US Army Builds New Command Structure in Pacific to Counter China

The U.S. Army is creating two new Multi-Domain Commands in the Pacific as part of a broader transformation initiative to strengthen its posture and deter China’s rising aggression in the region, according to Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific.

The new headquarters—Multi-Domain Command–Pacific and Multi-Domain Command–Japan—will oversee the Army’s specialized Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) units, which integrate operations across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace. An Army execution order issued in May outlined plans for four such commands in total, with the other two based in Europe and the continental United States.

The Army is reshaping force structure to meet emerging demands, assigning two-star generals to lead the new commands. This shift comes as the service continues to operationalize its MDTF units, initially tested in the Indo-Pacific and now a key part of its Multi-Domain Operations doctrine.

The Army’s five MDTFs—two in the Pacific, one in Europe, one at Fort Bragg, and one deployable—are expected to be fully established by 2028. Equipped with cutting-edge capabilities like the Precision Strike Missile and Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, these units have drawn China’s attention during recent exercises in the Philippines.

Clark said the new commands will “up-gun” command and staff authority to better support complex, theater-level missions and enable integration with joint and allied forces. Funding for the commands is reflected in the Army’s fiscal 2026 budget request.

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-- By James A. Wright

© Copyright 2025 JWT Communications. All rights reserved. This article cannot be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten, or distributed in any form without written permission.

New Army Shaving Policy Could Lead to Discharge of Soldiers with Skin Condition Predominantly Affecting Black Men

The Army is preparing to implement a new grooming policy that could result in the discharge of soldiers with a chronic skin condition that disproportionately affects Black men. The policy, expected to take effect in the coming weeks, will eliminate permanent shaving waivers and require formal treatment plans for soldiers diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB). This condition causes painful razor bumps and scarring.

Under the policy, troops who require shaving exemptions for more than 12 months in two years could be separated from service. Medical officials may recommend laser hair removal—an expensive treatment with potential side effects, including scarring or pigmentation changes. While the Pentagon may cover the cost, it remains unclear how many soldiers would need it.

PFB affects up to 60% of Black men, according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology. Critics say the policy change is racially biased. “There’s no tactical reason; you can look professional with facial hair,” said one senior NCO, speaking anonymously to 'TELL IT LIKE IT IS' Defense News.

Senate Nears Final Vote on Trump’s Sweeping Legislative Package

A punishing overnight session of unlimited amendments still stands between the Senate GOP and final passage.

Senate Republicans are inching toward final passage of their sweeping tax and domestic policy bill, with a vote expected Monday. But the most grueling stretch lies ahead.

In a narrow 51-49 late-night vote, the Senate advanced the bill to full debate. Democrats plan to use their full 10 hours of floor time to denounce the package, while GOP leaders are likely to skip most of their own debate time to speed things along.

Still looming is a marathon "vote-a-rama" — a rapid-fire series of amendment votes expected to keep senators in session overnight. Democrats may attempt to break the record of 44 amendments set in 2008, using the process to force Republicans to take potentially damaging votes on issues like tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is expected to offer amendments of her own, including a proposal to restore the top income tax rate to pre-2017 levels.

Democrats already delayed proceedings by invoking a rarely used rule to require clerks to read the entire 940-page bill aloud — a move that could take up to 15 hours. They aim to highlight controversial provisions and rally opposition among their base.

Despite internal tensions, Republican leaders remain confident they can fend off amendments that might derail the bill. A new Congressional Budget Office report estimates the Senate plan would reduce budget deficits by $508 billion — but only under optimistic assumptions that all expiring tax cuts are extended at no cost. Compared to the House bill, the Senate version could add $3.3 trillion to the deficit, versus $2.4 trillion in the House.

'TELL IT LIKE IT IS' Magazine Fact Check: History Disproves Trump’s Claims on Birthright Citizenship

At the time of its adoption, lawmakers recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment extended birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

That’s the opening line of the Fourteenth Amendment. For generations, the overwhelming consensus among legal scholars has been that this clause grants citizenship to children born in the U.S., including those of immigrants. But President Donald Trump disagrees.

“This had to do with the babies of slaves,” Trump claimed at a press conference yesterday, where he celebrated a Supreme Court ruling that partially clears the way for his administration to challenge birthright citizenship. The ruling, however, did not address the constitutionality of birthright citizenship itself — only whether lower courts can issue nationwide injunctions against federal policies.

