a drone strike this month targeting a Venezuelan dock allegedly involved in drug trafficking.
It's become a growing priority inside the Defense Department and in the C-suites of leading American defense companies. In many ways, they represent a uniquely American problem.
President Trump acknowledged that the fate of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region remains a tricky issue.
Threat Status Special Correspondent Joseph Hammond examines how Somali pirates are stalking commercial shipping in the Indian Ocean in coordination with Iran-backed Houthi militants and terrorist groups operating in the Horn of Africa.
National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz examines how a Chinese Ministry of State Security intelligence service disclosure about a U.S. National Security Agency cyber campaign offered clues to one of the most secret American programs.
The Trump-class battleships that the president unveiled recently at his Mar-a-Lago estate will be lighter and shorter than their Iowa-class counterparts, which now mostly serve as floating museums.
The underpinnings of a new Trump foreign policy doctrine are becoming clear.
It was the third such assassination of a senior military officer in the Russian capital in roughly a year.
President Trump signed an executive order detailing sweeping goals for the nation's space policy, including sending Americans back to the moon, establishing a lunar outpost by 2030 and developing nuclear power in space.
Threat Status got an exclusive look inside the “prototyping” of the Next Generation Command and Control system.
President Trump on Tuesday designated the Venezuelan government a “terrorist organization” and ordered a “complete and total” blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of the country.
Someone pointed high-powered lasers at U.S. F-16 jets as they were making their approach to a NATO air base in western Germany on three occasions this month.
America's military presence in Syria and its relationship with the new government in Damascus are both under the microscope after an ISIS attack killed two U.S. soldiers and one civilian interpreter.
The 3,086-page national defense authorization legislation for fiscal 2026 has a section on Energy Department national nuclear security activities that would end the self-imposed U.S. moratorium on underground tests in place since 1996.
The Space Force Association is creating a new think tank and research center aimed at better educating government officials, military planners, defense industry firms and the public.
Trump’s assertion that Somali immigrants have “contributed nothing” was brushed off by officials in the long-troubled African nation who are focused instead on the reality that Somalia is quietly reemerging as a security partner in Africa.
The notion of actual kinetic warfare in space is fueling a high-stakes debate in national security circles.
From a body count perspective, President Trump's anti-drug campaign pales in comparison to former President Barack Obama's war on suspected terrorists abroad.
National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz tracked the warnings from government officials and energy experts this week about the real and growing threats to the American energy grid posed by communist China.
Experts warn that Russia's "potential use of solar geo-engineering as a hybrid warfare tool is no longer science fiction but a real risk."
Following five hours of secretive Putin-Witkoff-Kushner talks in Moscow this week, Estonian Foreign Minister Tsahkna made headlines by asserting, "Putin has not changed any course...It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t want to have any kind of peace."
President Trump huddled with his national security team Monday amid a growing firestorm about a deadly “follow-on strike” by U.S. forces on a Venezuelan boat suspected of carrying drugs through international waters.
Russia launched a deadly drone assault against Ukraine over the weekend while Kyiv’s forces targeted Russian oil tankers in the Black Sea, the latest round of violence between the two sides.
The Threat Status daily newsletter team is on hiatus in recognition of Thanksgiving. While we're away, please enjoy some recent highlights from the deep-dive journalism produced by the Threat Status team.
The Threat Status daily newsletter team is on hiatus Nov. 27-28 in recognition of Thanksgiving. While we're away, please enjoy some recent highlights from the deep-dive journalism produced by the Threat Status team.
There are new behind-the-scenes details about exactly how the Trump administration's Russia-Ukraine peace plan came together.
Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll's political stock is soaring amid his high-profile role in Ukraine peace talks.
Top U.S. and Ukrainian officials said Sunday that they had made significant progress in a round of talks in Switzerland that Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the most productive in “a very long time.”
A new Ukraine peace proposal calls for long-opposed concessions by Ukraine, including the ceding of territory. The timing couldn't be worse for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A surge in mystery drone activity over sensitive NATO military sites is being blamed on Russia.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry Director for Asian and Oceanic Affairs Kanai Masaaki's mission to China to try to defuse Tokyo-Beijing tensions over Taiwan appears to have failed.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is making his first White House visit since the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi.
U.S. Navy strikes against alleged drug cartels in the Caribbean and talk of an American invasion have Venezuelans on edge, but many say they are more worried about day-to-day survival than a conflict with the United States.
The Pentagon’s Replicator program isn’t about drones, at least not entirely. It has fallen short of its goal to field thousands of autonomous systems by August 2025. The initiative seems to have fielded only hundreds, not thousands, by the target date.
President Trump’s recent threat to resume U.S. nuclear weapons tests after a three-decade moratorium has sparked unease in Moscow and Beijing.
The Department of Homeland Security closed out the fiscal year with its best border numbers in 50 years, showing major drops in every significant category but one — the number of terrorism suspects detected crossing.
Africa has become what the United Nations describes as “the epicenter of global terrorism.”
Pyongyang ignored outreach from President Trump while hosting a delegation of senior Russian military officers as fresh North Korean units have moved into Russia to help in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
President Trump’s threat to send U.S. forces into Nigeria to protect Christians from deadly militant groups has drawn praise and concern from religious and political leaders in the oil-rich but economically poor African nation.
The Trump administration’s recent cuts to domestic space institutions put the U.S. on the back foot when competing against China.
The Pentagon will radically speed up the way it purchases weapons and platforms by rewarding contractors who deliver on time, slashing review processes and offering new incentives to staffers.
The Trump administration may have a solid argument that international drug cartels are using narcotics as de facto weapons of war.
Artificial intelligence drones are rewriting the rules of war in Ukraine.
There's deep concern on Capitol Hill that crucial functions are about to get a lot harder under the Pentagon's new communications policy.
China agreed to delay for one year potentially devastating restrictions on the export of rare earth elements.
Congress has approved $24.5 billion for development of the missile shield, but multiple sources have told The Times that the White House Office of Management and Budget is currently holding the funds.
President Trump and newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi inked a framework agreement in Tokyo Tuesday to cooperate on critical minerals.
A U.S. Navy helicopter and fighter jet crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of one another in separate incidents Sunday as Mr. Trump and other top administration officials were traveling to Asia.
Most of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium remains buried under tons of rubble at sites bombed in Israeli and U.S. airstrikes in June.
Shield AI has announced its new autonomous drone platform that has a 2,000-mile range.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the changes are a "pragmatic step" to improve communication with Congress and designed to "improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency."
National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang has a deep dive based on interviews with current and former top officials criticizing Hegseth, even as military recruiting has surged.
The strikes are designed to put pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the Trump administration accuses of facilitating drug trafficking throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Gaza’s fragile ceasefire is unraveling into internal warfare as armed clan militias challenge the remnants of a still-lethal Hamas, which has responded with a brutal crackdown that has left more than 30 people dead.
New self-destructing drones, developed by U.S. and Israeli military contractors, will soon be in the hands of Army soldiers.
Reporters representing news outlets that refused to sign the Pentagon's restrictive new press policy are being told to turn in their credentials. Only one major news organization, One America News Network, has signed the document.
A slew of private defense firms and weapons builders are collaborating and competing on the development of advanced counter-drone systems.
President Trump heralded a seismic shift in the Middle East as he addressed the Israeli Knesset Monday.
Air Force Gen. Kenneth F. Wilsbach disclosed that the Pentagon now expects China's arsenal of nuclear warheads to reach 1,500 by 2030, as he warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Chinese nuclear and missile threat is growing.
A new report from OpenAI shines a light on just how big a role AI is playing in phishing scams, covert influence operations and other nefarious actions.
The Chinese president is expected to make stronger demands of President Trump at their expected meeting on the sidelines of the APEC forum in South Korea.
The cold reality for war planners inside the Pentagon: It’s no longer a given that the U.S. and its allies will control the skies with ease in any future conflict.
