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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

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces a new "ethos" statement as he addresses employees in the lobby staircase of the U.S. State Department headquarters in Washington, Friday, April 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) ** FILE **

Pompeo outlines new ‘ethos’ for battered State Department

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday rolled out a new "professional ethos" mission for employees of the State Department, after months of criticism that the department has been suffering from morale and personnel problems.

April 26, 2019
American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)

Otto Warmbier North Korea medical bill goes unpaid, White House says

North Korean officials reportedly presented a $2 million hospital bill to the Trump administration in 2017 for the alleged cost of the medical care to American college student Otto Warmbier, who died later that year shortly after being released from a North Korean prison.

April 25, 2019
Protesters against Juan Guiado, opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela, chant outside the Venezuelan Embassy, Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Washington. Activists are occupying the embassy to prevent representatives of Guiado from taking over the building. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

U.S. envoy Elliott Abrams sets conditions for post-Maduro Venezuela

Elliott Abrams, President Trump's envoy on the crisis in Venezuela, on Thursday outlined three points he said must take place for the country to see its way out of the political and economic repression under socialist President Nicolas Maduro: an inclusive government, a comprehensive and professional military, and a change in the nation's economic structure.

April 25, 2019
A member of the flight crew of the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier walks past an F/A-18 fighter jet on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018. The U.S. aircraft carrier sailed into the Persian Gulf on Friday, becoming the first since America's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and breaking the longest carrier absence in the volatile region since at least the Sept. 11 terror attacks. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

U.S. Navy drafting new rules to handle UFO sightings

The U.S. Navy is drafting new, updated guidelines to report sightings of "unidentified aircrafts," in a move to assess the mysterious encounters reported by pilots and sailors and set the record straight on UFOs.

April 24, 2019
Libyan militia leader Gen. Khalifa Haftar, whom President Trump has publicly supported, has become mired in a months-old push to capture power in Libya. (Associated Press/File)

Trump call to Libyan warlord ignites controversy, confusion

An unexpected phone call between President Trump and a noted Libyan warlord has ignited controversy and confusion in recent days over U.S. policy toward Libya, where a U.N.-backed government is struggling increasingly to fend off a rival government tied to the warlord's forces, who now control most of the nation's oil assets.

April 23, 2019
In this file photo, Honduras migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, carry their national flag as they arrive to Mapastepec, Chiapas State, Mexico, Saturday, April 20, 2019. In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dated April 22, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, New York Democrat, and Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the panel's ranking Republican, said the Trump adminstration's plan to cut financial aid to Central Ameican countries like Honduras "would be counterproductive and lead to increased migration flows to the U.S." (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) **FILE**

Top House lawmakers ask Pompeo to reject Central American aid cuts

The top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are urging the Trump administration to reevaluate the president's threat to cut about $1 billion of approved aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras over what Mr. Trump calls their failure to curb illegal immigration to the U.S.

April 23, 2019
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference on Monday, April 22, 2019, at the Department of State in Washington. The Trump administration on Monday told five nations — Japan, South Korea, Turkey, China and India — that they will no longer be exempt from U.S. sanctions if they continue to import oil from Iran. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

Donald Trump to impose sanctions on countries buying Iranian oil

The Trump administration announced Monday that all countries buying Iranian oil, including China, Turkey and India, will face U.S. sanctions after May 2 as President Trump intensifies pressure on Tehran at the risk of roiling global oil markets.

April 22, 2019
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, and National Security Adviser John Bolton, right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Office of Government Hall, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) ** FILE **

White House ends waivers for Iranian oil

The Trump administration Monday said it would not extend waivers for countries buying Iranian oil in the face of new U.S. sanctions after May 2, in a bid to cut off all foreign sales of the Islamic Republic's key export.

April 22, 2019
In this Oct. 3, 2018 file photo, then-Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose campaigns in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York. Rose is running against incumbent Dan Donovan in New York's 11th Congressional District. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) ** FILE **

Veterans Affairs site suicides prompt new concern

The spate of incidents starkly illustrates the problems U.S. military and mental health officials have encountered in addressing the epidemic of veteran suicides, despite years of effort and a new initiative announced last month by President Trump to combat the issue.

April 18, 2019