Trump says he’ll remove Syria as state sponsor of terrorism for the first time since 1979

(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Tuesday that the annual flu vaccine will now be optional for all U.S. military personnel, both active and reserve.  

Previously, the flu vaccine had been mandatory. The new policy is in line with a previous change, making the COVID-19 vaccine optional.

Hegseth announced the change in a video posted on social media.  

“The notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member, everywhere, in every circumstance, at all times, is just overly broad and not rational,” Hegseth said.

“Our new policy is simple: If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you are free to take it; you should. But we will not force you,” Hegseth added.

Referring to the COVID-19 vaccine that led to the dismissal of 8,000 service members who refused to take it, Hegseth said, “Our men and women in uniform were forced to choose between their conscience and their country, even when those decisions posed no threat to our military readiness.”

“That era of betrayal is over,” said Hegseth.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Nevada’s gubernatorial primary has resulted in a face-off between incumbent Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and Democratic nominee Attorney General Aaron Ford and the race is indicative of whether GOP governors in battleground states can survive while distancing themselves from President Donald Trump’s low approval ratings, a dynamic with implications for 2028.

Economic anxiety, conflict overseas, a polarizing mass deportation program and low approval ratings for the president might become headwinds for Lombardo, despite a Republican presidential candidate carrying the state for the first time in two decades in 2024.    

Nevada offers a particularly revealing test case: a tourism-heavy economy, a working-class Latino electorate and an expanding bloc of nonpartisan voters. Since Lombardo’s 2022 victory, registered independents have surged in the state.

Las Vegas tourism fell 7.5% last year, while unemployment remains among the nation’s highest.

Asked whether he can guarantee unemployment will fall, Lombardo said in a statement that since he took office, “… Inflation has come down, wages are rising, housing prices are stabilizing, and Nevada leads the nation in post pandemic job creation, as well as both small business and wage growth.”

His supporters have pointed to his work on the state’s education system.

“The governor has worked to bridge the gap in per pupil spending with several billion dollars in funding without raising taxes, as well as open enrollment, more school choice, and accountability reforms,” John Burke, spokesman for a pro-Lombardo PAC, said. “We’re already seeing results, graduation rates are growing and students are getting the resources they need to succeed.”

Ford, who was a single father in college relying on food stamps and Medicaid, said he’s focused on affordability.

“Nevadans …  cannot afford a home, they cannot afford health care, they can’t afford gas, they can’t afford groceries, and it’s all this Lombardo-Trump economy doesn’t work for the working people, it’s working for this billionaire class,” Ford said in an interview with ABC News.

Ford has been endorsed by former Vice President Kamala Harris and Nevada’s Democratic congressional delegation.

“He’s battled fentanyl being trafficked across our southern border, gone after fraudulent landlords who are jacking up prices on working families, and won more than $1 billion in settlements from taking on big drug companies,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., in a statement to ABC News.

Lombardo, a former Clark County sheriff endorsed by Trump, said in a KLAS interview that Nevadans may need to “feel a little pain” over Trump’s tariff policies to see job growth — a line Democrats have campaigned on.

“[Trump] ran on it, he was very vocal about it and very transparent about it in how he was going to accomplish that,” Lombardo said last year. “So, I think we maybe need to feel a little pain in the short term and hopefully in the long-term it’s a huge benefit for us.”

Ford has taken the Trump administration to court more than 40 times, including over tariffs.

“I sued up those tariffs, I won, and I’m not going to stop until Nevadans get the $1,700 of stolen money out of the pockets they had to pay in extra taxes because of those tariffs,” Ford said.

Peter Guzman, president of Nevada’s Latin Chamber of Commerce, told ABC News that Lombardo had conversations with the White House that resulted in Nevada avoiding large-scale immigration raids.

“We’ve been able to prevent any kind of chaos when it comes to ICE, because of his relationships, not only with Trump administration, but also because of his years in law enforcement,” Guzman said.

Nevada Republicans have criticized Ford for spending at least 322 days out of state, mostly attending professional conferences, according to a Nevada Independent review of his calendar. GOP campaign ads have branded him “high-flying Aaron Ford.”

Ford called the attacks “juvenile” and said working with attorneys general nationwide helped “address issues that transcend state borders.”

In 2022, Lombardo ousted incumbent Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak by just 1.5%.

“The average election in Nevada is often decided by a very narrow margin. Both parties have their constituencies, but there’s a group in the middle that decides these races and the best candidate will earn those voters,” Burke said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Mayors from Minnesota to Louisiana traveled to Washington earlier this month with a bipartisan message that protecting the Mississippi River is not just an environmental issue, it is a matter of national security.

The mayors met with lawmakers and federal officials, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, as part of their annual Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative fly-in, and later spoke with ABC News about growing pressures facing the river corridor.