The administration has cast its series of operations against such boats — there have been at least four over just the past month — as a necessary step to stem the flow of deadly drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine into the U.S.
President Trump declared that the U.S. is at war with drug cartels and labeled them "unlawful combatants" in a memo to key lawmakers.
The future of combating small attack drones centers on directed energy weapons, cutting-edge electronic warfare and computerized fire control systems.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is voicing alarm over President Trump’s plan to deploy space weapons as part of a missile defense shield.
Hegseth vowed to purge the U.S. military of "woke garbage" and said all service members — including the highest-ranking officers — will be required to meet weight requirements and pass physical fitness tests twice each year.
Several European leaders have pushed back at Mr. Trump's warnings about unchecked immigration, but complaints about open borders from angry voters are fueling a political shift across the continent.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned top U.S. military generals and admirals to the Marine Corps base in Quantico for a major meeting next week. The suddenness and the unusual size of the gathering have sparked international headlines.
The U.S. scrambled fighter jets Wednesday to track and deter four Russian military aircraft flying near Alaska.
Investigators found miscellaneous cellphones and computers, firearms and 80 grams of cocaine at one of the sites, implying a connection between the network and international drug cartels.
Top U.S. military intelligence officials warned that China is developing and deploying next-generation fighter jets and launching advanced satellites at an alarming pace.
One of the key questions swirling around Mr. Trump's widely anticipated address at the U.N this week is this: Does he truly believe he still has a chance at the Nobel Peace Prize?
Taliban officials rejected the idea that American troops could return to Afghanistan’s Bagram Air Base, a former key military facility and regional hub for U.S. troops.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security this week placed 32 foreign companies, including 23 in China, on its blacklist of sanctioned firms.
Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon writes that a resurgence of animosity could shake U.S.-South Korea relations at a delicate time, as the future of the bilateral security alliance is currently under negotiation.
Monday's strike was the second in as many weeks against alleged drug-carrying speedboats.
U.S. allies have opposed or watered down European Union sanctions on Moscow and continue buying Russian oil, despite President Trump’s insistence on a 100% ban in exchange for heavy U.S. sanctions on Russia.
In the wake of China's major military parade reception of Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and other world leaders, high-level former U.S. officials argue the U.S. must reengage quickly with the Indo-Pacific.
U.S. forces are vulnerable to drone swarms due to insufficient scale.
Russia is trying to test NATO by luring Poland into the Ukraine war.
Israel carried out a military strike Tuesday targeting Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar's capital.
Trump said he is ready to ramp up sanctions against Russia after Moscow launched more than 800 drones and 13 missiles in its largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the invasion began in 2022.
European leaders collectively spent more on importing Russian oil last year than they did on financial aid for Ukraine, which totals roughly $21.7 billion, according to data from the Center for Research Energy and Clean Air.
Russia is denying allegations it carried out a cyberattack on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s airplane.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un flanked Chinese President Xi Jinping on the VIP viewing stand — the balcony of Beijing’s Forbidden City — for China's massive military parade.
North Korea's leader will join Russia's Vladimir Putin and Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian alongside Xi Jinping at Wednesday's Chinese military parade
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Chinese coders accessed sensitive Pentagon data through Microsoft.
Production is underway on a second wave of short-range reconnaissance drones to equip the U.S. Army with small, unmanned vehicles at the tactical level.
Denmark’s foreign minister has summoned the chief U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen over reports that several American citizens with ties to President Trump have been conducting influence operations in Greenland.
President Trump said at his meeting with South Korea's president that "big progress" can be made on North Korea.
Beijing has deployed a high-visibility charm offensive across Tibet, India and Pakistan, highlighting the region’s importance while leveraging perceived American diplomatic missteps.
National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz breaks down this deeply troubling revelation: China is working with Moscow to develop an automated command-and-control system for landing operations, such as a future invasion of Taiwan.
Military insiders say it's time to consider how political and military thinking will change when artificial intelligence is able to predict with near-certainty that a war is imminent.
China is working against the "Golden Dome" plan for a next-generation strategic missile defense system covering the United States, viewing it as a threat to Beijing's own large missile forces.
The White House Ukraine summit brought as much uncertainty as it did optimism.
The questions of whether Ukraine is willing to cede the Crimean Peninsula to Russia and agree to never join NATO are at the center of Monday's high-stakes meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and other European leaders at the White House.
Russia’s battlefield breakthrough in Ukraine this week and the Kremlin’s relentless sabotage campaign across the rest of Europe has ratcheted up the stakes around the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.
All eyes will be on President Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
The Trump administration’s Golden Dome for America missile defense shield will incorporate space- and land-based defenses to create a four-layered system.
National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz and Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon look inside the collision between two Chinese military ships during a harassment operation against a Philippine coast guard boat.
Fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces raged overnight Sunday into Monday ahead of the high-stakes summit meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin set for the end of this week.
The Trump administration's push for a next-generation "Golden Dome for America" missile defense shield was front and center at this week's Space & Missile Defense Symposium, despite a Pentagon order not to talk about the initiative.
Has the proliferation of open-source software, or OSS, opened up security vulnerabilities for the U.S.?
It's a question hanging over upcoming talks between American and South Korean leaders and any future diplomatic overtures from Washington to Pyongyang: Could the Trump administration formally accept a nuclear-armed North Korea?
Threat Status looks at the Defense Department's decision to slash participation in think tank events, saying they will conduct a "thorough vetting" of all such events before granting permission for any military officials to attend.
It's been a long time coming, but there are clear signs that the U.S. is finally moving ahead with the kind of major shipbuilding initiative that military insiders say is crucial to keep pace with adversaries such as China.
NATO dispatched a task group of warships to the icy waters of the Arctic this week just days after a major Russian naval exercise in the strategically vital region. The NATO mission was made up of Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese and German vessels.
Artificial intelligence is transforming the CIA.
Vladimir Putin has been using Russian state media lately to promote a narrative that the U.S. owes credit for its birth in the 18th century and its survival during the Civil War to an unlikely source: Russia.
The comments came days after U.S. diplomats were left on the sidelines as Iranian officials engaged in multinational nuclear talks with European officials in Turkey.
In an exclusive video interview, Miles Yu says the "relationship between China and Russia is not really equal, because clearly China is the boss. Russia is a proxy."
Unidentified hackers recently compromised a major intelligence website used by the CIA and other agencies to submit details of sensitive contracts, according to the National Reconnaissance Office, the spy satellite service that runs the site.
China is racing to create a cognitive merger between man and machine through brain-computer interface research.
The Trump administration appears to have staved off the prospect of a widening riff by reaching a trade deal with Japan.
Officials from Ukraine and Russia are slated to meet in Turkey on Wednesday for a new round of peace talks that come as Ukrainian air defenses struggle to contain the Russian military's expanding drone and missile assault.
The Pentagon is engaged in an increasingly aggressive push to accelerate the delivery of advanced, small and versatile drone systems to American warfighters across the services.
Threat Status got an exclusive look at two products from Florida-based L3Harris, which says its "Wolfpack" system can play a crucial role in a new military environment.
The generational shift that finds Silicon Valley increasingly partnering with U.S. national security, defense and intelligence agencies is accelerating.
It's clear just how frustrated President Trump has become with what he views as Russia's refusal to seriously pursue ceasefire talks, but he isn't so angry that he wants to see Russia's capital targeted by Ukraine.
President Trump says he's "disappointed ... but not done" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Trump is expected to announce a new plan to supply Ukraine with weapons, including Patriot missile defense batteries and possibly offensive military equipment.
U.S. intelligence agencies have completed only the initial assessment of the June 21 strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, and Pentagon officials say the final battle damage assessment won’t be finished “for some time."
Chinese and Russian bombers that conducted a joint patrol near U.S. territory in November for the first time represented practice for conducting a strategic nuclear attack on the United States, according to a new report.
Russia launched more than 700 drone attacks targeting various Ukrainian cities on Tuesday night.
