When does a president deserve prime-time television?
Opinion | Should networks air Trump’s national address live?
Opinion | The Paramount-Warner Bros. deal’s new hurdle comes with an asterisk
Opinion | How Air Force One became a press freedom story
Robodebt whistleblower was told her royal commission evidence ‘could cost you your job’, court hears
Robodebt whistleblower was told her royal commission evidence ‘could cost you your job’, court hears
Exclusive: Jeannie-Marie Blake is suing the Australian government over alleged threats, which her department denies making
Treasury has borrowed $155 billion every month of this fiscal year
Fortune via Yahoo Finance – and is now paying $24 billion a week in interest on its debts: “Despite concerns from debt hawks, the U.S. government is continuing to borrow at pace: For the fiscal year of 2026 so far, the federal deficit has totaled just under $1.4 trillion. The first nine months of this fiscal year (beginning in October) have now surpassed the borrowing levels of 2025, when deficits totaled just over $1.3 trillion for the same period. At the time of writing, the total U.S. national debt sits at $39.4 trillion, accumulated under administrations led by both Republicans and Democrats. As such, the monthly borrowing for 2026 now sits at roughly $155 billion, or $39 billion per week. And, like any borrower, that debt carries an interest cost. The latest monthly budget review from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirms that net interest on public debt for the fiscal year has hit $857 billion: roughly $23.8 billion a week. This is approximately $100 billion more (13%) than the interest paid out in the first nine months of 2025, the CBO adds, owing to a higher total debt burden than last year and higher long-term interest rates. In fact, interest payments on the debt are now $20 billion larger than the outlays for the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Homeland Security, Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Coronavirus Refundable Credits scheme—combined….”
Hegseth Ordered a New Study of Women in Combat
The War Horse – “Critics Say It’s Built to Reach One Conclusion: The researcher leading the assessment also led a controversial 2015 Marine Corps study that the defense secretary has used to argue women should not serve in combat roles Two months before Pete Hegseth appeared in front of Congress to testify in his confirmation to be secretary of defense, he sat across from the podcaster Shawn Ryan, talking about the Pentagon’s 2015 decision to open ground combat roles to women. “It hasn’t made us more effective. It hasn’t made us more lethal,” Hegseth said.
“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” By the time of Hegseth’s appearance on the show in late 2024, women had been serving in combat positions for nearly a decade across the military. The decision to integrate women had been thoroughly studied—before, during, and after the process—and thousands of women had served in roles ranging from infantry to combat engineers to special operations.
The debate over women in combat was largely considered to be over.
But Hegseth was looking to reignite that debate. His book, “The War on Warriors,” which he was on the show to promote, dedicated a full chapter to the idea. “Dads take us to push risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes,” he wrote in the book. “We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units.”…
