Texas Weekly Online

War Department pushes back on ‘false’ narrative of internal strategy split

War Department pushes back on ‘false’ narrative of internal strategy split

Rejecting reports of a split with the brass, the Department of War says the National Defense Strategy was “seamlessly coordinated” with senior civilian and uniform leaders — and that “any narrative to the contrary is false.” On Monday, The Washington Post reported that multiple senior officers had raised concerns about the forthcoming strategy, pointing to a divide between political leadership. Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg pushed back on Wednesday, in an on-the-record statement to Fox News Digital. “The Department’s National Defense Strategy has been seamlessly coordinated with all senior civilian and military leadership with total collaboration — any narrative to the contrary is false,” Feinberg said. RENAMED DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COMING ‘SOON,’ TRUMP SAYS A senior War Department official said the strategy was the product of “extensive and intensive” collaboration across the department. The drafting team included a policy lead, a Joint Staff deputy and representatives from the military services who consulted widely with civilian and uniformed offices. Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby and the acting deputy under-secretary for policy, Austin Dahmer, met with leaders from every group. The official called that level of policy-shop engagement “unprecedented.” SUPPORTERS HAIL TRUMP’S PENTAGON REBRAND AS ‘HONEST,’ CRITICS CALL IT RECKLESS Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided feedback directly to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Colby, the official said, and both assured him his input would be reflected in the final draft. The Post report said political appointees in the Pentagon policy office led the drafting and described unusually sharp pushback from some commanders over priorities and tone.  The War Department disputes that characterization and says the document was coordinated at the principal level and aligned closely with the National Security Strategy. The pushback comes a day after Hegseth addressed hundreds of commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico. TOP US MILITARY BRASS TO HOLD SECRETIVE MEETING WITH HEGSETH AS TRUMP RAMPS UP RUSSIA CRITICISM In a 45-minute speech, he argued the force needs tougher standards and a tighter focus on warfighting. He has recalled one-star and above officers from around the world to brief in person and has removed several senior general officers as part of a broader overhaul. Hegseth says new directives will restore rigorous physical, grooming and leadership standards and require combat roles to meet one set of physical benchmarks. The Washington Post did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.  Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