China is signaling President Trump may have to declare that the U.S. does not support Taiwan's independence if he wants a summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
President Trump threatened an extra 10% tariff on "any country aligning themselves with the anti-American policies of BRICS."
The scale and sophistication of Chinese cyber threats are unlike anything the U.S. has faced before.
The shift from the Trump administration seems to reflect growing concern inside the White House and Pentagon that America's own stockpiles are getting too low.
Global health officials say they can't pinpoint the exact origins of COVID-19, largely due to a lack of cooperation from China.
The fatwa issued against Mr. Trump comes amid deep concern about Iranian 'sleeper cells' already in the U.S. and prepared to conduct operations on American soil.
Trump administration officials say the ceasefire between Israel and Iran after U.S. bombers hit the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities has created momentum for peace in the Middle East, including a potential end to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers wants new policy to stop U.S. agencies from acquiring or using artificial intelligence made by China or other foreign adversaries.
The unprecedented long-range bombing strikes by the U.S. on Iran’s nuclear plants, including sending decoy B-2 bombers to Guam, had the secondary impact of bolstering deterrence against a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Iran's 86-year-old supreme leader Ali Khamenei has been hiding in a secure bunker since Israel began its bombing campaign earlier this month
The administration attempted over the weekend to use the U.S.-Iran confrontation as a way to divide Tehran from some of its global partners, particularly China.
Ben Wolfgang and Guy Taylor break down President Trump's looming decision whether to order U.S. military strikes on Iran in the latest episode of the Threat Status weekly podcast.
The advanced-tech Israeli missile shield appears to be holding its own, although dozens of the Iranian missiles fired in daily barrages since last week have managed to pierce the multilayered air defense system.
The back-and-forth threats between Mr. Trump and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei underscore how dramatically the Israel-Iran war has escalated as it churns through its sixth day on Wednesday.
President Trump is weighing whether to order a U.S. airstrike to aid Israel in destroying Iran's vast underground nuclear facility at Fordo.
World powers, including the United States, China and Russia, are jockeyed for influence over the direction of the conflict in the days to come.
President Trump said Friday that the Israeli military campaign against Iran "will only get worse" and urged Tehran to immediately make a nuclear deal with the U.S.
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman says humanity is close to reaching superintelligence and he believes ChatGPT is in some ways "already more powerful than any human who has ever lived."
Neither Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nor Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine appear likely to break with President Trump over the domestic deployment of U.S. troops.
The Trump administration’s tariffs on Japanese and South Korean goods have ratcheted up the stakes for the two U.S. allies.
The initial deployment of 300 soldiers marked the first time since the 1960s that Guard troops had been activated without their governor’s consent.
Ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu once declared that subduing your enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. For China, that goal is closer to being realized through new weaponry and capabilities that Beijing calls cognitive warfare.
An 'AI Fight Club' for futuristic war simulations is under development in Washington, with the first fight slated for later this year.
North Korea has supplied at least at least 100 ballistic missiles and millions of rounds of artillery shells and rockets to Russia, in addition to dispatching 11,000 troops to support the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.
The situation is precarious, given that seismic developments on the battlefield in recent days are reshaping the war in ways that may put momentum firmly on Kyiv’s side.
The prospects for progress seemed dim Monday as delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey.
Beijing, for the first time since 2019, didn't dispatch its defense minister to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a move that seems designed to send a message to the Trump administration.
Google says that Chinese-backed hacking groups exploited the company's Calendar application to infect U.S. government computers with malware.
Sec. Hegseth will be in the spotlight Friday at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, a conference attended by Asian politicians, military officials and industry executives, including representatives from China.
President Trump's geopolitical calculus centers on the notion that a friendly Syria going forward will help advance U.S. interests.
A major Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchange is reported to be underway, a week after the two sides agreed to the swap and days after President Trump spoke by telephone with Vladimir Putin.
The U.S. and several of its allies said that Russia’s military intelligence targeted technology and logistics companies, particularly those involved in the delivery of wartime aid to Ukraine.
Behind the scenes, the jockeying for Golden Dome contracts began long before Mr. Trump's announcement.
President Trump emerged from his two-hour phone call Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said Moscow is prepared for "immediate peace talks."
The high-stakes Trump-Putin phone call is shaping up to be the make-or-break moment for the U.S.-led ceasefire push in Ukraine.
President Trump says he is considering calling Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the next steps to ending the Russia-Ukraine war after Mr. Putin didn’t show up to the peace talks in Turkey.
The Trump administration said that it would formally revoke the Biden administration’s AI diffusion rule, a regulatory framework that would have imposed new controls on chips and model weights.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, Montana Republican, announced the formation of the chamber's Golden Dome caucus during his keynote speech Tuesday at a major event in Pentagon City hosted by Threat Status.
Sources tell Threat Status that President Trump is weighing the appointment of a "Golden Dome czar"
With stops in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha, President Trump is signaling a return to transactional diplomacy focused on arms deals, tech investments, and countering China and Iran.
The Treasury Department on Thursday slapped sanctions on Chinese several companies the department said are involved in buying millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil.
Three of the suspected spy bases are near Havana on the north coast and a fourth is on the opposite side of the island near Santiago de Cuba.
India launched airstrikes that killed at least 26 people in Pakistan early Wednesday, intensifying already high tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The Pentagon’s Test Resource Management Center says the second successful flight of a fully recoverable uncrewed hypersonic test vehicle took place in March.
The Trump administration's push for direct nuclear diplomacy with Iran has lost momentum over the past week, with Iranian officials reaching out increasingly to Europe.
The postponement of a high-stakes round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks comes as President Trump seeks to ramp up pressure on Tehran, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio declaring the Iranians must end all uranium enrichment.
U.S. national laboratories and several American universities that are engaged in Pentagon-funded research are using Chinese supercomputers in ways that endanger national security.
The air combat exercises include Chinese midair refueling with a Y-20U aerial tanker, air support, battlefield search and rescue, and a Kong Jing-500 airborne warning and control system.
Maintenance, operation and modernization of America’s nuclear forces are expected to rise to $946 billion through 2034.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared his forces will adhere to a three-day, May 8-10 ceasefire in Ukraine to mark World War II Victory Day.
A car bomb killed a top Russian military general hours before the high-stakes meeting in Moscow between President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war.
America’s top artificial intelligence labs are on the precipice of unlocking superintelligence that can surpass humans, but their work is being watched by Chinese spies.
The U.S. and Iran will begin "expert-level" nuclear talks this weekend. And some analysts believe that's a bad sign.
Russia launched a wave glide bomb and Iranian-made Shahed drone attacks on Ukrainian cities overnight.
Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia, taking advantage of unease over President Trump’s tariff offensive to promote Beijing’s own far-flung trade, investment and security strategies in the region.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. could soon "move on" from its push to secure a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire. The Trump administration, he said, is trying to figure out whether a deal "is even possible or not."
One key to beating China in a high-stakes 21st-century tech race is ending American policies that subsidize Chinese growth.
The comments from Gen. Caine, who was sworn into his post as the nation's top military officer last week, came in written responses to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
China could be targeting former employees at the CIA, U.S. Agency for International Development, Defense Department, or other arms of the federal government.
Russia's Palm Sunday attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, which killed more than 30 people, is fueling questions about whether Moscow is serious about pursuing a ceasefire deal to end its war in Ukraine.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood, senior vice president at Anduril, dives into the rapidly evolving advanced technology and sophisticated war-fighting platforms used by the U.S. military in an interview on the Threat Status weekly podcast.
China’s artificial intelligence advances are fueling unease among U.S. lawmakers concerned about the privacy and security of Americans.
A top Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Wednesday rejected Ukraine's claim that a substantial number of Chinese troops are now fighting in Eastern Ukraine.
Iran's foreign minister has confirmed he will meet with President Trump's top Middle East Envoy for a high-stakes round of nuclear talks.
