National Security News

The Daily Signal provides reports on national and homeland security issues, including military readiness, intelligence operations, border protection, and global conflicts. Featuring news, analysis, and commentary, this section explores how security policy decisions affect America’s national defense and freedom.
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  • opinion

    Physician-Assisted Suicide in Hawaii Is an Attack on All of Us

    Earlier this month, Hawaii became the sixth state in the U.S. to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Proponents of the law hail the move as a step toward “death with dignity,” but this could not be further from the truth. Physician-assisted suicide is a direct attack on human dignity. Every human life has value, not because of…
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  • news

    Senate Confirms 3 Key Trump Administration Officials, 3 More Judges

    After months of lagging in confirming President Donald Trump’s nominees for top executive branch posts, the Republican-led Senate helped the president staff up with a former Reagan administration appointee at the Labor Department, a top deputy at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a new balance of power on the National Labor Relations Board. The Senate…
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  • opinion

    Bungling Judicial Precedent, Federal Court Upholds AR-15 Ban

    Last week, a federal judge for the District Court for Massachusetts granted a motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the state’s prohibition of so-called “assault weapons,” such as the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Judge William Young held that the AR-15 and similar weapons aren’t protected by the Second Amendment, because they were originally designed for military…
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  • news

    2,000 Veterans, Relatives Back Education Savings Accounts for Military Families

    More than 2,000 military veterans, spouses, and other family members have signed a letter in support of a bill creating federally funded education savings accounts for military families to provide more choices and flexibility in schooling the children of those in the armed forces. The signers “are writing to express our strong support for the…
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  • news

    This California College Welcomes Propagandists for Venezuelan Socialism

    A women-only college in California continues to host Venezuelan propagandists, with two government officials scheduled to speak Tuesday for the failed socialist regime. Scripps College in Claremont, California, invited Venezuelan Consul Generals Jesus Chucho Garcia and Antonio Cordero to address “coups and imperial wars,” “African solidarities,” and Venezuela’s plan to create a “new society rooted in…
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  • opinion

    Racial Disparities Don’t Simply Boil Down to Discrimination

    I don’t mind saying that this column represents a grossly understated review of “Discrimination and Disparities,” just published by my longtime friend and colleague Thomas Sowell. In less than 200 pages, Sowell lays waste to myth after myth not only in the United States but around the globe. One of those myths is that but…
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  • news

    ‘Definition of Tyranny’: Interim Director Asks Congress to Fix Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

    The Trump administration is urging Congress to reshape a consumer agency crafted by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., before it is used as a tool for “tyranny.” The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau "is far too powerful, with precious little oversight of its activities,” the agency's acting director, Mick Mulvaney, said Monday in a public statement. “The power…
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  • opinion

    Obama EPA Officials Protest Scott Pruitt’s ‘Secret Science’ Reforms. Here’s Why They’re Wrong.

    Should the public be allowed to know how bureaucrats develop policies that have major impacts on our lives? Or should we simply be left in the dark? That seems like a silly question, right? Hopefully, the answer is obvious. For some though—including Gina McCarthy, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator from the Obama administration—transparency seems…
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  • news

    Trump Fires Shulkin at VA, Taps White House Physician

    President Donald Trump has decided to name his White House physician, Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs as he ousts the scandal-plagued VA secretary, David Shulkin. The president announced the change at 5:31 p.m. Wednesday on Twitter. I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected…
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  • news

    Special Counsel Says Trump Aide Knowingly Communicated With Former Russian Spy

    Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates was in contact just before the 2016 election with a man he knew to be a former Russian spy, according to a document filed Tuesday by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. The revelation comes in a sentencing memorandum filed about Alex van der Zwaan, a London-based lawyer who pleaded guilty in…
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  • opinion

    4 Steps to Better School Security

    America has continued the heated debate as to what must be done to adequately protect our children at schools. Some (mistakenly) just say “ban guns,” or at least the ones they don’t like. Others (I am afraid equally mistakenly) say just put more guns into schools. The answer is more complex, however, and will take…
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  • news

    Suspect Charged in Connection With Suspicious Packages Sent to Military Bases

    A man is in custody in connection with suspicious packages found at military bases in the metropolitan Washington area. Thanh Cong Phan, 43, appeared in court in Washington state Tuesday, a little more than 24 hours after 11 packages arrived at the bases, CBS News reported. Phan previously had written crank letters to the military, CBS reported,…
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  • news

    US Joins Growing Coalition in Expelling Russian Officials Over Poisoning Incident

    At least 26 countries have expelled Russian citizens in retaliation for Russia’s alleged involvement in a nerve agent attack against a former double agent and his daughter in Salisbury, England. President Donald Trump moved to support British Prime Minister Theresa May by approving the expulsion Monday of 60 Russian diplomats or intelligence officers from the…
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  • news

    What John Bolton Brings to the Job of National Security Adviser

    John Bolton, who has a history of advocating muscular foreign policy, will guide the White House as the new national security adviser in facing threats from Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China, experts note. President Donald Trump picked Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, to replace…
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  • news

    Sen. Tom Cotton Backs Stricter Penalties for Fentanyl, Calling It a ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’

    Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has filed legislation to allow stricter prison terms for dealers of fentanyl, a substance he calls a “weapon of mass destruction.” Cotton introduced the legislation Thursday along with Senate colleagues who include Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. The bill would significantly reduce the amount of fentanyl a person…
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  • opinion

    ‘Problematic Women’: Special Edition From the White House

    On a special edition of “Problematic Women” from the White House, The Daily Signal’s Kelsey Harkness and The Federalist’s Bre Payton take on John Oliver’s targeting of Vice President Mike Pence’s daughter’s new children’s book, Jim Carrey’s attack on Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ appearance, and Hillary Clinton’s excuses for her inflammatory comments last week. We also discuss the…
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  • opinion

    35 Years On, Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative Pays Dividends

    Thirty-five years ago, on March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared, “Isn’t it worth every investment necessary to free the world from the threat of nuclear war? We know it is.” Thus the president introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative, “a comprehensive, layered ballistic missile defense program,” to the world. Thirty-five years later, the United States,…
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  • news

    Daily Signal Exclusive: Kellyanne Conway on the Opioid Crisis, Her Critics, and Being a ‘Problematic Woman’

    Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, spoke to The Daily Signal’s Kelsey Harkness and The Federalist’s Bre Payton about the administration’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis, how she handles critics, and her take on feminism. Conway spoke at the White House’s Generation Next forum for millennials Thursday. An edited transcript of the interview…
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  • news

    Democrat Conor Lamb Clinches Pennsylvania Special Election

    In a race determined by hundreds of votes out of about 228,000 cast, the Republican candidate for a Pennsylvania district conceded Wednesday to his Democratic opponent. Democrat Conor Lamb announced Wednesday night that his GOP opponent, Rick Saccone, had called to concede the Nov. 13 election in the Pittsburgh area district. “Just got off the…
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  • opinion

    Pennsylvania’s Special Election Is a Wake-Up Call. Here Are 2 Lessons for Conservatives.

    I’m perplexed why many in Republican circles are rationalizing and dismissing the gravity of the Democratic victory in the recent special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th District. My sentiments are more with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is cautioning Republicans to view this as a wake-up call to a possible disaster in the fall elections…
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