How Mikie Sherrill’s family made millions after she was elected to Congress

How Mikie Sherrill’s family made millions after she was elected to Congress

New Jersey gubernatorial hopeful Mikie Sherrill has become one of the Garden State’s richest lawmakers in Congress six years after getting elected to Washington — buoyed by a portfolio of luxe properties, millions in stock and a banker husband who earns more than $2 million per year. Republican Jack Ciattarelli and his allies have pummeled Sherrill (D-NJ) over her finances — accusing her of “flipping stocks and cashing in” since being elected to high office. “In the seven years that she’s been in Congress, she’s tripled her net worth!” Ciattarelli said during their fiery clash at last week’s debate. SHERRILL FIRES BACK AT GOP RIVAL AS QUESTIONS SWIRL OVER HER MILITARY RECORDS: ‘HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR’ “While you were sitting on the House Armed Services Committee, you were trading defense stocks,” he went on. Sherrill has denied that claim, saying she does not own individual stocks — though a mealy-mouthed response to the question about her net worth from “The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne tha God has only fanned the flames. A peek at Sherrill’s financial disclosures contradicts some of the attacks Ciattarelli and his allies have made on the campaign trail about her net worth — and suggests her impressive wealth growth comes from a variety of sources. “Mikie does not own or trade individual stocks, and has gone ‘above and beyond’ releasing the exact values of her finances to the dollar,” Sherrill campaign communications director Sean Higgins told The Post. “New Jerseyans have zero insight into Jack Ciattarelli’s net worth, they do know he made $15 million in profits off opioid misinformation and investments linked to the Chinese Communist Party.” The frequently cited $7 million figure stems from a Washington Free Beacon analysis that used the average of a range of values provided in congressional financial disclosures. In 2019, Sherrill’s net worth would’ve been between $730,000 and $4.3 million, per her House financial disclosure records. By 2024, it jumped to between $4.8 million and $14 million. DEM GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE HIT WITH ACCUSATIONS OF NEPOTISM OVER CHILDREN’S ACCEPTANCE INTO NAVAL ACADEMY Additionally, that analysis looked at all her assets, not just stocks. And a key reason why her net worth jumped so sharply in that analysis is that she added a Washington, DC, townhouse, purchased in a tony neighborhood in 2021 for $1.5 million. As Ciattarelli noted, Sherrill was forced to pay a $400 fee in 2021 for STOCK Act violations, after blowing past a 45-day deadline to disclose her husband’s stock trades — something that is not uncommon in Congress. The Garden State Democrat’s net worth is somewhere between $9.4 million and $14.61 million. Quiver Quantitative, which provides estimates for most members of Congress, pegged Sherrill’s fortune at $14.61 million, which would place her just behind Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s (D-NJ) $42.19 million net worth as the second-richest Garden State pol in Washington. An August analysis by the New Jersey Globe pegged her and her husband’s net worth at $9.4 million. Most of Sherrill’s fortune stems from her banker husband, Jason Hedberg. Hedberg gets partially compensated through stocks from UBS, which they frequently sell off, according to financial disclosures. He has raked in more than $2.6 million each year since 2021 — topping out at $2.9 million last year. For comparison, Sherrill’s congressional salary is $174,000. Shortly after taking office, Sherrill began offloading individual stocks in favor of exchange-traded funds to mitigate conflict-of-interest concerns. MIKIE SHERRILL STAYS SILENT AS NEW JERSEY POLITICIANS REACT TO CONVICTED COP KILLER’S DEATH She had $4.4 million in her brokerage account, and her husband reportedly had $1.9 million in unvested stocks. The pair also had about $1.5 million between their checking accounts, retirement accounts and life insurance policies. The New Jersey Democrat’s investment portfolio fared 1.9% worse than the S&P 500, according to insider trading watchdog Unusual Whales. Sherrill and her husband also own three homes: a large mansion in wealthy Montclair, a vacation home in Vermont, and the Washington, DC, townhouse. Zillow records indicate that her Montclair home is worth about $3 million, her vacation home is about $780,000, and her DC home, which she once rented to former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), was pegged at $1.6 million. Records indicate those three homes have mortgages on them. At least two of her children went to the tony Montclair Kimberly Academy, which has tuition as high as $53,340 annually. Following pressure from Sherrill’s allies to release more of his tax documentation, the Ciattarelli campaign let media outlets examine 13 years of his tax returns. While his net worth isn’t fully clear, tax records show that he has raked in close to $14.9 million since 2012 and paid at least $4 million in taxes, the New Jersey Monitor reported. Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman, had made his fortune off two medical publication businesses, one of which he sold in 2017, the same year he made $7.1 million in total income, per the outlet. Tax records showed that his income fluctuated throughout the years, from $600,946 in 2014 to $854,966 in 2018 and $168,433 in 2022, according to the report. Additional reporting by Steven Vago and Isabel Vincent

Ethiopia church scaffolding collapse kills 36 during religious festival

Ethiopia church scaffolding collapse kills 36 during religious festival

Pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival. By News Agencies Published On 1 Oct 20251 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Makeshift scaffolding set up at a church in Ethiopia has collapsed, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, state media reported. The incident occurred at about 7:45am [4:45 GMT] on Wednesday in the town of Arerti, in the Amhara region, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital, Addis Ababa. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list A group of pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival when the scaffolding collapsed. District police chief Ahmed Gebeyehu told state media Fana “the number of dead has reached 36 and could increase more,” according to the AFP news agency. The number of people injured remains unclear, but some reports suggest they could be as many as 200. Local official Atnafu Abate told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) that some people remained under the rubble but did not provide details on rescue operations. Some of the more seriously hurt were taken to hospitals in the capital, he added. Worshippers stand inside the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church under construction that collapsed in Arerti, Amhara region of northern Ethiopia, on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 [Samuel Getachew/AP Photo] Teshale Tilahun, the local administrator, described the incident as “a tragic loss for the community”. Images shared on the EBC’s official Facebook page showed tangled wooden poles, with crowds gathering amid the dense debris. Other pictures appeared to show the outside of the church, where scaffolding had been precariously constructed. Health and safety regulations are virtually non-existent in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, and construction accidents are common. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