According to Trump and his supporters, Congress never intended the amendment to apply to the children of immigrants — only to formerly enslaved people and their descendants.

However, constitutional scholars argue that the plain text of the amendment directly contradicts this claim. So does the historical record — something originalist justices, who advocate interpreting the Constitution as it was understood at the time of its drafting, should take seriously.

There’s no need to speculate about what lawmakers intended when they passed the Fourteenth Amendment. They made their views clear — and it’s not what Trump wants to hear.

Federal Proposal to Reduce Pell Grants May Undermine College Access for Millions

Under proposed changes in the House, most recipients could receive a smaller award. Campus leaders want the Senate to save it.

College presidents are rallying behind Senate Republicans to block deep cuts to the Pell Grant program, which helps over 6 million low- and middle-income students afford college.

To address an expected $2.7 billion shortfall in the program later this year, the House version of President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget proposal includes stricter eligibility requirements. According to the Congressional Budget Office, these changes could eliminate nearly 10 percent of current recipients and reduce award amounts for many others — a move that has alarmed educators.

In response, college leaders — already contending with proposed Trump-era cuts, new taxes on endowments, and limits on international enrollment — are backing the Senate’s less-restrictive version of the plan.

Mark Brown, president of Alabama’s Tuskegee University and a former Trump Education Department official, told senators last month that the House proposal would force more students into debt. Large university systems, including California State University and California Community Colleges, have called the House plan an “existential threat.”

“This is a difference between some of those students, either coming to our universities or tech colleges or not,” said Jay Rothman, president of the University of Wisconsin, whose 13 campuses have roughly 31,600 Pell Grant recipients.

Republicans in both chambers are under tremendous pressure from party bosses to find savings that help offset Trump’s $4 trillion in broader tax cuts. But higher education leaders across the nation say the House GOP’s plans would imperil college access for working students and contend that their institutions can’t make up for the loss of federal financial aid.

Department of Homeland Security Ends Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in America

The move is set to put up to 500,000 Haitians at risk of deportation.

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced that it would terminate temporary protected status for Haiti, setting the groundwork for hundreds of thousands of Haitians to potentially be deported from the United States once the designation expires later this summer.

The termination of temporary protected status — a designation that shields from deportation people who have traveled to the U.S. from countries that are deemed unsafe because of natural disasters, armed conflict or other extraordinary conditions — would put up to 500,000 Haitians at risk of deportation, as gang violence continues to roil the country.

According to a DHS release, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “determined that conditions in Haiti no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements,” after concluding that conditions in the country have improved sufficiently for Haitians in the U.S. to return. The DHS plans to terminate the designation effective on Sept. 2.

“This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary,” an unnamed DHS spokesperson said in the release. “Haitian nationals may pursue lawful status through other immigration benefit requests, if eligible.”

Calls Grow for Term Limits on Supreme Court Justices to Reduce Political Influence

Washington, D.C. | As the U.S. Supreme Court concludes another term marked by deeply divided rulings and heightened political scrutiny, a growing chorus of legal scholars, lawmakers, and public interest groups are renewing calls for term limits for Supreme Court justices.

The U.S. Supreme Court, comprising nine justices appointed for life, has long been regarded as an independent arbiter of the Constitution. But in recent years, the Court has faced mounting criticism over decisions that critics say reflect ideological agendas rather than impartial legal reasoning. From rulings on reproductive rights to voting access and environmental regulations, each decision increasingly reverberates across the political spectrum.                                        

“There’s a clear perception that justices are staying longer and timing their retirements based on which political party controls the White House,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law professor at UC Berkeley Law. “This erodes the public’s trust in the judiciary and blurs the line between law and politics.”

OPINION | The CHOOSE Act, Alabama's Education Savings Account Program, Puts Parents In The Driver's Seat.

Last year, Alabama became the 11th state in the nation to pass a universal school choice bill. We established the CHOOSE Act to give more Alabama families the ability to CHOOSE the education that best suits their own child, plain and simple.

Next week, on July 1, more than 23,000 students across our state will receive CHOOSE Act funds for the upcoming school year. These results certainly prove we are accomplishing our goal of giving more Alabama families a choice when it comes to their child’s education. No matter how the media or special interest groups spin it, these are remarkable results, especially for the program’s first year.