The Trump administration's push for a ceasefire has lost momentum in recent days, with Moscow rejecting the effort despite having agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
The depths of Russia's strategic alliance with Iran were underscored when Moscow warned this week that Russian forces will retaliate if the U.S. bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
A 1990s law mandating major telecom providers make their equipment compatible with court-order wiretaps resulted in backdoors inside telecommunications networks.
The Defense Department said the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group will soon head to the Mideast, joining the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, and will remain there as U.S. forces increase their bombing campaign against Houthi militants in Yemen.
An impending trade war may spur a surprising new economic alliance among China and two key U.S. security allies: Japan and South Korea.
Suspected U.S. airstrikes struck around Yemen’s rebel-held capital, attacks that the Iranian-backed Houthis said killed at least three people.
U.S. Army leaders say rapid technological advances are poised to eliminate some of the massive logistical hurdles confronting a U.S. military operating thousands of miles from American shores.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe this week revealed the extent to which American spies have adopted Signal.
Criminal cartels and gangs are what “most immediately and directly threaten the United States,” according to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
The White House has ordered an inquiry into why the top editor at The Atlantic was included on an encrypted group chat about U.S. military strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen.
Trump has made clear his administration is prepared to engage diplomatically with Tehran and is open to an agreement that would limit Iran’s nuclear program.
Two months into President Trump’s second term, signs of the administration’s approach to Beijing are emerging: China remains the most dangerous flash point for war, and the U.S. defense and industrial base is currently inadequate to support a conflict.
China is rapidly building up space warfare capabilities to destroy U.S. satellites in a future conflict and assist in conducting long-range attacks, according to a new U.S. Space Force intelligence report.
There are more developments in the dramatic feud between Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and the U.S. Institute of Peace.
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire collapsed overnight, with the Israeli Defense Forces launching "extensive strikes" against the Palestinian terror group.
President Trump will speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, as top White House officials say the two sides are "a lot closer" to a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Key diplomats from China, Russia and Iran presented a united front Friday at a meeting in Beijing, calling on the U.S. to end economic sanctions and abandon the threat of force against Tehran over its nuclear program.
China’s military is developing advanced anti-stealth radars for deployment on balloons and unmanned aircraft.
The European Union said Wednesday it has imposed “swift and proportionate” tariffs on U.S. goods after President Trump’s 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S.
Secretary State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz opened talks with a top Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump adviser Elon Musk engaged in a war of words with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski over the weekend, urging him to be quiet and thankful for keeping Russia away from his doorstep.
One of the core messages of President Trump's address to Congress this week was that U.S. allies and partners around the world must beef up their own defenses. Another was that unfair trade practices would be hammered with tariffs.
A U.S.-China cyber and intelligence war is widening in the backdrop of trade tensions stemming from President Trump's imposition of tariff hikes on Beijing.
Robert Greenway goes inside President Trump's approach to the Defense Department in an exclusive interview on the latest episode of the Threat Status podcast.
President Trump will double down on his America First agenda Tuesday night in a speech to Congress.
No matter who was right or wrong in the sharp televised exchange, some in Kyiv say the Ukrainian president did his country a disservice with his feisty approach to the new American leadership.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark E. Green tells Threat Status that the committee is set to reveal new details of threats to the American homeland posed by China at a hearing on Wednesday examining Chinese “information warfare” activities.
Texas-based cyber firm CrowdStrike observed a massive increase in China-linked cyberattacks and digital espionage last year.
The head of the Israeli opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is floating his own proposal to resolve the thorny question of the future of the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. and Europe are at odds on multiple fronts of the Russia-Ukraine war, as President Trump sparred with French President Emmanuel Macron over how much money Europe has given Ukraine.
The Pentagon became the latest executive branch to tell Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk to stay in his own lane.
Lead Tech Correspondent Ryan Lovelace has an exclusive story about the federal government's response to charges that the National Security Agency hacked a Chinese university.
Lead Tech Correspondent Ryan Lovelace tracked developments in an in-depth story about the Denver-based tech giant Palantir and how, to at least some degree, several of its top officials have gone "off script" in recent weeks.
The back-and-forth between the two men came just hours after a U.S. diplomatic team left open the possibility that the U.S. will support a peace deal that permanently gives Ukrainian territory to Russia.
Threat Status has a team on the ground at IDEX 2025 in Abu Dhabi. National Security Editor Guy Taylor has an exclusive interview today with Brandon Tseng, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and co-founder of the advanced aerospace and defense tech firm Shield AI.
Nations including Qatar, Ethiopia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Cyprus will join the conference, billed as the largest exposition of cutting-edge tech in defense and security in the Middle East.
Ukraine's NATO status hangs over the Munich Security Conference, which kicked off today and will serve as the backdrop for a high-stakes meeting between Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The national security and tech worlds are bracing for President Trump's expected move to place major tariffs, possibly up to 100%, on advanced semiconductor chips manufactured by Taiwan-based companies.
The Kremlin said Wednesday it expects a Russian citizen detained in the U.S. to be returned in the "coming days" as part of the deal that secured American teacher Marc Fogel’s release, but has not provided details on the individual's identity.
President Trump is warning that "all hell" will break loose if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip by Saturday.
Is the DOGE a threat to U.S. national security, or will it help revolutionize the bureaucracy-heavy defense acquisition process in positive ways?
If the Trump administration moves ahead with severe cuts to U.S. foreign aid, the risks are real that autocratic powers will seize the opportunity to fill the void with anti-U.S. and anti-democracy propaganda in fragile democracies around the world.
Google has shifted its artificial intelligence ethics policy by dropping a section that had prevented the company from using AI for weapons development.
The president's statements sparked swift backlash from regional and world leaders from Saudi Arabia, to Germany and China.
Beijing hits back: China's leaders retaliated against President Trump's tariffs by slapping a 15% tariff on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas exports and a 10% tariff on American crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars sold in China.
Projections that the 11,000-strong North Korean army contingent deployed to the Russia-Ukraine war would be ill-equipped cannon fodder are evaporating as battlefield reports indicate high motivation, quality training and lavish scales of gear.
Aspen Strategy Group Executive Director Anja Manuel went into depth on foreign and national security challenges facing the Trump administration in an exclusive video interview with Threat Status.
The crash between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial jet will cast a fresh spotlight on longstanding concerns about outdated air traffic control systems.
The U.S. Air Force doesn’t have enough trained pilots to win in a conflict against a peer adversary like China or meet the nation’s other national security requirements, according to a new policy paper from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
National Security Tech Correspondent Ryan Lovelace reports on concerns that China may use DeepSeek to refine and improve its ability to censor online content and amass user data.
In trademark Trumpian rhetorical style, the promise to build an Iron Dome for America is not a literal promise to build a replica of the Israeli system, which doesn’t seem financially or logistically feasible for a nation as big as the United States.
How aggressively will President Trump use the U.S. military within his expanding crackdown on illegal immigration, and drug and human smuggling by international criminal cartels that the new administration deems as "foreign terrorist organizations"?
Two Chinese research institutes are developing drones launched from submarines capable of both underwater and aerial transit, according to a report in a Chinese scientific journal.
The New Year's Day terrorist attack by Islamic State-inspired extremist Shamsud-Din Jabbar, which killed 14 people, made headlines. But he was only one of dozens of extremists on American shores willing to carry out attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping seized the moment of President Trump's inauguration to highlight the growing power alignment between their autocratic governments.
Mr. Trump opened the door to an acceleration of leader-level diplomacy with China by speaking via telephone Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
We asked Rand Waldron, vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure product development and a former top FBI official, on the latest Threat Status Weekly Podcast whether the impact being had by AI on national security is real or overblown.
President Biden issued an executive order to strengthen government tools for countering foreign hacking groups that target U.S. internet and telecommunication systems, opening the way for increased sanctions on hostile powers.
It's unclear how the incoming Trump administration will greet the plan, but there are signs the Trump and Biden teams are working together in the region in the short term.
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's for nominee for defense secretary arrived to chants of "USA! USA! USA!" inside a Senate hearing room Tuesday morning.