PSG beat Barcelona for winning start to Champions League defence

PSG beat Barcelona for winning start to Champions League defence

Holders Paris Saint-Germain come from behind to win 2-1 at Barcelona in the league phase of the Champions League. Paris St Germain battled back from a goal down to grab a 2-1 win over Barcelona in a gripping Champions League encounter, with the defending champions overcoming a raft of injuries to secure a valuable victory away from home. Barcelona started well on Wednesday, and their pressure paid off in the 19th minute when Marcus Rashford delivered a precise pass across the box to Ferran Torres, who slid in to beat the offside trap and slot past PSG goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list PSG, however, responded tenaciously, despite missing captain Marquinhos and their starting attacking trio of Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue. They took control of proceedings and equalised in the 38th minute when Nuno Mendes embarked on a dazzling run down the left, beating three defenders before setting up 19-year-old Senny Mayulu, who finished clinically into the bottom corner. After substitute Lee Kang-in hit the post with a shot from the edge of the box in the 83rd minute, PSG finally scored a deserved winner from a quick counter in the 90th, with Achraf Hakimi crossing for substitute Goncalo Ramos to fire home from close range. “Very disappointing feeling at the end, when you concede in the last minute of the game, to lose at home, you have to be disappointed,” Barcelona captain Freddie de Jong told Movistar+. “They [PSG] were better in the final stages, in the second half in general. We began the game better. So it went back and forward, but it’s true, they were better in the second half.” Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scores his side’s first goal against PSG [Albert Gea/Reuters] Man City and Juventus held but Arsenal and Newcastle win Manchester City had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Monaco after Eric Dier scored a 90th-minute penalty for the hosts. Advertisement Villarreal and Juventus also ended 2-2 after Renato Veiga’s late equaliser. Arsenal beat Olympiakos 2-0, with Gabriel Martinelli netting after 12 minutes and Bukayo Sako sealing the win in injury time. “We want to be creative, we know the quality we have in the team,” Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard said. “Everyone can see the quality and depth in the squad now, it is a feeling from every single player on the pitch that you want to keep your place.” On Arsenal finishing second in the English Premier League for three consecutive seasons and being knocked out of the Champions League in the semifinals last year, Odegaard added: “We have used everything that happened to us in a good way and have also brought a few new players in – hopefully this is going to be our year.” Nick Woltemade is doing his best to make Newcastle fans forget about Alexander Isak. The club-record $93m signing scored his third goal in four starts for Newcastle to set up the 4-0 rout of Union Saint-Gilloise. The German international was signed to fill the sizable void left by Isak’s contentious move to Liverpool. And he has made an instant impact. His 17th-minute goal at Lotto Park might not have been the prettiest — diverting Sandro Tonali’s goalbound shot past Kjell Scherpen — but it got Newcastle off to the perfect start. It also highlighted his useful knack of being in the right place at the right time. Woltemade has now scored in back-to-back games after his goal against Arsenal on Sunday. He still has some way to go to prove he can replace Isak, who scored 54 goals in 78 Premier League starts for Newcastle, but the early signs are promising after his move from Stuttgart. Anthony Gordon struck twice from the penalty spot — scoring either side of halftime to put Newcastle in control, and substitute Harvey Barnes added a fourth. Qarabag maintained its 100 percent start to the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Copenhagen. Abdellah Zoubir and Emmanuel Addai were on target for the Azerbaijani team. Adblock test (Why?)

Israel kills journalist Yahia Barzaq known for his newborn baby portraits

Israel kills journalist Yahia Barzaq known for his newborn baby portraits

NewsFeed An Israeli air strike has killed journalist Yahia Barzaq, who was known for his creative portraits of newborn children before the war in Gaza. Published On 1 Oct 20251 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share facebooktwitterwhatsappcopylink Save Adblock test (Why?)