Stretching more than 2,300 miles through 10 states, the Mississippi River forms the backbone of one of the most important economic corridors in America. According to data shared by the mayors’ coalition, the river system generates nearly $500 billion in annual revenue and directly supports about 1.5 million jobs.

Its waters also carry a massive share of the nation’s agricultural exports, making the river central to U.S. and global food supply chains. According to the National Park Service, the Mississippi River Basin accounts for 92% of America’s agricultural exports, including 78% of the world’s exports of grains and soybeans.

Founded in 2012, the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative (MRCTI) brings together local governments along the river corridor to coordinate priorities including clean water, economic stability, disaster resilience and food security.

However, this year’s trip to Washington came with new urgency.

Several mayors said the rise of artificial intelligence, declining infrastructure, growing demand for water and energy, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East affecting fuel prices and increasingly severe weather events are placing unprecedented pressures on the region.

One concern raised during the discussions was growing interest from water-scarce regions in the western U.S.

“The Colorado River Basin is looking at the Mississippi River Basin to move water into areas of Phoenix, Vegas — the places that are most water insecure on the continent,” Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of MRCTI and a Missouri state representative, told ABC News.

He added they “are looking into the Mississippi River basin for their water supply for the future.”

Coalition co-chair Mayor Melisa Logan of Blytheville, Arkansas, said the river system has become a national security concern as water demands grow.

“This water is absolutely essential for the security of the country, and you move it to another basin irresponsibly, right? That puts the nation at risk,” Logan told ABC News.

Several major U.S. water systems are already governed by interstate compacts, including the Great Lakes Water Compact and the Delaware River Basin Compact. These legally binding agreements, often approved by Congress, help to establish rules for managing and protecting shared water resources.

Supporters of a Mississippi River Compact say a similar framework could help coordinate policy across the 10 states that rely on a basin that supports national and international trade and food supply chains.

“That’s why these mayors are pursuing a Mississippi River Compact to protect the Mississippi,” Wellenkamp said.

He noted that his state passed a law for such an agreement.

“The other nine states aren’t far behind, because this is a real risk in the future,” Wellenkamp added.

Beyond water access, many mayors said the rising cost of disasters has become another urgent concern for communities along the river.

Logan, Blytheville’s mayor, said protecting the river requires key coordination across state lines, as communities along the river often struggle to secure federal funding for projects that cross state boundaries.

“Typically, they do it state by state by state,” Logan said, referring to federal funding programs. “But these impacts are multi-state by watershed.”

According to MRCTI materials, natural disasters along the Mississippi River corridor have caused more than $250 billion in losses since 2005.

Mayor Buz Craft of Vidalia, Louisiana, said local leaders often face delays when seeking federal disaster assistance.

“We need Congress to quit changing the goal post, for example, when we have an issue, whether it’s a tornado or hurricane,” he said.

Changing White House administrations can also put them back to square one, Craft noted.

“Just when you are about to get that funding for that past disaster they say ‘Oh, now you got to go through this,’ start all over and apply to this program, and it’s really a rat race,” he said.

Global instability is also beginning to show up in everyday costs for residents along the river. Several of the mayors said fuel prices along the Mississippi River recently jumped about 20 cents overnight. Those increases can quickly ripple through food prices, the mayors said, because much of the nation’s food supply moves by truck, rail or barge along the Mississippi River system.

Meanwhile, some communities are also preparing for a different kind of pressure, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The data centers that power AI systems require massive amounts of electricity and water for cooling, placing new increased demands on local power grids and water systems.

Mayor David Goins of Alton, Illinois, said companies have already begun exploring potential sites in his city.

“I think it’s important to get in front of it and get ahead of it,” he said. “This meeting right here is timely to get the resources that we can, that we can have at our disposal through different companies, organizations, to start preparing ordinances and start getting some type of framework or groundwork, because it’s coming.”

For the mayors gathered in Washington, the message they hoped policymakers would hear was simple: the Mississippi River’s importance stretches far beyond the cities along its banks.

“If you don’t live on the Mississippi River, you don’t necessarily understand the importance of the Mississippi River Basin to our entire continent,” Quincy, Illinois, Mayor Linda Moore said. “One in 12 people in the world is fed by food that flows up and down the Mississippi on a barge or from the river itself.”

For the mayors who traveled to Washington this week, the Mississippi River is more than a waterway — it is an economic lifeline whose currents shape American agriculture, trade and communities across the country.

Mayor Hollies Winston of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, said the river’s influence reaches far beyond the 10 states it touches, and may stretch long into the future.

“If that water is not protected, we don’t know the impact that that has on the economy 15, 20, 30 years from now,” Winston said.

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