Two intelligence agencies now say some type of directed energy weapon is a possible cause for a small number of so-called “anomalous health incidents” identified since 2016 that have come to be known as Havana Syndrome.
U.S. military forces in the Pacific are deploying large numbers of drone weapons and increasing overall force readiness in preparation for a potential 2027 war with China, according to the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command.
The warplane-dropped nuclear gravity bomb known as the B61 has been fully modernized with a new precision guidance system.
North Korea's deployment of troops to help Russia's war against Ukraine underscores how Kim Jong-un's regime is "selling the blood, sweat and tears of the people of North Korea in order to stay in power."
A top Russian state-run news website used X’s artificial intelligence tools to generate an image of a new fighter jet — but neglected to scrub the tech platform’s watermark off the manipulated portrayal.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile that landed in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan in a show of force as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea
The United States at the present moment "can't comprehensively defend itself against a conventional cruise or ballistic missile attack," retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery tells Threat Status.
New details emerged overnight about the suspected attacker's potential links to the Islamic State, while questions are still swirling over any possible connections to another incident outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
Chinese government-backed hackers penetrated several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and obtained unclassified documents, according to a letter sent by the department to lawmakers on Monday.
Mr. Trump likes to "keep our allies off balance and our enemies feeling more secure than they should," according to columnist Jed Babbin.
Israeli forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have engaged in escalating tit-for-tat exchanges of fire this week.
The political, legal and national security battle over whether the U.S. government will ban TikTok or force a sale of the social media giant from its China-based owner Bytedance is coming to a head.
Chinese officials accused U.S. ally the Philippines on Monday of stoking regional tensions by announcing plans to acquire and deploy midrange missiles to defend its territory from Chinese naval aggression.
Companies want to know how the government will protect their assets, or financially reimburse them if those assets are destroyed during a possible clash with China in space.
President-elect Donald Trump won last month's election, but is Elon Musk actually the most influential figure in American politics today?
Threat Status is tracking a major Pentagon report out today with disturbing new details about China's military buildup, including the addition of another 100 nuclear warheads to its already impressive arsenal just since 2023.
Senior Russian officials are vowing retribution after an apparent Ukrainian operation killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, in Moscow.
Rep. Michael Waltz, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the next White House national security adviser, said that federal agencies are "pointing at each other" as questions mount.
As the date of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House grows closer, speculation mounts over negotiations for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The Department of Defense is creating a unit to expedite the adoption of cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools, focused on pilot programs to give warfighters and decision makers an AI advantage.
U.S. officials are not sure what to make of the swarms of drones flying over New Jersey in recent weeks, sparking outrage from lawmakers who said the situation makes the government look incompetent.
Benjamin Netanyahu took the stand in his long-running corruption trial. In a dramatic scene from a Tel Aviv courtroom, the Israeli prime minister decried the charges against him as "an ocean of absurdness."
Russia on Monday granted deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad political asylum, a day after he fled to Moscow as his longtime regime collapsed in the face of a stunning militant offensive that toppled city after city in Syria during recent days.
Doom may be looming for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon is covering every angle of the impending impeachment vote on Mr. Yoon, set for Saturday.
There are new details about the depth of Chinese hacking operations targeting the American telecommunications sector and what the federal government says must be done to fight back.
Sources tell Threat Status there is a growing belief in national security and military circles that the embattled Mr. Hegseth has a 50/50 shot at best to survive the week.
South Korea's president has declared an “emergency martial law,” accusing the country’s opposition of sympathizing with North Korea — a move that could impact Seoul's debate on whether to directly arm Ukraine
Russia and Iran are rushing to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's counteroffensive against jihadist rebel groups, who scored stunning advances in Syria over the past five days.
UFO research remains one of the federal government’s most closely guarded secrets. Rep. Nancy Mace wants that to change.
Sources tell Threat Status that Lebanese Hezbollah's relationship with Kataib Hezbollah is being closely tracked within the context of the ceasefire.
Ukraine and Russia have cultural, linguistic, economic and religious ties dating back centuries, so there's no neat boundary between pro- and anti-Russian populations along the more than 600-mile front line.
The Kremlin warned over the weekend that it will respond "in every way that we find necessary” if South Korea sends arms to Ukraine.
U.S. officials say the Kremlin alerted them through established arms control channels before launching an experimental longer-range ballistic missile into the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday.
Mankind must begin preparations to no longer be in charge of Earth because of artificial intelligence, according to "Genesis," a new book by the late Henry Kissinger, who died last year at the age of 100, and a pair of leading technologists.
China’s military power poses an acute threat to the United States and Beijing’s forces could now potentially defeat the U.S. military in a future regional conflict, according to a congressional commission report.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Tuesday that Ukrainian forces fired six U.S.-made missiles into Russia's Bryansk region just days after President Biden eased restrictions on Kyiv's use of American-made weapons.
Russia responded with threats Monday to Mr. Biden's decision over the weekend to let Ukraine use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia.
President-elect Donald Trump's decision to name Army veteran and outspoken Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth as his choice to lead the Pentagon and the 1.3 million active duty men and women in uniform was a surprise to supporters and opponents alike.
President-elect Trump is expected to undo President Biden's artificial intelligence agenda, replacing an emphasis on safety with a new focus on freedom.
Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with a sophisticated combination of missiles and drones for the first time in 73 days on Wednesday, authorities reported.
Sources tell Threat Status that President-elect Donald Trump has likely settled on Sen. Marco Rubio — a hawk on China and a sharp Russia critic, but also a strong advocate of pursuing an end to the Ukraine war — as his nominee for secretary of state.
Militaries all over the world are at war right now, and they are getting creative with pay and benefits to lure recruits and to keep battle-hardened veterans in their uniforms for another round.
President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential contest sets in motion the selection of key officials for a forthcoming administration, including selections for a number of key senior national security positions.
The aircraft, described as a "medium-weight, stealth multi-role fighter" jet, will be on display alongside other new military equipment, including the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile and a new type of reconnaissance and strike drone.
Across the world on Wednesday, heads of state wasted no time making pledges to work with the incoming president.
With Election Day finally here, U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that the country's adversaries may attempt to spawn fear, uncertainty and doubt among voters during the immediate post-election period, especially if the vote is close.
Conventional wisdom says the European right will be further strengthened if Donald Trump wins on Nov. 5 — but it's not clear which European right he'd be working with.
At the end of the day, there isn't that much daylight between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris when it comes to where each would take U.S. policy toward communist party-ruled China.
The National Security Agency Research Director Gilbert Herrera gave a rare glimpse this week into the agency's pursuit of research that could help produce an "economic weapon of mass destruction."
The Pentagon is condemning a pair of bills passed this week by Israel's parliament that would effectively bar UNRWA, the U.N.'s primary Palestinian relief agency, from operating inside the country.
National Security sources say Pentagon leaders are carefully weighing how to respond to the North Korean deployment, which has prompted U.S. ally South Korea to consider directly arming Ukraine's military in the war.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is calling for a global “military coalition” against Israel, while other top officials in Tehran vow to make Israel pay a price for its weekend airstrikes against key Iranian military sites.
Beijing's systematic effort to engage in espionage inside the United States is rapidly increasing, according to a new report by a House subcommittee.
Army Gen. Paul M. Nakasone left the National Security Agency earlier this year worrying about China's potential election meddling and artificial intelligence powering deepfakes. He now believes "both of those issues really are non-issues to me."
A declassified memo from the National Intelligence Council warns that Iranian and Russian operatives could try to incite violence in America after all the ballots have been cast on Nov. 5.
The vice president and Democratic White House hopeful insists she'd never allow the Iranians to get a nuclear bomb, but it's not entirely clear what she'd do to stop them.
If Vice President Kamala Harris wins on Nov. 5, her foreign policy going forward "probably would be a continuation of Biden on almost any issue," according to longtime national security journalist and author Peter Bergen.