In year one of the CHOOSE Act, the household income cannot exceed 300 percent of the federal poverty level, so to put it simply, these education savings accounts (ESAs) are unlocking opportunity for families who may not have had that before.

Of the awardees this year, we have families, who have determined that their child’s specific needs are not being met at the public school they attend, and the CHOOSE Act provides these parents the financial resources to choose a school that they feel better meets those needs.

We have families already enrolled in private school. That might be a family who sacrifices everything to send their child to a Catholic school, and now, with the CHOOSE Act, they can continue sending that child to receive a religious education with financial relief made possible by their own tax dollars.

We have a family who received custody of additional children coming out of an abusive situation in another state, and the family wanted a private school setting for these children.

Governor Ivey Applauds Year-Long Success of Montgomery Metro Crime Suppression Unit

MONTGOMERY | One year after the official launch of the Metro Area Crime Suppression (MACS) Unit, Governor Kay Ivey praised the successful combined law enforcement effort to address violent crime in the Montgomery area.

“The results speak for themselves.  Violent crime is on the decline, and more criminals are behind bars today in Montgomery thanks to this joint anti-crime effort launched a year ago,” said Governor Ivey. “The Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit’s channeling of resources toward increased criminal surveillance and enforcement has delivered positive results. The City of Montgomery recently announced that violent crime in the Capital City is down by 30 percent, and overall crime has declined by 19 percent. These proven anti-crime efforts will continue.”

Questions Linger About Iran’s Enriched Uranium Stockpile After U.S. Airstrikes

The location of some enriched uranium is still in question after the U.S. bombed three key nuclear facilities in Iran, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and experts on arms control and global security.

At a press conference during the NATO summit in The Hague on June 25, President Donald Trump was asked whether there was any indication that Iran was able to move enriched nuclear material from its targeted sites before the U.S. airstrikes. Trump said, “No, just the opposite. We think we hit them so hard and so fast that they didn’t get to move. … If you knew about the material, it’s very hard and dangerous to move. Many people call it dust. But it’s very, very heavy, very, very hard to move, and they were way down. They were 30 stories down.”

Asked the same question at a June 26 press conference, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said, “I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise.“

But IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that Iran may have relocated some of its enriched uranium after Israel began its airstrikes and before the U.S. attack on June 21. Grossi said that Iran had sent a letter to the IAEA on June 13 warning that Iran would adopt “special measures” to protect its nuclear equipment and materials, the Guardian reported.

“They did not get into details as to what that meant, but clearly that was the implicit meaning of that, so we can imagine that this material is still somewhere in Iran, Grossi said.

Israeli officials said there was evidence that Iran had moved uranium and equipment from the Fordo site before the U.S. attack, the New York Times reported on June 22.

RFK Jr.’s New Vaccine Panel Casts Doubt on Hepatitis B Shot at Birth

The chair of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly constituted vaccine advisory committee announced in his first meeting that the panel will revisit the longstanding practice of vaccinating all babies against hepatitis B, questioning whether it was “wise” to administer shots to every newborn before leaving the hospital.” Experts, however, say there are valid reasons to vaccinate babies against hepatitis B, and that it has proven to be safe and very effective.

“It’s virtually eliminated hepatitis B acquisition during childhood,” one infectious disease expert told us.

Martin Kulldorff, the chair and one of seven new members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is a former professor at Harvard Medical School who gained notoriety for opposing various public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. ACIP has for more than 60 years advised the agency on who should get which Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines, how often, and when.

Earlier this month, Kennedy, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, removed all 17 existing members of the panel, citing conflicts of interest issues and inadequate scrutiny of vaccines. As we’ve written, there is no evidence to support those claims. Kennedy is a longtime anti-vaccine advocate.

Two days after dismissing the committee, Kennedy announced eight new members, including several with a history of spreading false and misleading information about vaccines, as well as others with little or no expertise in vaccines. (The night before the group’s first meeting, HHS told the New York Times that one of the named panelists decided to withdraw “during the financial holdings review.”) Some remaining panelists have past ties to vaccine-related litigation, including Kulldorff, who served as an expert witness for plaintiffs alleging harm from HPV vaccination.