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Lauren Toms

lmeier@washingtontimes.com

Lauren Toms is a national security reporter for The Washington Times, covering national security committees on Capitol Hill, foreign affairs, defense, and diplomacy. She began covering politics at CNN during the 2016 presidential election, working closely with the national security and justice teams, and later joined Axios as an editor specializing in international and military coverage.
Lauren holds a master's degree in U.S. law from Washington University in St. Louis school of law, and a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications from the George Washington University school of media and public affairs. She can be reached at ltoms@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Lauren Toms

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a Cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 8, 2019. Rouhani said Wednesday that it will begin keeping its excess uranium and heavy water from its nuclear program, setting a 60-day deadline for new terms to its nuclear deal with world powers before it will resume higher uranium enrichment. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Hassan Rouhani says Iran pressured by Trump sanctions

Iranians are under "unprecedented" pressure by global sanctions and could face harsher economic conditions than they felt during the 1980s war with Iraq, now that the U.S. has expanded its efforts to apply military and economic pressure, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said this weekend.

May 12, 2019
In this June 18, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump holds up the space policy directive that he signed during a National Space Council meeting in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Trump is moving closer toward his goal of creating a Space Force, but it won't begin as a separate military branch as the president envisioned. The Space Force instead initially will be created as part of the Air Force, but could be spun into a separate military department in the future. That's according to senior administration officials who briefed journalists on a directive Trump is scheduled to sign Tuesday to establish the Space Force. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) **FILE**

Space Force to cost billions more than expected, CBO warns

President Trump's proposal to create a Space Force as an independent branch of the U.S. military would cost up to $1.3 billion more than initially expected, according to a report this week by the Congressional Budget Office.

May 9, 2019
A TV screen shows a file footage of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, May 4, 2019. North Korea on Saturday fired several unidentified short-range projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said, a likely sign of Pyongyang's growing frustration at stalled diplomatic talks with Washington meant to provide coveted sanctions relief in return for nuclear disarmament. The signs read: "Strengthening military alertness." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

White paper urges Trump to work with China on North Korea strategy

China does not believe that North Korean denuclearization is achievable in the short term, despite sharing the same goal with the U.S. to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons, according to a new report circulating in Washington on Beijing's role in negotiations with Pyongyang.

May 7, 2019
In this photo taken on Wednesday, April 3, 2019, a Russian solder stands guard as Pansyr-S1 air defense system on the Kotelny Island, part of the New Siberian Islands archipelago located between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea, Russia. Russia has made reaffirming its military presence in the Arctic the top priority amid an intensifying international rivalry over the region that is believed to hold up to one-quarter of the planet's undiscovered oil and gas. (AP Photo/Vladimir Isachenkov)

Pompeo says U.S. preparing to counter Arctic expansion by China and Russia

The Trump administration on Monday pushed back against China's policy to grow its influence in the Arctic and warned that further Russian expansion in the strategic corridor could lead to violence, underscoring how the region has transformed into a key geopolitical battlefield for the world's preeminent powers.

May 6, 2019
Then-U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Joseph Votel testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in this file photo dated Thursday, March 7, 2019. Mr. Votel, now retired, has filed lawsuits against several military housing companies for a 2017 fire that destroyed his family's housing quarters on base in Tampa. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) **FILE**

Retired top general files suit against military housing firms after fire loss

Gen. Joseph Votel, the Army four-star general who oversaw all U.S.-led combat operations in the Middle East as head of U.S. Central Command, has filed lawsuits against several military housing companies for a 2017 fire that destroyed his family's home at command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

May 3, 2019
In this file photo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov looks toward an interpreter's booth during his talks with Spanish Fernando Arias, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) **FILE**

Russia denies U.S. claim on Maduro flight from Venezuela

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday forcefully denied his U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's claim that Russia convinced Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to stay and fight for his job, instead of fleeing on a waiting flight for Cuba.

May 2, 2019
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, flanked by national security adviser John Bolton, left, and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, right, listen during the meeting between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Friday, April 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) **FILE**

Mike Pompeo confident on China talks despite clash over Iranian oil

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday downplayed the prospect of international blowback from tough new sanctions on Iran's oil and gas customers, insisting the pressure campaign won't hurt trade talks with China -- a major buyer of Iranian oil -- or other U.S. foreign policy goals.

April 29, 2019