Yahya Sinwar's death, which reportedly came during a chance encounter this week with an Israeli patrol in southern Gaza, put an immediate and emphatic end to the bloody career of the Palestinian radical movement’s best-known figure.
China’s military is advancing the development of high-technology arms, including sound weapons to wage cognitive warfare — the use of unconventional tools and capabilities to alter enemy thinking and decision-making.
Ukraine's domestic defense industry has experienced an unprecedented boom since Russia invaded and it's starting to be felt on the front lines.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are both seizing on the war to portray the other as weak, ineffective and dangerous.
North Korea has put its border artillery units on standby after angrily claiming that South Korea conducted drone operations in the night skies over its capital, Pyongyang.
Congressional Republicans say the deal should be permanently killed because it is helping the Chinese military buildup and undermining American security.
The U.S. Army's artificial intelligence research is focused on developing a "general purpose thinking machine," a term that is difficult for researchers and security officials alike to precisely define.
China turned down requests by the Biden administration to join the U.S.-led international naval armada to protect cargo ships from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence have warned for months that North Korea has been supplying Russia with artillery munitions and missiles.
A year later, stunning Israeli military victories have resuscitated the fortunes of Netanyahu and left Israel’s prime adversaries — Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran — reeling.
Beijing is engaged in the world’s largest missile modernization program, and its nuclear delivery vehicle program is the most visible aspect of what has been called a nuclear “breakout” by American military commanders.
The Biden administration has issued new sanctions on Russia's Evil Corp cyber gang in an international crackdown conducted by American officials coordinating with their counterparts in the U.K. and Australia.
Iran's missile attack against Israel has roiled the U.S. presidential race, pushing Vice President Kamala Harris to take a firmer stand on the chaos in the Middle East.
Israel announced the start of a “limited” invasion of southern Lebanon on Tuesday, with a top military spokesman saying Israeli troops were conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions.
Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah, is the most powerful figure killed by Israel in its war against Hamas, Hezbollah and other branches of Iran’s so-called axis of resistance.
The influence of Russian propaganda in conservative circles is real, according to Steven Moore, who writes, "one-third of Republican primary voters believe at least one of several narratives that are demonstrably false and originated in Russia."
U.S. intelligence officials revealed this week that AI-powered influence campaigns aimed at American voters have arrived and are the handiwork of Iran and Russia.
President Biden came to power aiming to do the impossible: Dramatically shrink America’s military footprint in the Middle East and redirect Washington’s focus away from a volatile corner of the world that has consumed U.S. foreign policy.
Personal information for some 3,191 congressional staffers has been leaked across the dark web, according to new research from the internet security firm Proton being released today.
China is exploiting U.S. government-funded research and partnerships between American and Chinese universities to gain “back-door access” to insights on advanced technology breakthroughs, according to a congressional report.
Retired CIA officer Daniel N. Hoffman homes in on the case of Linda Sun, who served for a time as the deputy chief of staff to New York Governor Kathy Hochul and was arrested by the FBI this month.
U.S. officials say they've disrupted China's "Flax Typhoon" hacking group, which took aim at Americans' cameras and other internet-connected devices.
A Taiwanese company said it authorized its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria in an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah’s communications network but that another company based in Budapest manufactured them.
Ukraine's top military intelligence officer says Russia considers 2025 a pivotal year because a failure to secure a victory in Ukraine by 2026 would undermine the Kremlin’s goal of remaining a global superpower.
Rep. Zach Nunn says a core reason for the deadly debacle of the 2021 U.S. troop withdrawal was that the Biden administration repeatedly "picked optics over security" in executing the withdrawal.
Congress passed several legislative measures this week that members say are designed to counter threats posed by China.
A top National Security Agency official recently gave Threat Status insight into the agency's efforts to partner with private companies to thwart digital disruptions to systems tied to the election.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, on Wednesday honored the 184 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
There is "certainly an element of greater power competition in Myanmar," Stimson Center China Director Yun Sun says in an exclusive interview for the latest edition of the "Threat Status Influencers" video series.
Washington Times reporter Ryan Lovelace has been tracking all the details on foreign efforts to influence the American election, including through Russian-built networks of American influencers and stepped-up Iranian cyber operations.
Military forces in China and Russia are closely watching U.S. programs to protect satellites and space systems and could counter those measures with a large-scale attack, according to a senior U.S. Space Force general.
The National Security Agency revealed new details on Thursday of its pivotal role in tracking the most wanted terrorist in American history: Osama Bin Laden.
The former deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was arrested by the FBI this week and charged with working as an influence agent for the Chinese Communist Party, prosecutors disclosed in an unsealed indictment.
Both Washington and Manila are agonizing over their ability to deter China as confrontations between an under-resourced Philippine military and an expansionist Beijing increase in the South China Sea.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his aides say they are now preparing a proposal to end the war, but Ukraine’s surprise offensive has also focused attention on the uncertainties of Kyiv’s long-term objectives.
The National Security Agency tells Threat Status it is preparing to spill some secrets.
Kyiv’s momentum in the coming days and weeks may largely depend on the next U.S. move.
With Ukrainian forces holding territory inside Russia's Kursk region, Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing increasing pressure at home because of the high-stakes political and security risks associated with his ongoing war in Ukraine.
North Korea's Kim Jong-un has ordered scientists to integrate artificial intelligence into his regime's suicide drone fleet.
Army senior open-source intelligence adviser Dennis Eger says the U.S. needs to quickly come to grips with the weaponization of social media, particularly by Russia and China.
Historian and former diplomat Philip Zelikow asserts that humanity is teetering dangerously close to global war.
Tehran may well already have the capacity to produce dirty bombs, according to Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute.
A Kamala Harris administration would continue America’s current policy of managing strategic competition with China in order to avoid war, according to a key plank of the Democrats’ 2024 policy platform made public this week.
The push for a potential Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal is again at a pivotal stage. Sec. Blinken, who is back in the region for a fresh round of shuttle diplomacy, said Monday that President Biden wants him to get a deal “over the line.”
A pair of top House Republicans delivered a letter Friday morning to FBI Christopher A. Wray, demanding more information about Iranian murder plots against current and former U.S. officials, including former President Donald Trump.
Western powers, long reluctant to allow Ukrainian troops to strike inside Russia, are watching as their weapons and vehicles are now playing a key role in the campaign.
A top cyber intelligence firm says that Iran was behind a scheme to paint the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump as a hoax.
What was widely seen as a diversion has become the main act as Ukrainian forces push deeper into Russia.
Just days before Donald Trump's presidential campaign said it was targeted by Iranian hackers, a top federal cyber official delivered this ominous prediction: Cyber chaos will come to be seen as routine trouble, akin to bad weather on Election Day.
The Pentagon has only one permanent base in Africa, on the coast of Djibouti, even as Russia and China have increased their footprint on the continent.
Mystery surrounds the spectacular Israeli intelligence operation to assassinate Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the heavily guarded heart of Iran's capital.
Federal authorities broke up an assassination plot on U.S. soil, prosecutors revealed Tuesday, saying a Pakistani man operating as an agent of Iran was trying to kill American officials.
The U.S. federal court ruling on Monday that Google’s ubiquitous search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition could hobble one of the world’s best-known companies, according to The Associated Press.
President Biden is convening his national security team amid mounting concern that Iranian missile attacks on Israel are imminent.
It's a question analysts will likely be asking for years. And Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump certainly thinks so.
The U.S. and its allies have agreed to a major prisoner swap deal with Russia that will see Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan returned to America.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a predawn airstrike in Tehran on Wednesday, according to Iranian officials who immediately blamed Israel for the apparent assassination.
U.S. intelligence officials warned Monday that foreign adversaries are scanning America's election infrastructure ahead of the contentious November election, raising concerns that those hostile powers are probing our defenses for any vulnerability.
The new joint force headquarters will be commanded by a three-star officer and will serve as a counterpart to Japan's own Japan Self-Defense Forces Joint Operations Command.
Arson attacks on the French high-speed rail network disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of people ahead of the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
Russia and Chinese nuclear-capable bombers entered the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone near Alaska on Wednesday prompting North American Aerospace Defense Command jets to intercept the aircraft.
The U.S. military's goal is "not to get into a conflict" with Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, but to "degrade and disrupt" the Houthis' ability to conduct strikes against commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.
Russian officials are casting Ms. Harris as a foreign affairs neophyte with no measurable influence on U.S. policy.
So... one content update defect can nearly grind the world to a halt?
The U.S. military confirmed Wednesday that it is giving up on trying to salvage the ill-fated floating pier project meant to deliver crucial humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians inside the Gaza Strip.
The foreign policy and national security planks in the Republicans’ official 2024 platform is light on many specifics but heavy on the broad “America First” principles that have come to define Donald Trump’s GOP.
The Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Global Times, quoting Chinese analysts, said the shooting proves that "the long-standing toxic and violent rhetoric in U.S. politics has escalated into violent actions against politicians in recent years.”
The shocking incident has echoed around the world, with some of Mr. Trump's international allies — such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — offering their sympathies.
The U.S. is joining forces with Canada and Finland to vastly increase the Coast Guard’s small, aging fleet of icebreakers, which now consists of two vessels, compared to Russia's estimated fleet of some 36 icebreakers.
While leaders huddled on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington this week, Indian President Narendra Modi held a two-day visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Polish President Andrzej Duda told Threat Status in an exclusive interview Tuesday that he sharply rejects the notion of any cease-fire deal that would require Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow.
The White House says that Mr. Biden has nothing to prove, even as more and more members of his own party call on him to step aside and make room for a younger candidate to run against Republican Donald Trump in November.
The overarching question hanging over NATO leaders as they gather in Washington to mark the alliance’s 75th anniversary is how and when — perhaps, even, if — they will formalize a clear pathway to Ukraine’s eventual membership.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, tells Threat Status in an exclusive video interview that he doesn't care who owns TikTok as long as "it's not controlled by the CCP.”
Vladimir Putin’s recent meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was an acknowledgment by Moscow that it has become increasingly reliant on pariah states such as North Korea amid diplomatic isolation and heavy economic sanctions from the West.
Unless polls and pundits are wrong, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives are on track to be toppled when voters go to the polls on July 4, with the center-left Labour opposition party set to take power for the first time since 2010.
France’s anti-immigration, far-right National Rally party scored its biggest electoral triumph to date on Sunday, taking a clear first place in snap parliamentary elections called by centrist President Macron.
A high-level delegation of left-leaning South Korean lawmakers is calling on their country’s conservative president to resist Western pressure to directly arm Ukraine against Russia, even as North Korea is widely accused of aiding the Kremlin.
U.S. intelligence agencies are guilty of multiple failures to address threats posed by China over the past 40 years, resulting in current existential dangers to American security, a former Navy intelligence director told Congress.
The federal government’s premier anti-hacking agency has revealed its systems were breached earlier this year by hackers seeking details on how the U.S. government collects information from facilities with dangerous chemicals that could be weaponized.
A senior White House official has disclosed that China’s government does not accept a Biden administration policy that restricts the use of artificial intelligence for using nuclear weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't backing off his accusations that the Biden administration is slow-walking key weapons deliveries to Israel for its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued new warnings to both NATO and South Korea as Moscow stokes tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The widely anticipated meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un resulted in a major new partnership deal between the two countries.
The Biden-Netanyahu relationship keeps crumbling, as the Israeli leader blasts U.S. weapons delays and the White House reportedly cancels a meeting with top Israeli officials in response.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is arriving in Pyongyang on Tuesday for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It's the Russian leader's first visit to North Korea in 24 years.
It's been a long time coming, but the Kremlin has confirmed that President Vladimir Putin will travel to North Korea for a two-day visit this week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s barbaric war in Ukraine has "backfired in spectacular ways," according to retired CIA officer and Threat Status contributor Daniel Hoffman.
Artificial intelligence-generated propaganda supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas is deliberately targeting an American audience, according to a new report studying online influence efforts that employ cutting-edge AI technology.
A large-scale attack on the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is the most likely scenario if Russia makes a move against NATO.
French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to call for a snap election at the end of June came after a right-wing nationalist National Rally party took 32% of the vote in Sunday's European Parliament elections.
Senior Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, are engaged in corruption and hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth by using relatives to disguise their activities.
In an exclusive interview on the latest Threat Status weekly podcast, Anastasia Radina, who heads the Ukrainian Parliament’s Anti-Corruption Committee, details her government's efforts to root out graft amid scrutiny from Washington.
Mr. Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and a slew of other world leaders assembled Thursday on the beaches of Normandy to commemorate what remains the largest amphibious operation in history.
The Tiananmen anniversary comes amid mounting concern in Washington over China's current military buildup and the prospect that Beijing could order a military invasion of the U.S.-backed island democracy of Taiwan.
The Biden administration has finally given Ukraine the green light to use American-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. But it may be too late, as Russia is already deep into its offensive in the Kharkiv region.
Houthi rebels in Yemen fired anti-ship ballistic missiles at the USS Gravely, an American Navy destroyer, in the Red Sea over the weekend and vowed further attacks, as clashes between the Iran-backed group and U.S. forces appear to be expanding.
In a dispatch from Johannesburg, Threats Status Special Correspondent Geoff Hill reflects that when the ANC was at its zenith, achieving nearly 70% of the vote in 2005, supporters had a bumper sticker with the party logo that read, “We will rule forever.”
The White House for years has steadfastly opposed the use of American weapons for strikes against targets inside Russia itself. But could that stance be changing?
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons, some equipped with timer devices apparently designed to disperse their cargoes, dumped garbage and sacks of manure across South Korea.
China's military kicked off its largest war games around Taiwan in two years last week, with Chinese state media reporting that the games were intended as a punitive action against new Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
North Korea appears to be preparing to launch its second military spy satellite into space, South Korea’s military said Friday, as animosities remain high over the North’s continued weapons tests.
Taiwan scrambled jets and put missile, naval and land units on alert over Chinese military exercises being conducted around the self-governing island democracy.
Russia recently launched a counter-space weapon capable of attacking U.S. satellites in low-earth orbit, according to the Pentagon, which says the U.S. military is “ready to protect and defend the domain” of space if necessary.
If Russia were to deploy a low-earth orbit nuclear weapon, it would threaten "basically all of our communications and use of space,” House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner warns in an exclusive Threat Status video interview.
The death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash Sunday has created a sudden power vacuum inside Tehran.
Adversarial states and non-state actors such as Islamic State and al Qaeda are deploying asymmetric assets that operate at low risk and low cost across new real and virtual battlefields.
The Chinese-owned video app TikTok serves as one of the "foremost weapons" within what the Chinese military calls “cognitive warfare,” according to analysts.
Powerful Arab nations’ moves toward a game-changing relationship with Israel came to a screeching halt with the war ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist rampage through southern Israel.
The power vacuum America left in Afghanistan is fueling a resurgence of Islamist terrorists with the will, and perhaps capability, to target the U.S., according to a new report.
A secret Hamas police force has long conducted surveillance on everyday Palestinians, tracking journalists and young people opposed to the terror group's rule.
The Chinese Communist Party is waging a "bitter information war" and "we are losing," warns retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Wallace “Chip” Gregson, one of America's most experienced and battle-hardened Marines.
A Senate Armed Services hearing turned heated this week when the Strategic Forces subcommittee chairman asked why the Biden administration's 2025 missile defense budget request falls far short on funding.
The mystery surrounding sidelined Biden administration Iran envoy Robert Malley is deepening amid revelations that he may have downloaded "classified documents" onto his cell phone, which was then apparently hacked by Iranian cyber operatives.
Israeli troops rolled into Rafah on Tuesday in what authorities said was a limited operation to eliminate the Hamas militant movement's infrastructure in the eastern section of the Gaza city.
Israel has shuttered Al Jazeera's operation in the country and told Palestinians to evacuate Rafah ahead of an expected attack by the Israeli military.
China’s leaders are planning for greater instability in relations with the United States, and Chinese military forces are expected to continue aggressive actions in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Director of National Intelligence.
The use of such banned weapons “is not an isolated incident, and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the State Department said.
China's defense spending increases and expanding military capabilities across the South China Sea are a source of growing alarm in Washington over the communist regime’s military ambitions in the not-too-distant future.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's surprise visit to Beijing over the weekend yielded major results, with the electric vehicle maker reportedly getting clearance from Chinese officials to launch its "Full Self-Driving," or "FSD," software feature in China.
In the three years since the American troop withdrawal, the U.S. has carried out exactly one over-the-horizon strike in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, ISIS-K has grown rapidly into a force capable of conducting external operations.
China is rapidly building up military space capabilities that will likely be strengthened following recent structural reforms by the People’s Liberation Army, according to Air Force Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command.
The Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have resumed their campaign of anti-ship ballistic missile and drone attacks against commercial shipping vessels and U.S. military assets over the past 48 hours in the Gulf of Aden.
"Deterrence ... means that your adversary is not going to strike you because they fear that you will strike them even harder. It will be worse for them. We've lost that 100%, ...and we've lost it repeatedly."
The Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico has had "more than two decades of relations with Chinese organized crime," according to Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown.
Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva resigned Monday amid the ongoing political fallout in Jerusalem over failures surrounding Hamas's surprise October 7 attack.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said the U.S. had no involvement in Israel's overnight airstrikes that reportedly hit a military base near the Iranian city of Isfahan.
China’s communist government is engaged in large-scale political warfare and influence efforts it calls united front operations that are seeking to subvert all sectors of the United States, according to an investigation by the House oversight committee.
National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz has a deep-dive analysis, examining how the Iranian attack marked the second high-profile failure of the administration’s diplomacy-oriented policies over the past two years.
The U.S. tech giant Microsoft is now playing a central role in great power AI wars between the United States and China, with a particular focus on influencing the future of artificial intelligence development and proliferation across the Middle East.
Fears of a direct and escalating Iran-Israel war are running high. Iran's national security council threatened Monday to deliver an even "harsher response" if Israel retaliates for attacks over the weekend.
The head of U.S. Central Command is in Israel for high-level discussions with his Israeli counterparts about Iran’s threat to launch an attack in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed a top Iranian general in Syria last week.
U.S. intelligence agencies are working on a report expected to reveal extensive corruption and hidden wealth held by Chinese Communist Party leaders, including President Xi Jinping, who also holds the post of party general secretary.
The Manhattan Project developed the first atomic bombs and birthed Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the hills of East Tennessee more than 80 years ago. Today the U.S. government lab is running an artificial intelligence security research center.
The success of China’s state-backed disinformation operations depends upon “local collaborators” capable of reaching individual audiences beyond the grasp of new tech tools, according to Taiwanese officials.
President Biden's red line against putting U.S. combat boots on the ground in Ukraine is under fresh attack, with French President Macron outlining how leaving the door open to Western troops in Ukraine could keep the Kremlin guessing.
Russia is deploying an artificial intelligence-powered surveillance operation using facial recognition to identify those opposed to the government at public events, according to an analysis of leaked Kremlin documents obtained by Estonian journalists.
The Israeli military is aggressively disputing reports that it has relied on an artificial intelligence system for a targeted killing program that tolerates civilian deaths as acceptable collateral damage in its war against Hamas.
There were signs Wednesday of the war spreading to the West Bank as video circulated purporting to show Palestinian Authority reinforcements arriving in the West Bank city of Tulkarm amid serious clashes there.
Iran vowed revenge against Israel and the United States on Tuesday, a day after Syria claimed an Israeli airstrike had destroyed the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, killing two senior Iranian generals and others.
Demonstrations in Tel Aviv and elsewhere were some of the largest since Oct. 7, when Iran-backed Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians and took about 250 hostages.
How much did Russian President Vladimir Putin know ahead of time about the ISIS-K massacre in Moscow?
Under President Biden's watch, illegal immigration is reaching historic levels. But now the long-term, systemic ramifications are coming into focus.
After two years of fighting, Ukraine’s biggest shortfall is people. There is a lack of doctors and other medical professionals able to treat the sick and wounded soldiers trying to fend off the larger Russian army.
The Biden administration seems to have finally run out of patience with Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip — a campaign designed to crush Hamas.
The Moscow attack underscores what U.S. military and national security officials have been warning about: ISIS-K is getting stronger and more capable of carrying out attacks across the Middle East and Europe.
The outgoing commander of the Pentagon's Indo-Pacific Command warned Congress this week that China’s "massive" military buildup shows no signs of slowing and the U.S. military needs more money to better deter a war with Beijing.
A raft of new artificial intelligence tools are fueling new threats to U.S. elections, and American spy agencies are reaching out to more private-sector cyber partners to thwart foreign interference.
The fight over Texas' implementation of a strict new anti-illegal immigration law just got hotter, with a federal appeals court moving Tuesday to erase a previous order that had allowed the law to take effect.
The Biden administration says six more nations are joining its push to restrict commercial spyware tools developed by private companies enabling hackers to covertly soak up information from people's computers and phones.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is investigating what lawmakers say is a Chinese “political warfare” campaign against the entire American system.
U.S. intelligence says new Generative Artificial Intelligence is providing opportunities for American spies collecting and analyzing open-source information, but also serious challenges given that those tools sometimes produce "hallucinations."
The fight over TikTok is getting hotter in Washington, with the House passing a bipartisan bill Wednesday that intends to leave the social media giant's China-based owner, ByteDance, with two choices: divest or face a ban in the United States.
The Biden administration says it’s closely watching the unfolding chaos in Haiti, where Prime Minister Ariel Henry says he’ll resign amid widespread gang violence that some analysts say now resembles a low-scale civil war.
NATO is stronger today than ever before. Defense spending is up among member nations and Finland and Sweden have joined in the two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. But beneath the surface are significant differences on key issues.
National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang has a deep dive on the Defense Department's "All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office" report that addresses far-reaching claims by some former military personnel about undisclosed government contacts with aliens.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned Friday that an extremist attack in Russia could be “imminent” and alerted American citizens they may be in danger.
Communist China's "breathtaking" nuclear build-up came into the spotlight during a public Senate hearing last week. But some of the most explosive details were revealed in a closed-door session between lawmakers and top Pentagon officials.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un‘s appetite to make a major diplomatic deal with the U.S. seems all but dead — but could it suddenly spring back to life in January 2025?
Friction between the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is nearing a boiling point, as the Biden administration embraces one of Mr. Netanyahu’s most popular political rivals: Benny Gantz.
A Senate investigation has uncovered new evidence of American technology enabling Russia’s war in Ukraine, raising the prospect that combatants on both sides of the bloody struggle are using U.S.-powered tools.
Chinese military leaders are speeding up the deployment of nuclear forces, in a sign that Beijing is shifting from a strategy of minimum deterrence, according to the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command.
Russia's war against Ukraine has damaged Moscow's influence over countries of the former Soviet Union that now are moving to reduce their dependence on the Kremlin.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has taken action against two former senior leaders who disappeared suddenly several months ago, as part of an apparent political purge by President Xi Jinping.
Washington has been abuzz over intelligence on the prospect of Russian anti-satellite (ASAT) nuclear weapons. However, some corners of the national security community are also focused on China's growing arsenal of space warfare capabilities.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh says his government is resigning — a move signaling willingness by the Western-backed Palestinian leadership to accept a shake-up that could usher in reforms to revitalize the Palestinian Authority.
Ukrainian troops are running perilously low on ammunition. Russian forces are gaining ground in the Donbas. And in America, the political fight over the utility of continued financial aid for Ukraine has reached a fever pitch.
Where does this show up?
Where does this show up?
